Louisiana news briefs

Cause of building collapse may remain a mystery
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The director of the Vieux Carre Commission says what led to the collapse of a 200-year-old French Quarter building likely will remain a mystery.
Lary Hesdorffer said several factors probably contributed to the collapse, including termites, wood rot, poor mortar, water intrusion and old, soft bricks.
A portion of the three-story building’s facade and a balcony fell on Oct. 21. City crews and the New Orleans Fire Department responded to the scene and tried to stabilize the building.
The next afternoon the remainder of the facade gave way and fell to the street below, tugging the pitched roof down with it.
Demolition of the building is underway.

1 dead, another wounded in Port Allen shooting
PORT ALLEN (AP) — Police say one man died and another wounded when they went to Port Allen to buy drugs, but the drug dealer attempted to rob them instead.
Police Chief Esdron Brown said on Tuesday detectives continued to interview witnesses to the incident, which occurred about 9:30 p.m. Monday.
Brown says they have not yet identified a suspect.
He says 30-year-old Major Carter and 25-year-old Ashton Taylor, both of Baton Rouge, went to Tracy Porter Street to buy drugs, but the suspect instead tried to rob them.
The chief says Taylor was shot in the buttocks and Carter was shot in the back.
He says Carter later died from his injury.

10,000 visit WW2 Museum, ‘flying museum’
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The National World War II Museum says more than 10,000 people came out to the WWII AirPower Expo put on over the weekend with the Commemorative Air Force.
Veterans who flew or few in the aircraft during the war spent the weekend speaking to visitors at Lakefront Airport. The visitors could also go into the cockpits and, for a fee, fly in them.
Museum president and CEO Gordon “Nick” Mueller says it was a living example of the museum’s mission, with generations coming together to pass on stories of the war.
Officials say the event will return next fall.
The Commemorative Air Force calls itself the world’s largest flying museum. It’s a nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring American military aviation history through flight, exhibition and remembrance.

Monroe plans chlorine burn against killer amoeba
MONROE (AP) — The city of Monroe will be adding extra chlorine to its water next month as part of statewide precautions against an amoeba that has killed three people in Louisiana.
The free chlorine burn will start around Nov. 12 and last about 60 days.
It’s a precaution against Naegleria fowleri (nuh-GLEE-ree-uh FOW-ler-eye). That’s an amoeba that usually eats freshwater bacteria but can get into the brain and eat it if it gets high up in someone’s nose.
The amoeba killed three people in 2011 and 2013 — one in DeSoto Parish and two in St. Bernard Parish.
Monroe Public Works Director Tom Janway says the burn will be good for the system, removing biofilm in the water lines.

Inmate says state conducts illegal body searches
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Lawyers for a Louisiana prison inmate whose conviction in the 1972 death of a guard was overturned say he has been subjected to illegal “body cavity searches” while he awaits the next step in his prosecution.
The inmate is 67-year-old Albert Woodfox, one of the prisoners supporters have dubbed the “Angola Three,” owing to their long stretches in solitary confinement at the state penitentiary in Angola.
State officials say the searches are necessary to maintain security and that Woodfox is not treated any differently than other maximum security prisoners.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments on the body search issue Wednesday.
A 5th Circuit decision is pending on state efforts to reinstate Woodfox’s murder conviction.

Lake Charles port approves $7.2M building
LAKE CHARLES — The Lake Charles Port Board has approved construction of a $7.2 million port administration building, with work scheduled to start in December.
The building will be next to the port’s old administration building, which has been leased to the U.S. General Services Administration. Since September 2012, port officials have operated out of a temporary location.
Bill Rase, the port’s executive director, said the 20,000-square-foot facility will have a design similar to buildings in the Walnut Grove neighborhood. He said it will feature a board room that will allow video conferences.

Nonprofit gives up on saving sinking cemetery
LEEVILLE (AP) — A nonprofit group has given up its proposal to protect the little that remains of a nearly submerged cemetery in Leeville.
Launch Leeville wanted to build a 280-foot-long bulkhead between what’s left of Lefort Cemetery and the intersection of Bayou Lafourche and the Southeast Canal.
The nonprofit dropped its permit applications after the local coastal zone management board asked the state to put that application on hold, founder Janet Rhodus said.
“We were trying to do this out of respect for those who had a grave that is now a watery grave,” said Launch Leeville founder Janet Rhodus.
About 25 people were buried there in the early 1900s, local historian Paul Chiquet said.
Now the tops of a handful of wrecked vaults show above salty water.
It’s one of several area cemeteries either threatened or awash in water.
“They couldn’t have done much to save the cemetery, but they could have put a marker on it with the bulkhead to remember,” said Chiquet.
The parish’s Coastal Zone Management Advisory Board, which board reviews and comments on coastal-use permits before higher authorities give final judgment, asked state authorities last week to put the permit on hold.
The application had numerous problems, including notifying only one of the property owners, Parish Administrator Archie Chaisson said. He said the hand-drawn design also had problems.
“The board was concerned that the wings of the bulkhead would cause more erosion in behind it from the current of the channel,” Chaisson said.
Nor was there any formal engineering to show how deep the bulkhead would need to be driven into the ground to keep it standing over time, Chaisson said.
The board also asked state historic preservation authorities to comment as the site could be deemed one of historical significance.
Rhodus said the company currently building the Leeville Boat Launch had volunteered materials and time to build the bulkhead, but she dropped the effort because of liability concerns and time constraints.
“At least my action has engaged the conversation,” she said. “I’m going to make sure that (the parish government) follows through on it and they do something.”