22-year-old Holden Matthews of Opelousas has pleaded guilty to federal and state criminal charges for setting fire to three predominately black St. Landry Parish church last spring. Former US Attorney Harry Rosenberg says Matthews didn’t have much of defense…
cut 14 (12) “….for it”
Matthews will be sentenced in May and faces at least 10 years in prison in federal court.

Louisiana receives failing grades on its efforts to reduce and prevent tobacco use in the American Lung Association’s annual State of Tobacco Control Report. State Director Ashley Lyerly says Louisiana also received a “C” grade for its strength of smokefree workplace laws…
cut 11 (09) “…e-cigarettes”

Marrero Democrat Kyle Green is authoring a bill for the upcoming session that seeks to end the death penalty in Louisiana. Green says the state hasn’t executed anyone in 10 years, it’s costly to have an inmate on death row and he says if Louisiana is truly a pro-life state it shouldn’t have lethal injections…
cut 5 (09) “….on death row”

Alabama drivers will soon have the opportunity to have their own LSU license plate. Webster Parish native and vice president of the Birmingham LSU Alumni Chapter Kenny Haynes decided to launch a campaign to get an LSU tag after seeing other out of state schools have their own special plate design.
Cut 7 (10) “…LSU tag in Alabama.”
Haynes says it took 250 drivers to apply and prepay for the license plate for the LSU plate in Alabama to become a reality.