Louisiana news briefs

Employee accused
of theft at state office
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana State Police have arrested an Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control employee who’s accused of stealing money from her co-workers.
Capt. Doug Cain, in a news release Wednesday, said Lindy Tullier was arrested after several of her co-workers reported money missing from their purses. Investigators traced the alleged thefts back to Tullier.
Following a brief investigation, Cain says Tullier was fired. It was unknown how long she had worked for the agency.
ATC is investigating whether more money was stolen. Authorities did not say how much Tullier is accused of stealing.
Cain said Tullier was booked Monday into the East Baton Rouge Parish jail on one count of misdemeanor theft. She was released Tuesday after posting $500 bond.

Baton Rouge man killed
in Ascension Parish crash
SORRENTO (AP) — State police say a Baton Rouge man died in a single car accident in Ascension Parish.
The accident happened around 5:15 a.m. Wednesday on Interstate 10 west of La. 22.
Trooper First Class Jared Sandifer says Brandon Jamal Guillory was eastbound when his car ran off the road into the median and struck a tree.
Sandifer says Guillory was taken to a Gonzales hospital where he died from his injuries.
The accident remains under investigation.

Judge recovering after sudden hospitalization
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Orleans Parish Civil District Judge Clare Jupiter remains hospitalized but is recovering after suffering a sudden medical problem while conducting a conference with lawyers in her courthouse office.
Chief Judge Kern Reese said Jupiter is “doing great. She’s awake, alert and convalescing.”
The 62-year-old judge was rushed to Interim LSU Hospital last Thursday. Reese says what happened still isn’t clear but she’s recovering, improving.
Jupiter won a second term this year for the Section E seat that she won in a runoff in 2011 over Nakisha Ervin-Knott. The seat became vacant when Judge Madeleine Landrieu moved to the state 4th Circuit Court of Appeal. Before then, Jupiter was a private attorney best known for representing the Orleans Parish School Board.

Donate food in December
to ditch library fines
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Next month at the East Baton Rouge Parish Library, patrons can have their past due fines erased in exchange for non-perishable food items.
The campaign is part of the library’s efforts to pitch in to feed the less fortunate for the holidays.
A spokesman for the library says patrons can donate non-perishable food items at any of the 14 library branch locations throughout December. The library will waive $1 of the total late check-out fine per each donated item.
Eligible donations include: Canned items (vegetables, soup, meat), flour, rice, peanut butter, pasta, corn meal, breakfast cereal bars or bagged or boxed non-perishable food items.
All items will benefit the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank.

Kenner mayor moves to create city sewer department
KENNER (AP) — Kenner has taken the initial steps to create a city sewer department.
Sewer services are currently provided by private contractor Veolia Water North America. But Mayor Mike Yenni says the city charter allows the city to create any department it deems necessary, and an ordinance introduced last week by the city council does just that.
Ordinances brought up for introduction are not discussed at meetings, and Yenni said there are many aspects of the issue he is not ready to discuss.
But he said that even if the city decides to continue to outsource the contract, having the scope of services and responsibilities spelled out in a city ordinance is the right way to go.
“I think it needs to be created by ordinance, whether it’s run by an outside firm or whether we bring it in house,” Yenni said.
Yenni said a sewer department would provide greater oversight for a system that was plagued by leaks and backups and was cited by the state several times since 2004 by the Department of Environmental Quality.
The city’s public works department spends a significant amount of time dealing with sewer-related issues even without being officially tasked with the job, he said.
Yenni said Veolia has stepped up its efforts in recent years, assigning a technical adviser in its efforts to address the issues that got the city cited by the state. Since then, Kenner has embarked on an $80 million overhaul of its sewer infrastructure, consolidating treatment plants, rebuilding lift stations and replacing lines.

Car with child inside stolen as woman pumps gas
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — As a 30-year-old woman pumped gas at a gas station in a New Orleans neighborhood, a man jumped in the car and sped away.
The woman’s 1-year-old daughter was inside.
New Orleans police say authorities found the car — with the child inside and unharmed — a couple miles away at an intersection.
Police say it happened about 10 a.m. Thanksgiving Day. They described the suspected carjacker as a man in his late teens with a thin build, wearing a white skull cap and a blue sweater and jeans.

Elections delay St. George petition certification
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Almost a month after St. George organizers turned in their petition with nearly 18,000 signatures supporting the creation of the proposed new city, none of the names has been certified.
East Baton Rouge Parish Registrar of Voters Elaine Lamb initially said the process to count signatures would begin after the Nov. 3 election. However, with the runoff election set for Dec. 6, none of the names has even been looked at yet.
Attorney Mary Olive Pierson, who is representing the city of Baton Rouge, says the city is weighing its legal options if the registrar says the supporters have enough signatures to bring the issue to a vote.
Lamb says she expects to start verifying names around Christmas. That process could take about a month.