Recently, a disgruntled employee at Grady Crawford Construction on Greenwell Springs Rd murdered 2 female employees of the same company. The alleged shooter’s reason was that the company refused to pay his unemployment, thus, he entered the business with a .357 and shot 3 employees before he was wrestled to the ground and disarmed. Unfortunately 2 of the victims, Cheryl Boykin and Dianna Tullier, did not survive the incident.
Its never a good time to receive news that a member of your family was murdered for no apparent reason, but to have it happen so close to Christmas makes it even harder to cope with. With that in mind, I was completely appalled that a local news crew located surviving members of the Boykin family and drove to their home for an interview on camera merely hours after the incident. It was the most classless act I have ever witnessed by a news crew. The photographer made sure to zoom in on the Christmas decorations out front of the house and also made sure that decorations were visible in the actual interviews of the Boykin children. What did they expect the children to say, honestly? One of the Boykin children broke down in tears when speaking of having to break the news to his niece about her aunt’s absence on Christmas Eve. I’m sure this is the type of stuff that the media thrives on, but I call it completely irresponsible journalism on the part of everyone involved. Its obvious that the Boykin family gave their consent to be interviewed and for the story to be aired, but that doesn’t make this incident any more acceptable.
In the future, rather than prey on the feelings of families of murder victims for a ratings boost, perhaps the media should focus their attention on the actual story itself and leave the innocent people out of it. The real story here is how much money you and I are going to spend over the next 10 years to defend, feed and house the guy who committed these murders and then confessed on live video moments after. What the victims family is going to do without their mother on Christmas is no business of yours, mine or your viewing audience, which has probably shrunk a good bit after watching that interview. I highly doubt you would appreciate me and my camera crew knocking on your door a few hours after your mother was murdered and asking you how you feel about the incident or wondering if you wanted to give a statement. Is it possible that just for a moment you could consider other people’s feelings before you act?
You should take it upon yourself to publish an apology for subjecting the Boykin family to unnecessary attention in their time of grief and pray that you never have to be victims twice in a single day like they were. Once due to the actions of Richard Matthews and twice because of your actions.
East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Deputies adopted the Lee family for Christmas after noticing their need for assistance this year during regular patrols. Mother, Pauline, and her two children, Chelsea, 8, and Isiah, 2, were showered with gifts, food and furniture yesterday morning.
Deputies with the Scotlandville substation, along with donations from a few local vendors, provided the family with food, a sofa, a television, toys, clothes, a bed, a Christmas tree and bikes. Tuesday evening, deputies went to the Lee’s apartment on Hanks Drive and put up and decorated a Christmas tree. They had a bed for the children, a television and table delivered as well. Wednesday morning, a crew of deputies came to deliver a sofa, Christmas food, presents and clothes for the family.
Captain Fredrick Thomas, commander of the Scotlandville substation, said that he knows the names of most of the children and parents in the area after years of patroling. He said he and his deputies saw the great need that the Lee family had and wanted to do something to help.
Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said he is proud of his deputies.
“They have the true spirit of Christmas,” Sheriff Gautreaux said. “This is exactly how law enforcement should be. They don’t just patrol the community, they are invested in the community. They truly care about the people they are serving.”
In addition to adopting the Lee family, Scotlandville deputies gave out presents to other area children. Deputies also helped deliver toys as part of the Sheriff’s Office and Constable’s Office Christmas Crusade for Children. The Crusade delivered toys to approximately 3,000 children in need this Christmas season.
The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office and Baton Rouge City Constable’s Office will be collecting new unwrapped, Christmas toys at Citadel Broadcasting at 650 Wooddale Blvd., City Constable’s Office Headquarters in the City Court Building, City Constable’s Office Community Services Center inside the Mall at Cortana, East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office Substations across the parish.
As in years past, the program is a way for local agencies to donate and deliver holiday gifts to children in need. The program was started in 1988 by Sheriff Elmer Litchfield and has helped thousands of children each year.
