Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together we power lights.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler 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.

More parents are opting their kids out of the vaccine process.

A progress report on insurance reform in the Louisiana Legislature, and meet our very last Louisiana Young Hero of 2020 for a tour of the great River Road Museum and its honest retelling of the storied byway.

Ready to get started?

Ready?

Right.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Karen Sincere, and I'm Karen LeBlanc.

Much more on those top stories in a moment on this week's edition of Louisiana, the State we're In.

But first, Louisiana parents have the right to decide whether their children receive vaccines for a variety of reasons.

But with more kids not getting vaccinated, doctors warn that diseases that were virtually eradicated, like measles, are starting to make a comeback.

Health organizations are documenting a global increase in measles cases.

Measles is a viral infection that causes runny nose, fever and a signature rash that covers the body.

Children are the most susceptible, making up 44% of total cases in the U.S. the disease was considered eradicated in the 2000, but health experts are slowly reporting more cases.

Between January 2020 and March 2024, the CDC recorded 338 cases, with the pandemic.

Things were really disrupted.

you know, kids weren't necessarily going to go into school.

so we saw a lot of disruptions in vaccination rates.

Charles Stecher is an associate professor emeritus at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

He says that 93% of Louisiana's kids are vaccinated, but the percentage could be higher.

93%, you know, that's that's at least in a minus in in my kids, grades in school.

but it's two percentage points short of that, that herd immunity threshold.

Louisiana Department of Health recorded two cases of measles this year.

But the CDC records show that instances of parents opting their kids out of the vaccine process is growing.

historically, Louisiana has had, pretty low rate of nonmedical exemptions.

We call them.

among all states that, you know, allow philosophical, exemptions to vaccines.

but that's doubled in the last year.

So suddenly we're we're on a quite worrisome trend.

The state requires all students to be vaccinated, but parents can request an exemption for medical, philosophical or religious reasons.

It is not.

It is not a vaccine preventable disease.

To me, that's the main point of this bill.

A couple of bills in the legislature would make it even easier for parents to opt out.

House Bill 46 will prevent schools from requiring Covid 19 vaccines.

And House Bill 47 require schools to communicate vaccine exemptions with information about vaccine requirements.

Supporters of some of the bills cited health concerns.

First and foremost, there is lack of long term data on the safety and efficacy of these vaccines of the Covid 19 vaccine.

We simply do not have enough long, information on the long term effects, of the vaccine.

We have no five, 10 or 15 year outcome, outcome reports.

This is particularly concerning considering the potential impact on the developing bodies of children.

While others said parents have a right to know about their options, parents must be given all information about a medical intervention, including the fact that their child will not be denied an education should they refuse it.

As of now, information provided by the CDC shows that severe side effects to the Covid vaccine are extremely rare, with the benefits greatly outweighing the risks.

Those who oppose these bills, like Krystal Rahman with the Louisiana Families for vaccines, worries that the trend could lead to more outbreaks of other diseases.

Measles has the effect of wiping your body's immune system and not being able to be protected against diseases that you used to be protected against, so it's a very serious illness.

And with, you know, decrease in even a small decrease in vaccination rates, we'll see an increase of preventable tragedies.

Robin says the only way to prevent a rollback of eradicated diseases is to make sure parents understand all of the information provided about vaccines.

As of now, 81% of measles cases come from unvaccinated people, and over half of that percent were hospitalized.

From hashtags to headlines, here is what's trending this week.

Well, it's graduation season, and one teenager from Jennings is a total stand out in the crowd.

Right?

She's 16 years old, already headed to college, Alana Pollard, and she's getting a ton of scholarship offers.

Yes.

So she got accepted to six universities, and she's been offered over $1 million in scholarship money.

Now, if you're in college or you're a college grad, you know how helpful that will be whenever it comes to trying to pay for all of this?

Absolutely.

She plans to major in medicine, so that scholarship will definitely come in handy there for all.

Yes, microbiology.

She wants to be a trauma surgeon.

