By: Allison Kadlubar, LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE — Louisiana residents are concerned about damage from hurricanes and fear the unsettling reality of the state’s eroding coastline.
According to an LSU survey released Tuesday, 40% of respondents who have insurance said they filed property damage claims since 2020.
Hurricanes Ida, Laura, Delta and Zeta left Louisiana residents with billions of dollars in damages, especially people in South Louisiana and metro New Orleans.
The respondents who had filed insurance claims were evenly divided in assessing how the companies handled their claims, with 47% satisfied and 47% dissatisfied.
But more than half of the respondents with homeowner’s insurance said their premiums have increased.
By: Lura Stabiler, LSU Manship School News Service
Rep. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, sponsored a bill to provide for perinatal mood disorder screening, specifically for postpartum depression. /LSU Manship School News Service/Sarah Gamard
BATON ROUGE—On Black Maternal Health Advocacy Day Wednesday, the House voted 101-0 to pass a bill to provide for perinatal mood disorder screening, specifically for postpartum depression and awareness.
Rep. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, authored the mental health bill, House Bill 784, to help deal with Louisiana’s alarming maternal and infant mortality rates. Louisiana has the highest maternal death rate in the country and the second-highest infant death rate.
At a House Health and Welfare Committee meeting earlier this month, Robin Gruenfeld with the March of Dimes said, “One in seven women experience symptoms of depression during their pregnancy and the 12 months following delivery. These women are more likely to give birth preterm or experience the loss of an infant.”
The bill requires healthcare providers who offer postnatal care to screen patients for signs of postpartum depression or related health disorders. The healthcare provider will likely be the new mother’s obstetrician or their child’s pediatrician.
By: Margaret DeLaney, LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE–The Senate Retirement Committee advanced a bill to make it easier financially for retired teachers to come back to work to help ease statewide shortages.
Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, the sponsor of the bill, said it addresses the shortage of teachers and other personnel. Mathematics, science, English, language arts and special education have all been identified as areas with shortages that require certified teachers.
Current law suspends retirement benefits for many teachers who return to work depending on when they retired.
Fields’ bill would expand the number of certified teachers in any subject area who could return without losing retirement pay. That would include any who retired before July 1, 2020.
Meanwhile, the House Education Committee advanced a bill Wednesday to maintain a database with training courses and requirements teachers must complete to become certified. The new database would allow new and experienced teachers to keep track of new regulations for professional certifications.
By: Piper Hutchinson and Allison Kadlubar, LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE — Three anti-vaccine bills ran into trouble with lawmakers Tuesday during lengthy debates.
Rep. Larry Bagley, a Stonewall Republican, had proposed a bill that would make it a misdemeanor crime for government agencies and schools to discriminate against people based on their vaccine status.
The bill, House Bill 54, was aimed at blocking requirements for people to be vaccinated to access the premises. Bagley ended up returning the bill to the calendar, which means it will not be taken up again unless two-thirds of the House votes to reconsider it.
“I had hundreds of calls, as most of you did, too, in the past year… Friends… losing jobs,” Bagley said on the House floor. “I fully believe that you as an individual could have the right to choose.”
But other lawmakers pointed out problems with the bill concerning enforcement, charges and freedom of speech.
By: Piper Hutchinson| LSU Manship School News Service
The Louisiana State Capitol Building in downtown Baton Rouge. Advocate staff photo by HILARY SCHEINUK
For the first time since 2016, a majority of Louisiana residents believe the state is heading in the wrong direction.
A survey released by the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs, part of LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication, showed that two-thirds of Louisiana residents now believe the state is taking a turn for the worse.
Only 26% of those surveyed said they believed the state is going in the right direction. That is the lowest percentage since the Manship School began doing the annual survey in 2004.
The pessimism is widespread across political and demographic backgrounds. Seventy-one percent of Republicans report that they feel the state is headed in the wrong direction and 54% of Democrats agree. The numbers are closer among racial identities, with 68% of white and 61% of Black respondents having a pessimistic view. Regionally, 69% of South Louisiana residents and 64% of those living in North Louisiana having a negative view.
The Louisiana Survey results are based on responses from 508 adult Louisiana residents contacted initially on landline and cellular telephones. Within the sample, 395 were interviewed live and another 113 elected to complete the questionnaire online. The interviews were conducted from Feb. 21 to March 14.