Toys will be delivered by the participating agencies beginning next week until all deliveries are made. If applicants do not receive delivery by Monday, December 21, 2009, they should check with either the EBRSO substation in which their application was filed, or the City Constable’s Office.
The Mall at Cortana, Citadel Broadcasting, and Holiday Helpers are community partners of the “Christmas Crusade for Children 2009.”
EBRSO Substations are as follows:
Burbank 9313 Burbank Dr.
Baton Rouge, LA 70820
Phone: (225) 389-5511
Fax: (225) 389-8279
As part of his Healthy Cities Initiative, Mayor President Melvin “Kip” Holden has released a new public service announcement that promotes bicycle safety by reminding motorist to “share the road” with bike riders.
“We’re building more bike paths in our city and parish because more people are riding for recreation and transportation,” the Mayor says in the 30-second television spot.
The spot features testimonials from several cyclists about their reasons for riding bikes: to help the environment, to promote fitness and because it’s fun.
“It’s important to share the road and respect our friends and neighbors on bikes,” Holden says in the PSA.
The spot concludes with a member of the City Police Bike Patrol reminding motorists that sharing the road with bicyclists “is not just the right thing to do, it’s the law.”
A new state law requires motorists to give bicyclists at least three feet clearance when passing them. The law, known as the Colin Goodier Act, also protects cyclists from physical and verbal harassment by motorists.
Dr. Colin Goodier was a cyclist who was killed in an accident last year on River Road in Baton Rouge. He was 28.
According to statistics compiled by LSU’s Highway Safety Research Group, 10 Louisiana bicyclists were killed in accidents last year and another 640 were injured in accidents. According to Baton Rouge City Police, there were 94 crashes involving bicycles in the city last year.
Before December 11th last year, it had been nearly 20 years since Baton Rouge saw any accumulation of snow, much less several inches. Now, 1 year after the biggest snowfall i’ve ever witnessed, the National Weather Service has released a forecast that calls for one half to one inch of accumulation for the Baton Rouge area. Here is the official news release:
This morning, the NWS in Slidell issued a Special Weather Statement on the likelihood of snow Friday night across northern portions of southeast Louisiana into inland southern Mississippi (including Baton Rouge, Franklinton, and McComb), with a mixture of snow and sleet, and rain and sleet as you head south to the south shore of Lake
Pontchartrain to the Mississippi Gulf coast. Here is the link to the
If we were expecting 2 inches or greater snow accumulations, or significant sleet accumulations, we would have issued a Winter Storm Watch at this point. However, it appears the higher snow accumulations will be one half to one inch mainly north of a line from metro Baton Rouge to just north of Hammond to Poplarville, and mainly on grassy surfaces and elevated bridges, overpasses, and other elevated road structures once temperatures drop into the lower 30s after midnight.
Minor accumulations of snow and sleet (less than one-half inch) could occur as far south as Napoleonville to LaPlace to the northshore of Lake Pontchartrain to the inland portions of the Miss. coastal counties, and mainly after midnight when temperatures fall into the mid 30s.
A fairly strong low pressure system is forecast to pass through the north central Gulf of Mexico Friday night. The main difference between this storm and the storm from December 11 of last year is in the upper levels of the atmosphere. Last year’s storm had a well defined upper low pressure area that drew and wrapped deep moist air from the Gulf of Mexico into the cold air just above the surface and around the upper low over southeast Louisiana and south Mississippi. The reason we are expecting lighter snows from this year’s December system is the upper level storm will be an open and fast moving trough that will not be able to draw as much moisture into the cold air. Confidence in this forecast is a bit higher than normal based on preferred model trends and analysis, and due to the fact that the wintry weather is forecast within
48 hours. For additional weather information including our graphical forecasts, please visit our web site:
The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office received a brand new substation this month. The substation which is adjacent to the Ochsner Medical Facility off of O’Neal Lane will not be an actual uniformed patrol substation, rather, it will house the Traffic, Armed Robbery/Burglary and the Auto Theft divisions of the Sheriff’s Office. The Kleinpeter substation on Airline Hwy at Barringer Foreman is still the main uniform patrol substation responsible for the O’Neal lane area. Ochsner offered the facility free of charge in order to acquire more of a police presence in the area.
The new office is located at 1759 Physician’s Park which runs off O’Neal lane just south of I-12:
Hurricane Ida has moved into the Southern Gulf of Mexico and is currently a category 2 storm. Top winds were near 100mph and the storm was located around 500 miles south/southeast of the Mississippi River earlier Sunday afternoon. Ida is moving north/northwest at 10mph. An upper level disturbance over Texas should keep Ida on a northbound course through Monday. The storm could be nearing the northern Gulf of Mexico by Monday evening, somewhere south of Mobile Bay in Alabama.
Hurricane force winds could be felt from the coast of Louisiana all the way east to the Florida Panhandle starting Monday afternoon on through Tuesday Morning. A hurricane watch has been issued from Grand Isle, Louisiana to Mexico Beach, Florida.
Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency for the state earlier today. The Louisiana National Guard, Louisiana State Police and Wildlife and Fisheries agencies have been placed on alert.
Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden is proposing a $900 million bond that will be on the November 14th ballot. The main focal points of the bond are a project called Audubon Alive ($225 million), the RiverCenter and parking garages in the downtown for enhancement of conventions and business conferences ($138 million) and major infrastructure and new facilities for public service agencies along with a new parish prison ($523 million).
Audubon Alive will be “an iconic facility on riverfront to engage new visitors to come to Baton Rouge and to serve as benchmark for the imagination and entrepreneurship of the Baton Rouge region“. This project will supposedly have a huge economic impact on the Baton Rouge area in several ways. First, the construction and activity associated with it will generate over 1500 jobs per year between 2010 and 2019. The resulting taxes off of the personal earnings from these jobs are estimated to be near $4.2 million locally and $4.6 million for the state. The ongoing activities associated with the facility along with private endeavors will create over 20,000 jobs which will result in an estimated $57.3 million in local taxes collected and $50.3 million in state taxes collected. Of course these figures are only estimates and I’m honestly not certain what they are based on. Along with these figures I’d also be interested in seeing the worst case scenario figures as well.
The construction to the River Center and the parking garages associated with the River Center will create an estimated 700+ jobs per year during the 4 year construction. The resulting local taxes collected should reach an average of $2.2 million per year as well as $2.2 million in local taxes. Post construction activity associated with the River Center and parking garages should result in 900 jobs.
A new public safety complex is also part of the bond proposal. It will consist of a new headquarters for the Baton Rouge City Police, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office and a training facility shared by each. The training facility will also be used by East Baton Rouge EMS and the Baton Rouge Fire Department. This complex will be built at the current Parish Public Safety Campus on Harding Blvd between the I-10 and Plank Rd. To me, this is the best reason to vote for the bond. The Baton Rouge City Police Headquarters is literally falling down around itself. It is a pretty big embarrassment to such a fantastic police agency. The department was moved there over 30 years ago as a ‘temporary’ facility. The actual building was once a school, which was built over 70 years ago. Baton Rouge Police Corporal Chris Stewart, President of the Baton Rouge Union of Police, said, “We’re operating in a building that’s held together by termites holding hands.”
The East Baton Rouge Parish Prison is also a relic among relics that are used for our public service agencies here. It is over 30 years old and has been overcrowded for most of its life. The antique building presents a huge danger to both prisoners and deputies who work there. The overcrowding problem among inmates promotes violence which makes the environment even more dangerous to work in. On top of that, overcrowding means no room for new prisoners at peak times, which means the guy who committed a violent crime recently may end up walking away with a summons to appear in court instead of being put where he belongs, in jail.
