Louisiana
Women learn trade skills at Louisiana Correctional Institute
![Women learn trade skills at Louisiana Correctional Institute Women learn trade skills at Louisiana Correctional Institute](https://gray-wafb-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com/resizer/yNJD0W75jgtiiobnICSUig7Qf10=/980x0/smart/filters:quality(85)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/LG5SHK76SBBY5HV3NSVRJSCAOM.bmp)
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Since 2016, the incarcerated inhabitants has decreased due to packages coaching folks for jobs once they get out of jail.
It could appear like regular Capital Space development.
“As soon as I began it, it was simply the concept of studying one thing new and being given a chance and it made me actually need it,” Shelia Jenkins stated.
However at Louisiana Correctional Institute for Ladies, inmates are training utilizing heavy tools.
“I adore it and it’s one thing that I might pursue outdoors of right here since you get the texture of what you’ve been coaching for, and we’ve been coaching since 2019, so now we get the texture of what we’ve actually been doing, so now it looks like an accomplishment,” Jenkins stated.
Jenkins and her colleagues are coaching to have the ability to train extra girls easy methods to use these machines.
“It’s a male-dominated trade, true, however I really feel prefer it must be equal as a result of being out right here, we most likely get the identical feeling that they get, however it’s extra invigorating as a result of we’re girls, and no different girls are actually doing this, and we get a chance to make a press release to say, yeah, we might do it, to open the doorways for us as effectively to be able to get us a great paying job like them,” Jenkins stated.
Earlier than they get to the true heavy tools, they follow on simulators.
“I can see why they do that, they simulate fighter jets and truck driving, so I see now how this actually works as a result of getting on the precise machine is a lot simpler as a result of you understand what they search for,” Daybreak Bennet stated.
Bennet is engaged on passing her certification examination subsequent week.
“Whereas we’re right here proper now, you’ll be able to assist prepare different folks that may go house, and so they could make a dwelling, and make an trustworthy dwelling, they don’t have to return to jail,” Bennet stated.
Since 2016, incarceration for non-violent offenses has gone down 35 p.c, in accordance with LWIC.
In response to Kristy McGovern, Director of Academic Applications, that’s due to re-entry packages.
“They’re going again with social abilities and job employment abilities in addition to simply character and monetary means and every thing else that goes with that, so once they launch, they’re ready to remain out of jail,” McGovern stated.
Instructing girls these professions usually dominated by males helps them break extra boundaries.
“I feel we are able to do quite a lot of issues if we might simply put our thoughts to and deal with them. Studying overcomes obstacles. Yeah, it’s sizzling on the market, however we’ve been having a blast on the market,” Bennet stated.
Ladies listed here are additionally coaching for jobs in welding and cosmetology.
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Louisiana
New hires at Louisiana Bar Foundation, Pennington Biomedical Research Center
![New hires at Louisiana Bar Foundation, Pennington Biomedical Research Center New hires at Louisiana Bar Foundation, Pennington Biomedical Research Center](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/nola.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/6/bd/6bd06606-6641-11ef-9476-5fdcaf6f67fb/66d0d37fe840c.image.jpg?crop=1270%2C667%2C0%2C481&resize=1200%2C630&order=crop%2Cresize)
New Orleans
Franziska Wagner has been hired as chief financial officer of the Louisiana Bar Foundation.
Wagner has worked as an accountant and auditor for clients in the government, nonprofit and construction sectors.
She earned a bachelor’s in accounting from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a master’s in accounting from the University of New Orleans.
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Terrance Payne has been named director of building trades training at the New Orleans Career Center.
Payne was one of the inaugural trainers in the building trades program.
The Career Center recently hired 14 new staffers, a move that brings the number of employees to 42, double what the organization had two years ago. There are now more than 600 trainees in the program’s five industry sectors: health care, building trades, digital media/IT, engineering/manufacturing and culinary arts.
The new hires are: Shanitra Charles, instructor, pre-nursing; Myles Ford, instructor, pharmacy technician; Diana Kennedy, instructor, pre-nursing; Wynn Martin, success coach; Tony McKarry, instructor, building trades; Bria Hays-Mackey, bookkeeper; MacKenzie Rosenberg, success coach; Maria Schneider, program coordinator; Cedric Singleton, instructor, building trades; Taralyn Stephens, instructor, culinary; Lee Stevenson, instructor, building trades; Aaron Washington, trainee support coordinator; and Anastasia Williams-Smith, program coordinator.
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Darian Shorts and Justin Vlosich have joined the staff of Gambel Communications.
Shorts is a communications strategist. Previously, she worked for The PR Alliance.
She earned a bachelor’s in political communication and a master’s in mass communication, both from LSU.
Vlosich is a communications coordinator. He previously worked for the New Orleans Pelicans, Louisiana SPCA and the New Orleans Saints.
He earned a bachelor’s in marketing from the University of New Orleans.
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Joe DiTommaso has been promoted to vice president of commercial lending for OnPath Credit Union.
DiTommaso joined OnPath in 2022 as northshore market president. Before that, he worked for Gulf Coast Bank, Chase and Hibernia National Bank/Capital One.
He served as a Marine for five years and received awards for his involvement in the support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Baton Rouge
Bailey Richard has been hired as director of marketing, communication and compliance for Off The Hook Restaurants.
Richard has held senior marketing positions for other businesses and has a track record of strategic planning and grassroots marketing.
Off the Hook, which was founded in 2012, has five quick-service seafood restaurants in Baton Rouge, Gonzales, Hammond, Thibodaux and Houma.
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Reis Alsberry has been hired as director of intellectual property and commercialization for Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
Alsberry was commercialization manager for Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Before that, he held patent management positions at Florida State University, Florida A&M University and Old Dominion University.
He earned a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Old Dominion, a bachelor’s in civil engineering from the University of Virginia and a law degree from the University of Richmond School of Law.
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Amos Davis has been named chief operating officer for Emergent Method.
Davis has nearly two decades of policy, legal and operational experience. He spent the past several years as global senior counsel for Uber; before that, he was a lead adviser for several Coca-Cola Co. brands, including Minute Maid.
He earned a bachelor’s from the University of Virginia, a master’s from Emory University and a law degree from Emory University School of Law.
Louisiana
Louisiana man dies in motorcycle crash in Boone County, Ark.
BOONE COUNTY, Ark. — A man from Carencro, Louisiana has died after a crash between a motorcycle and a pickup truck in Burlington, Arkansas on Tuesday, August 27.
At 2:15 p.m., 62-year-old Richard Zaunbrecher was driving a 2002 Yamaha Road Star motorcycle north on U.S. Highway 65 in Burlington behind a 2020 Ford F-150 in the inside lane.
Springfield man sentenced to 28 years for murdering his wife in 2022
According to the Arkansas State Police, the motorcycle did not obey flashing traffic control signals and change lanes, causing the motorcycle to rear-end the Ford. The crash forced Zaunbrecher off the vehicle and he landed in the inside lane of U.S. 65.
Zaunbrecher was transported to the North Arkansas Regional Medical Center in Harrison, Arkansas, where he later died from his injuries.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Louisiana
Services for people with disabilities could be eliminated under Landry budget plan • Louisiana Illuminator
![Services for people with disabilities could be eliminated under Landry budget plan • Louisiana Illuminator Services for people with disabilities could be eliminated under Landry budget plan • Louisiana Illuminator](https://lailluminator.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ICU-COVID.jpg)
Programs for medically vulnerable children, seniors and people with disabilities could be eliminated next year as a result of Louisiana’s looming budget deficit, officials with Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration said Friday.
Louisiana Health Secretary Michael Harrington laid out services he might be forced to cut if the governor and lawmakers reduce the state health care budget by $105.1 million to deal with a financial gap in the next fiscal year. He’s been told to expect a large cut as the state tries to figure out how it will cope with an automatic tax reductions scheduled for mid-2025.
