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Two arrested on theft charges, two on meth charges

Fri, 05/13/2022 - 11:06am

(Editor’s note: The charges listed here and the narratives that go with them are provided by the police agencies that made the arrests. Guilt or innocence has not been determined in court.)

Morgan City police made two arrests on theft charges Thursday and early Friday, and booked two people on methamphetamine possession charges.

Morgan City

Police Chief James F. Blair reported that the Morgan City Police Department responded to 42 calls for service over the last 24-hour reporting period and made these arrests:

--Nalinakumaran Nair Sritharan Thambi, 74, La. 182, Morgan City, was arrested at 2 p.m. Thursday on a charge of theft (under $1,000).

--Jamie Truman Scarbrough, 56, Fourth Street, Morgan City, was arrested at 6:06 p.m. Thursday on a charge of possession of methamphetamine and on warrants alleging theft (under $1,000) and disturbing the peace.

--Tyler Adams, 28, Greenwood Street Morgan City, was arrested at 7:04 p.m. Thursday on a charge of criminal damage to property.

--Arne L. Brewer, 56, Cottonwood Street, Morgan City, was arrested at 1:39 a.m. Friday on charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of a legend drug, possession of drug paraphernalia, driving under suspension, no insurance and improper turning.

THURMA VIOLA WELCH BRIGGS

Fri, 05/13/2022 - 10:37am

Thurma Viola Welch Briggs, known by everyone as Nanny, passed away on May 6, 2022; she was 91.

Nanny was a resident of Morgan City, the daughter of the late Buford and Maudie Welch.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, James Bailey Briggs; and children, Lynn, Joey, and Karon.

She is survived by four children, Gary Briggs (wife Ann Briggs), Sherry Smith and husband July Smith, Penny Briggs, and Kenneth Briggs. She also had nine grandchildren: Randy Briggs, Scott Briggs, Dewayne Tidmore and wife Tracy Tidmore, Melissa Briggs Canone and husband Matthew Canone, P.W. Briggs, Amy
Traywick, Jessica Kessler Biggs and husband Jared Biggs, Mariah Briggs Christie and husband Ross Christie, and Jacob Briggs and wife Jenni Briggs; 15 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandsons.

Nanny and James established the Bayou Plant Farm in the 1970’s in Stephensville, La. In the late 80’s, she and James retired in Arkansas.

The family requests in memory of Nanny that you do what she would do: cook a good meal and have your family and friends over for a good time.
Twin City Funeral Home has been entrusted with the arrangements.

Ochsner St. Mary gets A grade in hospital safety guide

Fri, 05/13/2022 - 10:06am

Ochsner St. Mary in Morgan City is one of 16 Ochsner facilities and partners to receive A grades in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade for spring 2022.

The hospitals were recognized for for achievements in protecting patients from preventable harm and error in the hospital. The full list of hospital ratings was released today and can be found at hospitalsafetygrade.org.

The following Ochsner Health hospitals and partners received an “A” grade from Leapfrog:

--Ochsner Acadia General Hospital
--Ochsner Baptist Medical Center*
--Ochsner Medical Center-Baton Rouge
--Ochsner Medical Center - Hancock*
--Ochsner Medical Center – Kenner
--Ochsner Medical Center - New Orleans
--Ochsner Medical Center - North Shore*
--Ochsner St. Mary*
--Ochsner Medical Center - West Bank
--Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center* (Ochsner Partner)
--Ocean Springs Hospital (Ochsner Partner)
--Pascagoula Singing River Hospital (Ochsner Partner)
--Singing River Gulfport Hospital (Ochsner Partner)
--St. Bernard Parish Hospital (Ochsner Partner)
--St. Charles Parish Hospital (Ochsner Partner)
--St. Tammany Health System (Ochsner Partner)

Hospitals marked with an asterisk received a "Straight A" in the Spring 2022 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade for consistently demonstrating a commitment to putting patients first and receiving an A grade for five or more consecutive years.

