Support for Louisiana, the state we're in is provided by.

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 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.

And only two milligrams of fentanyl can kill you.

The effort to stop the Fentanyl scourge.

Chances are this will not become the law of the land.

The backlash against Biden's student loan forgiveness plan.

Where your priorities lie.

And for me, that's academics.

Meet Louisiana young hero Kadence Bradford.

Oh, we're going to Dallas.

Let's use women way ahead of schedule.

And in the Final Four.

Hello, everybody.

We begin tonight in the aftermath of another school shooting, this at a small private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.

Three nine year olds and three adults, including the school's headmaster and Baton Rouge native, Dr. Catherine Coots, all killed by a former student loaded up with assault rifles and weapons.

Dr. Coots went to University Lab School in Baton Rouge and LSU before transferring to Vanderbilt.

Several friends say they had no doubt Coots confronted the shooter.

The 28 year old assailant opened fire just after 10 a.m. Monday.

Inside Nashville's Covenant School, where children age pre-K through sixth grade had just begun their final full week of classes before Easter break.

Alarmingly this same week, a student in Shreveport was arrested after sheriff's detectives say he tried to carry a loaded handgun into Southwood High School.

He had argued with the coach about vaping on campus and detectives say threatened to kill the coach.

He was found in the school parking lot about to reenter the school when he was stopped and taken into custody on him, a fully loaded nine millimeter handgun.

And now here are some of the other headlines from around the state of Louisiana.

Four parishes in Louisiana ranked in the top ten counties in the U.S. experiencing population loss between 2021 and 2022, according to new census estimates.

The study was limited to parishes and counties, with a population greater than 20,000.

Saint John the Baptist Parish ranks second.

Terrebonne Parish ranked third and fourth and Saint Charles eighth.

All four Louisiana parishes were severely damaged by Hurricane Ida in August of 2021.

The men's basketball program at Southern University welcomed Kevin Johnson as the team's new head coach.

Johnson is replacing Sean Woods, who was fired this march after compiling a 64 to 81 overall record over five seasons.

Johnson will be the 15th head coach in the team's history after a decades long coaching career at Tulane.

Louisiana-Lafayette.

Nicholas State and Centenary College Governor John Bel Edwards announced last week that more than 100 abandoned oil wells in Louisiana have been plugged during the last two months.

There are more than 4500 abandoned wells across the state, with 70% of abandoned wells located in northern Louisiana.

The sites can leak cancer causing chemicals and cause environmental damage to the area.

They also can emit methane, which is 80 times as potent as carbon dioxide.

There are an estimated 2 million unplugged wells across the country, a problem the Biden administration's bipartisan infrastructure bill plans to tackle.

Louisiana received $25 million in initial federal grant funds to begin the process.

Two officers from the Baton Rouge Police Department were killed in a helicopter crash early Sunday.

Sergeant David Perea was 47 years old and a 17 year veteran.

And Corporal Scotty Kenzari was 38 years old and a 16 year BRP veteran.

According to BRP News releases, the helicopter crashed around 2:30 a.m. while assisting with a vehicle pursuit.

Federal officials say the tail rotor of the helicopter hit a tree, causing it to fall into a field near West Baton Rouge Parish.

And East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Dr. Robert Clark says.

We are in the era of fentanyl, which has been in that era for the past decade, he says.

In 2017, there were fewer than 200 fentanyl related deaths in drugs statewide.

Two 2021 That number rose to 1000.

Those numbers from the state Health Department.

Now, in 2022, Legislature had Millie's law and they crack down harder on the distribution of fentanyl.

In 2022, prison time, 5 to 40 years.

State Representative John Stefanski from Crawley is here now with us.

And you have something a pre filed bill, in fact, that is much tougher.

Tell us about that.

Yeah.

So, you know, one of the constant themes as I've kind of traveled around Louisiana, talk to constituents and business owners and really, really everyone it's fitting all continues to come up and also talked to a lot of family members who have lost loved ones due to the fentanyl crisis in And, you know, as a policymaker, as a legislator, we try to look for solutions.

And ultimately, I looked at a way to really run it out of the state.

And I modeled what we're trying to do off of heroin.

So years ago, the law of distribution with heroin in Louisiana was life imprisonment.

And when you talk to law enforcement, it really did almost run it out of the state other than a few pockets.

And so what I've done is I filed a bill that would make it life imprisonment.

If you distribute if you distribute fentanyl or car fitting or if you manufacture it, as long as you have in aggregate 28 grams.

Right.

And 28 grams.

You know, as I look through the criminal code, 28 grams usually is that level for the highest penalty.

And so there was some similarity there.

I talked with some district attorneys, some sheriffs about that amount.

It seemed to be a pretty good level to set that at.

And again, our hope is that it'll run it out of the state with the fear that if you deal this, you can go to jail for the rest of your life.

