The long-anticipated disaster relief funding receives passage in DC. Kevin Gallagher has more

Cut 1 (34) “…I’m Kevin Gallagher.”

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A wedding attended by about 150 people in Abbeville is drawing more attention to such gatherings being potential super-spreader events for the coronavirus.  More from Dave Brannen.

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AstraZeneca is hoping their monoclonal antibody treatment will receive emergency use authorization in the effort to help end the pandemic. Brooke Thorington has more.

Cut 3 (32)  “…I’m Brooke Thorington.” 

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The long-awaited disaster relief funding has been approved by Congress and Senator Bill Cassidy says there’s about $600-million allotted for southwest Louisiana.

Cut 4 (11) “…not enough.”

As for Hurricane Ida disaster-related funding, Cassidy estimates there’s around a billion for the state.

Cut 5 (10) “…December.”

Cassidy says while there are funds in the bipartisan infrastructure bill that could be used to assist southwest Louisiana, he admits it’s going to be an uphill battle on Capitol Hill to get additional funding for housing-related to Hurricanes Laura and Delta.

Cut 6 (06) “…shall do so.”

Republican congressmen Steve Scalise and Mike Johnson were the only members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation to vote against the funding resolution, which passed the Senate, 65-35, and the House, 254-175.

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State health officials are confirming a Covid-19 outbreak at a wedding in Abbeville late last month. It happened on September 25 at the L’Eglise with about 150 people in attendance. Several people developed Covid symptoms and tested positive for the virus.  Dr. Tina Stefanski, medical director for Region 4 of the Office Public Health says efforts were undertaken to contact all of the attendees.

Cut 7 (08) “…importantly get tested.”

Dr. Stefanski says there is concern that wedding attendees could further spread what has been an all too often deadly virus.

Cut 8 (10) “…home get tested.”

According to Dr. Stefanski, the best way to protect yourself against Covid-19 in group gatherings like the Abbeville wedding is to get vaccinated, especially if you are elderly or have underlying health conditions.

Cut 9 (09)  “…your best protection.”

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Another offering in the fight against COVID is seeking Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA. Astra Zeneca’s first-of-its-kind antibody treatment is used as a preventative from the virus. Assistant Dean for Translational Science at LSU Health New Orleans, Doctor Lucio Miele says data in the AZD7442

Cut 10 (06)  “…months.” 

Miele says the monoclonal medication will not be marketed as a substitute for the vaccines but more of an ancillary for those who are unable to be vaccinated because they have cancer or a compromised immune system…

Cut 11 (09) “…the vaccine.”

The drug is a laboratory-made version of the virus-blocking antibodies that help fight off infections and Miele says so far it’s been shown to be long lasting thus will reduce the number of injections one would need.

Cut 12 (10) “…sars COVID-2.”

The FDA has already authorized three other antibody drugs, including two that can be given after a COVID exposure. The AstraZeneca injection is meant to be given as a preventative for COVID.

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A medical center in Louisiana is leading the nation in using innovative robotic technology to diagnose lung cancer. Baton Rouge General pulmonologist Dr. Michael Sanchez says the new Monarch Platform can mean earlier, more accurate detection of lung cancers or pre-cancerous nodules. He says manual bronchoscopes can only be guided so far into the body…:

Cut 13 (11) “…without it.”

Use of Monarch was recently approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and Baton Rouge General wasted no time in getting the platform online. Dr. Sanchez says the robot will lead to safer & quicker diagnoses…:

Cut 14 (08)  “…different lesions.”

(He says a quicker diagnosis leads to greater potential for curing the lung cancer)

Lung Cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Currently, low-dose CT scans are the primary method of diagnosis. Dr. Sanchez says the robotic Monarch Platform can move in ways a human guiding a scope simply cannot…:

Cut 15 (05)  “…lot more precision.”

(Monarch was installed Tuesday at B.R. General and should be in service on patients by early November.)

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LSU let one get away last Saturday when they lost to Auburn at home for the first time since 1999. Tigers center Liam Shanahan says they can’t dwell on that defeat with a trip to 16th ranked Kentucky on Saturday

Cut  16 (15) “…upcoming week.”

The offensive line has been a weakness for this team, but Shanahan believes they are close to executing at a much higher level…

Cut 17 (14) “..we can do.” 

LSU is a three-point underdog heading into Saturday’s game against Kentucky. The Wildcats are 5-0 on the season, but Shanahan says the Tigers are not lacking confidence…

Cut.. 18 (15)”…beat them.”