“Patients are always our number one priority at Ochsner, and it is encoded in our value system to provide a safe environment and excellent patient experience,” said Robert Hart, MD, executive vice president and chief medical officer for Ochsner Health. “Even as the pandemic intensified challenges faced by healthcare workers, our employees have continued to strive for utmost patient safety and the reduction of avoidable harm. We are proud of our Ochsner team and gratified that our efforts have been recognized by Leapfrog.”

To see Ochsner Health’s full grade details and to access patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit HospitalSafety.org and follow The Leapfrog Group on Twitter, Facebook, and via its newsletter. To learn more about Ochsner Health, please visit ochsner.org.

Homicide penalties withdrawn from anti-abortion bill

Fri, 05/13/2022 - 9:40am

PIPER HUTCHINSON and ALLY KADLUBAR, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – After a nationwide backlash, Louisiana House Republicans on Thursday amended a bill to remove criminal penalties for women who have abortions, prompting the bill’s author to withdraw the measure.

House Bill 813, sponsored by Rep. Danny McCormick, R-Oil City, would have allowed anyone who received or administered an abortion to be charged with homicide, a crime that is punishable with life in prison.

But even some Republicans who had supported the bill earlier said they realized it went too far in making it a crime for women to have abortions. The amendment, which would have applied the criminal penalties only to abortion providers, passed 65-26.

McCormick opposed the changes and returned the bill to the calendar. It would require a two-thirds vote to bring it back for a floor vote, rendering it likely dead for the session.

The amendment would have made the bill similar to Senate Bill 342 by Sen. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, which is still live in the session.

The amendment approved by the House removed portions of McCormick’s bill that criminalized women who receive abortions. It also clarified that the bill would not have applied to ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages or contraceptives that take affect prior to when a pregnancy can be detected.

The language criminalizing those who receive abortions had been condemned by the state’s leading anti-abortion groups and by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, who has signed several anti-abortion bills.

“House Bill 813 is not a pro-life bill,” Edwards said in a statement. “In addition to the fact that this legislation is patently unconstitutional, this bill would criminalize the use of certain types of contraception, as well as parts of the in vitro fertilization process, and it could even serve as a barrier to life-saving medical treatment for a woman who is suffering a miscarriage. To suggest that a woman would be jailed for an abortion is simply absurd.”

Shortly after the House came into session, Rep. Tanner Magee, R-Houma and the Speaker Pro Tempore, called Republicans into a caucus meeting, where they stayed for about an hour.

When they returned, the House discussed several other alerts before House Speaker Clay Schexnayder was alerted to a suspicious unattended package outside the chamber. The building was evacuated amid concerns of a bomb threat.

The package was quickly deemed not a threat and business resumed less than an hour later.

After McCormick presented the bill, Rep. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, proposed an amendment co-authored by 36 other legislators.

Seabaugh, who had voted for the bill in committee, apologized for doing so and for not amending it then.

Discussion of the bill and the amendment yielded colorful debate.

Rep. Barry Ivey, R-Central, asked McCormick whether his bill would criminalize contraceptives, like IUDs, prompting a debate about whether an IUD is a contraceptive or an abortifacient.

Opponents of the bill have argued that the bill could have criminalized not only abortion procedures but many forms of birth control.

The bill states that “human life… should be equally protected from fertilization to natural death.” Many commonly used forms of birth control prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg.

Magee asked Seabaugh whether the language in the original bill could lead to the arrest of people who have previously had abortions, to which Seabaugh replied that it was possible.

McCormick said he opposed the amendment because it does away with “equal protection,” the idea that an unborn child should have the same rights as anybody else.

Once the amendment passed, McCormick pulled the bill.

Senate votes down move to put local ITEP control into constitution

Fri, 05/13/2022 - 9:22am

VICTOR SKINNER, The Center Square

Enshrinement of local control over the Industrial Tax Exemption Program into the state constitution has been voted down by Louisiana senators.

