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Lake Charles recorded the third heaviest rainfall in history according to the National Weather Service, with more than a foot of rain Monday, and that includes Hurricanes Laura and Delta. Mayor Nic Hunter said he’s not a scientist but three major weather events in less than nine months are evidence of climate change.

“I just think it would be ridiculous to say that something is not happening. These 100-year weather events are happening, at least here in southwest Louisiana a heck of a lot more than every 100 years,” said Hunter.

It was 264 days ago that the city was hit with Hurricane Laura, then just over a month later Delta. Hunter said it is unconscionable that they have yet to receive commiserate federal response to the 2020 hurricanes.

“But yesterday should be another wake-up call to Washington D.C. that what has affected this community, in recent history, rises to a level of magnitude where we need the proper federal response,” said Hunter.

Hunter said he’s not saying the city wouldn’t have flooded Monday if they had received federal aid sooner, but the lack of response is unfathomable.

With three major weather events in less than eight months, Hunter said some residents are facing now a third renovation of their homes.

“It is a lot on people’s shoulders, it’s a lot of weight on their shoulders, it is a lot to handle mentally for citizens,” said Hunter.

Hunter said congressional leaders continue to tell him they are fighting for funding to assist southwest Louisiana.

Over a foot of rain fell over parts of Lake Charles and Baton Rouge yesterday as a result of a slow-moving storm system. State Climatologist Barry Keim says Lake Charles is once again dealing with storm damage.

“There was a measurement of 17.69 inches in Lake Charles and there were several other stations across that region that had 12 inches for example the Lake Charles air port, and they have hundreds of houses along that region in southwest Louisiana that flooded.”

In the Baton Rouge area, nearly 15 inches of rain fell in Gonzales and more heavy rainfall is expected through Thursday. Keim says warm air off the Gulf of Mexico is colliding with the upper atmosphere to produce strong thunderstorms capable of dumping a lot of water…

“We’re just getting one after another just falling behind each other and hitting the same areas over and over again.”

Keim says Louisiana has seen its share of major flood events in May. He says the two that come to mind are the May 3rd flood in 1978 in New Orleans and the May 8th to 10th 1995 flood in Slidell.

“Those are two events that a lot of people remember because we had really high rainfall events but something about the month of May that seems to bring the ingredients together for these kinds of events.”

The historic rainfall that swamped Lake Charles and Baton Rouge last night left many residents stranded in their cars and homes as floodwaters rose rapidly yesterday and early this morning.

State Fire Marshal’s spokesperson Ashley Rodrigue said their long day began early Monday as marshals were called in to help assist local authorities in Lake Charles.

“We immediately sent 24 personnel with nine boats in that direction and worked for hours through the night to help relocated individuals get out of their homes, or who were flooded in,” said Rodrigue.

The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries reported having to rescue 110 people in southwest Louisiana yesterday. Rodrigue said so far marshals have rescued 78 people and five pets in Lake Charles along with eight people in Baton Rouge.

This weather event is expected to last at least another day and Rodrigue is asking residents to stay off the road if they can and stay away from any flooded streets.

“It helps us not have to go out and get into those dangerous situations as well and really focus on those individuals who are trapped in their homes and need a way out,” said Rodrigue.

House Appropriations approves a 36 billion dollar budget plan that includes an 800 dollar pay raise for K-12 teachers and a 400 dollar pay raise for support staff.

The Governor’s initial budget only called for a 400 dollar teacher pay raise and 200 dollar support staff pay raise. Louisiana Federation of Teachers Legislative Director Cynthia Posey says teachers needed more than that.

“Unfortunately we felt that to make it to the southern regional average that the 400 and 200 just wouldn’t get us there quickly enough,” said Posey.

An initial proposal by House Speaker Clay Schexnayder called for a 1,000 dollar raise. That’s still a possibility, pending a revenue projection by the Revenue Estimating Conference.

Posey said without this raise and raises in the coming years we risked seeing even more teachers head across state lines, or even give up on the professional altogether.

“If you want to recruit good teachers and keep them in the profession so that our children are provided a world-class education then we need to pay teachers,” said Posey.

Posey said this raise is a boost to local economies because the money will stay in the community, particularly rural areas that have trouble retaining educators.

“It will enable teachers to go to rural districts and stay there and teach the children there,” said Posey.

