As of this afternoon, five candidates have signed up to challenge US Representative Vance McAllister in the fifth Congressional District. Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo is the only democrat who has qualified, so far. Mayo ran in last year’s special election and finished third in the open primary…

cut 8 (11) “focused on”

Mayo says if elected he’ll worry more about the people of the 5th district, than national issues.

The Baton Rouge Police Department says the 5-year-old child who was taken to the hospital this week after allegedly being beaten by his father, died last night. Corporal Don Coppola says the dad, 36-year-old Varnell Day Jr., initially stated that the child had fallen off the bed but that story didn’t add up. He says initially Day was charged with attempted first degree murder…:

cut 5 (08) “first degree murder charge”

Jay’v’une Bergin was hospitalized suffering multiple brain bleeds, bruises in various stages of healing, contusions to the forehead, and malnourishment.

The Shreveport Police Department says two men are behind bars for allegedly beating up a 91-year-old man after they tried to rob him of casino winnings. Corporal Marcus Hines says 39-year-old John Perkins and 60-year-old Gary Smith are each charged with second degree robbery. He says the elderly man was transported to a hospital with minor injuries…

cut 11 (08) “just ridiculous”

Hines says the victim was able to injure one of his attackers during the incident.

Louisiana’s ACT scores were down slightly from last year. Louisiana student’s average score on the test is 19.2, compared to 19.5 last year. But State education officials say that more students are taking the college prep test which affects the average and more of them are scoring well enough to qualify for TOPS. The national average is a score of 21, while a perfect score for the test is 36.