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I know customers are counting on me.

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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 and.

It really became an issue after the eighties, all of us, when you had a lot of wellheads just out there with nobody responsible for the cleanup of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells.

And it can be as early as six weeks of pregnancy.

A startling rise in syphilis cases across Louisiana.

I know what went on and nothing's going to change history for me.

The 60th anniversary of the assassination of John F Kennedy.

We're in the 95th percentile of cancer risk.

A Louisiana activist receives recognition.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Karen LaBlanc My co-host, Kara St. Cyr, is out on assignment and contributed stories that will appear later in this broadcast.

Now, here's what's making headlines this week.

Voters head to the polls on Saturday, November 18th to decide statewide offices and the runoff and four constitutional amendments plus various local issues.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are under a January 15th deadline issued by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to redraw the state's congressional map to be more representative of the states population.

Or acquiesce to a court ordered approach in Louisiana.

Black individuals constitute one third of the entire population.

A new redistricting plan for Louisiana presents an opportunity to establish two congressional districts out of the total six.

This week marks the two year anniversary of the bipartisan infrastructure law.

The funding includes 60 million to accelerate the cleanup of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells across Louisiana.

The Department of Natural Resources is overseeing the well plugging process on land and waterways throughout the state.

Here's a progress report.

Plus, a look at alternative uses for these out of service wells.

Along the waterways of Lake Arthur and Loch Ussing National Wildlife Refuge.

Herons and gators share habitat with abandoned oil wells and platforms, relics of defunct oil and gas drilling companies that left the structures for the state to clean up.

So what you'll be seeing today is the project removal consist of multiple parts.

One is removal of the oil and gas wells.

But one of the larger parts is removal of out of service production facilities.

So this is the one that was just removed from the field, which was a floating production barge.

So you'll see the stock tanks.

It has oil and water and just sludge in the bottom of it.

Across Louisiana, approximately 4600 oil or gas wells sit abandoned, deemed orphans by the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, charged with capping and cleaning up the sites.

It really became an issue after the eighties oil bust when you had a lot of wellheads just out there with nobody responsible for them and no real way to do anything about them.

So we create the oilfield site restoration program where a fee is paid by operators so much per barrel of oil, so much per thousand cubic feet of gas to find a program to start plug in these wells.

When the bond requirements kicked in for wellheads, some companies couldn't comply.

Others lost the right to operate for not following the rules.

Louisiana's Department of Natural Resources is cleaning up the mess with funds from the federal bipartisan infrastructure law and hired contractors with the expertise to do the work.

This is just where we finish up pulling out a well here.

And as you can see, it looks like it's never been here.

Capping a well and removing its platform can be a complicated process.

Workers pour cement down into the well to seal it up.

Then they cut and remove the casing.

With floating production barges, the process can be more involved, requiring equipment removal and the cleaning and dismantling of different parts and pieces.

It's like what you're watching here.

A standard.

Easy.

Well can be abandoned on these deeper south Louisiana wells in a matter of 3 to 4 days.

A complicated well could be 3 to 4 weeks.

A facility with no issues could be pulled out and removed in one week in 2023.

630 orphan wells have been plugged.

That's according to the Department of Natural Resources.

And it's more than triple the yearly average.

Funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law has accelerated the well, capping.

Governor John Bel Edwards recently toured these same waters to survey the ongoing work that the state is overseeing on behalf of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Lacaze National Wildlife Refuge.

We're making tremendous progress and of course, we will get more funding in the form of the bipartisan infrastructure bill because it's a five year program.

Nearly two thirds of these abandoned wells are concentrated in the northern part of the state, mainly natural gas wells from the Haynesville shale, a layer of sedimentary rock.

These orphaned wells, are they posing environmental and health risks.

Every orphan well does present that potential because you have a connection between a deep underground layer where, you know, at some point there was methane, there was crude oil and can't guarantee there's very, very concentrated brine, saltwater that is not good for anything on the surface.

The remnants of the well platforms jutting out of the water or hidden below its surface also pose navigation risk for watercraft.

There is a positive purpose, though, for some of the locations of these orphaned well sites that serve as artificial reefs.

So we've identified side over 100 sites so far.

The platforms are scheduled to be removed, and we're following up on those one by one with our replacement program.

