Baton Rouge news

• Phoenix hits 118 degrees, breaks record dating to 1905

  07-07-2017 20:45
  
  PHOENIX - Phoenix has broken a 112-year-old record for heat.
   National Weather Service meteorologists say the Arizona city had a high of 118 degrees on Friday.
   That broke the previous mark of 115 degrees dating back to 1905.
   Meteorologists say the normal high temperature for July 7 in Phoenix is 107 degrees.
   So far this year, the temperature at Sky Harbor Airport has reached at least 110 degrees 17 times.
   In California, a heat advisory in the San
  
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• Trump, Putin agree election issue is hindrance

  07-07-2017 20:18
  
  HAMBURG, Germany - Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agree on one aspect of Moscow's meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign: The issue has become a hindrance to better relations.
   That's according to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who says the U.S. and Russian presidents had a "robust and lengthy" discussion about the interference, though Putin denied involvement.
   Tillerson's Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, says Trump accepted Putin's assurances
  
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• Polarizing right-wing writer sues over canceled book

  07-07-2017 19:31
  
  NEW YORK - Polarizing right-wing writer Milo Yiannopoulos has filed a $10 million lawsuit against a New York publishing company over a canceled book deal.
   Yiannopoulos resigned from the conservative website Breitbart News this year after comments he made about sexual relationships between boys and men. In video clips, he appeared to defend sexual relationships between men and boys as young as 13. He had planned a memoir entitled "Dangerous" and had a deal with Simon & Schuster to p
  
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• Burned crane blocks residents after Oakland fire

  07-07-2017 19:24
  
  OAKLAND, Calif. - Oakland is blocking off streets surrounding a burned building site until crews can take down a giant construction crane hanging over the neighborhood.
   Friday's early morning fire destroyed the seven-story building site but there were no injuries.
   Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Erik Logan says traffic and residents are temporarily blocked from the area as a precaution.
   Logan says crews will work over the weekend to secure and take down the untethered
  
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• Construction underway for playground at new Ascension Sheriff's Office substation

  07-07-2017 18:11
  
  ASCENSION – Construction is underway for a new substation in Donaldsonville for the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office.The substation will also include a park and a playground. The work began on Friday morning and will continue tomorrow. The sheriff's office has partnered with LSU Community Playground Project expert Marybeth Lima and a team of volunteers to do the work. "I think it's truly a part of living a high-quality life, in a strong community, one of the best thi
  
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• Afternoon fire at Sherwood Acres Apartments seen by drivers

  07-07-2017 17:47
  
  BATON ROUGE – A fire at the Sherwood Acres Apartments was seen by drivers on Friday afternoon. A WBRZ viewer sent in photos of the flames from the front door of one of the first floor units. According to witnesses, the flames were noticed around 4:30 p.m. and were quickly extinguished.Witnesses say they saw a neighbor putting out the fire with a garden hose.According to the fire department, the fire was contained to the exterior of the unit. There are no reports of injuries or
  
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• Where is neo-Nazi site's publisher? Lawyers can't find him

  07-07-2017 17:37
  
  BATON ROUGE - In April, a Montana woman sued the publisher of a neo-Nazi website for orchestrating an anti-Semitic online trolling campaign against her family. Nearly three months later, her attorneys are still trying to find him.  A court filing Friday by lawyers from the Southern Poverty Law Center claims The Daily Stormer's founder, Andrew Anglin, is "actively concealing his whereabouts" and hasn't been served with Tanya Gersh's federal lawsuit. Gersh's attorneys are asking
  
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• Final flood debris removal in EBR to begin July 10

  07-07-2017 16:39
  
  BATON ROUGE – City-Parish crews will begin their final pass for flood debris removal across East Baton Rouge Parish on Monday, July 10. The pass is for any remaining debris collection needs for residents that were impacted by the August 2016 flood. Debris removal operations will conclude on August 11. Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, in collaboration with the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, secured a six-month extension for elig
  
