Baton Rouge News

Facing threats of litigation, the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board on Thursday evening was still debating a new set of maps that would reduce from 11 to nine the number of representatives serving on the School Board starting Jan. 1 The board was voting on new maps, two of which were prepared at the request of board member Craig Freeman.

Advocate staff photo by PATRICK DENNIS --Proponents and opponents of a fairness ordinance crowd into the East Baton Rouge Metro Council chambers hoping to speak during the regularly-scheduled Metro Council meeting Wednesday night.

Piano man and raconteur Armand St. Martin is bringing his songs, stories and keyboard skills drenched in the music of his native New Orleans to the Summer Sounds at St. James Concert Series next week.

According to the probable cause report submitted by the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office, the incident happened on Wednesday, July 23 shortly before 6 p.m. The suspects, Todd Banks, 51, and Sam West, Jr., 58, live together with the 53-year-old victim at a home on Upland Ave. "While inside the residence, [Banks] and [West] became involved in a ... (more)

A Baton Rouge man tuned himself into Gonzales, LA detectives Thursday morning after being accused of firing shots into a house full of people.

The two companies are the parent companies of Business First Bank and American Gateway Bank.

Business First Bancshares Inc. is acquiring American Gateway Financial Corp., combining two Baton Rouge banks into a financial institution with $1 billion in assets and 16 locations.

The new J.K. Haynes Charter School in Baton Rouge wants to help you get your kids ready to go back to school and showcase some of its program.

The U.S. Youth Soccer Association Southern Regional Championship brought record-setting revenues to the Baton Rouge area in June, generating more revenues than the Bayou Country Superfest and Miss USA Pageant combined.

Edwin Chastang, vice principal of Southeast Middle School in Baton Rouge, was released on a $20,000 bond.

EAST BATON ROUGE SCHOOL BOARD: 5 p.m., Central Office, 1050 S. Foster Drive. The board will hold a public hearing on reapportionment.

Members of Metro Council will have to give the final approval to pay $495,000 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit over an officer-involved shooting where a drunken man was shot and killed in 2011.

A reporter for The Advocate who wrote a recent article about the unsolved 1985 slaying of Baton Rouge lawyer Joel Porter's wife can't be forced to testify in Porter's defamation lawsuit against a detective quoted in the article, the reporter's attorney argued to a federal magistrate Wednesday.

A lot of items are on the council agenda, but one of the most controversial is the Fairness Ordinance that focuses on protecting sexual orientation, like race, when it comes to hiring and housing.

A Sulphur woman was shot in the face after allegedly trying to hit a Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's deputy with her car.

Mike Caldwell today announced his intention to seek reelection to Division I of the 19th Judicial District Court.

WMC Action News 5's Nick Kenney took the new information Twenty toothbrushes, eight flash drives, four guns, nipple clamps, sex toys, lingerie: those are just a few of the items seized from the property of a Memphis businessman charged with rape.

There are not many people who know why September 19 is significant, but a Baton Rouge man is focused on making people aware.

A Monday night shooting in the 5500 block of St. Gerard Street left a 23-year-old man with gunshot wounds to his upper and lower torso, but his injuries are not considered life threatening.

A vice principal at Southeast Middle School was arrested Tuesday after admitting to investigators he sent nude pictures of himself via Facebook to a 15-year-old one night while he was drunk.