Personally, I don’t know enough about Audubon Alive to predict its success. I do know that I’m an advocate of anything that further establishes the City of Baton Rouge’s spot on the map for tourism and this project seems like it has the potential to do just that. Most major cities #1 attraction is the downtown area, including our own New Orleans. If we can make downtown Baton Rouge as attractive as other major cities by putting Audubon Alive there, then that’s just what we should do. I certainly don’t mind a tax increase that will enable law enforcement here to better do their jobs by providing them with top notch facilities and the equipment they need. You should feel the same way. If you don’t, I propose you contact the Baton Rouge Police Headquarters building on Mayflower st and take a look around at what they have to work with.
So very rarely is it that a small town in Louisiana gets to be part of national attention. Unfortunately, this time its a news story that casts a cloud of negativity on our state. Apparently, Tangipahoa Parish has a Justice of the Peace named Keith Bardwell that seems to be stuck in the past (way in the past). This week he made headlines nationally and possibly internationally by refusing to issue a marriage license to Beth Humphrey, who is white, and Terence McKay, who is black. Bardwell stated that he is not a racist and his actions do not reflect that of a racist, but that he refused to issue the license to the couple because he has concerns for the offspring of interracial couples. What kind of concerns does this idiot have, more importantly, what gives him the right to decide who can get married or not? This guy justtook racial relations in the USA back about 70 years. What makes this even worse is that most people who read the articles related to this incident, will immediately dub everyone in Louisiana racist and not just Keith Bardwell.
Bardwell stated that he was definitely not a racist and that he has “piles of black friends”. He also stated that he performs marriages of lots of black couples and has no problem with them, but when it comes to interracial couples, he has always referred them to another justice of the peace and up until now has had no problems when doing so. Several stateofficials from Bobby Jindal on down have expressed their deep concerns with this decision and have called for either an investigation of Keith Bardwell’s actions or for his immediate dismissal. Its no surprise that the NAACP has officially called for Mr. Bardwell’s resignation. This is one of the times I can agree with them, which are usually few and far between.
In 1963 the US Supreme Court ended prohibition of marriage due to race in the case of Loving vs. Virginia. Keith Bardwell is in violation of Louisiana’s Judicial Code of Conduct which states “A judge shall perform judicial duties without bias or prejudice.” Bardwell argues that his decision was not driven by racism, but it was driven by the fact that he does not approve of interracial marriages ONLY because of the serious effect it has on the children of an interracial couple.
As for Terence McKay and Beth Humphrey, they were able to find a JOP that granted them a marriage license. They are also planning on filing a lawsuit because of the way they were treated. I wish them the best and hope that Keith Bardwell’s term is ended immediately. We need to ship this guy back to the 60s with his beliefs.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge has settled a case involving the former Bishop Joseph Sullivan and Glenn Hymel of Houston, Tx. The Diocese paid out $225,000.00 to Mr. Hymel in the settlement. Mr. Hymel alleges that he was abused by Bishop Sullivan from 1978 to 1982 while at a seminary for minors hoping to enter the priesthood. Mr. Hymel transferred to a seminary in Corpus Christi, Texas after the Baton Rouge seminary closed, but that the Bishop visited him there often, where the abuse allegedly continued. He also alleges that he accompanied the Bishop out of town on several occasions at which time he was also abused.
