Louisiana Headlines

JINDAL'S BUDGET

Jindal administration presents proposed budget to lawmakers

BATON ROUGE (AP) - Governor Bobby Jindal has proposed a

30.1 billion dollar budget for next year that includes new dollars

for education and work force training, along with the expectation

of more than 100 million dollars in cuts to business taxes.

Jindal's budget chief, Commissioner of Administration Angele

Davis, presented today the spending recommendations to the joint

House and Senate budget committee.

Though the governor campaigned on ways to cut government

spending, Jindal's spending recommendations are larger than the

budget approved by lawmakers a year ago.

Much of the budget continues to involve direct federal aid for

hurricane recovery. Although it's federal money it flows through

the state budget and therefore affects the bottom line figure.

Lawmakers approved a 29.7 billion dollar budget for the current

year, but new federal hurricane recovery aid increased it to 34.3

billion dollars.

CHURCH SHOOTINGS

Judge: Anthony Bell can represent himself

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A state judge will allowed a Baton Rouge

man accused of killing his wife and four in-laws in 2006 to fire

his court-appointed lawyers and represent himself at trial on five

counts of first-degree murder.

Twenty-seven-year-old Anthony Bell told Judge Todd Hernandez

that serving as his own attorney is the only way to get documents

and reports that he claims his lawyers are withholding from him.

Bell also told the judge that he wants to serve as his own attorney

to make sure he gets to speak during trial.

Hernandez, who has previously denied a motion by Bell to act as

his own attorney, asked Bell questions for almost an hour yesterday

to determine whether Bell understands court procedures as well as

the magnitude of the decision.

The trial is set to begin March 31st.

Bell is accused of killing his estranged wife, Erica, in the

parking lot of an apartment complex after shooting four of his

in-laws to death inside a Baton Rouge church.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

FORMER CHIEF-EAVESDROPPING

Former officers set to testify in eavesdropping case

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - A state prosecutor says 3 former officers

indicted with ex-Police Chief Randy Hundley in an eavesdropping

investigation have agreed to testify against their old boss.

Hundley and the officers are accused of hiding a microphone near

the desk of Hundley's secretary because the ex-chief believed she

might compromise an internal affairs investigation.

Hundley told state police investigators that he had ordered an

investigation of the secretary, but never signed off on legally

questionable eavesdropping.

His former subordinates have a different recollection.

Prosecutor Butch Wilson, who is handling the case for the state

Attorney General's Office, says the three officers have offered to

testify at Hundley's June 2nd trial with no promise of immunity or

leniency.

Charged in the case with the former chief are Michael Lavergne,

the Police Department's former head of internal affairs, and two

officers who worked under Lavergne, Brian D. Butler and Shannon T.

Hundley, the ex-chief's nephew.

HOTEL BENTLEY

Company revives plan to purchase Hotel Bentley

ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) - A Baton Rouge company today will give

Hotel Bentley owner Bob Dean a proposal to buy the historic

landmark in downtown Alexandria.

Cyntreniks Hospitality Company President John Schneider says

that financing assurances from banking and investment giant Morgan

Stanley and another firm, coupled with a special taxing district

proposed for a part of Alexandria, make the deal more probable than

ever.

Schneider said the offer to Dean would be near 6.5 million

dollars. He also said buying the Bentley is part of a 15 million

dollar project to bring the 178-room hotel to life again.

If the deal is completed, the Bentley would operate under the

name of Second Century Bentley, LLC. Cyntreniks has tried for a

year and a half to buy and refurbish the Bentley, which Dean closed

in December 2004.

BRIDGE REPAIRED

U.S. 61 bridge repair complete

STARHILL, La. (AP) - Traffic is flowing again on a section of

U.S. Highway 61 in West Feliciana Parish after highway crews

finished work on a replacement bridge for a span closed February

4th.

The state Department of Transportation and Development finished

the concrete replacement bridge over the West Fork of Gray's Creek

ahead of schedule.

The old bridge's embankment failed, forcing its closure and

causing long detours for motorists traveling the highway north of

Baton Rouge.

The new bridge was expected to take six to eight weeks to

complete, but DOTD crews completed the job in less than four weeks.

GIRL STRANGLED

Lewis found guilty of second-degree murder in Aydell's death

LIVINGSTON, La. (AP) - Mark Lewis has been found guilty of

second-degree murder in the strangling death of 13-year-old Kaitlyn

Aydell.

A Livingston Parish jury deliberated about three hours before

rendering the verdict in the slaying of Aydell, a seventh-grader

from French Settlement. Deputies in District Judge Brenda Bedsole

Ricks' court surrounded Lewis, one of Aydell's relatives by

marriage, as the verdict was read.

The 40-year-old Lewis was accused of killing the young girl

after she disappeared from her home on February 1st, 2007. He lived

in a house near Aydell.

The girl's body was found two days after her disappearance in an

Ascension Parish bayou clothed and partially submerged.

A second-degree murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence

of life in prison without the benefit of parole. A formal

sentencing date has not been set.

DRIVER ARRESTED

Driver is booked in death

KENNER, La. (AP) - A 34-year-old Marrero man has been booked

with negligent homicide in a December accident on Interstate 10

that killed a Texas man.

Kenner police say Isaac Castle Junior turned himself in response

to a warrant for his arrest.

A police investigation found that Castle, the driver of a Mack

truck, merged from the eastbound shoulder of the interstate

directly into the center lane and into the path of a pickup.

The pickup, which witnesses told police was traveling about 60

miles-per-hour, had no time to evade Castle's truck; it hit the

back of the semi and flipped.

A passenger in the pickup, 41-year-old Eddie Naranjo, died the

day after the December 3rd crash.

ULL ENROLLMENT

Graduate enrollment at ULL swells to 1,433

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) - The University of Louisiana at Lafayette's

graduate school has seen an enrollment increase this year, growing

a little more than 10 percent since last spring.

The graduate school has 1,433 students enrolled, a boost of 133

students from last year.

For master's-level graduate students, stipends went from $5,500

per year to $7,500 per year, and for doctoral students, stipends

rose from $10,000 per year to $12,000 per year.

Of the 24 master's degree programs offered, Eddie Palmer, dean

of the graduate school, said business administration and computer

science are the largest.

The university also offers eight doctoral programs, with English

and biology being the largest, and a doctor of education program,

in conjunction with Southeastern Louisiana University.

JOLIE-IRAQ

Jolie says US troop surge in Iraq has created chance for

increased aid

NEW YORK (AP) - Actress Angelina Jolie says the reinforcement of

U.S. troops in Iraq has created an opportunity for humanitarian

programs to boost assistance for Iraqi refugees.

In an op-ed piece published by the Washington Post, Jolie

details the plight of refugees and says their conditions have not

improved since she visited the country last August to urge

governments to provide more support.

Jolie, who has been a U.N. goodwill ambassador since 2001, was

in Baghdad earlier this month to again highlight the refugee

problem.

The U.S. Embassy says she talked with General David Petraeus,

the American military commander in Iraq, and Iraqi Prime Minister

Nouri al-Maliki.

Jolie, who shares a home in New Orleans with actor Brad Pitt,

says she stressed to Iraqi officials there must be a coherent plan

for helping some 2 million Iraqis who are taking advantage of the

downturn in violence to begin returning to their homes.

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