Tagged: crime

Officials from the Louisiana Department of Economic Development say the only action they could take against two companies that received about $935,000 in ineligible state motion picture tax credits is to file a civil action lawsuit.

Legislative auditors say members of the state economic development agency improperly issued thousands of tax credits for expenditures made by two companies involved in making a documentary about the Mardi Gras season called "Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras: Building of the Greatest Free Show on Earth."

Federal prosecutors say a 75-year-old woman has admitted collecting her mother's Social Security payments for 13½ years after her mother died.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten says Shirley A. Bunda of Gretna got more than $173,000 to which she wasn't entitled, and pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of theft of government funds.

A news release says Bunda and her mother shared a joint checking account, and her mother's Social Security payments came by direct deposit.

Two former New Orleans police officers have asked a federal appeals court to throw out their convictions on charges stemming from the fatal shooting of a man whose burned body turned up in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.

A three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also on Wednesday heard the Justice Department's appeal of a judge's decision to order a new trial for a third officer, Travis McCabe.

McCabe was convicted of writing a false report on Henry Glover's 2005 shooting.

The panel didn't indicate when it would rule.

An increase in home burglaries in St. Charles Parish has deputies making a simple warning to residents: Lock your doors.

WWL-TV reports that five burglaries have been reported in the parish in the last few days, most recently in St. Rose and Luling. The burglaries have usually happened in the middle of the day.

Residents of each home had left their back door unlocked.

El Salvador has one of the highest murder rates in the world. But police say murders have been cut in half since March. That's when a former guerilla and a catholic bishop brokered a truce between two of the country's most violent gangs. Guest host Maria Hinojosa talks with Alex Sanchez, a former gang member, and director of the gang intervention group Homies Unidos. Hinojosa is also joined by Carlos Dada, editor of an online newspaper in El Salvador.