The Louisiana Department of Health is prohibiting its workers from promoting seasonal vaccines. Andrew Greenstein reports.
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More than 25-percent of Louisiana third graders scored far below state reading targets on a fall assessment, according to recent data. Sean Richardson reports.
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Louisiana is on a winning streak of sorts in job growth. Colleen Crain has more.
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The Louisiana Department of Health is prohibiting workers from promoting seasonal vaccines like flu, COVID and mpox. That includes advertising, promoting on social media, giving media interviews and holding vaccine events. Rosemary Westwood broke the story for NPR; she says part of the directive comes from state Surgeon General Ralph Abraham.
Cut 4 (11) “…including masking.”
Westwood says that is something that the Department of Health had regularly done, especially since the start of the COVID pandemic.
Westwood says the policy is not being put into writing, which puts department workers in an uncomfortable position.
In a statement, the Department of Health says it’s been re-evaluating its priorities and messaging since the end of the pandemic. It says its position now is that seasonal vaccines and other practices like wearing masks and social distancing should be individual choices. It stresses that this only applies to seasonal vaccines and not childhood immunizations.
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More families in Louisiana are going hungry. Joel Berg with Hunger Free America says a new report shows that a quarter of a million Louisianians live in households that can’t afford enough food – that’s an increase of 10-percent since the summer of 2021.
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Berg says one thing that has proven to work is taking advantage of federal food programs.
Cut 8 (14) “…really did help.”
In fact, 75-percent of recipients of that credit said they had enough money to buy more fruits and vegetables. Berg said another thing that would help would be making all school meals free, saying that the money that’s spent to determine which kids got free meals and which one get reduced-cost meals could actually go to feeding all kids.
Berg says it’s no surprise that Louisiana has one of the highest hunger rates, since it already has one of the highest poverty rates.
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More than 1 in 4 Louisiana third graders scored far below state reading targets on a fall assessment. According to recent data, about 27% scored “well below” and 19% scored below expectations, meaning nearly half failed to meet literacy benchmarks. Under a new law, schools must create reading improvement plans within 30 days for students scoring “well below,” with targeted interventions such as tutoring or summer programs. Deputy Superintendent Jenna Chaisson (CHASS-on) says there has been many literacy improvements in the state.
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Chaisson says implementing required science of reading training for teachers and the state wide literacy screener.
Chaisson says these screeners gives them valuable information for where students are in their reading comprehension.
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Some encouraging job numbers for Louisiana from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It says added four-thousand non-farm jobs last month and more than 20-thousand non-farm jobs in the last year. The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate ticked up two-tenths of a point to 4.3-percent, but Emily DiPalma with the Louisiana Workforce Commission says that’s nothing to be concerned about.
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DiPalma says a few sectors led the way in job growth.
As for which metropolitan areas led the way in the number of new jobs created, DiPalma says the state’s two biggest ones topped the list.
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DiPalma says this marks 44 months in a row that monthly jobs experienced year-over-year growth.
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LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier threw for 37-hundred yards and 26 touchdowns this season and led the Tigers to eight victories. Nussmeier had the option to enter his name in the NFL draft, but the Lake Charles native says there’s still more to do at LSU…
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If Nussmeier entered the NFL draft, he would have likely been a second-day selection. Nuss is hoping to improve on what he did in 2024, so that he can be a first round pick in the 2026 NFL draft…
Nussmeier will have a new group of pass catchers next season as Kyren Lacy, CJ Daniels and Mason Taylor are moving on to the NFL or in Daniels case, the Miami Hurricanes.But the Tigers have restocked thanks to the transfer portal and have brought in some talented pass catchers in Bauer Sharp, Barion Brown and Nic Anderson.
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The Saints are in Green Bay tonight. New Orleans rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler will make his fourth start of the season. Rattler made three starts in October and was sacked 14 times, but showed more poise coming off the bench last week. Rattler says when started two months ago, starting center Eirk McCoy was injured and having back him back is huge…
With the possibility of starting quarterback Derek Carr missing the rest of the season, there’s a chance Rattler will start the final three games of the season, giving New Orleans a chance to see what they have in Rattler. The rookie is not putting extra pressure on himself…