So you free file this.

And when you do that, you go around talking to different people to see what kind of support you get, what kind of support you feel you get on this.

Yeah, I mean, look, the reception has been very positive.

You know, even even with a lot of people that ordinarily are not for increased penalties on crimes, you know, just in general, I've seen a lot of support for this.

And look, it's because fentanyl so deadly, it's killing, you know, hundreds of our citizens.

It is a drug that oftentimes I believe the user has no idea they're taking.

And and ultimately a tiny amount can lead to death.

Only two milligrams of fentanyl can kill you.

And so from Georgia, of course.

Yeah, it was in his system, along with cocaine and alcohol found wrapped in a blanket far from where he was supposed to have been.

But just another tragedy.

Yeah, horrible situation.

And and look, regardless of the intent from the from the person that ends up dying, it's it's just something that's incredibly deadly in our in Louisiana that we have to get rid of.

And I think, look, it's going to take a multitude of efforts to try to do that.

It's going to take a lot of education, education in the form of understanding that any illegal substance that you ingest on the market today could kill you because fentanyl could be laced in there.

Exactly.

There is an explosion nationwide right now, different places.

Santa Barbara, a big wave of this, big bust of this.

And in these busts, I find that there always seem to be AK 47 found with this.

So I ask the question, would fentanyl, if it were a weapon, would it be an AK 47 or an automatic rifle?

Yeah, it would be something that has the propensity to cause, you know, mass damage.

You know, it's been it's been it's been likened to a weapon of mass destruction.

I would call it a bomb, really, because if it infiltrates a community and gets into the drug supply, it can kill hundreds of people.

And just in just last week, there was a bust in what was it in and around the Saint Landry area where they found pounds of fitting all.

And I mean, that had the ability, according to the statistics, to kill over a million people.

It's it's incredibly deadly.

It's the leading killer now for people 18 to 45 is just astounding, isn't it?

It's just amazing.

It's unbelievable.

And look, as a society, we have to decide when enough is enough.

And in my opinion, the penalty is warranted.

We need to send a message loud and clear to those who are dealing this, because if you're dealing fentanyl here in Louisiana and you intend to kill people, it's that simple to me.

Sure.

Now, you have some other bills that you're going to get in, as a matter of fact, just under the wire, because the legislature will begin on the 10th of April.

Yeah.

So I actually had to take yesterday morning off and just solely work on legislation.

And I should be filing the rest of my bills shortly this afternoon.

We're actually working on some civil remedies for fentanyl and goats who are dealing it.

Are they fentanyl related?

They are.

One of them is.

And look, what I'm seeing is that in the statistics are there to back it up.

It's not just talk.

You know, fentanyl is coming over from China, through Mexico, into our country, and it's killing our citizens.

And so as a country and as a state, we, you know, we have to address that as well.

And obviously, look, I think the federal government's going to have to take some some harder stances on that.

But I'm going to look at a way to attack it from the state level as well and from a civil level.

So where we could potentially hold some people accountable for for allowing this to come in to the state.

Well, it sounds powerful what you're doing, and it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Thanks so much for being here and talk with us about it.

Happy to be here.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you.

Student loan forgiveness is once again on the political agenda.

A $400 billion plan created by the Biden administration is now subject to congressional review, opening the door to criticism and a possible block by the GOP.

Senator Bill Cassidy is one of the most prominent opposers to Biden's plan and says he intends to fight it with a new resolution.

Political analyst Jim Inkster spoke with kerosene seer about it.

All right.

Thank you so much for joining us, Jim.

So we're here to talk about the $400 billion plan that the Biden administration put forward for student loan forgiveness.

So the Congressional Budget Office said that it's going to be expensive.

And, of course, it's facing some criticism now and some of it is coming from Louisiana lawmakers.

Bill Cassidy is actually going to the legislative well and trying to stop it that way.

It's before the Supreme Court.

Chances are this will not become the law of the land.

And the president was trying to do it unilaterally, which some people would take offense with even if they agreed with him.

But truth is, 400 billion is just a small portion of the 1.8 trillion that people have in student debt in our country.

In fact, student debt exceeds credit card debt by about a half trillion dollars.

So a lot of people have debt and this would have helped those with incomes under $125,000, $20,000, up to 20,000 of their debt.

And Bill Cassidy says it's not a good idea.

It's unfair to those who paid their debt and it's unfair to those who didn't go to college.

And so we have a stalemate.

Republicans control the U.S. House now, so it may pass their Cassidy's resolution, but likely to fail in the Senate.

And also the president, I'm sure, would pull out his veto pen in the Supreme Court, which is largely conservative now, seems unlikely to go along with it either.

So it looks like each side may be scoring some political points, but in reality, I don't think either is on a good course at this point.

So let's go back to the criticism.

Bill Cassidy says that it's unfair House and unfair.

