Jury selection begins today in Lafayette in the first-degree murder trial of Seth Fontenot, accused of a 2013 shooting that killed a 15-year old and injured two others. Scott Carwile reports…
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Shreveport Representative Barbra Norton has filed a bill for the upcoming legislative session that would make it illegal to supply a child 12 or under with an Uzi sub-machine gun. Michelle Southern reports…:
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State Superintendent of Education John White says after the first day of PARCC testing, concerns that there would be widespread non-participation did not bear out. Michelle Southern reports…:
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Jury selection begins today in Lafayette in the first-degree murder trial of Seth Fontenot, accused of a 2013 shooting that killed 15-year old Austin Rivault and injured two others. Fontenot claims he fired to scare the teens, who he thought were breaking into his truck, not to hurt them. Legal analyst Tim Meche says this will be a tough case for Fontenot…
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He says Fontenot appears to be going after a manslaughter verdict. Meche feels that Fontenot will testify that, because his truck had been broken into several times prior, it caused him to act in a heat of passion…
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With a manslaughter conviction, Fontenot could face up to 40 years in prison. Meche believes this this case will result in either a manslaughter or a second-degree murder conviction, which comes with a mandatory life sentence…
Cut 6 (06) “explained to me”
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Shreveport Representative Barbra Norton has filed a bill for the upcoming legislative session that would make it illegal to supply a child 12 or under with an Uzi sub-machine gun. She says kids are not big enough to handle such a large weapon in a safe manner…:
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Norton says she realizes that some parents want to teach their children how to shoot guns for hunting or for general safety reasons, but she sees no reason for kids to ever have a machine gun…:
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Norton says people are accidentally shot all the time and she feels that the risk for a tragedy is greatly increased when a Uzi is in the hands of a child. She says kids 12 and under don’t have the size to be able to handle shooting a machine gun…:
Cut 9 (12) “hold it steady”
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State Superintendent of Education John White says after the first day of PARCC testing, concerns that there would be widespread non-participation did not bear out. He says preliminary findings show more than 320,000 students took the test associated Common Core which is about 99% participation:
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White says of the about 1% who did not participate in the test on day one, Calcasieu Parish — which makes up about 4% of the student population in the state, is roughly 50% of the non-participants…:
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White says they are committed to not unfairly criticizing districts and communities in the small number of cases where students didn’t take the test. He says there are three other school systems where he would call the percentage of non-participants moderate to significant and those are Jackson, Red River and Central. White says he has invited the Superintendents in these parishes to meet with him face to face…:
cut 12 (11) “outliers”
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Motorists who commute between Alexandria and Pineville and take the O.K. Allen Bridge will be redirected to begin utilizing the the Curtis-Coleman Memorial Bridge starting this morning at 10am. Deidra Druilhet with the state Department of Transportation says during the shift they will also be closing exit 71B (I-49 North to Shreveport) to all southbound traffic..:
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Druilhet says only the northbound span of the new bridge has been built and it will be used for the two-way traffic while the O.K. Allen Bridge is torn down…:
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Druilhet says traffic delays should be expected while the shift is implemented and motorists are urged to drive with caution. She says over 20,000 motorists cross the Red River over the O.K. Allen Bridge on a daily basis…:
Cut 15 (10) “both directions”
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The LSU men’s basketball team leaves today for Pittsburgh, where they’ll play North Carolina State on Thursday in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers bring a 22-and-10 record to the Big Dance and some of those losses were against bad teams. LSU guard Keith Hornsby says now that they are in the field of 68, they should not look past anyone…
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LSU needs to win six straight games to win a national championship. Guard Tim Quarterman says after an up and and down regular season, the team is ready to play its basketball…
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The only player on LSU’s squad to experience an NCAA Tournament game is Keith Hornsby. The shooting guard was a freshman on UNC-Asheville’s team that made the NCAA Tournament in 2012. LSU sophomore Jordan Mickey is not worried about the lack of March Madness experience on his team…
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Louisiana Tech hosts Central Michigan tonight in the N-I-T. It’s the second straight year the Bulldogs will get to host a postseason game. But this year Tech is coming off a disappointing loss in the Conference USA tournament and Coach Michael White is interested to see how his team will react
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Central Michigan was the regular season Mid-American Conference West Division champions this season and they boast a record of 23-and-8. White says the Chippewas are hard to defend…
Cut 20 (12) “all year”