Will Louisiana have enough visa workers to peel the coming haul crawfish this season? A Farm Bureau analyst says he’s concerned we may come up short.
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The app Sick Weather has issued an alert for allergy sufferers. Kevin Barnhart has the story.
Cut 2 (30) “…I’m Kevin Barnhart.”
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Springtime floods are a threat to uninsured homes in presumably flood safe areas. Matt Doyle talked to the National Flood Insurance Chief Executive about getting insured before they hit…
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There’s concern that processors who sell pre-peeled crawfish meat won’t have enough foreign H-2B visa workers to peel all of the crawfish on the market. Only 33,000 visas are made available every six months, and Farm Bureau public policy coordinator Brian Breaux says around 100,000 applicants generally pursue the economically vital manual laborers.
A 2011 AgCenter report indicated Louisianans eat about 10 and a half pounds of crawfish every year.
Breaux says that means large amounts of the crawfish crop potentially could be thrown out, as there isn’t enough demand for non-peeled mudbugs. He says you have to peel them relatively shortly after harvest, because you can’t store non-peeled crawfish.
Louisiana farms about 130-150 million pounds of crawfish per year, over 90 percent of the national crop.
The cap on H-2B workers has been in place for years, so why is this now becoming such an issue? Experts say it’s because the low unemployment rate and improving economy means Louisianans are more interested in peeling crawfish recreationally than professionally. Breaux adds it’s also a generational issue.
The work is seasonal, and generally not high paying.
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Whenever people get sick, they often take to social media to let the world know about it. Now there is an app that’s been tracking social media posts about sickness and comparing it to clinical data to forecast when an illness is expected to be on the rise. CEO of the app Sick Weather Graham Dodge says social media inclusion enables to the app to give a real time outlook for an area.
Cut 7 (10) “…we also collect.”
Dodge says the app’s algorithm has been collecting data for the past eight years and right now is seeing a late flu peak for Louisiana and is forecasting a more severe allergy season in the bayou state.
The app has issued and alert ahead of allergy season. Dodge says it’s important that people who know that they are allergy sufferers prep for this season.
Cut 9 (10) “…as opposed to allergies″
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Spring has finally arrived, and with it the possibility for spring showers that could dump enough water to flood your home, and National Flood Insurance Chief Executive David Maurstad says it’s time to get covered. he says 30 percent of all flood claims are from moderate to low risk areas, something southeast Louisiana learned the hard way in 2016…
Much of the areas flooded in 2016 were not high risk, which led to many residents not getting flood insurance, and needing to turn to SBA loans to recover.
Maurstad says if you aren’t covered, the longer you wait to get it done, the higher the risk, because you can’t get the coverage fast enough to respond to an immediate threat.
If you’re in a high risk zone, you’re federally required to get coverage if you have a mortgage, but for folks outside of those areas, it’s optional. Maurstad say for those residents, it’s a low price to pay to cover yourself in the event of a catastrophe.
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Senator John Kennedy, who sits on the Senate Budget Committee, questioned the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought over transactions that took place in the final month of the fiscal year. A recent report showed several federal agencies spending habits that Kennedy wanted answers for.
Cut 13 (12) “…looking into it.”
Kennedy’s questions didn’t just stop with the military’s fondness of seafood. The federal government spent $97 billion on contracts in the last month of fiscal year 2018. The total for contract spending for the entire fiscal year was $544.1 billion
Cut 14 (11) “…that’s a disgace.”
Kennedy also expressed his displeasure with a recent report showcasing cases of fraud with government assistance programs in Louisiana as additional examples of government waste in taxpayer dollars.