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With support from viewers like you.

And they don't want Jeff Landry to be the only dominant Republican figure.

Updates on the governor's race.

The perception of the profession of teaching has really kind of declined.

I feel like that they're not treated like the professionals that they certainly I think are.

How is Louisiana retaining its teachers?

The most recent recommendations are actually moving the screening colonoscopy initiation date up to 45.

Younger people at risk for colon cancer.

You can't let outsiders tell you who you are.

A historical landmark goes up in Acadia.

We begin tonight looking ahead to summer and hurricane season.

That's to come.

But don't worry, it's good news.

Exactly.

Our part of the world should get a break with an El Nino weather pattern that's typically less active conditions in the Atlantic basin.

That's after three stubborn La Nina seasons.

La Nina, which ups the possibility of hurricanes, will not be occurring in this part of the world, according to other experts.

Yes.

So this doesn't mean we won't have severe weather this year, but it reduces the potential of hurricanes and cyclones from forming an Atlantic.

Yeah, we'll take it my way.

Yes.

And now let's let's take a look at some of the other headlines making news across the state.

A Baton Rouge jury Wednesday awarded $6.1 million in damages to the parents of an LSU student who died in 2017.

Steven and Ray and Gruver prevailed of the wrongful death lawsuit of their son, Max Groover, two weeks into his freshman year at LSU.

Groover died of alcohol poisoning and aspiration.

This after being hazed at the Phi Delta Theta Frat house following a two hour ritual dubbed Bible study.

Louisiana was granted the final necessary money to build the mid Barataria sediment diversion.

Construction of the ambitious and controversial piece of the Louisiana Coastal Master Plan is set to begin later this year.

The $3 billion project is a key part of the CPRA efforts to slow land loss devastating our coast and.

News about this year's race for governor continues to trickle in week by week.

Former DOT secretary Shaun Wilson announced he will run.

He becomes the first Democrat to enter the field.

Garret graves announced he would not.

Which means it could open the door for business and industry leader Steven Waguespack from Lobby to run one of the state's top pollsters.

John Quintal from GMC Analytics is here.

And you've got some observations about where we stand right now.

Yes.

So what's interesting about the race, you have to think of it in terms of there being three demographic swim lanes.

The first demographic swim lane would be the democratic swimming, so to speak.

Shawn Wilson not only occupies it, but he dominates it.

And I think it's highly unlikely that he would be sharing that swim line with any other Democrat, because Governor Edwards and his people have clearly established that Shawn Wilson is the preferred candidate.

What that means in plain terms is he's pretty much a lock for the runoff because on a bad day, a Democrat will get 40% of the vote in this state.

Even in a crowded field, I could see Shawn finishing first in the field with 30 to 35%.

So that's swim lane number one.

Swim lane number two is what I would describe as the conservative Republican swim lane.

That is where Jeff Landry, the state's attorney general, currently dominates.

And he does have some competition from State Senator Sharon Hewitt and from State Treasurer John Schroeder.

But right now, when you're talking about someone who has more than $5 million in the bank, I would expect that he would have a dominant position.

Sure.

Does it guarantee him the other runoff spot?

That brings me to swim lane number three, which is what I would describe as the more moderate Republican swim lane, which in the old days would have been described as the Dave Treen wing.

I'm talking about Republicans who are more interested in economic issues as opposed to being animated by social issues.

And these Republicans primarily reside in the larger parishes in southeast Louisiana, such as southern East Baton Rouge Parish, the east bank of Jefferson Parish, Saint Tammany Parish, places like that.

These are demographic areas or groups, rather.

That gave.

John Bel Edwards just enough of their vote in 2015 and 2019 to elect and reelect him.

But on almost every other race, these voters voted Republican up and down.

Whether you're talking about the other statewide races, the legislature, parish wide races, etc., etc.. Now, what's interesting about that third swim lane is they don't currently have a candidate kind of sort of Richard Nelson could fit the profile.

He's running on a more libertarian ish kind of platform.

But the interesting question right now is if we were to have a Stephen Waguespack entry as the chair of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry that perfectly fits that profile of the pro-business Republican who could then be competitive against Jeff Landry for that second spot in the runoff.

And there's been a push by moderate Republicans for someone who fits that signature to enter the race.

