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On Saturday, the Assumption Parish Sheriff's Office SWAT team conducted active shooter training refresher exercises with school resource officers, in case of real-life scenario ever presents itself. The training took place at an undisclosed school location. The objective is to keep those teams prepared for responding to such an event and up to date on all aspects ranging from the security of students and staff to a live confrontation with an armed suspect.

Staff Report
A Ponchatoula man wanted in the burglary of a Berwick business and for stealing a company truck has been returned to be booked on those charges, Berwick Police Chief David Leonard Sr. said.
—Eric Bagwell, 43, of Byers Road in Ponchatoula was arrested at 8:41 a.m. Monday on Berwick warrants charging simple burglary, theft of a motor vehicle and attempted theft of a motor vehicle.
Berwick officers brought Bagwell back from St. Tammany Parish, where he was jailed, to be booked on the warrants. They result from the Feb. 4 Berwick business burglary during which Bagwell is believed to have found the keys to a company truck that was parked on the property. Bagwell is accused of stealing the truck and fleeing to Tangipahoa Parish, where he was arrested.
Berwick police gathered information linking Bagwell to the crimes and brought him back to be booked on the warrants. He was then returned to St. Tammany.
Leonard also reported these arrests:
—Ada Cortez-Benitez, 32,. of Fairview Street in Morgan City was arrested at 7:15 p.m. Monday on charges of red light violation and no driver’s license.
Berwick officers were patrolling the area of La. 182 near Sixth Street when they observed a vehicle disobey the red traffic signal. A traffic stop was conducted and the driver was identified as Cortez. Cortez was asked to produce a driver’s license which she admitted to officers that she did not have one, Leonard said.
Officers placed her under arrest, and she was later transported to the Berwick jail, where she was booked on the charges. Cortez posted a cash bond of $252 and was released.
—Eddie Ramirez-Sanchez, 29, of Oriole Street in Morgan City was arrested 1:34 a.m. Tuesday on charges of disturbing the peace by intoxication, resisting an officer and simple criminal damage to property.
Berwick officers were dispatched to a Fourth Street residence in reference to a female being threatened via text message. During the course of the investigation, Eddie Ramirez-Sanchez was identified as the person responsible for the text messages, Leonard said.
The messages indicated that Ramirez was on the way to Fourth Street to fight. So officers began patrolling the area to try and locate him.
Officers located Ramirez walking shirtless on Fourth Street toward the residence. Officers tried making contact with Ramirez and ordered him to stop walking, but he refused officers' commands, Leonard said. Officers attempted to place him under arrest, but he pulled away from officers and a brief struggle ensued.
Ramirez was later placed under arrest but continued to act in a belligerent way toward officers and later began kicking a door of the patrol unit, causing damage. Ramirez was transported to the Berwick jail and later booked on the charges.
Morgan City Chief Police Chief James F. Blair reports the following arrest Monday-Tuesday:
—Ronald P. Picou, 54, of Federal Avenue in Morgan City was arrested at 9:35 p.m. Monday on a warrant for failure to appear on a charge of theft $750-$5,000.
Picou was placed under arrest at the Morgan City Police Department on an active warrant he held for the 16th Judicial District Court. Picou was booked and transferred to the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center.
St. Mary Parish Sheriff Blaise Smith reports these arrests in east St. Mary Monday-Tuesday:
—Darius Williams, 25, of Hyall Street in Houma was arrested at 7:01 p.m. Monday on a warrant for failure to appear on the charges of possession of marijuana, speeding and driving a vehicle without a driver’s license.
A transportation deputy made contact with Williams when he transported him to the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center from another agency. Williams was booked on the active warrant and incarcerated. No bail has been set.
—Craig O’Neal Robinson, 32, of Cherry Street in Morgan City was arrested at 12:22 p.m. Monday on a warrant for failure to appear on the charges of possession of synthetic cannabinoids and possession of marijuana.
A transportation deputy made contact with Robinson when he transported him to the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center from another agency. Robinson was booked on the active warrant and incarcerated. No bail has been set.
—Robert Wayne Wilkerson, 40, of Morgan City was arrested at 8:07 p.m. on a warrant for cruelty to animals.
A booking deputy made contact with Wilkerson when he turned himself in at the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center on an active warrant for his arrest. Wilkerson was booked on the active warrant and incarcerated. Wilkerson was later released on a $3,000 bond.

Conrad Industries Inc. (OTC Pink: CNRD) announced its third quarter and nine months 2019 financial results and backlog at Sept. 30.
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Conrad had net income of $983,000 and earnings per diluted share of $0.20 compared to net loss of $2.6 million and a loss per diluted share of 51 cents during the third quarter of 2018.
The company had net loss of $1.5 million and loss per diluted share of 30 cents for the nine months ended Sept 30 compared to net income of $2.7 million and earnings per diluted share of 55 cents for the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2018.
Results for the nine months in 2018 included $7.5 million from the Deepwater Horizon court-supervised settlement.
The company’s financial reports are available at www.otcmarkets.com.
During the first nine months of 2019, Conrad added $96.0 million of backlog to its new construction segment compared to $145.9 million added to backlog during the first nine months of 2018.
Conrad’s backlog was $89.2 million at Sept. 30, 2019, $127.7 million at Dec. 31, 2018, and $149.2 million at Sept. 30, 2018. The company has signed $32.0 million of new contracts since Sept. 30, 2019.
Conrad Industries Inc., established in 1948 and headquartered in Morgan City, designs, builds and overhauls tugboats, ferries, liftboats, barges, offshore supply vessels, and other steel and aluminum products for both the commercial and government markets. The company provides both repair and new construction services at its five shipyards located in southern Louisiana and Texas.

