Louisiana’s unemployment rate fell for a second straight month in July, to its lowest level ever. Kevin Gallagher reports…:
Cut 1 (27) “…I’m Kevin Gallagher.”
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An investigation determines hospital staff contacted the Department of Children and Family Services three times about potential substance abuse involving a two-year-old child before he died of a fentanyl overdose. Kevin Gallagher reports…
Cut 2 (32) “….I’m Kevin Gallagher”
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Two years since Hurricane Laura slammed southwest Louisiana, Calcasieu Parish schools are still in need of repairs. Marsanne Golsby…
Cut 3 (31) “…I’m Marsanne Golsby”
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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.”
Cates says unemployment dropped slightly from June to July, and is now nearly 2-percent lower than one year ago. July 2022 figures estimate slightly over 2-million people in Louisiana are currently employed. Cates hopes the state can grow its workforce through LWC’s “Tech Ready Louisiana” program, which offers free online courses to prepare people for the workplace.
Cut 5 (10) “…essential skills.”
Cates says July saw the state add over 13-thousand jobs in business & professional, government jobs, and education and health jobs. She says Tech Ready will help to bring the jobless rate even lower in the months ahead…:
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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…
The supervisor has resigned and the case worker who was on sick leave has been suspended.
Walters says in response to this tragedy, the department has made several policy changes. She says if a small child consumes or ingests a controlled dangerous substance it will warrant an immediate trip to the home
Cut 8 (08) “…priority response.”
Walters says they are also taking immediate steps to shore up the staff, which means robust training and coaching of staff and also increasing staffing, so they are hiring, if you want to help out children in need
But New Orleans Representative Jason Hughes says increased staffing will not solve the problems within D-C-F-S, he’s calling for changes in leadership.
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U.L. Lafayette is now ranked among the nation’s top 100 public research universities. The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) annual Higher Education Research & Development Survey (HERD) ranks ULL 94th among 655 colleges that do research. ULL’s Vice President for Research & Innovation Dr. Ramesh Kolluru (ko-LOO-roo) says it’s an important distinction for a Louisiana university…:
Cut 10 (09) “…in the top 100.”
Last year, the school invested over $181-million in R & D; a 193-percent increase in funding over 8 years. Kolluru says ULL’s contributions to science and health are something few people are aware of…including one very major project in recent years…:
Cut 11 (10) “…emergency authorization.”
In addition to COVID vaccine research that led the Pfizer shots, ULL has been active in numerous ground breaking R & D advances. Kolluru says the university is always competitive in obtaining federal and state grants and private sector contracts. He says ULL is proud to have the designation as an NSF Center of Excellence in Big Data and Data Science…:
Cut 12 (09) “…today and tomorrow.”
Kolluru expects that ULL’s ranking among R & D colleges will rise even higher next year.
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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.”
FEMA has just announced an additional three point four million dollars in Hurricane Laura relief.
Lafargue says the school system has maxed out its insurance and really needs FEMA’s help.
He says most of the roofs were repaired by temporary fixes that won’t hold up if southwest Louisiana takes another direct hit from a major hurricane. But Lafargue says despite the physical condition of some of their schools, the school system saw an increase in LEAP scores.
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Senior running back John Emery Junior might not be available for the season opener against Florida State. Emery was academically ineligible last season and Coach Brian Kelly could not provide information on why Emery’ status for the season opener…
Emery has been running with the second team in practice. Penn State transfer Noah Cain and sophomore Armoni Goodwin have been getting first-team reps. Kelly says the running backs room lacks a player like Leonard Fournette, but it’s still a solid group
Cut 17 (18) “…at that position”
Kelly was worried about the tight end position heading into preseason camp, but the emergence of freshman Mason Taylor has been one of the positives…
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The Saints have one more preseason game to go and it’s this Friday at home against the Chargers. Mostly back-ups played in last Friday’s 20-10 loss to Green Bay. Rookie left tackle Trevor Penning looked more comfortable against the Packers compared to how he played in the preseason opener…
Third-string Q-B Ian Book played the entire game in Green Bay. He threw a touchdown pass to Chris Olave but he also turned it over two times….