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• FEMA: 1,001 households transition from MHUs to permanent housing since flood

  07-07-2017 16:01
  
  BATON ROUGE – More than a thousand households have made improvements in recovery and moved out of FEMA Manufactured Housing Units to more permanent housing. Immediately following the August 2016 flood, more than 4,600 eligible households were licensed into MHUs, according to FEMA. East Baton Rouge, Livingston and Ascension parishes account for a majority of households in MHUs. Currently, about 3,500 households are living in MHUs while they work toward a permanent hous
  
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• Washington Parish volunteer firefighter dies in crash while responding to house fire

  07-07-2017 15:27
  
  MT. HERMON – A volunteer firefighter on his way to a house fire was killed in a crash on Thursday in Mount Hermon. The incident occurred around 8:30 p.m. on July 6 near intersection of Mt. Pisgah Road and Burch Road. According to the Washington Parish Sheriff's Office, 54-year-old Ronda Varnado was driving a fire truck to the scene of a house fire when the truck left the roadway, tipped over, slid several yards before hitting an embankment. The sheriff's office says t
  
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• Man in stolen vehicle flees on foot after police attempt traffic stop; search underway

  07-07-2017 14:38
  
   BATON ROUGE – Police are in pursuit of a man who was allegedly in a stolen vehicle and fled on foot during a traffic stop on Friday afternoon, according to the Baton Rouge Police Department. 
  The pursuit is near the 4700 block of Shelley and Clayton streets and began around noon.
   Police say officers tried to initiate a traffic stop on a vehicle that was reported stolen when the vehicle did not stop. Moments later the occupant of the vehic
  
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• Man dies after Georgia bank standoff with police

  07-07-2017 13:30
  
  2:10 p.m.  MARIETTA - A man who claimed to have a bomb inside a suburban Atlanta bank has died after a standoff with police.  Cobb County Police Chief Mike Register told reporters Friday that the unidentified man had died but did not offer further details.  Earlier, at least two people were freed from the bank after a military-style vehicle rammed a back wall of the Wells Fargo building.  WSB-TV reported earlier that a man c
  
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• Trial moved to December for man accused of killing girlfriend's molester

  07-07-2017 13:17
  
  BATON ROUGE – The trial for a man who is accused of killing his girlfriend's molester has been continued to December 4. Jace Crehan is accused of killing his girlfriend's molester, 47-year-old Robert Noce, Jr.
  Brittany Monk, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for her part in the crime on Monday. Noce was Monk's stepfather and said she was abused by him for years until she moved back in with her mother and reported the abuse when she was 15 years old in 2012, according to court fil
  
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• Track jockeys arrested for hazing naked teen with hot sauce

  07-07-2017 13:13
  
  VINTON – Four jockeys face charges after an apparent hazing stunt at the horse track in southwest Louisiana recently.State Police, who handle gaming investigations, reported Miguel Tejeda, Juan Garcia, Damian Martinez and Rolando Cabrera were booked into a local jail on charges related to an attack on a teenager who worked at the track. The four men arrested are from Texas – with addresses in either the Houston or San Antonio areas.Investigators said the men threw buckets of
  
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• Officer wounded in deadly ambush sues Black Lives Matter

  07-07-2017 12:52
  
  BATON ROUGE - A lawsuit accuses Black Lives Matter and five of the movement's leaders of inciting violence that led to a gunman's deadly ambush of law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge last summer.  DeRay Mckesson and four other Black Lives Matter leaders are named as defendants in the suit filed Friday on behalf of one of the officers wounded in the July 17 attack by a black military veteran, who killed three other officers before he was shot dead.  The sui
  
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• Baton Rouge man facing 400 counts of pornography involving juveniles

