Baton Rouge news

• Fatal NYC crane collapse blamed on operator error

  09-12-2016 21:56
  
  NEW YORK - New York City officials are blaming a crane collapse that killed a man in lower Manhattan in February on operator error.
      
  The city Department of Buildings said Friday the crane operator failed to secure the 565-foot crane the night before it collapsed in the Tribeca neighborhood on Feb. 5.
      
  The department says the operator also lowered the crane's main boom at an improper angle, causing the crane to become unstable and topp
  
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• Pearl Harbor veteran honored with inflight hula, song

  09-12-2016 21:55
  
  HONOLULU  - A group of Hawaii musicians and a Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant provided special inflight entertainment to a Pearl Harbor survivor flying home from a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the attack.
      
  Flight attendant Lehua Beltrame-Tevaga wanted to do something nice for 97-year-old Ray Richmond, who was one of the passengers on Thursday's flight from Honolulu to San Diego. Also on board was well-known Hawaii group Makaha Sons.
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• Climate change film "An Inconvenient Truth" gets a sequel

  09-12-2016 21:01
  
  LOS ANGELES - Al Gore's climate change documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," is getting a sequel.
      
  Paramount Pictures said Friday the follow-up to the Oscar-winning original will premiere at next January's Sundance Film Festival.
      
  In the new documentary, former Vice President Gore examines global warming's escalation and the solutions at hand, Paramount said.
      
  In a statement, Gore called for a re-dedicat
  
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• Two property taxes on Saturday ballot to help WBR schools

  09-12-2016 18:02
  
  BATON ROUGE – The future of schools in West Baton Rouge Parish is in the hands of voters.Two new tax proposals to improve the quality of eduction and facilities will be on the ballot. The school system says they will need the proposals to pass as the average age of the buildings are 55-years-old.The school system said that it will use the first proposal to build multipurpose buildings, replace temporary buildings and build a brand a new Brusly High School along with a new K-8th in Erwi
  
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• Driveway mess often leaves family stranded

  09-12-2016 17:41
  
  HOLDEN - Some days, a woman says she's stuck in her own home because she can't make it out of her driveway.Terri Vernazza says every time it rains her driveway is left looking like the 1000 Islands."If you like mud riding, if you like being stuck for hours on end, be my guest and come out here and enjoy the ride," she said.The homeowner isn't sure what to do because the land her driveway goes through is owned by someone else.It's definitely not a drive for a person with a bad back but it's a rou
  
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• Rouses to reopen in Denham Springs following flood

  09-12-2016 16:51
  
  DENHAM SPRINGS – The Rouses Market in Denham Springs will officially open for the first time following the August flood on Wednesday.All of the tenants in the Juban Crossing Development, where Rouses is located, were affected. The store took on four feet of flood water that ruined the store and forced the evacuation of Rouses team members."There was never a question of whether or not we would rebuild. We started work as soon as the floodwaters receded," Donny Rouse, CEO of his family's
  
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• Gatlinburg, Smoky Mountains reopen after fatal wildfires

  09-12-2016 15:18
  
  GATLINBURG, Tenn. - The Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the resort town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, have reopened to the public after wildfires that caused 14 deaths and damaged about 2,500 buildings.After officials moved barriers blocking the roadway at about 7 a.m. Friday, a steady stream of traffic could be seen heading into town, including cars and food delivery trucks.Most of the main tourist area in Gatlinburg was spared by the fires that were whipped into the city by hurricane-force
  
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• Edwards meets with Trump, talks Louisiana flood recovery

  09-12-2016 15:18
  
  BATON ROUGE - Gov. John Bel Edwards met privately with Donald Trump while the president-elect was in Baton Rouge to rally for the Republican candidate in Louisiana's U.S. Senate race.The Democratic governor said he congratulated Trump on his victory and updated him on Louisiana's recovery from two different floods this year. Trump last visited the state in August, meeting with victims after floodwaters wrecked southern parishes.Edwards, who supported Hillary Clinton for president, said he apprec
  
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• Candidates rally support for La. runoff drawing low interest

  09-12-2016 15:16
  
  BATON ROUGE - Louisiana's candidates are trying to stir up enthusiasm for Saturday's election, seeking to persuade people to cast ballots in a runoff expected to draw less than a third of registered voters.Remaining to be decided are an open U.S. Senate seat and two open U.S. House seats, the nation's last congressional races.Republican Senate candidate John Kennedy drew star power for his closing argument Friday. President-elect Donald Trump headlined a Baton Rouge rally, urging voters to suppo
  
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• Sources say Trump to tap Goldman Sachs president

