Louisiana
Louisiana readies for arctic blast with crop and road safety efforts
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – An arctic blast is expected early next week. Now, preparations are underway to protect plants and ensure roads stay open.
At Harris Strawberry Farm in Pontchatoula, sheets flap in the wind as workers make sure the 12 acres of crop are protected.
Rachel Harris said harvest has been slow.
“It takes a couple of days to prepare for a freeze like this,” Harris said. “It’s very, very hard on Louisiana farmers.”
Harris is concerned the freezing weather will burn the blooms. Her team is also battling the wind to cover the strawberries.
“You combat that and you pray,” Harris said. “You pray to God that the plants make it, that the blooms, the strawberries make it. It’s a lot. It’s a lot of work.”
After extreme heat this summer and now extreme cold, gardeners are also worried about how stress will impact plants.
“It could stunt growth. It could cause some malnutrition,” said Wayne Soniat with The Plant Gallery. “In order to keep them healthy and promote more growth health, you definitely want to protect your plants going into the winter.”
Soniat says bed sheets can also be used to cover plants, but he recommends removing all coverings when the sun comes up.
“Let them breathe and get that air circulation,” Soniat said.
It’s best to water plants before freezing temperatures; moist soil stays warmer than dry soil. The threshold before plants are damaged or killed by a freeze depends on the type of plant.
In Bridge City, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development is stocked with the material and tools to keep roads open during a freeze.
“We have to respond to the needs of the motoring public and ensure that conditions are safe,” said Scott Boyle, District Engineer Administrator for LA DOTD District 02.
Sand and more than 250,000 pounds of salt are available for the New Orleans region. Boyle said his team is modifying equipment to treat roads.
“These are very similar to a spreader you might use on your lawn where it disperses a material,” Boyle said. “We use dump trucks, very big agricultural spreaders.”
Before temps reach freezing, brine, a highly concentrated mixture of salt and water will be applied to roads.
“If we wait until the ice is on the roads, it is much more challenging to address and mitigate,” Boyle said.
DOTD will begin mixing brine on Sunday. Once the mixture is created, the solution is good for roughly four to five months.
Boyle said, “We keep it in a safe storage location and if it’s determined to not be needed or utilized, we dispose of it properly with consultation with the city or the parish.”
DOTD will continue watching the forecast and will have employees checking bridges and overpasses.
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click Here to report it. Please include the headline.
Subscribe to the Fox 8 YouTube channel.
Copyright 2024 WVUE. All rights reserved.
(KTAL/KMSS) – The ongoing saga of Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has many commentators on social media questioning what the grand jury process entails.
A grand jury is unlike a trial jury. A trial jury hears a case and decides a defendant’s guilt or innocence. The purpose of the grand jury is to determine if there is sufficient evidence against a defendant to bring them to trial.
The evidence viewed by a grand jury only represents what the state government considers just cause to bring charges in a case. They do not render verdicts; instead, they indict, which is a formal accusation or a decision that a person should be tried for their alleged crimes in a court of law.
In Louisiana, the grand jury is empanelled for a six-month service term. Occasionally, a special grand jury may be empanelled for eighteen months. Grand jurors are selected by lot from a pool of at least 300 prospective jurors. The number of grand jurors is specified by the court.
Once a grand jury is selected, the process becomes cloaked in privacy as names are sealed in envelopes and locked in sealed boxes. The clerk of court in the parish prepares subpoenas ordering pool members to appear on the date set forth by the court for grand jury selection.
Louisiana
Louisiana Supreme Court recalls Liz Murrill’s arrest warrant in late-night emergency ruling
The Louisiana Supreme Court in an emergency order late Friday night agreed to recall an arrest warrant for Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, after issuing a ruling earlier in the day to stay her indictment from an Orleans Parish grand jury.
The grand jury indicted Murrill on Thursday, charging her with 16 felony counts of malfeasance in office and intimidation. Orleans Criminal District Court Judge Leon Roche issued an alias capias arrest warrant and set Murrill’s bond at $400,000.
The attorney general quickly asked the state Supreme Court to intervene, who responded with an order Friday morning that stayed the indictment.
But by late Friday, Murrill went back to the high court alleging that the special prosecutor appointed to her case, former New Orleans judge Laurie White, had refused to recall the alias capias arrest warrant despite the stay.
“I object to the removal of the capias (warrant), as the accused should not get any more preferential treatment than any other criminally charged defendant,” White allegedly told Murrill’s legal team, according to their filing to the Supreme Court.
The Louisiana Supreme Court issued another order late Friday night, saying it was “in order to add clarity and specificity where none should have been required.” The order recalled Murrill’s arrest warrant, ordered White and law enforcement to remove the warrant from law enforcement databases, and ordered White and law enforcement to “take all necessary actions to comply with this Order.”
The court’s vote on recalling the warrant was 4-3, with Justices Billy Burris, Cade Cole, Jefferson Hughes and Jay McCallum voting in the majority. Chief Justice John Weimer and Justices Piper Griffin and John Michael Guidry each dissented. Weimer and Guidry had also dissented earlier Friday from the decision to stay Murrill’s indictment; Griffin had voted in favor of the stay.
“It is said that procedure is the handmaiden of substance, but in criminal cases procedural rules are indispensable to serve justice and ensure that all are treated equally,” Weimer wrote in his Friday night dissent over recalling the warrant. “Yet, ironically, on the eve of this July 4th when our nation will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this court is once again called upon to provide exceptions to the normal process pursuant to another feigned emergency by one party.”
Griffin wrote in a dissent that recalling the warrant goes to the merits of the case. Guidry wrote in his dissent that the majority had elevated “power and privilege over process.”
“This is yet another unprecedented preferential act by the majority bestowing a privilege that no other criminally charged defendant can reasonably expect to receive,” Guidry wrote.
This is a developing story, check back later for more.
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — For the first time in state history, Louisiana has more registered Republican voters than Democrats, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
Political analyst Jeff Crouere says that while Louisiana has voted Republican in recent elections, the real shift was due to Republicans convincing Democrats to cross the aisle.
“Encourage more people to register as Republicans. These were like conservative Democrats that had been voting Republican but were still registered as Democrats. So, they, they were encouraged to switch parties. This trend accelerated. It’s been going on for a while,” said Crouere.
Republicans are calling it a milestone, saying it shows the state is finally as good as its people, crediting every grassroots volunteer who helped make it happen.
“That is a testament to republicans sticking to their promises. Louisiana is going to be the best state in the nation, and we are one year at a time making that happen,” said Gov. Jeff Landry.
“More Louisianans than ever are choosing the party of freedom. Opportunity, honesty, lower taxes, safer streets, and better schools. This is a historic milestone for our state,” said Chairman of the Republican Party of Louisiana Derek Babcock.
However, Democrats see it differently. They argue there hasn’t been a political shift at all, saying the change is largely the result of widespread voter purging.
“Where you kicked thousands and tens of thousands of people off the rolls without giving them an opportunity to fix it. You go through these purges, and you summarily target Democrats,” said Louisiana Congressman Troy Carter.
“The governor is doing everything that he can to showcase that his back is not against the wall, that the people of Louisiana are not turning against him and the MAGA Republicans’ agenda,” said Louisiana Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis.
Overall, Croure says it’s a small gap, so both parties have to do better. Citing recent voter turnout.
“Democrats need to catch up as far as the money goes. The messaging, the type of candidate. But if I were Republicans, I wouldn’t be celebrating too much, because in the last election, only 17% of Republicans bothered to vote,” said Croure.
Ashley Shelton, CEO of the Power Coalition, says the organization has been working to register more young voters by partnering with local colleges and universities.
Stay up to date with the latest news, weather and sports by downloading the WGNO app on the Apple or Google Play stores and by subscribing to the WGNO newsletter.
Latest Posts
-
Lifestyle40 minutes agoBut first, coffee: The drink that energized the American Revolution
-
Technology48 minutes agoNASA launched an emergency mission to stop the Swift Observatory from crashing to Earth
-
World55 minutes agoTens of thousands of far-left protesters clash with police in anti-conservative party riots
-
Politics58 minutes agoTrump set to deliver ‘historic’ speech celebrating America’s 250th anniversary
-
Health1 hour agoThe ‘1776 Diet’: What Americans really ate during the nation’s founding
-
Sports1 hour agoKylian Mbappé’s seventh goal of the World Cup lifts France past Paraguay in physical Round of 16 match
-
Business1 hour agoCalifornia is bringing back EV rebates. This is how to get one
-
Entertainment1 hour agoComedy saved her life. Now Teruko Nakajima’s ‘Made in America’ is saving others
