The search continues for a missing worker after an oil and gas platform exploded in Lake Pontchartrain on Sunday. Jeff Palermo has more…
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New Orleans will see it’s first female mayor in it’s history. Kelley Ray has more on the upcoming runoff election…
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Three victims from last night’s energy platform explosion on Lake Pontchartrain remain in critical condition and the search for one of the workers continues today. Jefferson Parish EMS Director Mike Guilliot says seven people were taken to the hospital
Officials can’t find any environmental impacts from the blast and the Coast Guard says the platform is no longer burning. Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto says the platform is just a storage facility and owned by Clovelly Oil Company. Lopinto says the explosion occurred at 8 PM on Sunday
Officials say cleaning chemicals used during a maintenance operation could be a possible cause. Lopinto is not releasing much information on the 8th worker that remains missing…
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Zachary police say a man accused of allegedly murdering his 11-month-old baby is in custody. 33-year-old Fabian Smith is charged in the death of Jericho Smith. Police arrived on the scene Saturday to find the baby lying in a pool of blood with multiple stab wounds. Police Chief David McDavid says Smith did not own up to the incident initially…
McDavid says they found multiple weapons in the house and the autopsy shows the baby died of stab and gunshot wounds…
McDavid says neighbors called 9-1-1 after other children in the Smith’s house ran next door telling them what happened…
Fabian Smith was the only adult home at the time of the murder.
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The three constitutional amendments on Saturday’s ballot passed and are now law. President of the Public Affairs Research Council Robert Travis Scott says the first amendment which establishes a property tax exemption for construction work in progress will make things more certain for tax assessors.
Amendment number two expands an already existing law and will give the spouses of volunteer firefighters, EMS, and paramedics who die on duty, a full property tax exemption on their home. Scott says this will be retroactive to those who have already suffered this tragedy.
Scott says with the passage of amendment three, the state has created a new fund within the transportation fund. He says this fund will receive any new money if the legislature decided to increase the gas tax.
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New Orleans is on the verge of electing its first female mayor. Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell and former Municipal Court Judge Desiree Charbonnet are in the November 18 runoff. Political analyst Clancy Dubos says with history in the making, more attention will be drawn to the Mayor’s race in the runoff election…
Voter turnout for the Mayoral primary was 32 percent. The state Treasurer’s race will also be decided next month. Dubos expects a less than 10 percent turnout statewide. He says Democrat Derrick Edwards and Republican John Schroder have their work cut out for them, when it comes to securing votes.
Dubos says even though New Orleans has never had a female mayor, it’s not a big surprise to see two women in the runoff.
A dismal 13 percent voters, representing about 400,000, participated statewide on Saturday.
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Detectives in Baton Rouge are investigating a fatal shooting last night that left a 26-year-old dead after a homeowner claims he brandished a firearm and charged at him. BRPD Sgt. Don Coppola says the 36-year-old homeowner told police he was standing in his yard when he shot Clayton Bradford after a verbal altercation.
Coppola says the investigation is still under investigation so there is no word on if the homeowner faces any charges. He says the two had a verbal altercation in the homeowner’s front yard when things turned ugly.