When a wellhead or a platform is removed from the water, it takes with it marine habitat, an underwater ecosystem that has evolved around the base.

The Coastal Conservation Association of Louisiana is working to repurpose platforms as artificial reefs.

In this case, it was a helipad from a production platform.

This provides an attachment point for the marine organisms to start the food chain, which also in turn goes up through the baitfish and through our sport fish.

So this is very important part of our habitat and our ecosystem.

From a Gulf of Mexico perspective, this is a very important area for us.

We have a lot of platforms out here.

So it's it's one of those things where we've worked with Kay over the years to look at opportunities where we can make smart investments that will that will benefit the environment as well as communities, and in this case, our angler community.

The state is applying for another round of funding up to 88 million to continue capping those wells on land and water.

Syphilis is a bacterial infection that causes lesions and bumps and severe cases.

It can cause brain damage or even death.

In the past three years, a number of syphilis and congenital syphilis cases in Louisiana has increased exponentially, prompting the CDC to recommend testing to reduce case numbers.

Here's a look at why the infection is spreading so quickly and what can be done to stop it.

An outbreak is sweeping the American South.

Venereal diseases are on the rise among almost all demographics.

Syphilis rates in particular are skyrocketing.

Numbers from the CDC show a surge of sexually transmitted infections in the United States with no signs of slowing.

We're seeing this spike in women pregnant women in counties across the US, which is unusual.

Syphilis is a bacterial infection caused by anemia.

Pallidum cases peaked in 1950, but more than 70 years later, the U.S. is experiencing another boom, especially in southern states like Louisiana.

The problem is that sometimes it goes undetected because it doesn't cause any symptoms.

Dr. Edward Valen specializes in maternal fetal medicine at Woman's Hospital.

He says the lack of detection is contributing to the boom.

It can be a lesion or a bump.

It's painless.

And sometimes if it's inside the vagina or on the cervix, the patient's not going to know that it's there.

Then what happens is that this lesion will heal in 2 to 3 weeks independent of whether or not the patient received treatment.

So the lesion is going to heal and go away, but the surface infection will still persist.

In Louisiana, cases of syphilis are beating national records from 2020 to 2021.

The diagnoses increased by 36%, meaning that for every 100,000 people, about 22 had the disease.

Louisiana ranked 11th in the country for highest syphilis cases in 2021, when adult diagnoses increase.

So is the likelihood that fetal cases will increase too.

How was it transferred to a child?

So one of two ways baby can become infected.

So either by the organism actually crossing the placenta.

So that means during the pregnancy, it's in the mom's bloodstream.

Then it crosses to the placenta and infects the baby.

That's the primary way.

And it can be as early as six weeks of pregnancy.

So it can be any trimester.

It's still just as serious, although obviously, the longer that it was present, the more chances there are cause to cause the baby's significant problems.

The second way is through delivery.

If the mother has a lesion or bump on or near her cervix, the fetus can come in contact with it.

If a patient has latent syphilis and they come to the hospital and deliver a baby, well, that baby is going to be sent home before we realize that it actually has syphilis, because it can be even 3 to 8 weeks after delivery before some of these children have any symptoms of it.

And the symptoms would be the same as an adult.

So there are different symptoms, although some are similar.

A characteristic rash.

This is one of the most common things I've seen.

They can also have flu like symptoms and then this can progress.

It goes through stages.

Also, if it doesn't get treated, it can progress to your much more severe things, which is permanent brain problems, low IQ blindness, abnormal teeth problems with their bones, liver enlargement, lots of terrible things.

Congenital cases are peaking in Louisiana, too.

In fact, the state is ranked third for diagnoses.

Last year, the Department of Health reported 115 cases.

In a report, the Department of Health said that a lack of testing and prenatal screenings is causing the disease to spike again.

Because the infection is so hard to detect, it's almost impossible to know if someone has syphilis until it's far along.

Another issue is reporting.

If a patient that's pregnant gets screened, they should all get screened in the first trimester.

If they're positive for it and it's confirmed, then they'll get treated with one dose of penicillin, one dose of Barcelona.

And then it's crucial that they get retested or rechecked for it later in the pregnancy because you can get re-infected.

Penicillin is only a treatment, not a vaccine.

