Governor Edwards opens special session to address state budget

BATON ROUGE - Governor John Bel Edwards opened a special session to address Louisiana's $304 million budget deficit Monday night. In his opening address, he pleaded for Republicans and Democrats to compromise in order to solve the state's budget crisis. The governor's plan, if approved, would use $119.6 million from the state's "rainy day fund" and call for $60 million in budget cuts to government agencies. The governor has specified that he aims to avoid cuts