The state Office of Public Health this week will begin posting online certain portions of inspection reports for restaurants, bars and residential and day-care centers.
The website, according to The Advocate, will allow the public to see specific “critical” and “noncritical” public health violations found in restaurants — but the data will not be posted until seven days after an inspection takes place.
Also included in the database will be info on 8,800 stores, 4,700 bars, 2,500 day-care and residential facilities, and others. Not included, though, will be overall number or letter grades of the businesses, a practice DHH tried in 2005 and later abandoned:
The agency is responsible for licensing and permitting nearly 32,000 retail food establishments through its food safety certification program. Restaurants account for 50 percent of the total.
Other parts of the site would provide the public with food safety information, such as tips for: tailgating parties, preparing a child’s school lunch, and alerts when there are food-related scares.
State Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein said people should have convenient access to public records, and today’s technology allows that to happen, rather than making people wade through reams of paper.
The website announcement follows an investigation by The Daily Advertiser that maintains the website was launched only after the daily’s extensive probe of inspections. Its report finds that Louisiana is one of only 10 states that doesn’t post inspections online, and says that even after the info is posted publicly, it won’t include the full reports:
The DHH has gone with a new, objective approach to inspections, simply listing restaurants’ critical and non-critical violations. “There’s no way to say what the best restaurant is in the government’s point of view,” Greenstein said.
Critical violations, or immediate health hazards, are listed first. These violations might have to do with cross-contamination of raw and cooked food, a rodent or insect problem or improper food temperatures.
Non-critical violations are listed next. These violations could become critical if not repaired. These violations include dirty utensils, improper food storage and unclean floors.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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