Harrington said that $105.1 million cut to state health care services would balloon to an overall loss of $332.4 million with resulting federal funding reductions. The state would no longer be able to put up the money needed to draw down more dollars from the federal government for health care services.
Given the size of the cut the state health department anticipates, Harrington said there are few options for absorbing the budget reduction that don’t involve eliminating programs considered crucial for seniors, children or people with disabilities.
“Any of these kinds of cuts is going to naturally impact the most vulnerable,” Harrington said at a Louisiana House budget hearing Friday. “That’s what we [the health department] do. We take care of seniors and children.”
More than 90% of Louisiana’s $19.9 billion health care budget is spent on Medicaid programs, which pays for health care for people who are pregnant, low-income or disabled, according to Harrington. The bulk of that money, 71%, comes from the federal government, but the state is required to contribute funds in order to receive the federal support.
If forced to make a $105.1 million reduction, Harrington said the Landry administration would eliminate pediatric day care centers ($26.4 million) for families with medically fragile children. Money for a program that helps children with behavioral challenges, called the coordinated system of care, would also be reduced by $5.9 million.
The state would also scrap its Program for All Inclusive Care for the Elderly ($20.4 million), known as PACE, that assists older people so they can continue to live at home instead of going into nursing homes. Money for daytime supervision for seniors and adults with disabilities who cannot take care of themselves would also be lost ($9.1 million).
Transportation reimbursements for people with disabilities would also be scrapped ($1.8 million). Funding for medical residents who train to be doctors in Louisiana would also be reduced ($23.1 million).
Caregivers who help adults with disabilities and intellectual challenges would also see their reimbursement rates lowered again. Most of these rates have only been raised in the past couple of years after program directors long complained they weren’t able to hire staff at the low wages the state previously provided.
The state budget deficit plan also calls for reducing supplemental payments to hospitals for treating Medicaid patients by $69.4 million and eliminating an expected increase in funding for nursing homes that would have cost $67.8 million.
Republicans and Democratic lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee said they would be unwilling to make such cuts.
Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, described the plan as inhumane, and Rep. Larry Bagley, R-Stonewall, said families would be unable to care for their loved ones without these programs.
“These are people that depend on us for their life,” Bagley said.
Other legislators questioned whether health officials under Landry, a Republican, had looked deep enough at its nearly $20 billion budget to find alternative ways to save money. Many of the programs put on the chopping block were also proposed for elimination when Landry’s predecessor, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, faced a budget deficit eight years ago.
Rep. Tony Bacala, R-Prairieville, said the health department has never fully accounted for the hundreds of thousands of people removed from Medicaid following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given that the program has significantly fewer people in it, the health agency should have some spare money in its budget that could be used to keep these programs whole, he said.
Bacala also alleged the health department ended fiscal year 2023-24 in June with $75 million in leftover state funding, which means some of that money should be available to cover the $105.1 million cut.
“You continue to say we need more money to cover 300,000 less people [in the Medicaid program],” Bacala said.
Louisiana is facing a budget deficit of $587 million next year largely because of a planned cut to the state sales tax from 4.45% to 4%. State lawmakers could avoid major budget reductions if they voted to keep the sales tax rate at the current level, but legislative leaders have said the conservative anti-tax Louisiana House of Representatives is unlikely to do so.
Lawmakers are more likely to look at expanding the sales tax to new items and services as well as eliminating other tax exemptions to make up some of the revenue. Louisiana Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson has proposed a tax on streaming services such as Netflix as well as services like auto detailing for the first time.
If the Legislature chooses to keep a 2% tax on business utilities that is supposed to expire July 1, 2025, it would also generate $220 million and lessen the deficit. Moving $320 million the state generates through a vehicle sales tax from transportation projects into health care services, higher education and other programs could also help close the budget gap.
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