Louisiana news briefs

Oct. 6 deadline to register
for Nov. 4 election
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisianians have about a week left to register to vote in the November election.
Oct. 6 is the last day to register to vote.
On Nov. 4, voters will choose Democrat U.S. Sen Mary Landrieu or one of her Republican opponents, who include Baton Rouge’s U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy and tea party-backed Rob Maness, of Madisonville, in the heated U.S. Senate battle. The race has been identified nationally as one that could ultimately determine whether Democrats maintain control of the Senate.

Coyotes upset neighborhoods
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — People living near New Orleans’ lakefront and City Park are upset by coyotes.
One school held recess indoors one day last week because a coyote had been seen.
Jan Daniel Lancaster, superintendent of Catholic schools, says administrators at St. Piux X school also asked parents whose children usually walk home from school if they wanted to pick them up.
People who live near the old Kennedy High School property say coyotes living on the grounds have eaten their pets.
City officials say in emails that authorities are using cameras to monitor the animals so they can be safely trapped.
Officials in St. John the Baptist Parish say trapping began recently in LaPlace, Belle Terre and Garyville/Mount Airy.

Vermilion considers flood walls to protect schools
ABBEVILLE (AP) — School officials in Vermilion Parish are moving ahead with plans for a concrete wall and pump system to protect more of the parish’s schools from floodwaters.
They are determined not to see a replay of problems encountered with flooded schools following Hurricane Rita in 2005 and Ike in 2008.
The latest project calls for spending $2.8 million to erect a concrete wall more than five feet high and install a pump system to protect Erath High and the adjacent Erath Middle School.
The project is the fourth FEMA-funded flood wall project designed to protect schools in the coastal parish from flooding.
Gene Sellers, the project’s engineer, says FEMA is funding 75 percent of the Erath wall with the Vermilion Parish School Board covering the remaining costs.

Road project not funded
GONZALES (AP) — Ascension Parish President Tommy Martinez is looking for money for a four-lane alternate route from Lamar-Dixon Expo Center after the project failed to win a federal grant.
The one-mile, $12 million road to Lamar-Dixon was not among the projects the U.S. Department of Transportation said earlier this month would be funded.
Martinez said he’s going to find some way to build the road.
It would tie South St. Landry Avenue, which dead-ends at Lamar-Dixon, to Louisiana Highway 44 and the Interstate 10 interchange at Burnside.
The parish-owned Lamar-Dixon is a multiuse livestock and events complex near Gonzales and I-10 that has served as a hub for hurricane response in Louisiana.
Officials say the project was among 17 vying for $12 million in federal money.

Fair urged to modify accounting practices
SHREVEPORT (AP) — Auditors say the State Fair of Louisiana could take several steps to improve its accounting practices.
Accountant James McClelland recommended the minor changes in a letter accompanying 2012 and 2013 audits for the legislative auditor’s office.
The fair’s management board says it will follow McClelland’s recommendations as finances allow.
The fair ended 2012 with slightly more than $936,000. It used some of that to cover a $375,261 net operating loss in 2013, but did not need to go into its $700,000 reserve fund, the audit found.
McClelland didn’t identify any problems with the fair’s control over its finances.

St. Bernard president surrenders to face charge
COVINGTON (AP) — St. Bernard Parish President Dave Peralta has surrendered to St. Tammany Parish authorities, two days after a grand jury indicted him on a felony stalking charge.
Peralta’s attorney, Stephen London, said Peralta posted a $35,000 bond and was released Friday. London said the next step is arraignment, but a date had not been scheduled.
A grand jury indicted Peralta on Wednesday after hearing testimony from his ex-wife, Sharon Schaefer.
Peralta was previously indicted in April on a charge of sexual battery, after Schaefer accused him of raping her in October 2013. Peralta has denied wrongdoing, saying the sex was consensual.
The AP doesn’t generally identify alleged victims of sexual assault. However, Schaefer has spoken publicly about the case and her lawyer has publicly identified her.

15 new cases of West Nile Virus
BATON ROUGE (AP) — The state health department confirms 15 new cases of West Nile Virus in Louisiana, bringing this year’s total to 118 reported infections.
The Department of Health and Hospitals said Friday the new infections include five of the more serious neuroinvasive disease. There was one case each in Ascension, Bossier, East Baton Rouge, Ouachita and Pointe Coupee parishes.
There were also nine new cases of the milder West Nile fever including five in East Baton Rouge, three in Caddo and one in LaFourche. There was also one new asymptomatic case reported in East Baton Rouge Parish.
No new deaths were reported, leaving the state’s count at five.

Redevelopment authority running out of money
BATON ROUGE (AP) — The East Baton Rouge Parish Redevelopment Authority, a public agency responsible for reviving blighted areas in Baton Rouge, is running out of money.
The organization, formed in 2007, is responsible for kicking off two high-profile projects in Ardendale — formerly called Smiley Heights — and the redevelopment of the old Entergy building on Government St.
But the agency has been running on fumes for more than a year and has no money left to take on additional blight projects.
Walter Monsour, executive director of the organization, said the program will have exhausted all of its operational dollars and will have to shut down by Dec. 31, 2015, unless additional funding can be found.
Monsour said the Redevelopment Authority is vital to the future prosperity of the city