https://bsky.app/profile/cnich32.bsky.social/post/3lm4ly64pas2a

I will put references for all of this info in a comment to save space:

So back in Feb Landry announced he found $11M in savings from Louisiana Department of Health (LDH).

It turns out that a few weeks before that, Louisiana DOGE held secret meetings with Tara LeBlanc, an employee who works for Guidehouse, a consulting firm in the DC area. Before she worked for Guidehouse, she was director of Medicaid at LDH. Since these meetings were held in secret, there is no public record and we don't know what they actually discussed (which is a violation of transparency law).

1 week after Landry said he found $11M in savings, he announces LA DOGE was partnering with the LA Legislative auditor to find savings.

A little under two weeks after that, the LA Legislative auditor releases a report saying that LDH is being audited for misspending funds for Medicaid program MCIP, which was designed to enhance health outcomes for patients on Medicaid. The program was created in 2018 and implemented in 2019.

The audit is blaming the hospitals that were running the programs. However, think back to that secret meeting for a second: A Guidehouse description of Tera Leblanc welcomes the former Medicaid Executive Director for the LA Department of Health, and says she previously "designed and implemented plans to elevate Louisiana’s pioneering public health emergency unwinding strategy and enhance outcomes for Medicaid beneficiaries."

Tera LeBlanc was deputy and then executive director of Medicaid from (2019-2023). This means that LeBlanc was involved in designing and implementing plans to improve outcomes for Medicaid beneficiaries during 4 of the 5 years (2019-2024) that the Louisiana Legislative Auditor claims MCIP funds were misspent on administrative costs such as submitting reports and meetings.

Why do I bring up your LCMC doctors?

Around the time this audit was announced, I learned that several doctors who accept Medicaid were suddenly no longer with LCMC. Nobody seems to understand exactly what is going on. Nurses trying direct people on where to find care are being informed by patients that doctors they are recommending patients contact are no longer with LCMC. There is no reporting on this, which is why I am asking people to help me figure out exactly how widespread this issue is.

According to Landry's team, they found $11M in savings at LDH by eliminating contracts and almost 60 of the health department’s 7,700 employment positions in an effort to reduce spending. I would really like to see exactly what contracts and positions those were.

However, Landry's team also says the overall LDH budget for next year is also increasing due to Medicaid costs being out of their control. This is all apparently coming from federal money, but the day after an article came out clarifying that LDH budget was increasing by $1.5B, another article came out that said the Federal DOGE was suddenly slashing $55M in grant money already given to LDH. Some grants had already expired, but others hadn't.

The most recent estimate of budget elimination when considering expired vs not expired grants is ~$10M. Now LDH is having to figure out how to make up for that $10M in other ways. Which seems like it kind of offsets any "$11M savings" Landry found, but honestly I am very confused by most of this.

I do know that the LA Surgeon General Ralph Abraham, who has long opposed Medicaid expansion, claims that one reason the Medicaid budget is growing is because they have to offer doctors more money as an incentive to get them to accept Medicaid.

You've probably heard the often repeated phrase "no doctors want to accept Medicaid patients." So why were several doctors that accept Medicaid patients abruptly no longer practicing at LCMC?

Seems kind of counter intuitive to claim you need more money to pay doctors to incentivise them, only to have one of your largest contractors suddenly no longer employ doctors who have been accepting Medicaid patients for years, right?

If you get rid of all the doctors that will accept Medicaid, then it becomes pretty easy to prove the point that no doctors want to accept patients on Medicaid. Weird.

All four of these amendments were a blatant power grab and regressive taxation.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/59816920

> I published this story last week, but believe it or not, things have gotten even weirder since, and I haven't even checked the news today. > > If you're in Louisiana, don't forget today is the last day to vote on 4 proposed constitutional amendments. > > As is tradition in Louisiana, the amendments are vaguely worded and difficult to understand. Even legal experts seem to be confused about what exactly will be accomplished by these amendments. > > I'll be honest and admit that I also don't fully understand, but I plan to vote No on all four. Given my recent discovery that a vaguely worded executive order was used to grant the Louisiana National Guard authority over a state of emergency related to cybersecurity, I feel secure in the decision to deny the government another chance to amend the state constitution: > https://pimento-mori.ghost.io/comparing-edwards-original-state-of-emergency-cybersecurity-incident-with-landrys-renewal-2/ > > > Your vote is your own choice to make, and I hope you do vote regardless of what you choose to vote for. Here are a few resources about the amendments if you would like more information: > > https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2025/03/28/explaining-the-proposed-amendments-to-the-louisiana-constitution-on-the-march-election-ballot/82709803007/ > > https://powercoalition.org/amendments/ > > > https://parlouisiana.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/PAR-Guide-to-the-2025-Constitutional-Amendments.pdf > > >

Y'all come on now... If anyone in Louisiana is actually seeing this, there is no way y'all are ok with that right?

