Independence News

Artist Jose Maria Cundin with his 'The Unanimous Declaration of Independence of the United States of America,' on display at Galerie GiGi in New Orleans.

State and federal fisheries agents executed a search warrant at the DoRan Seafood LLC shrimp plant in Independence this morning in an ongoing joint investigation of the illegal repackaging of foreign shrimp as domestic product, a state wildlife official said today.

Two half-mile sections in the left lane of Interstate 55 southbound between Hammond and Independence were closed Monday after the road buckled under continued "excessive heat," state highway officials said.

Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's deputies have arrested an Independence police officer on a child pornography count.

An employee of the Independence Police Department has been arrested after child pornography was discovered on his city computer, the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's Office said.

SDT Waste and Debris, the trash contractor that cleans up the French Quarter, won the contract to provide recycling and waste disposal for LSU.

Deputies arrested two men in connection with a burglary spree targeting 16 vehicles and residences in an eight-hour period early Friday, the Tangipahoa Sheriff's Office reported Saturday.

HAMMOND, La. Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's deputies arrested a man in connection with a string of car break-ins during the past weeks, officials said.

A proposal to mandate drug testing for certain welfare recipients was revived Wednesday and approved by the same House committee that narrowly rejected the idea two weeks earlier.

AdvoCare will be the title sponsor for the 2009 AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl, according to its web site.

A Tangipahoa Parish woman died early Thursday in a two-vehicle accident on Interstate 55 near Tickfaw.

BATON ROUGE, La. - A panel of lawmakers on Tuesday narrowly rejected a proposal that would have mandated drug testing for certain welfare recipients, after opponents said it unfairly singled out poor women.

ULM football head coach Charlie Weatherbie announced the 2009 Senior Day Camps, which will take place throughout the state of Louisiana, and the 2009 Youth Football Camp on ULM's campus.

A New Orleans federal grand jury charged a St. Helena Parish physician Thursday with a single count of health-care fraud in connection with a scam that netted a Washington Parish medical supplier more than $809,000 in bogus Medicare claims, prosecutors said.

A federal judge ordered the entire monthly pension of a former Tangipahoa Parish school bus driver be garnisheed to pay restitution for the Superfund cleanup of a trailer contaminated with pesticides, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Vanelis Rivera, a University of Louisiana at Monroe graduate student in English from the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, won the ULM English Department's first annual $100 research award, which was presented at the 11th Annual ULM/Tech Graduate Conference this month.

The entire monthly pension of a former Tangipahoa Parish school bus driver has been seized to pay for the Superfund cleanup of a pesticide-contaminated trailer.

Working closely with the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, the Attorney General's Office Medicaid Fraud Control Unit has arrested nine individuals in an alleged Medicaid Fraud scheme that allegedly cost the Louisiana Medicaid Program thousands of dollars for services not rendered.

An Independence woman pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting a member of a federal fugitive task force, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's deputies arrested an area man accused of shooting at a man who had hit him with a baseball bat during a street fight, the Sheriff's Office said Wednesday.