8-4-15
Lafayette police say a home invasion has left a man in critical condition. Col. Paul Mouton said in a news release that three men kick in the back door of a home early Monday morning and demanded money from the occupants. Mouton says the 35-year-old man ran out of the front door and was shot multiple times by the suspects.
Mouton says officers are searching for the suspects.
THERE WERE TWO INSTANCES OF VEHICLE CRASHING INTO BUSINESSES IN LAKE CHARLES OVER THE WEEKEND. SATURDAY NIGHT, A DRIVER WAS CITED BY POLICE AFTER GOING THROUGH AN INTERSECTION, MISSING ANOTHER VEHICLE, AND ENDING UP INSIDE LEONARD’S FOOD MARKET. OWNER LEONARD FUSELIER JUNIOR TELLS KPLC THAT, FORTUNATELY, THE STORE WAS CLOSED, OR THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN A LOT OF CASUALTIES. ON SUNDAY MORNING, TRAHAN’S HARDWARE ON COMMON STREET WAS DAMAGED BY A VEHICLE, AND, IN THAT CASE, POLICE BELIEVE THE DRIVER OF THE VEHICLE WAS DRUNK.
THE ST. LANDRY PARISH SOLID WASTE COMMISSION UNANIMOUSLY WITHDREW A PLAN TO ASK PERMISSION TO INCREASE THE AMOUNT OF GARBAGE ACCEPTED AT THE LANDFILL. THE COMMISSION HAD ORIGINALLY PLANNED TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY TO INCREASE THE ANNUAL GARBAGE LIMIT FROM 85 TO 150 THOUSAND TONS. COMMISSIONER KATHY MOREAU SAYS THEY CHANGED THEIR MINDS BECAUSE, AFTER A PUBLIC HEARING LAST WEDNESDAY, THEY LEARNED THERE IS LITTLE SUPPORT FOR THE PLAN. THE COMMISSION HOPED TO GENERATE MORE REVENUE BY ACCEPTING GARBAGE FROM OTHER PARISHES.
Gov. Bobby Jindal is ousting Planned Parenthood from Louisiana’s Medicaid program. The Jindal administration announced Monday it was ending four provider agreements that reimbursed Planned Parenthood for providing health care services to low-income patients through the government-funded Medicaid insurance program. Termination of the agreements comes after a pro-life group released secretly recorded videos showing Planned Parenthood officials describing how they provide aborted body parts for medical research. Jindal, a Republican presidential candidate, cited the videos in his announcement.
Three years from now, more school buses will be on the road in Lafayette Parish once its charter schools are required to transport their students. Unlike their traditional public school counterparts, certain charter schools previously weren’t required to provide free transportation to students. The Advocate reports the new state education policy requires charter schools currently operating to begin transportation services by the 2018-19 school year to any student who lives a mile or more from the campus. In Lafayette Parish, three charter schools opened last year.
THE MOTHER OF ONE OF THE FOUR SUSPECTS, WHO ALLEGEDLY STOLE WINDOWS FROM THE VIETNAM MEMORIAL HELICOPTER LAST WEEK IN LAKE CHARLES, IS SPEAKING OUT. KIMBERLY GUILLORY, THE MOTHER OF THE YOUNGEST SUSPECT, 17-YEAR-OLD DAVID GUILLORY, SAYS THE THEFT WAS NOT DIRECTED AT MILITARY VETERANS, BUT WAS AN INSTANCE OF POOR JUDGEMENT. SHE TELLS KPLC TV THAT SHE DOES NOT PLAN ON BAILING OUT HER SON, BECAUSE HE’S AT AN AGE THAT HE NEEDS TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS ACTIONS. GUILLORY WAS THE ONLY ONE OF THE FOUR SUSPECTS STILL IN CUSTODY AS OF LAST NIGHT.
PROSECUTORS IN ACADIA PARISH HAVE REDUCED THE CHARGE AGAINST BRITTANY PREJEAN FROM FIRST DEGREE MURDER TO SECOND DEGREE MURDER. THAT MEANS SHE WILL NOT FACE THE DEATH PENALTY IF CONVICTED. A GRAND JURY IN MARCH INDICTED PREJEAN ON FIRST DEGREE MURDER IN THE DEATH OF THREE-YEAR-OLD KEAGHYN PARSONS, WHOM SHE CARED FOR WHILE HIS FATHER WAS AT WORK. AN AUTOPSY BY THE CALCASIEU PARISH CORONER DETERMINED THAT PARSONS DIED FROM A PERFORATION OF THE SMALL INTESTINE, CAUSED BY BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA.
A former state agency audit director is facing ethics charges related to a fraud case for which he’s already serving federal prison time. The Advocate reports the Louisiana Ethics Board said Delrice Augustus used his agency-issued credit cards to make approximately $270,000 in purchases to which he was not entitled. State ethics law bans public servants from receiving “anything of economic value, other than compensation and benefits” from the entity they are employed by for the performance of their job. Augustus was sentenced last fall to 37 months in federal prison for stealing from a federally funded agency — the state Department of Children and Family Services.
