LUY-Development

Tag: louisiana

  • COVID vaccines available for Louisiana residents at these Miss-Lou area pharmacies

    COVID vaccines available for Louisiana residents at these Miss-Lou area pharmacies

    Starting the week of January 4, Louisiana will receive the first very limited doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine that will be available at approximately 100 pharmacies across the state.

    These vaccines will be available only for:

    • People 70 years old and above
    • Ambulatory/outpatient care personnel
    • People being treated for end stage renal disease (patients on dialysis)
    • Schools of allied health students/residents/staff
    • Home agency patients and personnel

    In the Miss-Lou area, participating pharmacies include:

    Concordia Parish – Book’s Pharmacy in Vidalia  (318) 414-2616 

    Franklin Parish – K & S Drugs in Winnsboro  (318) 435-7858

    Rapides Parish – Holloway Pharmacy in Pineville  (318) 466-3113

    West Feliciana Parish – St. Francisville Pharmacy  (225) 245-5141

    Click HERE for Vaccine locations in the rest of Louisiana.

    Patients must contact a participating pharmacy and make an appointment at the pharmacy. Patients who arrive without an appointment will not be vaccinated. Vaccinations are BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. Do not arrive at a location without an appointment.

  • Louisiana lieutenant governor tests positive for COVID-19

    Louisiana lieutenant governor tests positive for COVID-19

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser said he has COVID-19 and is resting at home with mild symptoms, becoming Louisiana’s fourth statewide elected official to test positive for the coronavirus disease.

    Nungesser, a Republican in his second term as lieutenant governor, confirmed in a Wednesday night Twitter post that he tested positive for COVID-19.

    “Thank you to everyone for your prayers. Today, I tested positive for #COVID but have very mild symptoms. Will be resting up and feeling better soon! As we head into the holidays, my thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by COVID,” he tweeted.

    Nungesser told The News-Star that he’s “reaching out to everybody I’ve seen in the last few days” to notify them of his infection. He said his mild symptoms include a fever, but no breathing problems.

    The lieutenant governor joins three other Republican statewide elected officials in Louisiana who have previously had COVID-19 and have since recovered: U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, Attorney General Jeff Landry and Treasurer John Schroder.

  • Louisiana man jailed for life over $20 marijuana sale has been freed

    Louisiana man jailed for life over $20 marijuana sale has been freed

    Winslow’s life sentence appealed on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana man who was arrested and sentenced to life for selling $20 in marijuana to undercover officers when he was homeless has been freed from prison.

    WWL-TV reported that Fate Winslow was released from Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola on Wednesday and was on his way back home after serving 12 years of a life sentence.

    “I was so happy to get out,” Winslow told WWL-TV after his release. “A life sentence for two bags of weed? I never thought something like that could happen.”

    Winslow was sentenced under the state’s repeat offender law. His case has garnered attention as the Louisiana wrestles with criminal justice issues and overincarceration.

    According to the station, Winslow was approached by undercover officers in Shreveport in 2008, and they asked him where they could get some marijuana. Winslow borrowed a bike, went and found some marijuana and came back to give it to the officers who then gave him $5 so he could buy some food, according to his attorneys at the Innocence Project New Orleans.

    Winslow had already been convicted of three previous non-violent crimes stretching from when he was a 17-year-old to when he was 36, making him susceptible to the state’s repeat offender law.

    The Innocence Project New Orleans took up his case, appealing his life sentence on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel. He was eventually re-sentenced to time served. The director of the Innocence Project New Orleans, Jee Park, said Winslow received an “obscenely excessive sentence given his life circumstances and crime, and today, we are correcting that unconstitutional, inhumane sentence.”

  • 1,300-Plus Leap In Reported Louisiana Coronavirus Cases

    1,300-Plus Leap In Reported Louisiana Coronavirus Cases

    Friday marked the second one-day spike of more than 1,300 COVID-19 cases this week.

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The number of reported COVID-19 cases in Louisiana has taken another large one-day jump, increasing Friday by more than 1,300 as the number of people hospitalized with the disease caused by the new coronavirus continued upward.

    The state reported a total of 54,769 confirmed cases as of midday. The death toll was 3,077, up by 26 from Thursday.

    Some of the growth in known case numbers can be attributed to increased testing. However, the number of people sick enough to be hospitalized — considered a key indicator that the virus is spreading — went up to 700. The figure is down from nearly 2,000 in April but up from a low of 542 on June 13.

    The increasing numbers led Gov. John Bel Edwards this week to put off a further easing of restrictions on public gatherings and some business activity. Edwards has promised stepped up enforcement on businesses that aren’t complying with virus-related restrictions on capacity and requirements that employees dealing with the public wear masks.

    Baton Rouge’s mayor unveiled a phone number and website for people to anonymously report businesses that don’t comply with the rules.

     

  • A New Orleans Black-Owned Bakery Wants To Nourish The Nation

    A New Orleans Black-Owned Bakery Wants To Nourish The Nation

    One day, they hope that Viola’s breads, baked in New Orleans, will be sold in grocery stores across the nation.

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Kathryn Conyers is not a baker, but she tried. And she failed. When she sought advice from her friend Carla Briggs, a trained pastry chef, Conyers was too embarrassed to send photos of the lackluster loaves. In the end, Briggs decided that she needed to come over and bake the bread herself.

    A month later, as the coronavirus pandemic ramped up, the friends saw shelves in New Orleans barren of bread and thought, ‘maybe baking bread could be a business.’ Soon after that, Viola’s Heritage Breads was born.

    “Viola just sounds nice and homey, like somebody’s grandmother that maybe would have a recipe that exists today but didn’t really get the recognition,” Conyers said.

    Conyers and Briggs said they didn’t see many Black-owned bakeries and wanted to bring a business to New Orleans that celebrates both Black entrepreneurship and heritage. The recipes draw on their roots, using local Southern ingredients like Louisiana sweet potatoes.

    The breads, which the pair deliver themselves around New Orleans or ship nationwide, are generous sandwich loaves like whole wheat brioche, sweet potato rosemary and white einkorn wheat. They’re about goodness, not being gourmet. The fanciest thing that Viola’s sells are tea cakes.

    “This is an untapped market of providing quality sandwich bread,” Briggs said. “So, we jumped right in and it has been fun.”

    Conyers and Briggs have a larger mission: they want to celebrate the too often overlooked Black cooks and chefs in the South.

    “I’ve worked at Emeril’s and I’ve worked at the Ritz Carlton,” said Briggs of her time cooking in New Orleans, “and the people making the stocks and things that make these chefs great are mostly African Americans. They are creating the basis of this food, but their names aren’t on it.”

    For now, Viola’s Heritage Breads is run from Brigg’s kitchen. Louisiana’s cottage food law allows businesses with less than $20,000 in sales to operate from a home with some limitations. The two still have their day jobs. Conyers, who has degrees in finance and law, works for a New Orleans non-profit organization that builds playgrounds around the country. Briggs, who left restaurant work due to a carpal tunnel syndrome, founded Eat Your Words, which teaches literacy through food.

    Though the start is small, the women have big aspirations for Viola’s.

    “It’s not something that’s a hustle. Can it grow and live on to be a staple?” Conyers said. “Can we build wealth and knowledge that could be passed on generationally?”

    Briggs wants Viola’s to create better opportunities for New Orleans restaurant workers.

    “I’ve been trained with the best people ever,” said Briggs, who graduated from the prestigious culinary school at Johnson & Wales University, “but it’s hard to get a job here and get respected and get paid for the knowledge and experience that I have in food.”

    One day, they hope that Viola’s breads, baked in New Orleans, will be sold in grocery stores across the nation.

    “What does it look like to have a bread or item that reflects me? That reflects us. That I see on the shelf that’s not necessarily like Aunt Jemima,” Conyers said.

    To order Viola Heritage Breads, visit her website.