The Republican-majority upper chamber of lawmakers on Tuesday voted 21-14 against Senate Bill 151 sponsored by Sen. Rogers Pope, R-Livingston. The legislation aimed to make permanent tweaks to ITEP that Gov. John Bel Edwards implemented through executive order in 2016.

The changes reduce the tax breaks from 100% previously to what’s now 80%, and give local taxing authorities including school boards, sheriff’s offices, and local government councils where the industrial facilities locate the ability to approve or reject the tax exemptions.

SB151 was drafted to enshrine the changes in the state constitution, which requires a two-thirds majority vote in both legislative chambers, as well as approval from a majority of voters. Local officials lauded the changes last month in the Senate Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Committee, where it passed without objection. The GOP has a super-majority, 27-12, in the Senate.

The bill was then debated and amended on the Senate floor to strip out most provisions, but retained the ability of local taxing authorities to approve or reject an industrial tax exemption.

“This is the right thing to do for your people,” Pope said ahead of the vote Tuesday. “This is to me very simple. It’s a local issue, I think the locals need to have a voice in it.”

Pope said the motivation behind the bill was to prevent future administrations from repealing Edwards’ 2016 executive order and reverting full control over ITEP exemptions to the Louisiana Board of Commerce and Industry.

For years, the board was the sole entity responsible for approving or rejecting exemptions of 100%, and virtually all exemptions were approved. Since the changes in 2016, 96% of all ITEP projects have been at least partially approved by local governments, Pope said, while 84% have been fully accepted.

“That’s telling me all of the locals want the business,” he said.

Sen. Robert Mills, R-Minden, spoke in opposition of the bill, citing ITEP’s “many, many decades of very successfully recruiting major industries into Louisiana.”

“I really can’t imagine why we complain about that,” he said. “It’s the heart and the soul of Louisiana.

“I talked with quite a number of economic development groups, quite a number of elected officials that are involved in our government, and we are requesting, begging that we keep this program in place today as it is."

Mills went on, “It’s not so good that I would want to memorialize it in the constitution. Obviously, we’ll have a change of government here in Louisiana in a couple of years and I think we’ll probably want to revisit this, but going into the constitution with a relatively new ITEP program I just think is a bad idea.”

All Senate seats are four-year terms, and all are on the ballot next year.

The vote Tuesday came a day after more than 300 local officials throughout Louisiana signed an open letter to the Legislature in support of SB151.

“For 86 years, Louisiana has been the only state in the nation to grant an unelected, statewide board the authority to exempt industry from paying local property taxes without the approval of local governments,” the letter states. “We ask you to vote in support of Senate Bill 151 to restore our basic right to control our local tax dollars.”

The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, as well as leading oil and gas associations, applauded lawmakers for voting down the bill.

“We’re heartened to see that the Senate saw this effort for what it was: an attempt to make our state less competitive, lose jobs, and turn away investment and economic growth,” said Stephen Wauespack, the LABI chief executive officer. “Louisiana is staring down a historic opportunity which our southern neighbors are beginning to capitalize on. Jobs are fleeing high-tax states like California and New York and heading south; supply chains are disrupted and coming back home from overseas. ITEP is one of the most critical tools we have in the toolbox to attract those investments, and (Tuesday’s) vote is a step in the right direction to get us back on track and in the game.”

As gas prices hit new highs, Biden blocks offshore leases

Fri, 05/13/2022 - 9:17am

CASEY HARPER, The Center Square

President Joe Biden canceled three pending oil and gas drilling leases in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico this week as gas prices hit record highs.

Biden has taken heavy fire for blocking new leases and pipelines as energy costs have surged but has defended his record. This latest development intensified that criticism.

“It’s day 477 of the Biden administration, we have record gas prices, and they have still not leased one acre of land to drill oil,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, said.

The Department of Interior announced the decision late Wednesday, saying there was not enough industry interest in the areas. Experts argue the Biden administration’s fight to cancel all oil and gas leasing has made it risky and unappealing for the oil and gas industry to begin new investments in the U.S. The Alaska lease had difficulty receiving interest at certain points in the past before Biden took office.

