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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 and in a world that is too much hatred, strife, and currently war.

Let us be bold enough to be peacemakers.

The Governor's vision for the 2022 session.

It's horrific and it's heartbreaking, and it's making me lose a little bit of faith in humanity.

A Ukrainian woman struggling to hold onto hope.

How can we prevent this from happening?

The complex and tangled abuse of web of human trafficking Hi, everyone.

I'm Kara St. Cyr And I'm Andre Moreau After 24 months, Governor John Bel Edwards is not extending the public health declaration that's been in place since the COVID pandemic began two years ago.

The declaration officially ended Wednesday.

The order was put in place to protect public health and all the social distancing and protocol that goes with it.

For now, no restrictions from the state.

The governor said in his State of the State address Monday that this was a difficult decision to make.

He worked closely with several officials to make sure that this was the right choice for Louisiana.

I met with the division of Administration go set up the Department of Health and the Louisiana National Guard to ensure that there will be no federal aid repercussions or other adverse consequences from not reviewing the proclamation We'll have more on the governor's State of the State address later in our broadcast.

And right now, let's check other top headlines from around the state.

A lawsuit filed late Monday says new district maps illegally dilute black voting strength and embody Louisiana's legacy of discrimination.

The suit is asking that the new legislative districts be declared unconstitutional and election officials be blocked from holding elections using the new maps.

Critics, including Governor John Bel Edwards, say the maps drawn up by the Republican led legislature should have increased black representation.

Former head of state police Kevin Reeves put distance between himself and the governor from the investigation into the 2019 death of black motorist Ronald Green.

This was Tuesday during a three hour bipartisan grilling by lawmakers.

The hearing was heated as lawmakers expressed disbelief as Reeves refused to condemn the white troopers captured on body camera video, punching stunning and dragging Greene during his fatal arrest.

A federal appeals court in New Orleans has revived a Biden administration effort to account for potential damage from greenhouse gas emissions when creating rules for polluting industries.

A Louisiana based federal judge had blocked the so-called social cost of carbon policy last month, but the stay of a lower court ruling means the administration can't continue using the policy while the court case goes on.

Former Caddo Parish Commissioner Lynn Cawthorn was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for defrauding a federal summer feeding program for children.

Cawthorn and his sister both pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

Prosecutors say they received more than $1,000,000 for the program, but an investigation found they spent much less on food.

They were ordered to jointly pay almost $840,000 in restitution to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

You've probably noticed March Madness has begun the NCAA tournament, and upsets have already knocked off a number of favorites, most notably Kentucky.

A second seed stunned by St Peters, a 15th seed.

85 to 79 that went to overtime tonight.

LSU, a number six seed, is facing 11th seeded Iowa State.

The Tigers week began with their head coach will Wade being fired for level one NCAA violations Governor John Bel Edwards officially began the State of the State address with a prayer for Ukraine before diving into his agenda for the 2022 legislative session.

He implored lawmakers to approve his proposal, which focused heavily on education and infrastructure Tonight, I'll go through some of the key points of the governor's speech and topics lawmakers will examine this year.

Lawmakers are entering the 2022 legislative session with issues both new and familiar.

The legislature will be contemplating Louisiana surplus of billions in controversial issues surrounding transgender athletes, critical race theory and the digital divide.

But before Governor John Bel Edwards got to any that he started the State of the State address with COVID News, we have safe and effective vaccines that are saving countless lives.

We have better therapeutic treatments.

High quality masks are now practical options for families and cases and hospitalizations have been steadily dropping since we emerged from the Macron fueled surge this winter.

Parades roll again this Mardi Gras, and that is certainly a Louisiana breeze of hope.

Two years ago this week, Governor Edwards would have announced the state's first COVID death.

This year, he said that he's letting the public health emergency declaration expire after 24 months.

And just because the proclamation is expiring doesn't mean that COVID is over and that the circumstances is worsen and call for it.

I won't hesitate to declare another emergency, but God willing, we will never have to see such difficult mitigation measures in our state again.

I don't know what the future holds, but I do know that we are in a much better place today than we were two years ago.

The rest of his speech focused on encouraging lawmakers to approve his budget proposal for 2022.

Much of it focuses on a $1.1 billion budget to fix critical infrastructure like the Mississippi River Bridge and the bridge in Lake Charles, with the rest of that money going towards sewer and water improvements statewide.

