Louisiana news briefs

Barge delays for bank
repair run about 10 hours
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says delays of barge traffic have run about 10 hours since the Corps began closing a three-mile stretch of the Mississippi River from dawn to dusk to reinforce a section of river bank between Memphis, Tennessee and Greenville, Mississippi.
The Corps said backups of barge traffic that occurred during the first days of the closure were cleared overnight Friday and Saturday. The Corps also said Sunday it has agreed to delay repair work each morning if necessary to accommodate tows that don’t clear the work area overnight.
“If for some reason the queue has not cleared by daylight, we will postpone beginning our revetment work until all of the vessels are thru this section of the river,” Maj. Gen. Michael Wehr, Commander of the Mississippi Valley Division, said in a news release.
Still, Waterways Council spokesman Mike Toohey says the delays are costly. He estimated the cost of the first day of delays for shippers was more than $450,000, based on daily and hourly rates charged by barge and towboat companies.
He said future costs of the current project, estimated to last two weeks, are uncertain because the volume of future traffic is unknown.

Lafourche may shorten door-to-door sales hours
THIBODAUX (AP) — The Lafourche Parish Council is expected to vote Tuesday on an ordinance to change curfew times for door-to-door sales.
As the ordinance for the curfew on door-to-door peddling or hawking currently reads, salesmen may operate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Councilman Joe Fertitta said the new ordinance he is introducing will end door-to-door sales at sunset.
If the ordinance passes, violators will be subject to up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine.
Fertitta says the change comes as a result of several complaints by residents who said salesmen were knocking on their doors well after dark.

Final public hearing on fracking
MANDEVILLE (AP) — A tumultuous spring and summer of public meetings will culminate Wednesday in a public hearing on Helis Oil & Gas Co.’s application to drill a fracking well in St. Tammany Parish.
The Department of Natural Resources is holding the hearing at Lakeshore High School after getting requests from the town of Abita Springs and the activist group Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany.
During the hearing, both sides will be allowed to call witnesses, present evidence and cross-examine each other’s witnesses. Members of the public also will be given an opportunity to speak before the staff from the Office of Conservation.
No decision will be made at the hearing. Commissioner of Conservation James Welsh at some point will issue a decision on the drilling permit.

Suspect, 26, convicted
in 2010 triple slaying
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A 26-year-old man is facing a lifetime in prison after being convicted in a triple murder in New Orleans.
An Orleans Parish jury on Saturday convicted Charles “Tiger” Franklin of three counts of first-degree murder.
The killings happened in 2010 in New Orleans’ St. Roch neighborhood.
Franklin was accused of committing the murders with a friend, 22-year-old Dwayne “Red” Johnson, in a dispute about crack dealing. Johnson pleaded guilty in August to three counts of manslaughter. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Franklin will be formally sentenced to life on Dec. 17. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.

Tiger cubs debut at B.R. zoo
BATON ROUGE (AP) — The Baton Rouge Zoo report tiger cubs born over the summer are now on display and they’re asking for the public’s help in naming the new additions.
Two female Malayan tiger cubs were born in July at the zoo. Their mother is with them in the exhibit and they can be seen during normal zoo hours until 4 p.m., weather permitting.
The zoo’s assistant director and general curator, Sam Winslow, says name suggestions can be submitted via the zoo’s Facebook, Twitter or Instagram pages through Nov. 21.

Contractor sentenced
in post-Katrina bribe case
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A contractor who admitted bribing an official who oversaw New Orleans’ anti-blight program after Hurricane Katrina was sentenced Thursday to a year of probation.
U.S. District Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown also ordered Earl Myers to pay $173,000 in restitution.
Myers was one of four contractors accused of bribing Stacey Jackson.
The sentencing came just weeks after Jackson, the former head of New Orleans Affordable Homeownership, was sentenced to five years in prison for taking bribes from Myers and others.
Myers had been prepared to testify against Jackson, but pleaded guilty on the eve of a trial.
Myers’ two construction companies were paid more than $500,000 for gutting and other work by NOAH, a city-funded nonprofit that played a leading role in the city’s post-Katrina cleanup.
A federal investigation led to charges against four contractors and two NOAH employees, including Jackson.
Myers admitted paying Jackson thousands of dollars in kickbacks as well as helping to cover up of the scheme by submitting to the grand jury false invoices prepared by Jackson.
All of the contractors in the investigation eventually took plea deals. Sentencing for one, Trellis Smith, is set for Wednesday.