News

Jennings woman recounts fire that destroyed home

Lorraine Broussard, 46, of Jennings said she was at a grocery store picking up ketchup for French fries for dinner Monday night when her life changed.

A grease fire that quickly spread out of control consumed her entire home and everything in it that evening.

Residents near Harvey-damaged chemical plant wary of water

CROSBY, Texas (AP) — The skeleton crew at Arkema’s chemical plant knew it was time to go by the morning of Aug. 29.

Flooding from Hurricane Harvey had knocked out power. Thousands of gallons of chemical-laden water had spilled into the floodwaters. Soon, the company’s stores of volatile organic peroxides would overheat and produce fires noxious enough to make first responders vomit. The last workers evacuated by floating over a 6-foot chain-link fence in a small boat.

Man convicted of fatal bombing 29 years ago to be executed

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Judge Robert S. Vance was at his kitchen table on Dec. 16, 1989, when he opened a package that had been mailed to his home. The bomb hidden inside exploded with brutal force, killing Vance instantly and severely injuring his wife.

Two days later, a similar device killed an attorney in Georgia. Two other mail bombs were later intercepted and defused, one at a federal courthouse in Atlanta and the other at an NAACP office in Jacksonville, Florida.

Can Zuckerberg’s media blitz take the pressure off Facebook?

NEW YORK (AP) — In the wake of a privacy scandal involving a Trump-connected data-mining firm, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg embarked on a rare media mini-blitz in an attempt to take some of the public and political pressure off the social network.

But it’s far from clear whether he’s won over U.S. and European authorities, much less the broader public whose status updates provide Facebook with an endless stream of data it uses to sell targeted ads.

Police: Austin bomber’s motive still unknown

PFLUGERVILLE, Texas (AP) — A 25-minute cellphone video left behind by the bomber whose deadly explosives terrorized Austin for weeks details the differences among the weapons he built and amounts to a confession, police said. But his motive remains a mystery.

Mark Anthony Conditt, an unemployed college dropout who bought bombmaking materials at Home Depot, recorded the video hours before he died after detonating one of his own devices as SWAT teams closed in. It seemed to indicate the 23-year-old knew he was about to be caught, said Austin Police Chief Brian Manley.

Trump to punish China on trade as US companies fear backlash

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration readied restrictions Thursday on Chinese investment and tariffs on nearly $50 billion worth of Chinese imports to punish Beijing for stealing American technology and pressuring U.S. companies to hand it over.

China has already warned that it will take “all necessary measures” to defend itself, raising the prospect of a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

House intel ends probe, OKs report on Russian meddling

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Intelligence Committee voted Thursday to approve its final report into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, ending the panel’s probe and giving a final endorsement to their conclusion that there was no coordination between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia.

Troopers to patrol at Fla. school massacre site

PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Already heightened security was being bolstered Thursday at the Florida high school that became the scene of a massacre last month, with Gov. Rick Scott ordering eight highway patrol troopers to help secure the grounds. The move came after the shooting suspect’s brother was arrested on campus, two students were caught carrying knives and another made online threats.

In Mideast, democracy struggles to take root

Egyptians go to the polls next week in what is essentially a one-candidate election considered by critics to be a return of sorts to authoritarian rule, after a 2011 revolution that sparked loftier expectations for the region. But the bigger picture is that in the Middle East as a whole, democracy has largely failed to take hold.

From Morocco in the west to Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates in the east, monarchies have proven more stable than places that experimented with government of the people.

Audubon Zoo’s newest building turns day to night

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It’s daylight outside, but with indoor lights simulating a full moon, hundreds of bats flap back and forth. On a nearby wall, what appears to be a talking stone face provides bat fun facts.

It’s the night house at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, and it opens Friday. The Associated Press got a preview Tuesday.

The centerpiece of the $1.6 million night house is the 42-foot-long flight cage for 200 Seba’s short-tailed bats — fruit-eating mammals up to 2½ inches (6.4 centimeters) long, with a foot-wide (30 centimeter) wingspan.