Congratulations, Miss Pool.

yes.

Well done.

Well, if you are a Kentucky Derby fan, then you know that the winning jockey is from Louisiana.

He is a Lafayette native and right now all eyes are on him as he decides whether or not he is going to participate in the Preakness competition.

his name is Brian Hernandez Junior, and he finished first in the Kentucky Derby riding Mystic Dan.

Mystic Dan, that is such an interesting name for a horse.

Now, whenever I was reading this story, I was surprised because Kentucky Derby, of course, it seems like it would be a Kentucky thing, but apparently in Louisiana we are world wide.

And so his trainer, Kenny McPeek, also lives in Louisiana during part of the year.

So Louisiana all around congratulate got some Louisiana connections and more to come if he decides to continue his winning streak.

So have you ever done anything with the Kentucky Derby?

No, but yeah, it's on my bucket list.

I want to go where one of the the passengers.

Exactly.

So where the fancy happens.

That's right.

And speaking of Louisiana, the arch, the hat, all of those things, there is a new license plate that is going to be on the horizon.

Look how beautiful this license plate is.

And its name is.

I'm terrible laser.

It's really love.

That's kind of like tongue.

Really, right.

Yeah.

So if you do want to be able to order this, it's you can order it on the OMV website and it'll be $64 and it'll be available in the next couple of weeks.

What a great way to also show your support for the arts.

And that's a very fashionable plate.

And what a great way to show your support for the Louisiana arts community.

I want one more to.

In this week's Louisiana Speaks, Senate Insurance Committee Chairman Kirk Talbot shares a progress report on insurance reform with less than one month left of the 2024 legislative session, Senator Talbot joined Governor Jeff Landry this week as the governor signed into law four bills in hopes of stabilizing Louisiana's property insurance market.

Here's the latest.

This week, Governor Jeff Landry signed into law four insurance reform bills, one of which was yours.

Bring viewers up to date on what became law and how that will help hopefully provide some relief.

So we kind of looked at this holistically, like, what can we do to attract insurance companies to come here?

Because really, in my opinion, the only way to get rates down is one put on a fortified roof that will help, and two is when another insurance company offers you a policy, the same policy you have for a cheaper price.

The three year rule, which was representative gave Furman's bill the chairman of insurance.

Nowhere in the country does that, and nowhere in the world does that.

And what that does is it prevents companies from managing their risk.

And it keeps companies, frankly, out of the state of Louisiana.

And then come January 1st, those companies can not renew 5% of their riskiest policies, which would normally, in every other state and every other entity in the world would not be renewed.

And that's and then they can come to citizens.

And that's where, you know, citizens takes over the citizens Insurance plan, which is the insurer of last resort.

Matthew Willard's bill, the Democrat from New Orleans on the House side, he had a bill to, lift the sunset on the fortified roof program.

We got to get as many fortified roofs as possible if we're going to live on the coast, which is where I live.

So that was important.

The legislature were also funding, I think, another $15 million into the fortified roof program.

The commissioner, Tim Temple, is going to work for next year to get a dedicated funding source for the fortified roof program.

Next we had, Heather Cloud's bill, Senator from Turkey Creek that deals with, the way insurance companies can set their rates.

We're one of the few states that restricts them, and, requires the approval of the commissioner to do that.

And the commissioner can only approve that once a year.

It's a very archaic, draconian way of doing things.

My bill, Senate Bill 323, kind of revamps the entire claims process.

I think everybody will admit who has filed a claim recently that this claims process is not a fun process, and it shouldn't be a process to where you need to hire a lawyer to get your claim paid.

So what we're doing is we're giving more time for the insurance companies to pay that claim.

We're requiring a proof of a written proof of loss, which is basically the adjusters report.

I think we're the only ones in the country that do not require that.

And by not requiring that, it's very hard to determine when a claim starts.

Do you honestly believe that there is a balance in the insurance reform legislation that really does take into consideration the wants and the needs of the consumer?

Every bill we filed and every bill in this package has one thing in mind, and that's the consumer.