“Canceling oil and gas leases is part of Biden’s ongoing punishing of the industry including threatening banks for lending and investment,” said Daniel Turner, executive director of the energy workers advocacy group, Power the Future. “We are all living the consequence: outrageously high prices and growing shortages.”

The decision comes just days after the U.S. hit record high gas prices. According to AAA, the national average gas price is currently $4.42, up from $3 per gallon the same time last year, when prices had already begun to rise. Federal inflation data released Wednesday also showed a slight decline in energy costs in April but still overall a major increase in energy prices in the past year.

Biden blocked all new oil and gas leasing on federal lands via executive order shortly after taking office, but a federal judge overturned that decision.

Earlier this week, the White House defended Biden’s work on energy costs.

“He’s also taken steps that are definitely smaller but meant to do anything possible, including issuing a waiver for E15 so that thousands of pumps in the Midwest could have gasoline that – and make it available to Americans so that that’s 10 cents less,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. "He also has noted … that oil companies should also do their part in ensuring they’re not price gouging customers at the pump. As oil prices come down, so should gas prices at the pump. And that’s also something that we are going to continue to watch closely and continue to call on steps to be taken.”

Meanwhile, many Republicans blasted Biden for the decision.

“As gas prices hit an all-time high in the USA, [the president] cancelled a vital round of oil and gas lease sales this morning,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said. “High gas prices are preventable. Democrats are putting woke politics ahead of American families.”

They also pointed to the record high gas prices.

“Yesterday Americans paid the highest price for gasoline in history,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said. “At the same time Biden, just cancelled our largest pending American oil [and] gas lease sale”

Critics say Biden’s green agenda has Americans paying the price.

“Biden has repeatedly said he is doing everything in his power to lower gas prices, but then he pushes policies like this which cripple the industry’s ability to produce,” Turner said. “It also scares off any investment. Joe Biden made it clear in his campaign that he believes fossil fuels are the enemy. By making them scare and expensive he creates a narrative to push his green agenda.”

Get It Growing: Something blue & a little pink, too

Fri, 05/13/2022 - 8:56am

By HEATHER KIRK-BALLARD, LSU AgCenter Horticulturist

If you are looking for a small, flowering shrub that tolerates drought and heat while attracting pollinators, look no further than bluebeard.
No, I am not talking about the French folklore tale from the 1600s. I’m talking about a low, mounding deciduous shrub from the mint family.
Commonly known as bluebeard or blue mist shrub (Caryopteris x clandonensis), it is a hybrid cross originally found in Asia that produces clusters of small, blue-purple, fluffy flowers in late summer into the fall on gray-green foliage.
This plant grows to an average size of 2- to 3-feet tall and wide.
The bright blue, showy flowers have a nice fragrance, and they bloom profusely for an extended season. The elongated base petal looks like a bright blue beard — hence the plant’s common name. It makes a nice addition to cut flower arrangements.
The foliage is finely textured, and colors are blue-green with a silver to white underside. They do not change color in the fall. There also are some golden- and chartreuse-leaved cultivars as well as variegated options.
Plants prefers six or more hours of direct sunlight for the most bloom production. Plants do not require deadheading to promote more blooms. They can be pruned at any time to shape the plant. Flowers are made on new growth. If you do get volunteer plants or your bluebeard outgrows its spot in your garden, it is an easy shrub to transplant.
Bluebeard is an excellent pollinator plant. It attracts many beneficial insects including bumblebees, honeybees, butterflies and even hummingbirds. Be aware of this when planting in areas of high traffic, as there soon will be many bumblebees and honeybees. The flowers produce seeds in fall and are an excellent source of bird food, bringing more ecosystem services to the landscape.
This easy-care, low- maintenance shrub is an ideal companion to other pollinator plants and perennials. It also can serve as a small foundation shrub planting for summer and fall interest. Plant in well-drained soil at a 3-to-5-foot spacing.
Because bluebeard prefers well-drained soils, it will tolerate drought. Crown rot can occur in soggy areas. In addition to being drought and heat tolerant, bluebeard is also pest and disease resistant.
Bluebeard does not have many fertilizer needs. In fact, if over fertilized, the plants become leggy and leafy, producing fewer flowers. They can benefit from organic matter such as compost, which can be mixed into landscape beds or side dressed in the spring.
Plants can be cut back in late winter to remove dead wood and to shape the plant. In addition to being a great landscape shrub selection, bluebeard does well in containers and can be complemented in pots with trailing annuals.
For more visual appeal, plant in groups or mass plantings. The shrubs can be planted as a border at the front of landscape beds or grown as a short hedge.
Use bluebeard in pollinator, butterfly, cottage, sensory or cut flower gardens. There are several great cultivars to choose from: traditional blue varieties Beyond Midnight, Dark Knight and Longwood Blue, plus pink options Pink Chablis and Beyond Pink’d.
The Louisiana Super Plant Shoal Creek vitex makes a great companion plant to bluebeard. The deep purple to blue flowers are pollinator magnets that are tough, fragrant, prolific and beautiful. Growing to a mature height of 10 to 12 feet, this shrub or small tree blooms in summertime. Much like the bluebeard shrub, vitex is very drought tolerant once established. It also is very low maintenance, thrives in hot and dry environments and is disease and pest tolerant.