As the Trump administration works to weaken regulations on fossil fuel production and use, a larger struggle is playing out across multiple industries. Until recently, oil companies and their defenders generally reacted to calls for regulating carbon emissions by spreading doubt and promoting climate denialism. However, I believe this approach is becoming less effective as climate change effects worsen and public demands for action intensify worldwide.
As a scholar who focuses on the politics of energy and the environment, I see growing anxiety among corporate elites. Some fossil fuel defenders are embracing a new strategy that I call climate defiance. With a transition to a low-carbon economy looming, they are accelerating investments in fossil fuel extraction while pressuring governments to delay climate action.
Climate defiance is leading to some surprising clashes between the Trump administration, bent on extreme deregulation and extraction, and many other companies who recognize that the fossil fuel economy is unsustainable, even if they have not embarked upon a green transition. Climate change is sparking this self-reflection, which is writing a new chapter in global warming politics.
One high-profile example is the Trump administration’s effort to weaken corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, standards negotiated by the Obama administration, which were projected to reduce U.S. oil consumption by an estimated two million barrels per day.
Early in the Trump presidency, both an auto industry consortium and fossil fuel producers lobbied hard for the Trump administration to weaken the emissions standards.
But when it became clear that the Trump administration planned to go further than simply weakening the standards, and to freeze them altogether in 2020, some automakers balked. California and more than a dozen other states insisted on the right to keep higher standards, and four major automakers – Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and BMW – joined them.
Another divisive issue is the Trump administration’s plan to ease regulations curbing methane emissions from natural gas production. Energy companies tout natural gas as a cleaner fossil fuel because it generates fewer carbon dioxide emissions than coal or oil.
However, methane – the main component of natural gas – is a greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming.
According to some studies, methane leaks from natural gas extraction and production, known as fugitive emissions, may make natural gas extracted from shale rock worse than coal in terms of its greenhouse gas footprint.
Several major oil companies, including BP and Royal Dutch Shell, oppose Trump’s plan to further deregulate methane.
Why? They have invested heavily in natural gas as a way to extend their fossil fuel business, and methane leaks pose a serious threat to the notion that natural gas should play a prominent role in a green transition, especially as renewable energy costs continue to decline.
In contrast, the American Petroleum Institute and smaller oil and gas companies support the rollback, claiming that methane control is too expensive.
Beyond these specific controversies, many companies in the energy sector and beyond have voiced support for moving to a lower-carbon economy.
For example, in August 2019 the Business Roundtable, a corporate advocacy group comprised of almost 200 CEOs from major American corporations, declared that corporate responsibility meant more than just serving shareholders. Instead they adopted a broader definition that includes serving customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders, and pledged to “protect the environment by embracing sustainable practices across our businesses.”
Global fossil fuel and overall energy consumption are still rising. Meanwhile, recent climate change assessments warn that avoiding warming on a catastrophic scale will require “rapid and far-reaching transitions in energy, land, urban and infrastructure (including transport and buildings), and industrial systems.” Many experts assert that change on this scale will ultimately require countries to stop burning fossil fuels altogether.
Others assert that investments in renewable energy alone will not stave off drastic warming. Historically, they argue, new renewable energy additions have mostly increased overall energy consumption, rather than displacing fossil fuels.
From this perspective, phasing out fossil fuels will require political action.
Such a shift poses an existential threat to major oil companies. Big Oil touts its green projects, but renewable energy accounts for only 1% to 4% of its new investments.
In the view of energy scholars Daniel Sperling and Lewis Fulton, Big Oil has “no clear road map” for a green transition.
In my view, struggles between the Trump administration and major corporations over environmental deregulation signal an awareness that the fossil fuel economy’s days are numbered.
Although climate deniers occupy prominent positions in the White House, Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency today, recent polls show that two-thirds of Americans are worried about climate change and believe it will harm them.
As I argue in my recent book, our fossil fuel system was set up to put the world to work for the benefit of European and American powers.
A green transition is therefore not only a technical project. As global interest in Green New Deals suggests, climate change calls fossil fuel capitalism itself into question.
I see corporations beginning to sense this challenge.
Some companies, especially those built upon fossil fuels, will continue to resist moving toward a lower-carbon future. Others will promote market reforms rather than broader systemic changes. I believe, however, that the most forward-looking must begin to imagine how they will fit into a just and decarbonized economy.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

Read the original article here: http://theconversation.com/fight-or-switch-how-the-low-carbon-transition....