The poll has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 5.8 percentage points, and the margin of error is larger for subsets.
Louisiana residents’ faith in their government fell to the lowest point since the survey began measuring it.
Only 25% of residents say they are either very confident or somewhat confident in the state government to address important problems effectively. This dropped from 41% in 2021 and is several points lower than its previous record low of 33% in 2006.
By: Piper Hutchinson, LSU Manship School News Service
Louisiana State Police Bodycam video via the Associated Press
BATON ROUGE–Third District Attorney John Belton told a House committee Thursday that he will convene a grand jury to consider charges against the state troopers involved in the death of Ronald Greene.
Greene, a black motorist, died after a violent encounter with State Police in which he was beaten, tased and dragged while shackled after a high-speed chase that ended in a crash outside Monroe.
“It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen,” Belton told the special committee investigating the Greene case. “I believe state and federal crimes were committed, including federal civil rights violations.”
Belton said he is moving forward with charges because he has been giving approval to do so by federal authorities, who had previously asked him to wait until their investigation was complete.
By: Piper Hutchinson, LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE–The Senate Education Committee advanced a bill Thursday that would prohibit transgender athletes from competing in accordance with their gender identity.
Senate Bill 44, sponsored by Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, is dubbed the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.” The bill requires athletes from the elementary through collegiate level to compete based on their sex at birth.
The bill unanimously cleared the committee, with neither of the two Democrats on the committee, Sen. Cleo Fields of Baton Rouge, or Sen. Katrina Jackson, of Monroe objecting.
The bill is redundant at the high school level, as the Louisiana High School Athletic Association already requires athletes to compete based on their birth sex, leading critics to call the bill a solution in search of a problem. When the bill came up last year, the LHSAA said that it was aware of only one transgender athlete who had tried to compete in Louisiana.
But if the bill becomes law, it could shake up college athletics. NCAA policy allows transgender athletes to compete under certain circumstances.
By: Allison Kadlubar, LSU Manship School News Service
Rep. Mike Huval, R- Breaux Bridge, proposed a bill to create fines for drivers holding a phone even if they are not texting. Allison Kadlubar\ LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE—Lawmakers tangled Monday over whether to create a new set of fines for holding a phone while driving even if the driver is not texting.
The “hand-held phone ban” bill would allow law enforcement to fine drivers seen with a phone in hand while behind the wheel.
“This is trying to promote safe driving,” the author of the bill, Rep. Mike Huval, R-Breaux Bridge, said.
The fine would be lower than the $175 to $500 for a texting-and-driving citation. The new fine would range from $50 to $100 and may include a maximum of 15 hours of community service for a first offense.
The House postponed a vote on the bill as lawmakers questioned how it would be enforced and whether it would discriminate against poorer people with the most basic phones.
BATON ROUGE, La. (LSU Manship School News Service) – The House voted 75-21 Monday night to advance a bill to grant adopted people access to their original birth certificates with their birth parents’ names.
Rep. Charles Owen, R-Rosepine, sponsored the bill, which would grant the right to adoptees age 24 or older to learn the identity of their birth parents. He chose that age because of Louisiana’s forced inheritance laws. After 24, a child is not entitled to inheritance.
Currently, the only way for an adopted person to access their original birth certificate is to appear in front of a judge with compelling reasons. Compelling reasons can be topics such as health and inheritance. This is not possible without hiring a lawyer, which Owen believes is not possible for all Louisiana citizens.
“Grown people should have access to their documents,” said Owen.
Questions arose about whether the bill would violate the privacy of birth parents. When children are adopted, they receive new birth certificates with the names of their adoptive parents. But, Owen argued that the bill is about letting a person access a vital government record with his or her name on it rather than initiating meetings with parents.
By: Lura Stabiler and Rosel Flores, LSU Manship School News Service
Photo cutline: Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge sponsored bills to crack down on carjackings and the theft of catalytic converters. Photo credit: Elizabeth Garner/ LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE—The Louisiana Senate advanced two bills Monday to crack down on carjackings and thefts of auto emissions systems.
The bills were sponsored by Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge. One would make the theft of catalytic converters a crime with a sliding scale of prison terms depending on the value of the parts that were stolen.
The other would increase the penalty for carjacking committed with a firearm to 11 to 20 years in prison from 2 to 20 years now.
The bills were among several advanced Monday that deal with crime and violent behavior. They still need to be considered by the House.
LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau 