Louisiana news briefs

U.S. judge: State to try suit against oil companies
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge has sent a Plaquemines Parish lawsuit against 19 oil and gas companies back to state court for trial.
U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey’s ruling sets the stage for the return of 27 others suits to state courts in Plaquemines and Jefferson parishes.
The lawsuits all ask the court to make the companies repair or pay for damages from canals dredged decades ago through fragile wetlands — some date from before 1940 — and from toxic wastes put in unlined pits near drilling sites.
Other federal judges put the other lawsuits on hold to wait for Zainey’s ruling, which was posted Tuesday in the court’s electronic filing system.
Zainey ruled Monday that defendants had not proved they met federal court requirements for moving the case out of state court.
The lawsuits, narrowly tailored to take advantage of the parishes’ special authority under state law to regulate wetlands within their borders as part of a coastal zone, were filed in November 2013 in state courts. Defendants immediately removed them to federal court.

Licensing rules for
child care centers approved
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana’s top school board has given final passage to new licensing rules for day care facilities, Head Start centers and preschool programs around the state.
The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education agreed without objection Wednesday to the package of regulations, a day after a board committee spent hours hearing debate on them.
Lawmakers required the Department of Education and the board to rework the licensing guidelines as part of an early childhood education overhaul started in 2012 to better prepare children for kindergarten.
The new regulations set minimum staffing ratios and training requirements for employees. They add fingerprint-based criminal background checks for the facilities’ workers and volunteers.
State health and safety agencies, the education department and leaders of child care centers spent more than a year negotiating the requirements.

Barksdale airman missing
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE (AP) — Unidentified human remains have been recovered in Guam near where a deployed 24-year-old airman stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base went missing Monday.
Airman Alec M. Dye, of Mooresville, Indiana, was last seen near Tarague Beach on Guam on Monday. The north Louisiana military base, in a news release, said Anderson Air Base Security Forces patrols recovered human remains Wednesday but have not yet released any identification information.
Authorities say Dye was deployed to Guam in support of the continuous bomber presence mission and assigned as a B-52H Stratofortress Crew Chief. He is a member of the 2nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadrom at the north Louisiana military base.
Col. Kristin Goodwin, 2nd Bomb Wing commander, says the finding is significant but the search for Dye continues.

Davis is new BESE director
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Shan Davis, a staff member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, has been named executive director for the panel.
Davis, who has worked for the board for six years, was named to the post Wednesday and will be responsible for administrative and fiscal operations of the board office. She is the sixth person to hold the job since 2008.
Davis, who will replace Heather Cope, says she officially starts the job Dec. 21. She says her salary has not been finalized but Cope was paid $125,000 per year.
BESE also re-elected Wednesday its current slate of officers to serve for 2015, including Chas Roemer, who is president.
BESE sets policies for about 700,000 public school students statewide.

Lafayette School Board
sues ex-superintendent
LAFAYETTE (AP) — The Lafayette Parish School Board will counter a lawsuit by former superintendent Pat Cooper with a claim for any expenses he authorized beyond the board’s 2014-15 budget.
Board attorney Bob Hammond says the amount is being reviewed. Such expenses were estimated last month at up to $1.6 million.
The board voted 7-2 Wednesday for the move.
Cooper refused to implement the board’s budget, saying cuts would hurt schools and the board failed to follow state law.
He asked a judge to declare the budget invalid, but was turned down. He has asked for a retrial.
The board also authorized attorneys to appeal a ruling that it must turn over reports about its investigation of Cooper to The Daily Advertiser.

Legislator to resign Dec. 31
BATON ROUGE (AP) — A Vermilion Parish lawmaker is resigning from her position with the state House of Representatives.
Republican Rep. Simone Champagne said Wednesday that her last day as an elected member of the House will be Dec. 31. At the start of 2015, she’ll take a new job as chief administrative officer for the City of Youngsville.
Champagne represents Iberia and Vermilion parishes. She is in her second, four-year term.
The lawmaker was an outspoken advocate for hurricane recovery and coastal restoration work, and she unsuccessfully fought to put more limits on state government spending and hefty salaries paid with tax dollars.
House Speaker Chuck Kleckley has set a Feb. 21 election date to fill Champagne’s seat, with a March 28 runoff if needed.

