Municipal posts are on the ballot March 24 in three East Feliciana Parish municipalities. Early voting will be March 10-17 at the Registrar of Voters Office, 11048 Bank St., Clinton. Voters will elect mayors in Slaughter and Norwood, while Jackson Mayor Charles Coleman, a former police juror, won his fifth term in office when he qualified … Continue reading →

BAKER — Police arrested a 43-year-old woman Monday who is accused of molesting a juvenile boy at a Baker group home, Police Chief Mike Knaps said. Cynthia Haynes, 2116 Davenport Ave., Baton Rouge, was booked into Parish Prison on five counts of molestation of a juvenile, Knaps said. Haynes was accused of … Continue reading →

BAKER — The Baker School Board will ask voters March 24 to renew a 38.2-mill property tax that supplements other state and local funding for the city’s school system. The millage already was in place to supplement East Baton Rouge Parish school operations when the Baker system split from the parish in 2003, … Continue reading →

ZACHARY — Lane Regional Medical Center will present a free program on cholesterol control during a “Lunch and Learn” session at 11:30 a.m. Thursday in the hospital’s staff development classroom. Dr. Deepak Thekkoott, an interventional cardiologist with Cardiovascular Institute of the South, will address how cholesterol and heart disease are connected and what people … Continue reading →

ST. FRANCISVILLE — The West Feliciana Parish Police Jury appointed a new parish manager and jury secretary during a lengthy meeting Thursday night. Without discussion, jurors unanimously voted to name John Hashagen to the parish manager’s post. He had been interim parish manager for operations since the 2008-11 jury fired Parish Manager Ambrose Sims … Continue reading →

ST. FRANCISVILLE — The West Feliciana Parish Police Jury tabled a proposed noise ordinance Thursday stemming from a dispute between a professional motorcycle rider and his neighbors, who complained about excessive noise. Anne Butler, who lives near the dirt bike track involved, said rider Morgan Moss has not lived up to the agreement he … Continue reading →

BAKER — Saying he wants to improve the city’s image, former Mayor Norman E. “Pete” Heine declared he is a candidate for the District 2 seat on the City Council in the March 24 primary election. Heine, 83 and a Democrat, said in his statement of candidacy he is not running against any … Continue reading →

Three more events to observe Black History Month are scheduled in the next week, beginning with Saturday’s program on “African and Caribbean Influence in Southern Antebellum Cooking” from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the old kitchen at Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site in St. Francisville. Printed recipes of the dishes will be given during the … Continue reading →

BAKER — The City Council voted Tuesday, on Mayor Harold Rideau’s recommendation, to delay a declaration of “substantial completion” for a street resurfacing program that a resident criticized during the meeting. The declaration would have given Barriere Construction Co. the go-ahead to start tying up loose ends on the project, which started last year. Continue reading →

ZACHARY — The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to back a bill in the upcoming legislative session to give Zachary additional jurisdiction over development outside the city but within the city’s school district. State Rep. Kenny Havard, R-St. Francisville, and state Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, D-Baton Rouge, are authors of the bill, Chip Mills, … Continue reading →

ST. FRANCISVILLE — The West Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Office is seeking information about a Wisner man last seen at a St. Francisville hotel Jan. 23, Sheriff J. Austin Daniel said. Daniel said Shaun Thornhill, 41, came to St. Francisville last month, reportedly to seek work. St. Francisville police arrested Thornhill on Jan. 21 … Continue reading →

H. Anne Plettinger, a West Feliciana Parish native who worked on the top-secret Manhattan Project and later championed transparency in Louisiana government, died Thursday morning at a Zachary nursing home. She was 94. Plettinger had been in ill health for about a year. Funeral arrangements are incomplete at Rabenhorst Funeral Home in Baton Rouge. Continue reading →

ZACHARY — The Zachary Community School Board approved a reorganization of the central office and the transfer of some school administrators Thursday stemming from a coming move to national standards in four “core subjects” and the construction of a new school. Superintendent Warren Drake recommended, and the board approved, splitting a central office instructional division … Continue reading →

