Louisiana news briefs

2 accused of mugging veteran, 91, at casino
SHREVEPORT (AP) — Shreveport police say a 91-year-old man was injured by two muggers who took some of his casino winnings, but the World War II veteran injured one of his attackers.
Cpl. Marcus Hines said the attack took place shortly after midnight Wednesday, after the men followed the veteran into a restroom at the Eldorado Casino.
The the victim was taken to University Health in Shreveport for treatment of injuries considered non-life-threatening.
Hines says 39-year-old John Perkins and 60-year-old Gary Smith were arrested after a search in downtown Shreveport, and were booked with second-degree robbery.

Casino take about even
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A 12.4 percent jump in July winnings at Louisiana’s land casino kept the 21-casino total about even with July 2013.
Casinos took in about $213 million statewide, just $384,300 more than a year earlier. But the land casino’s winnings rose from $25.4 million to $28.5 million.
Riverboat winnings fell 1.3 percent to $151.6 million and race track slots casinos fell 2.2 percent to $32.9 million.
Revenues rose at four of the 14 riverboats. The Belle of Baton Rouge had the biggest increase: 10.7 percent, to $5.4 million.
Revenues fell in Shreveport, Morgan City and Opelousas while rising in Lake Charles, New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Lake Charles’ total rose 4 percent to $64.4 million, including $34.9 million from L’Auberge Lake Charles. L’Auberge had 400,430 customers to the land casino’s 451,510.

Manslaughter charge
in Bourbon Street shooting
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A New Orleans grand jury has charged a 21-year-old man with manslaughter and attempted second-degree murder in a shooting spree on Bourbon Street, one of the city’s busiest tourist spots.
Bond was reduced from $4.5 million to $1.5 million for Trung Le, the only person arrested so far in the shooting. He was charged in the death of Brittany Thomas, 21, of Hammond. Nine other people were hurt in the June 29 shooting that turned the usual party atmosphere to panic on the French Quarter street of restaurants, strip clubs and bars.
Le’s attorney, Martin Regan, could not be reached for comment. He was in court for a trial expected to continue into the night, his staff said.
Regan has said there’s video evidence that Le did not fire the fatal bullet, and his team of lawyers knows of witnesses who have said that an intoxicated man pulled a gun first.

Historic building is in I-49-path
LAFAYETTE (AP) — State officials a 19th-century building set to be demolished to make way for a planned Interstate 49 interchange in downtown Lafayette is being researched as a possible nominee for the National Register of Historic Places.
But state transportation officials say they are still moving forward with plans to level the two-story brick structure despite the research work. DOTD officials say no date has been set for the building to come down.
Believed to have been built in 1885, the structure is one of the oldest buildings in downtown Lafayette.
Jacques Berry, spokesman for the Lieutenant Governor’s Office, says the state’s historic preservation staff has begun research on whether the building might be a candidate for the National Register of Historic Places.

Baton Rouge faces
about 50 open teacher slots
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Even after holding two teacher job fairs in recent days, including one in Pittsburgh, the East Baton Rouge Parish school system still has roughly 50 vacant teaching positions nearly two weeks into the 2014-15 school year.
Even so, Millie Williams, executive director for human resources, told the School Board on Thursday she plans to stop hiring soon.
Williams said a few schools are overstaffed because of less-than-anticipated enrollment, so teachers are likely to be moved from those schools to fill vacancies at other schools.
Williams pronounced the Pittsburgh fair held last Saturday as a success, saying the school system has contracts with 18 teachers who attended the event.

Ascension tax plan OK’d
GONZALES (AP) — The Ascension council has agreed to amend the way it collects sales tax revenues in portions of taxing districts annexed by municipalities.
The matter came to light after the recent expiration of a tax revenue-sharing agreement among parish government, the city of Donaldsonville and the Ascension sheriff’s office.
On April 1, sales taxes in a key commercial section of Donaldsonville rose by 2 cents on the dollar to 11 cents, after a last-minute deal to renew the original revenue-sharing agreement could not be reached.
According to the newly updated ordinance, the parish would keep half the net proceeds from any portion of its two sales tax districts annexed into municipalities prior to May 7, 2009.

Police: Child, 5, dies;
father booked with murder
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Baton Rouge police say a 36-year-old father is facing a murder charge after his 5-year-old son died as a result of suspected abuse.
Police said Jay’v’une Bergin died shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday.
His father, Varnell Day Jr., was booked Thursday morning on a charge of first-degree murder. He was originally arrested Tuesday and booked with attempted second-degree murder.
Police say the boy was taken to the hospital on Monday after Day called for help and told medics the boy was injured from a fall off the bed.
During an examination, police say it was determined that Bergin was suffering from “multiple brain bleeds, bruises all over his body in various stages of healing and contusions to the forehead.”

6,900 haven’t sent papers needed for insurance
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Federal officials say about 6,900 Louisiana residents could lose insurance under the Affordable Care Act unless they send copies of citizenship or immigration papers to prove they’re eligible.
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services says they’re among nearly 1 million people nationwide whose citizenship or immigration details don’t match government records.
It says most sent in the paperwork but 310,000 have not, in spite of many reminders. Those people are getting letters saying coverage will be cancelled unless they send the paperwork by Sept. 5.
From The Associated Press.
A news release says the papers are needed to support their applications and verify that information is correct.
For instance, an application could have an incomplete Social Security or permanent resident card number, or numbers might have been switched by mistake.