Woman arrested

in baby’s death

NEW IBERIA — A 31-year-old New Iberia woman has been booked with first-degree murder in the death of her 2-month-old baby.

Kristin Fowler is being held without bail after being arrested Tuesday by the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office following a seven-month investigation into the baby’s death on May 14.

Capt. Ryan Turner, a spokesman for the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office, said the baby died from severe trauma and injuries to the head. The death was ruled a homicide May 17.

N.O. to roll out tourism pitch

NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp. is planning a 2013 national campaign built around the theme “Follow Your NOLA.”

The pitch will roll out in its Super Bowl visitors’ guide, distributed to travelers coming to New Orleans for the NFL’s championship game on Feb. 3 at the Superdome.

The campaign will expand in April with advertising targeted in cities within easy flying or short driving distances.

The campaign ultimately will include a website allowing travelers to research New Orleans entertainment and leisure options in an interactive format.

The New York-based Dentsu America advertising firm is working with local marketers on the campaign. A $3.8 million advertising budget is included.

An estimated 9 million people visit New Orleans each year.

Man faces 30 years in prison for 5 killings in N.O.

NEW ORLEANS — A plea deal calls for a New Orleans man to be sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in five killings in 2007, including the fatal shooting of an off-duty police officer.

Steven Earl Hardrick, 27, is scheduled to plead guilty Thursday to five of the 17 counts he faced in a March indictment. A Wednesday court filing discloses the terms of his plea agreement with federal prosecutors.

Some of the victims’ family members have told prosecutors they think the sentence is too lenient. But prosecutors say the case against Hardrick was weakened by false confessions, new evidence, and a lack of eyewitnesses and forensic facts.

“While this 30 year deal is not the justice that the Government had hoped to achieve for the victims, it provides a definitive resolution to a complicated murder and drug case that has serious evidentiary problems,” prosecutors wrote.

Hardrick faced a maximum sentence of life in prison if he was convicted at trial. U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance isn’t bound by the terms of the plea agreement, but Hardrick can withdraw his guilty plea if she sentences him to more than 30 years.

The indictment said Hardrick and others broke into the home of New Orleans Police Detective Thelonius Dukes in October 2007 and demanded money and cocaine before shooting him. Dukes died the next month.

Hardrick also was charged with participating in an October 2007 carjacking that resulted in the killings of Brett Jacobs, David Alford and Howard Pickens. The fifth victim, Dwayne Landry, was killed in a separate shooting earlier the same month.

BP employees’ trial delayed

NEW ORLEANS — Two BP rig supervisors charged with manslaughter in the death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig will go on trial in 2014.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. has set Jan. 13, 2014, as the start of trial for Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, who are accused of disregarding high pressure readings that should have indicated trouble before BP’s well blowout.

Defense lawyers said they needed more time to prepare for the trial, which had been scheduled Feb. 5.

The judge’s action was made public Tuesday.

Prosecutors said in a document filed Tuesday that they expect to give defense lawyers more than a million pages of information.

Work begins on Buras H.S. Reef

BURAS — A high school destroyed by Hurricane Katrina is being turned into an artificial reef in Breton Sound.

Concrete, bricks and mortar from the school are being spread over six to eight acres off California Point for what will be called Buras High School Reef.

Hurricanes and coastal erosion have wiped out many of the area’s historically popular fishing holes.

“The size and make-up of this material should make the reef very resistant to erosion and weather,” Tim Osborne of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said after a visit to the site Tuesday. “I would expect anglers to enjoy this reef for generations.”

Once it’s complete, mooring buoys will mark the edges of the reef and give anglers a place to tie their boats.

It’s the 11th artificial reef produced by CCA Louisiana and its fourth using recycled material.

The Southshore Reef and the Kim and Dudley Vandenborre Reef in Lake Pontchartrain used material from Interstate 10 Twin Span damaged by Katrina, and road rubble was used for the Brad Vincent Artificial Reef in Calcasieu Lake. CCA has plans for more reefs in Vermilion Bay, Lake Pontchartrain and Terrebonne Bay.

CCA got money for the Buras High School Reef from Shell Oil Co., CCA’s Building Conservation Trust, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and the Barrier Island Restoration and Development Society. Bertucci Contactors is building it.

“Having graduated from Buras High School myself, this project takes on special meaning for me,” said Shell’s Bryan Bergeron. “It was difficult to take when the school was damaged so badly by Katrina. Building this new reef out of the old school somehow gives the place new life.”

2 die in fiery I-12 tractor-trailer wreck

LACOMBE — State police say two people died and a third was critically burned when a tractor-trailer ran off of Interstate 12, hit some trees, jack-knifed and was engulfed in flames. All three were trapped in the cab.

