COVID surge slams hospitals; tensions within BRPD boil over in discipline fight

The Advocate's Top Headlines

with Matthew Albright | Assistant metro editor

Good morning! Here's some of the most interesting reads from yesterday.

The COVID surge isn't slowing.

The furious spread of new variants of COVID is continuing unabated in Louisiana. This graphic gives a clear, stark picture of just how fast the virus is spreading, and how many people it's putting in the hospital.

This fourth surge is putting Baton Rouge hospitals in a dark, familiar place: staff are facing burnout, and fears of equipment shortages are starting to return.

Tensions in BRPD boil over

It's a sort of fight that's increasingly common: Over the course of a 13-hour-long meeting, Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul and his administration sparred with some officers and their representatives over internal discipline. The civil service board ended up again reversing sanctions Paul handed down restoring the rank of an officer he demoted.

This story looks at the tensions within BRPD that are causing these fights, and what that means for the department and taxpayers.

Lake Charles grows desperate

America seems to have pretty much forgotten Hurricane Laura last year, but in Lake Charles many are still nowhere near back to normal. Our Lake Charles correspondent looked at the increasingly desperate steps local leaders are taking to try and get federal aid to help rebuild.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!