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BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana has the highest rate of gun violence in the nation and the weakest gun safety laws, according
to a recent national study, and state lawmakers are moving to expand the already permissive statutes. According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit g ...
By Johnathan Manning / American Press
A redesigned proposal for an RV park on the west end of Sam Houston Jones Parkway was unanimously approved Thursday by the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury. The original proposal would have allowed 75 RV spots, but the new proposal will allow 42. “It’s not what we set out to design and ha ...
By Lance Traweek / American Press
The Calcasieu Parish School Board’s budget committee voted 9-5 Thursday to approve the sale of property the board owns in Mossville for $9.5 million. The sale, when finalized, would satisfy the $10 million in proposed budget cuts and prevent the elimination of 158 teacher positions. The ...
By Johnathan Manning / American Press
A 74-year-old Texas woman was indicted Thursday on a charge of vehicular homicide. A grand jury in 14th Judicial District Court returned a true bill against Millie Adams Francis Powell for the March 1 death of Rubye McGown Jones, 92. Powell had a blood-alcohol limit above the legal limit, accordin ...
By John Guidroz / American Press
BATON ROUGE — Lawmakers approved a measure Thursday that supports the construction of a $5 million outpatient clinic next to W.O. Moss Regional Medical Center and the moving of 10 inpatient beds from Moss to Lake Charles Memorial Hospital. The Senate unanimously approved Senate Concurrent Re ...
By Johnathan Manning / American Press
The Calcasieu Parish public defender has been appointed to represent Felix Vail. Vail, 73, was in 72-hour court Tuesday and was assigned to Judge Robert Wyatt’s division. Wyatt signed the arrest warrant last week and ordered that Vail be held without bond. Vail is accused of killing his wife ...
By Natalie Stewart / American Press
This year’s hurricane season will be “above average,” with 13-20 named storms — seven to 11 of them hurricanes, including three to six storms of Category 3 or greater, said National Weather Service meteorologist Jonathan Brazzell. A Category 3 hurricane has sustained winds ...
By Natalie Stewart / American Press
Ray Doran sat in front of his TV Monday night watching the devastation a half-mile-wide tornado left in its path after ripping through an Oklahoma City suburb, and the next day he quit his job to start a relief effort for the victims. Doran, a Westlake resident, said he wanted to go to New York af ...
By Lance Traweek / American Press
Two Louisiana Red Cross volunteers — one of them from Lake Charles — headed to Oklahoma on Tuesday after a half-mile-wide tornado ripped through the Oklahoma City suburbs Monday, killing at least 24 people. Lake Charles resident Mary Daw and Don Baxter of Baton Rouge took the nine-hour ...
By Lance Traweek / American Press
Businessman William Dore Sr. recently donated $500,000 to the St. Nicholas Center for Children in Lake Charles — money that will go directly toward work on a new building. The St. Nicholas Center, which provides services to children with autism, will name the new building — at 2519 Rya ...
By Natalie Stewart / American Press
Hurricane season is less than two weeks away, but now is the time to start preparing, said Dick Gremillion, director of the Calcasieu Office of Emergency Preparedness. “Living where we do on the Gulf Coast, people always ask us, ‘What’s the chance of us getting a hurricane this y ...
By Johnathan Manning / American Press
A man accused of raping two young girls was found guilty of a lesser charge Tuesday in 14th Judicial District Court. Late Tuesday, Judge Wilford Carter found Ashanti Okung Kelley, 37, guilty of molestation of a juvenile, ending the afternoon-long trial. Kelley was charged with three counts of ag ...
By Natalie Stewart / American Press
SULPHUR — With hurricane season less than two weeks away, Mayor Chris Duncan is encouraging residents to sign up for the city’s alert system. Duncan said the system, which has been in use for almost three years, can be helpful during hurricanes and other disasters. “If a natural ...
By Johnathan Manning / American Press
Even though Sharon Hensley was last seen with William Felix Vail in Sulphur in 1973, Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso said evidence would be needed to prove that a crime happened. Vail, 73, was arrested in Canyon Lake, Texas, Friday and charged with second-degree murder in the 50-year-old dro ...
