Louisiana news briefs

Judge: Ethics fines ends candidacy
NEW ORLEANS — A New Orleans judge says Gary Landrieu is out of the New Orleans-area congressional race because he has $700 in unpaid ethics fines.
Civil District Judge Sidney Cates disqualified Landrieu on Tuesday.
Cates granted a challenge filed Friday by 2nd District incumbent Cedric Richmond, whose complaint called Landrieu a “perennial political candidate.”
Candidates qualifying for an election must swear they don’t have any outstanding campaign finance disclosure fines.
Landrieu was fined for filing a campaign finance report late in 2012, when he ran for an at-large seat on the New Orleans City Council. According to Richmond’s complaint, that fine was still unpaid when Landrieu qualified for the congressional race.
A spokesman for Landrieu did not immediately return a call Tuesday for comment.

Judge: Sept. 30 conference
on abortion law
BATON ROUGE — U.S. District Judge John deGravelles has scheduled a status conference Sept. 30 on a request to block Louisiana’s restrictive new abortion law while a suit challenging it is in court.
He told lawyers Tuesday that he wants brief memos by Sept. 23 on what issues each side wants the hearing to cover, what dates they want for the hearing and how much time they’ll need to prepare.
On Sunday, deGravelles issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the law while letting it take effect Monday.
The law requires physicians at all five abortion clinics in Louisiana to obtain privileges to admit patients to a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic where the doctor works.

DA won’t dispute Landrieu residency
BATON ROUGE — Republican Senate candidate Rob Maness was unable to persuade Baton Rouge’s district attorney to file a residency challenge against Democratic incumbent Mary Landrieu.
Maness claims Landrieu isn’t able to run for re-election because she lives in Washington.
In a written response Tuesday, District Attorney Hillar Moore said Maness gave his office fewer than two hours to review the complaint before the Friday deadline to challenge a candidate’s qualifications for the November election.
Moore said he had no time to investigate the allegations.
Rather than file his own challenge, Maness asked four district attorneys to investigate Landrieu’s residency. The Secretary of State’s Office says it was notified of one lawsuit against Landrieu, from Republican former candidate Paul Hollis.
Landrieu says she lives with her parents in New Orleans when in Louisiana.

BP: Oust claims head for conflict
of interest
NEW ORLEANS — BP PLC has asked a federal judge to remove the administrator of damage claims from its 2010 oil spill, saying he failed to disclose a major conflict of interest and spends too much on administration: $1 billion over two years, or $1 for every $5 sent to claimants.
Patrick Juneau is not the neutral person required for the job because he represented Louisiana in talks setting up the claims process and pushed for favorable terms for those with claims, attorneys for BP said in a 43-page motion filed Tuesday with U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier.
BP said that if Barbier does not think the company has provided enough evidence to remove Juneau immediately, it wants him to hold a hearing on the matter.
In a written statement, Juneau said Tuesday that he will respond in court to the issues BP raised.
Juneau’s quarterly reviews have found error rates of 12 percent or more on claims, despite a budget “equal to more than 7 percent of the annual budget of the entire federal judiciary,” BP argued. It said the error rate “should be unacceptable to any reasonable and prudent claims administrator.”

Opening statements set for kidnapping murder case
ALEXANDRIA — Trial is set to begin in an Alexandria federal courtroom for a Mississippi man who was declared dead two decades ago, only to resurface as a suspect in the deaths of his girlfriend and her daughter.
Opening statements are scheduled for today in the trial for Thomas Steven Sanders, accused of murdering 12-year-old Lexis Roberts and dumping her body in Catahoula Parish.
Roberts’ body was found in October 2010. Her mother’s body was found later in Arizona.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Court documents allege that on a trip with Suellen Roberts and her daughter to a wildlife park near the Grand Canyon, Sanders shot Roberts in the head and then took the child to Louisiana, where he shot her four times and cut her throat.

Commerce: New Orleans metro area No. 8 in exports
NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. Commerce Department says new export data shows the New Orleans metro area was the nation’s No. 8 exporter last year, with a record $30 billion in merchandise exports shipped through the area.
The International Trade Administration says the total was up 23 percent from 2012, a $5.7 billion increase.
St. John the Baptist Parish had the biggest share of the total: $8.1 billion. Plaquemines Parish was next at $3.9 billion, followed by Jefferson Parish at $2.4 billion, St. James Parish at $1.2 billion, Orleans Parish at $452 million and St. Bernard Parish at $147 million.
The agency says the area’s top exports were petroleum and coal products, crops, processed foods, chemicals, beverages and tobacco products. The leading destinations were China, Singapore, Mexico, France, and the Netherlands.

Judge: Man killed grandfather with shotgun blast
OBERLIN — An Allen Parish judge has found a 19-year-old man guilty of killing his grandfather with a shotgun blast and stealing more than $12,000 and his grandfather’s truck.
Thirty-third District Judge Joel Davis called Laken Johnson “a cold-blooded killer” when he handed down the second-degree murder verdict in the death of Norman Ray Johnson Sr.
Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence.
Laken Johnson testified that the shooting was an accident. He wept as Davis read the verdicts at the end of a three-day trial without jury.
The judge also found Johnson guilty of theft over $1,500 and of obstructing justice by tampering with evidence, including hiding the 12-gauge shotgun police say was the murder weapon.