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Hunter education course starts Monday

A Hunter Education course has been scheduled through the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office for June 19-22 and June 24, according to a news release.

On Monday, the first session of the classroom course will begin at 6 p.m. at the Patterson Community Center. The classroom course will continue on the 20th and 22nd. Registrants must attend all sessions of this course and the range portion on June 24.

To register for the courses or for more information on hunting safety requirements in Louisiana go on-line to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries website at www.wlf.louisiana.gov/ and follow the Hunter and Hunter Education links.

The classes are led by a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Volunteer instructor with the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s Office. If you have questions about the courses, contact Detective Lt. Howard “Buddy” Rogers at 985-384-1622.

Judge: Armond Duhon guilty of 221 theft counts

A judge found Armond Duhon guilty Friday of 221 counts of theft, two counts of money laundering and one count of racketeering for his role in helping to steal nearly $2 million from a Morgan City company. Both the prosecution and defense finished presenting their cases Thursday in a trial that began June 12. Duhon chose a trial by judge and was tried separately from his co-defendants. The criminal activity in the bill of information took place from January 1999 through March 2014. Judge Keith Comeaux of the 16th Judicial District issued the guilty verdict Friday on numerous counts of theft that ...

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Berwick council amends short-term docking fees

BERWICK — The Town Council established fees for the short-term docking of vessels at the city’s wharf at a regular meeting Tuesday.
Councilmember Damon Robison said docking fees should be amended to take in considerations for commercial fishers who were displaced from the Morgan City wharf.
“We should be showing some compassion to those who have been put out by the flood and construction,” said Robison.
Robison said that he didn’t want commercial fishers to have to pay an annual fee twice by paying to dock in Berwick and then paying again when the Morgan City wharf is completed.
Council member Duval Arthur proposed that the new fees should go into effect Oct. 1, and the council approved that recommendation.
Also Tuesday, Lud Henry, representative of the historical committee, presented the theme for the Lighthouse Festival. This year’s theme is Seafood and Trapping of Berwick. The historical committee is currently collecting old photos and traps to put on demonstration. Henry said that this year the historical committee would also like to invite boat traffic to the festival.
Police Chief James Richard asked that the public be mindful of alligators crossing the levees and coming through ditches due to high water.
In other council news,
—A budget workshop was set for 6 p.m. July 18 with a July 25 follow-up date if needed for more discussion.
—Crossing Place Church was approved for a 5K benefit run on Sept. 16 with all proceeds going to combat human trafficking.
—Crossing Place Church will donate the remaining fans still needed for seniors to St. Mary Council on Aging.
—Atchafalaya Fitness was approved to hold a free Zumba dance class 5:30-6:30 p.m. June 26 at Lighthouse Park.

Q for kids

Cannata's hosts event for dads and children

Cannata’s in Morgan City will be hosting a BBQ with Dad from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday for children and their fathers to cook and bond over barbecuing.
The free event is open to the public where children will learn how to properly barbecue and cook with their fathers.
Children will be split into two age groups, 13-17, and 12 and under, that replicate the age groups in the Kids Q Competition in the Bayou BBQ Bash.
Age group 13-17 will cook chicken leg quarters and age group 12 and under will cook pork chops.
Kids will be able to taste their finished product.
“It’s educational barbecue and hopefully it encourages participation in the Kids Q Competition,” said Steve Domangue, store director of Cannata’s.
Domangue said that 2016 was the biggest participation in the Kids Q with 21 participants. He wants to see that number increase.
Don Tillman, founder of Bayou BBQ Bash, will give a presentation so children will learn how to properly season, marinate, prepare charcoal, and set food at the right temperature.
Presentations will also be given by Cannata’s meat, deli and bakery departments.
While the children are learning and grilling, Buquet Distributing will be doing a beer tasting for the fathers between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Refreshments will be provided for children as well.

