Louisiana news briefs

Baton Rouge recruiting teachers in Pittsburgh
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Baton Rouge schools need more teachers this year, so school system leaders are heading to Pennsylvania for a recruitment event.
The East Baton Rouge Parish School System announced Tuesday that it is planning a teacher jobs fair at a hotel near the Pittsburgh airport on Saturday.
The system says it needs teachers for elementary school, for early childhood and pre-kindergarten programs and for social studies, English, science and math at the secondary school level.

Change of command for Army Reserve’s largest unit
BELLE CHASSE (AP) — The largest unit in the U.S. Army Reserve will get a new leader Saturday.
The 11 a.m. ceremony in Belle Chasse will turn command of the 377th Theater Sustainment Command from Maj. Gen. Peter S. Lennon to Maj. Gen. Leslie J. Carroll.
The 377th comprises more than 36,000 soldiers in 33 states, covering six one-star commands and the Special Troops Battalion in Belle Chasse.
They account for almost 40 percent of the Army’s logistics and sustainment capability.
The 377th TSC has been located in the New Orleans area since November 1948.

Louisiana exports up 9.3% at midyear
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana exports grew by 9.3 percent to $32.1 billion during the first half of the year. That’s according to figures from the World Trade Center of New Orleans.
The export growth — fueled by agriculture and oil and gas goods — enabled Louisiana to remain in sixth place among all of the states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. Louisiana accounted for 3.6 percent of the $804 billion in total U.S. exports through midyear.
Louisiana’s two main export markets remained unchanged from 2013, with Mexico and China retaining 10.4 percent and 9.5 percent of the market share, respectively, followed by Canada, the Netherlands and Japan, with Colombia, Egypt, France, Brazil and Panama close behind.

Hurricane updates planned for Houma civic center
HOUMA (AP) — The Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center would be able to withstand Category 3 hurricane winds after completion of a roughly $2.2 million project the Parish Council is considering.
The council on Monday introduced an ordinance to upgrade center’s wind tolerance to the required 130 mph for the northern part of the parish.
The proposal includes new windows and a new roof. Work is expected to begin by the end of the year.
Money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program will pay for 75 percent of the project, with local government picking up the rest of the cost.

Indefinite trial delay in Katrina shooting case
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Health problems have led to an indefinite trial delay for a man facing charges in what federal prosecutors say were racially motivated shootings following Hurricane Katrina.
U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon granted the delay Monday in the case of Roland Bourgeois Jr.
Bourgeois’ attorneys sought the delay. Prosecutors agreed after a doctor determined that Bourgeois is physically unable to attend a trial or help his defense lawyers. Lemmon’s order didn’t detail the health problems, but past proceedings have included discussions of his liver disease.
From The Associated Press.
Monday’s order included a requirement that Bourgeois’ lawyers provide twice-a-year updates on his condition.
Prosecutors say the 51-year-old Bourgeois, who is white, wounded at least one of the three black men he shot at following the 2005 storm. He has pleaded not guilty. Bourgeois lived in Columbia, Mississippi, at the time of his indictment in 2010.
The indictment says Bourgeois discussed shooting black people and defending the city’s Algiers Point neighborhood from “outsiders” after the 2005 storm. It accused him of bragging that he “got” one after the shooting, then retrieving a bloody baseball cap belonging to one of the victims.
Bourgeois is charged with five criminal counts: conspiracy, violation of civil rights, illegal discharge of a firearm, “corruptly persuading” a witness to lie about the shooting and making false statements.
The case against Bourgeois is one of several probes of post-Katrina violence that the Justice Department launched in the years after Katrina. Most of the cases focused on actions by New Orleans police officers.