State highway workers installed signs Thursday on the approaches to the John James Audubon Bridge over the Mississippi River to honor two former U.S. Marine Corps commandants. The state Department of Transportation and Development said in a news release the highway between La. 981 and La. 1 Business in New Roads is now named the General John … Continue reading →

ST. FRANCISVILLE — The judge presiding over the Angola 5 murder cases postponed defendant Barry Edge’s trial Friday to give defense attorneys time to investigate an Angola inmate’s claim about a purported jailhouse confession. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Feb. 27 in Covington for the fourth in a series of five first-degree murder trials … Continue reading →

ST. FRANCISVILLE — The West Feliciana Parish Police Jury appointed a new parish manager and jury secretary during a lengthy meeting Thursday night. Without discussion, jurors unanimously voted to name John Hashagen to the parish manager’s post. He had been interim parish manager for operations since the 2008-11 jury fired Parish Manager Ambrose Sims … Continue reading →

BAKER — Based on 2010-11 Louisiana Educational Assessment Program scores, 35 percent of students in Baker public schools are “at risk requiring intensive support,” a new report says. The information was included in a Response to Intervention handbook the Baker School Board unanimously adopted Thursday. Superintendent Ulysses Joseph said the manual was prepared by … Continue reading →

JACKSON -- Speakers at Dixon Correctional Institute graduation exercises told the group of inmates Thursday that their educational experiences behind bars would give them an opportunity to escape a life of crime and incarceration. “Education will open the doors, but common sense will keep them open,” motivational speaker Danna “Dr. Truth” … Continue reading →

Several events are planned in the area this weekend in observance of Black History Month, including: The Zachary Historic Village on Virginia Street offers free admission to museum buildings from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, where a traveling state museum exhibit on “The Art and Social Commentary of Clementine Hunter,” will be displayed. The … Continue reading →

CLINTON — The East Feliciana Parish School Board accepted its annual audit report Tuesday for the fiscal year that ended June 30, noting that auditors found no irregularities or violations. “This is the first time in the history of the School Board that we had no adverse findings,” Superintendent Douglas Beauchamp said. During the … Continue reading →

CLINTON -- A Clinton man avoided a possible prison term Tuesday by entering a “no contest” plea to a reduced charge in the 2010 shooting of East Feliciana Parish Sheriff Talmadge Bunch’s son. Joshua Rogers, 27, of 7613 Plank Road, entered the plea to attempted second-degree battery shortly before his trial on an attempted … Continue reading →

CLINTON — The East Feliciana Police Jury adopted a new parishwide flood zone map Monday that goes into effect April 3. Jury Administrative Supervisor Joe Rouchon said during a public hearing that the map replaces the preliminary map that became effective July 31, 2009, for East Feliciana Parish’s participation in the national flood insurance program. Continue reading →

ZACHARY — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is on a fast track to develop burial sites at a new national cemetery before the Port Hudson National Cemetery runs out of space for new interments later this year. Construction has begun at a new site, to be known as Louisiana National Cemetery, on 103 acres … Continue reading →

ST. FRANCISVILLE — Officers with the Delta Drug Task Force arrested two drivers on drug counts Thursday night during a highway drug interdiction campaign. West Feliciana Parish sheriff’s Maj. Archer Lee said Eric W. Orlando, 43, 28 Brigantine Circle, Plymouth, Mass., was booked with possession with intent to distribute marijuana, possession of cocaine and … Continue reading →

ST. FRANCISVILLE — West Feliciana Middle School is one of 56 schools in the nation recognized by the technology company Apple Inc. as a “school of distinction” for 2012, West Feliciana Parish school officials announced this week. The school was selected for its one-to-one technology program, in which each student in the school is given … Continue reading →

