The Louisiana Health Department does not find heightened levels of lead after testing the drinking water in 12 elementary schools built before 1986. Jeff Palermo has more…
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It was a St. Tammany landowner versus an endangered frog today at the US Supreme Court. Matt Doyle has more.
If the eight justices who heard the case today give a split ruling, then the federal government wins the case, based on lower court rulings.
There’s only another two months left in Hurricane Season, but that’s still plenty enough time for a disruptive storm to sneak its way into the gulf and pay the Bayou State a visit. State Climatologist Barry Keim says there’s likely another month left before we can breathe a sigh of relief.
Keim says looking back through history, you’ll find several cases of dangerous, and damaging storms slamming Louisiana in October, and even as late as Halloween.
The Racer’s Hurricane swamped New Orleans with eight feet of storm surge from the lake, and the Cheniere Caminada Hurricane wiped out the Grand Isle beach with a 16-foot storm surge.
The east coast saw the season’s only major landfall incident when Florence slammed the Carolinas, killing 29 and causing an estimated 38 billion in damage in September. Keim says just because the US has seen one major landfall this year, doesn’t mean it won’t see another.
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The Louisiana Health Department announces they did not identify elevated levels of lead in 12 elementary schools built before 1986. State Health Officer Dr. Jimmy Guidry says they tested a dozen schools statewide at the request of the legislature..
Guidry says the results from this first round of testing is encouraging, but it doesn’t mean there is not a case of elevated levels of lead at an older school. He says they will conduct testing in 12 more schools next year and 12 more after that…
Drinking water was tested at schools statewide in every city. Guirdy says if elevated levels of lead were found in the drinking water, repairs would be needed…
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The Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case brought by Edward Poitevent of St. Tammany who’s protesting the designation of some of his land as critical habitat for the endangered dusky gopher frog. Poitevent’s lawyer, Mark Miller, says the case will likely break on ideological lines, with the four left leaning judges opposing it, but with support from the right.
U-S Wildlife and Fisheries says the land is crucial to the future survival of the frog, but Poitevent argues the land shouldn’t be off limits to logging because it’s not currently habitable.
Senior Attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity Collette Adkins says U-S Wildlife and Fisheries demonstrated during the proceedings that Poitevent’s claims that the land is not habitable are untrue. She says it may not be the perfect habitat, it’s as close as the endangered species is going to get…
The frog requires rare “ephemeral ponds” to survive in the wild, ponds which exist on the property.
The court is only sitting eight justices at the moment as sexual assault allegations have delayed a final vote on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s potential ascension to the ninth, and open position. Miller says the four to four ideological split certainly increases the chance that his client is ruled against.
If that ideological split where to occur, then Adkins says it would be a win for the amphibian.
But Miller says another possible outcome would be the ordering of re-arguments in the case once a ninth justice is selected.
LSU Health New Orleans has received a $1.3 million grant from the US Department of Health and Human services to be used to increase the availability of sexual assault nurse examiners, or SANEs, across twelve southeast Louisiana parishes. With many of those parishes being limited on resources, Dr. Jessica Landry says they are hoping to train more nurses with the funds.
Cut 13 (11) “…currently practicing now.”
Landry says currently, 1.3 million residents share one sexual assault nurse examiner certified to manage adult cases and none certified for pediatric cases. Landry adds the New Orleans area sees a little more than two times the national average when it comes to sexual assault cases.
Cut 14 (10) “…to not report.”
Landry says the University of South Alabama received the same grant, so she hopes both programs can work together.
Cut 15 (08) “…gulf coast area.”
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