News

The replacement of the bridge on West Maple Avenue and Bobcat Drive will result in an additional road closing beginning Tuesday.
La. 91, which is Maple Avenue, has been closed for the bridge project since Jan. 16 for Phase 1 of the project.
That phase, bridge removal and replacement, has been completed, according to a news release from the state Department of Transportation and Development.
Phase 2 of the project, reconstruction of the intersection of Maple Avenue and Bobcat Drive and completion of the bridge replacement, is to begin Tuesday.

A proposed change to Louisiana law that would allow district attorneys to seek juvenile life without parole for first-degree murder but not murder in the second-degree passed the Louisiana House Tuesday, 82-3.
For old cases in which the crime was committed prior to Senate Bill 16 becoming law, district attorneys could still seek life without parole for both first and second-degree murder.

A new national Park Service report shows that 473,395 visitors to New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park and to Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in 2016 spent $27.7 million in communities near park sites in Lafayette, Eunice, and Thibodaux and the greater New Orleans area, including Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard parishes.
The spending supported 427 area jobs and had a cumulative benefit to local economies of $36.3 million.