Thursday, May 15, 2008
TODAY'S NEWS
As cleanup began Thursday, some school systems closed while hundreds of homes and businesses remained without power. The first of the two upper-level disturbances began moving through the area Wednesday afternoon. The second storm system formed around 5 a.m. Thursday, said Tim Destri, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Slidell.
A potential Nucor Corp. metal mill in St. James Parish could be a better fit for Louisiana than the $3.7 billion steel mill Louisiana lost to Alabama a year ago, Louisiana’s economic development secretary said this morning.
The first round of the rain-plagued Southwestern Athletic Conference will resume at 4 p.m. today at two fields, according to tournament co-director Cory Lima.
An LSU search committee voted late this afternoon to name Michael Martin, president of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, N.M. as the sole finalist for LSU chancellor.
A Southern University Laboratory School teacher was arrested Wednesday, accused of sexually harassing two 16-year-old students and having pornography on his classroom computer.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- State officials on Thursday took the reins from a private contractor that wanted to use a collections agency to recover as much as $175 million in suspected grant overpayments from Hurricane Katrina victims.
The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office received a report just before 9 a.m. Thursday of a tornado that had touched down just west of Ponchatoula.
The Central Community School Board has called a special meeting for noon Friday to declare an emergency due to storm damage at school facilities and to authorize repairs.
ZACHARY — Police arrested the former chief of Baton Rouge Metro Airport’s police force this morning on a warrant accusing him of sending inappropriate text messages to a teenage girl he coached on his daughter’s softball team.
LAFAYETTE — Emergency crews were clearing roads and repairing power lines in Lafayette’s Oil Center from damage blamed on a suspected tornado, one of nine reports of twisters in Acadiana received by the National Weather Service Thursday morning.
Nobody won the two major jackpots in the multistate Powerball and Louisiana Lotto drawings late Wednesday, the Louisiana Lottery Corporation reported.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Josue Vega was one of thousands of immigrant workers who flocked to New Orleans in 2005 in hopes of finding a rebuilding job in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
An elderly man was killed this morning near Grosse Tete when strong winds caused a tree to fall on a trailer/camper the man was in, Iberville Parish Sheriff’s Office Johnny Blanchard said.
SHREVEPORT (AP) -- A line of drenching thunderstorms moved across the state from west to east Thursday after record rainfall caused flooding in water-logged parts of Louisiana.
Nucor Corp., the biggest steelmaker in North America, could build a $2 billion plant in St. James Parish on the site that became a finalist for a German-owned steel mill last year, the company said today in announcing it is filing for state permits.
With Gov. Bobby Jindal’s backing, a House committee advanced legislation Wednesday that would reduce state taxes by $300 million a year. The House Committee on Ways and Means stripped an amendment from Senate Bill 87 that would gradually eliminate the state personal income tax.
LAFAYETTE — A plan for future development along Interstate 10 calls for a balance of commercial and residential areas, buffers to shield neighborhoods from traffic, and better road connections in a city not known for ease of travel.
The Central Thruway won’t be named after the late wife of Mayor Pro Tem Joe Greco after all. As part of an 11th-hour compromise, the Metro Council on Wednesday agreed to name one of the thruway’s two bridges after Greco’s wife, and to push the Louisiana Legislation for permission to name the second bridge after Joe Greco.
Legislation prompted by New Orleans’ Dr. Anna Pou, a surgeon once accused of murdering patients during Hurricane Katrina, was approved by a House committee Wednesday.
East Baton Rouge Parish deputies are looking for a 22-year-old man accused of shooting at, but missing, two people during an argument in the 1600 block of Norwick Avenue.
Despite protests, two groups were picked Wednesday to run four public schools in Baton Rouge that were taken over by the state because of chronic problems.
Southern University named three finalists to compete to become the next chancellor. The top three are, in alphabetical order, Ray Belton, Southern University at Shreveport chancellor; Kofi Lomotey, Fisk University executive vice president and provost in Tennessee; and Napoleon Moses, Alcorn State University vice president for academic affairs in Mississippi.
Teach For America, the national organization that recruits recent college graduates to teach in underserved public schools, will place 50 new teachers in south Louisiana this fall.
A measure that would require health insurance companies to cover prosthetic devices is nearing the end of the legislative process, having narrowly passed a state Senate committee Wednesday.
Louisiana’s community and technical colleges are offering to retrain students for free if businesses deem them not prepared enough after hiring them.
A dispute over whether a state senator’s company is large enough to handle natural gas for big industry spilled over Wednesday at the State Capitol.
