An investment group has agreed to buy Pineville based Cleco for a reported $3.4 billion. Eric Gill has more…
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The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals announced today that the state plans to stop billing sexual assault victims for exams and tests. Eric Gill reports…:
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An investment group has agreed to buy Pineville based Cleco for a reported $3.4 billion. Cleco Power has approximately 284,000 customers in Louisiana. Cleco Power President Darren O’Lages (O-lay-jes) says customers should not expect any change in utility rates or service as part of the sale…
He says there are no lay-offs or restructuring of employee salaries planned. The sale is expected to close in the second half of 2015. O’Lages thinks this transaction came in at a price their shareholders will be happy with…
He says this investment group is experienced and understands what it means to own utility companies and what it takes to make them successful. O’Lages says the Cleco brand, and everything it stands for, will remain the same. He says, other than no longer being a publicly traded company, it will be business as usual under the new ownership…
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This week is National Teen Driver Safety Week and the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission is urging parents to set rules for teens before they hit the road. Lt. Col John LeBlanc says the fatal crash rate for Louisiana drivers age 18-20 alone was nearly twice as high as the average crash rate of all drivers in the state…:
CUT 6 (12) “in the United States”
LeBlanc says according to a recent survey, only one in four parents had talked seriously with their teens about what it means to be a safe driver. He says if more parents got involved, the crash rate for teens would not be so high…:
LeBlanc says parents should tell there teens the “5 to drive Rules” – No cell phones, no extra passengers, no speeding, not alcohol and EVERYONE must be buckled up. He says nobody has more of an impact on our children than their parents…:
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Cleanup crews are continuing to work a major crude oil spill in Caddo Parish that has killed dozens of fish and some reptiles. The oil leaked into Tete Bayou due to the rupture of a Mid-Valley pipeline . Greg Langley, with the Department of Environmental Quality says there are about 270 people on-site working the spill…
Workers were able to stop the spill from reaching into Caddo Lake. Langley says once Sunoco Logistics, who operate the pipeline, noticed a drop in pressure, they went to work…
It’s estimated that approximately 4,000 barrels of crude oil flowed into Tete Bayou before workers were able to shut the line down. Langley says crews have collected about 2,400 barrels so far, but there is still much to be done…
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The Department of Health and Hospitals says they plan to stop billing sexual assault victims for exams and tests. DHH spokeswoman Olivia Watkins says they intend to work with the legislature to craft bills for the 2014 session that would prohibit hospitals from charging rape survivors for the care they receive….:
Advocacy groups and lawmakers were critical of the fact that women who had been raped were getting big hospital bills after checking in to be treated for the assault. Watkins says, under the plan, hospitals would be able to seek reimbursement for such expenses from the Crime Victim’s Reparation fund which receives fines associated with criminal cases…:
CUT 13 (11) “on a state level”
Watkins says they also plan to remove the requirement that survivors of sexual assault file a police report to qualify for that reimbursement. She also says they want to do away with the provision that victims be sober in order to get money from the fund for hospital bills…:
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The Gonzales Police Department is investigating the case of a man from Mississippi who was found dead in his car in the Wal-Mart parking lot over the weekend. Spokesman Sgt. Stephen Nethken says 26-year-old Lucas Sanchez of Pascagoula was seen on surveillance video walking into the store in the early morning hours of Saturday…:
Nethken says foul play is not suspected in this case and they believe Sanchez died of a drug overdose…: