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Saturday, November 21, 2009

SUBURBAN AND STATE

HAMMOND — A private Hammond hospital built three years ago but never opened will be sold at auction in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Orleans on Dec. 9, court records show.

Detectives arrested a Hammond man in connection with a series of burglaries, the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office reported Friday.

GONZALES — State troopers and city police arrested a Gonzales man Thursday in a state investigation of child pornography activities, Louisiana State Police reported Friday.

GONZALES — The Ascension Parish Council selected without comment or a recommendation from its roads committee engineering firms for three contracts worth up to $200,000 each.

WALKER — A car collided with an 18-wheeler, causing a fire and explosion that shut down Interstate 12 Friday morning, police reported.

LAFAYETTE — Space is still available in Lafayette Parish’s new eCampus program. The digital school began last week with 15 students, and as of Friday four more had applied, said Jarrett Coutee, the Lafayette Parish eCampus director. The goal is to enroll 75 to 100 students.

LAFAYETTE — A proposed 64-lot subdivision near Scott has highlighted problems that are becoming more common as developers eye large tracts in rural Lafayette Parish.

LAFAYETTE — Thanks to community support, the Police Association of Lafayette was able to provide 41 families with a complete Thanksgiving feast.

OPELOUSAS — A Lafayette Parish sheriff’s deputy was cited for allegedly slashing a vehicle’s tire in the parking lot of Walmart.

Allied Waste will not collect garbage or yard waste on Thanksgiving Day in Lafayette and surrounding parishes served by the company.

THIBODAUX — Nicholls State says it does more than educate Louisiana residents — it also is a big contributor to the state’s work force.

GONZALES — A 12-member jury this week convicted a Prairieville man of committing attempted aggravated rape about 10 years ago, a fugitive brought to justice with a boost from the “America’s Most Wanted” TV show, prosecutors said.

AMITE — A Hammond businessman accused of bilking more than 200 investors out of $11 million posted bail to gain his release from custody Friday, according to court and jail records.

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development posted changes in Mississippi River ferryboat schedules through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend at New Roads, Plaquemine, St. Francisville and White Castle.

A U.S. District Court grand jury today indicted the security guard who claimed she was attacked while working at LSU but later admitted she had stabbed herself.

A man wanted in the fatal shooting of Quincy Demond Gaines surrendered to authorities Thursday and will be booked into Parish Prison on a count of second-degree murder, a Baton Rouge Police Department spokesman said.

DENHAM SPRINGS — City and parish consulting engineers will file updated objections to proposed federal flood maps that could affect home and business owners over a wide area, officials said Tuesday.

AMITE — The Tangipahoa Parish School Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to fill two administrator slots, acting a week after a federal court decision ordering the SchoolBoard to hire black applicants.

CLINTON — The East Feliciana Police Jury unanimously agreed Tuesday to make the parish manager the top person in its employee chain of command.

ST. FRANCISVILLE — The West Feliciana Parish School Board decided Tuesday to schedule a special meeting to discuss ways to increase revenue, including the possibility of raising taxes.

NEW IBERIA — The Louisiana Technical College Teche Area campus in New Iberia is offering a tuition-free heavy equipment operator program starting Nov. 30.

PLAQUEMINE — The Iberville Parish Council voted unanimously Tuesday to send a proposed project list to the Louisiana Recovery Authority for the spending of $44 million in state hurricane recovery funds earmarked for the parish.

Ascension Parish government administration wants to accept a proposal in which the state highway department would revamp a section of Joe Sevario Road and then the parish would take over long-term maintenance of the road, parish officials said.

Every public school in Ascension Parish now has a seven-member team trained to respond to medical emergencies on campus, an official told the School Board Tuesday.

GONZALES — A state District Court judge sentenced an Ascension Parish man to serve a mandatory life prison sentence for his role in a drug-related slaying nearly two years ago, attorneys said Tuesday.