Recipe pickles shrimp overnight

Fri, 05/13/2022 - 8:53am

The following recipe is from The Southern Food & Beverage Museum’s recent newsletter. It is part of SoFAB’s Taste of the Present.
LIZ WILLIAMS’ ABSINTHE PICKLED SHRIMP
2 Tbsp. crab boil (powder, not liquid)
1 lb. peeled and deveined shrimp
½ tsp. anise seeds
3 star anise pods
4 bay leaves
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
½ cup lemon juice.
¼ cup white wine vinegar.
¼ cup absinthe or Herbsaint
4 minced garlic cloves.
¼ cup chopped tarragon
½ thinly sliced red onion
1 thinly sliced lemon
Parsley, chopped for garnish
Fill a pot with 1½ quarts of water and add crab boil. Bring seasoned water to a boil. When the water is boiling add the shrimp. Cook 2 minutes or until the shrimp turn pink.
Immediately remove shrimp and add to a bowl of water and ice to stop the cooking. Drain them when they have cooled.
Crush anise seeds and anise pods in a small plastic bag with something heavy or in a mortar and pestle. Add them to a pickling jar. Add the next 7 ingredients to the jar and stir well. Add cool shrimp, onion and lemon. Stir well and cover jar.
Refrigerate overnight.
To serve. lay shrimp, lemons and onions decoratively on a platter. Scatter chopped parsley over the shrimp mixture and serve.
Visit: southernfood.org.

Woman’s long-held opinion of brother-in-law comes out

Fri, 05/13/2022 - 8:43am

By Jeanne Phillips, ©United Features Syndicate

DEAR ABBY: My sister and I have always been close. She’s married to a man I have always thought is domineering and arrogant. I also suspect that he’s emotionally abusive from things she has confided over the years. These include days of the silent treatment, refusing to celebrate her birthday because he doesn’t believe in it and discouraging her from taking a job she was interested in. He refuses to go to counseling and says whatever problems there are between them are her fault. I hold my tongue and try to tolerate him because she has chosen to stay with him.
He recently participated in a marathon and was connected to us and many others through social media so we could follow the entire two-day event from start to finish. After a day of constant “dinging” on my phone, I found his need for attention over the top and stopped following. My sister was very upset about it. She said she was embarrassed and hurt. When she asked why I stopped, I told her the truth.
Now our relationship is damaged. I apologized and tried to smooth things over, but she’s now fully aware of my true feelings about him after seeing and hearing how he has treated her over the years. Should I have “kept the peace,” as my dear departed mother always said, and continued to keep my mouth shut, or should I have been honest about my feelings?
PROTECTIVE OF SIS

DEAR PROTECTIVE: Because you say you and your sister are close, I am surprised you held your tongue about her husband’s behavior for so long. You did nothing wrong by tuning out of the marathon updates. You should not have been expected to be held hostage for two days because your brother-in-law’s ego needed bolstering.
You were honest with your sister and, in my opinion, did nothing that requires an apology.