Correct.

The concern from this faction of the Republican Party is they don't want Jeff Landry to be the only dominant Republican figure.

Right.

They want some competition.

And being head of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, even if he's not yet a household name amongst the average Louisiana voter.

The most important thing is he has the ability to obtain funding, and funding is what would be necessary for that candidate to be the Republican opponent to Sean Wilson in November.

When you look at down the road, say, three months, where would you envision things shaping up over the next?

Are there other surprises that could enter?

Still.

Anything's possible in politics, is my attitude.

But I also think that the unique dynamic you have in the governor's races, given the amount of money it takes just to be competitive, the door is steadily closing shut right now because donors are not going to sit around and wait until qualifying to see who to get behind.

They're making their preferences known now.

So right now, what I would describe as the donor primary is what's occurring over the next few months.

Then once we get into the summer months, that's when you have the real campaigning in terms of any kind of events, any kind of TV advertising or digital advertising or mail or whatnot.

But that's really not going to occur until later this summer, because right now the name of the game is raising enough money and or showing good numbers on your campaign finance report.

And all we've seen so far is just people who may run or were definitely going to run or say they're in it.

But there's not been any campaigning at all yet.

Correct.

Minimal campaigning other than, say, speeches to certain industry groups.

But in terms of, I guess, being seen widely by voters, that's not going to occur until the summer.

In the fall, when might we see some polls come out?

Well, I would say that there's going to be polls sprinkled throughout.

I would expect the polling volume would grow exponentially once we get into September and October.

We'll wait for that.

For one thing, we have to have qualifying finish to have official candidate lists.

But I would expect polling to be sporadic in the short term and it would grow as we get into the fall.

All right.

We'll wait and see.

John, thanks so much.

Appreciate you being here.

Yes, Teacher pay raises have been the subject of conversation for a while, but now professionals in the field are turning their head and their attention toward retaining teachers that are already in the workforce.

Mary Irwin, a member of Louisiana's Continuous learning task force, weighs in.

So obviously, teacher pay has been an issue in Louisiana for years at this point.

I mean, most teachers on average make about 3000 less than the Southern regional average.

So is teacher pay raise going to be on the agenda for a session coming up?

Yes, definitely.

I mean, right now, the governor's already put it in his executive budget, which basically means he's found the money for it and he wants to do that.

Betsy has kind of weighed in, too, with a slightly different proposal from what the governor had, but it's really pretty much the same thing.

So if it goes the governor's plan, it would be $2,000 for teachers, $1,000 for support workers.

But if we find more money through the revenue estimating, which people predict that we will because we've been finding so much money lately in the last several months, in a couple of years, he would like another thousand to go to that teacher, pay, Right?

So that would be 3000 if we were able to pull all that together.

Okay.

Right.

So that will push us closer and closer to that southern regional national average right there.

It would get as close to kind of where we think we are right now because these numbers lag a little bit.

But the thing that really makes a big bit of a difference is that, you know, it's not a stagnant number.

I mean, just last year, Mississippi raised teacher pay $5,000.

I mean, that's a pretty huge chunk.

Alabama did a very comprehensive pay raise, which included up to 15% for different teachers in different experience levels.

So this is a moving target.

So it will definitely get us closer to where we kind of think we are now.

But again, all states are really trying to address this issue.

Right.

And it seems like Louisiana is just trying to play catch up at this point.

It has been we've been kind of near the bottom.

We kind of look at ourselves with the southern states and we kind of measure ourselves against about 16.

We've been 12 for a long time.

And we're probably, you know, even with this, probably going to stay somewhere in that area, we'd still like to see it get up to that southern average.

So, of course, I mean, there's teacher pay raises.

That's always going to be an issue.

But I mean, we've had an even bigger problem, so to speak.

And that's, you know, actually filling these positions because we don't have a lot of teachers in Louisiana right now.

That's been a big issue.

And in fact, I'm serving on a task force that the legislature put together just to address that, because it's become so acute.

I mean, we've lost.

Well, first of all, COVID had a big impact, and we know that.

But this was happening before COVID, and it's been happening since.

We have fewer, you know, high school students who are wanting to be teachers, going into colleges of education and that type of thing.