We're going to invest in infrastructure, unlike any time in our history roads, bridges, ports, railways, water and sewage systems.

Orphaned wells broadband and so much more.

And they all need our attention.

And with the funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the American Rescue Plan and our normal capital outlay program, we will make meaningful progress on megaprojects and deferred maintenance projects that have been sitting on a shelf for decades.

The governor also proposed teacher pay raises again.

This time he's asking for 1500 dollars for teachers and a $750 raise for supporting staff.

His speech also focused on insurance reform, something Representative Matthew Willard says is long overdue.

I mean, I like to hear his thoughts on the insurance reform policies that we have to enact in Louisiana.

We have to take away some of the control and power that the insurance companies have, especially related to homeowner policies.

Protections for hurricane victims were also a hot topic.

Senator Jeremy Stein says it's much needed in District 27.

It's been over a year and a half now and we still have a lot of storm victims waiting for their insurance money.

And so I was it was great to hear the governor mention insurance reform on the other hand.

Some lawmakers were hoping to hear more on the infrastructure side of the governor's proposal.

Representative Larry Bagley said more money should be spread evenly.

Well, I thought the governor did a great job explaining what is what he's trying to do.

The infrastructure package is something that's close to me.

Although there aren't spending much money in North Louisiana, which I'm not happy about that and what appeared to be a subtle nod to the veto override session last year.

The governor ended his speech asking that lawmakers bring forth bills that make Louisiana a better Our time in office is fleeting, but the decisions we make while here will last generations.

I'm asking that we use this time wisely.

And I'll leave you with my favorite.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they should be called Children of God.

In a world that is too much hatred, strife, and currently war.

Let us be bold enough to be peacemakers May God bless you and may God bless the great state of Louisiana.

Though infrastructure and education funding dominated Governor Edwards speech, he has several other proposals for this session.

You can watch the entire speech on LTB dot org The war in Ukraine is stretching into its third week, with casualties building The United Nations reported that 636 Ukrainian civilians have been killed during the conflict.

Over 3 million have fled the country.

But Baton Rouge resident Yulia Boylan's family is This video was played for Congress as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pleaded with the United States for aid.

But when you leave a boy, you see footage like this.

All she can think of is her family.

It's it's horrific and it's heartbreaking.

And it's making me lose a little bit of faith in humanity.

Boylan emigrated from Ukraine in 1995 when she was a child.

She made a life for herself in the U.S., but most of her family is still in Ukraine fighting to survive.

Let's talk about your family.

That's still in Ukraine right now.

How often do you talk to them?

I talk to my.

And she messages me and Viber seems to be the the communication of truth.

Can she call you as she can?

We talk lately we we started talking.

So how is your family doing?

They're doing all right.

So my my cousin and I didn't I didn't keep in touch with him before this, but I knew he's in Kiev.

His his name is Marcel.

He's a minister, and he taught at a Bible college in Kiev.

He stayed which made me really concerned because he had five.

He has five children, Elias cousin.

So I decided to stay in Kiev, one of the city's most targeted by Russian forces.

William says he decided to stay with members of his church.

She says he couldn't leave without them, but the pressure from Ukrainian authorities began to mount the threat of Russian forces shooting into his neighborhood was too big a risk for a man with five children.

They should add apartment buildings.

They know people are there.

You know, they know that people, civilians are dying.

Not the army, civilians.

They're attacking civilians.

Boylan's cousin eventually evacuated to a city called Rhymney, which is 4 hours west of Kiev.

According to Boigu, it's calmer than the east side of the country.

No bombings, but there are Russian soldiers who may shoot civilians Her cousin and his children will make a life there as long as they can.

But even they and the in the in the rain region, they have a curfew.

They can't be out past is it five or 8 p.m..

So they can't have a lights on even in the house why scouts the Russian scouts can come and there they're looking for you know strategic places where to attack or just to know the area if and and the show should into the window.

So they don't want any witnesses or or somebody to uh you know report them and things like that.

So they turn the lights out they do what they have to block out the window or block out the windows to keep Russian forces from shooting into their homes.

And so they're not invading on tanks.

And you know yet but they have scouts that come in the night and scout the area.

How does that feel for you being here in the U.S., watching all of this turmoil in Ukraine, your home country?

