The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has confirmed that the deadly brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri was found in the drinking water of the St. Bernard Parish water system.
The parish has been asked to conduct a 60-day “chlorine burn” to kill off the amoeba. The parish said they would comply “out of an abundance of caution.”
“At this point that’s a decision that the DHH has to make. We trust their expertise in this field. We do we feel that the system is fine and this was an anomaly,” said St. Bernard Parish President David Peralta.
“One positive test was at a site at the water treatment plant before the water was treated,” reads a statement from the DHH. “The second positive test occurred at 948 Angela Street, which may have been contaminated by ground water due to a leak at the sampling station.”
“Someone hit it. They probably hit it with a car or tractor or lawn mower-never reported it. It pocketed some water, so when they took the sample some of the standing water infiltrated our line. And that’s what gave us a positive indication,” said St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta.
The DHH says that the water is safe to drink, but that people should avoid getting water in their nose when bathing, washing or swimming because that’s the method the amoeba reaches the brain. Only three people in the world since the discovery of the amoeba have survived an infection.
Meraux homeowner Ashley Jolly told WDSU she was shocked to get an alert about the amoeba in the middle of giving her twin boys a bath.
“They like to play in the water. And they just went through swimming lessons and they’re learning to blow water in and out of their nose and their mouths,” said Jolly.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy and said that while ISIS needs to be fought, Iran needs to be stopped in their nuclear program.
“We shouldn’t give Iran a path to nuclear weapons and billions of dollars to pursue aggression because of ISIS. ISIS should be fought; Iran should be stopped,” Netanyahu said.
“As horrific as ISIS is, once Iran acquires nuclear weapons, it will be a hundred times more dangerous and more destructive than ISIS,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu spoke to the Senator about the nuclear negotiations that have resumed with Iran.
“I see no reason to rush to a deal, and certainly not a bad deal that paves Iran’s path to the bomb, but also fills Iran’s coffers with tens of billions of dollars to pursue its aggression throughout the Middle East and around Israel’s borders,” Netanyahu said.
Cassidy, who defeated incumbent Mary Landrieu in a runoff election last year, has been a staunch supporter of Israel during his time in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Planned Parenthood won’t be able to perform abortions at their new facility in New Orleans.
The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals rejected a request from Planned Parenthood to allow for abortions to take place at a currently under construction facility.
“Planned Parenthood’s application for an outpatient abortion facility license was denied by the department based on failure to demonstrate the need for an outpatient abortion facility in the DHH Region 1, as well as failure to meet the requirements of a facility need review process,” Ashley C. Lewis, a spokesperson for the DHH, told The Christian Post. Lewis said the department ruled this way because: “The number of other outpatient abortion facilities in the same geographic location, region and the area serving the same population; as well as allegations involving issues of access to outpatient abortion services.”
Pro-abortion activists are blaming Governor Bobby Jindal, saying that he has taken steps to stop abortion from growing in the state of Louisiana. They have taken the state to court over laws that, for example, require doctors who perform abortions to be able to admit patients to a hospital within 30 miles.
A spokeswoman for Americans United for Life told the Christian Post that Planned Parenthood is always seeking to expand their abortion business and expects the group to try again to open an abortion room at the new facility.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has invited the other 49 U.S. governors to attend the national prayer gathering he is holding in Baton Rouge Saturday.
The letter states that America is in need and that it’s time for the governors to come together for an “apolitical” gathering to worship. Jindal says it’s time for America’s leaders and worshippers to call on “our great Creator to intervene on behalf of our people and nation.”
“There will only be one name lifted up that day — Jesus,” Jindal wrote. “There will be no politicians giving speeches and no preachers pontificating.”
Jindal focused the letter’s call on 2 Chronicles 7:14.
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Jindal has called in previous videos and letters for Americans to turn back to God, repent and ask Him to guide the leaders of this nation. Jindal hosted a similar event in 2011 that was attended by Florida Governor Rick Scott and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback.
Abortionists have filed a lawsuit against the state of Louisiana over a law that the claim will force them to close.
HB 388 passed the Louisiana House of Representatives 88-5 and the Senate 34-3. The bill would require abortionists to obtain admitting privileges if a woman is injured during an abortion and require further medical care.
“On the date the abortion is performed or induced, a physician performing or inducing an abortion shall have active admitting privileges at a hospital that is located not further than thirty miles from the location at which the abortion is performed or induced and that provides obstetrical or gynecological health care services,” the bill reads.
The lawsuit claims that there is not a sufficient amount of time from the passage of the law until it goes into effect for the clinics to obtain the approvals necessary to stay open after September 1st.
Laws similar to the Louisiana law have been upheld in most other states including Texas, where at the end of 2014 it’s predicted only 6 of 41 abortion clinics will remain open.
