Infrastructure, Plessy vs. Ferguson, Labor Shortage

Entergy is proud to support programing on LPB and greener practices that preserve Louisiana.

The goal of our environmental and sustainability initiatives really is to ensure that our kids and future generations can be left with a cleaner planet.

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.

If we're going to build things that are going to live and last for decades to come Louisiana in the new infrastructure law, so this is going to change that picture.

What a vote of the polls means getting people back on board as it has been a tremendous struggle, another industry affected by the growing labor shortage.

It is a tremendous relief that I for you as a relative Homer Plessy pardoned after 125 years.

Hi everybody, I'm Kara St. Cyr and I'm Andre’ Moreau.

The Louisiana Department of Health is recommending that every vaccinated person over the age of 18 get a booster shot.

Top health officials say the booster is the best way to up our protection against the coronavirus, with winter coming.

And as temperatures drop this holiday season.

Yeah, that's right.

This new guidance from LDH suggests that adults who've gotten their two dose Pfizer or Moderna shots should get the booster if it's been at least six months since completing the vaccination process.

So if you've taken Johnson and Johnson, you can get your booster as soon as two months after that initial shot.

Yeah, any of these vaccine brands can be used for the booster, regardless of which one you had for the primary vaccination.

Now, let's take a look at other headlines making news across the state.

A unanimous vote, said a Louisiana inmate free after serving 57 years at Angola for shooting and killing a deputy.

Henry Montgomery's Supreme Court case was a key in the possibility of freedom for hundreds of people sentenced to life as juveniles in 1963, when he was 17.

Montgomery killed at EBR deputy who caught him skipping school a pardon board, said Montgomery had an excellent record behind bars.

Entergy says it owes almost four and a half billion dollars for getting the lights back on.

After all, the hurricanes to hit Louisiana in 2020 and 2021 and needs a 1 billion dollar loan to meet those costs in the short term, the advocate reports.

The utility company, which services about half of the state's power customers, may boost customer charges anywhere from eleven to $15 a month to pay for the debt over a span of up to 15 years.

Oil giants Shell, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and others offered a combined $192 million for drilling rights on Gulf of Mexico, federal oil and gas reserves.

The lease auction comes after Louisiana successfully challenged the suspension on sales imposed by President Biden's climate goals when he took office.

An audit questions $2.9 million in unemployment benefits the state made during the coronavirus pandemic.

It says the payments don't appear to follow state and federal regulations.

The State Workforce Commission says mistakes are inevitable with new temporary federal programs, but it will work to recoup money.

If people were paid by mistake, here's the latest on the state's effort to update our voting system.

A commission met to look at technology available that would improve the current decades-old system, the commission says.

Whatever system is chosen, it'll have to be one that produces a paper record, unlike what we have now.

Former New Orleans mayor and Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu will supervise President Biden's infrastructure plan, which was signed into law this week.

It means big things for the nation and Louisiana broadband bridges, ports, airports.

We're talking roads and bridges right now, though, and that's what we bring in, Dr. Sean Wilson from Dotd Secretary and say hello to you .

And we're talking about $1,000,000,000 for Bridges, 4.8 billion for roads.

And so your response to this being a big part of rebuilding America and our state.

And you're absolutely right, Andre.

It's about jobs.

It's about making our nation and our state more competitive globally.

And it's about sustainable infrastructure.

We're going to build things that are going to live and last for decades to come.

We're seeing the next five years of funding, but more importantly, we're going to see a big increase in terms of the dollars that we're going to see.

This is going to amount to over $200 million a year for infrastructure over the next five years.

More importantly, it's creating some new programs EV charging, resilience broadband.

These are things that are going to continue to be a part of our economy, and this is the beginning of these types of programs in the federal government and excited about it.

In Louisiana, it's roads and bridges that people think of, and everybody has their road or bridge that needs to be repaired.

So we're thinking of Lake Charles or we're going to Baton Rouge.

We're thinking about New Orleans.

Every region of the rest of this, it's going to be very stretched.

Remember, we've got about a 14.8 billion dollar backlog.