LAROSE — Deputies arrested five people and were looking for two others on cocaine distribution counts after an undercover sting in the “Two-Three” area of Larose, the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office reported.

ST. FRANCISVILLE — The West Feliciana Parish Police Jury voted 5-2 after a contentious debate Tuesday to pay $95,000 for a study of future traffic patterns along much of U.S. 61 in the parish.

HAMMOND — The City Council agreed Tuesday to start the planning process needed to overcome a major traffic bottleneck at Interstate 12 and U.S. 51-B on the city’s south side.

MORGANZA — Counselors were called to Valverda Elementary School Tuesday to help students cope with grief over the death of a classmate struck and killed by a car as he stepped off a school bus Monday night.

LAFAYETTE — In a few months, a mobile health clinic for low-income women and their children should be making the rounds in the Lafayette area.

LAFAYETTE — If the City-Parish Council rejects a proposed rate increase for Lafayette Utilities System, the decision could result in lower water pressure, longer power outages and more sewage back-ups, LUS Director Terry Huval told the council Tuesday in a pitch for the higher rates.

LAFAYETTE — The Department of Health and Hospitals will administer free H1N1 vaccines to Lafayette Parish schoolchildren on Dec. 5, the school system announced Monday.

LAFAYETTE — An official from the state Supreme Court is being asked to review caseloads in the 15th Judicial District as part of ongoing court proceedings over a plan voted in place by the district’s judges.

Professor Rebecca “Becky” White of the LSU Agriculture Center’s Cooperative Extension Service was honored Monday with the Louisiana Children’s Trust Fund’s Judge Richard Ware Award.

LAFAYETTE — Dr. James Robert “Bob” Rivet, 76, former medical director of Hospice of Acadiana, died Monday.

NEW IBERIA — The Louisiana Technical College Teche Area campus in New Iberia is offering a tuition-free heavy equipment operator program starting Nov.30.

The security guard who was stabbed Saturday at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center has now told investigators she injured herself, an LSU Police spokesman said.

GONZALES — Work on a project to improve four intersections along La. 44 is nearly complete, save for two signal poles jutting into turn lanes planned for La. 44 at Orice Roth Road and La. 44 at La. 30.

A 6-year-old boy was killed Monday in Pointe Coupee Parish when he stepped off his school bus and was hit by an oncoming vehicle, Louisiana State Police authorities said.

GONZALES — Sales tax collections in Ascension Parish continue to stay close to 2009 budget projections although revenue is down this year when compared with 2008 numbers, parish officials said Monday.

The Assumption Parish Sheriff’s Office is offering a $500 reward to anyone with information leading directly to the capture of Charles Richard Jr., deputies said Monday.

HAMMOND — The Louisiana Supreme Court appointed a neighboring justice of the peace to fill the vacancy of Keith Bardwell who resigned on Nov. 3, a court spokeswoman said Monday.

The University of Louisiana System took a step out of the norm Monday to hire an outsider as Grambling State University’s new interim president.

LAFAYETTE — A bus filled with city-parish department heads toured troubled areas of Lafayette Parish on Monday to get a firsthand look at junked cars, trash-lined streets and dilapidated houses.

LAFAYETTE — A local nonprofit will make its pitch Wednesday to the Lafayette Parish School Board to open a charter school on the campus of N.P. Moss Middle School in time for the 2010-11 school year.

LAFAYETTE — The Lafayette Parish School Board will meet at 2 p.m. Wednesday to mull over options to address the conditions of its facilities.

ABBEVILLE — The Vermilion Parish Police Jury welcomed news Monday that the Robley Drive Bridge bordering Lafayette will begin to be repaired in about two weeks.

The Community Foundation of Acadiana has released a Giving Back Catalog that details specific needs donors can meet for 54 local nonprofit groups.

A federal grand jury last week indicted a man doing business as Scott Oaks Chiropractic Clinic on three counts of health-care fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

U.S. marshals arrested a 29-year-old Abbeville man wanted on a first-degree murder count in Atlanta last week.

