Baton Rouge news

• Shooting off Perkins Road leaves one victim dead

  25-11-2016 21:55
  
  BATON ROUGE- One person is dead after a shooting occurred off Perkins Road Monday evening.Shortly before 10 p.m. deputies were dispatched to an apartment complex on Perkins Road east of Siegen Lane for a report of a shooting. Sources said authorities were trying to determine if multiple people were shot but one person was taken for treatment by an ambulance.The victim, later identified as Dinero Grisham, died at the hospital from injuries sustained during the shooting.The shooting happened on Ke
  
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• sLocal app allows users discounts while giving back to schools

  25-11-2016 19:11
  
  BATON ROUGE – sLocal, an app dedicated to giving money back to education, launched in Baton Rouge just three weeks ago and the team hopes it will benefit several schools locally, statewide and even nationally.The sLocal app, with more than two years of development, allows businesses to sign up and connect with consumers to offer them discounts, with the money all going back to education."sLocal is the app that we came up with. It gives back to our local principals. It supports our loca
  
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• One arrested, one wanted in WBR truck stop shooting

  25-11-2016 19:06
  
  PORT ALLEN - The usually quiet westside was a flurry with activity Friday night after a person was shot at a truck stop/casino and deputies searched for the suspects in a sugarcane field. Just before 6 p.m. Friday, West Baton Rouge Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to 1680 N. Lobdell Hwy in reference to shots fired. At the scene, deputies found a man who was wounded.WBRSO has not released an update on the victim's status. Investigators say witness statements and security video
  
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• Denham Springs Antique District looks to holiday shopping to bounce back from flood

  25-11-2016 18:16
  
  DENHAM SPRINGS – In Livingston Parish, the Antique District of Denham Springs hopes that it can use the shopping season as a way to bounce back from the August flood.The Antique District is known for its variety of antique shops and unique items imported from around the world. The merchants want folks to know that they are open for holiday shopping."We're trying to portray an image that would give the community, our customers, to come on back and do their shopping here for Christmas,"
  
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• Man wanted for attempted first-degree murder, armed robbery in Independence

  25-11-2016 17:40
  
  LIVINGSTON – The Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office is looking for a man who shot a man and robbed him in Independence.Joseph Andrew St. Romain, Jr., 37, is wanted for attempted first degree murder and two counts of armed robbery.According to the sheriff's office, a 28-year-old man was shot at a home located off of Highway 442 in Independence. Detectives learned that the 28-year-old and a 35-year-old man were at the home visiting an acquaintance. Detectives learned that's when St. Roma
  
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• Students complained about erratic driving before bus wreck

  25-11-2016 17:22
  
  NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Students and administrators raised concerns about a Tennessee school bus driver's behavior behind the wheel in the weeks before a crash killed six children.Police have charged the driver Johnthony Walker with vehicular homicide after the Chattanooga crash. Federal authorities said Walker was driving off the designated bus route when he wrecked on a curvy road while carrying 37 children on their way home from Woodmore Elementary School.Records released by the school district on
  
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• Valery Watts, founder and owner of V. Watts Furniture, dies at 83

  25-11-2016 17:06
  
  BATON ROUGE – Valery "V" Watts, founder and owner of V. Watts Furniture died Thursday at Baton Rouge General.He was 83 years old.Along with V. Watts Furniture, Watts was the founder and owner of V. Watts Autioneers and V. Watts Trade Mart in Livingston. Watts was an auctioneer who donated much of his time to holding fund raising auctions for organizations such as the National Rifle Association, Wounded Warriors, Ducks Unlimited and many private schools.He is survived by children, Aldri
  
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• Southern, Grambling fans encounter Bayou Classic traffic on I-10

  25-11-2016 16:00
  
  LAPLACE - Traffic slowed across the Bonnet Carre Spillway as Southern and Grambling fans drove into New Orleans.All day, state traffic monitors warned of slowdowns to New Orleans.  The Bayou Classic is Saturday.  Ten-mile long traffic jams were causing heavy delays on I-10 between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.Fans will encounter similar issues Sunday on the trip home as the Sunday after Thanksgiving is a notoriously bad day of traffic in Baton Rouge.  Police announced F
  
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• Woman arrested for hitting husband with turkey; threatening him with knife

  25-11-2016 15:46
  
  BATON ROUGE – A woman has been arrested after she hit her husband with a turkey and threatened her husband with a knife.Baton Rouge Police arrested 54-year-old Helen Jackson on charges of aggravated assault and domestic abuse battery. On Thursday, officers arrived to a home on Oaklon Drive to find the person who called 911 outside and stated that his mother and father were arguing in the kitchen.Officers found the woman holding a knife to the man's throat. The officers separat
  
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• Coach O talked head coach job with Alleva Friday

  25-11-2016 15:42
  
  BATON ROUGE - Interim head football coach Ed Orgeron met with LSU's athletic director Friday as the university narrows its decision on who will replace Les Miles.Orgeron and Joe Alleva, the A.D., met following Orgeron's 54-39 victory over Texas A&M Thanksgiving night. No one from the athletic department is speaking publicly about the coaching search and its rumored hiring of a coach sometime this weekend.While Orgeron appears to remain a candidate for the job, reports surfaced Thursday that
  
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• Shoppers get Black Friday deals in BR

  25-11-2016 15:22
  
  BATON ROUGE – Thousands took advantage of Black Friday deals, some waiting overnight to be the first in stores when they opened Friday morning, however the crowds weren't as thick as they usually are.Some shoppers woke up early to get their Christmas shopping done."We were up late last night partying for Thanksgiving, spending time with family and everything. So, we're just here getting some Christmas shopping done, looking at the deals before we start grabbing stuff," Jo Hilliard, one
  
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• Police investigate Friday murder in Hammond's Villa West

  25-11-2016 14:07
  
  HAMMMOND - A man was found shot, lying in the street of a usually quiet neighborhood Friday morning.Police said Stephen Vance, 25, was located on Rue Cannes in the Villa West neighborhood. He died at the hospital.Investigators did not have much information about the case as of this post. Villa West is off busy Morrison Boulevard.Police hope tips will help lead them to an arrest in the case.
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• No bond for man charged college officer's slaying

  25-11-2016 13:27
  
  DETROIT - A 31-year-old man charged in the fatal shooting of a Wayne State University police officer near the school's Detroit campus is being held without bond.DeAngelo Davis was arraigned Friday in Romulus District Court and ordered jailed. Davis is charged with first-degree murder, murder of a police officer and gun crimes.The Wayne County prosecutor's office says he does not yet have a lawyer.Officer Collin Rose was investigating possible thefts of navigation systems from vehicles near the W
  
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• BRPD officers to assist drivers during holiday traffic on Sunday

  25-11-2016 13:19
  
  BATON ROUGE – The Baton Rouge Police Department plan to have officers along the interstate to assist drivers on Sunday due to the expected increased volume of holiday traffic.According to BRPD, last year the department placed eight officers on the interstate for rapid response in clearing the roadway of crashes, stalled vehicles and debris. During the shift, officers handled more than 120 incidents that were vital to continued traffic flow. The effort decreased response time and preven
  
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• 4.3 magnitude earthquake hits northern Oklahoma

  25-11-2016 13:09
  
  MEDFORD, Okla. - No injuries or damage were reported after a 4.3 magnitude earthquake struck northern Oklahoma on Friday morning.The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake's epicenter was near Medford, or about 95 miles north of Oklahoma City. The USGS says the earthquake was felt in northern Oklahoma and in parts of Kansas, including the Wichita area.Earlier in the day, a 2.5 magnitude earthquake hit the same area, and a 2.6 magnitude quake also struck Cushing - the site of a major oil storage h
  
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• Conditions upgrade for four people injured in Exxon fire

  25-11-2016 12:55
  
  BATON ROUGE – The conditions of four people who were injured in a fire at the Exxon refinery have been upgraded.According to hospital officials, one patient has been upgraded to fair condition while three others have been upgraded to serious condition.Emergency crews were called to the refinery on Tuesday around 4 p.m. Four of the five people that were injured were taken to the Regional Burn Center at Baton Rouge General. All four were reported in critical condition following the fire
  
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• Fidel Castro dead at 90

  25-11-2016 12:40
  
  HAVANA, Cuba - Fidel Castro has died, European news agencies reported late Friday night.Castro was the former president and leader of the Communist revolution.  He was 90-years-old. The BBC, a British broadcasting agency, reported Cuban, state TV reported Castro's death.Castro ruled Cuba as a one-party state for almost half a century before handing over the powers to his brother Raul in 2008.Check back for updates.****************Follow the publisher of this post on Twitter: @treyschmal
  
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• Cuba's Fidel Castro, who defied US for 50 years, dies at 90

  25-11-2016 12:40
  
  HAVANA - His tiny island nation 90 miles from Florida brought the world to the brink of nuclear war and he defied the power of 10 U.S. presidents during his half century rule. Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has died. He was 90.With a shaking voice, President Raul Castro said on state television that his older brother died at 10:29 p.m. Friday. He ended the announcement by shouting the revolutionary slogan: "Towards victory, always!"Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory in Cuba
  
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• First lady accepts White House Christmas tree from Wisconsin

  25-11-2016 12:38
  
  WASHINGTON - The White House is now officially open for the holidays.First lady Michelle Obama kicked off her family's final holiday season at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. by receiving a 19-foot Balsam-Veitch fir as the official White House Christmas Tree.It was grown at a farm in Oconto, Wisconsin, and delivered on Friday by owners Dave and Mary Vander Velden.The tree will be trimmed just a bit so it can fit inside the White House Blue Room, where it is traditionally displayed and decorated to honor
  
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• Slidell man arrested after crashing into store; steals alcohol

  25-11-2016 12:09
  
  SLIDELL – One man spent Thanksgiving in jail after police say that he purposely crashed into a store to steal alcohol.Around 5:45 a.m. on Thursday, a passerby reported that a vehicle drove through the glass entrance of a store, Jack's Beverage on Old Spanish Trail in Slidell.When officers arrived on scene, they found the front of the store destroyed, but the vehicle was no longer there. Officers reviewed the store's surveillance video to find that a gold Ford Explorer purposely drove t
  