  09-12-2016 15:14
  
  President-elect Donald Trump is expected to pick Goldman Sachs President Gary Cohn for an influential White House economic post.That's according to two people informed of the decision.The 56-year-old Cohn would lead the White House National Economic Council. The posting would require him to leave his $21 million a year job as president and chief operating officer at Goldman.Trump repeatedly vilified the prestigious Wall Street bank on the campaign trail. Yet with the choice of Cohn, he's now nam
  
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• Expert: Appears crash in Will Smith case that preceded gunshots was intentional

  09-12-2016 15:12
  
  NEW ORLEANS - A car crash expert has told a jury in New Orleans he believes a driver intentionally crashed his Hummer into the vehicle driven by ex-football star Will Smith on the night of April 9.That crash led to a heated argument and gunfire that killed Smith that night. The Hummer driver, Cardell Hayes, is on trial for second-degree murder.New Orleans media accounts of Friday's testimony from expert Michael Sunseri say he put the blame squarely on Hayes. The defense challenged Sunseri's conc
  
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• Trump considering former Ford CEO for State

  09-12-2016 13:34
  
  WASHINGTON - A top aide to President-elect Donald Trump is confirming that former Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally is among those being considered for the job of secretary of state.In an interview with Fox News, Kellyanne Conway said Mulally met with Trump on Thursday.Mulally, a longtime Boeing Company executive, was hired as CEO of Ford in 2006. He is widely credited with the company's turnaround. Using a well-timed loan, he helped keep Ford out of bankruptcy during the recession an
  
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• FEMA refuses to lessen Louisiana's cost for March flooding

  09-12-2016 12:36
  
  BATON ROUGE - The Federal Emergency Management Agency has denied Gov. John Bel Edwards' request to lessen Louisiana's share of disaster response costs after March flooding that inundated north and central Louisiana.Louisiana's share of the federal response to the August flooding that ravaged south Louisiana is 10 percent. But FEMA refused a request to shrink the state's costs for the March flooding from 25 percent to 10 percent.The governor's office released the rejection letter Friday. FEMA Adm
  
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• Two BR Magnet High School students score 36 on ACT

  09-12-2016 12:34
  
  BATON ROUGE – Two Baton Rouge Magnet High School seniors have earned perfect ACT scores.Chi Cao and Nicholas Cole Roland both scored 36 on the ACT. Cao is a member of the Mu Alpha Theta Club and the BRMHS Orchestra. She plans to attend the University of Texas at Austin or Georgia Tech and major in chemical engineering. Cao is also a National Merit Semifinalist and National Advanced Placement Scholar.Roland is a member of the BRMHS Choir and Orchestra. He plans on attending Princeton an
  
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• Michigan lets autonomous cars on roads without human driver

  09-12-2016 12:34
  
  DETROIT - Companies can now test self-driving cars on Michigan public roads without a driver or steering wheel under new laws that could push the state to the forefront of autonomous vehicle development.The package of bills signed into law Friday comes with few specific state regulations and leaves many decisions up to automakers and companies like Google and Uber. But state officials say there are enough safeguards to keep the public out of danger.The bills also allow automakers and tech compan
  
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• Prosecutors to play confession in church shooting trial

  09-12-2016 12:27
  
  CHARLESTON - Prosecutors in South Carolina say they plan to play Dylann Roof's recorded confession during his federal death penalty trial in the Charleston church shootings.Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Richardson says he plans to play the confession for jurors Friday as the trial enters a third day.Roof is on trial on 33 federal counts, including hate crimes, in the shootings at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in June 2015. Prosecutors say Roof shot and killed nine black parishioners d
  
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• Big business warns Trump against mass deportation

  09-12-2016 12:25
  
  WASHINGTON - The nation's business community has begun to pressure Donald Trump to abandon campaign-trail pledges of mass deportation and other hard line immigration policies that some large employers fear would hurt the economy.The push is led by an advocacy group backed by New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg and media mogul Rupert Murdoch. It is still in its infancy as the business world struggles to understand Trump's true intentions on an issue that defined his outsider campaign.Some grou
  
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• Clinton decries rise of fake news in first speech since loss

  09-12-2016 12:22
  
  WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton decried the rise of fake news as an "epidemic" in her first speech since losing the presidential election last month.Clinton addressed fake news during a speech for retiring Nevada Sen. Harry Reid at the Capitol Thursday.Clinton warned that "it's now clear that so-called fake news can have real-world consequences," an apparent reference to an incident involving a gunman who fired multiple shots inside a Washington pizza shop that has become the target of a fake consp
  
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• Obama orders review of election hacking

  09-12-2016 12:16
  
  WASHINGTON - A White House official says the president has ordered a review of the email hacking that rattled the presidential campaign.Obama's counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco says intelligence and national security officials were told to report their findings to the president before he leaves office on Jan. 20.U.S. intelligence officials have accused Russia of trying to interfere in last month's election by hacking into Democratic officials' email accounts. President Barack Obama has raise
  
