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A New Iberia woman was arrested and accused of assaulting someone with a knife at a Morgan City residence, Morgan City Police Chief James F. Blair reported in a news release.
—Elaine Nicole Ashmore, 19, of New Horizon Drive in New Iberia, was arrested at 2:29 a.m. Tuesday on a charge of aggravated assault and a warrant for simple battery. Officers were called to an Egle Street residence about a disturbance.
Officers were advised Ashmore had assaulted a person at the residence with a knife. Officers were able to speak to witnesses and located the knife used in the assault. A warrant check revealed the Morgan City Police Department held an active warrant for her arrest. She was jailed.
Blair also reported that the Morgan City Police Department responded to 34 calls of service and the following arrests were made:
—Amanda Eues, 41, of Trevino Street in Berwick, was arrested at 9:58 a.m. Tuesday on a warrant for a charge of violation of a protective order. The warrant stems from a complaint filed with the Morgan City Police Department on Oct. 9. During the investigation, evidence to support the complaint was discovered and a warrant was obtained for Eues’ arrest. On Oct. 21, Eues turned herself in to the Morgan City Police Department. She was jailed.
—Marcus Theon Gray, 34, of South Railroad Avenue in Morgan City, was arrested at 9:53 a.m. Tuesday on a warrant for failure to appear. Gray turned himself in to the Morgan City Police Department on an active warrant held by City Court of Morgan City. He was jailed.
—Spencer Tracy Robin, 43, of Bush Street in Morgan City, was arrested at 2:55 p.m. Tuesday on a warrant for contempt of court. Robin was located in City Court and placed under arrest on an active warrant held by the City Court of Morgan City. He was jailed.
—Stafford Robertson, 37, of Adams Street in Morgan City, was arrested at 2:55 p.m. Tuesday on a warrant for failure to appear and a warrant for the charge of contempt of court. Robertson was located in City Court and placed under arrest on an active warrant held by City Court of Morgan City. He was jailed.
—Aaron Michael Dinger, 27, of Railroad Avenue in Morgan City, was arrested at 5:03 a.m. Wednesday on a warrant for failure to appear. Dinger was transferred from St. Mary Law Enforcement Center to the Morgan City Police Department on an active warrant held by City Court of Morgan City. He was jailed.
St. Mary Parish Sheriff Blaise Smith advised that the Sheriff’s Office responded to 36 complaints and the following arrests were reported:
—April Lynn Aucoin, 39, of Cremo Lane in Patterson, was arrested at 12:01 p.m. Tuesday on a warrant for theft of a motor vehicle. A deputy was dispatched to Cremo Lane in Patterson in reference to a stolen motor vehicle being located. The vehicle had been reported stolen earlier in the day. Upon investigation, contact was made with the suspect, Aucoin. She was jailed with bond set at $5,500.
—Jose Lisandro Barajas, 27, of Foxglove Drive in Patterson, was arrested at 1:27 p.m. Tuesday on a charge of violation of protective order. A deputy was dispatched to Foxglove Drive in regard to a violation of a protective order. Deputies learned that there was an active protective order against Barajas, who was present at the residence with the protected person. He was jailed with bond set at $2,500.
—John Francis Gautreaux, 56, of Elizabeth Street in Lockport, was arrested at 4:10 p.m. Tuesday on a warrant for failure to appear. Gautreaux was located at the Lafourche Parish Correctional Center on the above-mentioned warrant. He was transported to the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center and jailed with bond set at $5,000.
—Joseph Oscar Robertson, 54, of Whiskey Lane in Tickfaw, was arrested at 9:22 p.m. Tuesday on two warrants for failure to appear. Robertson was located at the Claiborne Parish Correctional Center on the above-mentioned warrants. He was transported to the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center and jailed with bond set at $4,500.
—Cameron Aucoin, 20, of Foxglove Drive in Patterson, was arrested at 1:36 a.m. Wednesday on two warrants for failure to appear.
—Aaron Michael Dinger, 27, of Railroad Avenue in Morgan City, was arrested at 1:36 a.m. Wednesday on a warrant for failure to appear.
A deputy patrolling U.S. 90 in the Bayou Vista area observed a vehicle fail to signal prior to turning. The deputy conducted a traffic stop. Through the stop, it was learned that there were active warrants for both Aucoin and Dinger. They were jailed with no bond set.
Berwick Police Chief David Leonard Sr. reported the following arrests:
—Adrienne Broussard, 34, of Cleveland Street in Patterson, was arrested at 1:05 a.m. Wednesday on charges of possession of marijuana and speeding 65 mph in a 50 mph zone. She was jailed and released on a $2,250.
Patterson Police Chief Garrett Grogan reported no arrests.

You may remember some recent stories involving Morgan City businessman Greg Hamer’s involvement in an organization that hopes to provide a state funeral for the last surviving Medal of Honor winner from World War II.
A state funeral is the nation’s highest show of respect. The funeral is conducted in the nation’s capital, often includes a period when the deceased lies in state in the Capitol, and will have all the pomp and protocol that the military can provide.
State funerals are usually reserved for former or sitting presidents and those whom the president designates.
The organization successfully gathered the support of Louisiana’s congressional delegation and state legislators, too.
