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American Press
9 hours ago
- Politics
- American Press
US Department of Education launches nationwide tour
By Nolan Mckendry | The Center Square The Department of Education launched a national tour this month in its continuing efforts to dismantle the agency and revert power back to the states. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced the Returning Education to the States Tour in an effort to ensure President Trump's goal of dismantling the U.S. Department of Education . During the education tour, Secretary McMahon will visit all 50 states and meet with schools, hear from teachers and students on education and ways to improve learning outcomes, and ensure families have the freedom to choose the best educational path for their child's needs. The tour officially kicked off this week with McMahon visiting Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee. 'President Trump entrusted me with a vital mission to return education to the states, and part of that is learning best practices from each state,' said U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. 'As students head back to school, I will travel across our great nation to visit classrooms, listen to voices on the ground, and spotlight the incredible work happening at the local level.' Trump wants all children to have access to quality education, McMahon stated, by ultimately giving it to the states where education is closest to the child and allowing states to enact regulations. 'Let's have parents be at the center of that because parents are with their children. They know what is best for their child, and they should have the choice to put their children in schools where they can flourish,' McMahon said. 'No child should be a prisoner of a failing school.' On Monday, McMahon toured an East Baton Rouge school in Louisiana, along with various lawmakers and education officials. 'As I'm starting 'Returning Education to the States', I want to make sure that states can have best practices to look at,' she said.
American Press
01-08-2025
- Science
- American Press
Gulf of America ‘dead zone' shrank sharply in 2025, scientists say
By Nolan McKendry | The Center Square The Gulf of America's 'dead zone' has shrunk significantly this summer, with scientists measuring a hypoxic area of just over 4,400 square miles — roughly a third smaller than last year and far less than the long-term average, federal officials announced Wednesday. The dead zone, a stretch of oxygen-depleted water that forms annually off the Louisiana and Texas coasts, is caused primarily by excess nutrients washing into the Gulf from the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin. This year's zone, measured during a July 20–25 survey aboard the research vessel Pelican, was 4,402 square miles — 21% smaller than NOAA's early-season estimate and the 15th smallest on record, according to NOAA-supported scientists from LSU and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. 'This year's significant reduction in the Gulf of America's 'dead zone' is an encouraging sign for the future of this area,' said Laura Grimm, acting NOAA administrator. 'It highlights the dedication and impactful work of NOAA-supported scientists and partners, and serves as a testament to the effectiveness of collaborative efforts in supporting our U.S. fishermen, coastal communities, and vital marine ecosystems.' The measured area is equivalent to roughly 2.8 million acres of bottom habitat temporarily made unavailable to marine life such as fish and shrimp due to low oxygen levels. That marks a 30% drop from 2024, when the zone spanned a massive 6,703 square miles — more than 1.3 times the long-term average and nearly 3.5 times larger than the target goal of 1,930 square miles set by the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force. Despite this year's improvement, the five-year running average remains high at 4,755 square miles—still more than double the federal benchmark. Dead zones emerge when excess nutrients — mostly nitrogen and phosphorus from upstream agriculture and wastewater — fuel algae blooms. As algae die and sink, their decomposition consumes oxygen in bottom waters. Without sufficient oxygen, marine species must flee or perish. In 2024, the area west of the Mississippi River experienced heavy hypoxia with extremely low oxygen readings and little water mixing, according to NOAA. 'The stratification of warmer surface water over cooler, saltier bottom water was strong enough to prevent oxygen replenishment,' researchers wrote in a followup report. Some bottom waters saw oxygen drop across the lower five meters of the water column. Even with relatively low chlorophyll readings — indicating modest live algae near the surface — researchers noted high concentrations of degraded algae and organic detritus near the seafloor, still enough to drive significant bacterial oxygen consumption. The Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force, a coalition of federal and state agencies, has worked for over two decades to reduce nutrient pollution flowing into the Gulf. The EPA established a dedicated Gulf Hypoxia Program in 2022 to accelerate these efforts. 'The Gulf of America is a national treasure that supports energy dominance, commercial fishing, American industry, and the recreation economy,' said Peggy Browne, acting assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Water. 'I look forward to co-leading the work of the Gulf Hypoxia Task Force to assess evolving science and address nutrient loads from all sources.' So far, nitrogen loading from the Mississippi River has not declined since the 2001 adoption of the Hypoxia Action Plan, scientists noted. NOAA's June 2025 forecast, which had predicted a dead zone of 5,574 square miles, was based on U.S. Geological Survey nutrient data from spring river flows and fell within model uncertainty ranges. NOAA's Coastal Hypoxia Research, Ocean Technology Transition, and Uncrewed Systems programs are working to improve monitoring and prediction tools. This year, several autonomous surface vehicles were deployed alongside ship-based crews to compare mapping methods. Researchers said ASVs may provide a more cost-effective way to track dead zones in the future. NOAA also partners with the Northern Gulf Institute and Gulf of Mexico Alliance to expand observational capabilities and state-level technical support.