Crack down on Causeway speeders after 2 fatalities
METAIRIE (AP) — Causeway police are cracking down on speeders, careless drivers and other offenders on the 24-mile bridge crossing Lake Pontchartrain in the wake of two recent fatal accidents in which vehicles went off the bridge and into the water.
“Enforcement has really been ratcheted up,” bridge General Manager Carlton Dufrechou said Wednesday.
Over a four-day period during Thanksgiving week, officers wrote 25 percent more tickets than normal. Dufrechou says two-thirds were for speeding, with most motorists driving from the high 60s to 75 mph on the bridge, which has a 65 mph limit.
The fastest driver cited was traveling 87 mph, he said.
There were seven DWI cases during that period.
Dufrechou would not say how many tickets were issued during the period, but said officers normally write about 1,000 citations per month.
He declined to provide specifics about the methods of stepped-up enforcement but said, “Officers are all over the bridge.”
Dufrechou suggested that motorists not count on a few miles-per-hour cushion between the 65 mph limit and the point at which police will pull them over. Bridge commuters often speak of such a cushion, although officials say there is no such thing.
“I’ve told our (bridge) commissioners to go 65. I’ve also told my wife to go 65,” Dufrechou said.
The enhanced enforcement follows three accidents this year, including two last month, in which vehicles plunged off the southbound span. Two of the accidents were fatal.
The latest of those incidents occurred Nov. 23, claiming the life of David Zapot, 38, of Lacombe. He lost control of his SUV on the downslope of the drawbridge hump about eight miles from the north shore before hitting the bridge railing, overturning and plunging into the lake, authorities said.
On Nov. 3, a man died after a garbage truck plowed into a work crew on the bridge, sending a construction vehicle and its driver into the lake about 4 miles from the north shore.
On May 31, the driver of a pickup was rescued from the lake after he lost control of the vehicle and it went over the side about 2 miles from the south shore.
Thirteen vehicles have gone over the side of the southbound bridge since 1994, according to bridge statistics. One vehicle plunged off the northbound span, which has higher retaining walls, during that period. Eleven people have died in the accidents.
Bridge officials contracted with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute to come up with designs to improve the bridge’s retaining walls. The institute is expected to make a recommendation by the end of the year. The cost to improve the walls on both spans is roughly estimated at $50 million.
Efforts to obtain a federal grant for the project were unsuccessful, and a toll increase may be necessary to pay for the improvements, bridge officials have said.
Reducing the bridge’s speed limit is also an option to improve safety, Dufrechou has said.
“We’ve become tied to (cellphones),” Dufrechou said. “When you get on the bridge you have to get your heads away from these things and pay attention only to driving.”

Vermilion Parish representative resigning Dec. 31
BATON ROUGE (AP) — A Vermilion Parish lawmaker is resigning from her position with the state House of Representatives.
Republican Rep. Simone Champagne said Wednesday that her last day as an elected member of the House will be Dec. 31. At the start of 2015, she’ll take a new job as chief administrative officer for the City of Youngsville.
Champagne represents Iberia and Vermilion parishes. She is in her second, four-year term.
The lawmaker was an outspoken advocate for hurricane recovery and coastal restoration work, and she unsuccessfully fought to put more limits on state government spending and hefty salaries paid with tax dollars.
House Speaker Chuck Kleckley has set a Feb. 21 election date to fill Champagne’s seat, with a March 28 runoff if needed.
Ex-Monroe councilman’s conviction affirmed
MONROE — A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court’s decision that put a former Monroe City Council member behind bars.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in its opinion dated Nov. 13, said there was sufficient evidence to support Arthur Gilmore’s conviction on racketeering charges. He was acquitted of extortion.
Gilmore was found guilty after a four-day trial in May 2013 and is serving a 24-month sentence at the Federal Prison Camp in South Dakota.
Gilmore and another former councilman, Robert Stevens, were accused of accepting bribes from an FBI cooperating witness in exchange for help with matters pending before the council in 2008 and 2009.
Stevens pleaded guilty in May 2013 to accepting cash bribe payments. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison.