Baton Rouge news

• Schools announce calendar changes to make up for weather-related closures

  01-02-2018 21:45
  School board officials have announced plans to add instruction time to make up for missed hours because of hazardous winter weather in January.Livingston Parish Superintendent Rick Wentzel announced two scheduled half days would become full schools days. Those days are February 21 and March 22. Students will also have to attend school on May 25, which was originally scheduled to be a teacher-only day at the end of the school year.The school system had to close for five and a half days so far th
  
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• Livingston Schools announce calendar changes to make up for weather-related school closures

  01-02-2018 21:45
  LIVINGSTON - School board officials have announced plans to add instruction time to make up for missed hours because of hazardous winter weather in January.Superintendent Rick Wentzel announced two scheduled half days would become full schools days. Those days are February 21 and March 22. Students will also have to attend school on May 25, which was originally scheduled to be a teacher-only day at the end of the school year.The school system had to close for five and a half days so far this sc
  
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• Police say middle school shooting was accident

  01-02-2018 20:53
  LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Los Angeles police spokesman says a middle-school shooting that wounded four children was accidental.  Spokesman Josh Rubenstein says the 12-year-old girl arrested in Thursday's shooting was being booked on a charge of negligent discharge of a firearm on school grounds.  Twelve-year-old Jordan Valenzuela, a classmate, tells The Associated Press that he talked to her just after the shooting.  He says she was sobbing and k
  
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• California moves to drop, cut pot convictions

  01-02-2018 20:29
  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Prosecutors in San Francisco and San Diego are moving to erase thousands of marijuana convictions en masse, a step that could prove life-changing for some.  Advocates say the actions could especially help minorities, who were more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana crimes. Activists are calling on more places to do the same.  San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon says his office would review nearly 5,000 felony convic
  
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• Cuba state media: Fidel Castro's son has killed himself

  01-02-2018 20:19
  HAVANA (AP) - Cuba state media is reporting that the oldest son of late Cuban leader Fidel Castro has killed himself.  Official website Cubadebate says Fidel Castro Diaz-Balart took his life Thursday after months of treatment for a "deeply depressed state." He was 68.  The eldest son of Cuba's former leader was known for his distinctive beard and resemblance to his father.  A brief note read on state television said that his treatment had "r
  
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• Louisiana man who said God told him to kill daughter indicted

  01-02-2018 20:13
  NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A Louisiana man who told police God instructed him to kill his 18-month-old daughter so he'd be executed and resurrected has been indicted.  The Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office says in a news release that 46-year-old Mark Hambrick was charged Thursday with first-degree murder and second-degree cruelty in the Oct. 17 death of Amina Hambrick.  First-degree murder carries a sentence of death or life in prison. District Attorney Leon
  
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• Livingston Parish approves purchase of a dozen new school buses

  01-02-2018 18:52
  LIVINGSTON PARISH - It's been a long and expensive road to recovery for the Livingston Parish School District. The district purchased 57 new buses last year after more than 60 were lost to flood damage in 2016.Thursday night, the Transportation Department approved a proposal to buy a dozen more buses to be put to use by March. It's the last move the department hopes that will finally get them back on their feet.“We had [buses] that had up to 7 feet [of water] in them,&rdq
  
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• Crawfish season off to a slow, expensive start

  01-02-2018 18:39
  BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana crawfish season is kicking off slowly, leaving many customers with a high price and low supply.Largely thanks to the weather, the tasty seafood is not as readily available as it was at this same time last year.“People have gotten spoiled to having them in January and December,” said Perry Sagely, a local crawfish distributor. “Now we actually had a cold winter and we haven’t had much water, so the crawfish are limited to what w
  
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• District attorneys fear budget cuts could release criminals early

  01-02-2018 17:55
  BATON ROUGE- District attorneys across the state are sounding the alarm Thursday night if nothing is done to plug the $1 billion-dollar budget shortfall.The budget proposal would create an 85 percent cut to the DA's budget and would significantly reduce salaries for assistant district attorneys and eliminate services for victims."We couldn't recover," President of the LA District Attorneys Association said. "You're going to see dangerous criminals released from jail. You'll see people awaiting
  