The main link is a comparison of both John Bell Edwards original declaration and Landry's most recent renewal from the 20th.

One obvious difference seems to be that Landry grants to the director of the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) has authority to take whatever action he deems appropriate in response to declaration of emergency.

https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/acadiana/2025/03/21/gov-landry-louisiana-omv-emergency-software-failure/82590867007/

Allegedly it has to do with the office of motor vehicles. Wouldn't be a big deal, except on literally the same day, he announced GOHSEP is now under control of the National Guard.

According to Landry "This move not only delivers significant cost savings but also aligns with my belief in the importance of relying more on our National Guard to strengthen our state's resilience."

According to this article https://www.nola.com/news/politics/jeff-landry-restructure-gohsep-under-louisiana-national-guard-fiscal-responsibility/article_7e9e08f2-ee67-463c-a2b3-424f6165a087.html

"GOHSEP Director Jacques Thibodeaux took on a challenging role and served our state with dedication under difficult circumstances. We deeply appreciate his service," Landry said in the announcement.

Thibodeaux said in an interview that, over the next 30 days, he will help transition GOHSEP from a stand-alone agency to one under the purview of the National Guard in a role titled special assistant to the adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard.

His plans after that are currently undetermined, Thibodeaux said. He noted that he's worked in emergency management for 40 years and is also a retired army soldier and retired U.S. Marshal.

"I'm gonna take (a) well-needed break and enjoy my family, and then I'll determine what's gonna be the next chapter," he said.

So it seems like the director named in the order, no longer exists. If I'm just dumb and misunderstanding this please explain it to me.

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2025/03/homeland-security-makes-cuts-to-offices-overseeing-civil-rights-protections/

Only 2 of those 3 offices are involved in immigration. The 3rd is the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), which supports the Homeland Security's mission to secure the nation while preserving individual liberty, fairness, and equality under the law for all American citizens:

https://www.dhs.gov/office-civil-rights-and-civil-liberties

https://moskowitz.house.gov/posts/fema-independence-act-2025

https://federalnewsnetwork.com/congress/2025/03/lawmakers-introduce-bill-to-break-fema-out-of-dhs/?readmore=1

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5213057-noem-plans-eliminate-fema/

https://www.fema.gov/about/offices/civil-rights

This bill from a Florida Rep is proposing to liberate FEMA to allegedly free it from DHS red tape, but was introduced the same day DHS secretary said during a televised cabinet meeting she plans to eliminate FEMA from DHS. With FEMA eliminated, a 4th office of civil rights under FEMA is also eliminated.

If this bill succeeds, it means that FEMA no longer responds to an emergency situation as an agency. It will be under control of a single cabinet member who answers to the president.

This means that in an emergency, we also lose protection of the civil rights office within FEMA. The FEMA Office of Civil Rights is committed to the full enforcement of federal civil rights laws before, during, and after disasters.

Does that mean it's 100% effective at doing that? Hell no. It means it's a seatbelt that only works sometimes, but these people are arguing we might as well just cut the seatbelts out of a cars for being inefficient and only working sometimes.

I am in no way arguing that FEMA doesn't need some serious fixing, but please understand that if we lose protection of civil rights during a disaster, we lose any expectation of rights being upheld by the National Guard, which is now in full control over an emergency response in Louisiana.

https://www.nola.com/news/politics/jeff-landry-restructure-gohsep-under-louisiana-national-guard-fiscal-responsibility/article_7e9e08f2-ee67-463c-a2b3-424f6165a087.html

Hey Louisiana residents, don't know if you've heard about Landry's most recent cost saving efforts?

I'm sure I don't need to tell you why this would be very bad in any normal situation, but given some other things that are occurring at the federal level with Homeland Security's Office of Civil Rights, it's even worse than that.

So, I wrote a brief post with some information about why that is, and why all Americans should be concerned by these actions: https://pimento-mori.ghost.io/states-continue-to-push-law-and-policy-that-coincidentally-aids-federal-government-agenda/

TLDR: Landry spent $16 million to rehouse less than 200 homeless people for 2 months ahead of the Superbowl. The contract went to a company owned by one of his biggest donors which is owned by a private equity firm.

The building was damaged during the 2020 hurricane season and was the tallest building in the city.

A massive oil spill is covering Bayou Lafourche around Raceland, LA. According to the USGS publication, Water Resources of Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, the parish gets over 99% of its drinking water from surface water.