If an insurance company is looking at Louisiana and says, I'm not going to come there because of their regulatory environment or because of their litigation environment, that is an anti-consumer problem, right?

If they don't come to Louisiana and write policies, that is not pro-consumer when companies like State Farm and Allstate decided last year to pull out of the state of California because of their regulatory environment, their litigation environment, that is a terrible thing for consumers because now they just lost two gigantic insurers.

If they're willing to pull out of California, they're certainly willing to pull out of Louisiana.

And that would not be a good thing for consumers.

It's been suggested one possible solution is to create a reinsurance fund, if you will, some assistance for reinsurance.

Has that been kicked around this legislative session as a possible solution?

Do we do what Florida did and create our own reinsurance program?

We are going to do a task force on that this summer.

That is, an intriguing idea.

the biggest problem is that works great as long as you don't have a major storm the first 4 or 5 years, so you can build up enough capital to, to pay for that.

We have this terrible history of insurance companies going belly up.

So in that process, are there pretty stringent requirements at these companies that get to be expedited, are solvent and can prove they're a solvent?

We filed legislation that increases their solvency rates.

I know the commissioner, you know, they've hired, a third party to monitor the reinsurance levels of the companies that got some of the, the investment money for the, the program we did last year to incentivize company incentive program to monitor their reinsurance levels.

We have looked at that and said, look, you know, for the the incentive program, you cannot cluster all your policies in certain parishes.

You've got to spread out, because if they cluster all their policies in one parish and God forbid a hurricane hits that parish, no insurance company can pay that amount of claimed property.

Insurance was more of all winds.

Auto insurance has been kind of had a couple of losses, had a couple of wins.

Still have some bills up in the air that that.

Then there's still other bills that we might amend some things.

So there's several bills out there.

we passed one off the Senate floor yesterday, which was, Jack McFarlane's bill on direct action.

Direct action is something where we're one of only two states in the country where insurance companies are named in the lawsuit.

It's something we're we're an outlaw, and it's something that that keeps insurance companies from coming here.

We have things like going from one year to two year on the prescriptive period.

We're going to only 1 or 2 states that does that as well.

All right, Senator Talbot, final thought before we go, again, you know, the the way we're going to get insurance rates down is we need competition.

We need insurance companies to badly to come to Louisiana and start writing policies so we could have some competition.

And, you know, that was the premise behind these bills.

And anytime you have availability, translate tends to affordability.

And that's what we want for the concern.

Thank you so much for your time.

All right.

Thank you.

The great River Road Museum in Darrow, Louisiana, aims to offer an honest retelling of turbulent times in the state.

The federally funded museum traces the history of a state that populated the river road from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.

I'm taking you on a tour of its vast collection, tied to the realities of a different time.

Homeless house in Darrow, Louisiana, prospered as a largest sugarcane plantation in the South under the ownership of John Burnside, known as the Sugar Prince, the estate doesn't sugarcoat how its fortunes were made, as well as those of its neighbors along the river road.

The narrative unfolds next door at the great River Red Museum.

We have about 20,000ft² of exhibit space here, showing and focusing on the great River road.

Pretty much from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, and the rich soil on each side of the river created the greatest empires of the sugar sugarcane farmers and that sugar industry which built Louisiana.

My guide is Jim Blanchard, an artist and historian.

A large map of the River Rose plantation puts the exhibit in context.

When you see a lot of these properties on here, you'll find out that a lot of them were actually owned by different races.

You have, you know, freed blacks who actually owned plantations and owned slaves and were part of society.

From the map, you can walk through exhibits of photos and facts chronicling more than 600 homes along this stretch of the River road.

Most of which no longer exist.

Well, we try to do is do small bullets of information and timelines and information about who owned it, it's chain of title and things that happened in those areas.

The museum doesn't shy away from the historical fact that people owned people along the River road properties that prospered, growing sugar, indigo, tobacco and cotton.

The African and Louisiana exhibit shows all sides of the story we see right when we walk in a slave auction.