House spurns GOP leaders, crafts budget

BATON ROUGE (AP) — In a tight vote, lawmakers in the Louisiana House spurned their GOP leaders Wednesday and backed a $28 billion-plus state operating budget that would use every dollar forecast to be available for spending.
In a 56-44 vote, the House backed an approach for the financial year that begins July 1 that, if approved when it had first been suggested by senators, could have averted Louisiana’s latest taxpayer-funded special session.
The vote was a blow to House Republican leaders who wanted to withhold nearly $100 million from the spending bill, in anticipation that Louisiana’s income predictions are too optimistic.
But it was a victory for Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Senate, who had pushed for a similar version of the budget to what won House passage. The Democratic governor praised the version backed by the House as “a responsible spending plan.”
“I appreciate the House’s work with us on this bill, and I look forward to swift passage in the Louisiana Senate,” Edwards said in a statement.
Rep. Jack McFarland, a Winnfield Republican who opposed the proposal, said he was disappointed “that once again we’re perhaps spending money that we won’t have.”
“We had an opportunity to be prudent with the people’s money, and we chose not to,” he said.
A majority of House GOP lawmakers expect the state’s income forecast will come up short, forcing midyear cuts, the situation that has happened for nearly a decade. But critics of the approach say that could unnecessarily force harmful cuts on agencies.
The Edwards administration said it will instruct agencies not to spend every dime as a hedge in case the forecast is wrong — and the House included language in the budget asking the administration to keep $60 million from agencies as a deficit-avoidance measure.
Several rank-and-file Republicans in the majority-GOP chamber voted with Democrats against their leaders. Ten Republicans crossed party lines to back the amendment sponsored by Rep. Walt Leger, the House’s top-ranking Democrat, who rewrote the spending bill to include all the dollars available. That amendment passed in a 53-50 vote.
House GOP leaders’ refusal to take up that Senate proposal helped cause the negotiation meltdown that forced lawmakers into a special legislative session. If the Senate agrees to the proposal this week and adopts it without changes, lawmakers could adjourn the special legislative session as early as Friday, before the Monday deadline.
Questioned about whether lawmakers could have avoided the special session entirely, Republican House Speaker Taylor Barras said he thought it was unlikely a similar version of the budget would have won passage on the final day of the regular session. He said the special session gave lawmakers more time to scrutinize the proposal.

Scalise: Big in D.C. with roots back home

Louisiana congressman, wounded by rifleman Wednesday, in critical condition

BATON ROUGE (AP) — When he campaigned for his leadership job, Rep. Steve Scalise embraced two things he loved, baseball and his home state of Louisiana, handing out commemorative baseball bats and serving up a Cajun dinner with oysters and gumbo.
The House’s third-ranking Republican is known as much for that sort of joie-de-vivre, a backslapping, hearty embrace of the lighter side, as he is for his rock-solid conservatism and allegiance to the GOP. His returns every year to the Louisiana Legislature where he once served with hugs and handshakes as he mingles with former colleagues of both parties.
Nationally, Scalise, the majority whip, is the party-line vote-getter for Republicans in Congress and a fierce proponent of the GOP health care law and efforts to overhaul the tax code.
Back home, he’s the kid from the Italian family who’s become one of the most powerful men in Congress while remaining an unabashed champion for the food, culture and festivities of Louisiana and the political deal-making he learned there.
“He comes from a middle-class family, salt of the earth, and Steve is exactly that. He’s old school. You shake his hand, his word is his bond,” said Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler, a Republican who served in the state legislature with Scalise for years, lives in Scalise’s congressional district and knows his family.
Scalise, 51, was in critical condition early Thursday morning following surgery, the hospital said, after being shot in the hip Wednesday during a GOP baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, a shooting that stunned his home state and rocked the halls of Congress.
“Personally, we have our Italian-American connection, so as soon as I heard his name, I was filled with concern ... We had that special connection,” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in an emotional speech on the House floor.
The wounding came when Scalise was practicing for an annual charity baseball game that he embraced each year and that was scheduled for Thursday night.
On his desk, the principal of Archbishop Rummel High School where Scalise graduated in 1983 has a photocopied image of a middle-aged Scalise in a Rummel Raiders baseball uniform, given to him by the school so Scalise could wear it in the game for which he was practicing.
“That’s pretty much the mantra of the school: We’re all brothers,” said Marc Milano, leader of the all-boys Catholic School. “Everybody sticks together. So when something happens like that it affects everybody. Steve very much lives that out.”
Time and again, the stories are the same nearly 10 years after his election to Congress, of Scalise staying in touch with the New Orleans area where he grew up.
His campaign for the whip job had a Louisiana flair that included distribution of “Geaux Scalise” T-shirts and Cajun food. When he registered for one of his most recent elections, he stuck around to eat gumbo and traditional Louisiana sandwiches called po-boys with Schedler. He regularly takes his congressional colleagues on helicopter trips to offshore oil rigs, as he advocates for an oil and gas industry that is critical to Louisiana. One of his closest friends remains Rep. Cedric Richmond, a New Orleans Democrat who leads the Congressional Black Caucus and befriended Scalise when the two were both in the state House.
Richmond defended Scalise in the only scandal the Republican leader has faced. In 2014, information came to light after his election as whip that Scalise had spoken in 2002 to a white supremacist group founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Scalise apologized for the speech, described himself as unaware of the group’s racial philosophy when he agreed to speak and said that he rejects “bigotry of all forms.”
Before entering Congress, Scalise was in the Louisiana Legislature for 12 years. His signature legislation included a film industry tax credit program aimed at helping Louisiana become “Hollywood South” and a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage.
Scalise, married with two children, was first elected to the U.S. House in 2008, representing a district that includes some New Orleans suburbs and bayou parishes. He served as chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservatives, before becoming whip in the leadership shuffle that followed the surprise defeat of then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a Republican primary.
As a lawmaker, Scalise built relationships with people of diverse views, even as he maintained an unshakable conservative voting record.
“He doesn’t intimidate. He doesn’t burn bridges with people. If he can’t work it out, he just shakes hands and agrees to try again next time, agree to disagree, and keep it civil. And that’s a lost art,” Schedler said.
Democratic Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards called Scalise a “friend, colleague and fighter for the people of Louisiana.” The chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party, state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, described the congressman has having a “core philosophy of standing up and fighting hard for what you believe in.”
On the other side of the political aisle, Scalise has forged a close relationship with President Donald Trump, working together on the House health care bill and a pending effort to overhaul the tax code. Trump, in remarks from the White House, called Scalise “a very good friend” and said, “He’s a patriot, and he’s a fighter. He will recover from this assault.”
When he won the job as the No. 3 House Republican, Scalise got the security detail that comes with the position, assigned to him at all times. Louisiana politicians often have joked about the round-the-clock bodyguards for a congressman known as unassuming and low-key.
“I’ve seen him a couple of times like in the Superdome and I often wondered, ‘Well, why in the hell did he have all those security people with him?” said Louisiana Senate President John Alario.
“I see why now,” Alario added. “It was an abundance of caution. I’m glad they did it.”
___
Daly reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Kevin McGill in Metairie, Louisiana, contributed to this report.

