Wednesday, May 22 2013 7:49 AM EDT2013-05-22 11:49:23 GMT
The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office is investigating a collision involving a train and a truck. Injuries were reported due to the crash, but specifics were not given. The name of the driver ofMore >>
The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office is investigating a collision involving a train and a truck. Injuries were reported due to the crash, but specifics were not given.More >>
Wednesday, May 22 2013 12:13 AM EDT2013-05-22 04:13:11 GMT
A British woman who claimed to have hit a cyclist while driving her car and then driving off tweeted about driving off and not caring much about it. But then the cops tweeted back.More >>
The first rule of Twitter - it's not smart to tweet about a crime. More >>
Tuesday, May 21 2013 10:24 AM EDT2013-05-21 14:24:32 GMT
A simple glance at the box scores will tell you LSU's Rachele Fico pitched two games against UL-Lafayette this past weekend and lost them both. They were a pair of defeats that ended the Tigers' seasonMore >>
As Fico grunted and launched strikes to UL-Lafayette batters Saturday and Sunday afternoon, she knew her father's longtime battle with cancer was likely nearing an unhappy end.
Wednesday, May 22 2013 10:21 AM EDT2013-05-22 14:21:28 GMT
ORLANDO, FL (RNN) – A man with possible ties to a Boston Marathon bombing suspect was shot and killed after the FBI interviewed him early Wednesday. The FBI confirmed a special agent fatally shot a manMore >>
The FBI confirmed a special agent fatally shot a man in custody while conducting "official duties," spokesman Dave Couvertier told NBC News. In a WESH interview, a friend identified the deceased as Ibragim Todashev, 27.More >>
BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -
Editor's Note: While this report deals only with portable toilets, WAFB will air a report Thursday at 10pm that examines all costs associated with food stamp distribution sites including catering of meals for state employees. That report will also be posted on wafb.com.
Hundreds of temporary toilets set up for one week at food stamp distribution sites for East Baton Rouge Parish recipients will cost taxpayers $360,214, according to records examined by the 9News I-Team.
The state only had a few days to set up six locations for people in East Baton Rouge Parish to sign up for emergency food stamps after Hurricane Isaac. The program is known as DSNAP.
In setting up the program, Louisiana's Department of Children & Family services were on a mission to drastically improve services from the level where they were four year prior, following Hurricane Gustav. That's when there were extremely long lines and few restroom facilities at many distribution sites. The fiasco, in 2008, eventually led to the resignation of the head of that state agency.
Workers say the improvements they made this time around were tremendous and led to most recipients being serviced in less than 30 minutes. "What you saw was a smooth operation," said Children and Family services spokesman Trey Williams.
Four of the six distribution sites for East Baton Rouge Parish already had working permanent restrooms so not as many portable toilets were needed at those locations. The state sent a dozen or fewer toilets to each of those locations. However, 82 temporary toilets were sent to the former Walmart in Baker and 112 were delivered to the Old Sam's Club on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge. Neither of those locations had permanent toilets available, Williams said.
"In sheltering, we do one toilet for every 25 people in the site," Williams said. "For DSNAP, we actually raised that to one toilet for every 35 people."
Williams says contracts for items like temporary toilets are put in place many months in advance to make sure the items are available when needed and can be delivered with very short notice.
