RANKING THE SAINTS’ DRAFT CLASS PERFORMANCE AT TRAINING CAMP 1B
ADVOCATE THE
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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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M o n d ay, au g u s t 4, 2025
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Medicare Advantage under scrutiny Critics say plan exaggerates health conditions, overcharges
BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Regena Beard, the Louisiana Teacher of the year, stands in her classroom on Thursday at Copper Mill Elementary in Zachary. Beard is a fifth and sixth grade science and robotics teacher.
AN UNLIKELy
JOURNEY
Teacher of the year Regena Beard learned to share love of science BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer
When Regena Beard was recently named Louisiana Teacher of the Year, her mother was the most surprised. “If you had told me that you were not only going to be a teacher, but state teacher of the year,” she recalls her saying, “I would have sworn you were lying.” In a career that has spanned 21 years, Beard has taught science to thousands of fifth and sixth graders in Zachary. It was not how she imagined her future. “I was not one of those kids who played class,” Beard said. Despite good grades, she was not energized by school, particularly science, the subject she later came to love so much. “It’s not that I didn’t have great teachers,” Beard recalls. “It just wasn’t my thing.” Growing up in Central, Beard — then known as Regena Hartley — had no immediate family members who’d graduated from college, much less any teachers in the family. Her plan was to get married and become a stay-at-home mom like Renee, her own mom. “Absolutely not,” she recalled her mother telling her. “You are not going to do that.’ ” Enrolled at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, young Beard tried to sort out her future. She recalled taking career quizzes and the results kept pointing toward teaching. She decided to give the profession a try, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. She immediately continued her studies, earning a master’s degree in education from LSU-Shreveport.
ä See MEDICARE, page 6A
Settlement reached in lawsuit against UL system PROVIDED PHOTO
Regena Beard visits Mercedes-Benz of Baton Rouge to receive the keys to a new Mercedes on Tuesday. It’s one of the perks of becoming Louisiana’s Teacher of the year. It’s only for one year. She gets to keep it until the yearlong lease ä See TEACHER, page 4A runs out.
quits after days of contentious bipartisan negotiations and Trump posting on social media that BY MARY CLARE JALONICK Senate Demoand JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press cratic Leader Chuck SchumWASHINGTON — The Senate left er can “GO TO Washington on Saturday night HELL!” for its monthlong August reWithout a Schumer cess without a deal to advance deal in hand, dozens of President Donald Republicans say they may Trump’s nominees, calling it try to change Senate rules
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when they return in September to speed up the pace of confirmations. Tr u m p h a s been pressuring senators to move quickly as Democrats blocked more nominees than usual this year, Thune denying any fast unanimous consent votes and forcing roll calls on each
Woman alleged that universities mishandled reporting accused rapist
BY MATT BRUCE Staff writer
one, a lengthy process that can take several days per nominee. “I think they’re desperately in need of change,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said of Senate rules Saturday after negotiations with Schumer and Trump broke down. “I think that the last six months have demonstrated that this process, nominations is broken. And so I expect there will
A woman was set to have her day in court this week in an effort to prove that institutional failures at two state universities allowed an accused serial sexual predator to swap schools, despite multiple reports of sexual misconduct, and transfer in the fall of 2018 to Louisiana Tech, where she said he raped her weeks after stepping foot on campus. But the woman reached a settlement with the University of Louisiana System late Friday, according to U.S. Middle District Court of Louisiana filings. Terms of the settlement were undisclosed as of Sunday. But the plaintiff’s attorney, Monica Beck, gave notice to the court Friday that the two sides have agreed in principal to a settlement and are working toward finalizing the agreement ahead of a stipulated dismissal of the civil case.
ä See SENATE, page 6A
ä See SETTLEMENT, page 4A
Senate leaves with no deal on confirmations Irate Trump blasts Schumer
WASHINGTON — Medicare Advantage, the privately run insurance on which roughly 500,000 older Louisiana residents rely for health care, is facing calls for change in Congress. Though hugely popular, critics say Medicare Advantage programs exaggerate patients’ health conditions to receive more money from the federal government. They argue that it is draining the Medicare Trust Fund, which will run out of money in 2033, according to the fund’s report released two weeks ago. “Medicare is going insolvent, and our budget deficit is expanding. We need to stop overpaying where we can if we’re to preserve Medicare for Americans who rely on it,” said U.S. Sen Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge. Cassidy has proposed changes he says would limit the practice called “upcoding.” The Congressional Budget Office estimated that changes to upcoding would save about $124 billion over 10 years. AARP, the nationwide interest group that advocates for seniors, backs Cassidy’s push. “Upcoding leads to both inflated payments and higher premiums,” said Denise Bottcher, state director of AARP Louisiana in Baton Rouge. “You’re just driving up the costs of health care.” But America’s Health Insurance Plans, the Washington-based trade association that represents the health insurance industry, opposes the bill.
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101ST yEAR, NO. 35