Former Congressman and state legislator Buddy Leach of Leesville has passed away at the age of 88. Marsanne Golsby has more…
Cut 1 (31) “…I’m Marsanne Golsby”
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To help the ongoing nursing shortage the LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing is expanding to North Louisiana. Brooke Thorington has more.
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Former Congressman and Louisiana legislator Claude “Buddy” Leach died Saturday of congestive heart failure, according to his family. Leach served one term in Congress, four terms in the legislature, and ran for governor in 2003.
He was the son of a plumber who lost his mother at an early age. Leesville Senator Mike Reese says his innate business sense and knack for connecting with people helped him build a business fortune and succeed in politics.
Leach was an attorney and married into a family that owned Sweet Lake Land and Oil company in the southwest Louisiana. Sweet Lake’s cattle herd became the largest in the country under his direction. He also served on the Leesville-based Merchants and Farmers Bank and Reese says for nearly two decades he was the chairman…
Cut 4 (13) “…where he started.”
Leach’s public record wasn’t perfect. He was charged—but acquitted—of vote buying in 1979 and lost his reelection in 1980. Still, those who knew him best say his main goal in life was to make Louisiana better.
He was 88-years-old. Leach’s funeral is Friday at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Lake Charles.
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The LSU Health New Orleans School of Nursing expands its program to north Louisiana to assist with the ongoing nursing shortage. Assistant Professor of Nursing Off-Campus, Linda Ledet (rhymes with Bidet) says the new approved Off-Campus Instructional site is at LSU-Health Shreveport.
Ledet says it’s a win-win so they can teach even more students in Shreveport with in-person instruction in conjunction with faculty from the nursing school in New Orleans that’s consistently ranked among the top nursing schools in the nation.
Cut 7 (06) “…virtual classes.”
The accelerated program allows students to graduate in two years and having the ability to use resources from both campuses, will greatly benefit students. Ledet says they are already accepting applications for spring.
The two-year Career Alternative RN Education Program is open to students who have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.
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Louisiana once again performs poorly in the Annie E Casey Foundation’s child well being ranking. The state ranks 49th, finishing ahead of only New Mexico. Annie E Casey Foundation president Lisa Hamilton says the state has only made a slight improvement in the percentage of children living poverty and federal assistance may have played a role…
According to the report, 26-percent of Louisiana children live in poverty as of 2020.
Hamilton says The Kids Count Data Book also discovered the incidence of anxiety and depression among kinds spiked with 12-percent of kids nationally struggling to make it through the day, a 26-percent increase from 2016
Cut 10 (10) “…pandemic deaths.”
The report says as of July 2022, over 200-thousand kids nationwide have lost a parent or primary caregiver to the coronavirus.
Hamilton also says Louisiana ranks low when it comes to the physical health of children
Cut 11 (06) “…low birth rates.”
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The Concordia Parish Sheriff’s office has arrested a teacher for sending text messages to a 15-year-old student for sexual purposes. C-P-S-O spokesperson Brandy Spears says 26-year-old Bradly Dyer of Colfax discussed dating the minor in the text messages,,,
Spears says Dyer told detectives he recently began a new job as a high school teacher. Dyer was arrested with the assistance Grant Parish Sheriff’s office at his home in Colfax…
Spears says Dyer has been charged and incarcerated…: