--- Advertisement ---

What’s Happening in LA?
11/16/08 - 11:17 PM
 RSS Feed
click for larger image

Here’s the latest Louisiana news, sports, business, and entertainment:

SOLDIER KILLED
Louisiana Guard member from Colo. dies

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A Louisiana Army National Guard soldier has been killed in Afghanistan.

The Department of Defense says 38-year-old Specialist Jonnie L. Stiles of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, died Thursday in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. He had been wounded when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.

He was assigned to the 927th Engineer Company of the 769th Engineer Battalion, Louisiana Army National Guard based in Baton Rouge.

SCOLA-FOREIGN LAWYERS
La. high court OKs practice by foreign lawyers

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Reversing a long-standing policy, Louisiana’s Supreme Court has decided to allow lawyers from foreign countries to practice law in the state as long as they are in the nation legally.

The amended rule, posted on the high court’s Web site this week, takes effect in January. It allows admission to the state bar of “an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, or an alien otherwise authorized to work lawfully in the United States.” The rule includes some education requirements, including 14 semester hours of education in an American law school.

Foreign attorneys had fought unsuccessfully for years to practice in Louisiana but the state Supreme Court rebuffed the efforts. A 2005 federal appeals court decision upheld the state’s right to prohibit practice by foreign citizens.

FAMILY SHOT
Suspect in family shooting ruled competent

BENTON, La. (AP) - A district judge in Bossier Parish has ruled that a man charged with killing his wife’s parents and her 17-year-old son is mentally competent to stand trial.

Robert McCoy is accused of killing 50-year-old Willie Young, 55-year-old Christine Colston and 17-year-old Gregory Colston in May. A grand jury indicted him the same month on three counts of first-degree murder.

Judge Jeff Cox ruled Friday that McCoy is competent to stand trial.

Prosecutors say McCoy killed the three at their apartment complex while looking for his wife. The couple was going through a divorce and had been the subject of domestic calls in Bossier City for about two years.

The then-34-year-old McCoy has twice attempted suicide since being captured.

FOSSIL FISH NAME
Fossil fish named for ULM instructor

MONROE, La. (AP) - A University of Louisiana at Monroe faculty member is getting a rare honor—a newly discovered fish fossil is being named after him.

The honor was recently bestowed on ULM paleontologist Gary L. Stringer.

Paleontologists Gary Takeuchi and Richard Huddleston of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles realized they had uncovered a fossil fish entirely new to science. They published their discovery in a recent issue of the Southern California Academy of Sciences.

Takeuchi and Huddleston agreed to name the fish “Pogonias stringeri” in honor of Stringer’s long career of studying fossil fish. Stringer is the head of ULM’s geosciences department head.


PAPER MILL SHUTDOWN
Planned shutdown at Hodge mill delayed

HODGE, La. (AP) - A planned shutdown at the Smurfit-Stone paper mill in Hodge has been moved back a few weeks. It means most workers at the Smurfit-Stone Number Five machine will be out of a job from December 12th to January 1st instead of from November 24th to December 11th.

A company spokesman confirmed last week that Smurfit-Stone would idle about 80 workers at its Hodge paper mill in Jackson Parish during a temporary shutdown of its Number Five machine.

Smurfit-Stone is the second northeastern Louisiana paper mill to announce temporary layoffs because of weakening demand for its product.

International Paper will idle its entire Louisiana mill in Bastrop with separate shutdowns totaling seven weeks, including a three-week segment that started Sunday and a four-week period beginning December 14th.

OBIT-MARSELLUS
Marsellus, convicted in pardon scandal, dead at 75

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Howard Marsellus Jr., the former Louisiana Pardon Board chairman who went to prison in a pardon-selling scheme, has died of pancreatic cancer in Texas. He was 75.

Marsellus served as a teacher and principal in Baton Rouge schools and served for a time on the East Baton Rouge City-Parish Council.

In 1984, he was appointed Pardon Board chairman by then-Governor Edwin Edwards. In 1986, he was indicted in the pardon-selling scheme.

A year later, he pleaded guilty to state bribery and conspiracy charges and a single federal mail fraud count. He was sentenced to five years in prison but only served 20 months.

After his conviction, Marsellus expressed remorse for his actions.

Marsellus and his family relocated to Rowlett, Texas, where he remained until his death on Monday.

NOPD-EVIDENCE
Ex-capt. says he warned of evidence room problems

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The former overseer of the New Orleans Police Department’s evidence room says his warnings to supervisors about lax security were ignored. Former Captain Danny Lawless’s comments in The Times-Picayune newspaper came after this week’s acknowledgement by Police chief Warren Riley that about 19,000 dollars in cash owed to a former defendant was missing. Riley promised a thorough investigation.

Lawless retired in February. His memos showed various concerns about lax security and a lack of manpower in the keeping of evidence. It’s an issue now that police have been unable to find 19,000 dollars that the department had seized from an accused pot dealer. The man was entitled to get his money back because prosecutors neglected to file a forfeiture motion.

THIBODAUX-MOVIE
Thibodaux to host movie shoot

THIBODAUX, La. (AP) - The city of Thibodaux is about to go Hollywood.

Mayor Charles Caillouet says streets around the Lafourche Parish Courthouse will be closed from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday during filming of the movie “My Own Love Song.”

Courts will still operate, however, and area businesses will remain open.

The film is billed as a comedy-drama about a wheelchair-bound former singer and her best friend, who make a cross-country trip to Memphis, Tenn. It stars Forrest Whitaker, Rene Zellweger and Nick Nolte.

This entry has been viewed 332 times.

User Comments
KALB.com requires that you be a registered site member to post comments and content.
Why Register?
First, we are not being sneaky and gathering your email or other information to sell to telemarketers or e-mail spam companies.

Registration on this site is required simply to allow us to keep people who would post discriminatory, threatening and harassing messages and comments from doing it again.

By having user registration, we hope to provide you with a better user experience. Please view kalb.com's full Terms & Conditions