A Louisiana sheriff says that he is not going to cancel a planned public prayer event even if the ACLU is objecting to the event as unconstitutional.
Sheriff Julian Whittington of Bossier Parish, Louisiana is hosting the second annual “In God We Trust” rally on the Fourth of July. The event will include food, games, prayer and what the Sheriff termed “patriotic and God-lifting music.” The event is taking place on the grounds of a sheriff’s substation in Bossier, property that is owned by the city.
The ACLU is complaining that the existence of the event on the city property means they’re violating church and state and the event needs to be shut down no matter how much of a benefit it is to the city.
Sheriff Whittington said he’s not the least bit concerned about the ACLU.
“Not only am I elected to serve the people of Bossier Parish, but I live here and my family lives here. I think Bossier Parish is a better place with Christianity and Christian values involved in it,” Whittington told the Shreveport Times. “I don’t work for anybody in Washington. What they do, what they say, I couldn’t really care less.”
The ACLU says the event is telling non-Christian residents of the area that “they are less than equal and not worthy of support by their sheriff” even though Sheriff Whittington has not made any statements nor taken any actions that back up the ACLU’s assertion.
Louisiana has become the latest state to pass laws aimed at requiring abortion clinics to have safe conditions on the level of other major medical facilities.
One of those requirements is for abortionists to have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of the abortion clinic.
House Bill 388 reads: “On the date the abortion is performed or induced, a physician performing or inducing an abortion shall have active admitting privileges at a hospital that is located not further than thirty miles from the location at which the abortion is performed or induced and that provides obstetrical or gynecological health care services.”
The law passed the House of Representatives 88-5 after passing the Senate 34-3 earlier this month.
Governor Bobby Jindal said he’s looking forward to signing the bill.
The law reportedly will force three of the state’s five abortion clinics to close.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal believes the most important moment in his life is the moment he accepted Christ as his Savior.
The governor is scheduled to speak at Liberty University this weekend and released an advanced copy of his speech where he openly and boldly speaks of the importance of Christ in his life.
This is from the text of the governor’s address:
The short story is this, I read the words of Jesus Christ and I realized that they were true. I used to think that I had found God, but I believe it is more accurate to say that He found me. And it happened because people were brave enough to plant seeds of the Gospel in my life.
Many years later, when I became a candidate for political office, in one of my first debates, I got the question– “What is the single most important moment in your life?”
I had just endured countless hours of debate prep sessions with my political consultants and staff. That’s where you sit around and get savagely grilled by people you pay – your political consultants and staffers. I knew exactly what they hoped I would say – they would argue that I should try to appeal to female voters by offering a touching story about when I asked my wife Supriya for her hand in marriage, or about the birth of my first child. And yes, those were great moments.
But instead, I decided to do something new in politics, I told the audience the truth — that the most significant moment of my life was when I turned it over to Jesus Christ and acknowledged Him as my Savior.
My political consultants then began shifting uncomfortably in their seats…and I have to admit I enjoyed that.
Jindal goes on to talk about how despite what many in the liberal academic community claim about followers of Christ, it is not a faith that is followed by those with a lack of intelligence. Jindal is a Rhodes scholar.
A Louisiana lawmaker has abandoned his bill to make the Bible the state’s official book.
State Rep. Thomas Carmody had filed HB 503 and it had even passed through a committee hearing before he took the action to pull the bill from consideration. The bill would have made a specific Bible currently in the possession of the state the “official state book.”
Carmody pulled the bill after other lawmakers said it caused a “distraction” that took away from other issues that needed to be addressed by the state legislature.
Several Democratic opponents to the bill kept pointing out that it would likely be challenged in court, drawing away tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on something that did not need to be spent. However, at least one legal scholar believes the law would have been just fine.
“Judges are likely to think that this is de minimis, too minor to care about,” Professor Douglas Laycock of the Virginia School of Law told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “They don’t tell the President he can’t issue Thanksgiving proclamations or host a national prayer breakfast, and judges are likely to view this the same way.”
The state of Louisiana is moving closer to naming the Holy Bible the official state book.
A committee in the House of Representatives approved the legislation last week and the bill now moves to the entire House for discussion and floor vote. The House Committee on Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs passed the bill on an 8 to 5 vote.
The bill’s sponsor says that the purpose of the measure is not an attempt to establish an official state religion.
“It’s not to the exclusion of anyone else’s sacred literature,” Republican Representative Thomas Carmody told the Christian Post. Carmody said the Bible reflects America’s history and founding principles as outlined by the Founding Fathers.
Critics of the bill say its unnecessary and makes the state open to lawsuits by anti-Christian activists. The ACLU of Louisiana has also expressed their concerns about the bill saying the official state book should related to the history of Louisiana.
