Louisiana news briefs

Terrebonne restarts design of Houma canal lock
HOUMA (AP) — Design is once more under way for the most expensive public works project in Terrebonne Parish history.
The Houma Navigation Canal lock, expected to cost more than $300 million, is the lynchpin of the parish’s best hopes for slowing wetlands loss.
The lock’s two gates will let boats travel through a narrow passage on the waterway between bayous Grand Caillou and Dularge. It will be just above the recently installed Bubba Dove Floodgate south of Dulac.
The lock complex will tie into continuing levee construction and will include a barge gate that would occasionally open to let large vessels pass.
Louisiana’s coastal restoration authority has committed $50 million to engineer the lock over the next three years.
As the centerpiece of the Morganza-to-the-Gulf levee, the lock was being designed before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reworked the levee network’s standards after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, calling for a more robust system.
Louisiana’s coastal restoration authority has committed $50 million to engineer the lock over the next three years. All but about $10 million of that originates from criminal fines tied to the BP oil spill. The final cost is not yet certain.

Miss Nevada Nia Sanchez crowned as 63rd Miss USA
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Newly crowned Miss USA Nia Sanchez is a fourth-degree black belt in taekwondo and says women should be able to defend themselves as a way to battle the problem of campus rape.
The 24-year-old from Las Vegas said bringing awareness to the issue is very important.
Sanchez beat out 50 other contestants from all the states and the District of Columbia on Sunday night for the title of 63rd Miss USA. First runner-up was Miss North Dakota Audra Mari. Sanchez will go on to represent the U.S. at the Miss Universe competition later this year.
Erin Brady, of South Glastonbury, Connecticut, the 2013 winner, gave up her crown to Sanchez after a three-hour telecast from the Baton Rouge Civic Center. Besides Mari, the next four runners-up, judged on interviews, evening gowns and swimsuits were: Miss Georgia Tiana Griggs, Miss Louisiana Brittany Guidry, Miss Florida Brittany Oldehoff and Miss Iowa Carlyn Bradarich. All the titles included USA after the state.

Acadiana Regional Airport may get Houston flight
NEW IBERIA — Iberia Parish officials are fine-tuning a plan to add commercial round-trip air service from Acadiana Regional Airport to Houston for oil and gas workers and others by next summer.
Some $1 million has been allocated for taxiway improvements and another $750,000 will pay for building a passenger terminal at the airport, located just west of New Iberia.
F. Jason Devillier, airport director, said he and other Iberia Parish officials hope to have commercial air service to Houston by summer 2015.
Bill Miller, president of the six-member Iberia Parish Airport Authority, says the plan is a response to demand by oil and gas service businesses located near the U.S. 90 stretch from Lafayette Parish to New Iberia, including companies at the Port of Iberia.

New oversight set
on burning sugar cane fields
LAFAYETTE (AP) — Stacey Judice remembers the roar and towering flames of the burning sugar cane just a few feet from her Carencro home.
The sight of burning fields marks the cane harvest season in south Louisiana, but those fires have been the subject of growing complaints as more rural subdivisions sprout amid the farms.
Legislation passed this session sets up a process to make it easier for such complaints to be addressed.
State Sen. Page Cortez, who sponsored the measure, said he was moved to act in part by images he saw of burning cane.
Cortez said the recently passed legislation gives the job hearing and investigating concerns about cane fires to the state commissioner of agriculture and forestry.

New Orleans sheriff wants
jail drawings kept secret
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The man who operates New Orleans’ jail is asking a court to make sure various drawings and blueprints of jail facilities are kept secret while discussions continue on the housing of mental health patients held at the facility.
Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s attorneys made the request in a federal court filing Friday. The filing was made as the court oversees a reform plan for the jail — the result of a lawsuit brought by inmate advocates and the U.S. Justice Department.
Gusman’s filing says jail blueprints exchanged during discussions on the mental health issue include details that could affect security. They include areas of refuge for deputies and the locations of entries, exits and stairwells and their linked control points.

Hospital may start
doctor training program
HAMMOND — Negotiations are under way to establish a doctor training program at North Oaks Medical Center.
Hospital CEO Jim Cathey said a residency program would provide training for future doctors and give the hospital an opportunity to recruit doctors to the Hammond area.
Tulane University, LSU and the Ochsner medical center may be interested in participating in a North Oaks residency program, he says.
Cathey says recruiting is easier if young doctors are familiar with the area in which they may want to practice.

Storage fees slow
St. Bernard record retrieval
CHALMETTE (AP) — A dispute over fees for a Mandeville storage facility will cause delays in getting vital St. Bernard Parish court records needed for real estate transactions and other parish business.
St. Bernard Clerk of Court Randy Nunez said about 3 million pre-Hurricane Katrina, mold-ridden court records currently are stored in a special Mandeville facility to prevent them from contaminating the newly renovated courthouse in Chalmette.
“I can’t bring the files back because of the mold and I can’t afford to pay the rent,” Nunez said. “It’s all FEMA. They should be paying it.”
But soon after that courthouse’s opening in April 2013, FEMA stopped footing the bill for the records’ storage. The federal agency said that while it agreed to pay for storage during the courthouse renovation, its aid stopped after the courthouse opened.

Bill signed to shrink cell phone use near schools
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Drivers who use handheld cell phones in some school zones soon could face fines.
Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed a measure by Rep. Jeff Thompson that calls for penalties against drivers who use handheld cellphones in school zones that choose to post a sign saying such use is prohibited.
Fines will be up to $175 for a first violation and up to $500 for additional violations.
Originally, the ban would have been statewide, but senators made it optional for school districts because of signage costs.
Thompson, a Republican from Bossier City, pushed the bill as a way to make school zones safer for children.
Jindal’s office announced Thursday that he has signed it into law. It takes effect Aug. 1.