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ULM is getting ready to host Georgia State this Saturday at 7 PM. The Warhawks enter the contest with a 2-and-2 record after getting crushed by 15th ranked Coastal Carolina 59 to 6 last week. ULM coach Terry Bowden says Coastal was the more talented team…

Cut 19 (18)  “…didn’t match up.” 

Bowden says quarterback Rhett Rodriguez will not play again this week after suffering a collapsed lung on September 26th. He says Chandler Rogers will start again at quarterback this Saturday after throwing for just 100 yards against Coastal…

Cut 20 (11)  “…can do.” 

Social media users were distraught for more than six hours Monday when they were unable to access Facebook and its other platforms, Brooke Thorington has more.

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A Baton Rouge Democrat says he’ll be seeking to deny Republican U.S. Senator John Kennedy a second term in office come next year.  More from Dave Brannen.

Cut 2 (35)…I’m Dave Brannen.”  

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The small community of Lafitte in Jefferson Parish is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Ida. Mayor Tim Kerner said this morning that the town’s housing stock suffered a major loss when Ida roared ashore more than a month ago.

Cut 3 (07) “….destroyed major damage.”

He says about 50 to 60 percent of the residents won’t be able to live in their homes for about a year because of the destruction.  But, he’s taken steps to get 300 temporary housing units to the town as soon as possible.

Kerner indicates the residents of Lafitte are a resilient bunch.

Cut 4 (08) “…they inspire me.”

He says one of Lafitte’s top goals is to get water to the culverts and to the pumps ahead of any more flooding situations in the future.

Kerner says one of the significant problems Ida called was covering roadways and the like with four feet of mud, and in some cases, it was even worse.

Cut 5 (07) “…deal with this.”

Kerner says the mud is being scooped up by the truckload and taken to the dump saying environmental questions come into play if a move is made to return the mud from where it came from.

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Monday’s Facebook outage, along with the other social media platforms owned by the company, has many asking what happened and was the company hacked. Host of Tech Gumbo Haggai Davis says the company was doing a system upgrade and the Border Gate Protocol which acts as the post office sending you to a proper address in this case facebook.com and that’s when things went dark shortly before noon.

Cut 6 (10) “…six and a half hours.” 

The timing of yesterday’s outage was suspicious especially after a Facebook whistleblower appeared on 60 Minutes Sunday night claiming the company promoted misinformation and hate speech in an effort to increase profits.

Davis says it was an internal issue and says only large service providers, like Verizon and companies like Google, work with BGP, and the six-hour outage was reminiscent of a Three Stooges episode.

Cut 7 (11) “…down.”  

While an upgrade to BGP is only done by large companies and one that causes a system to go dark doesn’t happen often, Davis says programmers are human and it will happen again.

Cut 8 (10) “…a good thing.”

In addition to Facebook, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp all went dark for six and a half hours Monday.

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Republican Senator John Kennedy has a challenger for re-election with Democrat Luke Mixon of Baton Rouge announcing he’s throwing his hat in the ring.  Political analyst Bernie Pinsonat says Mixon has his work cut out for him in an attempt to unseat Kennedy.

Cut 9 (09) “…officials in Louisiana.” 

The 42-year-old Mixon will face off against Kennedy in next year’s election and contends Kennedy has cast votes to block billions of dollars to improve our infrastructure and protect the state from natural disasters.

Pinsonat doesn’t see it in the cards for Mixon, a commercial airline pilot, denying Kennedy another term in office.

Cut 10 (07)  “…in his favor” 

Pinsonat sees it as highly unlikely that Kennedy will face any major opposition in the 2022 election.

Cut  11 (07)  “…already endorsed him.”  

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Louisiana-founded Waitr announced today that LSU All-American cornerback Derek Stingley will promote the food delivery app on his Instagram account. Waitr spokesperson Dean Turcol says the NCAA’s recent ruling that allows college athletes to profit off of their name, image and likeness paved the way for this deal

Cut 12 (12) “..natural fit”  

Turcol says Stingley has his own delivery code that customers can use to get free delivery on their next order. He says Stingley will give out that delivery code on his Instagram account this week

Cut 13 (08) “..promotional activities.”

Turcol says they also have similar deals with LSU first baseman Tre Morgan and Alabama linebacker Christian Harris, who is from Baton Rouge. He says Waitr is proud of Louisiana athletes who are starring on the college level and they are thrilled they can now partner with them

Cut 14 (08) “…their friends”