The increase is paid for in part by the influx of one-time federal dollars the state got from the Biden Administration. Some Republican lawmakers raised concerns about how the raise will be financed in future years once the federal funds run out.

A new program goes into effect today to help speed up the verification process for Louisianans filing for unemployment. Louisiana Workforce Commission Secretary Ava Cates said ID.me will help ensure the correct person collects benefits.

“It’s a mobile platform and an individual will put in their personal identification information and it talks to other systems and verifies that right away, and in most cases, it’s five to ten minutes,” said Cates.

Cates said those new to filing and existing claimants transitioning from one type of unemployment to another will be required to use the new verification process.

“And eventually we’ll have everyone to go through that. We have asked most individuals to upload their ID, and a selfie, and a social security card,” said Cates.

The identification process is a federal requirement for COVID-related unemployment claims and Cates said don’t be surprised if you have to resubmit verification documents again in the future. She said the process also protects claimants.

“You get a tax form, a 1099-form, for unemployment benefits, so we don’t want anyone to get that form and not have received those benefits,” said Cates.

A recent audit indicated more than 100-thousand individuals received unemployment benefits they were not entitled to from LWC.

The longtime voice of the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs Dave Nitz has decided to retire as the radio voice of football and basketball, but will still call baseball games.  The 78-year-old Nitz says he’s been considering this transition for quite some time.

“I’ve been kind of mulling it over I guess you might say for a year or so but it finally got to a point to where I said it’s maybe time for somebody else to handle the football and basketball.”

Nitz has been the voice of Tech athletics for over four decades and has called over 4,000 games as he enters his 48^th season of Bulldog baseball.  Despite his long career in Ruston, the West Virginia native says he never thought he’d be here this long.

“In radio about every three years you kind of move around to different places and I landed at Louisiana Tech in 1974 and I was thinking in about three years we’ll be back to Ohio or West Virginia or somewhere like that.”

Nitz will certainly miss calling football and basketball, and he hopes the fans enjoyed his time in the booth.

“I hope the fans have enjoyed what I’ve tried to do and bring to the radio each and every Saturday or each and every basketball game and football game, whatever it may be.”

Nitz was inducted as a member of the LA Tech Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010.

Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin has announced the formation of the Louisiana Commission on Election Integrity and Voting. Ardoin says the bipartisan panel will discuss ways to make sure voters have confidence in Louisiana elections and how to combat voter fatigue.

“And then of course we want to see how we can improve the voting experience during early voting and election day,” said Ardoin.

Ardoin says the commission will look at all aspects of voting and the goal is to enhance the confidence in Louisiana’s election process.

“Look at ways to improve our absentee ballot process if there are any ways to improve it, looking at issues of just general experience of voters, do we need more early voting sites,” said Ardoin.

Ardoin says the commission will begin meeting after the 2021 legislative session and then issue a final report before February 1st. He says the panel is made up of a diverse group of experts.

“We have the NAACP representation, we have former legislators that have worked on the committees of oversight and then we als9o have community activists group like the family forum,” said Ardoin.

Included in President Biden’s two trillion-dollar infrastructure proposal is funding for passenger rail service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

Baton Rouge Area Foundation VP John Spain said passenger rail would be perfect for professionals who commute between the two cities. They can get a bite to eat and get some work done while traveling.

“Whereas if you drove in an automobile you’d be fighting the traffic and couldn’t get anything done,” said Spain who added the rail system could come in handy for moving people out of harm’s way during hurricanes.

The proposed line would feature stops in Baton Rouge, Gonzales, LaPlace, Louis Armstrong International, and New Orleans just blocks from the Superdome. Spain says this would make it easy for residents across the region to ride the train directly into LSU or Saints games, or festivals in either city.

Spain said another big benefit of the line would be for Baton Rouge residents who need to fly out of Louis Armstrong International.

“You could go to a train station in Baton Rouge, check your baggage with TSA, in 40 minutes or so a shuttle would take you into the Louis Armstrong terminal and the cost of the train would probably be less than parking your car for one night,” said Spain.

Spain said travel from the Capital to the Crescent City would take about 45 minutes to an hour and they’d likely start with eight to ten round trips per day, and increase over the first few years. He anticipated the funding would likely be available sometime later this year and noted polls show 60-80 percent of southeast Louisiana residents support the construction of the line.