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WITNESSES REPORTED SEEING LIGHTNING STRIKE A MOBILE HOME IN YOUNGSVILLE BEFORE IT CAUGHT ON FIRE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON. THE YOUNGSVILLE AND MILTON FIRE DEPARTMENTS WORKED TOGETHER TO PUT OUT THE FIRE. THE MOBILE HOME WAS LOCATED IN THE WINDY MEADOWS SUBDIVISION ON BREEZY LANE IN YOUNGSVILLE. WITNESSES TOLD KATC TV THAT THE TRAILER HAD BEEN RECENTLY REMODELED AND NO ONE LIVED IN IT.
A half-century after a 22-year-old woman died in southwest Louisiana, her husband is going on trial, accused of killing her. Jury selection is scheduled to begin today in the second-degree murder case against 76-year-old Felix Vail. He has asked the judge to move his trial out of Calcasieu Parish, where Mary Horton Vail died in October 1962. Vail said she’d fallen into the Calacasieu River.
BECAUSE OF BUDGET PROBLEMS, THE BALDWIN POLICE DEPARTMENT DOES MOST OF THEIR PATROLLING ON FOOT. THE DEPARTMENT HAS FIVE PATROL CARS BUT POLICE CHIEF HARRY SMITH TELLS THE ADVOCATE THAT THEY USE THEM FOR A FEW COMPLAINT CALLS AND THE RARE EMERGENCY. HE SAYS THEIR GAS CARDS ARE MAXED OUT AND THE LOCAL SERVICE STATIONS HAVE REACHED THEIR LIMIT IN EXTENDING CREDIT TO THE DEPARTMENT. SMITH SAYS A LOSS OF RESIDENTS AND THE STRUGGLING OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY HAVE CAUSED AN INCOME PROBLEM FOR THE TOWN.
For months, contenders vying for Louisiana’s U.S. Senate seat largely played nice, at least publicly. But with the Nov. 8 election only three months away, the attacks have started and appear likely to escalate as candidates try to stand out among 24 people registered for the race. The front-runner, Republican Treasurer John Kennedy, is taking direct hits this week from GOP U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany. Boustany is accusing the treasurer of supporting a $1 billion tax hike on oil and gas. Kennedy says the claims are untrue.
Police in Lafayette are joining others in the state to warn about the dangers of Fentanyl, an opiate cheaper and 50 times more powerful than heroin. The Advertiser reports that Fentanyl has been found in the bloodstreams of 13 overdose victims in Lafayette Parish this year. Eight were within the city of Lafayette.
Fentanyl contributed to three overdoses last year.
A LAKE CHARLES WOMAN WAS ARRESTED LAST FRIDAY AFTER SHE PAID FOR A CAR WITH A CHECK FROM A CLOSED BANK ACCOUNT. THE JEFF DAVIS PARISH SHERIFF’S OFFICE SAYS 36-YEAR-OLD BEATRICE PAPPION WROTE THE 42 THOUSAND DOLLAR CHECK TO A DEALERSHIP IN JEFF DAVIS PARISH. THE LAKE CHARLES POLICE DEPARTMENT HELPED THE JEFF DAVIS PARISH SHERIFF’S OFFICE IN ARRESTING PAPPIONAND THE VEHICLE. PAPPION IS BEING HELD IN JEFF DAVIS PARISH WITHOUT BOND.
A SUICIDAL MAN IN PARKS WAS ARRESTED FOR THE MURDER OF HIS HALF-BROTHER. JULIE DARCE REPORTS.
VOICER E :24
The oil industry has left a big footprint on Louisiana, but its legacy is being questioned like never before with Democrat John Bel Edwards in the governor’s mansion. Turning state politics upside-down, leaders of both parties are taking Big Oil to court, seeking billions in damages for making the coast sink into the sea. Industry lawyers blame damage on levees built to control the Mississippi River. And one executive calls the lawsuits a hypocritical shakedown, given the industry’s $73 billion economic impact.