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• City trying to figure out how to deal with stopped buses on a two-lane Government Street

  01-02-2018 17:13
  BATON ROUGE – There are no designs on paper to allow buses to pull off of Government Street once the highway is trimmed from four lanes to one travel lane in each direction, though officials are hoping to fix an issue that could lead to annoying congestion and frustrated drivers.CATS confirmed "the current plan, as we understand it, does not have planned bus pull-outs," however both bus company and city officials said Thursday, they hope to find ways to fix the potential problems."[Th
  
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• Walker man arrested for attempted vehicle burglary

  01-02-2018 17:02
  WALKER - Police arrested a man after a homeowner reported seeing him trying to break into her car.Police said 18-year-old Trevor Wiley was spotted under a carport around 6:30 a.m. Thursday. The homeowner told authorities her dog began barking, so she opened the front door to see what her pet was barking at. That's when she reported seeing Wiley trying to break into her car.Wiley tried fleeing the scene when the homeowner called 911, police said. A Walker Police Department officer patrolling the
  
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• Reports: Man dies after helping wife, 5 kids flee house fire

  01-02-2018 16:39
  JONESBORO, Ga. (AP) - Witnesses say a man helped his wife and their five children flee a burning home in suburban Atlanta, but he died at the scene.  Multiple media outlets say the situation was chaotic at the pre-dawn fire Thursday in Forest Park, south of Atlanta. One neighbor reported seeing the man dropping his children out a window to escape the flames. Another reported sounds of breaking glass and screams. Witnesses described the man as a hero in local reports. 
  
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• 40-year commitment for girl in Slender Man case

  01-02-2018 16:37
  WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) - A judge has sentenced a Wisconsin girl to the maximum 40 years in a mental hospital for stabbing a classmate in an attack aimed at pleasing a fictional horror character known as Slender Man.  Judge Michael Bohren says 15-year-old Morgan Geyser remains a risk to hurt herself or others.  Geyser and another girl lured a classmate to a suburban Milwaukee park in 2014 and carried out the attack, with Geyser doing the stabbing. All three girls
  
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• Officials: Mom, daughter fight girl on Georgia school bus

  01-02-2018 16:04
  LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. (AP) - Officials say a high school freshman's mother joined her in a fight against another girl on a school bus in an Atlanta suburb.  News outlets quote a Gwinnett County School's police report as saying cellphone video shows 35-year-old Nijah Underwood hitting the girl's face.  Central Gwinnett High School principal Shane Orr says in a letter the two students got into a fight at a bus stop. One boarded the bus when it arrived while the ot
  
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• Louisiana governor has $5M in bank for 2019 re-election bid

  01-02-2018 15:48
  BATON ROUGE (AP) - Gov. John Bel Edwards is sitting on a $5 million campaign account to run for re-election next year.  The Democratic governor's latest campaign finance report , covering money raised and spent in 2017, was filed Thursday. The report shows Edwards raised more than $2 million last year and has $5 million in the bank.  His fundraising slowed slightly, from more than $3 million a year earlier. But with $5 million on hand only halfway through his
  
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• Report: Jim Henderson retires as 'Voice of the Saints'

  01-02-2018 15:33
  NEW ORLEANS - Legendary sportscaster Jim Henderson has announced he is retiring as the voice of the New Orleans Saints.Henderson, 71, made the announcement on WWL Radio Thursday, saying he's leaving local broadcasting effective immediately. His departure comes on the heels of a return to form for the Sean Payton-led Saints, who had a stellar season in 2017 following several average years for the team."In the course of this season and the eight-game winning streak, I became enamored with this te
  
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• Video captures dog thrown over fence in EBR, residents start fundraiser to pay for surgery

  01-02-2018 14:48
  ZACHARY - Employees at a local veterinary clinic have set up a fundraiser for a dog after she was thrown over a tall fence, fracturing her leg.According to a GoFundMe page set up by an employee at the Animal Center in Zachary, three dogs were stolen from their front yard and later tossed over the clinic's six-foot fence Monday. Staff arrived Monday morning and were shocked to discover the three animals on the property.While two of the dogs landed on the opposite of the fence without injury, the
  
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• Edwards claims $600M in cuts; GOP calls the list misleading

