Mayor Melvin “Kip” Holden and the Mayor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness will welcome NOAA’s Hurricane Hunter aircraft to Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport on April 28 to help raise awareness about the start of hurricane season.

The P-3 aircraft flies missions to monitor storm conditions and to collect data for hurricane research.  During a typical mission, the turboprop aircraft must slice through the eyewall of a hurricane, buffeted by winds, rain, and hail before entering the relative calm of the storm’s eye. The plane uses special state-of-the-art equipment to probe every wind and pressure change, repeating the grueling experience again and again during the course of a typical 10-hour mission

“We welcome the Hurricane Hunter crew, the National Hurricane Center and the National Weather Service to Baton Rouge to share their expertise with our team of emergency responders as we prepare for another hurricane season,” Mayor Holden said. “The exciting thing about this aircraft is that it flies low altitude missions directly into the eye of the storm to provide us with critical data about the intensity and structure of a storm.  We are very fortunate to host this team of national experts as we prepare for what they have indicated will be a busy hurricane season.”

The Hurricane Hunter’s daylong visit to Metropolitan Airport on April 28 will begin with a 10 a.m. press conference hosted by Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden and JoAnne Moreau, director of the Mayor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. Several hurricane experts will be on hand to answer questions, including; Ken Graham, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service Office in Slidell; Bill Proenza, director of the National Weather Service’s Southern Region; and Bill Read, director of the National Hurricane Center. The Hurricane Hunter’s flight crew will also be available.

At 1 p.m., Graham, Proenza and Read will conduct a hurricane briefing for state and local emergency management officials, representatives from private industry, and the media. A tour of the Hurricane Hunter aircraft will follow the briefing.

Between 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., student groups from local schools will be touring the aircraft.  The school tours are by invitation only. The general public will have an opportunity to tour the Hurricane Hunter from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Members of the media that want to make special arrangements for interviews with NOAA/NWS officials, contact Frank Revitte at the Slidell National Weather Service Office at 985-649-0357.

Three individuals were indicted by a federal grand jury for selling non-authentic paintings falsely attributed to Clementine Hunter, Acting United States Attorney William J. Flanagan announced today.

WILLIAM TOYE, age 78, of Baton Rouge; BERYL ANN TOYE, age 68, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and ROBERT E. LUCKY, JR., age 62, of New Orleans, Louisiana, were named in a four-count indictment which charges all three defendants with mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud.

Clementine Hunter was an African-American folk artist who lived in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Ms. Hunter began painting in the late 1930′s and continued to paint until a few days before her death on January 1, 1988. The value of Ms. Hunter’s paintings vary and are actively sold on the open art market.

The indictment alleges that beginning sometime in 2000 and continuing until September 30, 2009, the defendants conspired to defraud several collectors of Ms. Hunter’s paintings by misrepresenting the authenticity and origin of the paintings that LUCKY sold on behalf of the TOYES. The indictment also alleges that the defendants committed three counts of mail fraud in furtherance of the conspiracy.

If convicted of conspiracy, the defendants face a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both. Mail fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years, a $250,000 fine or both.

All defendants have been ordered to appear for arraignment on March 17, 2010 at 10:00 a.m., before United States Magistrate Judge James D. Kirk.

An indictment is merely an accusation and all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Alexandria Resident Agency, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Alexander C. Van Hook and Cytheria D. Jernigan.