The US Department of Agriculture has declared 35 Louisiana parishes as natural disaster areas due to floods and storms that impacted them from April through June. The declaration means farmers in those parishes can apply for low-interest loans to help them recover from the damage incurred. 12 parishes were named primary disaster areas, while the rest are designated as contiguous disaster areas.

The summer heat these days in Louisiana has been brutal. Michelle Southern speaks with State Climatologist Barry Keim…

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Seth Fontenot will be re-sentenced today on his manslaughter and aggravated battery conviction for a 2013 shooting that killed 15-year-old Austin Rivault and injured two others. A digital billboard has popped up in Lafayette featuring a photo of Rivault asking Judge Ed Rubin to get the sentence right this time. Meche says judges are not supposed to be swayed by pubic opinion, but points out that judges in Louisiana are elected to the bench by popular vote…

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Fontenot’s original sentence was declared illegal because a portion of it was suspended.

An idle Grant Parish plant will be transformed into a $265 million ammonia plant by a Lithuanian based company. State Representative Terry Brown says the facility originally opened in 1977 but has been sitting idle for the last several years…

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Construction is expected to start in the spring of 2016.