A cold case involving the murder of a bald eagle in Claiborne Parish nearly three years ago is closer to being solved after the arrest of a Homer man. Matt Doyle has the story.
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136 square miles of Iberville, Pointe Coupee and St. Landry parishes will see a $15.5 million expansion of high-speed internet access as part of the federal program known as ReConnect. Kevin Barnhart has the story.
cut 2 (27) “…I’m Kevin Barnhart.”
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18-year-old Daniel Smith of Homer is under arrest for the alleged killing of a bald eagle in Claiborne Parish, one of the most heavily protected species in the country.
Authorities allege the killing took place in February of 2017, and after a long investigation Wildlife and Fisheries spokesperson Adam Einck says they managed to obtain a warrant for his truck where…
LDWF agents say Smith admitted to taking the bird down with a .223 rifle.
Einck says Smith’s loose lips ultimately did him in and pointed authorities in his direction.
Shooting a bald eagle is a serious offense that can land you jail time and up to 100,000 dollars in fines.
And once authorities got a hold of that phone, they found evidence that led to them arresting two others and citing juvenile for other documented crimes not related to the bald eagle.
The two adults were 19-year-olds Jacob and Jared Lee of Bernice.
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Environmental groups are raising concerns that Formosa Plastics is seeking to build a chemical plant in St. James Parish on top of a slave cemetery, but a private archaeologist says he’s not sure who is buried at the site. Co-owners of TerraXplorations Paul Jackson says a previous report released in June suspected slaves could be buried there but after further investigation
Jackson says they’ve looked at old newspapers, diaries and personal land records in an effort to establish who might be buried there, but they have not found any conclusive indications…
Environmental and community groups have used the possibility the proposed chemical plant site is a slave cemetery as an argument against the issuing of permits for construction. Jackson says it could be an old cemetery for slaves, but it also can be a European cemetery
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Three parishes will see an expansion of high-speed internet access as the USDA commits $15.5 million into rural broadband. USDA rural development state director Roy Holleman says this portion of the Reconnect Program covers 136 square miles of Iberville, Pointe Coupee and St. Landry parishes.
Star Telephone Company will use the half grant and half loan funding to rollout 154 miles of optical fiber and 95 miles of drop optical fiber cable. Holleman says there was a collaboration with various stakeholders to select the area.
Cut 10 (12) “…profitable for Star.”
The money comes from the $600 million Congress provided to the USDA to expand broadband infrastructure. A new round of loans and grants will rollout this Friday and Holleman says the goal is to secure more funding for the state.
Cut 11 (09) “…everywhere we can.”
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The Westwego City Council votes unanimously to not allow any permitting of a proposed 500 million dollar Wanhua chemical storage and distribution facility in it’s suburban New Orleans city limits.
Councilmember Glen Green says the public and council had serious concerns about the flammability and combustibility of the facility, it’s emissions and the potential for leaks…
The site selected was directly across the river from the Audubon Park and Zoo, formerly used by KinderMorgan.
Green says the public’s unease with the project was made worse by the Wanhua spokesperson’s inability or refusal to respond to local resident’s concerns at the public meeting.
The plant would have created 75 new full-time jobs, and 500 construction jobs, but Green says they weren’t particularly interested in bringing on many locals.
The facility would have processed a chemical called MDI on-site into component products for paint, shoes, and more.