The band director at Westgate High School in New Iberia has been arrested, after he was found hiding in a 16-year-old girl’s closet. Halen Doughty has more…
CUT 1 (30) “I’m Halen Doughty”
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A bill to give legislators a say if recipients of food stamps should have to work to receive assistance has been approved by the House. Emelie Gunn has more…
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The Iberia Parish School system says the employment status of its band director at Westgate High School is very much uncertain at this time after he was found hiding in a 16-year-old girl’s closet. Lt. Col. Bobby Webre with the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office says 30-year-old Jeremy Conner of Baton Rouge was alone with the juvenile when her mother came home.
Webre says the juvenile invited Conner into her home. Webre says the girl does not attend the school where Conner teaches, and it’s unclear how the two met.
Webre says Conner has been communicating with the juvenile since last year, and he admitting to sending her inappropriate texts. Webre says there are important lessons to be learned here.
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The House approved a bill to allow lawmakers to have a say in whether food stamp recipients should be required to work to receive federal assistance. But Bogalusa Rep. Malinda White disagrees, because as many as 16-thousand people in the oil industry recently lost their jobs. She says these people rightfully pay their bills and have suffered enough.
Author of the legislation, Monroe Rep. Jay Morris, believes a group of lawmakers should decide if childless adults who are not working should get food stamps. He says he doesn’t want anyone to starve and he knows jobs are hard to come by in a lot of areas, but…
The legislation will now head to the Senate. White says she’s seen abuse to the system but she’s also seen need. She says there is a time and place in America where we have to have a safety net.
The bill passed 56 to 28. Morris says this legislation is only giving lawmakers a say in the decision if food stamp recipients should be required to work, not deciding at this moment.
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The 4th Annual ever-growing Louisiana International Film Festival is underway in Baton Rouge. LIFF brings a huge variety of movies to the big screen during the 4 day event, including big budget studio films, and regionally focused productions. Kelsey Grammer is making an appearance at the screening of his new film “Breaking the Bank”, which he says is about an investment bank takeover.:
The festival added a new category this year called, “Southern Perspectives,” which includes nearly a dozen movies telling stories about the south. They include “Bogalusa Charm” – about small town culture, and “After the Spill” – which unveils details of the BP oil spill in the Gulf. Grammer says in some ways his film, Breaking the Bank, is an indictment on the system…:
You can get more information about the festival at lifilmfest.org. Grammer, who starred in Cheers and Frasier, says he loves being in Louisiana and attending movie festivals like this because his passion for the movie industry will never go away. He says these events are great learning experiences..:
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The Bureau of Labor Statistics finds employment in Louisiana rose for a third straight month. Spokesperson with the Louisiana Workforce Commission Aaron Caffarel says this is encouraging news. He says the number of people employed grew by nearly 8-thousand from February to March.
Caffarel says more and more people are entering the workforce and those unemployed are steadily seeking jobs. He says jobs in the construction industry are increasing more than they have since post-Hurricane Katrina construction shot up in 2006.
Caddarel says jobs in the oil and gas sector continue to drop but they’re working hard to find workers in that industry new employment. He says the unemployment number has ticked up to 6.1 percent, up from 5.9 percent in February.
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