  • Whereabouts Of Slave Owner Bust From New Orleans Unknown

    Whereabouts Of Slave Owner Bust From New Orleans Unknown

    The statue’s toppling is part of a nationwide effort to remove monuments to the Confederacy

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The whereabouts of a statue of a slave owner toppled by protesters in New Orleans and thrown into the Mississippi River remain unknown after a group of men fished the bust out of the water.

    A video shows the group using ropes and a plank to carry the paint-splattered bust of John McDonogh out of the river Sunday afternoon and load it onto a pick-up truck. It was thrown into the river a day earlier by demonstrators after they used a chisel, rope and a skateboard to knock it down from its pedestal in Duncan Plaza.

    Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s office told The Times- Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate that the bust is “considered stolen property,” and whoever has it should contact the city regarding its return.

    Two people who allegedly drove the bust to the river after it was toppled, Caleb Wassell and Michaela Davis, were booked on multiple charges, including theft and inciting a riot, news outlets reported.

    They have since been released on bail while police continue to search for another person who hit the statue with a hammer and used spray paint on it during Saturday’s demonstrations.

    When he died, McDonogh left a large portion of his money to New Orleans and Baltimore for schools, and many schools in New Orleans are named after him.

    The McDonogh Day celebration in which schoolchildren from across the city laid flowers at a different monument to McDonogh became the subject of boycotts in the 1950s. The ceremony was racially segregated, and black children would have to wait for hours for white children to lay their flowers first.

    The statue’s toppling is part of a nationwide effort to remove monuments to the Confederacy or with links to slavery as the country grapples with widespread protests against police brutality toward African Americans.

  • $250 Payment Proposed For Louisiana’s Front-Line Workers

    $250 Payment Proposed For Louisiana’s Front-Line Workers

    Disagreement remains over how to fund the $50 million in payments

    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Grocery store employees, nurses, bus drivers and other front-line workers who stayed on their jobs in the early days of Louisiana’s coronavirus outbreak could receive a one-time $250 state payment, under a bill that started advancing Wednesday in the state House.

    Democratic lawmakers are pushing the hazard pay proposal — paid out of $50 million in federal virus aid from Congress — in an ongoing special session focused largely on business recovery from the pandemic. They’re trying to broker a deal with Republicans who need some Democratic support to pass certain business tax breaks and other pro-business measures.

    The Ways and Means Committee sent the $250 hazard pay bill by House Democratic leader Sam Jenkins of Shreveport to the full House for debate without objection Wednesday, in a bipartisan show of support.

    “This committee has gone above and beyond to support our big business and our small businesses,” said Rep. Matthew Willard, a New Orleans Democrat. “We have yet to do anything for the working people of Louisiana. While some had the luxury of staying home and protecting their health and safety, others … did not have that choice.”

    Jenkins said the state should offer aid to grocery store workers, nurses, janitors, nursing home employees, bus drivers, EMS workers, fire and rescue employees, sanitation workers and others who risked their health to keep businesses operating during Louisiana’s stay-at-home order.

    “We do believe that these funds will immediately go back into our local economies. We think it will be a stimulus,” Jenkins said. “We feel like this is an immediate investment into our economy.”

    The $250 payments would be available to workers with an adjusted gross income on their 2019 tax return of $50,000 or less and who had to report to a job outside of their home for at least 200 hours from March 22 through May 14. They would have to hold one of the long list of jobs considered “essential critical infrastructure” under the bill.

    The Department of Revenue would verify an applicant’s eligibility, and the state’s Board of Commerce and Industry would have to approve the applications before payments are made.

    But disagreement remains over how to fund the $50 million in payments, raising questions about whether a deal can be reached before the special session must end June 30.

    Republican legislative leaders want to take the money from more than $500 million in federal aid set aside to reimburse local governments for expenses responding to the virus outbreak. Democrats want the dollars to come from $300 million in federal aid earmarked for small business grants.

