Baton Rouge news

• Man charged with impersonating a police officer

  01-01-2017 21:07
  
  BATON ROUGE – Police say a Baton Rouge man impersonated a police officer by driving across the city with red and blue lights on his car.Baton Rouge Police officers observed 25-year-old Kolby Dummons driving in the 200 block of 3rd street around 9:32 p.m. Police say Dummons had red and blue flashing lights on his dashboard, appearing to be a law enforcement vehicle.Officers ran the vehicle’s license plate number and determined that the Dummon’s Chevy Impala was not a
  
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• New Orleans murder rate climbs to 176 for the year

  01-01-2017 15:46
  
  NEW ORLEANS - The New Orleans murder rate climbed last year to 176.The Times-Picayune reports that's the highest count since 2012 when 193 people were slain in the city.Murders last year included domestic violence incidents, drug turf wars and high profile cases such as the Nov. 27 mass shooting on Bourbon Street.LSU criminologist Peter Scharf says the increase calls into question Mayor Mitch Landrieu's strategy to cut the city's high murder rate, saying it hasn't been effective.But the mayor's
  
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• Amazon now charging sales tax to Louisiana customers

  01-01-2017 14:40
  
  BATON ROUGE - Tax-free shopping on Amazon for Louisiana residents is ending.The online retail giant will start charging sales taxes on all purchases shipped to destinations in Louisiana starting Jan. 1.A state revenue department spokesman confirmed Amazon will begin collecting both state and local sales taxes in Louisiana when the new year begins.The process is the same for Louisiana retailers who also sell online. The tax collections are required in state law. For Louisiana's shoppers, they'll
  
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• State Department: 35 Russian diplomats leave US

  01-01-2017 14:26
  
  WASHINGTON - The State Department is confirming that the 35 Russian diplomats President Barack Obama ordered out of the country have departed the United States.Obama expelled the diplomats, saying they were really spies, and ordered new sanctions on Russian spy agencies for alleged Russian hacking of political sites during the presidential election. Obama also shuttered two Russian compounds in Maryland and New York.The State Department said Sunday that the 35 Russian diplomats, along with their
  
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• Obama has few options to protect young immigrants

  01-01-2017 14:24
  
  WASHINGTON - Barack Obama is under pressure in his final weeks as president to secure the future for hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children who could face deportation under the Trump administration. His options appear to be few.Numerous Democrats are pushing Obama to grant pardons for the young immigrants who identified themselves to the government in exchange for a promise that they'd be safe from deportation. The White House, though, has repeatedly ruled that out.L
  
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• Mariah Carey bungles her Times Square show, stops singing

  01-01-2017 14:20
  
  NEW YORK - Mariah Carey has ushered in 2017 with a botched performance on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest" on ABC.The singer appeared to have technical difficulties during her live performance Saturday night in Times Square. She even stopped singing her song "Emotions," paced the stage and told the audience to finish the lyrics for her.She told the crowd, "I'm trying to be a good sport here."Carey headlined the festivities in Times Square, where about a million revelers j
  
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• Vandalized Hollywood sign now reads 'Hollyweed'

  01-01-2017 13:43
  
  LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles residents awoke New Year's Day to find a prankster had altered the famed Hollywood sign to read "HOLLYWeeD."KABC-TV reports Los Angeles police have dispatched a unit to investigate the apparent vandalism.Police have also notified the city's Department of General Services, whose officers patrol Griffith Park and the area of the rugged Hollywood Hills near the sign.California voters in November approved Proposition 64, which legalized the recreational use of marijuana, be
  
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• Shreveport group to protest southern Louisiana pipeline

  01-01-2017 13:33
  
  SHREVEPORT - A newly formed Shreveport environmental activist group is making plans to travel to Baton Rouge to protest an incoming pipeline that many worry would hurt the environment.North Louisiana for Climate Justice was created on Friday at a Whole Foods market in Shreveport. Currently about a dozen members strong, the group's first mission is to tackle the proposed Bayou Bridge Pipeline project at a public hearing scheduled Jan. 12 in Baton Rouge.A member of the group, Ron Hagar, tells The
  