American Press
30-07-2025
- Business
- American Press
State financial officers urge financial institutions to abandon ESG
By Tom Joyce | The Center Square A group of 26 financial officers from 21 states sent letters to 18 major financial institutions this week, warning them to abandon environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices if they wish to continue doing business with their states. The letters said ESG has undermined the traditional fiduciary duty that firms owe their clients, focusing solely on financial return, and instead prioritizes advancing political agendas. 'Fiduciary duty has long been a critical safeguard that facilitated efficient capital allocation grounded in financial merit rather than political ideology,' the letter said. 'But that clarity is being diluted under the banner of so-called 'long-term risk mitigation,' where speculative assumptions about the future, like climate change catastrophe, are used to justify ideological conclusions today.' Signers include state treasurers, auditors, and comptrollers from states like Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Utah. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and 17 other financial leaders were recipients of the joint letter. Others include executives from Vanguard, Fidelity, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and State Street. The letter said that while some firms have started leaving global climate coalitions and reducing ESG-related proxy votes, the state financial officers want 'durable assurances' that fiduciary duty, not politics, drives investment decisions. 'While some firms have recently taken encouraging steps, such as withdrawing from global climate coalitions and scaling back ESG rhetoric and proxy votes, and some states have permitted incremental reintegration, more work must be done,' the letter said. 'The number one issue is a recommitment to the foundational principles of fiduciary duty, loyalty, objectivity, and financial focus.' 'Actions always speak louder than words. Requiring America's financial giants to prove their independence from woke ideology with concrete steps before doing business with a state's dollars is fully necessary and just makes sense,' Oleka said. 'These financial officers are doing the right thing for their states and the taxpayers whose financial security they've been entrusted to protect.' Will Hild, executive director of Consumers' Research, also praised the letter. 'BlackRock is playing a game of deceit,' Hild said. 'Fink and his team are trying to say all the right things to conservatives while quietly doubling down on their activist agenda behind the scenes.' The move comes after Texas removed BlackRock from its blacklist earlier this month and resumed investing with the firm – a move that drew criticism from others still pushing back against ESG. The letter indicates that many states won't follow suit. 'Financial institutions wishing to compete for our states' business should provide durable assurances that their practices align with these principles,' the letter said. 'Our responsibility is to ensure public assets are managed in the best financial interest of beneficiaries and taxpayers.' O.J. Oleka, president of the State Financial Officers Foundation, said the states are right to demand proof that ESG is no longer a factor in investing for these companies.
American Press
30-07-2025
- Health
- American Press
Dozens of Louisiana hospitals in violation of Trump price transparency order
Louisiana hospitals are increasingly under fire for violating federal price transparency rules, with three facilities fined in the past five months as part of a renewed enforcement push by the Trump administration. In May, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a $93,214 civil penalty to Community Care Hospital in New Orleans for repeated failures to post pricing information required under federal law. The agency found the hospital had no machine-readable pricing file online, failed to include key charge elements for shoppable services, and did not provide required website links or file formats. Earlier this spring, Northlake Behavioral Health System in Mandeville was fined over $257,000 for similar violations. Advocates say the surge in penalties highlights how far many hospitals remain from giving patients clear, upfront prices — and how Louisiana lags behind the rest of the country. 'Hospitals in Louisiana are falling short of the necessary federal price transparency requirements that have been in place since 2021,' Connie Partoyan, Executive Director at Better Solutions for Healthcare, told The Center Square. 'With health care costs continuing to climb, Louisiana patients and employers have a right to know exactly what they're paying for when they go to a hospital.' Ilaria Santangelo, research director for — a nonprofit watchdog group tracking hospital transparency — said such penalties are long overdue. 'Everyone's gotten that medical bill in the mail and been flabbergasted,' Santangelo said in an interview with The Center Square. 'We see prices vary tenfold in the same hospital for the same procedure, and over thirty times between hospitals in the same region.' According to the group's November 2024 compliance report, only 15% of Louisiana hospitals reviewed were fully compliant with the federal Hospital Price Transparency Rule — worse than the national average of 21.1%. And just 13% of Louisiana facilities posted enough real, dollars-and-cents prices to allow meaningful price comparisons. According to Santangelo, most hospitals in Louisiana are giving patients estimates or unintelligible algorithms instead of accountable prices. 'Most of the hospitals we looked at posted estimates or incalculable algorithms in lieu of actual prices, which made these pricing files unable to be shopped,' Santangelo said. The price transparency rule, first enacted via a 2019 executive order by then-President Donald Trump, requires hospitals to post their negotiated rates, cash prices, and de-identified minimum and maximum charges in a machine-readable format. Though the Biden administration maintained the rule, Santangelo says it weakened enforcement and allowed hospitals to substitute actual prices with estimates or algorithms. In practice, that rollback let hospitals obscure their prices behind averages and formulas that can't be verified, Santangelo said. 'President Trump's reaffirming his commitment to real price transparency with his February executive order that in bold, required real prices and not estimates,' she said. Under the revised Trump-era enforcement regime, hospitals must now attest — under penalty of law — that their pricing data is accurate and complete. The administration also proposed a new rule in 2025 to eliminate the use of uncalculable estimates, tighten algorithm standards, and improve access to price data. CMS can issue civil fines of up to $5,500 per day depending on a hospital's bed count. According to Santangelo, only about 20 hospitals in noncompliance were ever fined over four years. 'Who knows why compliance is low, but hospitals were not meaningfully penalized enough for non compliance,' Santangelo said. CMS itself has formally acknowledged a significant ramp‑up in its enforcement of hospital price transparency. Under its April 26, 2023 enforcement update, the agency disclosed that it had expanded from roughly 30–40 to over 200 comprehensive pricing reviews per month, and had issued more than 730 warning notices and 269 corrective action plan requests as of April 2023.
