Louisiana Headlines

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Coast Guard hearings into a collision on the Mississippi River that resulted in a major oil spill and closed the river for six days resumes today. The hearings are examining an early morning collision on July 23rd between a towboat pushing a fuel barge and a tanker. The fuel barge broke open, spilling 276,000 gallons of heavy oil.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A 28-year-old Baton Rouge man convicted earlier this year of fatally shooting another man during a scuffle over a $50 bill has been sentenced to life in prison, plus 45 years. Judge Tony Marabella sentenced Freddie Banks to a mandatory life prison term on the second-degree murder conviction.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The Department of Psychiatry at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans has been awarded a nearly 1.6 million dollar grant. The federal money will help fund the expansion of services at the Louisiana Rural Trauma Services Center. The center helps children and families in Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines, the three parishes most devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - A Lafayette lawyer and a Maurice businessman will face off in a race for House District 31. The seat was left vacant when Don Trahan resigned last week to take a job with the state Department of Education. Nancy Landry, a family law attorney who lost to Trahan by 33 votes last year, and Troy Theriot, who runs an oilfield supply boat business, qualified this week for the race. Both are Republicans.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)