LSU Engineering students have built a special wheelchair, designed for cruising beaches, in response to an inspiring essay from a girl with muscular dystrophy. Cheslyn Simpson of Plaquemine loves beaches, but is wheelchair bound. Blaize Vansickel from Livingston Parish says it’s technology for a better quality of life.
If the wheelchair works, Vansickel says they hope they can have it mass produced for others, who love a trip to the beach, but are wheelchair bound. He says working on the project has been a joy.
They’ve setup a GoFundMe for donations, and also accept support through the LSU Foundation under team 43.
The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says they have yet to find any positive results for chronic wasting disease in Louisiana. L-D-W-F was put on alert when a case was confirmed in the Mississippi Delta just five miles away from the Louisiana border. LDWF Program Manager Johnathan Bordelon says they’ve sampled 188 deer from East Carroll, Madison and Tensas parishes
Bordelon says they will continue to work with private landowners to obtain consent for sampling efforts and they are asking for the public to watch out for signs of the disease
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The full Senate could hear arguments today on a bill that would strip local jurisdictions of the ability to mandate real estate developers set aside a certain portion of their housing as lower rent. Metairie Senator Dan Martiny, the bill’s sponsor, says affordable housing initiatives should be voluntary, not mandatory.
Martiny says rent prices and housing availability should not be subject to local control.
He says the bill is an attempt to preempt rent reform movements that are picking up steam in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
But Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center Policy Director Maxwell Ciardullo says requiring developers to build lower cost units gives thousands of working class people the chance at finding a reasonable rent.