So it's crucial that mothers always get retested.

That's preventable, 100% preventable.

If patients get appropriate screening.

That means if they get appropriate prenatal care from the minute they find out they're pregnant, they should start seeking care with a doctor so they can get screened properly so that it can be treated and therefore prevent it.

The Department of Health says that African-Americans, pregnant women and gay men are most at risk.

LP's camera sensor sat down with Louisiana activist Dr. Joy Banner as she discussed the legacy of her organization and the future of environmental changes in south Louisiana.

Let's take a look.

Earlier today.

I have with us Dr. Joy Banner.

She is co director of the Descendants Project, which is an organization that's dedicated to making sure that black descended communities and river parishes in Louisiana are healthy and environmentally safe.

But also, before we get to any of that.

You just won the National Preservation Award.

And I just wanted to say congratulations.

Yeah, I brought it with me.

Thank you.

It's beautiful.

It's beautiful.

Just for any fingerprints.

But can you tell me a little bit more about this award and this honor that you just received?

Yes.

And it was certainly an honor.

It's the emerging leader Leader Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and it's awarded to emerging leaders.

So maybe folks that don't have quite a formal background in in historic preservation, but because of their work, this is considered an emerging leader in this space.

So it was really, really honored to have been nominated to receive it and was a really surprise to get it.

And then and I'm happy to bring it back home with me to Wallace.

So let's talk more specifically about the work that you did to get that award.

So you focus a lot on environmental issues and health issues for black descendent communities.

Can you tell me exactly what that means?

Yes.

So first of all, I from St John the Baptist Parish, and we are in the middle of what's known as Cancer Alley.

So because of because of pollution and industrial encroachment, we have the highest risk.

We're in the 95th percentile of cancer risk.

So and that's just one of numerous health issues that we have because of pollution.

And it's impacted our communities.

It's our way of life.

You know, we have the dust, you know, the noise of traffic.

So it has it's it's impacted our communities and in so many ways.

So our organization is committed to protecting our communities, protecting our health and finding ways or even maybe finding ways we're turning to ways where we can have safe, healthy development.

So let's talk about the most recent feat that you just went through.

You were trying to prevent a grain terminal from being built in this area, which is, of course, the main focus of the Descendants Project.

How did that go and did you think that you were going to be successful?

yes.

And whether this in this project, when we formed, we were we our mission is and was about this focus on economic development, historic preservation, environmental justice.

And right after we formed, we heard we learned about the greenfield grain terminal, which is this massive 250 acre project on 1700 acres of land that was illegally rezone to industrial 30 years ago.

Our fight was to return the land back to its rightful residential zoning.

And we have been in the courts for the last two and a half years and August we learned that that land was returned back to residential.

I would love to say that our battle in there, that was a the I think the most major portion of our battle.

But we knew that because of the collaboration and the participation with the parish, unfortunately, we knew that we still were going to be targeted in other ways.

And we were and we are.

And the parish president and the parish council has introduced resolutions to get this land back on to the commission and through the zoning process to get it zoned back to industrial.

So we've had to have additional hearings and fortunately we are continuing to win in the courts.

It's historical and there's a personal connection.

Yes.

So historically, these black communities that lie in between these plantations, our ancestors after emancipation and many and many times self emancipation and ancestors who fought in the Civil War, you know, came back and started our communities.

And so it's it's an extremely rich, important aspect of America and history of Louisiana history.

And so this land is very is very personal to us.

That's where we grew up.

That's why we remember, you know, visiting with our parents, our grandparent, our great grandparents.

And we want to protect our history.

Well, you've won this award because you've done a good job of protecting that history and making sure that the people in that area are safe.

But what's next for you?

We have a lot of wonderful cultural projects that are on the horizon, so we are expanding to acquire other historic assets.

We have to build and expand our capacity at the Descendants Project.

So we are going to have, you know, more jobs available.

So that's it's really 2024 is going to be a very exciting year and I look forward to being able to focus more on the on a development, on the historic and cultural development and promotion and less on the environmental things, not because it's less of an issue, but because I feel like we are getting towards the end of at least that major part of the battle.

All right.

Well, thanks again for joining us and congratulations.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

November 22nd marks the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.

The events shook the nation and remains a source of conspiracy theories and morbid fascination.

