Louisiana news briefs

State Police: Sgt. arrested on DWI charge
BATON ROUGE — Louisiana State Police say an off-duty sergeant on that force has been arrested on charges including driving while intoxicated after a hit-and-run collision on Interstate 10.
Capt. M. Doug Cain II says State Police arrested 34-year-old Sgt. Damien L. Dyson Sr. of Baton Rouge early Saturday.
A State Police statement said Dyson was westbound on I-10 in Ascension Parish when his personal vehicle struck the rear of another westbound vehicle just before 2:15 a.m. Saturday, causing the second vehicle to run off the road and hit several trees. The lone driver of the other vehicle wasn’t hurt and police say Dyson continued west before exiting I-10 and being stopped.
Authorities say Dyson was placed on leave and remained jailed hours later. It wasn’t immediately known if he had an attorney.

La. AG tries
to keep Ebola waste out of state
BATON ROUGE — Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell says he will take legal action to stop the incinerated personal belongings of a Dallas Ebola victim from being disposed of in a landfill in Calcasieu Parish.
Buddy Caldwell said in a news release late Sunday night that he plans to ask for a temporary restraining order on Monday preventing any of the wastes from entering Louisiana.
Caldwell says the health and safety of Louisiana citizens is his top priority.
Caldwell says the waste will not consist of the belongings themselves, but rather the incinerated remains of six truckloads of items that could have been contaminated by Thomas Duncan when he fell sick.
Duncan died Wednesday at a Dallas hospital.

Teacher booked
on sex counts
NEW ROADS — Authorities say a private school biology teacher accused of having a sexual encounter with a 16-year-old student has been arrested.
Capt. Steve Juge, a Pointe Coupee Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said 27-year-old Nick Domingue, of Ventress, surrendered Friday and was booked into Pointe Coupee Parish Detention Center on counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile and oral sexual battery.
Principal Melanie Ezell says Domingue had been teaching a total of about 75 students in his second year at False River Academy when the allegations surfaced about a week ago.
Ezell said Domingue has since been fired.
Authorities have not release further details of the accusations.

Number of state workers down
30K over 6 years
BATON ROUGE — As Bobby Jindal prepared for his 2008 inauguration as governor, state government workers numbered about 93,500.
Today, that workforce hovers at 62,000 employees — fewer than it’s been in more than two decades. Spending on payroll has decreased by about $1 billion annually.
At the Louisiana State Employees Retirement System, retirees now exceed the number of active employee members — another consequence of the downsizing.
As planning begins for the next budget year, Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols said there are no plans for any new major reductions.
The shrinking of the state government workforce by one-third stems largely from Jindal’s privatization of many government functions and facilities, most notably in the health care arena.

Lafayette board awaits ruling on Cooper’s lawsuit
LAFAYETTE — An administrative hearing on the status of Lafayette Parish schools Superintendent Pat Cooper has been canceled pending a decision by a judge on whether three school board members should be barred from voting on charges against him.
District Judge Durwood Conque has hearing Thursday to consider a lawsuit by Cooper to disqualify the three board members from voting.
The school board had planned to consider Tuesday five complaints against Cooper, who faces possible termination related to the claims against him.
Cooper is asking a judge to disqualify board members Hunter Beasley, Tehmi Chassion and Mark Babineaux from voting in any administrative proceedings based on their alleged bias against him.