7-22-15
A REQUEST TO LEASE TWO FLOORS IN A PARKING GARAGE RESULTED IN A DEBATE ABOUT PARKING IN DOWNTOWN LAFAYETTE DURING LAST NIGHT’S CITY PARISH COUNCIL MEETING. PERFICIENT, A TECHNOLOGY COMPANY, WHICH PLANS TO BRING 200 EMPLOYEES TO THE JEFFERSON STREET MARKET, WANTS TO LEASE THE TOP TWO FLOORS OF THE VERMILLION STREET PARKING GARAGE FOR A DISCOUNTED RATE. THAT SPARKED CONCERNS THAT OTHER DOWNTOWN BUSINESSES WOULD REQUEST THE SAME DISCOUNTED RATE. THE COUNCIL VOTED TO DEFER THE MATTER UNTIL THEIR AUGUST FOURTH MEETING.
A former Elton High School teacher and coach has been sentenced to seven years in prison in a carnal knowledge case. The American Press reports 36-year-old Justin Joseph Fruge pleaded guilty in March. Judge Steve Gunnell said Monday Fruge’s plea spares the victims from having to testify. Fruge was initially charged with six counts of prohibited sexual conduct between an educator and student, six counts of molestation and one count of indecent behavior with a juvenile, but pleaded guilty to one count of carnal knowledge of a juvenile as part of a plea agreement.
TWO MEN HAVE BEEN ARRESTED AND A THIRD MAN IS WANTED FOR ALLEGEDLY USING COUNTERFEIT MONEY IN CROWLEY. SEVERAL BUSINESSES IN JUNE CONTACTED THE CROWLEY POLICE DEPARTMENT AFTER THEY RECEIVED COUNTERFEIT TWENTY DOLLAR BILLS. TWENTY-YEAR-OLD KENLEY MOUTON OF CROWLEY AND 22-YEAR-OLD TYLER SLOANE OF EUNICE WERE ARRESTED AND POLICE ARE STILL SEARCHING FOR 26-YEAR-OLD DOMONTE HULEN OF CROWLEY. ANYONE WHO KNOWS THE WHEREABOUTS OF HULEN IS URGED TO CALL CRIMESTOPPERS OF ACADIA PARISH AT 789-84-77.
Louisiana’s unemployment rate dipped in June as people left the labor force, even as employer payrolls showed strength. The state’s jobless fell to 6.4 percent after three months at 6.6 percent. The unemployment rate remained above June 2014’s 6.2 percent rate. The labor force fell by more than 4,000, while the number of people with jobs stayed flat.
Oil and gas jobs in Louisiana have continued to plummet in the state, sinking to their lowest levels in almost a decade. According to The Advertiser, the Louisiana Workforce Commission on Tuesday announced that the mining and logging sector, which includes many oil and gas jobs, lost 300 jobs in June and has dropped 6,000 this year. That brought the total number of mining and logging jobs to 47,700, the lowest in the state since May 2006.
WRITTEN LEGAL ARGUMENTS CONTINUE OVER THE SENTENCING OF SETH FONTENOT OF LAFAYETTE. JULIE DARCE REPORTS.
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SULPHUR CITY COUNCIL CHAIRMAN DRU ELLENDER IS PROPOSING CUTTING BACK ON BENEFITS FOR NEW CITY EMPLOYEES. UNDER HIS PROPOSAL, NEW EMPLOYEES COULD STILL SAVE UP SICK DAYS AND VACATION DAYS, BUT THEY WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO CASH THEM IN AT RETIREMENT. ALSO VACATION DAYS WOULD BE CUT BACK FROM A MAXIMUM OF SIX WEEKS AFTER TWENTY YEARS TO FIVE WEEKS. THE PROPOSAL, WHICH WOULD NOT AFFECT EMPLOYEES HIRED BEFORE JULY FIRST, WILL BE VOTED ON AT THE COUNCIL’S AUGUST TENTH MEETING.
A New Iberia man has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 2008 cold-case strangulation of 61-year-old Judy Blanchard Landry. State District Judge Keith Comeaux on Tuesday sentenced 60-year-old Keith Overton Leleux to life in prison after he confessed to choking Landry until she passed out, then cinching zip ties around her neck until she died from asphyxiation. First Assistant District Attorney Robert Vines tells The Advocate Leleux admitted to the crime after prosecutors decided against seeking the death penalty in the case. Leleux was extradited to Iberia Parish in March from Missouri, where he was charged with a count of domestic abuse battery for allegedly choking his girlfriend.