  07-07-2017 12:34
  
  BATON ROUGE - A Baton Rouge man is behind bars, charged with 400 counts of child pornography, according to the East Baton Rouge Police Department.EBRSO deputies say they executed a search warrant at the home of Michael Toups. During the search, deputies say they found 400 images of juveniles between the ages of 3 and 12, unclothed or engaging in sexual activity.During a later interview with deputies, they say Toups admitted to downloading, viewing, and saving the pornographic images for several
  
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• Lane closures next week for extensive repairs to I-10, I-12

  07-07-2017 12:33
  
  BATON ROUGE – Crews will do extensive patchwork to I-10 and I-12 through Baton Rouge and into Livingston Parish over the next week.DOTD announced lane closures for the work Friday morning. Closures begin later in the evening, Friday, June 7.There will be alternating lane closures on both sides of the interstate from Acadian to the Livingston Parish line until Friday, July 14th. Crews will make repairs to the road surface overnight.Lane closures begin at 8 p.m. on I-12 from the Split to
  
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• Police: 73-year-old man brutally beaten during road rage attack in Slidell

  07-07-2017 12:29
  
  SLIDELL – A 73-year-old man was brutally beaten in road rage incident in Slidell on Thursday, police say. According to the Slidell Police Department, officers responded to a call on July 6 around noon about a fight near the intersection of Reine Avenue and Old Spanish Trail. The caller told police that two young men were beating an older man, who was still inside of his vehicle. When officers arrived, they found 19-year-old Brett McCraney and 26-year-old Adonis Young
  
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• Flights at NY airport briefly slowed down by turtles

  07-07-2017 12:17
  
  NEW YORK - Some flights at New York's Kennedy Airport were briefly delayed, but not by passengers of equipment malfunctions. It was turtles.
   The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says about 40 diamondback terrapins crawled out of Jamaica Bay and onto the airfield at about 4:45 p.m. Friday.
   Authority spokeswoman Cheryl Albiez tells the Daily News that some planes "were briefly stuck in queue" while the turtles were being rounded up.
   The turtles' annual migrat
  
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• US employers add 222K jobs, jobless rate rises to 4.4 pct.

  07-07-2017 07:53
  
  WASHINGTON - U.S. employers added a robust 222,000 jobs in June, the most in four months, a reassuring sign that businesses are confident enough to keep hiring despite a slow-growing economy.
   The Labor Department says the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4 percent from 4.3 percent in May, which was a 16-year low. The rate rose because more Americans began looking for work, but not all found jobs.
   Job gains for April and May were revised higher by 47,000. In the first six mont
  
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• Tire marks removed from downtown street this morning

  07-07-2017 06:23
  
  BATON ROUGE - City crews removed tire marks from 3rd Street in downtown early Friday after drivers were seen burning rubber in an aggressive road rage incident earlier this week. At first, Third Street between Florida and  Laurel was set to be closed from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. Friday but crews cleared out around nine o'clock.Business owners in the area told WBRZ, the tire marks are skid marks from an illegal street racing maneuver that happened before bars closed Wednesday
  
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• City crew cleaning tire marks off 3rd St. in downtown Baton Rouge

  07-07-2017 06:23
  
  BATON ROUGE - City crews are working in downtown Baton Rouge to remove tire marks left in the roadway by reported drag racing.Third St. between Florida and Laurel will remain closed Friday until 11 a.m.Business owners in the area told WBRZ, the tire marks are skid marks from an illegal street racing maneuver that happened before bars closed Wednesday morning.Police said the situation was an isolated incident, though the Downtown Development District said police will be seen more in down
  
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• Trump and Putin to meet at international summit in Germany

  07-07-2017 06:19
  
  HAMBURG, Germany - After weeks of anticipation, President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are preparing to meet at an international summit in Germany.
   Friday's much-anticipated encounter comes at a pivotal time in U.S.-Russian relations. Trump will be closely watched to see if he confronts Putin over Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
   U.S. lawmakers and federal investigators are continuing to look into Russia's election interference, along
  
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