It's very hard to watch because I see the the pain, the deaths.

If the front lines of war reached the city limits, Boylan says her family will likely flee to Poland if they still can The United States passed several sanctions to cut off Russia financially.

This week, President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. will be sending supplies, including weapons, to Ukraine.

Today, they stepped up.

From what I've heard on the news today, After the address of Zelensky to our Congress or our Senate but it's a little too late.

They're being invaded, destroyed, demolished.

And our government is sitting on their hands and throwing sanctions at Russia.

Does that help Ukraine?

Somewhat.

Maybe.

But at this time, there's civilians, innocent people dying, children women.

People are just fleeing.

And they're still they're attacking people that are fleeing and evacuating those green corridors.

Keeping up with Ukrainian news is difficult for buoying right now, and it will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

But knowing her family is safe gives her a small indescribable comfort, one she'll hold on to until the conflict is settled.

The US is also sending at least $800 million in aid to Ukraine The White House announced that this week this week authorities arrested 108 people in a six day undercover human trafficking sting operation in Florida.

Among those arrested, alleged child sexual predators and those seeking prostitutes for Disney employees.

And a retired judge.

There is a nationwide push to combat human trafficking.

And Louisiana is one of the states leading the way.

Governor John Bel Edwards and First Lady Donna Edwards playing a key role.

There's a new human trafficking prevention resource center.

The state district attorney's association has put together a handbook for prosecutors and victim assistance coordinators.

And like the governor's office, is working in education and awareness outreach.

Dr. Katie Collins Fetzer is a licensed professional counselor.

We spoke it to you several times here and as to why and you have worked a great deal with people involved in this.

Young women.

Young men.

What are the counseling outcomes of people that you've talked with?

Yeah, it's a great question.

And thanks for having me on about this issue, because I think it's one that needs way more attention than it's getting.

So that's first.

I think the more people know about this, the more that they their heart might be pulled to step in and do anything that they can to help And first, I'll say, I've probably counseled more than I even know who have maybe been victims or have known someone who has been involved in sex trafficking, because the truth is that many who have been affected by this, we may not they may not have even had told.

They might be too scared to reveal this.

And the ones that I do know who have been victims of this have incidentally ended up on psychiatric inpatient units.

And in those situations, the outcomes are very sad.

They are definitely usually facing post-traumatic stress reactions.

And the traumas that they experienced are compounding meaning it's not just one traumatic experience.

They endured it's many.

And one after the other.

And the outcome is very hard.

So it's counseling.

So how do you how do you even approach that and.

Sure.

Is this often a lifelong process for some of these people?

Yes.

For someone impacted by this?

Yes.

It's a very, very multi-layered approach that you're having to take.

And it's one that involves many disciplines and a team of people to be able to help that person from the counseling role that I play.

Usually, it's a longer term treatment that involves targeting trauma and first thing is really helping that there's a lot of of things that you have to do, triage, so to speak.

Psychological first aid is one thing, but also making sure that person is stable and safe and has a safety plan.

So the there because they're at high risk for reentering into those situations.

What's an example of that?

You mentioned triage, psychological triage.

What does that mean?

What does that look like?

Absolutely.

So one of the first things that we do involving what we call psychological first aid is just making sure to stabilize that person as much as we can emotionally.

It might involve just you sitting with that person and being there for them and showing to them that you are a safe place for them to go to.

It might involve teaching them to take deep breaths and just showing them things that they can do to emotionally get to a place where they're stable before even asking them to talk about what they've been through.

What is the trust factor that you found with some of the people that you've counseled?

Yeah, that's a great question as well.

Typically, it's very hard to build that trust with the individual because they've been scared and threatened in many ways to speak up and talk about what they've been through.

And in a lot of cases, they there's a tendency to want to go back to where they were.

They almost feel safer.

They're sure there's something there's something called trauma bonding, which is similar to Stockholm Syndrome, which is when, you know, a victim kind of has this this bond with the perpetrator.

And that can make things very challenging and very difficult.

There's also something called reenactment, which is someone's response, how someone can respond to a trauma where they kind of reenact and go back in situations where they were traumatized.

Let me ask you this.

Identifying what's happening in plain sight.

That's there's been a lot of different theories about this years about this, that, oh, you'll notice somebody if they if they look this way or look a certain way.

