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A 29-year-old Morgan City woman was accused Tuesday of attempting to get Percocet with a false prescription.

—Nicole E. Karpinski, 29, of La. 182 in Morgan City, was arrested at 2:04 p.m. Tuesday on a warrant charging her with false acquisition of a controlled dangerous substance and St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office warrants charging her with three counts of doctor shopping and theft and on a charge of driving under suspension, Morgan City Police Chief James Blair said in a news release.

On Monday, officers responded to a business on La. 70 in regard to a woman attempting to acquire a Percocet with a false prescription. The woman, who was identified as Karpinski, left prior to officers’ arrival.

Police obtained a description of Karpinski and the vehicle from which she left the business.

On Tuesday, officers located the vehicle being operated in the area of East Boulevard and stopped the vehicle. They located Karpinski, who had three active arrest warrants through the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office. She also had a suspended driver’s license. Karpinski was jailed.

Blair reported responding to 35 calls and reported the following arrests:

—Damien Keller, 33, no address given, was arrested at 10:21 p.m. Tuesday on warrants charging him with purse snatching, simple battery and theft.

Damien Keller was located and arrested in the area of Federal Ave. on active arrest warrants held by the Morgan City Police. The warrants stem from an investigation in which Keller allegedly approached someone in the area of La. 70, committed a battery and took a purse from the victim.

Officers were unable to located Keller during the investigation and a warrant was prepared for his arrest. Keller was jailed.

—Phillip Begnaud, 33, of Fulton Street in Shreveport, was arrested at 8:35 p.m. Tuesday on charges of creation or operation of a clandestine laboratory, possession of marijuana, violation of uniform controlled dangerous substance law-drug-free zone, turning movements and required signals, driving under suspension and no insurance.

Narcotics division investigators observed a vehicle conduct an improper turn in the area of Sixth Street and initiated a stop. Begnaud was identified as the operator of the vehicle.

Begnaud’s driver’s license was under suspension, and his vehicle did not have insurance. Investigators located several different precursors connected to a clandestine laboratory to create methamphetamine and suspected marijuana.

Begnaud allegedly admitted to attempting to manufacture methamphetamine. The area where this incident had taken place was within a drug-free zone. Begnaud was jailed.

—Jack Canada, 62, of Elaine Street in Morgan City, was arrested at 1:29 p.m. Tuesday on a charge of disturbing the peace intoxicated.

Officers were dispatched to the area of Greenwood Street in regard to a suspicious person. Officers arrived and located Canada. Canada was found to be in an intoxicated state. Canada was jailed.

St. Mary Parish Sheriff Mark Hebert reported responding to 46 complaints in the parish and reported no arrests in east St. Mary Parish.

Berwick Police Chief James Richard reported the following arrest:

—Jason Viator, 38, of California Street in Berwick, was arrested at 10:39 a.m. Tuesday on a warrant charging him with possession of Lorcet. Bail was set at $2,500.

Patterson Police Chief Patrick LaSalle reported no arrests.

Some of us hoard cash while paying 18 percent interest on a credit card balance. Others blow through a tax refund as if it were free money when it’s actually a return of our own hard-earned dollars.
This brain quirk has a name: mental accounting. We treat money differently depending on where it comes from and how we intend to spend it, often to our own detriment.
We can, however, leverage this illogical behavior to help us save more.
A big pot of savings may inspire less diligence than multiple accounts with specific purposes. With multiple accounts, savings for long-term goals can grow, even as those for short-term needs are periodically raided.
Multiple savings accounts can get expensive at traditional banks that have minimum balance requirements and account fees. Many online banks, however, allow customers to set up dozens of accounts for free with no minimum balances. Most people need at least three, with regular (preferably automatic) transfers from their checking accounts into each:
—An emergency fund for job loss and other major financial setbacks.
—A “needs” account to cover necessary expenses that aren’t monthly (such as property taxes or annual insurance premiums) or that are inevitable but often unpredictable (such as car repairs or medical deductibles).
—A “wants” account to pay for the fun stuff, such as vacations, holiday spending or a down payment on a new car.
Multiple savings accounts are useful for budgeting in much the same way as the envelope system, where people divide cash into envelopes to cover expenses such as rent, food and entertainment.
The savings accounts, like the envelopes, tell you if you have enough to cover that specific goal, but also allow you to shift money around when required, said Rachel Schneider, a senior vice president for the nonprofit Center for Financial Services Innovation and co-author of the book “The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty.”
“Knowing that you have that escape valve allows you to put more money aside in those accounts,” Schneider said.
BANKS AND APPS THAT MAKE IT EASIER
There’s some evidence that setting goals helps motivate people to save more, which has led to apps such as Tip Yourself, BoostUp and Qapital. Qapital, for example, allows people to set goals and then create rules for funding them, such as rounding up each purchase to the nearest dollar and sweeping the change toward the goal, or transferring a certain amount into savings if they buy something at Starbucks or hit 10,000 steps on their FitBit fitness tracker.
“Setting goals helps our users stay focused and motivated. That’s why we encourage users not to label their goal ‘vacation’ but to name the place they wish to go, attach a photo and share it with a friend,” said Qapital founder and CEO George Friedman. “Their aspirations become more actionable when they are visualized and said aloud.”
Getting more specific also can help you track multiple goals without wondering whether you’ll have enough money to cover your property taxes in six months if you need to pay for a car repair now.
I typically have somewhere between 10 and 12 savings accounts labeled for different goals. To cover a $1,705 annual life insurance premium, for example, I set up an automatic transfer so that $143 a month goes from our checking account at our brick-and-mortar bank into the “life insurance” account at the online bank. Repairs and maintenance for our elderly RV are less predictable, but we’ve averaged about $2,400 a year, so I put $200 a month into that fund.
Some banks and credit unions allow multiple savings accounts, but typically you’ll need to keep your balance above certain limits to avoid fees. Many online banks, by contrast, allow you to set up dozens of accounts without charge and usually offer higher interest rates to boot. Capital One 360 and Barclays Online, for example, allows users to create up to 25 savings accounts (called subaccounts) with nicknames indicating the goals, while Ally and Discover don’t limit the number.
Capital One declined to say how many savers take advantage of this function, but Ally said 11.7 percent of its savings customers had multiple savings accounts as of March 31, averaging 2.9 accounts each. Some of the most common labels include “Emergency” “Rainy day,” “Vacation,” “Travel,” “Car,” “House,” “Xmas” and “Wedding.”
Multiple accounts may not be necessary if you’re a logical type who either doesn’t need incentives to save or is really good at tracking goals on a spreadsheet. The rest of us, though, often find that saving finally makes sense when we know what money goes where.
—This column was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Liz Weston is a certified financial planner and columnist at NerdWallet. Email: lweston@nerdwallet.com.

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is making a play for low-income shoppers.
The online leader is offering a discount on its pay-by-month Prime membership for people who receive government assistance.
The move, announced Tuesday, is seen by some analysts as an attempt to go after rival Walmart’s lower-income shoppers. The world’s largest retailer has revamped its shipping program and improved other services to drive online sales growth as it tries to narrow the gap with Amazon.
People who have a valid Electronic Benefits Transfer card, used for programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs, or food stamps, will pay $5.99 per month for the Amazon Prime benefits like free shipping and unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows.
The typical Prime membership is $99 a year, but those who cannot afford to pay up front also have a $10.99-a-month option.
Amazon designed this option to make its “selection and savings more accessible, including the many conveniences and entertainment benefits of Prime,” Greg Greeley, vice president of Amazon Prime, said in a statement.
Walmart has gained momentum in its online business, seeing its e-commerce sales soar 63 percent in its first quarter, up from a 29 percent increase the previous period. It now offers free-two-day shipping for online orders of its most popular items with a purchase of $35. Online shoppers who collect their purchases at a store get extra discounts. And Walmart has dramatically expanded its online offerings — though it’s still far behind the hundreds of millions of products at Amazon.com.
Amazon’s aim with the latest move is two-pronged, says Ken Perkins, president of research firm RetailMetrics.
“It is part of Amazon’s overarching goal to inexorably move into every corner of retail,” he said. “Secondly, it is a direct move to pull consumers away from its chief retail rival Walmart, which has been far more aggressive competing with Amazon on price, offerings, delivery and building out its formidable e-commerce operations.”
Internet consultant Sucharita Mulpuru-Kodali says Amazon’s move “seems inevitable” because it’s saturated a good part of the affluent and middle-class sector — but describes it as a “head scratcher.”
“These consumers have always indexed lower in online transactions, and their living circumstances are often not well-suited to package delivery, and many of these consumers don’t have vehicles to drive to a location pick up packages,” she wrote in an email. “Of the long list of business that Amazon could target, this doesn’t seem like the biggest one.”

Louisiana College sophomore softball standout Shelby Bergeron received several awards following the 2017 season.
Bergeron, a business administration/accounting major, earned American Southwest Conference 2017 Winter/Spring Academic All-Conference honors.
For her play on the softball diamond, Bergeron was named a third-team selection on the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division III Regional softball team and an all-conference at-large pick on the American Southwest Conference second team.
Bergeron started every game in centerfield during her sophomore season and mostly served as the team’s lead-off hitter.
She batted .349 with 51 hits and a .399 on-base percentage. Her hit total and on-base percentage were tied for second-best on the Louisiana College team.
Bergeron stole 32 bases in 35 attempts, breaking the single-season Louisiana College steals record.
She also led the team in runs scored with 38.
Bergeron had one triple this season and four RBIs.
In the field, she had 55 put outs, three assists and just three errors. Her fielding percentage was .951.
Louisiana College finished its season with a 26-17 record, including an 18-12 mark in American Southwest Conference play. The team’s season ended in the quarterfinals of the American Southwest Conference tournament.