| Good Morning, The world is focusing on the striking fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. Louisiana is still in the throes of the pandemic, which roared back in the last month because of the highly infectious and more dangerous delta variant of COVID-19. Hospitalizations rose to a record high Monday, nearing just shy of 3,000 patients statewide. The hospitals are too thinly staffed to provide the typical staff-to-patient ratio. Almost all of the new infections are among those who have not been vaccinated, which is the majority in Louisiana. The state Department of Health catalogued 10,415 Louisiana deaths caused by the coronavirus. Gov. John Bel Edwards will be visiting Louisiana Healthcare Connections this afternoon, to recognize the work of Nurse Carla Brown, who has personally vaccinated over 2,000 Louisiana residents. Edwards could take the opportunity to comment on the growing opposition to his mandate that everyone, including children in school, wear masks while indoors. Opposition to his order has intensified since public schools reopened to in-person classes last week. The governor is expected to announce adjustments to his COVID orders on Friday. During an all-day legislative hearing Monday, top state health and administration officials were booed and jeered by anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers raising many arguments from the vaccines weren’t properly tested to masking students amounts to child abuse to government officials are lying to the media is overblowing the pandemic. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, Louisiana’s top school board, is asking federal officials for a waiver that would pave the way for shelving the issuance of accountability letter grades for K-12 schools because of classroom upheaval sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. Statewide tests showed a dramatic drop after last year’s students were educated at home over the internet or through a combination of online learning with limited in-class teaching. Public schools are graded on an A-F scale. Parents from low scoring schools can move their children to other schools. The U.S. Department of Education is expected to approve BESE’s proposal and has already signed off on waiver requests from 45 or so other states, officials said. As always, check throughout the day for the latest Louisiana political news at theadvocate.com/politics or NOLA.com/politics and on Twitter at @MarkBallardCNB, @tegbridges, @samkarlin, @blakepater, @WillSentell. Here are a dozen articles, commentaries and editorials that will catch you up for the week to come. One last item: Thank you to our subscribers. Your support means a great deal to us. If you're not yet a subscriber, we’ve got a special offer you can check out here. – Mark Ballard | 
