Louisiana news briefs

Bond set for former coach, teacher on molestation charge
JENNINGS (AP) — Bond has been set at $145,000 for a former Elton High School teacher and coach facing nearly a dozen charges of inappropriate behavior with current and former students.
Justin Joseph Fruge, 35, remains in the Jefferson Davis Parish jail after turning himself in to authorities Friday to face additional charges.
Fruge was initially arrested Jan. 18 on molestation of a juvenile charges involving female students.
Additional charges, including six counts of prohibited sexual conduct between an educator and student; one count of indecent behavior with a juvenile; and four counts of molestation.
The investigation began last month after deputies received information from school officials that allegations had been made against Fruge.

Terrebonne Parish to develop housing at old Houma school
HOUMA (AP) — The Terrebonne Parish Council has approved a lease agreement to turn the old Houma Elementary School buildings into affordable apartments.
A branch of the New Orleans Volunteers of America, Renaissance Neighborhood Development Corp., plans to develop 103 mixed-income apartments as either workforce or senior citizen housing in existing and new buildings. The lease was signed Monday.
Construction is projected to begin in January 2016 with doors opening in February 2017.

B.R. police increasing presence downtown
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Citing an increase in downtown business and nightlife activity, Baton Rouge police plan to double their presence in the area by the end of October.
Police Chief Carl Dabadie said Tuesday that downtown has grown by leaps and bounds and it was time to realign manpower in the area.
The Downtown Development District says once thought of as a ghost-town after the end of the work day, downtown has added 66 new businesses in recent years.
Lt. Jonny Dunnam, a police spokesman, says the new officers will be stationed at a satellite police office which has been open since 2009. He says those officers will come from the 60 or so police academy graduates scheduled to join the ranks by the end of April.

Air Liquide to build unit to supply St. James Parish plant
EDGARD (AP) — Paris-based Air Liquide will invest about $170 million in a unit that will supply oxygen for Chinese petrochemical giant Yuhuang Chemical’s planned methanol manufacturing complex in St. James Parish.
The Yuhuang Chemical plant will produce about 5,500 tons of methanol per day. An overall complex, to be built in three phases at an estimated $1.85 billion, on St. James’ west bank. It is the first major direct investment in Louisiana by a mainland Chinese company.
Air Liquide said it has entered into a long-term agreement to supply Yuhuang Chemical with 2,400 tons of oxygen per day. Air Liquide will build an air-separation unit for production of oxygen, nitrogen and argon. That unit will be connected to Air Liquide’s Louisiana pipeline system, as well as Yuhuang Chemical’s plant.

Trial delayed
for 2013 parade shooting suspects
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal trial involving suspects in the 2013 Mother’s Day shooting blamed for 20 injuries at a neighborhood parade in New Orleans has been pushed back.
The complex drug, weapon and gang racketeering case involves a half-dozen defendants. They include two brothers — Shawn and Akein Scott — implicated by police in the brazen daylight shooting. The shooting is one of numerous crimes alleged in the federal indictment.
Trial had been set for March 9. It was rescheduled for July 13 in a Tuesday order following a motion by one of the defendants.

Business owner lied to collect
disabilty benefits
LAFAYETTE (AP) — A Breaux Bridge man has been sentenced to six months in prison and six months of home confinement for lying to get disability benefits to which he was not entitled.
U.S. Attorney Stephane A. Finley said Tuesday that 51-year-old Mervin J. Noel was sentenced for one count of making false statements to continue receiving workers’ compensation benefits. Finley says U.S. District Judge Elizabeth E. Foote also Monday sentenced Noel to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $138,247 in restitution to the Social Security Administration and Louisiana Workers Compensation Corporation.
Evidence shows Noel began receiving benefits after getting hurt on an offshore oil platform in 1994. In 2007, he began his business but didn’t notify either agency and falsely reported that he had no earnings from employment.

Planned Parenthood files appeal, seeking to offer abortions
BATON ROUGE (AP) — Planned Parenthood is appealing a state health department rejection of its application seeking to perform abortion services in New Orleans.
The organization said it filed a notice of appeal Tuesday with the state Division of Administrative Law, rather than file a lawsuit challenging the rejection.
In a January letter, the Department of Health and Hospitals said Planned Parenthood didn’t demonstrate the need for another abortion facility in Louisiana as required under regulations enacted in 2012.
Abortion rights supporters accuse Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration of using the regulations to limit access to the procedure.
Louisiana has five abortion clinics. Planned Parenthood’s $4 million health center in New Orleans is under construction and expected to open later this year. It would be the third clinic offering abortions in the New Orleans area.

Teacher evaluation
delay sought
BATON ROUGE (AP) — The state education board was urged Tuesday by an influential study group to again delay the use of a teacher evaluation system tied to student performance data, raising uncertainty about whether the divisive evaluations will ever return to classrooms.
Even the sponsor of the 2010 state law creating the controversial evaluation method has suggested the system should be stalled for another year and maybe should be shelved for much longer.
“Teachers aren’t sure it’s working,” said Rep. Frank Hoffmann, R-West Monroe. “I think we have a lack of confidence.”
Gov. Bobby Jindal pushed the law that requires some public school teachers to be graded on student test scores, with half the teacher’s review tied to the growth in student achievement on standardized tests.
The evaluation method, known as the Value Added Model, is supposed to apply to about a third of teachers whose coursework is covered by standardized tests, such as math and science teachers. Other teachers are graded on student growth targets that are set by principals.
The law has generated controversy and complaints — and BESE stalled that evaluation requirement last year and this year while the state switched over to new standardized testing aligned with Common Core.
The evaluation method was to resume in the upcoming 2015-16 school year. But state lawmakers created the study group to determine whether the evaluation method should be tweaked.
After months of review, the study group unanimously agreed to a set of recommendations Tuesday that included another yearlong delay in using the model. The panel also recommended that even if the use of performance data to judge teachers resumes that principals also be given more leeway in how they use the data in the evaluation.
The suggestions go next to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and to state lawmakers for consideration of whether regulations or state law should be changed.
Supporters say the data-driven evaluations tie teachers to quantifiable performance, and they stressed that even though they support delay, they don’t want to scrap the evaluation method for the long-term.
But opponents say standardized tests can’t adequately measure the success of a teacher and the review doesn’t adequately consider individualized problems with students. They also say it creates a two-tiered system for judging teachers depending on the classes they teach.