  01-02-2018 14:03
    BATON ROUGE - Gov. John Bel Edwards is circulating a list of more than $600 million in budget cuts that he says his administration has made during its two years in office.  The Democratic governor is trying to bolster his argument that he's reduced some government spending to fill gaps, as he asks lawmakers to replace $1 billion in expiring taxes.  But Republican lawmakers say the Edwards cut list is inflated.  More than
  
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• Coffee urn left on 'Law and Order' set briefly causes scare

  01-02-2018 13:56
  NEW YORK (AP) - A coffee urn left near a Manhattan courthouse by caterers for the television show "Law & Order: SVU" caused a brief scare after it was mistaken for a suspicious package.  The urn was left in a red milk crate, wrapped in plastic wrap not far from the Manhattan state Supreme Civil Court building made famous by the long-running NBC show. Scenes were being filmed on the courthouse steps Thursday morning.  Police say the caterers had too much t
  
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• Police officers suspended, accused of being paid while home

  01-02-2018 13:32
  BATON ROUGE (AP) - A newspaper's public records request reveals that two Louisiana police officers have been suspended and demoted, accused of taking pay for hours when they were home and not working.  The Advocate says Baton Rouge Police disciplinary letters show that Patrick Martinez Jr. was suspended for 90 days and Jaime Strahan for 80, and each was demoted from sergeant to officer.  The letters state that each was paid for many hours when GPS readings sh
  
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• Police seeking missing woman with mental illness

  01-02-2018 13:15
  BATON ROUGE - Police are asking for the public's help in finding a woman reported missing over the weekend.According to the Baton Rouge Police Department, 52-year-old Yvette Nettles was reported missing this past Saturday. Nettles' family says she suffers from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.Nettles is around 5’4”, 270lbs with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing blue jeans and a black sweater in the area of Mills Avenue and Blount Road.Foul play
  
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• Three pets killed in house fire caused by faulty wiring

  01-02-2018 13:01
  CENTRAL- Authorities say that three pets were killed in an early morning house fire.The fire occurred at a home in the 10900 block of Ridge Road just before 2:30 a.m. Thursday. The Central Fire Department says smoke detectors alerted the family to the fire, which started in the kitchen.Two adults and four children made it out of the home safely, but two cats and a bird were killed. Firefighters rescued a third cat and administered oxygen to the animal before it was returned to the family.Crews
  
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• Police: Two victims in shooting at Los Angeles school

  01-02-2018 12:49
  LOS ANGELES -Police say a male student and a female student are victims of a shooting in a classroom at a Los Angeles middle school.  Sgt. Edward Bernal of the Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department tells KTLA-TV he doesn't know the conditions of the victims.  Bernal says the suspect is a female student who has been arrested. A weapon has been recovered.  The shooting was reported around 9 a.m. Thursday at Sal Castro Middle Sc
  
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• LSU performer's unicycle stolen at Calif. airport

  01-02-2018 11:58
  SAN FRANCISCO- Authorities say a seven-foot unicycle that belongs to the famous acrobat Red Panda was stolen from baggage claim.According to Sports Illustrated, the unicycle was taken Jan. 24 from baggage claim at St. Francisco International Airport after Red Panda (Ron Niu) had landed after performing in Denver.Niu, the acrobat known for catching bowls on top of her head, is known for performing at LSU basketball games. According to her agent the performer has had the unicycle for 30 years.Tig
  
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• NASA turns selfies by Mars rover into stunning self-portrait

  01-02-2018 11:35
    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.- NASA has transformed selfies taken by its Mars rover Curiosity into a stunning self-portrait.  Released this week, the photo shows Curiosity in the middle of the dusty, red Martian terrain, with Mount Sharp in the background. The rim of Gale Crater is also visible.  A small, self-focusing camera on the end of Curiosity's arm took the selfies. Dozens of pictures, all snapped Jan. 23, were used to create the mosaic.&
  
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• Loaded grenade launcher left at Florida Goodwill store

  01-02-2018 11:25
  BRADENTON, Fla. — Talk about one heckuva an explosive donation.Authorities say a grenade launcher, loaded with a live grenade, was left with other donated items at a Florida Goodwill store.The Bradenton Herald reports that employees at a Goodwill store near Tampa reported the weapon on Sunday.The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office says the store manager told deputies that the grenade launcher had come in a shipment from another store several days earlier. The employees at the o
  
