10-27-21
Louisiana is ending its statewide indoor mask mandate today after emerging from its latest and worst coronavirus spike of the pandemic and seeing a sharp decline in new COVID-19 infections. Gov. John Bel Edwards announced the decision Tuesday. It marks one of the first mask mandates enacted for the delta variant-fueled outbreak to be scrapped. The Democratic governor is lifting the mask requirement for grocery stores, restaurants, bars, retailers, colleges and other sites, but some of Louisiana’s schools will have to keep masking if they don’t follow tight quarantine rules.
HERE’S SYLVIA MASTERS WITH THE LATEST COVID-NINETEEN NUMBERS.
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BECAUSE OF GOVERNOR JOHN BEL EDWARDS LATEST DECLARATION, MASKS WILL BE OPTIONAL IN LAFAYETTE PARISH SCHOOLS. SYLVIA MASTERS HAS MORE.
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ACADIA PARISH SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT SCOTT RICHARD SAYS THEY ARE REVIEWING THE GOVERNOR’S NEW COVID EXECUTIVE ORDER. HE SAYS THEY SHOULD ANNOUNCE A DECISION BY THE CLOSE OF BUSINESS TODAY ON ANY CHANGES TO THEIR MASK POLICY. THE VERMILLION PARISH SCHOOL DISTRICT IS FOLLOWING THE LAFAYETTE PARISH SCHOOL SYSTEM’S LEAD AND MAKING MASKS OPTIONAL WITH QUARANTINING. SAINT MARTIN AND SAINT LANDRY PARISH SCHOOLS ARE MAINTAINING THE CURRENT MASKING POLICY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
Louisiana will receive $595 million in federal disaster block grant aid to help with housing restoration and other recovery needs from last year’s back-to-back blows of Hurricanes Laura and Delta. U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy announced the official amount Tuesday. The money is welcomed by officials as critical to rebuilding efforts in southwest Louisiana, but it falls far short of the $3 billion in assistance requested by Gov. John Bel Edwards. It also comes 14 months after Laura wrecked the Lake Charles region.
TUESDAY EVENING LAFAYETTE POLICE PULLED OVER A MAN ON A MOTORCYCLE BUT HE THEN FLED ON FOOT AND BROKE INTO A HOUSE TO HIDE. IT WAS LATER LEARNED THE MAN HAD STOLEN THE MOTORCYCLE. POLICE BROUGHT IN DOG UNITS WHO CAUGHT THE SCENT OF THE MAN AND LED POLICE TO THE HOME. THE WOMAN WHO LIVED IN THE HOME SAYS OFFICERS FOUND HIM AND RECAPTURED HIM INSIDE THE HOUSE, LOCATED NEAR THE CORNER OF MUDD AND GLADYS AVENUE, AND ESCORTED HIM SAFELY OUT THE FRONT DOOR.
YESTERDAY CONNIE SHAKESNIDER GOT HELP FROM SEVERAL PEOPLE TO DELIVER FOOD TO ELDERLY PEOPLE IN SAINT LANDRY PARISH. CONNIE TELLS KLFY TV SHE’S DOING IT TO HONOR HER MOTHER, WHO FED MANY PEOPLE BEFORE SHE DIED IN TWENTY-EIGHTEEN. SHE SAYS SHE TOLD HER MOM, WHO LOVED TO FEED PEOPLE, THAT ONE DAY SHE WAS GOING TO FEED HER WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD. CONNIE SAYS YESTERDAY WAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO KEEP HER MOTHER’S MEMORY AND GOOD DEEDS ALIVE.
A federal jury in Louisiana has convicted an Alabama man of coercing a girl under the age of 12 to send him explicit photos of herself to create child pornography. Federal prosecutors say in a news release that 45-year-old William Malone of Mobile was convicted Tuesday in Lafayette on seven charges, including five of producing child pornography. The statement says the investigation began after the girl told her mother that Malone had been sexually abusing her. Prosecutors say Malone was captain of a vessel that sailed out of Abbeville and the images were on his phone and laptop, found in a search of that vessel.