A state Senate committee Wednesday approved bills aimed at correcting parts of the new ethics law passed during a special session. Senate President Joel Chaisson II said his Senate Bill 769 cleans up unintended errors in new laws passed in Gov. Bobby Jindal’s February ethics session. The changes would not “weaken what we did in any way,” said Chaisson, D-Destrehan.
State legislation that would cut off the expansion of video bingo machines that resemble video poker or slot machines was approved Wednesday in Senate. But it was first loaded up with amendments to the point that it would eventually ban video bingo machines altogether in parishes where video poker already is illegal.
LAFAYETTE — Police Chief Jim Craft on Wednesday said he will ask the City-Parish Council to approve the purchase of about 90 new vehicles in the next budget year, about $2.2 million worth.
OPELOUSAS — A proposed school reorganization and consolidation plan approved by the U.S. Justice Department and affecting most St. Landry Parish schools was unveiled Wednesday during a special School Board meeting.
The Metro Council unanimously agreed Wednesday to pay a $1 million settlement to a Baton Rouge man who served more than 16 years in Angola for a rape he didn’t commit.
A prison inmate who spent 36 years in solitary confinement after his conviction in the fatally stabbing of a prison guard, has suffered another setback in his attempt to get his conviction overturned.
GONZALES — Ascension Parish President Tommy Martinez said Wednesday he has asked the District Attorney’s Office for a legal opinion on whether a firm can be paid for work performed under a task order when it does not have a master contract with parish government.
LIVINGSTON — Sheriff’s deputies are looking for a Livingston Parish man missing since Monday. Jerry Don Lee Jr., 40, of Walker, was last seen wearing blue jeans and a brown shirt, Livingston Parish sheriff’s deputies said in a statement Wednesday.
HAMMOND — Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu will address Southeastern Louisiana University graduates at the university’s commencement Saturday.
THIBODAUX — U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., is scheduled to address more than 500 Nicholls State University graduates Saturday during morning and afternoon commencement exercises. The ceremonies will be held in Stopher Gymnasium.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A Louisiana congressman demanded bribes in exchange for his help in promoting a pair of business deals in Africa, according to court documents filed Wednesday in conjunction with a guilty plea by one of the congressman’s former staffers.
EDGARD, La. (AP) -- An assistant prosecutor in St. John the Baptist Parish is on probation for lending money to a client in 1988 and getting a mortgage as collateral.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- For engineering students, the mechanics of pumps and levees has never been more important. For biologists, the study of mold never more timely. For political scientists, the challenges of democratic decision-making never more real.
Police are celebrating a victory in the war on drugs Tuesday night. Nineteen people were indicted by a federal grand jury in Baton Rouge on charges of conspiracy, drug trafficking and gun violations, to name a few. In a part of town where residents are typically afraid to speak out, there is a sense of relief that the supply of illegal drugs has been cut off. "I was kind of surprised," said Eden Park resident Cedric Williams, "about the magnitude of how big it was."
Two men were killed and another seriously injured in a car accident on Sherwood Forest Boulevard Monday Night. The crash happened just before 11 p.m.
HAMMOND — The Police Department and the Tangipahoa Parish school system opened an investigation into whether a school bus driver broke the law by leaving a 3-year-old student on her bus for several hours, officials confirmed Tuesday.
LAFAYETTE — A 46-year-old Broussard woman awaiting trial on murder charges in the death of her grandson was found dead Tuesday morning in her jail cell, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman said.
CLINTON — The East Feliciana Parish school system showed improvement in its accounting practices during the past fiscal year, an auditor told a School Board committee Tuesday.
LAFAYETTE — School Superintendent James Easton said Tuesday the system may be setting its sights a little too high with its rules on what the minimum reserve fund should be.
PORT ALLEN — Deputies seized six kilograms of cocaine and arrested three people, West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Mike Cazes said Tuesday.
NAPOLEONVILLE — Assumption Parish sheriff’s detectives tracked down in a DeQuincy jail the two men accused of breaking into four homes last week in Assumption Parish, Sheriff Mike Waguespack said Tuesday.
PORT ALLEN — A West Baton Rouge Parish grand jury indicted a Port Allen man on charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.
A trial jury in 21st Judicial District Court at Amite convicted Derrick Rick of first-degree murder Tuesday for the 2001 fatal shootings of his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend, prosecutors said.
Ascension Parish President Ronnie Hughes said Tuesday he plans to join with Gonzales Mayor Johnny Berthelot in appealing a population estimate the State Treasurer’s Office recently made public.
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