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• Authorities offering reward on info. after Pointe Coupee burglaries

  01-02-2018 09:47
  POINTE COUPEE- According to the Pointe Coupee Sheriff's Office, there have been several burglaries in the Delta Place Road area.Authorities are offering a reward leading to an arrest or location of the stolen property from the incidents.Those with information can call the Criminal Investigations Division at (225) 638-5445.Permalink| Comments
  
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• Deputies looking for wallet thief, stolen credit cards used at Krispy Kreme

  01-02-2018 09:38
  BATON ROUGE- Authorities are looking for a thief who stole a wallet from a vehicle earlier this month.The theft occurred Jan. 21 in the 10500 block of Landsbury Drive. According to reports, the unknown man entered an unlocked vehicle and stole the victim's wallet which contained cash and credit cards. The victim told authorities that someone used his stolen cards at the Krispy Kreme on Plank Road.Authorities went to the donut shop and obtained surveillance video of the thief. The man is believe
  
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• Man tries to avoid arrest by jumping into bayou

  01-02-2018 09:05
  LAFOURCHE PARISH- A man attempted to wade through a bayou to get away from authorities chasing him after a traffic stop.Deputies were looking for 35-year-old Tyrone Showalter because he had eight active warrants with bonds totaling over $400,000.Authorities learned Showalter was in Grand Isle and would be returning to Lafourche Parish on Tuesday. Deputies got a description of his vehicle and tried to pull him over on LA Highway 3235 in Golden Meadow.After stopping for authorities, Showalter exi
  
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• Report: $18M I-10 construction project beginning April 1

  01-02-2018 07:49
  ST. MARTIN - The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has announced an upcoming highway project with major impacts to St. Martin and Iberville Parishes.According to the DOTD, starting April 1, construction on I-10 will stretch from LA 347 to LA 77. KATC reports that the $18 million project will include cleaning, painting and repairing concrete and metal bridge structures.The work is expected to take place 24 hours a day with isolated lane closures throughout
  
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• Fire recruits take part in annual Night Burn

  01-02-2018 07:11
  BATON ROGUE- If you saw flames or smoke in the sky above Baton Rouge Wednesday night, no need to worry, it was all part of the Baton Rouge Fire Department’s ‘Night Burn’ exercise.Dozens of family and friends watched as recruits battled a large intentionally set tanker fire.“Most recruits whenever they first see this, it can be a little bit overwhelming because of the amount of flames and how big it can be,” Capt. Bryan Averett said.Averett&r
  
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• State leaders to discuss Comite River Diversion Canal Project

  01-02-2018 06:54
  BATON ROUGE- The Comite River Diversion Canal Project Task Force will meet today to discuss where the project currently stands.The project has been decades in the works, but now it's in a state of limbo. Congress authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to built it years ago. The diversion canal is one of dozens of projects going on around the country. State officials say the project has not moved forward because Congress didn't approve enough money to finish it. Many r
  
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• Murder conviction overturned for man given life sentence

  01-02-2018 06:12
  NEW ORLEANS- The conviction of a Louisiana man sentenced to life in prison for murder has been overturned.  The Advocate of Baton Rouge reports the state Supreme Court decided Tuesday that 46-year-old Darryl Jones was not convicted on sufficient evidence. The Supreme Court cited an earlier dissenting 1st Circuit Court of Appeal opinion in their ruling that said the jury could only speculate Jones was guilty. Jones and two other men, Cecil Ray Beals and Calvin Williams, were co
  
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• State Police unveil new, less marked units

  01-02-2018 05:58
  BATON ROUGE - This month, motorists will see a change in Louisiana State Police units.Trooper vehicles are transitioning from the Ford Crown Victorias and Chevrolet Tahoes to new Dodge Chargers. According to a post by LSP, Troopers will use multiple variations of the Charger across the state to perform day-to-day duties. The new units will serve alongside the old ones as primary patrol vehicles and used to help Troopers combat crimes they witness on the road.&nbsp
  
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