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• Woman shares Thanksgiving with teen she accidentally invited

  25-11-2016 11:45
  
  MESA, Ariz. - An Arizona woman who accidentally texted a stranger an invitation to Thanksgiving dinner has made good on her offer after it spread through social media.The Arizona Republic reports that Wanda Dench greeted 17-year-old Jamal Hinton with a hug before they sat down for dinner Thursday at her suburban Phoenix home.The mix-up happened after Dench included what she thought was her grandson's number on a group text last week, but he had changed his number and never told her.Instead, the
  
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• La. early voting opens Saturday, with Senate seat on ballot

  25-11-2016 11:42
  
  BATON ROUGE - The weeklong period for voters to cast early ballots in the Dec. 10 election opens Saturday, with a U.S. Senate seat, two U.S. House seats and dozens of municipal races remaining to be settled.Secretary of State Tom Schedler, Louisiana's top elections official, said lines should be short during the long holiday weekend. Early voting is available through Dec. 3.Top of the ballot is the competition for a U.S. Senate seat between Democrat Foster Campbell, a state utility regulator wit
  
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• Anti-pipeline rally draws hundreds in Oregon

  25-11-2016 11:36
  
  BISMARCK, N.D - Hundreds of people rallied in the rain in Portland, Oregon, on Thanksgiving Day to show their solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and others who have spent months protesting the construction of an oil pipeline in North Dakota.The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that more than 350 people took part in the demonstration at the city's Pioneer Courthouse Square.The Portland rally drew families with young children, couples and a smattering of umbrellas amid a sea of soaked rain
  
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• Man killed, brother wounded in shooting at N.J. mall parking lot

  25-11-2016 11:28
  
  MAYS LANDING, N.J. - Authorities say a man has been fatally shot and his brother was wounded in the parking lot of a mall in New Jersey.Atlantic County Prosecutor Diane Ruberton said that the shooting happened around 1 a.m. Friday outside the Macy's store of the Hamilton Mall in Mays Landing. The Macy's store had opened at 5 p.m. Thursday. The mall, which was open from 7 p.m. to midnight Thursday, reopened at 6 a.m. for Black Friday shoppers.Ruberton says a 20-year-old Atlantic City man was shot
  
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• Judge: Defendant competent to stand trial in church shooting

  25-11-2016 11:24
  
  COLUMBIA, S.C. - A judge has ruled that Dylann Roof is competent to stand trial for the killing of nine black worshippers at a South Carolina church.Judge Richard Gergel made the ruling Friday after a two-day hearing behind closed doors earlier this week. The hearing was needed after Roof's attorneys questioned earlier this month whether he could help them on the eve of jury selection in his death penalty trial.Gergel says jury selection will begin Monday.Gergel sealed his reasons for finding Ro
  
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• Dry rot in satsuma segments? Blame western leaf-footed bugs

  25-11-2016 11:22
  
  NEW ORLEANS - If you peel a satsuma and find that some of the sections are dark and dry, blame the western leaf-footed bug.The dark-brown insect is less than an inch long. It gets its name from wide, flat sections in the adults' hind legs.LSU AgCenter plant pathologist Raj Singh says the bugs pierce the satsuma's rind to suck out juices, leaving behind a kind of yeast that causes dry rot in the sections it drank from. Singh says the other sections are fine.He says you can't identify damaged frui
  
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• Florence Henderson, "The Brady Bunch" mom, dies

  25-11-2016 08:44
  
  LOS ANGELES - Florence Henderson, the wholesome actress who went from Broadway star to television icon when she became Carol Brady, the ever-cheerful mom residing over "The Brady Bunch," has died. She was 82.
      
  She died surrounded by family and friends, her manager, Kayla Pressman, said in a statement late Thursday.
      
  Millions loved, and kept on loving, the innocent sitcom about a blended family. "The Brady Bunch," first aired in 1969,
  
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• 2-alarm house fire in Shenandoah subdivision under investigation

  25-11-2016 07:50
  
  BATON ROUGE - Investigators with the St. George Fire Department are looking into an overnight fire that destroyed a house.The home in the 15,000 block of Woodland Trail, in the Shenandoah area broke out just before 2 AM Friday. It took crews a few hours to declare the fire out, due to hot spots and flare-ups. The house is considered a total loss.According to fire officials, no one was home at the time of the fire.The cause of the fire remains under investigation.Permalink| Comments
  
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• Shoppers out looking for deals on Black Friday

  25-11-2016 07:33
  
  NEW YORK - Stores open their doors Friday for what is still one of the busiest days of the year, even as the start of the holiday season edges ever earlier.
      
  Many stores are offering the same deals as in previous years, like $19.99 boots that remain a big attraction, cashmere sweaters, and sheets. For some shoppers, big discounts on electronics are the draw.
      
  Stores like Macy's, Walmart, Target and more were open Thursday evening in w
  
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