Yeah, the slave auctions were very popular at that time, mostly in New Orleans, in Baton Rouge.

a lot of people don't realize that in Louisiana, an African could own property owned slaves and live in big plantation houses and crops, and they were part of society.

Here we have something that scares some people, but it's one of the grand wizards of the KKK.

His outfit, we were not going to show it because we thought it was a little too much.

But then we discovered that the Henry Ford Museum, the Smithsonian, and many others all have theirs on exhibit.

So we have it here to tell how bad of a story that was.

The museum traces Louisiana's origins from its earliest settlers, including the homeless Indians who once inhabited the site, to the death mask of Napoleon Bonaparte, the third who sold Louisiana to the United States.

Here we have three of the journals for the first explorers with the native Louisiana Indians.

A vast collection of artifacts and relics from the Civil War and the South Succession are on loan from private collections.

These are the first time they've ever been shown.

This is the first time this flag has been unfurled and mounted to be seen.

it's quite a collection.

We have some artifacts here about the battles of New Orleans, the Civil War.

Throughout the museum, you'll find a cast of Louisiana characters cast in wax.

From Civil War generals to infamous politicians.

These figures were all in the museum.

The wax museum in New Orleans.

The wax museum closed down and the building was repurposed.

So we acquired all the figures and we've restored them and we putting them back in to tell the stories of Louisiana.

This is how history will remember Governor Edwin Edwards and his history.

We'll remember Huey B long, the governor lived right down the road right before he passed away.

He came here and spent the day with his wife and his son, and he posed with this.

And oh my gosh, it's just it was quite a moment.

We paused to listen to a restored pipe organ when.

The Early Weeks Theater organ was originally housed in the Lyric Theater in New Orleans, so one of their newest exhibits is a pipe collection.

Our new exhibit.

It's a local collector.

The collection is over 5000 pipes, ranging from, you know, 50 years ago to a thousand years ago, from Mardi Gras costumes to nostalgic items, the museum also serves as a love letter to Louisiana.

It's funded by a federal Department of Transportation grant as part of the National Byways Program to introduce people to the roads in the bayous and rivers of Louisiana.

The owner of Homer's house put up a 20% match and donated the land to build the museum.

A lot of museums, when you go into them, you're almost you feel intimidated that they're so, oh, don't look at that.

Don't touch that.

Don't you know we don't want to be that way?

Our next day hero made it his mission to give back to the community.

He started several initiatives to help the homeless and clean litter in his hometown of Lafayette.

As lives very last episode of the 2024 Louisiana Young Hero series, I am proud to introduce you to Troy Bishop.

It's rare that someone finds their passion early in life, but Troy Bishop found his when he was young and it came from his fathers.

Praise God every day and change the world no matter which way it is, just in some way, shape or form.

Do something.

And what does that quote mean to you?

It means like when I get in bed at night, I wonder if I change the world in some way for the better.

The day doesn't have to be big, it's just something tiny that bettered the world.

That phrase, so simple and to the point, had a profound impact on trains perspective.

He'd ponder those words at night, go out and change the world, wondering how he could live up to that standard.

I brought him to, Saint Joseph Steiner, where they were were homeless there, and he was able to donate.

It takes one thing to open a door for our child, for them to say, oh, I want to do more.

I really didn't understand homelessness.

And we went do it, and I was okay with it.

I guess she told me to do it.

So I did it.

And then I went out there and I saw how these people lived and how they don't have anywhere to go.

The homeless shelter she picked was packed to the brim with a group of people in need of bare necessities like toothpaste, food and socks.

Trey's mind raced as he processed what was in front of him, almost sending him into a panic.

But then a familiar voice echoed an even more familiar phrase go out every day and change the world.

His action was immediate.

Under the guidance of his mother and the influence of his father, Trey purchased a $5 bag of socks, and he delivered it to a person staying at the shelter.

Because then after that one time, he wanted socks.

