Louisiana news briefs

3 metro areas among top 20
in GDP growth
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Metropolitan areas across south Louisiana fared well in 2013 in terms of the value of goods and services they produced.
The percentage gains in gross domestic product placed Lake Charles among the nation’s 10 fastest-growing metro areas. Two other metros — Baton Rouge and Houma-Thibodaux — were among the top 20.
Those findings were released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Lake Charles’ goods and services were valued at nearly $14.9 billion last year, and its growth rate was 7.9 percent.
The Houma-Thibodaux area’s GDP grew to nearly $13 billion in 2013. Those numbers revealed a growth rate of 6.8 percent.
The Baton Rouge area’s GDP of nearly $52.3 billion was an increase of $2.6 billion over 2012.

Arrest made in community hall shooting
ABBEVILLE (AP) — Vermilion Parish authorities have arrested a 20-year-old Loreauville man in the Saturday shooting at a community hall that injured seven people.
Sheriff Mike Couvillon said Bryson Provost was booked into the Vermilion Parish Correctional Center on seven counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Couvillon says Provost was arrested Monday afternoon at his home by Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies.
The shooting occurred at the Woodmen of the World Hall in Abbeville. The sheriff says none of the injuries to the seven victims was life threatening.
Couvillon said detectives continue to look at others who might have been involved.
He says a lack of full cooperation from victims and witnesses thus far is hindering the investigation.

Employee admits to embezzling from surgical center
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Prosecutors say a 52-year-old Baton Rouge woman admitted in federal court that she embezzled $600,000 from the outpatient surgical center that employed her for several years.
According to court records, Donna M. Dodson, who was office manager at Advanced Surgical Care in Baton Rouge, would create false and fraudulent entries in the company’s accounting records indicating ASC owed money to various vendors.
Dodson admitted preparing check requests for the false entries and fraudulently altered those requests — before the checks were printed — so that her name would appear on each check as the “payee” instead of the name of the vendor.
Dodson pleaded guilty Tuesday to five counts of wire fraud.

House passes bill to oversee VA hospital building
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has passed a bill to increase oversight of veterans’ hospitals under construction, following a report that some medical centers take three years longer to complete than estimated and cost an extra $366 million per project.
Republican congressman Mike Coffman of Colorado says the Veterans Affairs Department’s oversight of construction projects is dysfunctional and leads to delayed health care.
A report by the Government Accountability Office last year found that at least four medical centers were behind schedule and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget. The hospitals are in Las Vegas, Denver, New Orleans and Orlando, Florida.
The House bill would require the VA to appoint a project manager from the Army Corps of Engineers to oversee construction projects that cost more than $60 million.

Charge filed against dad in 1983 toddler killing
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — Prosecutors in Pierce County, Washington, have filed a manslaughter charge against a 57-year-old man for killing his 3-year-old son in 1983.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that a warrant has been issued for Stanley Guidroz to return to Washington to face the charge. Guidroz is currently serving time in a Louisiana prison for murdering his wife, who is not the boy’s mom.
Guidroz reported his son, Wallace Guidroz, missing in 1983. He told police the boy went missing at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma and that he believed another family took his son.

Trial date set in double murder case
THIBODAUX (AP) — Authorities say a 35-year-old Raceland man accused of facilitating a police informant’s murder last September is set for trial Nov. 17.
Toronzo Thompkins faces two counts of second-degree murder after the target, 41-year-old Nikki Landry, of Larose, and 54-year-old Harry Lefort, of Cut Off, were shot to death.
While jailed, police say Thompkins learned Landry had been working as a police informant.
As an informant for the Lafourche Drug Task Force, prosecutors say Landry regularly bought drugs while wearing a hidden camera and volunteered information to police.
A second-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory life sentence.

Insurance website up for state workers, retirees
BATON ROUGE (AP) — A new website is up for Louisiana’s state government employees and retirees to choose their health insurance plans for next year, a choice they must make by October.
Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration is reworking the insurance plans that cover 230,000 people through the Office of Group Benefits.
In recent months, the insurance program has been spending more each month than it is taking in. The changes are part of an effort to help stabilize program finances. Analysts say the changes will result in increased out-of-pocket costs and higher deductibles.
None of the 2015 insurance plans are exactly the same as current plans. Workers and retirees will have to choose new insurance options or get assigned to a plan.
The website includes decision guides and a cost calculator.