He believes that some people didn't go to college and shouldn't have to pay the freight for those who did.

And as we know, having a college degree is a great benefit already.

And then, of course, there are some people like probably Dr. Cassidy, yours truly, who paid off student loans.

But student college was a lot less expensive in those days.

And those who are pointing fingers at Dr. Cassidy say why would a man who has worked for the public and been paid by the taxpayers that are okay long And in the U.S. Senate and in the U.S. House and in the state legislature, why would he be the one leading the charge?

But I think he sincerely believes he's on the right course and he's got a long way to go to get this where he wants it to go, and the president does as well.

So at this point, it looks like this is dead on arrival unless something unusual happens in the next few weeks or months.

It will be something unusual.

Well, it would be if some people got a conversion and went along with Dr. Cassidy, but then President Biden would likely veto it.

So I would say the odds of him succeeding are lower than the president because the U.S. Supreme Court might surprise people if he could snag five of nine Supreme Court justices, he could get it done that way.

And right now, this case is before the highest court in the land.

But as we know, seven of the justices were nominated by Republican presidents who probably are not in the same thinking mode as President Biden.

So what's our timeline here about how long until we know for sure whether Cassidy could be successful or, you know what the Supreme Court's decision will be?

The Supreme Court will rule, I'm sure, by June, and Senator Cassidy will know he'll know within the next month or two whether whether this happens or maybe sooner.

So we'll know sometime in the next few months where this is.

But the argument will not go away no matter what.

And this has all kinds of layers of thought, including presidential powers, which goes beyond whether or not it's a good idea to relieve student loan debt.

Right.

So I'm pretty sure that you're right.

We will be seeing this for a long time, no matter what the decision is at the end of the day.

And surprisingly, even with top 650,000 people in Louisiana would benefit from this.

So some are saying this is political for the president who's up for reelection next year, because nationally, 43 million people would benefit from it.

And most people don't like it when something that might be coming their way is not going to happen.

All right.

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

Thank you, Carol.

LSU is playing its Final four game with Virginia Tech right now.

It began about an hour ago.

No one question that when Kim Mulkey became LSU head coach last year, she would build a winner.

But the speed at which it's happening is staggering.

She has a record, so far going into this game, winning 58 of 66 games with a Final Four this year in the second year of a major rebuilding job.

Well, the past few days in Dallas have been magical for the team and the many fans who have followed them there.

The club and LSU alumni hosted a Tiger Nation pep rally last night back on Tuesday.

The team left for Dallas and fans gathered for a sendoff party in front of the Maravich Center.

Here's a look at that.

The Tigers gave their fans the chance to send them off like they have several times this year.

But this one, this time, they're headed to the Final four.

Let's go to.

You are.

Cindy Byrd from Eunice, Louisiana.

Betty McClelland Gonzalez.

I see you've got your front row seat.

Yep.

Yes.

Think about it.

Final four.

Unbelievable.

Absolutely.

It's just so unbelievable.

And in her second year here with a new team, practically, Alexis being the only returning starter, that that just adds layers to it.

What about the amount of fans that have come to games this year?

Oh, huge amount record.

She has more than 15,000 for the white out against Tennessee for Colts to steal the score.

Almost 16,000 on senior night against Mississippi State.

And Sam Purcell.

When you come to a game it's electrifying.

It's just awesome.

The atmosphere is just awesome.

You know, it's good for the state.

It's good for the university.

It's good for the girls.

It's good for girls, period.

It's good for women's sports.

Good for women's sports.

Yes.

And the the student section has been fun.

Yes, they have stepped down.

Have really stepped up.

Go, tiger.

This pair doesn't have tickets.

Oh, we're going to Dallas.

What about what's going to happen?

Well, we praying that ticket prices drop.

So we can get tickets.

We going blind.

We don't have tickets, but we're going oh, we're going to go to the LSU tailgate party at the team hotel.

I have no idea where it is, but we'll find it.

And we're hoping there's a watch party.

If not, we'll create our own.

Yeah, we just want the girls to play hungry and stay hungry.

That's right.

The band in defeat.

I know all the girls are going to give it their best.

We need Lex Luthor to show up like she did this past weekend and bring them through because she can do it.

Alexis can pull them through.

They do not deserve one to rise to the occasion.

Yes, yes, yes.

I mean, they are danger.

Williams.

Mya Smith.

Flushing, Catering, Jazz.

Jasmine, Paula, we have the team.

We just you know, we need all we need all the air this.

Week and listening to the knowledge that you guys have about this scene and about what's going on, we are here.

For every game.

Thank you.

It's agonizing.

It's been a great year and I just appreciate her for all the love and support and it's just been great.

I think when I just reflect a little bit, This is ridiculous.

This is crazy.

This is so fast.

These moments.

Many coaches coach a lifetime and never get to experience.

I have been blessed.