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• US general praises Iraqi forces fighting in Mosul

  01-01-2017 13:13
  
  IRBIL, Iraq - A senior U.S. military commander is praising Iraqi forces fighting to recapture the northern city of Mosul from the Islamic State group. Brig. Gen. Rick Uribe tells The Associated Press that the Iraqi forces are "at their peak" and adjusting well to changing realities on the battlefield.Speaking in Irbil, capital of the self-ruled Kurdish region in northern Iraq, Uribe said Iraqi forces north and south of Mosul have made progress since a new advance was launched last week after a t
  
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• State gets grant to help track website targeting jobseekers

  01-01-2017 12:44
  
  BILOXI, Miss. - Mississippi Energy Institute has created a website called "Get on the Grid" to help students and their parents learn about opportunities for well-paying jobs in Mississippi.Get on the Grid features jobs in energy, manufacturing and utilities, some of the fastest-growing, highest-paid and most in-demand jobs in the state, with well over 100,000 openings in these fields in Mississippi. The Sun Herald reports a $200,000 federal grant administered through the state Department of Empl
  
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• New Year's shooting at Milwaukee nightclub kills 1

  01-01-2017 12:41
  
  MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee police are searching for suspects after a New Year's shooting at a nightclub killed one person, a violent start after a year that saw nearly 150 homicides in the city.WITI-TV eports the shooting happened just before 5 a.m. Sunday at Dee's Elegance Bar & Grill on Milwaukee's northwest side.Police say the 37-year-old victim was shot inside the club after an altercation with at least two people. Those two fled after the shooting.The victim died at the scene. It's Milwaukee
  
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• Des Moines police investigate fatal nightclub shooting

  01-01-2017 12:39
  
  DES MOINES, Iowa - Des Moines Police are investigating the death of an 18-year-old man who was fatally shot in a dispute at a downtown nightclub.Police were called to the Des Moines nightclub around 3:30 a.m. Sunday to investigate the altercation.Police Sgt. Paul Parizek says the 18-year-old died at the nightclub after he was shot. The Des Moines man's name wasn't immediately released.The shooting is Des Moines' first homicide of 2017.Permalink| Comments
  
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• Trump expected to embrace bold use of Twitter

  01-01-2017 12:23
  
  Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer says he expects President-elect Donald Trump will boldly use Twitter to make major policy announcements.Trump was scolded by foreign policy experts last month when he used Twitter as the venue to say that the U.S. should greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capacity until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nuclear weapons.Spicer said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" that he thinks it freaks the mainstream media out that Trump has
  
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• 4 dead in southern Illinois small plane crash

  01-01-2017 11:49
  
  VIENNA, Ill. - Authorities in southern Illinois say four people died New Year's Eve after a single-engine plane crashed in a wooded area.Johnson County Coroner David Rockwell says he pronounced the two men and two women dead at about 8:15 p.m. on Saturday at the scene of the crash. He says the victims all appear to be adults and their identities are unknown. The Federal Aviation Administration says a Piper PA28 small aircraft crashed in unknown circumstances on Saturday night.The FAA says it and
  
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• Spain: 1,100 migrants try to breach N. African border fence

  01-01-2017 11:47
  
  BARCELONA, Spain - More than 50 Moroccan and Spanish border guards were injured repelling around 1,100 African migrants who attempted to storm a border fence and enter Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta, Spanish authorities said Sunday.A regional government spokesman told The Associated Press that 50 Moroccan and five Spanish border guards were injured early on Sunday when the large group of migrants tried to enter Spain.The spokesman said two migrants managed to reach Spanish soil. Both wer
  
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• Turkish PM denies club shooter dressed as Santa

