Employment agencies and colleges have teamed up to launch a new website to help people in the oil and gas industry find jobs. Don Molino has more…
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Sex offenders will soon be required to register their email addresses and online usernames with State Police, thanks to a bill by Metairie Representative Cameron Henry that’s heading to the governor’s desk. Michelle Southern has more…
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A new website, BayouOpportunity.com, has just been launched to help workers in the oil and gas industry find new jobs, as unemployment in that sector continues to rise. Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Don Pierson says this new site could help people who have lost their jobs in this industry.
Pierson says they will also hold a career fair in Schriever this June to help people get new jobs and find training opportunities in the oil and gas sector. He says they hope to have upwards of 30 employers at the event. Pierson says the new website also has information about the job fair.
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Pierson says you don’t have to be a welder or a pipefitter to find a job at BayouOpportunity.com or the job fair at Fletcher Technical Community College. He says there’s lots of opportunity in this field.
The career fair takes place on Friday, June 10 from 9am to 1pm at the main campus of Fletcher Technical Community College. More information is available at BayouOpportunity.com.
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A bill to help parents keep up with who their kids are talking to online is heading to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law. Metairie Representative Cameron Henry says his bill requires sex offenders to register any email addresses or online user names, as they would with a phone number or address. He says kids are playing online games and talking to strangers on the internet, and this will help parents make sure their children aren’t talking to predators.
The measure passed unanimously in both the House and the Senate, and Governor Edwards is expected to sign the bill. Henry says sex offenders have a whole new way to find victims, thanks to online games and social media sites.
Henry says a data base will be established through state police so parents could log into a site or call troopers to see if the person their child is talking to is really a sex offender. He says the penalty for not registering would be the same as not registering a vehicle or new address.
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A bill to require municipalities to post warning signs 500 feet ahead of red light cameras has just received final legislative passage. New Orleans Senator Troy Carter says red light cameras should be about safety, not collecting revenues.
Carter says the bill is also about giving people who do run red lights due process.
Carter says if someone is truly for public safety, they would support the proposed law, but if they want to trick people into paying fines, they would hate the bill. Carter says if a warning sign is not posted, the fine for running that red light could be challenged.
The measure now heads to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
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The adult smoking rate in the US is falling faster than is has in the past 20 years based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 50 years ago, roughly 42% of US adults smoked and that rate has now fallen to about 15%. Renee Underwood, with the state department of health and hospitals, says they launched a statewide campaign last year to help people kick their tobacco habits.
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The smoking rate in the US typically drops by less than 1% a year, but in 2015 the rate decreased by 2%. Underwood says she hopes campaigns like the Louisiana Tobacco Quit Line have helped reduce the number of smokers. She says the state quit line has helped more than 16-thousand smokers just in the last year.
Underwood says DHH also partners with other organizations, such as the Louisiana Public Health Institute and the American Cancer Society, to reduce the number of people who start smoking and to get smokers the resources they need to quit.
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