I was reading in the paper about the Calcasieu Parish School Board being $13 million under budget. I heard that travel is 2 percent of their budget, or almost $45 million. Is that true?

No, said Karl Bruchhaus, the school system’s chief financial officer.

“The Calcasieu Parish School Board original general fund budget for 2012-2013 is $278.68 million,” Bruchhaus wrote in an email.

“Travel included in that budget was $790,000, including the mileage reimbursement at the IRS rate for all teachers that travel between schools during the school day, which represents a large portion of the total travel budget.

“As a percentage of the total general fund budget, travel is 0.3 percent (less than ½ of 1 percent) for 2012-2013 and has been fairly constant at that rate for the last five years.”

Online: www.cpsb.org.

Open carry in holster legal under La. law

Do you need a concealed weapon permit if you carry the gun on the outside in a holster where everybody can see it?

No. As The Informer has pointed out before, under a 1975 state Supreme Court ruling — the case was State v. Fluker — “a weapon, although not in ‘full, open view,’ is nonetheless not a ‘concealed’ weapon if it is sufficiently exposed to reveal its identity.”

“The appropriate test to be applied in prosecutions for illegal carrying of weapons is whether, under the facts and circumstances of the case as disclosed by the evidence, the manner in which defendant carried the weapon evinced an intent to conceal its identity,” reads the ruling.

“Applying this interpretation of the statute to the facts of this case, we find no evidence of an intentional concealment of the weapon. Defendant wore the gun in a holster on his hip in open view. The gun was exposed, except for that portion in the holster. There was no attempt to conceal its identity.”

Online: www.lsp.org/handguns.html.

Marketers get names from many sources

I get letters from a hearing aid company. There’s nothing wrong with my hearing. How did these people get my name and address?

“Lists of names and addresses are routinely compiled by marketers from countless sources,” reads the website of the Direct Marketing Association, a trade group.

“If you have a telephone (unless you have an unlisted number) your name and address are available to anyone with a pencil and a piece of paper. Indeed, one of the largest mailing lists in existence is simply a compilation of all the telephone-owning households listed in the nation’s phone books.”

Other sources: publishers of magazines or catalogs you subscribe to, companies you’ve bought products from, charities you’ve donated to, and organizations you belong to.

Online: www.dmaconsumers.org.

The Informer answers questions from readers each Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. It is researched and written by Andrew Perzo, an American Press staff writer. To ask a question, call 494-4098, press 5 and leave voice mail, or email informer@americanpress.com