Governor Edwards is in Washington DC today touting the success of the state’s new criminal justice reform effort. Michelle Southern has more.
Cut 1 (30) “I’m Michelle Southern.”
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Five years ago, a sinkhole formed in Bayou Corne resulting in the mandatory evacuation of 350 people. Emelie Gunn has more on a new documentary on the sinkhole’s impact
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Could the trick to losing weight be as close as your kitchen spice rack? The University of Michigan has found an essential oil in cinnamon that attacks fat cells. Professor at LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center Dr. Steven Heymsfield explains the effectiveness of the oil called cinnamaldehyde (cin-na-mal-duh-hide)….
Cut 3 (11) “develop diabetes.”
Heymsfield warns the results of this study are new and more is needed to say that taking cinnamon is the only treatment to combat diabetes…
Heymsfield says with continued research, the medical community might be able to develop more potent cinnamon to be used for diabetic patients…
Cut 5 (11) “something interesting.’”
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Governor John Bel Edwards participated in a criminal justice reform event organized by the Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington DC today. The Edwards Administration helped passed ten new laws allowing for the early release of non-violent prisoners. Nearly two-thousand were released last month. Edwards says he kept his campaign promise to lower the jail population…
The new legislation reduced sentences for non-violent offenders and expanded probation and parole opportunities. Edwards says the cost savings from a lower incarceration rate will allow the state to spend more money on programs to reduce the risk of former prisoners reoffending…
Senator John Kennedy responded to Edwards visit to Washington by saying the answer to criminal reform isn’t by releasing prisoners, but starts with those who are running the prison system by being above reproach…
Kennedy says Edwards criminal justice reform effort isn’t working. He cites some who were released under the new guidelines are already back in jail…
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State Police is investigating the death of a Slidell man whose vehicle was struck by a boat in St. James Parish. Trooper Jesse LaGrange says 20-year-old Jeremiah Allee of St. Amant was driving down LA 18 towing a boat and trailer. He says somehow the trailer detached, crossed the center line and hit 49-year-old David Burvant’s vehicle.
LaGrange says troopers are working to determine how the boat and trailer became detached from Allee’s truck. He says impairment is not suspected.
LaGrange reminds drivers towing anything behind a vehicle with a trailer, check and double check to make sure your connections are secure.
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In August of 2013, a sinkhole in Bayou Corne swallowed swamps and resulted in a mandatory evacuation of 350 residents. The salt mining company, Texas Brine, drilled through a salt dome, which created the sinkhole. Five years later, film producer Victoria Greene released “The Forgotten Bayou”, a documentary on the lives of those impacted, Texas Brine, and scientists and government officials.
The sinkhole spans over 40 acres in the northern part of Assumption Parish. Greene says “Forgotten Bayou” aired at the Vermillion Center in Lafayette last night and she has plans to host the film in other areas of the state in recent months. She says if there is one message to take away from the documentary it’s….
Greene says she was not commissioned by the state, Texas Brine, or those affected to create her film. She says there was a culture and community to the people who lived in Bayou Corne and other than the 12 to 14 families that still live there, the rest are spread out around Louisiana and some into Mississippi.