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Women’s prison opens 2016 flood displaced inmates to temporary housing
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By BEN GRAy
Dr. Debra Houry, left, Dr. Daniel Jernigan and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis gather as workers rally for departing scientific leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outside the CDC headquarters on Thursday in Atlanta.
Acting CDC director named amid tumult Three senior officials escorted from agency headquarters
STAFF PHOTOS By JAVIER GALLEGOS
Gov. Jeff Landry and Warden Kristen Thomas, center, are joined by staff, partners and lawmakers for the ribbon cutting for the new Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women on Thursday. BY HALEY MILLER Staff writer
Louisiana’s only women’s prison formally opened Thursday, after nine years of temporary housing arrangements for over 1,000 female inmates who were displaced by a devastating 2016 flood. The brand-new, $160 million Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women, bordered by sugar cane fields and the nearby Elayn Hunt Correctional Center, is designed to withstand a 500-year flood like the historic inundation in August 2016, according to Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections officials. It can accommodate 958 incarcerated women. Gov. Jeff Landry and Warden Kristen Thomas cut the ribbon for the new facility Thursday, emphasizing the prison as a symbol of the modernization of the Louisiana criminal justice system. “It marks, I hope, the beginning of a restructuring and a rebuilding of correctional facilities around the
Warden Kristen Thomas and Gov. Jeff Landry take questions during Thursday’s ribbon cutting for the new prison. state,” Landry said. “This is the first provide women who are incarceratstate facility to be opened in over 35 ed opportunities for personal growth years, so that alone makes this day and rehabilitation. very historic.” ä See PRISON, page 9A Thomas said the prison will
Rep. Emerson eyes Senate race
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ä See CDC, page 9A
BY CHARLES LUSSIER Staff writer
Staff writer
WEATHER HIGH 87 LOW 73
NEW YORK — Jim O’Neill, a top deputy to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will serve as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to an administration official. The official requested anonymity to discuss a personnel change that has not been formally announced. The administration wants O’Neill to replace Susan Monarez, whom the White House is trying to remove only a month Monarez after starting the job. Monarez is fighting to keep her job. Her removal has left the nation’s top public health agency reeling and three senior officials were escorted from its headquarters Thursday. The turmoil triggered rare bipartisan alarm as Kennedy tries to advance anti-vaccine policies that are contradicted by decades of scientific research. The chaos comes weeks before a key advisory committee, which Kennedy has reshaped with vaccine skeptics, is expected to meet to issue new recommendations on immunizations. Two Republican senators called for congressional oversight and some Democrats said Kennedy should be fired. He is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill on Thursday.
Katrina evacuees established new lives in Baton Rouge
BY TYLER BRIDGES
ä See EMERSON, page 7A
Associated Press
‘Everything I needed was here’
Carencro Republican will run if U.S. Rep. Letlow doesn’t U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy is likely to face another challenger in his bid to win reelection next year. State Rep. Julie Emerson said Wednesday that she is likely to jump into the race if U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow chooses not to run. “I’m waiting to see what she will do. I do think there’s an avenue for another candidate, whoever that is,” said Emerson, a Republican from Carencro, just north of Lafayette. “If she formally anEmerson nounces she’s definitely out, then the chances I get in greatly increase.” Demonstrating his vulnerability as he seeks a third term, Cassidy is already facing three major Republican challengers: Treasurer John Fleming, state Sen. Blake Miguez of New Iberia and Public
BY MIKE STOBBE, AMANDA SEITZ and CHRIS MEGERIAN
When Hurricane Katrina struck, Ann Zanders had just arrived at her son’s duplex located behind the Greyhound bus station on Florida Boulevard KATRINA with clothes for just a few days and plans to quickly head back to her Uptown New Orleans home once the weather cleared. She barely knew where she YEARS was. Like many native New Orleanians, she thought of Baton Rouge as the country compared to her more urban home. During past visits, she went to just one place, the downtown offices of the state Department of Education. “Baton Rouge was very foreign to me,” she said. Twenty years later, she is still here, one of thousands who moved to the Capital Region after the
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STAFF PHOTO By JOHN BALLANCE
Stephanie Debarbieris talks about a picture taken after she finally maked it home after being stranded at the Tulane Medical Center during Katrina.
Business ...................10A Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................5B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....4D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
ä See KATRINA, page 6A
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