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• Saturday Election Day reminders

  09-12-2016 09:53
  
  BATON ROUGE – As the polls open for Election Day on Saturday, eligible voters will be casting ballots for the United States Senate, the 3rd and 4th Congressional Districts, Baton Rouge Mayor-President and other municipal races.Since it is a Saturday election, the polls will open at 7 a.m.The Secretary of State's office reminds voters:- Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. Anyone in line at 8 p.m. will be allowed to vote.- Voters can find their precinct and sample ballot by download
  
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• Residents of John Glenn's hometown mourn

  09-12-2016 08:35
  
  NEW CONCORD, Ohio - The residents of John Glenn's hometown in eastern Ohio say he never forgot where he came from and always made time to talk with anyone who wanted to visit.Flags around New Concord have been lowered and the university where he was a trustee held a moment of silence before a basketball game Thursday after the former astronaut and U.S. senator died earlier in the day.Glenn became a national hero in 1962 when he became the first American to orbit the Earth.George St. Clair is on
  
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• Defense Secretary Carter makes surprise visit to Afghanistan

  09-12-2016 07:15
  
  BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan - U.S. defense Secretary Ash Carter is making an unannounced visit to Afghanistan to consult with military commanders and deliver a pre-holiday pep talk to U.S. troops.It is Carter's last planned trip to Afghanistan before handing off his Pentagon responsibilities to his designated successor, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis.Carter is scheduled to meet later Friday with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.The U.S. has about 10,000 troops in Afghanistan to train and advise
  
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• Ohio interstate opens 14 hours after 50-vehicle pileup

  09-12-2016 07:13
  
  PAINESVILLE, Ohio - Authorities say an interstate east of Cleveland is open again after a pileup of about 50 vehicles in snowy conditions shut down the highway for more than 14 hours.The Lake County sheriff's office says about 20 people were injured in the chain reaction crash Thursday.Highway crews reopened the roadway Friday morning after the crash that involved a Greyhound bus and over a dozen trucks on Interstate 90.Bus passenger Greg Carmichael tells Fox 8 News he was heading home to Buffal
  
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• Alabama inmate coughs, heaves, during execution by injection

  09-12-2016 07:11
  
  ATMORE, Ala. - Thirteen minutes into his execution by injection, an Alabama inmate heaved and coughed and appeared to move during tests meant to determine consciousness.Forty-five-year-old Ronald Bert Smith Jr. was finally pronounced dead at 11:05 p.m. Thursday night - about 30 minutes after the procedure began at the state prison in southwest Alabama.Alabama uses the sedative midazolam as the first drug in a three-drug lethal injection combination. Smith and other inmates argued in a court case
  
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• Report: Over 1,000 Russians involved in organized doping

  09-12-2016 07:09
  
  LONDON - A new report into systematic Russian doping has found that more than 1,000 Russian athletes from summer and winter sports were involved in or benefited from an organized conspiracy over a four-year period.World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren released the second part of his report into allegations of state-sponsored doping, particularly involving the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.The findings confirmed and expanded on much of the evidence contained in the Canadian law pr
  
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• 'Today' show's Savannah Guthrie gives birth to boy

  09-12-2016 07:07
  
  NEW YORK - 'Today' show co-host Savannah Guthrie has given birth to her second child, a boy.Guthrie's co-host Matt Lauer made the announcement on the air Friday morning . Lauer says Charles Max Feldman was born at 8:59 a.m. Thursday and weighed in at a healthy 9 pounds, 8 ounces. Charley, as he will be known, is named after Guthrie's father. The middle name comes from the grandfather of Guthrie's husband, Mike Feldman.Lauer has already visited Guthrie in the hospital and joked that he "was calle
  
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• Taylor Swift, Zayn Malik team up for surprise duet single

  09-12-2016 07:05
  
  Taylor Swift and Zayn Malik have dropped a surprise duet single from the "Fifty Shades Darker" soundtrack.Swift and the former One Direction singer both shared clips of "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" on Twitter late Thursday. The full song was made available on iTunes on Friday."I Don't Wanna Live Forever" was written by Swift, Sam Dew and Fun's Jack Antonoff. Antonoff also produced the track.Antonoff co-wrote three songs with Swift for her smash album "1989," including "Out of the Woods."Permalin
  
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• S. Korea PM officially becomes acting president

  09-12-2016 07:03
  
  SEOUL, South Korea - South Korean President Park Geun-hye has been officially stripped of power after being impeached.The suspension of Park's power was made Friday when her office received a copy of the impeachment motion hand-delivered by National Assembly officials.Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn now steps in as acting president until the country's Constitutional Court deliberates on whether to formally end her presidency or reinstate her. The court has up to 180 days.Permalink| Comments
  
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