Based on the allegations by Mr. Hymel, he has now received almost a quarter of a million dollars from the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge. Oh, I may have forgotten to mention that Bishop Sullivan died in 1982. Yes, that is correct, someone made allegations against someone who has been deceased for 17 years and received a payoff because of these allegations. Now don’t get me wrong, I am very sympathetic towards Mr. Hymel if he was indeed the victim of any abuse. However, I cannot honestly believe that someone can lodge such a severe complaint against someone who has been dead for 17 years and actually be paid compensation for what allegedly happened! What kind of door is this opening for fraudulent claims? Even after you die your name could still be tarnished, even if you are a man of the cloth? What is this world coming too? Poor Bishop Sullivan, once remembered for all the good he did for the Diocese of Baton Rouge is now, basically, a convicted sex offender without even having a chance to defend himself from these allegations? They even yanked his name from a High School named after him here in Baton Rouge based on this. Where is the justice for the former Bishop Sullivan here? Has anyone even entertained the thought that Mr. Hymel made this up? I can think of 225 thousand good reasons he may have had to formulate these allegations. Maybe he did and maybe he didnt, but the wheels of justice are based on the premise that everyone has their fair say in an accusation against them. This is a disgrace to the Catholic Diocese and a huge injustice. I sincerely hope no one else hits the lottery by making accusations against any deceased persons. Even moreso, I really hope an influx of ‘abused’ people don’t start surfacing and accusing deceased individuals of wrongdoings.
Mr. Hymel, I apologize for whatever you went through or whatever you are still going through, however, you sued the Catholic Diocese for (allegedly) failing to protect you from the Bishop at the time of this. I sincerely believe that they had no role in this nor did they have a ‘duty’ to protect you from something they knew nothing about. Had they known about this while the alleged abuser was still alive, then perhaps he would have had to suffer the consequences. Instead, a deceased man, who can have no say so in this, lies there a convicted sex offender and basically a disgrace based on your accusations. Unless there was a video or a written statement given by Bishop Sullivan prior to his death, to me, these are still accusations and warrant no action whatsoever.
Now you can take us with you on your mobile device! There's no new web address to memorize either. Just type in our regular web address on your mobile device and automatically land on the page designed for your particular device (iPhone, Blackberry, droid, etc). Read the latest articles, search for past articles, view photos, post comments, etc all from your mobile phone/device.
Keep up with the latest news on the go, from Baton Rouge Today!
The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office and Baton Rouge City Constable’s Office will be collecting new unwrapped, Christmas toys at Citadel Broadcasting at 650 Wooddale Blvd., City Constable’s Office Headquarters in the City Court Building, City Constable’s Office Community Services Center inside the Mall at Cortana, East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office Substations across the parish.
As part of his Healthy Cities Initiative, Mayor President Melvin “Kip” Holden has released a new public service announcement that promotes bicycle safety by reminding motorist to “share the road” with bike riders.
Before December 11th last year, it had been nearly 20 years since Baton Rouge saw any accumulation of snow, much less several inches. Now, 1 year after the biggest snowfall i’ve ever witnessed, the National Weather Service has released a forecast that calls for one half to one inch of accumulation for the Baton Rouge area. Here is the official news release:
The East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office received a brand new substation this month. The substation which is adjacent to the Ochsner Medical Facility off of O’Neal Lane will not be an actual uniformed patrol substation, rather, it will house the Traffic, Armed Robbery/Burglary and the Auto Theft divisions of the Sheriff’s Office. The Kleinpeter substation on Airline Hwy at Barringer Foreman is still the main uniform patrol substation responsible for the O’Neal lane area. Ochsner offered the facility free of charge in order to acquire more of a police presence in the area.
Hurricane Ida has moved into the Southern Gulf of Mexico and is currently a category 2 storm. Top winds were near 100mph and the storm was located around 500 miles south/southeast of the Mississippi River earlier Sunday afternoon. Ida is moving north/northwest at 10mph. An upper level disturbance over Texas should keep Ida on a northbound course through Monday. The storm could be nearing the northern Gulf of Mexico by Monday evening, somewhere south of Mobile Bay in Alabama.
the 4 year construction. The resulting local taxes collected should reach an average of $2.2 million per year as well as $2.2 million in local taxes. Post construction activity associated with the River Center and parking garages should result in 900 jobs.
Now you can take us with you on your mobile device! There's no new web address to memorize either. Just type in our regular web address on your mobile device and automatically land on the page designed for your particular device (iPhone, Blackberry, droid, etc). Read the latest articles, search for past articles, view photos, post comments, etc all from your mobile phone/device.