For her depiction of a white pelican through the use of natural and recycled material, Brittany Stagg, 15, won her school $6,000 for supplies through America’s Wetland Foundation. Stagg, a 10th-grader at West Feliciana High School, was one of nine students in the state awarded $5,000 for either an essay, photo or art that depicts wetland … Continue reading →

ZACHARY — City planning officials will back a bill in the upcoming legislative session to give Zachary additional jurisdiction over development outside the city but within the city’s school district. Chip Mills, economic development director for the Zachary Chamber of Commerce, said so-called “extraterritorial jurisdiction” has been successful in Texas and other states, but said … Continue reading →

ST. FRANCISVILLE — The Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibit, “Journey Stories,” will be displayed in the West Feliciana Parish Historical Society’s museum, 11757 Ferdinand St., from Saturday through March 18. The free exhibit examines the intersection between transportation and American society, through individual stories illustrating the roles that mobility and travel played in U.S. history, according … Continue reading →

BAKER — Pledging to focus on economic development if elected in the March 24 primary election, Leroy Davis is seeking to return to his old job of being mayor of Baker. Davis, a 67-year-old Democrat, served 3½ years as mayor and nine years as a Baker councilman, having been the first African-American candidate elected … Continue reading →

BAKER — Police arrested a Baker High School student Wednesday morning after his principal reported that he threatened to punch her in the face. Police Capt. Darryl Rainwater said Joshua Franklin, 18, became upset because a teacher confiscated his cellphone and Franklin tried to retrieve it from a worker in the school’s office. When … Continue reading →

BAKER — The Baker Inter-Club Council is accepting nominations through 5:30 p.m. March 12 for the 2011 Citizen of the Year award. Nominations may be mailed to P.O. Box 30, Baker, LA 70704-0030 or hand-delivered to 3121 Van Buren St., Suite A, in Baker. Voting by member clubs will be held in the … Continue reading →

CLINTON — Complaints about emergency services dispatching surfaced in a Wednesday meeting of East Feliciana Parish law enforcement and fire department officials, with Police Jury members attempting to mediate the dispute. Police Jury President Dennis Aucoin said he called the meeting after hearing complaints from members of the parish Emergency Communications Commission about an alleged … Continue reading →

Fourth- and fifth-grade students at Bethany Christian School, 13855 Plank Road, Baker, will accept old computer and electronic gear for recycling from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the school. You may drop off computer hardware, computer accessories, laptops, telephones, telephone systems, security systems, cellphones, DVD movies and video games, mp3 players, game systems, digital cameras, … Continue reading →

BAKER — Police arrested a third suspect in the July 28 slaying of a Baton Rouge man shortly after she returned by bus late Monday night from Houston, Police Chief Mike Knaps said. Knaps said police received a tip through the Crime Stoppers program that Kaitlan A. Brandon, 18, 10500 Hillmont Ave., was … Continue reading →

ST. FRANCISVILLE — Out of room but with room to grow, the West Feliciana Parish Library’s board is asking voters to approve funding for a new library on property donated four years ago. The March 24 propositions include a $3.5 million construction bond issue that bond attorney Alan Offner estimated will require levying about … Continue reading →

ST. FRANCISVILLE -- The attorney for a man fighting lifetime sex-offender registration said he is considering taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court after Louisiana’s high court ruled against his client this week. “It’s going to have to go up if anybody’s going to get a break on this,” said Charles … Continue reading →

CLINTON — A Baton Rouge woman was killed Friday afternoon in the collision of a motorcycle and a car, a State Police spokesman said. The collision occurred on La. 10 west of La. 955 in East Feliciana Parish shortly after 2 p.m., Trooper Russell Graham said. Graham said troopers’ preliminary investigation … Continue reading →

BAKER — A Baker woman suffered minor burns on her hands early Friday while trying to extinguish a fire in a pot left on her stove, Baker Fire Department spokesman Howard Ward said. The fire in a mobile home at 3838 Thomas Road was reported at 1:38 a.m., and firefighters found that the woman had … Continue reading →