Louisiana news briefs

Ex-housing agency head pleads guilty to conspiracy
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The former director of a nonprofit housing agency in New Orleans pleaded guilty Wednesday in a kickback scheme that came to light as the city struggled to clear blight and repair widespread damage in the years following Hurricane Katrina.
Former New Orleans Affordable Housing director Stacey Jackson faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to a single conspiracy count accusing her in a plot to seek and accept bribes from contractors. She will be sentenced Oct. 16. Under an agreement with prosecutors, three related charges — obstruction of justice, bribery and theft of federal money — will be dropped.
The housing agency was supposed to provide federally-financed house-gutting services after Katrina hit in 2005, leading to levee failures and catastrophic flooding. But news reports in 2008 showed that the work was never completed. Plea deals over the ensuing years with others involved in the case outlined hundreds of thousands of dollars in NOAH transactions, involving contractors who did little or no work. Documents outlining the case against Jackson that were filed in court Wednesday detailed close to $50,000 in kickbacks.

Lafayette officer injured
by suspects’ vehicle
LAFAYETTE (AP) — Lafayette police say an officer investigating a shoplifting incident was injured after being stuck twice and dragged by the suspects’ vehicle.
In a news release, police say the officer had already detained two suspects inside a Walmart store early Wednesday and was told their accomplices were waiting in a vehicle in the parking lot.
As the officer approached the vehicle, police say a female got back into the vehicle. As the vehicle backed up, the officer was struck and knocked to the ground. The vehicle then drove forward, striking the officer a second time. Police say he grab hold to the vehicle and was dragged about 100 feet before he released and fired two shots at the fleeing vehicle.
The officer was taken to the hospital.

200 Monroe utility payments accidentally shredded
MONROE (AP) — Officials say a city worker accidentally shredded more than 200 water bill payments from Monroe customers.
Director of Tax and Revenue Timothy Lewis said the city has identified 181 of the 209 affected customers by using the envelopes the checks came in. He said the city will send them letters notifying them of Friday’s mishap and request a new check.
The city is also suspending shutting off water for a few weeks so no one will be further inconvenienced. Lewis said in the off chance someone’s water is turned off and they did pay their bill, the city will not charge them any fees normally associated with a shut off.

Lafayette board OKs
tax deal for retail center
LAFAYETTE (AP) — Lafayette Industrial Development Board has approved an estimated $11.5 million in tax incentives for roads, traffic signals, utilities and other infrastructure needed for a planned 58-acre retail center anchored by Costco.
Work is scheduled to begin in November on Ambassador Town Center.
Lead developer Stirling Properties has not confirmed what other stores are planned for the site, only to say that it could be the first Louisiana location for some of the tenants.
The board approved Tuesday an agreement allowing developers to use money that would have been paid in property taxes to instead be used to repay the cost of infrastructure in and around the retail center.

Bourbon Street shooting victim identified
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans authorities have released the name of the 21-year-old woman who died Wednesday after being shot on Bourbon Street over the weekend.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu says Brittany Thomas of Hammond, died at University Interim Hospital in New Orleans, where she was taken after Sunday’s shooting. A spokesman for the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office had confirmed the woman’s death.
Nine other people were shot but are expected to survive.
Meanwhile, authorities say 20-year-old Justin Odom, identified by authorities as a “person of interest” in connection with the shooting, turned himself in to police Wednesday and was booked into the Jefferson Parish jail on shoplifting and traffic-related charges.
Police Department spokesman Hilal Williams says detectives questioned Odom in the presence of his attorney.

Judge hears arguments
in oil industry lawsuit
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge in New Orleans is likely months away from deciding whether Plaquemines Parish’s lawsuit against oil companies over coastal damage belongs in state or federal court.
U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey heard arguments Wednesday and set a schedule for briefs and replies lasting into September. His decision will likely indicate whether a series of such lawsuits filed by Plaquemines and Jefferson parishes will be tried in state court or federal court.
The suits allege a variety of environmental law violations, including operating waste pits without permits and dredging canals without using techniques to prevent erosion and encroachment of salt water from the Gulf of Mexico.
The parishes want the cases returned to state district courts, where they were originally filed.
The oil companies argue the federal court has jurisdiction.
The two coastal parishes filed their lawsuits last fall, months after a New Orleans-based south Louisiana flood protection board filed its own suit against more than 90 oil and gas companies, saying the companies are partially to blame for loss of coastal wetlands that serve as a natural hurricane buffer for New Orleans.
A federal judge recently ruled that the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East lawsuit will stay in federal court. However, lawyers in the case before Zainey say the parish lawsuits involve different legal issues, so the ruling in the SLFPA case is not necessarily indicative of how Zainey will rule.

$50,000 grant goes to Tulane anthropology prof
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A professor of anthropology at Tulane University in New Orleans has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the National Geographic Society.
A Tulane news release says Marcello Canuto is receiving the grant to further his research at the Classic Maya city of La Corona in the jungles of northern Guatemala.
Canuto and his research team are using the grant to help find answers to long-standing questions about the political organization of this ancient civilization.