News

Jennings to compete for Cleanest City title

The City of Jennings will go head-to-head with other cities to see which is the cleanest and most beautiful.

On April 5, the City of Jennings will participate in the Cleanest City Contest for the first time in several years.

Judges will be driven by Jennings Mayor Henry Guinn on a 30-minute tour of the city which will be narrated by Garden Club President Mari Cassidy. To qualify to win in their district, the city will need to score 90 points.

Labor of Love

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Meals on Wheels workers prepare their daily meal deliveries.

NEW ADDITION

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Visitors of the I-10 Oil and Gas Park in Jennings will now be able seek shade under a new gazebo donated to the park by local business Port Aggregates Friday.

The structure, which is estimated to be large enough to fit 10 to 15 people under its roof, is a welcome addition to the park, said Jeff Davis Tourism Commission Communications Coordinator Jamie Lee.

“We are so grateful for the donation of this gazebo to our park,” Lee said. “It’s fairly large and we’re going to put it right out there by the lake near a new magnolia tree we just planted.”

ACLU accuses US of separating immigrant families

HOUSTON (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a class-action lawsuit Friday accusing the U.S. government of broadly separating immigrant families seeking asylum.

The lawsuit follows action the ACLU took in the case of a Congolese woman and her 7-year-old daughter, who the group said was taken from her mother “screaming and crying” and placed in a Chicago facility. While the woman was released Tuesday from a San Diego detention center, the girl remains in the facility 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) away.

Facebook to stream 25 MLB games in exclusive deal

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is getting deeper into the professional sports streaming game, partnering with Major League Baseball to air 25 weekday afternoon games in an exclusive deal.

The games will be available to Facebook users in the U.S. on Facebook Watch, the company’s video feature announced last August, via the MLB Live show page. Facebook said Friday that recorded broadcasts will also be available globally, excluding select international markets.

Chaos of school shooting shown in 911 calls, radio traffic

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — In the minutes after a gunman opened fire in a Florida high school, killing 17, frantic students and parents begin flooding 911 with calls.

A deputy on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School campus first thought the loud bangs were firecrackers but quickly realized they are gunshots — yet he never ran toward them.

Other responding deputies and police officers desperately tried to sort through a chaotic scene, treat the injured, lock down the school and locate the shooter.

AP finds the NRA gave $7M to hundreds of schools

The National Rifle Association has given more than $7 million in grants to hundreds of U.S. schools in recent years, according to an Associated Press analysis, but few have shown any indication that they’ll follow the lead of businesses that are cutting ties with the group following last month’s massacre at a Florida high school.

Florida’s Broward County school district is believed to be the first to stop accepting NRA money after a gunman killed 17 people at one of its schools Feb.

Hiring surge added 313K jobs in February

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers went on a hiring binge in February, adding 313,000 jobs, the most in any month since July 2016, and drawing hundreds of thousands of people into the job market.

At the same time, average wages rose 2.6 percent over the past 12 months, a slowdown from January’s accelerated pace, which had spooked investors because it raised fears of high inflation. Friday’s jobs report from the government revised down January’s year-over-year wage gain by one-tenth of a point to 2.8 percent.

Ferrari fastest, Mercedes churns out miles as F1 tests end

MONTMELO, Spain (AP) — Ferrari ended Formula One preseason testing with the fastest times, while Mercedes ran the most laps over the eight days at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Kimi Raikkonen’s lap of 1 minute, 17.221 seconds on Friday came within 0.039 seconds of the unofficial track record set by Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel the previous day.

Both times were set on the fast “hypersoft” tires introduced this season. The track was also resurfaced in January, hindering comparisons to previous times. Times set in testing are not considered official.

Easing pressure on levees, raising environmental worries

NORCO, La. (AP) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began opening part of a 1930s flood control structure northwest of New Orleans on Thursday to divert water from a rising Mississippi River into nearby Lake Pontchartrain, a move that eases pressure on the city’s levees but raises environmental concerns about the lake and the Gulf of Mexico.