DEAR ABBY: My partner and I have been in a long-distance relationship for about a year. After I did some casual social media stalking, I learned he still lives with his ex-boyfriend, in spite of the fact that he continually complains to me about his “roommate,” whom he never refers to by name.
On top of that, we made a commitment over the last year to phone each other at least once a day. For the past three weeks, there are times I haven’t heard from him at all, despite seeing him active on social media (especially on weekends). It’s to a point where I stay awake until all hours, hoping to hear from him. Should I approach him about this, or is this just the end to the “honeymoon phase”?
WAITING BY THE PHONE
IN CANADA

DEAR WAITING: Not only is it the end of the “honeymoon phase,” but it may also be the beginning of the end of this romance because it appears your “partner” isn’t as eager to contact you as you are to hear from him.
Long-distance relationships can be challenging, and you may be happier if you couple up with somebody local.
***
Good advice for everyone — teens to seniors — is in “The Anger in All of Us and How to Deal With It.” To order, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $8 to: Dear Abby, Anger Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447.

At Parish Council, mayor wants to know where casino money went

Thu, 05/12/2022 - 2:30pm

Staff Report

Mayor Lee Dragna wants to know what happened to the $61,000 share that Morgan City once received each year from the money parish government receives from the Amelia Belle Casino.
Parish President David Hanagriff agreed to explain it to the Morgan City Council.
At Wednesday’s Parish Council meeting, Dragna said the Morgan City government received the $61,000 each year until three years ago. Statistics show that opening a casino leads to an increase in crimes such as theft and domestic abuse in the surrounding area, Dragna said, and the $61,000 helped offset the increased cost of policing.
Dragna said City Council members are asking questions, and he wants to know what to tell them.
“We’re trying to figure out why we got cut $61,000 three years ago and the Sheriff’s Office still gets $900,000,” Dragna said.
Under an agreement with the casino, Amelia Belle pays the parish government a set amount each year based on the casino’s revenue. The default amount is $1.5 million. The parish receives either $1.4 million if casino revenues fall below a target level, or $1.6 million if revenues exceed that level.
For the last three years, Chief Administrative Officer Henry C. “Bo” LaGrange said, the parish has received $1.4 million from the casino, and the parish budget stopped including the money paid to municipalities.
The $900,000 doesn’t actually go to the Sheriff’s Office, LaGrange said, but for the operation and maintenance of the St. Mary Parish jail. The money from Amelia Belle also supports general parish operations and pays down bond debt, including the recent bond issue for road improvements, LaGrange said.
Hanagriff said Morgan City was among the cities that benefited from the bond issue.
The parish president offered to come to the next Morgan City Council meeting, scheduled for May 24, to explain the parish’s position.
Also Wednesday, the council passed a resolution supporting construction of a new Acadiana Crime Lab.
District attorneys in the eight parishes served by the Iberia-based lab, including Bo Duhé of the 16th Judicial District, have been gathering resolutions of support for the new lab.
They’re looking for funding through the Legislature’s capital funding process. The $20 million needed for the 40,000-square-foot lab would have to include a $5 million match from local sources, and the resolutions are intended to express commitment to the project.
The DAs have developed a formula based on the number of evidence submissions to the lab in 2019. Under that formula, the St. Mary Parish government’s share would be about $378,000.
The resolution passed Wednesday isn’t the same as an appropriation of the money. Duhé said officials are looking for alternative funding methods that might take some of the burden from the parish budget.
The council also set several property tax rates for 2022. The move reauthorizes existing millages.
They are: 5.72 mills for maintenance and support and 0.31 mills for debt service for the parish library system; 7.60 mills on property outside municipalities for general parish purposes; and 3.80 mills on property inside municipalities to support the criminal justice system.