But the idea of that has changed even in the past several months.

You can identify someone who could be subject to this happening right before your eyes.

Absolutely.

What do you do about that?

That's very challenging because we were once told that, you know, like in health care settings there we they train us.

Here are the signs or here's what to look for.

But as you said, that is not always an indicator.

So we were once told if someone's presenting as very guarded, if they no one's there to accompany them or it's somebody that's a non-family member and you're noticing some things.

We've also been told to listen to your gut.

If something is just telling you something's not right.

But then there's also the piece of it that we can unintentionally put further in danger.

Somebody, by the way, in which that we respond or involve ourselves.

So that can pose as a really big challenge.

And there's no easy answer, unfortunately, to the question that you're asking.

It's not as easy as it sounds but I think working in partnering with law enforcement and individuals who are very experienced in this fight against sex trafficking will help in educating yourself before entering into that realm.

So let me go back to the question that we touched on before.

So you're counseling someone.

What has been the longest or what is the typical time period that you're meeting with someone who is finally just coming out of this and maybe being counseled for the first time?

Yeah, that's a great question.

So typically, the ones that the individuals who have I have counseled, it has been years or so since they had been involved in something like that.

But I've also been on the side of it in inpatient units where they incidentally came from a medical floor because they attempted suicide.

And we don't understand it until they are in an inpatient unit that they had been victims of sex trafficking.

So I've been on both sides of it, you know, both the immediate where there are currently in a situation like that and the response looks very different versus someone who had been involved in something like that in years past and they were lucky enough to be able to get out of that situation.

Right.

Right.

Knowing that the state is making a huge push right now, the nation to actually to identify and to combat this.

What are some of the suggestions you would give to a prevention resource center, for example, if you were giving them ideas of certain techniques, what would you tell them?

One of the things that I think is really important is targeting, though, the populations that we know have been at the most high risk areas where there's, you know, those living in low income where family has been broken and there may be children in a situation where they need to be checked on from school at schools.

So maybe teachers involving and training teachers, because what we know is that 17 ages 17 and younger are the highest targets for sex trafficking.

And so we're talking about children.

And so that age group, I think school systems and training you know, teachers involving those that are around the child and really looking closely at how can we prevent this from happening It's a topic I think we can talk forever.

I know everyone.

We will get back to it and talk again.

But Dr. Katie Collins Fetzer, thanks so much for talking right now with us.

Absolutely, yes.

And you'll find much more information that stop trafficking L.A. from the latest statistics and also a wealth of general information can be found there.

Well, today we are going to announce LP's 20, 22 Louisiana Young Heroes.

These seven exceptional students are role models in their local communities and they've excelled in the classroom.

They've gone above and beyond to give of themselves through public service.

They've had to overcome adversity and inspired others with their deeds and strength of character.

So let's meet them right now.

The 2022 Louisiana young heroes, beginning with Reagan Angers a Baton Rouge in 12th grade.

A senior at Saint Joseph's Academy.

Allison Challender of Pleasant Hill, a junior in the 11th grade at Natchitoches Central High School.

Corynn Gray of Lafayette is a 12th grader at Thrive Academy.

Gabe Hoosier is a 12th grader at Buckeye High School in Danville.

Mason McCart from Natchitoches enrolled in the 11th grade at Saint Mary's High School.

Olivia Stringham from Vivian enrolled in 12th grade at North Cattle Magnet High School.

And Victoria Williams from Baton Rouge enrolled at Baton Rouge Magnet High School in the 12th grade.

They join the ranks of almost 200 students who have been recognized by LPB since 1995.

With this statewide distinction leaves Louisiana Young Heroes program is presented this year with the generous support of America Health.

Caritas Louisiana East Baton Rouge Parish Library, Community Coffee, the US Army Baton Rouge Recruiting Italian Demko and Hotel Indigo.

LTB will celebrate their achievements on Louisiana Young Heroes Day in April and over the next few weeks.

You'll get to know more about each of these young heroes when we present their stories on CWI.

Learn more at LPB.Org/Heroes.

Look forward to it and everyone, that is our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything LPB any time, wherever you are with our LPB 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 please, like us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

For everyone here in Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I'm Andre Moreau and I'm Kara St. Cyr.

Until next time.

That's the state we're in