Louisiana news briefs

Medical marijuana debate to be revived with La. lawmakers
BATON ROUGE (AP) — When they return for their next legislative session, state lawmakers will again debate whether to allow medical marijuana to be dispensed in Louisiana.
Baton Rouge Rep. Dalton Honore, a Democrat, has pre-filed the legislation for consideration in the regular session that begins April 13.
Sheriffs and district attorneys successfully stonewalled efforts last year to allow medical marijuana for people with serious illnesses. But supporters of the idea hope to change minds and set up guidelines allowing for the prescriptions.
Louisiana legalized medical marijuana in 1991 for people with certain conditions, and the state health department issued regulations a year later allowing doctors to prescribe the drug.
But rules were not set up for dispensaries, so no prescriptions have been issued.

Governor’s Mansion going red for heart health month
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana’s first lady, Supriya Jindal, says the Governor’s Mansion is going red as part of Heart Health Month.
In recognition, the Mansion will be lit red through Sunday to highlight the impact of cardiovascular disease on all citizens. It’s the seventh straight year the Mansion has been lit.
Jindal says 40,000 infants are born in the United States with a congenital heart defect each year. And, she says cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, responsible for 17.3 million per year.
Jindal says those kinds of statistics highlight the importance of living a healthy lifestyle.
Man sentenced for dumping contaminated fuel in 2013
PORT ALLEN — A Zachary man must pay a $5,000 fine after being sentenced for illegally dumping gasoline and diesel behind a gas station in Port Allen.
State Judge J. Robin Free also sentenced 58-year-old Leon Wallace, of Zachary, to two years’ probation and ordered him to pay the state Department of Environmental Quality $970 for the cost of the investigation.
Wallace pleaded guilty on Feb. 4.
The sentence stems from an incident on Jan. 25, 2013, when Wallace was loading fuel into his truck at a local refinery and mistakenly mixed several hundred gallons of diesel with several thousand gallons of gasoline.
In trying to hide the mistake, DEQ says Wallace drove to the gas station and dumped some of the mixture at the back of the property.

Lafayette public school system could lose $17M to charter
LAFAYETTE (AP) — School officials say the Lafayette Parish School System could lose up to $17 million over the next two school years as the three charter schools in the parish expand and a new charter school opens in August.
The potential flight of funds would come from the loss of students whose parents opt to enroll them in the charter schools.
The loss of per student funding for the district contributed to a $20 million shortfall last year as the school board prepared to balance the budget for the current school year.
Chief Financial Officer Billy Guidry says the impact of four charter schools open in the parish in the upcoming 2015-16 school year is estimated at $9 million and at $8 million the following school year.
2 companies seeking tax rebates on expanding payrolls
AMITE — Two companies expanding in Ponchatoula have received approval from the Tangipahoa Parish Council in their applications for state tax rebates on their expanding payrolls.
Elmer’s Candy is making a $40 million investment to expand its plant, creating 16 new permanent jobs.
J&M Industries will spend $4.5 million to expand its tarp manufacturing plant and will create 30 new permanent jobs.
Both companies are applying to the state’s Quality Jobs Program, which grants cash rebates of 5 percent or 6 percent of annual gross payroll for new, permanent jobs for up to 10 years.
The program also can provide a 4 percent sales/use tax rebate on capital expenditures or a 1.5 percent investment tax credit for qualified expenses.

Murder charges dropped against woman in slaying of couple
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Prosecutors have dropped murder charges against a woman charged in the slaying last year of a Reserve couple who were bound with blue rope and dumped into the Intracoastal Waterway in eastern New Orleans.
Brittany Martin pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice Jan. 30 and appears to be cooperating against her co-defendants in the February 2014 killings of Lekeitha and Kenneth Joseph.
Martin is free on $30,000 bond as she awaits sentencing.
Authorities have said the Josephs were the victims of a well-plotted crime involving an attempted cover-up.
Charged with murder in the case are Kenneth Joseph’s cousin, Horatio Johnson, and Steven Bradley. A fourth defendant, Frank Mike Jr. has been charged with trying to get rid of evidence.

New Orleans woman pleads guilty to tax fraud
BATON ROUGE (AP) — A 25-year-old New Orleans woman has pleaded guilty in a tax fraud case that netted her more than $16,000 illegally.
Attorney General Buddy Caldwell’s office said Monday that Charnell Haymond entered the plea Friday to one count of injuring public records and U.S. District Judge Louis Daniel sentenced her to a suspended, five-year prison sentence and placed her on three years’ supervised probation. She also must repay the state $16,180 in restitution and perform 50 hours of community service.
Authorities say Haymond was charged last April with stealing personal information while employed by the U.S. Postal Service and then fraudulently filing a state tax return to get the money.

Florida woman gets 2 years for bribery scheme
SHREVEPORT (AP) — A Florida woman has been sentenced to two years in prison for mail fraud linked to a bribery scheme involving a former staff member at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center.
U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley said Monday that 53-year-old Rita M. Myler, of Miramar Beach, Florida, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $531,976 in restitution.
According to her guilty plea, Myler paid kickbacks from July 2001 to July 2008 to Anthony Roggero, assistant director of the LSUHSC’s Human Leukocyte Antigen Laboratory so that he would continue buying products from her company, Sangre Biologicals.
Roggero, of Shreveport, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud for his role. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $200,000 restitution.

College requirement nixed for New Orleans police recruits
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In a move to beef up the police ranks, the chief of the troubled New Orleans Police Department has eliminated a requirement that recruits have 60 hours of college education or two years of military experience.
Police Superintendent Michael Harrison made his case Monday before the Civil Service Commission and the board voted 4-0 to scrap the requirements. The board oversees policy for public employees.
Ending the requirement is seen by critics as a dangerous step backward in efforts to overhaul the NOPD. The college or military background experience was instituted in 2010 and was meant to make the force more qualified and less likely to abuse its police powers.
“It is taking a leap backward in the wrong direction,” said Randolph Scott with the grassroots group Community United for Change after the vote. He told the commission college-educated recruits would help ensure that new officers do not abuse their powers.
“You have the old line police officers who don’t understand the importance of revising policies.”
But Harrison told the commission that ending the college or military requirement would not soften hiring standards. He said rigorous testing and background checks have been put into place before a recruit is hired.
“We’re still looking for the best and the brightest,” said Harrison, whose move was backed by the city’s police unions. He also had the blessing of Mayor Mitch Landrieu and members of the City Council.
The department is working with the U.S. Department of Justice and the federal courts to clean up the force. In 2012, a Justice Department probe of the NOPD resulted in the city agreeing to a series of changes in policies governing hiring, training, discipline, procedures for use of violence and many other elements of police work. A federal monitor is overseeing the housecleaning. The consent decree does not require recruits to have a college education.
The college or military requirement was put into place by Harrison’s predecessor, Ronal Serpas
Harrison said the rule change was necessary for the department to add hundreds of new officers and eliminate what it sees as a serious staffing shortage. The department says it wants to hire more than 400 officers. The chief said about 1,000 applicants were turned down last year because they did not have the college or military requirements.
The city is also dealing with a rise in violent crime and police say getting more officers on patrol will help stem such crimes. Last year rapes, armed robberies and burglaries increased, even though the homicide rate declined with the fewest number since 1971, according to police data.
Harrison cited himself as an example of someone who did not have a college background when he joined the force but obtained college credits after he joined the force. He said the NOPD is doing more to help officers take college classes. To get promoted to the ranks of sergeant and lieutenant officers need college credits.

Settlement in Orleans disabilities case set for hearing
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge Monday assured worried parents that attorneys for the government agencies running New Orleans public schools will work diligently to ensure disabled students are treated fairly under a proposed settlement in a 2010 lawsuit.
The lawsuit settlement was announced in December. Monday evening’s hearing was before U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey.
Last week, Zainey told attorneys on both sides to take steps to address undisclosed issues raised by a handful of opponents to the settlement.
The 2010 lawsuit alleged public schools in New Orleans failed to meet the needs of students with a variety of disabilities, including bipolar and attention-deficit disorders. The agreement includes provisions for a system to identify children with disabilities, place them in schools and help them achieve educational goals.
“No stone is going to be left unturned,” Zainey told roughly a dozen parents, guardians and students in his courtroom.
The agreement followed years of on-again-off-again negotiations involving the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Orleans Parish School Board and the Recovery School District, which oversees most public schools in New Orleans for the state.
“Most of the time the better schools are not available to disabled kids,” one tearful mother told Zainey as she described a fruitless attempt to get her son out of a school where he was being bullied.
The agreement includes a requirement that an independent monitor be appointed to help make sure terms of the agreement are met.
College requirement nixed for New Orleans police recruits

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In a move to beef up the police ranks, the chief of the troubled New Orleans Police Department has eliminated a requirement that recruits have 60 hours of college education or two years of military experience.
Police Superintendent Michael Harrison made his case Monday before the Civil Service Commission and the board voted 4-0 to scrap the requirements. The board oversees policy for public employees.
Ending the requirement is seen by critics as a dangerous step backward in efforts to overhaul the NOPD. The college or military background experience was instituted in 2010 and was meant to make the force more qualified and less likely to abuse its police powers.
“It is taking a leap backward in the wrong direction,” said Randolph Scott with the grassroots group Community United for Change after the vote. He told the commission college-educated recruits would help ensure that new officers do not abuse their powers.
“You have the old line police officers who don’t understand the importance of revising policies.”
But Harrison told the commission that ending the college or military requirement would not soften hiring standards. He said rigorous testing and background checks have been put into place before a recruit is hired.
“We’re still looking for the best and the brightest,” said Harrison, whose move was backed by the city’s police unions. He also had the blessing of Mayor Mitch Landrieu and members of the City Council.
The department is working with the U.S. Department of Justice and the federal courts to clean up the force. In 2012, a Justice Department probe of the NOPD resulted in the city agreeing to a series of changes in policies governing hiring, training, discipline, procedures for use of violence and many other elements of police work. A federal monitor is overseeing the housecleaning. The consent decree does not require recruits to have a college education.
The college or military requirement was put into place by Harrison’s predecessor, Ronal Serpas
Harrison said the rule change was necessary for the department to add hundreds of new officers and eliminate what it sees as a serious staffing shortage. The department says it wants to hire more than 400 officers. The chief said about 1,000 applicants were turned down last year because they did not have the college or military requirements.
The city is also dealing with a rise in violent crime and police say getting more officers on patrol will help stem such crimes. Last year rapes, armed robberies and burglaries increased, even though the homicide rate declined with the fewest number since 1971, according to police data.
Harrison cited himself as an example of someone who did not have a college background when he joined the force but obtained college credits after he joined the force. He said the NOPD is doing more to help officers take college classes. To get promoted to the ranks of sergeant and lieutenant officers need college credits.