Louisiana had a lead role in the Kennedy assassination saga, from the triggerman to the person who helped prepare the president's body and the archbishop who presided over JFK funeral.

Here's a look back at this day seared in our national psyche.

With a living witness, Richard Lipsey at the center of the unfolding events.

There really was not time for emotion.

We had the emotion when we heard the president was shot and killed.

At this point, it was all business and there was a job to be done.

Richard Lipsey had only served in the U.S. Army for two years when President John F Kennedy was assassinated on November 22nd, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

Richard was serving as an aide to General Weal, the commanding general of the military district of Washington.

On that November day, Richard, first lt would go down in history as one of the last people to see JFK's body.

We had discussed that afternoon what my responsibility would be and when we got ready to leave office.

And he says, you, Richard, you stay with the body.

Richard received the president's body at Andrews Air Force Base and then followed the body to Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he helped clean and prepare the deceased president for an autopsy and then stood watch during the procedure.

I picked the body up, put it on the table, the steel table, and unzip the body bag and put put him on there.

And then he asked me to help and he and I and to wipe the body down.

And we cleaned the body.

And we did that without getting near the wounds.

By the time they finished, it was close to midnight.

At that point or Journal Wheel or came down.

The doctors left us to tour the morgue.

After the autopsy, Richard received clothing from the president's widow, Jackie Kennedy, then dressed the president's body, laid him in his coffin, and followed the body to the White House.

It was now 4 a.m. the next morning.

Then, Jackie, ask everyone to leave.

And we all left, including the honor guard.

The only people left is Jackie and the priest.

And we went outside.

So to this day, nobody knows whether she opened the casket or not.

I doubt it, because it was a big, heavy casket and I guess she and the priest could have.

But she it would in 5 minutes, maybe even less when she came back and just knocked on the door.

I was standing at the door.

I opened it and she didn't even say a word because President Kennedy died unexpectedly.

And at a young age, there was no official funeral plan or protocol to follow.

Jackie Kennedy made her request.

She talked about the priest that she wanted to, which is the archbishop, the archbishop from the New Orleans dioceses, another Louisiana one, Archbishop Philip Hannan, who served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 1965 to 1989, presided over JFK's funeral, delivering the eulogy.

I said to myself, Well, there's only one way to do that.

And that's to say a few introductory remarks and then to express it in his words, and to also use some of the scriptural quotations.

In a 1996 interview with LPB, the Archbishop recounts his friendship with Kennedy, who would periodically call when in need of a religious perspective.

Archbishop Hannan also presided over the funeral of Senator Robert Kennedy, assassinated June 5th, 1968, five years after his brother and the funeral of Jackie Kennedy, who died May 19th, 1994, one after another, they were killed.

Nobody expected that whatsoever.

But they all basically they had a faith.

JFK accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was born and raised in New Orleans as a small child.

He later returned as a 24 year old man and spent time in New Orleans in the spring and summer of 1963.

This was just months before he would fire those fatal shots from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository free onto Kennedy's motorcade below, killing the president and injuring Texas Governor John B Connally.

To this day, nobody's ever given a serious motive for Oswald to kill Kennedy.

Michael L. KURTZ is a Southeastern Louisiana University historian and noted assassination scholar.

He wrote a book, The JFK Assassination Debate, and believes Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone.

In a 2013 Press Club appearance, KURTZ shared his thoughts.

I believe that the physical medical ballistics, acoustics, audio visual evidence of the assassination does prove that there were at least two gunmen firing in Dealey Plaza and probably three of them 60 years since the assassination.

President Kennedy has time.

Colored or changed your perspective on these events?

Your interpretation or feelings about these events at all?

Time has changed a lot, but it taught me a lot.

I realize now, which are hard to believe.

A young 23 year old Latino didn't realize exactly how brilliant President Kennedy was Over the years.

More chapters were written in the tragic tale of Camelot, as the Kennedy family legacy continues to fascinate future generations.

I know what went on, and nothing is going to change history for me.

No matter how many books are written and how many people think it was.

You can watch Richard Lipsey's full interview on our digital channel at YouTube at LPBTV.

That's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything, LPB, any time, 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 X and Instagram for everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

I'm Karen LeBlanc.

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.