We've seen those numbers decline.

We've got a lot of these teachers that when they do come out, they don't make it through the first five years.

They they move on to another job or they go into the private schools or something else.

And then we've had people retiring early.

So, I mean, there's a lot of things we're trying to do right now to try and deal with that issue.

But it's a serious issue and certainly pay is one of the elements of it.

So are there any plans like how are we trying to retain the teachers that we have?

Well, one of the things that we're trying to do in terms of the retention piece is to try and make sure that when these students graduate from colleges of education so their first or second year teachers, they're jumping in and sometimes it's not what they expected it to be.

It's a little bit over their head.

So we're trying to do more with mentor teachers, apprentice type situations where they are partnered with an experienced teacher who can help guide them through the thing, hold their hand, so to speak, through some of the challenges that they'll be facing.

And we've seen evidence that when you can do that, that actually does help with retention.

We've done some other things on the back end where we've tried to loosen things up a little bit so that teachers who have retired or retired early can kind of go back to the classroom if they want to on a temporary basis without messing up the retirement system.

We've seen promise there and also some things to try and get kids who are in high school into those colleges of education.

Yeah, that was actually going to be my next question.

So it seems like teaching really has like the worst PR team in the world at this point because you can't get more people to come into the profession.

So aside from that, I mean, how are you guys going to attract these high school students and make teaching look like a good job, something they want to do?

That's a really hard question because some of that is really long term.

The perception of the profession of teaching has really kind of declined in, I guess, more than recent years in a number of years.

And teachers have told us that they feel like that they're not treated like the professionals that they certainly, I think, are.

One of the things, though, to your point, there's there's some programs going on and a lot of high schools that are really meant to try and introduce kids while they're still in high school.

And that shows some interest in the teaching profession because a lot of people really have some passion for it to kind of get them into kind of a club, if you want to call it at that time.

But it's really, again, with mentoring and kind of helping them through there, it's begun.

We've got them statewide, but in some areas we've got some real strong pockets of that, like central Louisiana parish, we're seeing really good results there.

So that's one thing we will definitely like to see expand.

Yeah, and I've definitely seen some programs popping up in Broulee for high school students just to make sure that they really understand what teaching is about and that it's not always just this difficult and tiring profession.

It can be really rewarding.

And then that's it.

And I think some a lot of people really approach it with that kind of view because, you know, they like kids.

We all love kids.

And, you know, a lot of want to teach with little kids and do all of that stuff.

But then when they get there, you know, the paperwork or somebody scares them away from it.

I mean, sure, there are always going to be challenges.

And one of the things we need to do is kind of ease those challenges to the degree that we possibly can.

But when when a young person has an affinity or kind of shows that desire to want to be in the classroom, it's incumbent upon our high schools and everybody else to encourage them because they could come back and be their future teachers.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

All right.

So basically, the gist of the session this year is teacher pay raises are definitely going to be on the agenda.

We're going to focus on trying to retain teachers and get more students to be interested in the profession.

That's exactly right.

There'll be some some other bills that will try to do that.

But I think the teacher pay piece is big and trying to make sure that we're doing as much as we can to kind of ease some of the stresses and some of the strains that teachers are feeling in the classroom.

All right.

Well, thank you so much for joining us.

I appreciate it.

Glad to be here.

Colon cancer is becoming more prominent and people born in the eighties, in the nineties, which is statistically much younger than the typical 55 and older demographic.

The science has yet to pinpoint an exact reason for the uptick, but it seems to revolve around a host of lifestyle choices.

I sat down a few days ago with an oncology doctor at Baton Rouge General Hospital to talk about this new trend.

So a recent report by the American Cancer Society showed that people born in the eighties and nineties are more at risk for colon cancer than they've ever been before.

Is that consistent with what you are seeing?

Yes, we are seeing patients diagnosed with colon and rectal cancer at younger and younger ages.

You know, initially screening began at 50, but we're seeing more patients younger than this being diagnosed.

Therefore, the most recent recommendations are actually moving the screening colonoscopy initiation date up to 45.

You know, some of the recent data is actually showing one in five colon and rectal cancer cases are actually between the ages of 20 and 54.

20 and 54.

The 20 is a bit scary.

It is.

