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T u e s d ay, a p r i l 29, 2025
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After homes flood, questions emerge Residents and officials point to drainage system failure
BY JA’KORI MADISON
Staff writer
Many Lafayette residents on Thursday morning were stranded due to heavy rain and flooding. The flooding briefly made 23 roads impassable in Lafayette on Thursday, and according to officials with Lafayette Consolidated Government, between 4 inches and 8 inches of rain fell in a short period of time. “I’ve been shoveling water out of
my apartment for about four hours now. I’ve never experienced this kind of flooding,” said Kristin Shows, who resides in the Uptown Lofts in downtown Lafayette. All of her furniture was wet, she said, her TV doesn’t work, and everyone on the first floor of her building lost everything. “So many of us were crying this morning,” she said. Joel Lacalle, who has lived in his home on Wallis Road for over a year,
had a similar experience. Waking up about 5 a.m., he said, his usual morning routine turned into a day of despair. “I got up and immediately stepped into water,” Lacalle said. “I went to the front door to see what was happening outside and more water came in. I couldn’t even stop it. I’ll just have to start over.” Some residents said the flooding
House passes pro-industry car insurance measures Bills aim to help lower state’s high rates
BY NICOLE WINFIELD and COLLEEN BARRY Associated Press
BY TYLER BRIDGES
STAFF FILE PHOTO By HILARy SCHEINUK
Car insurance rates in Louisiana are among the highest nationwide. State representatives on Monday advanced a slate of bills aimed at reining in rising costs. “It’s a piece of the puzzle,” said Rep. Michael Melerine, RShreveport, repeating a phrase used by others. The bills passed as a behindthe-scenes battle heated up over what is the biggest political issue during the two-month regular legislative session, which entered its third week Monday.
Unidentified groups on both sides sent out messages using strong language in trying to sway legislators. The battle over car insurance legislation pits Gov. Jeff Landry against some business-minded conservatives who form a key part of the governor’s political base but are unhappy that he is not sup-
porting all of the pro-industry measures. Landry said he is steering a middle course that doesn’t favor one side or the other. The Republican-majority House spoke decisively on that question Monday, led by a group of freshmen members
ä See BILLS, page 4A
New initiative targets La.’s maternal overdose deaths Staff writer
It’s common for pregnant patients to check into labor and delivery with family in tow. But when a nurse noticed something was off during an intake at WillisKnighton Bossier Health Center in north Louisiana, she offered to help the expectant mother into a gown in the bathroom. Once they were alone, the nurse asked about substance use — a question she’d been newly trained to pose dis-
WEATHER HIGH 87 LOW 71 PAGE 6A
Conclave to elect a new pope will start on May 7 Cardinals get to know one another
Staff writer
BY EMILY WOODRUFF
STAFF PHOTO By JA’KORI MADISON
ä See FLOOD, page 4A
2025 LEGISLATURE
A slate of bills that insurance companies and business interests say would hold down rising car insurance rates in Louisiana won approval from the state House on Monday. Legislators supporting the bills powered past the objections of lawmakers who expressed the view of trial lawyers that the changes won’t help consumers in a state where car insurance rates are among the highest nationwide. In general terms, the measures would make it harder for people injured in car accidents to file lawsuits and win big payouts — in the belief that lower payouts would lead insurance companies to pass along the savings to consumers. Critics of the bills don’t think that would happen. The bills passed mostly along partisan lines, with Republicans in support and Democrats opposed. Sponsors of each pro-insurance industry bill were careful not to promise it would lower insurance rates.
Lafayette resident Kristin Shows cleans out her apartment after heavy flooding Thursday.
creetly. “She got a positive screen,” recalled Traci Latiolais, a patient care coordinator at the hospital. That kind of intervention is becoming more common as hospitals adopt new protocols to address a growing public health concern: opioid overdoses in expectant mothers, now the leading cause of pregnancy-associated death in the state. Of Louisiana’s 82 pregnancyassociated deaths in 2020, 28 were due to accidental overdose,
according to the state’s latest Pregnancy Associated Mortality Review. To provide more focus on the issue, the Louisiana Department of Health recently announced a new statewide initiative dubbed Project MOM (Maternal Overdose Mortality), which aims to reduce overdose deaths during pregnancy and the postpartum period by 80% over the next three years, an effort that could save the lives of 65 mothers each year. The new initiative will scale
current efforts by the Louisiana Perinatal Quality Collaborative, a network of birthing facilities. Through a program called Improving Care for the SubstanceExposed Dyad, the collaborative has pushed hospitals to adopt routine screening for substance use during pregnancy. It also has worked to increase the coordination of care between obstetric and addiction treatment providers, who can prescribe
ä See MATERNAL, page 4A
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VATICAN CITY — Catholic cardinals on Monday set May 7 as the start date for the conclave to elect Pope Francis’ successor, delaying the secret voting for two days so they can get to know one another better and find consensus on a candidate before they are sequestered in the Sistine Chapel. The cardinals set the date after arriving for the first day of informal meetings following Pope Francis’ funeral Saturday. In a chaotic scene, journalists shouted questions about the mood inside and whether there was unity. A reporter for a satirical Italian television program asked whether an Italian cardinal who has been convicted by the Vatican criminal court on finance-related charges would be allowed to vote. The conclave could have opened as early as May 5, but the cardinals gave themselves extra time to speak in more informal sessions that include cardinals over age 80, who will not be allowed into the Sistine Chapel once the conclave begins. They will next meet on Tuesday morning, “There is the hope of unity,” said Argentine Cardinal Ángel Sixto Rossi, the 66-year-old archbishop of Cordoba who Francis made a cardinal in 2023. Many cardinals cited the desire to continue Francis’ pastoral focus on people who are marginalized and against war. But conservatives may be more focused on forging unity and refocusing the church back on core doctrines emphasized by St. John
ä See CONCLAVE, page 4A
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO
A cardinal arrives for a college of cardinals’ meeting at the Vatican outside St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday.
100TH yEAR, NO. 303