American Press
29-07-2025
- Health
- American Press
Louisiana 'ahead of the game' on Medicaid overhaul, but funding challenges loom
Rep. Stephanie Berault, R-Slidell, who sits on the House Health and Welfare Committee, says the state is well prepared to manage upcoming changes with Medicaid — although concerns remain about the burden of new work requirements and a looming loss of federal dollars. 'I don't think it's going to be as bad as all the panic seems to be,' Berault told The Center Square in an interview. 'We're going to have to make some adjustments and plan over time. I think it's going to force us to speed up some technological improvements that we were going to make anyway.' Roughly 400,000 people have lost Medicaid coverage in Louisiana since July 2023, when the state resumed eligibility checks that had been paused during the COVID-19 public health emergency. That reduced Medicaid enrollment to about 1.6 million as of June — a 21% drop from the 2023 peak of 2 million, according to a report from the Louisiana Public Affairs Research Council, citing data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Much of the concern, Berault said, stems from fears that people could lose coverage due to administrative hurdles rather than ineligibility. 'It seems to me that a lot of the panic is around the fear that people will lose coverage because of paperwork issues, not necessarily because they lost eligibility,' Berault said. 'We have the technology that we can implement… we're just going to have to find a way to do it more quickly.' Under recently passed federal legislation dubbed the 'One Big Beautiful Bill,' Medicaid eligibility rules will tighten further. Most adult recipients will be required to work or participate in certain activities at least 80 hours per month by the end of 2026. The law also mandates income verification every six months — a compliance challenge for lower-income residents, Berault noted. 'A lot of times, people who are already having low-income challenges, resource challenges — it's compliance with having to deal with checking in and work requirements that is more difficult,' she said. Berault expects that her 'One Door' law will aid the state transition away from federal dependency. The law aims to streamline benefit access through a centralized system that connects the Louisiana Department of Health and Louisiana Workforce Commission. 'That has put us a little bit ahead of the game… the collaboration between workforce and LDH is already happening here,' Berault said. 'There will be a dashboard… they will have a case manager through Louisiana Works who is going to be helping them manage all of their benefits.' Under Berault's law, Louisiana Department of Health will handle SNAP and Medicaid eligibility, 'but it's all going to be going through a centralized from the perspective of Louisiana residents needing services,' Berault said. The federal Medicaid overhaul is also expected to impact the state's budget in coming years, as Louisiana will be required to shoulder a greater share of costs currently covered through provider taxes — a financing mechanism that draws down additional federal matching dollars. 'That is a concern that we're going to have to address during the budgeting process,' Berault said. 'As the provider tax piece drops down, the state will be required to put up more… so we're going to have to figure out where that money comes from.' Of Louisiana's $21.2 billion Medicaid budget, about $16 billion — or 75% — is currently funded by the federal government. That reliance is partly due to Louisiana's high poverty rate and its decision to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. As of 2025, about 32.8% of Louisiana residents are enrolled in the program, one of the highest rates in the country, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Despite the disenrollment trend, Louisiana's Medicaid budget continues to grow — driven by medical inflation and rate increases for providers — even as fewer people are covered. Still, Berault remains optimistic that Louisiana's proactive efforts to modernize its eligibility systems and coordinate agencies will help soften the blow of upcoming federal mandates. 'My hope is, and my expectation is, that fewer people will be missed than maybe the expectation is going to be — that there's going to be a lot of people that lose their Medicaid just because they didn't click the box, they didn't get in and verify their income,' she said. 'But if workforce is already communicating with LDH, then hopefully there'll be a lot less of that.'
