State Superintendent of Education John White says about 99-percent of students took part in the first day of PARCC testing. He says of the about 1% who did not participate, Calcasieu Parish — which makes up about 4% of the student population in the state, had roughly 50% of the non-participants…

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He says there are three other school systems where he would call the percentage of non-participants moderate to significant and those are Jackson, Red River and Central.

In Lafayette, jury selection begins in the first-degree murder trial of Seth Fontenot, accused of a 2013 shooting that killed 15-year old Austin Rivault and injured two others. Legal analyst Tim Meche says Fontenot appears to be going after a manslaughter verdict. He feels that Fontenot will testify that, because his truck had been broken into several times prior, it caused him to act in a heat of passion…

cut 5 (09) “his actions”

A bill by Shreveport Representative Barbra Norton would make it illegal to supply a child 12 or under with an Uzi sub-machine gun. Norton says she realizes that some parents want to teach their children how to shoot guns for hunting or for general safety reasons, but she sees no reason for kids to ever have a machine gun…

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She says kids are not big enough to handle such a large weapon in a safe manner.

Motorists who commute between Alexandria and Pineville and take the O.K. Allen Bridge will be redirected to begin utilizing the the Curtis-Coleman Memorial Bridge starting this morning at 10am. Deidra Druilhet with the state Department of Transportation says during the shift they will also be closing exit 71B to all southbound traffic…

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Druilhet says traffic delays should be expected while the shift is implemented.