HEATH THOMPSON

Heath Thompson, 38, a native and resident of Morgan City, died Wednesday, June 14, 2017, at Teche Regional Medical Center.
He is survived by his wife, Kimber Coldewey Thompson of Berwick; one son, Heath Thompson Jr. of Berwick; mother, Karen Barrilleaux of Bayou Vista; one brother, Jesse B. Thompson of Savannah, Georgia; one sister, Holli Crochet of Morgan City; maternal grandmother, Vallie D. Barrilleaux; and a host of other relatives.
He was preceded in death by his father, maternal grandfather and paternal grandparents.
There will be no services.
Twin City Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

BETTY RICHARD DAIGLE

Betty Richard Daigle, 80, a native and resident of Belle River, died Wednesday, June 14, 2017, at her residence.
Visitation will be from 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday at Church of God of Prophecy and Friday from 8 a.m. until services at 11 a.m. Interment will follow in the church cemetery.
Wilbert Services is in charge of arrangements.

Wheel House for June 15

ANNIVERSARY Choir Anniversary at Little Zion Baptist Church, 2746 Sixth St., Berwick, June 25, 8 a.m. Public invited. CHURCH TRAINING New Mount Esther Baptist Church, 1211 James St., Morgan City, hosting training for all church leaders and members 9 a.m.-noon June 17. Consists of two classes, “Transformational Leaders” and “Servanthood.” Public invited. Admission free, lunch will be served. ...

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Lawmakers pray for Steve Scalise

BATON ROUGE — After news broke that U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana was shot in the hip early this morning while practicing in a Virginia park for a charity baseball game later this week, the Louisiana Legislature and governor began their day gathered in prayer in the Capitol Rotunda.
Gov. John Bel Edwards, Sen. President John Alario, R-Westwego, and House Speaker Taylor Barras, R-New Iberia, led prayer for a Louisiana House members, who retired last night expecting to dedicate their day to a handful of fiscal bills.
The House convened just prior to noon, two and a half hours behind the scheduled start.
“It is just alarming that we have to continue to gather like this,” Barras said, referrring the Orlando Pulse shooting that prompted a similar prayer circle at the legislature one year ago.
“It has to stop,” Alario said about the regularity of attacks in the country.
The attending politicians, many of whom know Scalise personally, also prayed for the congressional aide and two Capitol police officers who were injured in the shooting, as well as Scalise’s chief of staff Charles Henry whose brother, Rep. Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, was on his way to Washington D.C., to be with his uninjured older sibling.
Henry, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee that moved the latest draft of the state operating budget for next fiscal year, authored three of the six bills on the House agenda today and was an anticipated centerpiece for the debate.
It is uncertain when Henry plans to return, The special session must have its business completed prior to adjournment Monday.
Finance Committee vice chairman, Rep. Franklin Foil, R-Baton Rouge, is now expected to take his place in leading floor debate.
Scalise is in stable condition following surgery in a D.C.-area hospital.

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