    The House committee adopted language by Rep. John Stefanski, a Crowley Republican, that targets the local government assistance money to pay for the $250 one-time supplement for workers.

    “I want to make sure that our small businesses are protected as well,” Stefanski said.

    Willard said local governments are “in dire need” of assistance to help with their virus-related expenses.

    “I promise that I will try to find a compromise,” Stefanski told Willard.

     

  • Man Charged In Drive-By Shooting At ‘Duck Dynasty’ Estate

    Man Charged In Drive-By Shooting At ‘Duck Dynasty’ Estate

    Two Robertson homes hit by gunfire on Friday

    WEST MONROE, La. (AP) — A man was arrested in connection with a drive-by shooting at the Louisiana estate of “Duck Dynasty” star Willie Robertson.

    Daniel King Jr. was booked into a correctional center after two homes in West Monroe were struck by gunfire on Friday afternoon, the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post Saturday. No one was injured in the shooting, authorities said.

    “It looks like they were just spraying bullets across my property.” Robertson told The News-Star. Both homes are part of the estate belonging to Robertson, one of the stars of the reality show about duck hunting that ran from 2012 to 2017.

    Robertson said the family was “pretty shook up” after one of the eight to 10 bullets he said were fired at the residence went through the bedroom window of a home where his son John Luke Robertson lives with his wife and infant child.

    Witnesses told Ouachita Parish deputies that the second residence was also struck by gunfire.

    Robertson said many family members have huddled at the estate during the coronavirus pandemic, including his daughter Sadie Robertson and her new husband. The newlywed was a contestant on the reality show “Dancing with the Stars” in 2014.

    “Nobody was outside at the time, but everybody had been out about five minutes before,” Willie Robertson said. “I had just gone to the store when it happened.”

    Deputies said other occupants were in the car with the suspect during the shooting. They have not released more information about additional suspects.

    King was charged with aggravated assault. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.

    Willie Robertson is the CEO of Duck Commander, the multimillion-dollar duck call and decoy enterprise that inspired the A&E show, which shone a spotlight on the small north Louisiana town.

  • Edwards: ‘Too Early To Know’ When Louisiana Can Relax Orders

    Edwards: ‘Too Early To Know’ When Louisiana Can Relax Orders

    Edwards stressed that the practice must continue for now to avoid a new spike in infections.

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — “It’s just too early to know” when Louisiana can begin relaxing stay-at-home orders that have devastated the state’s economy to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Monday.

    He was speaking to reporters in Monroe, in the northern part of the state, after touring sites of widespread damage from tornadoes on Sunday.

    He was responding to a question about President Donald Trump’s eagerness to get businesses re-opened around the nation.

    Edwards, a Democrat, said he will continue to work with Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on the issue.

    State officials from both parties have presented a largely unified front in facing the crisis. But a state representative issued a statement Monday saying the order “must end” April 30.

    “On May 1, we must begin opening as much as possible,” Rep. Mark Wright, a Republican from Covington, said in a news release.

    The number of deaths related to COVID-19 in Louisiana rose to 884 Monday, 44 higher than a day earlier, according to the latest figures from the state health department.

    The number of people hospitalized with the disease caused by the virus was 2,134. That’s 50 more than a day earlier. The number of those requiring ventilators was 461 — a slight increase from Sunday but still well below last week’s numbers.

    State officials have said social distancing efforts appear to be slowing the growth in serious coronavirus illnesses in Louisiana. Edwards on Monday stressed that the practice must continue for now to avoid a new spike in infections.

    He also chastised those who aren’t heeding the warning. He said there was evidence, including anecdotes and a website that records movements of cellphone customers, that many in the state were less mindful of the need for social distancing over the Easter weekend.

    The overall number of Louisiana residents known to have been infected with the new coronavirus was 21,016 as of midday Monday, an increase of 421, as the number of people tested in the state surpassed 108,000.