By Johnathan Manning / American Press
Jury selection began Monday for a man accused of murdering his cousin. Eric Jon Bello, 41, is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of 32-year-old Pauline Bryant in 2008. Bello and Bryant reportedly lived in the same home, at 2265 Birdnest Road in Gillis, at the time of her death. Bec ...
By Eric Cormier / American Press
Louisiana biological officials are using weevils and herbicides in an effort to get the upper hand against an aquatic plant that is spreading quickly in waterways around Southwest Louisiana. Eric Shanks, a spokesman with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries office in Lake Charles, sa ...
By Natalie Stewart / American Press
SULPHUR — The City Council unanimously agreed to donate $50,000 to the Brimstone Museum for its permanent exhibit, which will document the history and culture of the city. Thom Trahan, museum director, went before the council in March soliciting donations for the project, which he said has a ...
By Lance Traweek / American Press
Gas prices in Louisiana “have been immune” to the rising costs of gas across the Midwest caused by shortages, a AAA spokesman said Sunday. The national average for gasoline is $3.65 a gallon — up 14 cents from a month ago and up 7 cents from a week ago, according to AAA. The p ...
By Jordan Gribble / Special to the American Press
About 3,000 people joined together at the Lake Charles Civic Center on Friday and Saturday for the area’s 20th annual Relay for Life to raise money to cure cancer. Ariel Caraway, American Cancer Society community representative, said the event was on track to raise $221,000 — $150,000 ...
By Eric Cormier / American Press
A group of energy sector executives expect natural gas prices to remain around $4 per million British thermal units through the rest of 2013. That information bodes well for companies like Louisiana Pigment, Sasol North America, Westlake Chemical, Cheniere, BG Group, and Magnolia LNG — whic ...By Alex Onken / Special to the American Press
Watch out for flying mortarboards and tassels. McNeese Sate University’s spring commencement ceremony took place at 10 o’clock in the morning on Saturday at Burton Coliseum. Friends, family, fellow students, and McNeese faculty gathered to celebrate the end of a four-year journey for ...
By Johnathan Manning / American Press
The Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office outlined their case against William Felix Vail in an eight-page arrest warrant and affidavit, released Friday. After what Sheriff Tony Mancuso and District Attorney John DeRosier said was a joint yearlong investi ...
By Johnathan Manning / American Press
Felix Vail arrived in Lake Charles on a Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office plane late Friday night. Vail, charged Friday with second-degree murder in the 1962 death of his wife Mary Horton Vail, was arrested Friday afternoon in Comal County, Texas. A person who answered the phone at the Coma ...
A 33-year-old Vinton man has been charged with aggravated incest, pornography involving juveniles and cruelty to juveniles, authorities said.
Calcasi ...
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana has the highest rate of gun violence in the nation and the weakest gun safety laws, according
to a recent national ...
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — A truck hauling an oversized load struck an overhead bridge girder on the major interstate between Seattle and Canada ...
A redesigned proposal for an RV park on the west end of Sam Houston Jones Parkway was unanimously approved Thursday by the
Calcasieu Parish Police Ju ...
Players old and new found the news of the Swashbucklers’ demise sad.
As current players regrouped Thursday for practice, just hours after heari ...
HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Arkansas scored the go-ahead run on a squeeze bunt by Tyler Spoon in the eighth inning and tacked on two
more insurance run ...
The final game of McNeese State’s baseball season ended up being the final game of Terry Burrows’ career as the Cowboys coach.
Burrows st ...
It was just two years ago that hopes were sky high.
The Swashbucklers were under new management and there was fresh energy in the franchise. There w ...
ELTON — The Coushatta Farmers’ Market will wrap up its spring season Saturday with the Coushatta Farmers’ Market Fun Fest,
featurin ...
Lafayette band Travis Matte and the Kingpins will be the lead attraction at the second Downtown at Sundown performance Friday
on Ryan Street between ...
The American Press compiles a list of entertainment events scheduled for Southwest Louisiana. The full list is posted online each Wednesday night whil ...
The Lake Charles Community Band, a
volunteer group, will kick off its free summer concert series at 7 p.m. Monday, June 3, at the Arcade Amphitheat ...
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