We've got a 15 billion dollar list of projects that we want to build, and we're talking about $6 billion coming to us over the next five years.

4.8 billion of that is what we would normally see that had disappeared.

So we're excited about it.

It's not all we want.

I'm excited about the fact that we've had unprecedented ARP funding, which is recovery money for COVID.

We've had Chris the money, which was also passed by Congress and the Legislature, passed a bill.

The governor signed it.

That's going to produce an additional $150 million a year at a minimum.

Beginning in fiscal year 23.

So you're going to see unprecedented investment in infrastructure across the state.

And it's not just roads and bridges, it's rails.

It's ports, it's broadband, it's pipeline, it's drainage.

It's going to touch every household across this state in some form or fashion.

What are you interested in now doing with this, though, since it comes to you and we know what, what the things are that you are really responsible for?

Do you have to sell this to the Legislature?

I think we're going to have to sell some of this to the Legislature because it's about getting not just a shovel ready project, he's just got the money.

We're going to get the 6 billion, but it's not just shovel ready, it's shovel worthy.

So we've got to do the right projects because some of the dollars that we see that are available, they're billions of more dollars than that 6 billion that we can compete for.

But it's got to be the right project to fit the program that's developed.

And so whether it's megaprojects, whether it's rail investments, whether it's freight investments, whether it's safety improvements, things like equity and reconnecting communities, all of these are projects that are going to have to have some merit to be passed and adopted and supported by the federal government.

So if you're in Lake Charles, you're saying, well, correcting and fixing this bridge is the right project that is the right price.

If you're in Baton Rouge, you're saying building a new bridge, it is the right project.

So we've got a long list of projects in our statewide transportation plan all that we've advocated for.

Each region of our state have a have at least 1 billion dollar project.

And so we have an above the board approach to funding infrastructure, a little bit of private financing, a little bit of regular state money, a little bit of federal dollars.

And eventually you will conquer this project and get $1,000,000,000.

So the most important thing is that we do it right and we have a structured plan and program.

Our highway priority program is what we call it.

And we've been using it for a number of years.

And you look at the work that we've done in the John Bel administration, we funded projects and built projects that have been talked about for decades.

That's what we're talking about is doing the right project right now with the resources that we have and in every region, it can be one of those megaprojects and these are resources that you didn't have before.

Absolutely.

So I want to commend Congressman Carter and Senator Cassidy for doing this because they're funding projects that are really bipartisan, that have no respect of person of political party or color.

Their investments in our economy that's going to create jobs, working class jobs that are going to build things in communities for years to come.

But you've mentioned that it was complex.

It is very common so I can hear why it comes with rules.

So it depends on the color of the money.

Some of this is going to be money that's part of the Transportation Trust Fund.

Some of this is the United States General Fund.

Each of them are going to have different rules of engagement that we're going to have to follow.

We're also going to have to then overlay that with the political perspective.

But what happens when it comes to Louisiana?

Because I will tell you, if I have $1,000,000,000 I can spend on a bridge.

Certainly, Lake Charles is going to want it.

But Lafayette is.

I want to share 5:49.

Baton Rouge is going to want to share for the new bridge, Shreveport is going to want to share for a project up there on our 49.

All over the state, New Orleans is going to want to share for the container port.

It's going to be huge.

So we are going to have to manage the politics as well as the purpose for these projects and really deliver look forward to seeing things happening.

We're going to be busy.

Be safe out there because they're going to be construction zones.

All right.

Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Voters made decisions at the polls this past weekend about tax reforms for Louisiana, four items were up there, only one passed and that was about income tax.

Barry Erwin, president and CEO of Council for Better Louisiana, is here with us right now to talk about this.

This is actually something we discussed many, many months ago.

But the income tax portion of this, which seemed the most important, at least on a national basis, did pass.

Yeah, it did one.

Only one that did.

And it's good.

I mean, we're in a situation in Louisiana that's kind of weird.

We have a low income tax burden, aren't income taxes are low, but our rates are high if you compare them to other states.

How could that be?

Because we have deductions that other states don't have, and it kind of skews the picture.