So is there a specific reason why this is happening, Why colon cancer specifically?

Well, we don't know exactly why this why we're seeing this phenomenon.

But we do know that environmental factors do increase your risk of colon rectal cancer.

And some of those things are diet, health, obesity, And a lot of these are preventative.

But a lot of these are national pandemics, basically, you know, you know, obesity and, you know, rising rate of obesity in the country.

And then, you know, the change in our diet over the years, moving to more processed foods, less healthy, made at home foods, more fast foods.

And so while we don't know exactly, we do assume that this may have a role in this.

Yes.

Fast food and processed things, things that people born in the nineties tend to love.

Right.

So are there any other.

I mean, is there any evidence showing that there are other cancers that, you know, or having younger and younger patients?

Not at this time that we know of.

This is one that we have definitely recognized.

And again, I think that's one of the reasons is the U.S., US Preventative Task Force are the ones that came out with the recommendation to move the screening age up five years from 50 to 45 because of what we're seeing.

We haven't really changed screening for any other disease processes at this time, but we're monitoring.

Is it possible that in the future, I mean, the screening age will go even lower than that, maybe 35, 25, anything like that?

It's possible.

I think this is still new.

I think this is the age right now that we feel most comfortable with.

But with colon cancer, hereditary issues are involved.

And so family history is very important.

So if you do have a first degree relative with colon or rectal cancer, you want to start screening ten years ahead of their diagnosis.

So say your mom had colon cancer at the age of 45, you would want to start screening at 35 with your first colonoscopy.

Right.

And of course, if she was diagnosed with cancer at 35, you want to screen at 25?

Yes.

All right.

So we've talked a little bit about what may be the cause.

It seems that science hasn't pinpointed an exact reason for this, but let's talk preventative measures.

I mean, what can you do to make sure that you're safe and keeping your family safe?

I think some of the best things we can do are obviously get screened as recommended, but also the things that we can definitely have some control over is diet, right?

Eating healthy, high fiber, lots of fruits and veggies, you know, all that good, healthy stuff.

Try to avoid all the stuff we like right now on, you know, the processed foods, red meats, fast food.

And then, you know, there is a role with obesity, obviously, so.

Right.

So weight loss, eating healthy, staying active even could potentially help decrease your risk.

All right.

So the bottom line is watch what you're eating.

Make sure that you're getting screened.

And also just be a healthy individual.

Correct.

So is there anything else that people should know, especially because when you hear things like, you know, people born in the nineties, that's me or people that are born in the eighties, I mean, that's typically very young.

Is there anything else this age group should know about this new study?

No, I think it's just important to talk to your physician.

Right.

See a physician.

And, you know, a lot of young people don't even have a doctor.

Right.

When say they move on from their pediatrician, they stop seeing the doctor.

So see your physician discuss your risk, discuss your lifestyle, and see if it's right for you to get screened.

You know, there are signs that can show up usually for later stage colon cancer, and that may be some blood in your bowel movements, some change in your bowel habits.

Abdominal bloating or abdominal pain.

So these are all things to discuss with a physician.

All right.

Well, thank you so much for joining us and talking about this.

A bridge crossing in Akkadian was named for Catherine Tapia, who's a free woman of color of attack, a Polish Native American descent.

So tall was a spiritual healer whose story has gone unnoticed for years, at least until now.

Her descendants set up a marker in the Lafayette area honoring her memory.

Take a look.

The mass of land from Cameron Parish to Saint Charles and everything in between is dubbed Cajun Country, a place known for its food, music and unique take on life.

But of course, every story has its beginning, middle and end to some who live here.

The beginning has been neglected.

But some some truly good.

So the war against.

This congregation at Our Lady of Assumption Church is writing that wrong with the acknowledgment of their ancestor, Katherine Hawthorne.

Pierre and Saint Katherine.

Tracy.

Katherine.

Joan.

Pierre was a free woman of color, living in Civil War era.

Katie.

Anna.

She's listed as black on the census from the time, but she was really Ishak of the attack upon Ishak, which is the Native American tribe who called Acadian a home well before any documented European ships hit the Virginia coast.

History is very important to our time.

We have history about who she was, but none of it's definitive.

And that's our that's our reality of the African people as well, that it's very difficult to find parts of the lineage.