    The latest figures were released on the same day the state announced that it had made a one-day payment of more than $89.7 million to residents who have lost their jobs or had reduced hours due to the pandemic. That includes more than $66 million from a recently passed federal relief bill to fund the first of weekly $600 payments for unemployed people, including the self-employed who lost work because of the pandemic.

    The state said that, as of Monday, just over 59 % of COVID-19 deaths in Louisiana occurred among African Americans. The figure was down from the 70% figure released last week. However, Edwards noted that the figures vary because the race of some of those affected is not available. Officials in Louisiana and elsewhere have expressed concerns over the disease’s disparate effects on blacks. Edwards last week announced a task force to look into the issue.

    During the absence of college sporting events as a result of the coronavirus battle, LSU announced a plan Monday to help provide badly needed medical supplies. The university said it’s starting large-scale production of personal protective equipment in the assembly center where basketball games are usually played. University employees, working with doctors from New Orleans and Shreveport, are making heavy-duty, reusable gowns and face shields, all with materials donated by area businesses.

    For most people, the coronavirus causes mild symptoms like fever and a cough that resolve in two to three weeks. But for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, more severe symptoms can occur, including pneumonia, that can lead to death.

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge contributed to this report.

  • Louisiana Civil Rights Activist Dr. Harry Blake Dies At 85

    Louisiana Civil Rights Activist Dr. Harry Blake Dies At 85

    Governor John Bel Edwards offered condolences on Thursday

    SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A leader in the civil rights movement in north Louisiana, who put his life on the line in the fight for racial equality, has died after possibly being exposed to the coronavirus.

    Dr. Harry Blake, pastor emeritus at Mt. Canaan Baptist Church in Shreveport, died Wednesday. He was 85.

    Blake’s daughter, Monica Blake Mickle, wrote on Facebook that her father was ill after being exposed to the virus but had been getting better, the Times reported. She said tests results on whether he actually had COVID-19 have not been confirmed.

    Gov. John Bel Edwards offered condolences on Thursday to Blake’s family during his daily press conference regarding the impact of the virus on the state.

    “He was an iconic leader of the civil rights movement,” Edwards said of Blake. “He endured many hardships during his life but never wavered in his faith nor in his work toward equality and justice for all people The state of Louisiana is forever grateful to Dr. Blake.”

    Blake joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1960. While a student at Bishop College in Texas, he was inspired by a speech he heard by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    In October of that year, as he drove home from the SCLC’s annual convention in Shreveport, a gunman tried to kill him, firing bullets into Blake’s car window, Blake recalled during an oral history project for the Library of Congress.

    He also recalled being beaten by several police officers during a memorial service at Little Union Baptist Church in Shreveport to honor the four girls killed at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in early September 1963. Blake required stitches for cuts to his scalp as a result.

    Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins called Blake “a man of God who lived with great purpose.″

    “Harry Blake was beaten and jailed, but he never wavered in his commitment to God or his fellow man,″ Perkins wrote in a post on Twitter.

    Blake held high-ranking positions in both the Louisiana Baptist State Convention where he was president and the National Baptist Convention where he was general secretary.

    This announcement was posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday, April 8th

    For immediate release:
    April 8, 2020

    Reverend Harry Blake Family Statement

    The Passing of Dr. Harry Blake
    Pastor Emeritus of Mt. Canaan Baptist Church

    Dr. Harry Blake, 85, Pastor Emeritus of the historic Mt. Canaan Baptist Church of Shreveport, Louisiana and Interim Pastor of St. Rest Baptist Church, also in Shreveport, passed tonight after a brief illness. Funeral arrangements are incomplete.

    Reverend Harry Blake served the Mt. Canaan Baptist Church for more 52 years. Pastor Blake was a recognized icon in the Civil Rights movement that led to justice and equality for many.

    The family is appreciative of the outpouring of support that has come for the local community and from across the nation. During this critical time, The Blake family requests private time as they, together, mourn the passing of their father, brother, grandfather, and uncle.

    No media interviews will be granted. No telephone calls or electronic inquiries to the family will be accepted at this time. The family will issue statements on future arrangements.