So it sends a message to other states that our taxes are high when in fact they're low.

So what this amendment did was it got rid of that tax deduction, that big deduction that most states don't have.

It's simplified our taxes.

But that allowed us to lower our rates.

So we went from having the highest sales tax, I mean, income tax in the region compared to states that that have an income tax to what this is going to be now is the lowest.

And we looked at a map which compared to other states, even though our tax burden is lower.

It made Louisiana look like it was more difficult for a business to want to come here.

So in attracting business, this would be a positive.

Correct?

Yeah, it is.

The Tax Foundation is a group out of Washington, D.C. that did a lot of people look to, and they put out maps every week and everybody that looks at other states, the taxes, they look at their maps, well, our map, we stand out like a sore thumb because everybody would look at our state and think, Louisiana, there you are, taxing people higher than anybody else around you when in fact, that was not the case, but the rate made it look like it.

So this is going to change that picture.

It's going to make it more transparent and accurate.

And I should say too, it doesn't really change people's taxes that much for most.

It's going to actually lower them.

But the real deal is that it's going to make our state more competitive.

So that's the one item that did pass.

The others didn't.

And one involved sales tax.

Yeah, and this one really didn't affect individuals.

It was really for businesses retailers that collect sales taxes on behalf of local governments.

In Louisiana, it's more complicated than it is anywhere else in the country.

It's because we have a different system in our in our constitution where we have like 50 tax collectors that these businesses have to deal with.

In other states, it's only one.

So this was an attempt to make us, like other states, more streamlined would only go to one.

But voters, I don't think, totally understood it maybe were a little scared of what it might mean.

And they it was close.

They lost by about four points, but but it lost.

So it did not win.

What about state budget cuts, which may or may not impact the average person, but that one did not pass?

They didn't.

I mean, what that would have done would make things more flexible if we got into a bad budget situation, a big deficit.

You know, when we cut, we mostly have to cut higher ed in health care.

We've heard that over and over again.

This would have given the governor and the Legislature more flexibility to cut into some other areas and preserve higher in health care.

I don't think voters fully understood it, and they rejected that one pretty soundly.

I think that was a reoccurring theme about not fully understanding what was up there, and I'm not sure if that was a communication issue or just a matter of these not being the most.

It's not like you're voting for A or B there.

It's much more involved knowing about these, the other involved levee boards.

But this was not statewide, necessarily.

Now it really affected just a handful of levee boards, five of them in south Louisiana.

People didn't go for that one, either.

But to your point, I think one of the things that's difficult is with these amendments, if people don't know what they are, the tendency is to vote no.

So you really have to affirmatively get to somebody and say, this is why you should vote this way or this way, you shouldn't.

And it's tough to do.

So for what passed with the income tax, if I were a head of a Chamber of Commerce, I'd be thrilled about this because I want to lure a business into Louisiana, which is something we're constantly hoping to do.

This is a positive.

And again, why is it positive?

Because it's going to send a more accurate message to people out of state, to businesses and individuals to about what our tax burden and tax rates are.

We were just sending the wrong message and other states had figured that out a long time ago.

We had not.

And so we're going to really it's going to be a more accurate one.

But it's also going to be a much more positive one.

All right.

Barry Irwin, thanks so much.

Always good to talk to you about being here.

Appreciate it.

Thanks.

As we head into the holiday season, America is grappling with a shortage of supplies, products we use every day are no longer readily available at stores.

And experts say there's not one single cause for the supply backlog, but the trucking industry may play a role in the process.

Keith Cooper, with upright transportation in New Orleans, tells us how a shortage and truck drivers can cause issues with the supply chain.

4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in September, leaving several industry struggling to fill crucial positions.

Among that group of employers are trucking companies big and small.

Keith Cooper is the operations manager at Upright Transportation, a small trucking business in New Orleans.

He's been struggling to fill driver positions since the virus, the peak of the virus.

We have been struggling to fill those driver's seats due to, you know, obviously the shutdown.

And then when things kind of pick back up, you know, wages and just getting people back on board, it has been tremendous struggle.

