D.C. SHOOTING SUSPECT CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATI0N 2A THE
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T u e s d ay, a p r i l 28, 2026
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Report details issues at DCFS
Legislators voice frustrations about child welfare system BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By MICHAEL JOHNSON
Attendees hold candles during a candlelight prayer service on Monday honoring the victims of Thursday’s shooting at the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge.
MALL MEMORIAL
Louisiana’s child welfare system unnecessarily separated siblings in foster care, left children to stay in psychiatric hospitals after they were discharged, and frequently communicated poorly with families, a new state watchdog report has found. In its first annual report, Louisiana’s new child ombudsman reviewed 307 complaints made in 2025 against the Department of Children and Family Services and found several cases where department workers failed to follow policy and, in at least one instance, breached federal law. But in a Sunday letter to state lawmakers, department Secretary Rebecca Harris said some of the information in the report detailing child abuse deaths contains confidential information, and its release violates state and federal law. “The Department has requested advice and
ä See REPORT, page 5A
Legislation aims to help insure residents in Cameron Parish BY MEGAN WYATT Staff writer
State Rep. Annie Spell, R-Lafayette, reads the words of Martha Odom, the Lafayette high school senior who was killed in Thursday’s shooting. Rev. Rick Andrus, of Lafayette, delivers a sermon during Monday’s service.
Some Louisiana lawmakers are hoping to create a first-of-its-kind insurance program for local homeowners in Cameron Parish as public officials look for ways to keep coastal residents in their homes and to combat soaring insurance costs for those most at risk of hurricane damage. House Bill 150 by Rep. Ryan Bourriaque, R-Abbeville, would allow the southwestern Louisiana parish to create and manage an insurance fund to offset costs of homeowners and flood insurance costs for residents. “We are trying to allow a parish to redevelop, repopulate, with no state dollars involved in this,” Bourriaque said during a committee hearing earlier this month.
ä See CAMERON, page 5A
John Fleming says he’s the most conservative candidate Louisiana treasurer touts connections to Trump BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
Editor’s note: This story is the second in a series of profiles of major candidates in the U.S. Senate race, to be published over the coming days. Candidates for statewide office typically travel with a campaign aide who gets them from event to event. But state Treasurer John Fleming was on his own when he drove his car to the E.J. Ourso Col-
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clad students in his gray suit and tie. After finding the room, he didn’t mind walking U.S. SENATE back to his car to collect campaign brochures to pass out. ä COMING WEDNESDAY: JULIA LETLOW A few minutes later, he was back in Room 1800, telling 15 student members of Turning Point USA’s LSU chapter that he is a physician who lege of Business on LSU’s campus on a recent served in the Navy, helped co-found the ultraafternoon. And after he arrived, no staffer was conservative House Freedom Caucus during his eight years in Congress, held high-level posts waiting to direct him where to go. Fleming didn’t complain. He simply ap- during President Donald Trump’s first term and proached two students sitting at a table in the for the past 28 months has been the tight-fisted state treasurer. college. Along the way, he said, his record shows that “Can you tell me where I can find Room 1800 in the Business Education Complex?” asked Flemä See FLEMING, page 4A ing, standing out among the shorts-and-T-shirt-
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John Fleming
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