Mary Flowers is a descendant of Total.

Her family has heard bits and pieces of the legend for generations.

Whispers about a native ancestor whose impact on the Louisiana went unnoticed until flowers and her family started to dig.

Well, you know what was passed down?

That she was a healer, that she you know, she was born in 1801.

So, again, that was prior to the Louisiana Purchase.

But slavery was alive and well.

Here again.

Indigenous people being pushed off their land by colonization of the French in the in the British and and also the Spanish.

So, you know, they basically, you know, and so we were caught in the middle.

Those who were oppressed were.

Caught in the middle.

So Tom was caught in the middle.

Just as Flower said.

But she used her skills to help those in need.

She healed intended to wounded soldiers, and as a result, they granted her a hospital.

That stretch of land is located right at the edge of L.A. Highway 1252.

This was done to honor our ancestors.

But it was also done for this generation to know exactly what they've got here and pull it back.

Going on.

A landmark was placed on the bridge so everyone who passes can understand the history.

There are a lot of markers up and signs up across the cabin that they have to do with the Cajun culture.

And I'm not knocking the Cajun culture.

They have a unique and very compelling story.

But the indigenous people were here first.

And this is a Taco Paul country.

If you look at old maps before the Europeans from southeast Texas to southwest Louisiana, that was all attack upon country.

And so I wanted to honor my ancestors.

I wanted to specifically honor Todd Tall for being a tremendous medicine woman and healer.

She served her community.

There is a you know, they they say it's Cajun country and we're okay with that.

We share it with the Cajun, but they've kind of sprinkled Cajun over everything.

And so the contributions that the African slaves made, as well as the Native Americans, it's being undermined.

It's being diminished by everything's Cajun.

The land was later used by Katherine Drexel, a Catholic nun who turned on Thomas Hospital into a school for native and black children.

The steps are still there.

She framed all these photos.

She was so busy yesterday.

Continually busy.

Drexel's contribution is labeled on the back of the times marker.

I think without Catherine Drexel's work, I'm not sure where we would be in terms of education.

So she had a huge impact on our family and our community.

Our church community is a Katharine Drexel community, and we're just so proud of all of it.

Yeah.

This story took a lot of research to uncover and to document in this way for everyone to see.

But it also took an emotional toll on the descendants who had to accept this heritage without shame.

Spirit tells you who you are.

The Holy Spirit, the Great Spirit.

Your spirit.

You can't let outsiders tell you who you are.

And I'm native and African and I am darn proud.

That tells me that my ancestors, the women in my ancestry, were warriors on the African side and the indigenous side.

And I don't think anyone can really appreciate how emboldened empowering that enlightenment is for me.

So, yes, this stretch of land is Cajun country, but that's only a snippet of the truth.

It's also undeniably native, undeniably historical, and an undeniable part of Louisiana's cultural fabric, a part that deserves to be remembered and honored.

You know, Louisiana is often on the wrong end of various state rankings.

And tonight, we've got a mixed bag of rankings.

Long loved icon is the national company compiling these these rankings things like best states for fishing and.

You would think we would be way up there right.

Louisiana ranks 25th according to Long love.

We disagree.

Yeah.

I mean they also put Louisiana 48th for camping.

But there's also top city for Mardi Gras, which is New Orleans.

It's a no.

Brainer.

It's a no brainer.

But no other city in the state was in the top ten.

Neither was Mobile, Alabama, which is said to be the birthplace of Mardi Gras as we know it with parades and floats.

Which is, of course, controversial.

Yes, You know, that's a conversation for another time.

But Lord Love, we're taking these rankings with a huge grain of salt.

We don't believe you.

Exactly.

Well, everyone, that's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything.

You leave any time, wherever you are with our PBS.

App, you can catch LPB news and public affairs shows as well as other Louisiana programs you've come to enjoy over the years.

And Place likes on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For everyone here at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I'm Andre.

Moreau and I'm Kara St. Cyr.

Until next time.

That's the state we're in.

Every day I go to work for Entergy.

I know customers are counting on me.

So Entergy is investing millions of dollars to keep the lights on and installing new technology to prevent outages before they happen.

Together, together.

Together.

We power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth B Zigler Foundation and the Zigler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you.