Cooper's company is considered a small sized trucking business, which means that he only uses 15 to 20 trucks for different jobs before the pandemic.

It was easy to find qualified drivers for each 18 wheeler, but now he's only able to employ a portion of the drivers he used to, which means he can't book as many routes with manufacturers.

And that means even less money comes in for both drivers and the company.

We could use five to ten.

We can.

We had 20 drivers.

We can.

We can.

We can apply.

We can fill those seats.

Although MANUFAC truck manufacturers is an issue as well between the lack of drivers and the slow truck manufacturer companies, Cooper's business is in a bind that he doesn't see clearing up anytime soon, and he isn't alone in his concern.

The American Trucking Association's estimates that 80,000 truck driver positions need to be filled nationwide, which is a record for the profession.

The number of qualified drivers has been shrinking gradually, and the pandemic only exacerbated a problem long in the making.

The organization predicts that by 2030, the 80,000 open positions will have surged to 130,000. Cooper says that he isn't surprised by the growing deficit.

He says the wages are pushing people away.

Freight rates could could be increased so that the trucking companies could offer drivers more competitive wages.

The ACA concludes that many factors are contributing to the crisis.

Infrastructure issues, low numbers of women entering the profession, work-life balance issues and entry barriers all play some role in the driver shortage.

But one of the biggest issues is retirement.

By 2030, the MTA predicts that 200,000 drivers will retire from the industry, and Cooper's already seen the effects of that.

He's lost three employees to retirement, which may seem like an insignificant number.

But when you run a business as small as Coopers, those three people could mean three cancel trucking routes.

The truck driving shortage doesn't just stop with people like Cooper.

The lack of drivers available affects everyday Americans if no one can pick up goods from manufacturers.

Businesses can't provide a service or sell a product, which can lead to empty shelves and higher prices for everyday things.

It's all about supply and demand, and this close to the Thanksgiving holiday, Americans could see their favorite items are scarce this year.

You know, if the demand is higher than the supply, then obviously the price will be driven up and that's what's happening to the dogs were able to get them offloaded in a timely manner.

Drivers, there's no drivers to get them to the stores, to the show store or whatnot.

So you know, the demand is still there.

But those goods, those daily goods that we need, they're not.

So everything's going up.

And I see I see it going up in the next canasta, going up continuously to Cooper.

The remedy for the shortage is years away.

It'll take wage changes and the implementation of Work-Life Balance if the nation wants to see an end to this crisis and the atay predicts something similar.

Estimating that regulatory changes and modifications to shippers, receivers and carriers business practices to improve conditions for drivers may help.

Cooper is supporting himself by taking fewer jobs from manufacturers.

He says he'll have to keep cutting back unless things change.

In 1890 to a mixed race man would become permanently etched in America's civil rights history.

Homer Plessy was an eighth black but was able to purchase a ticket for the white section of a railroad car.

His identity was discovered almost immediately and he was arrested, thus beginning a long battle over the legality of segregation.

Most of us know as the Plessy versus Ferguson case, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal under the doctrine of separate but equal Plessy would die with that conviction on his record.

But now, 125 years later, the descendants of key players in this case are asking Louisiana to pardon him.

So we are ready to call for those members.

A vote of yes is to approve the application and forward to the governor, and I vote for no is to reject the application.

It's an outcome many have hoped for.

Homer Plessy, a mixed race man etched in America's civil rights history, is poised to be pardoned after a Louisiana pardon board unanimously voted to clear his name.

On behalf of Mr. Homer Plessy, we have voted favorably today and we will forward the application on to Governor John Bel Edwards posthaste.

The decision wouldn't have come to fruition if it weren't for these two.

When we met, we in a sense defeated the division of Plessy versus Ferguson when we became friends, and I think we were just happy to be friends because we had we delivered a blow of defeat to a case that separated America by becoming friends.

Keith Plessy and Phoebe Ferguson worked together to bring this case to the conclusion Homer Plessy hoped to see 125 years ago.

And if their last name sound familiar to you, it's because both are descendants of key players in this case.

