The Department of Children and Family Services admits they were contacted three times by hospital staff about the well-being of two-year-old Mitchell Robinson before he died from a fentanyl overdose on June 26th. DCFS Secretary Marketa Garner Walters says a case worker assigned to Mitchell’s case was on sick leave when he died and a supervisor failed to follow up on the third report…
Cut 7 (08) “…in time”
The supervisor has resigned and the case worker who was on sick leave has been suspended.

For a second straight month, Louisiana set a record-low unemployment rate in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Louisiana Workforce Commission Secretary Ava Cates says the seasonally adjusted rate of unemployment is 3.6-percent. She says, coincidentally, the EMPLOYMENT rate is looking very good…:
Cut 4 (11) “…is high as well.”
July 2022 figures estimate slightly over 2-million people in Louisiana are currently employed.

Several Calcasieu Parish School buildings are still under repair from Hurricane Laura—which struck southwest Louisiana as a category four storm two years ago. One of the strongest storms to ever make landfall in Louisiana did at least 400 million dollars’ worth of damage to the schools alone. But Schools superintendent Shannon LaFargue says they’ve made a lot of progress.
Cut 13 (08) “…sense of normalcy.”
LaFargue says many schools still have temporary roofs as FEMA money continues to be tied up by red tape.

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is now ranked among the nation’s top 100 public research universities. Last year the school invested over 181-million dollars in research and development, a 193-percent increase in funding over eight years. V.P. for Research & Innovation at ULL Dr. Ramesh Kolluru (ko-LOO-roo) says part of that research was pandemic related…
cut 11 (10) “…emergency authorization”