7,600 unemployment claimants received notices that they’d been overpaid due to a technical error with a Louisiana Workforce Commission vendor. Jeff Palermo has the story.
Cut 1 (31) “…I’m Jeff Palermo”
____________________________
Haunted Houses will need to request special permission to open this year in order to operate under COVID restrictions. Matt Doyle spoke with the State Fire Marshal Butch Browning
_____________________________
A technical issue resulted in 76-hundred unemployment claimants receiving an erroneous message claiming they owed overpayment money to the state and feds.
Louisiana Workforce Commission Secretary Ava Dejoie says they are working with their vendor to resolve the issue and claimants do not need to get involved.
The error resulted in some receiving requests for over ten thousand dollars of back payments.
The overpayment notices were generated last week and sent to beneficiaries who made their claims on March 29th and 30th. Dejoie says claimants did not make a mistake…
Dejoie says they worked fast to fix the problem…
If you’ve been impacted by this technical error and have questions you are encouraged to email LWC.
_________________
Hurricane Laura had a substantial effect on the agriculture industry and Monroe pecan farmer Abraham Lincoln says his nuts were severely impacted. Lincoln says while there are still some nuts in the trees, there aren’t enough to make it beyond his local customers.
The damage to the nuts is even more detrimental since this year appeared to be a promising harvest.
Lincoln says on a good year, his operation will move about 3 million pounds of nuts, but this year, he anticipates it will be closer to a quarter-million pounds.
Nuts that were knocked out of trees are not salvageable.
Lincoln says he invested extra care into the crop that would have been harvested by the first of October.
Louisiana isn’t the only state to see its pecan crops negatively impacted by hurricanes. Georgia is the nation’s largest pecan producer and they’ve been impacted by Hurricane Sally.
________________________
Haunted Houses will be allowed to open this year but under strict permitting requirements and pandemic health restrictions.
State Fire Marshal Butch Browning says only 50 people total will be allowed in the building…
Due to these restrictions, haunted houses will not be able to be used as venues for other entertainment until the house ceases operation.
Browning says because of how COVID spreads the houses will only be allowed to take groups through six people at a time.
Requirements like mandatory mask-wearing and social distancing between groups from different households will also be in effect. Browning says each facility will have guidelines to follow.
To open each facility will have to check in with the state on OpenSafely.la.gov to get guidance on what they need to do to begin.
_______________________
Utility provider B-E-C-i says they’ve restored power to 60-percent of their membership as power has nearly been restored to all of their customers in Vernon and Rapides Parishes. Spokesperson Danielle Tilley says getting the lights on for the rest of their members who are out will not be easy
Cut 12 (12) “…takes some time.”
Following the storm, the initial estimate was that full restoration could take four to five weeks.
Cut 13 (04) “…in that estimate.”
Others that may not have power restored by the end of September may have too much damage to their structure to receive power. Tilley says in addition to the over 100 employees working in their offices, they still have plenty of boots on the ground to finish the job.