Authorities in north Louisiana are searching for an arsonist responsible for several fires. Emelie Gunn has more…
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Republican David Vitter will be missing tonight’s statewide televised LBP debate, while the other three candidates will be there. Jeff Palermo reports…:
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State Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain say authorities are searching for an arsonist who was responsible for several fires set across north Louisiana. Strain says state firefighters were battling ten fires in six different parishes yesterday and he believes some of them were intentionally set.
Strain says crews worked to put out fires in Caddo, Claiborne, Morehouse, Bienville West Carroll and Sabine parishes. He says it took until 1 AM this morning to get all of the fires under control. The commissioner says unfortunately one home in Bienville Parish was destroyed, but no one was injured….
Strain says one of the fires was caused by a lightning strike, another caused by a person burning a tree stump, while the others were deliberately set. He warns people that if you commit arson, law enforcement will find you and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.
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Republican David Vitter will be missing tonight’s televised gubernatorial debate to be aired statewide by Louisiana Public Broadcasting. His campaign has come under fire by opponents for frequently opting out of such forums. UL-Lafayette Political Science Professor Pearson Cross says Vitter likely thinks he’s going to make the runoff no matter what he does
CUT 6 (11) “probably don’t need to”
The other Republicans, Jay Dardenne and Scott Angelle, will be at LPB’s debate tonight as well as Democrat John Bel Edwards. Some say that Vitter is not attending forums because he doesn’t want to answer the question about whether or not he broke the law, referring to the prostitution scandal. Cross says Vitter doesn’t want to be asked about the past:
The debate begins at 7pm. Vitter’s campaign has repeatedly cited the reason for the US Senator’s absence is because he’s casting votes in Washington D.C., but the Senate is not in session this week. Cross says the fact that Vitter is missing debates may sway some voters away from him, but for the most part people are not paying attention to this race…:
Vitter’s Campaign Response: “Senator Vitter is doing the debate tomorrow night. He’s done several televised debates already this week that Angelle and Edwards skipped, and he’s participated in 35 debates and forums this year – an unprecedented amount.”
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Although many people say this year’s governor’s election got off to a slow start, it appears the ad war is in full swing. The Center for Public Integrity reports nearly 18,500 campaign ads have aired statewide in this year’s governor’s race, as of October 5th. Michael Henderson with LSU’s Public Policy Research Lab says when you compare this race to the state’s last competitive open election in 2003, there are similarities…
At this point in the 2003 election, a little less than 9,000 ads had aired. Henderson says it appears that negative ads showed up earlier this year than back in 2003. He says, twelve years ago, negative ads didn’t begin popping up until the week before the primary…
cut 10 (09) “governor’s elections”
He says the first attack ads in this year’s race appeared in early September. Henderson says voters can expect to see more negative ads as we approach election day and head into a runoff…
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The 16-year-old Baton Rouge teenager accused in the stabbing death of a St. Amant High School senior over the weekend will be tried as an adult. A district judge in Ascension Parish has ruled that Jacob Westbrook will be tried on a count of second degree murder in the death of 18-year-old Todd Toups. Legal analyst Tim Meche says the judge had very little discretion…
Authorities say Toups was fatally stabbed by Westbrook while he was trying to give another student a ride to the homecoming dance. The judge ordered Westbrook to be transferred to the Ascension Parish Prison. Meche this case has a long way to go and a lot could happen before it’s over…
cut 13 (10) “plea deal arrangement”
He says Louisiana law mandates that 16-year-olds who are alleged to have committed murder be tried as adults. Meche says it’s too early in the process to anticipate how this case will turn out…
cut 14 (04) “make predictions”
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