News for Wednesday 060513

By Dave Graichen

 

Details are still sketchy, but a Pineville police officer was seriously injured  Tuesday when a car collided with the officer’s motorcycle on Highway 28 East. Officer Michael Daenen  was struck by a vehicle turning onto Medical Park Boulevard. He is listed in stable condition. With several broken bones.

 

The Rapides Parish School Board approved a hire for executive assistant  superintendent, a position created in the district reorganization plan proposed by Superintendent Nason Authement. The plan, which included several position eliminations and additions, was approved on May 21, two weeks before Authement’s first board meeting.

 

In a break with tradition, six Louisiana House members — instead of the usual — three would work with the state Senate to hammer out a compromise on the state budget.

State Rep. Joel Robideaux, R-Lafayette, made the motion shortly after the House got underway Tuesday, signaling possible movement toward a resolution on the $25 billion state spending plan. If the House and the Senate cannot reach an agreement by 6 p.m. Thursday, when the session ends, legislators would have to return to the State Capitol for a special session.

 

The  House approved bill by NOLA Representative  Austin  Badon  that would  loosen  penalties  on  pot  possession  sentences passed in a Senate  Committee  4-2  yesterday. It heads to the  Senate  Floor today for possible final legislative passage.

 

Judges and parish sheriffs have  won  legislative  backing for their pay raises. With a 29-7 vote, the Senate gave final  passage Tuesday to  a  bill outlining five years of pay raises for judges.  Sheriffs can get  the salary hikes, because a law allows them to get the same raises as  district  court  judges.  The bill now goes to Gov. Bobby

Jindal, who has said he'll sign it into law.

 

Family, friends and well-wishers lined US 190 near Hammond yesterday, as the  body  of slain National Guard Specialist Chris Drake was driven by. Drake's  remains  were taken from a Hammond airport to a funeral home in Denham Springs.  He  was  killed  in Afghanistan by a rocket propelled grenade attack.

 

A low pressure disturbance in the southern Gulf of Mexico has potential  to become the year's first tropical storm. State Climatologist Barry  Keim says the system COULD become Tropical Storm Andrea. Keim says the system is mostly swirling over the area of the Yucatan  Peninsula, and is poorly organized at this time...but that could  change. Even if the system upgrades into the season's named storm, forecasters say it'll likely move to the northeast and the Florida panhandle.

 

Tuesday the legislature passed a law that would require state agencies to  pay  women  the  same amount of money as a male co-worker in the same position. Louisiana  Pay Equity Advocacy Director Camille Moran says  they  are thrilled this  has  made  it  all  the  way  to  the Governor's Desk. Moran says there  are a lot of state employees who are currently not receiving the same  pay  for  doing  the  same  work  and  she hopes

Governor Jindal will sign this bill into law.

 

Two far-reaching House-approved bills that sought to prohibit federal oversight of gun laws in Louisiana have stalled in the state Senate and apparently won’t become law this session. Promoted as states’ rights measures against what backers called an increasingly intrusive federal government, the proposals were easily approved in the Louisiana House despite concerns that they were unconstitutional. But senators have shelved the measures through procedural moves, creating hurdles that appear unable to be met by session’s end Thursday.

 

A  former  accountant  at  the Louisiana Department  of  Health  and Hospitals  faces  over  100 years  in  prison  after  she  allegedly swindled over one-million  dollars  from the state's Medicaid program and used the stolen cash to gamble. Attorney  General Buddy Caldwell announced the arrest of 46-year-old Deborah Loper of Baton Rouge.

 

Acadia  Parish deputies say they've identified the body  found  last week by a  boy  riding  his  4-wheeler.  The  remains  are  those of 31-year-old  Thomas  Mendoza,  a  citizen  of  Honduras.  An autopsy determined  Mendoza died of multiple stab wounds to his upper  body. A Crowley man has been arrested in connection with the murder.

 

College students will be paying extra fees this fall, including one for campus building maintenance, if Gov. Bobby Jindal goes along with legislation that won final legislative approval on Tuesday. The Louisiana House voted 71-16 to Senate changes, then shipped the legislation to Jindal’s desk. House Bill 671, sponsored by state Rep. Franklin Foil, R-Baton Rouge, would allow up to a $48 per semester fee for repairs and renovations to buildings on public college campuses. The schools face a $1.7 billion backlog of projects for which state funding has been lagging.

 

Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden said Tuesday that he’s 80 percent sure he will run for Louisiana lieutenant governor in 2015. Holden, a Democrat, was sworn into his third term as East Baton Rouge mayor president in January. The term ends the last day of 2016, but he would leave the mayor’s office a year early if elected lieutenant governor.

 

Home-based cookie and cake preparation businesses would no longer fall under the state sanitary code under a bill that won final legislative approval Tuesday. The Louisiana House and Senate agreed to a conference committee report settling differences between the two chambers. Today, the sanitary code exemption applies to preparation of jellies, preserves, jams, honey and honeycomb products made in the home for sale. Gross annual sales cannot exceed $5,000. The new bill would add cookies and cakes to that list and raise gross annual sales to $20,000

 

A Terrytown woman is arrested for stealing  over  a hundred thousand dollars  from  her employer. 38-year-old Kristen Carroll  worked  at Greco's restaurant,  and  reportedly  skimmed  the  money  from bank deposits to support her gambling habit. The alleged theft took place between 2011 and 2012.

 

New specialty “I’m Cajun” and “I’m Creole” vehicle license plates are just around the corner. Legislation that would create the prestige plates won final legislative passage Tuesday on a 92-0 vote. That sent the measure to the governor’s desk.

 

Police in Shreveport say a man is in serious condition in a hospital after being stabbed by his wife several times while he was sleeping. Sgt Bill Goodin says 54-year-old Curtis  Johnson  was  found  in his home  with nearly a dozen stab wounds. He says detectives identified 33-year-old Tracy Johnson as the prime suspect in the stabbing. Goodin  says  Johnson  is  in  serious condition, but is expected to survive.

 

 

Sports..

 

The  times are set for the NCAA Super Regionals this weekend and LSU is set  to  face  Oklahoma  at The Box, 6pm Friday. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN. Saturday's game is also at 6. LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri announces Aaron Nola will be the  starting pitcher in Game 1 of the Super Regional series against  Oklahoma. Mainieri says Nola will most likely match up against the  Sooners' ace Jonathan Gray on Friday night