News

Town amends reimbursement ordinance

ELTON – An ordinance allowing the chief of police to execute employment agreements with all police officers here was amended Monday evening.

Along with the ordinance’s original requirement that officers must reimburse the town for training and uniform costs in the event they quit, a time limit of six months to do so was added.

According to the ordinance, the officers must pay a percentage of the total costs of training as well as the cost of their uniforms based on the amount of time they were with the police department.

Appeals court weighs resuming state’s pipeline project

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A company building a crude oil pipeline in Louisiana is asking a federal appeals court to allow it to resume construction work in an environmentally fragile swamp.

A three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday on Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC’s request. The company is seeking an “emergency stay” that would lift a courtordered halt in pipeline construction in the Atchafalaya Basin.

Edwards administration: Threat of cuts ‘not a scare tactic’

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Gov. John Bel Edwards’ chief financial adviser says Louisiana already is seeing the spillout effect of $700 million in budget cuts that could hit in July. Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne says safety-net hospital operators are prepping for clinic closures and contract exits.

He says college-bound students are considering out-ofstate schools because their TOPS tuition awards are at risk. He says the health department is readying the regulations required to eliminate programs for the poor, elderly and disabled.

FBI: More than 100 school threats in Louisiana in past month

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Authorities have investigated at least 106 threats of violence in or near schools in Louisiana since the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a Florida high school, state police and the FBI said Monday. The news came as the University of New Orleans was reopening its campus following the arrest of a suspect in one such threat.

Nicholas Heard, 20, was arrested without incident at his home, said New Orleans police spokesman Beau Tidwell.

Police on Monday said Heard told fellow students he would shoot several people on campus.

Driver killed, students hurt in Disney trip bus plunge

LOXLEY, Ala. (AP) — A bus carrying Texas high school band members home from Disney World plunged into a ravine before dawn Tuesday in Alabama, killing the driver and injuring many passengers, authorities said.

First responders used ropes to rappel down the 50-foot ravine in the middle of Interstate 10 to reach them, and then had to cut some of the victims free from the wreckage, said Baldwin County Sheriff Huey Hoss Mack, who confirmed the fatality.

House GOP report says no collusion between Trump and Russia

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have completed a draft report concluding there was no collusion or coordination between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, a finding that pleased the White House but enraged Democrats who were expected to see the document for the first time on Tuesday.

Trump fires Tillerson at State, replacing with CIA’s Pompeo

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday and said he would nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him, ending Tillerson’s difficult tenure by tweeting an ouster that had been long expected and yet was shocking in its abruptness.

“We disagreed on things,” Trump said moments later, a diplomatic version of a difficult relationship with his top diplomat that included reports that Tillerson had called the president a moron in meetings with other officials.

Nepal plane crash came after confused pilot-airport chatter

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — “I say again, turn!” the air traffic controller called over the radio, his voice rising, as the flight from Bangladesh swerved low over the runway at Kathmandu’s small airport.

Seconds later, the plane crashed into a field beside the runway, erupting in flames and leaving 50 of the 71 people on board dead.

That moment Monday appeared to result from minutes of confused chatter between the control tower and the pilot of the US-Bangla passenger plane, as they discussed which direction the pilot should use to land safely at the airport’s single runway.

Blizzard warnings up for 3rd storm hitting Northeast

BOSTON (AP) — A nor’easter that could bring blizzard conditions and nearly 2 feet of snow to some areas of New England quickly intensified Tuesday morning, covering highways with snow and knocking out power to tens of thousands.

The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for the entire coast of Maine, New Hampshire and most of Massachusetts.

The rest of New England was under a winter storm warning, and a winter weather advisory blanketed most of New York and portions of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and North Carolina.

Lake Arthur assistant police chief fired

LAKE ARTHUR - Assistant Police Chief Keith Broussard has been fired after refusing to take a drug test, officials of the Lake Arthur Police Department said.

At its monthly meeting, the town council unanimously approved a motion to officially terminate Broussard effective Wednesday, Feb. 23.

Police Chief Kobi Turner said Broussard was asked to take the drug test as part of an internal investigation. He said Broussard was the primary person of interest in that investigation.