As of August, the last three surviving Medal of Honor winners from World War II were Hershel “Woody” Williams of West Virginia, Francis (Frank) Currey of New York and Charles Coolidge of Tennessee. All are in their 90s.
It’s worth taking a minute to think about what exactly a Medal of Honor means. Here’s one story about a south Louisiana man who served in a different war.
It was 45 years ago that President Gerald Ford, on the same day Richard Nixon resigned, presented the Medal of Honor to the family of Capt. Stephen Bennett, a south Louisiana man.
You may have seen a monument to Bennett outside Lafayette’s Cajundome. He was from nearby Youngsville and lived later in Palestine, Texas.
Bennett entered the Air Force in 1968 and trained to be a B-52 pilot. But he wound up as a forward air controller by the time he went to Vietnam early in 1972.
By then, the American presence in Vietnam was, to put it nicely, disorganized. There was a lot of back and forth between going easy to avoid an incident that could derail peace talks and being tough to force the North Vietnamese to negotiate.
That was what was going on in Vietnam in late June 1972.
According to Bennett’s medal citation, a call came in to his base from a South Vietnamese unit that was under attack and needed some fire support.
Bennett learned that there would be no air support. And the Navy didn’t want to fire artillery because the targets were close to the friendlies.
So Bennett climbed into an OV-10, a prop-driven two-seater, with a Marine named Mike Brown as his spotter.
Brown, who now runs a gun store in the Dallas area, told me a few years ago that he and Bennett managed to do some good. They made pass after pass, holding off the enemy with fire from the plane’s 7.62mm machine guns.
But on one of those passes, as they pulled up to come in again, a rocket-propelled grenade hit the back of their plane.
The OV-10 was so badly damaged that it wouldn’t make it back to their base, so Bennett told Brown to bail out. Brown couldn’t.
Shrapnel from the RPG blast had wounded Brown and ripped up his parachute.
So, rather than bailing out himself, Bennett set a course for the Gulf of Tonkin and told Brown he’d ditch the OV-10 in the water.
Now, Brown said he’s read a lot about Medal of Honor winners over the years, and he thinks they fall into two categories.
There are soldiers who make instant decisions and act on them instantly, like the guys who save their buddies by smothering grenades with their bodies. And then there are the soldiers who make a decision and, over some length of time, stick to it, even though they might be killed.
Bennett belongs in the second category. As far as anyone knew then or now, no one could ditch an OV-10 and live.
But Bennett kept the OV-10 heading toward the water for 15 minutes or so.
Sure enough, when Bennett tried to ditch, the plane cartwheeled. Brown made it out of the plane, but the impact wrecked the canopy over the pilot seat. Brown did what he could to get Bennett out, then was forced to come to the surface.
Using a wet sidearm, he held off some enemy troops in a boat before he was rescued with no more than the wound from the RPG.
Bennett’s Medal of Honor was awarded posthumously.
Bennett’s wife Linda died a few years ago. His daughter Angela lives in the Dallas area. She’s the president of the OV-10 Association.
On June 29, 1972, the date of his final mission, Bennett was 26 years old.
Bill Decker is managing editor of The Daily Review.

BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana’s top higher education board is asking lawmakers to increase spending on public college programs by nearly $156 million next year, to raise faculty pay, boost student aid and work toward new achievement goals.
The Board of Regents approved the budget request Wednesday at its meeting in Shreveport, saying the money is aimed at doubling the number of degrees and workforce credentials by 2030, as envisioned by the state’s updated higher education master plan.
“We can lift families out of poverty and increase Louisiana’s prosperity through strategic investments in education,” Commissioner of Higher Education Kim Hunter Reed said in a statement. “Our commitment as a higher education community is to improve student success, innovation and affordability.”
The increased spending would lift general state financing for higher education by nearly 15%, to $1.2 billion in the budget year that begins July 1. Lawmakers will consider the request in the 2020 legislative session.
Among the new dollars sought, $18 million would cover increasing retirement and health insurance costs; $29 million would reward campuses that show improved student performance; and $36 million would cover pay hikes aimed at moving faculty salaries to the Southern regional average.
Other money would more than double Louisiana’s need-based aid program for students, called GO Grants, from $29 million to $63 million. Another $9 million would ensure the TOPS program covers full tuition for all eligible students.
Additional dollars would pay to help community colleges with their accreditation work, increase spending on university agricultural and research centers, pay for student access to e-textbooks and other items.
In August, the Board of Regents unanimously approved a rewritten master plan, striving for six in 10 working-age adults to hold a college degree or other employment credential beyond a high school diploma by 2030. Fewer than half of Louisiana’s adults aged 25 to 64 currently have achieved that benchmark.
To reach that goal, the master plan seeks to improve educational attainment for black students and get more adults back into the classroom to learn new skills.
It proposes expanding the number of dual-enrollment, college credit courses available to high school students, boosting financial aid opportunities and increasing work-based learning programs that widen skills training availability.
All of those items cost money, and many of those proposals make up the heart of the request that will be submitted to Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Legislature.
Any increase would come on top of the $47 million boost in state spending on higher education enacted this year and will be competing against expected proposals to increase spending on early childhood and K-12 education programs.
The Regents also asked lawmakers to spend $150 million of the state’s $535 million surplus on building repairs and improvements on college campuses. The schools have a $1.5 billion backlog of deferred maintenance, according to the board.
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Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte