Louisiana news briefs

Citizens assessment rebates end soon
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana taxpayers are leaving tens of millions of property insurance rebates unclaimed again this year.
Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon said Thursday more than $50 million in rebates remains unclaimed for the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp.’s 2010 assessment. The deadline to claim a rebate for that assessment is Dec. 31.
All property insurance policyholders — whether they are insured by Citizens or not — pay the Citizens assessment each year.
Policyholders can claim rebates for assessments charged in years 2010 through 2014. To date, 61 percent or $269 million of the funds assessed during those years remains unclaimed.
Individuals and businesses can claim rebates here: http://www.ldi.la.gov/CitizensRebateForms.html .
Individuals can go here as well to claim a rebate: http://www.revenue.louisiana.gov/Eservices/LouisianaFileOnlineLinks .

Sinkhole evacuation eased
BAYOU CORNE (AP) — After more than two years, the mandatory evacuation order for people living near an Assumption Parish sinkhole has eased for some in the area.
The parish policy jury said Thursday that an area east of Grand Bayou along La. 70 has been re-designated to a voluntary evacuation zone, rather than a mandatory one.
The evacuation was ordered in August 2012 after a sinkhole opened over a salt dome. Gas and oil escaped to the surface and Texas Brine, which leased the salt dome, worked to contain the area.
Many residents later agreed with Texas Brine to cover the decline in the value of their homes and property. Others joined a class-action lawsuit, which was later settled for $48.1 million.

Supreme Court
asked to hear gay marriage case
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The state of Louisiana agrees with gay rights activists about one thing: asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take the rare step of hearing an appeal of Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriages before a federal appeals court rules.
The request filed this week by Washington attorney Kyle Duncan asks the justices to hear appeals of Louisiana’s case and the only other federal court decision to uphold gay marriage bans. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati upheld bans in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is to hear Louisiana’s appeal and one from Texas on Jan. 9.
“We likely won’t know whether the Supreme Court will take up any of the pending petitions until mid-January at the earliest. By then, we will have already argued the Fifth Circuit case,” Duncan wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

Mississippi man convicted as New Orleans hit man
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Jurors deliberated less than an hour before convicting a Mississippi man of a contract killing in New Orleans. Prosecutors say the victim was among three men who died after marrying the woman accused of hiring 30-year-old Alfred “Terry” Everette.
Emma Raine, is awaiting trial in the death of her second husband, 38-year-old Ernest Smith. Jurors convicted Everette on Thursday of second-degree murder in his death. The charge carries an automatic life sentence.
Raine has not been convicted in any death.
Prosecutors say she and Everette’s foster brother James Raine promised Everette $100,000 to kill Smith, who was shot outside his New Orleans home in 2006.
James Raine was then the woman’s boyfriend and later married her. He was shot to death in 2011 in their house in Pearl River, Mississippi.

Opelousas police getting body cams; training now
OPELOUSAS (AP) — Opelousas Police Chief Perry Gallow says his officers are being trained to use body cameras, and should be wearing them in about a week.
Gallow said he decided to act now partly because of grand jury decisions not to indict police officers in deaths in Ferguson, Missouri, and in New York City.
He says people don’t trust law enforcement the way they used to.
The department is buying 30 of the $400 cameras. All officers will wear them.
Officer Romalis Thomas was one of the first to be trained to use a body camera. He says he loves it.
Thomas says he thinks it will help solve crimes and will put both officers and the public on their best behavior because they’ll know they’re being videotaped.
Shreveport bookkeeper jailed on theft charge
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A bookkeeper for a Shreveport company is free after posting bond following her arrest for theft.
Deputies say she pocketed $57,000 in unauthorized payments from the business for more than a year.
Deputies say 44-year-old Stacy S. Poindexter, of Bossier City, was employed at Jeb Breithaupt Design and used her position to manipulate the payroll database. Poindexter reportedly stole the money between August 2013 and November 2014 by issuing reimbursements to herself. Deputies say the money was deposited into her personal bank account.
Poindexter was booked Thursday into the Caddo Correctional Center with bond set at $50,000.