Phoebe Ferguson is the great great granddaughter of John Howard Ferguson, the defendant of the case, and Keith Plessy.

He's Homer Plessy's cousin.

The two unlikely friends bonded over their shared connection to the past.

It was through that that they both decided a wrong should be righted.

But the question was how we began speaking with some.

Very.

Some very.

Astute friends of ours in New Orleans, Brenda Square, from at the time, the Amistad Research Center.

She's an archivist and historian and a true junior who's Apertura son, obviously.

And they encouraged us to create this foundation because of the significance of the two of us coming together.

They foresaw the opportunity and and helped us and supported us in creating the foundation and its mission.

After eleven years of working together, the two created an organization called Plessy and Ferguson with the goal of promoting civil rights and history.

But the only way to truly reckon with the history they shared was to bring it to the forefront once again.

This time they wanted Homer, plus his crime erased from the record.

So they enlisted help from Jason Williams, the Orleans parish district attorney who's made a point to expunge criminal records of the wrongly accused and convicted these two with the last name place in the last name Ferguson.

They began to have hard conversations and confront the sins of the past decisions by our forbearers, and they began to switch Plessy versus Ferguson to Plessy and Ferguson.

And as a young lawyer, I would go hear these two speak just to hear about the case, to hear more research about the case.

Because as you know, this is not taught very well in any of our schools.

And so I was always amazed that my hometown was the site of this monumental case.

And very recently, we sat down and we talked about a pardon.

And I see very reason.

I mean, a few weeks ago and we we got about our business to prepare and coauthor and submit a pardon application to the board.

To remove the stigma that he just described.

Williams says that removing the criminal charge won't take away Homer Plessy's conviction, but it will right a wrong for a man that didn't deserve the charges he got.

My predecessor, the predecessor in Orleans, bears this attorney's office prosecuted home, blessed for something that was a crime at that time , and it absolutely should not have been a crime at that time.

But, you know, the Supreme Court decided.

Separate but equal.

But even after they had that horrible decision that would plague this country for 425 years after the D.A.

at the time still demanded a conviction of Homer Plessy.

And I think that is symbolic of the fact that just because a prosecutor has, he has the power and ability to prosecute someone doesn't mean that they always should.

The Louisiana Pardon Board's decision means something a little different for Ferguson.

To her, it was more of an apology, long overdue.

The case is still relevant in so many ways because our country is still grappling and trying to figure out how to how to bring.

Equality into the lives of every American, and we are still we are still experiencing acts of brutal violence against black Americans, and for Plessy, the decision to pardon was a no brainer.

It is a tremendous relief that I you as a relative and among my relatives who have spoken to that are aware of what's going on right now with his pardon.

The pardon has one more step before these dreams are fully realized.

The governor has to sign.

But until then, Plessy and Ferguson will continue telling their amazing story.

A friendship and unity.

Governor John Bel Edwards was out of state when the Louisiana pardon board voted to pardon Homer Plessy.

But he says he will definitely sign when he comes back to Louisiana.

And finally, Thursday night, the Baton Rouge Press Club and Baton Rouge Mayor President Sharon Weston Broome honored the president and CEO Beth Courtney.

She was recognized for her unparalleled 45 years of service in public media.

She has done just about everything the person can do in journalism in Louisiana and has done it for about a half century and 45 years at LPB starting as the executive producer and 37 years as the president of Louisiana Public Broadcasting, which is we knew grew from something that was a small entity into a national juggernaut that has been recognized as a member of the CPB board.

She has been on national program, using it on William Buckley's firing line at one point.

And for those of us who've known her, she is a giant in this industry.

LPB's acting general manager, C.C.

Copeland and others accepted the award on Beth's behalf.

Congratulations, Beth, well-deserved.

And everyone that is 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 so you've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For everyone here at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I'm Andre’ Moreau and I'm Kara St. Cyr.

Until next time, that's the state we're in.

Entergy is proud to support programing on LPB and greener practices that preserve Louisiana.

The goal of our environmental and sustainability initiatives really is to ensure that our kids and future generations can be left with a cleaner planet.

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.