How does it happen?

It happens because of coaching staffs.

I've said it a million times.

I can't think Coach Mulkey enough for bringing me home.

When I think about next year.

Yeah, we're already saving money for our final for next year.

Yes.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Go, tigers.

I heard we had our last practice in the Big Mac this morning.

This will be our last pep rally.

Unless we bring home a champion ship.

Go, tiger.

And tonight we meet the first of these 620, 23 Louisiana young heroes.

Kadence Bradford has beaten the odds since day one.

She was born premature, developed asthma and diagnosed with ADHD.

But she's never let that stop her.

She's got a 4.42 GPA and is on track to be a pediatric orthopedic surgeon.

Let's meet this week's Louisiana young hero.

You only have so much time in a classroom.

These are precious moments you can't afford to miss.

Paying attention is paramount, but it's also a luxury cadence Bradford didn't have.

Think about your mind going like 100 million miles per second and say, like, Oh, look at this.

Look at this, Look at that.

Oh, crap.

I may want to look and see.

Figure out how to spell a word.

It was very challenging because you're feeling yourself being pulled in this direction.

This direction while our head is something in front of you.

Wow.

So, I mean, that must have been really difficult.

Especially, you know, at a at such a young age.

You said it was first grade.

Yes, it was in the first grade.

Kadence was diagnosed with ADHD when she was six.

Joining the more than 6 million other kids with this disorder.

The acronym means Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

In the symptoms are exactly what you might think, not being able to focus frequent outbursts of energy and fidgeting.

Well at all.

I didn't notice it at all.

To me, it was just her.

She she liked to play around.

She liked to run around.

She liked to she liked the cartwheel.

She liked to jump up in the middle wal Walmart and start singing My country tis of Thee and get round in applause.

That was just her personality.

Well, how'd you find out?

Um, the first I found out from her first grade teacher, Ms.. Warren.

She put me on a side.

She said, Don't, don't, don't freak out, cause a lot of parents freak out when they hear this.

My son has it, so I think you should get her check.

The reason I finally decided to say something to you is because Kate sit down on the floor and excluded from what's out of the room till I was out of room.

All her.

But it was.

It was too much.

She was like, that was the final thing.

And letting me know that.

That diagnosis didn't hold Kadence back.

She found the right treatment.

She went from a B, C student to straight A's.

She's able to maintain so well.

She's an active member of five different academic and social extracurriculars.

She's a student council vice president at Liberty High School.

She's president of the Key Club.

She's a junior representative for the National Honor Society, an ambassador for student ambassadors and a biomedical chair of the Pink Week Committee.

She led a weeklong effort to bring awareness to breast cancer.

And we wanted to raise the money because wearing pink is great to bring awareness, but to bring actual change, you need action.

So the pink run we ran around the school the teachers had on tutus, even the male teachers Hillary used to watch.

But we also had different sponsorships, including Trader Joe's.

She ended up raising $2,000 through her efforts.

And Miss David, she's an English teacher who is a survivor of breast cancer.

And she almost cried at the end because she was like, you know, it's amazing to see just the younger generation actually trying to bring change.

This is only the tip of the iceberg for Kadence.

Did I mention she's also a student athlete, a volleyball player?

To be.

Specific.

My mom suggested volleyball because that was her her love.

That was what she loved.

So she was like, okay, just try it.

And it was that first ball when I passed it.

I mean, it was a pretty well, I'm looking back, it was a pretty it was a pretty ugly pass.

But that feeling I had when I just finally got the ball up, I was like, yes.

So just having that connection.

It was actually when I was in the sixth grade.

So after that I was just full blown volleyball.

How do you manage your schedule?

So my schedule, it's been a work in progress as in, I've learned from my failures and learned sometimes you're going to have to say no because you have to prioritize where your where your priorities lie.

And for me, that's academics.

No matter what, no matter what I'm in, my academics will always come first.

Cadence plans to start college on the pre-med track.

Her goal is to become a pediatric orthopedic doctor.

She sent out several feelers for schools and she's certainly got the drive for it.

Cadence has accomplished a lot more than most kids her age, but if everything she's done and everything she will do, her mother says she's most proud of who her daughter's become.

I'm actually proud of her personally.

You know, education's good.

You know, her intelligence is good, but it's her personality and her her giving nature.

Like, I think everybody loves her.

Everybody that comes in contact loves her.

Everywhere we go, she has overcame so much still.

It's amazing.

We can't go into all the details of what she has overcome, the things that she have saw.

They they like to call her the Southern University student, extra student, because she literally was on campus with me all her life.

I just can't stop talking about this little girl.

I'm just so, so proud of her.

What an inspiring story for her.

And everyone.

That is our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything, live, any time, wherever you are with our live PBS app, you can catch LPB news and public affairs shows, as well as other Louisiana programs that you've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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

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 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 B 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.