Union workers at Rhodia’s Baton Rouge chemical plant began returning to work Saturday after they ratified a new three-year labor agreement Friday, ending a strike that began Nov. 3, a company spokesman said Sunday in a news release.

Man who attacked LSU guard at large LSU Police were still looking for the attacker in the stabbing of a woman security guard Saturday at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center as of Sunday.

The H1N1 flu vaccine will be administered at Southern University from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today through Wednesday, a university spokesman said Sunday in a news release.

Celebrate artwork, renovations The Livingston Parish Arts Council and parish Chamber of Commerce will have an art show 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday as part the grand-opening ceremony of the renovated offices at 133 Hummell St. in Denham Springs shared by the two groups.

The state departments of Agriculture, Hospitals, Natural Resources and others have public safety programs which require safety inspectors to travel throughout the state. What criteria does the Division of Administration use to determine the need for replacing state vehicles for these safety programs?

LIVINGSTON — Sales taxes for Livingston Parish’s two largest municipalities were down again in October, and both mayors say they have taken steps to cut expenses.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Riedlinger, the longest-serving magistrate in the history of the Baton Rouge-based Middle District of Louisiana, is seeking reappointment for another eight years.

For symphony pianist Geraldine Hubbell, it’s not about Gibson and Stratocaster. It’s all about Steinway and Sons. It’s not about Elvis and the Beatles. It’s about Mozart and Beethoven.

Gay Boudreaux is well aware of the irony in the decade that saw downtown Baton Rouge blossom being the same one that convinced her that her family’s stationery store, a Third Street institution for 76 years, is no longer relevant to American life.

Mayor-President Kip Holden’s proposed $901 million capital improvement tax package failed Saturday because of a lopsided “no” vote in suburban, predominantly white areas of East Baton Rouge Parish, according to an analysis of precinct vote totals.

A new program is available in East Baton Rouge and surrounding parishes to help match people with community services so they can stay out of nursing homes.

A 60-year-old St. Helena farmer died Sunday after being crushed by a hay baler, St. Helena authorities said.

Treasurer wants details on contracts State Treasurer John Kennedy wants details from the state Department of Education on $615 million in contracts granted over the past four years.

Residents in two East Baton Rouge Parish crime-prevention districts decided Saturday to charge themselves additional money every year to pay for more law enforcement patrols.

A. P. Tureaud Jr. has lived for six decades with the memory of LSU students beating on his dormitory door all night and professors refusing to acknowledge his presence in their classrooms or to even touch his homework papers.

GONZALES — The Ascension Parish Council has taken its first, halting steps at tackling major reapportionment changes expected to result from the 2010 census.

Many people leaving Louisiana’s state welfare rolls may have traded one government-assistance system for another, some social policy researchers say.

Mayor-President Kip Holden’s $901 million capital improvements tax package was soundly defeated by East Baton Rouge Parish voters Saturday. The tax package failed with 64 percent of voters against the proposal and 36 percent in favor, according to complete but unofficial returns from the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office.

Police and Fire briefs for November 15, 2009

SORRENTO — Marvin Martin beat former two-term Town Councilwoman Troy Braud 57.6 percent to 42.5 percent in a special runoff election Saturday, complete but unofficial election results show.

CROWLEY — Voters in the Branch community of Acadia Parish renewed a 10-year, 8.01-mill tax for Fire Protection District 6. The renewal passed by a vote of 50 to 4. The property tax generates about $86,700 a year.

BAKER — The Baker Fire Department will move into its new $3.4 million central fire station later this week, after a 10 a.m. public dedication program on Monday.

BRUSLY — Students at Brusly Elementary School, learning they would be getting a new playground, made some requests that were a bit outlandish.

BAYOU GOULA — Volunteers hoping to save a revered community church planned to start cleaning up the building and grounds Saturday as part of their plan to one day buy the property from the church parish so that worship services can resume there someday.

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