LRN PM Newscall April 26

After 850 nursing home patients were evacuated to a Tangipahoa Parish warehouse with poor living conditions during Hurricane Ida, lawmakers are responding with legislation. Brooke Thorington has more on one of those bills.

Cut 1 (34) “…I’m Brooke Thorington”

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Encouraging news as COVID cases in the state are at an all-time low…David Grubb has the latest numbers.

Cut 2 (36)…I’m David Grubb.”  

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After 850 nursing home patients were evacuated to a warehouse in Tangipahoa Parish during Hurricane Ida, resulting in more than a dozen deaths, legislation to give the state more oversite powers have been proposed in this session. Baton Rouge Representative Rick Edmonds’s bill gives the Department of Health more enforcement.

Cut 3 (10) “…approve the plan.”

House Bill 291 gives LDH the ability to reject questionable evacuation plans. Edmonds says Health and Welfare Committee members repeatedly asked who approved a plan to evacuate patients to a warehouse where patients’ bedding consisted of mattresses on the floor.

Cut 4  (09) “…and rejected.”

Baton Rouge Representative Barry Ivey asked if the legislation requires nursing homes to show proof of the ability to execute approved evacuation plans, for example, their finances and contracts for supplies. Edmonds welcomed Ivey’s input on the legislation.

Cut 5  (06) “…sir, thank you.”

Bill passed in the House with only one vote in opposition. There’s also Senate legislation that charges the State Fire Marshal’s Office with inspection of evacuation plans.

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The numbers on COVID infections in Louisiana are very encouraging. The latest figures show only 38 patients hospitalized statewide, with not a single patient currently on a chemical ventilator. State Health Officer, Dr. Joe Kanter likes what he sees.

Cut 6  (06) “…this pandemic.” 

Kanter says the numbers don’t mean there’s no longer a reason to take precautions and believes another surge is likely at some point, though Louisiana is in much better shape to face that when the time comes.

Cut 7 (14) “…is significant.” 

Individuals still have to assess the level of risk for themselves and their families. Vaccinations remain the best protection from COVID, and Kanter says if you haven’t gotten a booster, now’s the time to do so.

Cut 8 (11) “…these variants.” 

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The Louisiana Senate has overwhelmingly approved legislation that would criminalize the act of prescribing, distributing, or administrating abortion pills without an in-person visit with a licensed doctor. Slidell Senator Sharon Hewitt says she wrote the bill because the current law prohibiting such activity is unclear…

Cut 9 (12) “…in Louisiana.”

Hewitt says businesses located out of the state and the United States are selling abortion pills online and mailing them to women in Louisiana for them to take at home without physician oversight…

Cut 10 (10) “…for women”

Hewitt says her legislation would apply criminal penalties to the distributor of the abortion pill, not the pregnant woman…

Cut 11 (12)  “…abortion industry” 

The bill moves to the House for its consideration.

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Baton Rouge Senator Regina Barrow will not move forward with a bill that would give judges the authority to sentence a convicted sex offender to surgical castration if the victim is under the age of 13. Barrow says she’s heard several different concerns, including what happens if the castration happens, but it turns out to be a wrongful conviction…

Cut 12 (12) “…convicted wrongly”  

Morgan Lamandre is the legal director for a group called sexual trauma awareness and response. Lamandre told the Senate Judiciary C Committee that surgical castration does not serve as a deterrent…

Cut 13 (11) “…more deadly.”

Barrow says she’ll study the issue and plans to file a surgical castration bill for child rapists next year. Baton Rouge area Senator Bodi White says he’s watched video that sex crime prosecutors have where young children are raped and he can’t wait to vote for this legislation…

Cut 14 (09)  “…threw up.”