  01-01-2017 11:44
  
  ISTANBUL - Turkey's prime minister has denied news reports claiming the gunman who killed 39 people inside an Istanbul nightclub during New Year's celebrations wore a Santa Claus outfit.Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters Sunday: "There is no truth to this. He is an armed terrorist as we know it."The prime minister also said after visiting the wounded in a hospital that the assailant attacked security personnel outside the club before shooting randomly inside.Yildirim says the attacker
  
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• 24 of Turkey attack's 39 victims were foreigners

  01-01-2017 11:44
  
  ISTANBUL - Turkey's state-run news agency says that nearly two-thirds of the people killed in the Istanbul nightclub attack were foreign nationals.Anadolu Agency reported Sunday that 24 of the shooting attack's 39 victims were citizens of other countries.However, the news agency did not provide a breakdown of their nationalities.Anadolu says authorities still are trying to identify four of the victims.Nearly 70 also were injured in the early morning attack during New Year's celebrations at the u
  
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• Brazil: man kills ex-wife, relatives in New Year's crime

  01-01-2017 11:39
  
  SAO PAULO - Brazilian military police say a man broke into a house where his ex-wife was ringing in the New Year and shot and killed at least a dozen people before committing suicide.Cpl. Marta Aurelia said Sunday that the man was carrying "several firearms." His ex-wife was among the dead, and the others included her family members. The crime took place in the southeastern city of Campinas.Aurelia said 13 people were killed but was not sure if that total included the gunman. A further three wer
  
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• Italian bomb-squad expert wounded while examining package

  01-01-2017 11:35
  
  ROME - Police in Florence say a bomb-squad officer was wounded when a suspicious package he was examining exploded.The Italian news agency ANSA said police noticed the package, which apparently had a timer and wires, at 5 a.m. Sunday outside a closed bookshop with links to a neo-fascist activist group, CasaPound. Police chief Alberto Intini said the officer suffered very serious eye and hand injuries.Italy occasionally sees explosions blamed on right-wing or left-wing extremists. In the 1970s an
  
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• Small planes collide mid-air in Texas, killing 3

  01-01-2017 11:30
  
  McKINNEY, Texas - Three people have been killed after two small planes collided in midair near McKinney, Texas.The Federal Aviation Administration says the collision occurred shortly after 5:30 p.m. near Aero Country Airport. The private airport is about 35 miles north of downtown Dallas.The FAA says it was told by local fire department officials that three people died in the crash.FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford says "both aircraft were flying under Visual Flight Rules and were not in contact with
  
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• N. Korea: Developing long-range missiles 'in final stages'

  01-01-2017 11:28
  
  SEOUL, South Korea - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is quoted as saying in a New Year's message that his country's development of banned long-range missiles is in "final stages."Kim's address was monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency on Sunday.Under Kim, who rose to power following his father's death in 2011, North Korea has seen steady progress in its nuclear and missile programs, including two nuclear tests this year. It recently claimed a series of technical breakthroughs in its goal
  
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• Italian foreign minister calls for unity to combat terror

  01-01-2017 11:24
  
  ISTANBUL - Italy's foreign minister says unity among countries and continents is needed to combat terror.Minister Angelino Alfano in tweets Sunday says the Istanbul New Year's nightclub attack that killed 39 people "reminds us that the fight against terror doesn't stop for any holiday or celebration."He says "tears aren't enough."Instead, Alfano says: "We must keep fighting against terror. To fight, together, to defend our freedom."Permalink| Comments
  
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• 23 dead after ferry catches fire near Indonesia's capital

  01-01-2017 11:22
  
  JAKARTA, Indonesia - An Indonesian official says at least 23 people were killed after a ferry caught fire near the capital, Jakarta.The vessel was carrying about 100 people from Jakarta'a port of Muara Angke to Tidung, a resort island in the Kepulauan Seribu chain located off of Jakarta, when it caught fire Sunday.Seply Madreto, an official from the local Disaster Mitigation Agency, told MetroTV that more than 10 injured victims were rushed to hospitals.He said the fire gutted through about half
  
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