The Department of Health unveils a five-pillar plan to combat the state’s opioid crisis, funded in part by a $50 million federal grant. Kevin Barnhart has the story.
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House Minority Whip Steve Scalise responds to allegations that President Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden’s son, using congressionally approved aid as leverage…
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The Department of Health releases the state’s first opioid response plan, aiming to reduce the state’s opioid crisis. Over 450 deaths were attributed to opioids in the state last year. Assistant secretary of the Office of Behavioral Health Karen Stubbs says prevention is the first step in the right direction.
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Stubbs says another step is enhancing interventions, rescue during an overdose and the capacity for treatment.
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Stubbs says effective recovery support services and improved real-time data analytics and surveillance of the opioid epidemic are part of the plan.
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LDH has received over $50 million in opioid federal grants to fund the implementation of the response plan. Last year, the state saw a decrease in the prescription of opioids, but an uptick in opioid-related deaths.
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The White House releases a partial transcript of a phone call where President Trump asks the Ukrainian President to investigate Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son.
Democrats say the President froze hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the country before making the call, but House Minority Whip Steve Scalise says nothing discussed was illegal.
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Scalise says the impeachment inquiry is another partisan attack and misuse of authority by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
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Scalise says the conversation was not about attacking political rivals, but about a joint effort to clean up corruption in the country that was a home base for Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.
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DeRidder Police post a warning to social media saying they are seeing an uptick of fake money used in movies circulating around the area. Chief Detective James Halbert says the movie money can be ordered on Amazon, and while it is legal to be in possession of it, it’s unlawful to use it like actual currency.
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Halbert says the fake currency often originates from people using the bills to rip off drug dealers.
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Halbert says those passing off the fake bills will target new or busy cashiers who may not be paying close attention to the money they are being handed.
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Halbert says one person has been arrested as part of their investigation.
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Members of a Texas motorcycle gang are under arrest for allegedly stealing two ATM machines, resulting in over 150,000 dollars stolen in Westlake. Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso says two ATM’s were ripped out of the ground by the gang who stole a number of other vehicles to pull off the heists.
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Five members are under arrest, with warrants still out on 46-year-old Melvin Cupp of Texas and 44-year-old Joshua Fontenot of Denham Springs.
Mancuso says the gang may have gotten away with 150,000 dollars, but they stole and destroyed tens of thousands of additional dollars in property to pull it off.
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The gang is known as the Brother East Outlaw Motorcycle Gang, or B*EAST.
The investigation required help from State Police, Texas authorities, and the feds in order to bring in the bandits. Mancuso says when the time came to make arrests, they had backup.
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