4-26-17
THIRTEEN U-L LAFAYETTE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WERE ARRESTED FOR CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT FELONY THEFT. THE THIRTEEN WERE CAUGHT ON SURVEILLANCE VIDEO BREAKING INTO A DORMROOM AT HUGER HALL EARLIER THIS MONTH, WHERE ITEMS WORTH AROUND 24-HUNDRED DOLLARS WERE TAKEN. EACH OF THE PLAYERS SURRENDERED TO THE LAFAYETTE PARISH CORRECTIONAL CENTER AND BONDED OUT. THEY HAVE SINCE BEEN SUSPENDED FROM THE FOOTBALL TEAM.
AN ESCAPED INMATE FROM MISSISSIPPI WAS CAUGHT IN LAKE CHARLES. STATE POLICE CAPTURED 23-YEAR-OLD ANTONIO HENDERSON AT AROUND 9:37 LAST NIGHT ON I-TEN IN LAKE CHARLES. HE HAD BEEN SERVING A TWO YEAR PRISON TERM FOR GRAND LARCENY IN LEFLORE COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI. STATE POLICE TROOP D SPOKESMAN SGT. JAMES ANDERSON SAYS HENDERSON WAS APPREHENDED WITHOUT INCIDENT.
FIRE DESTROYED A POPULAR ZYDECO DANCE HALL IN ST. LANDRY PARISH. JULIE DARCE HAS MORE.
VOICER I :23
Gov. John Bel Edwards says House Republican leaders need to devise a budget-balancing tax plan, after spurning his idea to levy a new tax on business sales. The Edwards administration pulled its gross receipts tax bill from a vote Tuesday in the House Ways and Means Committee because it faced certain defeat there with GOP lawmakers lined up in opposition. The Democratic governor says time remains in the two-month legislative session to pull together a package of tax changes that could help close a $1.3 billion budget hole looming in mid-2018. But he says he’s looking for House leaders to “step up, offer solutions and not just continue to say no.”
Louisiana senators are moving ahead with a bill to end executions in the state, a rare proposal in a Republican-controlled region that tends to favor capital punishment. A Senate judicial committee Tuesday voted 6-1 to have the full Senate consider the proposal, which would eliminate the death penalty as punishment for any offenses committed on or after Aug. 1. Proponents of the ban argued cash-strapped Louisiana should not be spending money on costly death penalty appeals, especially when only one person has been put to death in Louisiana since 2002. Although the bill says the proposed law would not apply retroactively, critics said they feared future courts would not allow the 74 inmates sentenced to death in Louisiana to be executed and instead could one day release them on parole.
A DUSON MAN WAS SHOT AND KILLED IN LAFAYETTE YESTERDAY MORNING. THE BODY OF 42-YEAR-OLD RAY CUDGES WAS DISCOVERED IN THE 400 BLOCK OF EAST PINHOOK ROAD. SEVERAL NEARBY SCHOOLS WERE PUT ON LOCKDOWN WHILE POLICE SEARCHED THE AREA. THE INVESTIGATION INTO THE SHOOTING IS ONGOING.
THE FATHER OF ONE OF THREE WORKERS, WHO WERE KILLED AT THE CORPORATION OF AMERICA PLANT IN DERIDDER, HAS FILED A MULTI-MILLION LAWSUIT AGAINST THE COMPANY IN HOUSTON. JOE GOOCH, THE FATHER OF JODY GOOCH, SAYS HE HOPES THE LAWSUIT WILL SHED MORE LIGHT ON WHAT HAPPENED AND REDUCE THE LIKELIHOOD OF IT HAPPENING AGAIN. IT WAS DETERMINED THAT SPARKS FROM WELDING ACTIVITY WERE IGNITED BY VAPORS IN A CONTAINMENT VESSEL, WHICH CAUSED THE EXPLOSION ON FEBRUARY EIGHTH. OSHA AND THE U-S CHEMICAL SAFETY AND HAZARD INVESTIGATION BOARD ARE LOOKING INTO THE INCIDENT.
THE ADMINISTRATION AT ST. PETER’S CATHOLIC SCHOOL IN GUEYDAN ANNOUNCED THE SCHOOL WILL CLOSE AT THE END OF THE YEAR. THE REASON WAS BECAUSE OF DECLINING ENROLLMENT. FATHER COREY CAMPEAUX SAYS IN A FACEBOOK POST THAT THEY HAD SUBMITTED A PLAN TO KEEP THE SCHOOL OPEN, BUT IT WAS BASED ON HAVING FIFTY STUDENTS ENROLLED FOR NEXT YEAR. SINCE ONLY 38 ARE NOW ENROLLED, THEY DETERMINED IT WAS NOT FEASIBLE TO KEEP OPERATING THE SCHOOL, WHICH BEGAN IN 1954.