He wanted blankets, he wanted food for the homeless.

he worries when it gets cold outside, you know, when we have freezing temperatures.

Are they warm enough for Christmas?

He had his list for Santa, and it was.

Take care of my little brother.

Yes, but can you bring some warm blankets for the homeless out there?

The advocacy bug had beaten him.

Hi there, I'm Trey.

I'm trying to raise money for Catholic Services.

I'm kicking in.

From then on, Trey was a local superhero, delivering more socks to the homeless shelter and becoming a reliable resource for community members after natural disasters.

During Hurricane Ida, he filled sandbags and delivered meals.

When the winter storm hit, Trey was right there delivering blankets and gathering supplies.

You really got to make sacrifices and leave stuff behind, and I truly feel bad for those people, those people who have worked all their lives to get what they have.

And then a natural disaster is just gonna come through and wipe it all out.

But don't mistake Trey's advocacy for easy work.

While he may organize and research each of his projects, it is not without some difficulty.

Trey has three learning disabilities that make everyday tasks more difficult.

As a child, he was diagnosed with dyslexia, which was compounded by another disability called dysgraphia.

It limits his ability to transfer thoughts into written words.

Think of it like dyslexia, but for writing, it takes me a lot longer to write what I'm thinking and letters get mixed up.

Like which way does the S go?

Or T or J below the line?

Just common, like writing things that I truly struggle with and have to go back and rework it and make sure that I have it correct.

We had teachers that I said, you know, he just seems distracted sometimes.

So we were told, probably in middle school for the next time you get them tested for dyslexia and to look at ADHD, do you think that your friends and your teachers really understand what it's like to have these conditions?

People say, I have it easy because even though I made an A on the test, I don't get graded for that grammar that they did and that's why they got their points off.

These setbacks are just that setbacks.

He uses them as a motivator to work harder to really make his efforts count.

So far, he's more than accomplished that.

My idea is that I'm going to go take all these political signs that are out on the roads, in cars, maybe in your windowsill even, and I'm going to try and recycle them for Louisiana.

The son of a former state representative, Trey is no stranger to the campaign trail or the garbage it leaves behind.

In Lafayette.

You look at every single street corner, and it's just filled to the brim with signs.

There's no grass, there's nothing there anymore.

It's just political science.

And I thought, where do these signs go?

His research revealed that campaign signs are terrible for the environment.

The signs are made from corrugated cardboard coated in plastic.

These materials can take decades to decompose in a landfill.

And last but certainly not least, Trey fundraised $49,000 for Saint Bernadette Clinic and the Lord's Foundation in 2023.

The proceeds were used to help supply clinical resources.

My husband loves Louisiana, you know.

That's why he ran for politics while he served in office.

And to see your child loving its community, loving its state, and wanting to make a difference in the state, I mean, how could you not be proud of that?

At just 16 years old and accomplishing more than most people in this state, Trey is just getting started.

I want to go to school and study environmental sciences, and then go into law and hopefully return home to Louisiana and fight for what's right about the environment and court, and then possibly later on in life, becoming a politician and helping the state even more in that way, possibly, possibly.

How big is that possibility?

It it's large.

It's a strong it's a strong possibility.

But more than anything, Trey wants to inspire others with the same wonderful advice he was given.

Go out every day and change the world.

I've had the pleasure of getting to know those young heroes in a very short time.

Each has their own story of perseverance, bravery and service, and it's inspiring to all of us here at LPB.

Thank you for sharing your experiences and good luck to all of you.

LPB Louisiana Young Heroes Program presented this year with the generous support of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, the Gayle and Tom Benson Charitable Foundation, with additional support from Community Coffee, the U.S. Army Baton Rouge Recruiting Battalion, Demko, McDonald's and Origin Hotel Baton Rouge.

Well, that's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything LPB anytime, wherever you are with our LPB 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 and Instagram.

For everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

I'm Karen LeBlanc.

And I'm Kara sincere.

Until next time.

That's the state we're in.

Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together, we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler 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 by Visit Baton Rouge and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.