State officials are growing increasingly confident that schools are not COVID super spreading hotbeds. Matt Doyle has the story.
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Louisiana’s Senior Senator has helped develop a 908-billion dollar COVID emergency relief package. Jeff Palermo has the story…
cut 2 (30) … I’m Jeff Palermo.”
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There’s an $11,000 reward for the arrest and conviction of the person who fatally shot a black bear in St. Mary Parish. State Wildlife and Fisheries spokesperson Adam Einck says the 350-pound adult male bear was found on November 9th near Centerville and they believe the bear was shot by a rifle a few days before.
Einck says this is the second black bear found shot in St. Mary Parish this year.
Einck says various groups have pitched in to offer reward money in an effort to solve these crimes, the reward for the bear found last month is $11,000 and the reward for the bear found in May is $6,000.
Anyone with information is asked to call Louisiana’s Operation Game Thief hotline at 1-800-442-2511
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State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley thanks Governor Edwards for allowing schools to stay in Phase Three even as most of the rest of the state moves back into a modified Phase Two. Brumley says Edwards agreed with medical experts who are confident schools are not super spreader locations.
Under the current Modified Phase Two school systems are allowed to stay in Phase Three, but can go backward should they choose.
Brumley says the biggest challenge they face is the quarantine protocol. He says one positive case can lead to over 50 students needing to be quarantined.
The CDC has indicated a new round of quarantine policy recommendations could be coming soon.
Brumley says the low number of total cases they’ve seen is evidence that sending children to school might actually be safer than keeping them home.
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers that includes Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy unveiled a 908-billion dollar coronavirus aid bill today. Cassidy says it would bring much-needed relief to unemployed workers and struggling businesses.
Cassidy says the package would fund emergency relief efforts from December 1st through March 31st. He says more than 500-billion is repurposed from previously allocated funding from the CARES Act.
The legislation does not include a second round of stimulus checks. Cassidy says that’s because it is not a stimulus.
The package also includes 16 billion dollars for vaccine distribution and contact tracing, 35 billion dollars for healthcare worker relief, and 25 billion dollars for housing and rental assistance.
Cassidy says the bill is not a long-term solution but would hold the country over until vaccines are widely available.
It’s unknown whether the proposed relief package has majority support in either chamber.
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The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services says between October 2019 and September 2020, 756 children were adopted from foster care. DCFS Adoption Program Manager Cheryl Tirado says that’s the fourth-highest number of adoptions from foster care in a single year…
The record is 912 set in 2018.
Tirado says teens represented nine-percent of all adoptions, a rate that has been on the rise in recent years. And she says 44-percent of all adopted children involved siblings…
Tirado says more than 125 of the adoptions during the last federal fiscal year took place virtually through videoconferencing such as Zoom…
Tirado says they still have 110 children who are looking for permanent homes. For information on becoming a foster parent visit dcfs.louisiana.gov or contact your regional DCFS home development office.