11-16-21
A STUDENT IS FACING CHARGES AND OPELOUSAS JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL WAS ON LOCKDOWN ON MONDAY AFTER REPORTS OF A WEAPON BEING FOUND ON CAMPUS. SYLVIA MASTERS REPORTS.
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LAST NIGHT THE LAFAYETTE LIBRARY CONTROL BOARD CONSIDERED WHETHER TO REMOVE AN LGBTQ BOOK FOR TEENAGERS AFTER A COMPLAINT WAS FILED. ABOUT A DOZEN PEOPLE CAME OUT TO SPEAK IN SUPPORT OF THE BOOK, ENTITLED “THIS BOOK IS GAY.” IN THE END, THE BOARD DECIDED TO KEEP THE BOOK IN THE LIBRARY BUT MOVE IT TO THE ADULT NON-FICTION SECTION. MOST PARTIES SEEMED TO AGREE WITH THE DECISION INCLUDING THE PERSON WHO FILED THE COMPLAINT, MICHAEL LUNSFORD, WHO CALLED IT “A VERY EXCEPTIONAL COMPROMISE.”
A WELSH WOMAN, WHO POLICE SAY WAS DRUNK AT THE TIME OF HER ARREST, ALLEGEDLY PUNCHED A CORRECTIONS OFFICER SEVERAL TIMES IN THE FACE WHILE SHE WAS BEING BOOKED INTO JAIL. TWENTY-TWO-YEAR-OLD ALICIA MATTE WAS ARRESTED OVER THE WEEKEND AFTER SHE RAN OVER SOMEONE’S FOOT WHILE ALLEGEDLY DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE. DEPUTIES SAY SHE HAD TO BE RESTRAINED ON THE GROUND AFTER SHE BEGAN PUNCHING, KICKING AND BITING THE VICTIM. MATTE FACES SEVERAL CHARGES OF BATTERY AND RESISTING ARREST, AND HER BOND WAS SET AT TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.
An out-of-state business has sued Louisiana and several parishes to challenge the state’s patchwork approach to collecting sales taxes. The federal lawsuit filed Monday comes days after voters rejected a constitutional change that would have centralized those tax collections in a single board. Halstead Bead is an Arizona-based business that sells jewelry-making supplies online. Its lawsuit says Louisiana’s parish-by-parish sales tax filing system is a “compliance nightmare.”
THE MOTHER OF A VILLE PLATTE MAN, WHO GOT INVOLVED IN A SHOOTOUT SUNDAY WITH A TEENAGE BOY, SAYS HE WAS HIT SEVEN TIMES, INCLUDING IN THE THIGH, BACK, GROIN AND HAND. POLICE CHIEF NEAL LARTIGUE SAYS TWENTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD KELIEN SEMEIN HAD AN ONGOING CONFLICT WITH THE SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD BOY, WHICH LED TO THE SHOOTING. THE BOY WAS ALSO SHOT BUT HIS CONDITION HAS NOT BEEN RELEASED. LARTIGUE SAYS THE INVESTIGATION INTO THE SHOOTING IS CONTINUING AND CHARGES ARE PENDING.
A VACANT HOUSE ON LEROY STREET IN LAFAYETTE WAS HEAVILY DAMAGED BY FIRE EARLY YESTERDAY MORNING. IT WAS DETERMINED THE FIRE ORIGINATED IN THE LIVING ROOM. BY THE TIME FIRE FIGHTERS ARRIVED, THE FRONT ROOM WAS ON FIRE AND IT TOOK THEM ABOUT TEN MINUTES TO BRING IT UNDER CONTROL. THEY LEARNED FROM NEIGHBORS NO ONE HAD LIVED THERE FOR SEVERAL MONTHS, BUT INDIVIDUALS, FROM TIME TO TIME, HAD BEEN SEEN GOING IN THE HOUSE.
TWO PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH A SHOOTING THAT HAPPENED FRIDAY IN THE FIFTEEN HUNDRED BLOCK OF FELICITY STREET IN ABBEVILLE. POLICE GOT A DESCRIPTION AND LICENSE PLATE FROM ONE OF THE VEHICLES INVOLVED IN THE SHOOTOUT AND, SATURDAY NIGHT, LAFAYETTE PARISH SHERIFF’S DEPUTIES CONDUCTED A TRAFFIC STOP OF THE VEHICLE. A SEARCH WARRANT WAS OBTAINED AND DEPUTIES FOUND TWO HANDGUNS, ONE OF WHICH WAS STOLEN FROM BATON ROUGE, AND A RIFLE. THE SUSPECTS WHO WERE ARRESTED WERE DEVON ANDRUS OF LAFAYETTE AND A SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD, WHO WAS RELEASED TO HIS GUARDIAN AFTER BEING BOOKED.
A new audit says Louisiana made $2.9 million in unemployment payments during the coronavirus pandemic that didn’t appear to follow state and federal regulations governing the program. Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack’s office reviewed unemployment benefits handed out from February 2020 through April 2021. Auditors say they identified improper payments the state labor department hadn’t yet attempted to recollect through August. Nearly $2 million of the improper payments outlined in the audit involved people receiving jobless benefits that exceeded the maximum weekly amount allowed.