Trooper Nick Manalesays the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office is working to identify the dead.

Manale says witnesses rescued one passenger after the 2010 Freightliner drifted off the road about 11 a.m. Wednesday west of the exit to Lacombe. But he says intense flames kept them from reaching two other adults.

The rescued passenger was taken to University Medical Center in New Orleans. The others were dead at the scene.

Troopers are investigating what caused the crash.

World Trade Center ideas sought

NEW ORLEANS — In an attempt to put of the city’s most valuable pieces of real estate back into commerce, New Orleans officials are preparing to solicit proposals for redeveloping the World Trade Center site at the foot of Canal Street.

The proposals can call for either demolishing or renovating the vacant office tower.

Deputy Mayor Cedric Grant said he expects to release the request for proposals by early January. Those responding will have 90 days to submit proposals, which must be accompanied by a $50,000 deposit.

The city bought out the lease of the 33-story building in early 2012 from the World Trade Center organization. The $2.3 million deal gave the city full operational control over the 670,000-square-foot tower. The city owns the land under the building.

Whooping cranes now in SW La wild

GUEYDAN — Twenty-eight endangered whooping cranes now live in the wild in southwest Louisiana.

The state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says 14 youngsters brought to Gueydan (GAY-danh) on Nov. 29 were released Monday. They join 14 adults — two released in early 2011 and 12 released late last year in the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area in Vermilion Parish.

It’s the general area where the last flock of Louisiana whooping cranes lived in the 1940s.

In all, 40 have been released. Twelve died — mostly from predators or illness, though teenagers shot two.

Whooping cranes are the largest North American bird. Adults are five feet tall, with a wingspan of up to 8 feet.

They’re among the world’s rarest birds and are protected by state and federal law.

Vehicle tax break regs take effect

BATON ROUGE — Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration is moving ahead with new regulations that spell out limits for the state’s alternative fuel vehicle tax credit.

The final rule governing the tax credit program is being published today and will take effect this week.

The alternative fuel vehicle tax break’s cost has grown much larger than estimated and had become a headache for the Republican governor because of differing interpretations about eligibility.

The new regulations will definitively eliminate “flex-fuel” cars and trucks — which can burn ethanol but also use gasoline — from qualifying for the credit.

Including flex-fuel vehicles could have cost the state an estimated $240 million a year.

The program gives a credit of 10 percent of the cost of vehicle or $3,000, whichever is less.

Strike looms

at East and Gulf Coast ports

BOSTON — Weeks after a critical West Coast port complex was crippled by a few hundred striking workers, the East Coast is bracing for a possible walkout numbering thousands that could close 15 ports from Massachusetts to Texas.

The latest talks between shipping companies and dockworkers broke down Tuesday, less than two weeks before the contract expires Dec. 29, leading to worries a strike was inevitable.

The National Retail Federation wrote to President Barack Obama this week to ask him to use “all means necessary” to head off a strike, which they fear could have catastrophic ripple effects nationwide. “We foresee this as a national economic emergency, to be honest,” said Jonathan Gold, the group’s vice president of supply chain and customs policy.

Gold said billions in commerce at countless businesses nationwide could be affected, from auto manufacturers awaiting parts to the truckers that deliver them.

James McNamara, spokesman for the International Longshoremen’s Association, said the union knows what’s at stake for others but must protect its membership.

“We offer the labor that keeps the commerce moving,” he said. “If management doesn’t appreciate or respect the labor that has made them a lot of money, then we have to do what we have to do.”

A strike wouldn’t affect passenger cruise ships, U.S. mail, military cargo or perishable cargo with a limited shelf life. It also wouldn’t affect non-container, or break bulk, cargo such as steel, wood products and cars.

The longshoremen’s union represents 14,500 workers at the 15 ports, which extend south from Boston and handle 95 percent of all containerized shipments from Maine to Texas, about 110 million tons’ worth. The New York-New Jersey ports handle the most cargo on the East Coast, valued at $208 billion in 2011. The other ports that would be affected by a strike are Boston; Delaware River; Baltimore; Hampton Roads, Va.; Wilmington, N.C.; Charleston, S.C., Savannah, Ga.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Port Everglades, Fla., Miami; Tampa, Fla.; Mobile, Ala.; New Orleans; and Houston.

The impasse comes during a 90-day extension of the current contract. On Tuesday, a federal mediator offered another monthlong extension. Various issues, including wages, are unresolved, but the sides couldn’t agree on what’s become the key sticking point, container royalties.

The royalties are payments to union workers based on the weight of cargo received at each port. They were created in the 1960s to boost wages and finance worker benefits after increased automation cut down salaries and jobs, making it impossible for the dwindling labor force to finance its benefits, McNamara said.

The container carriers and port operators, represented by the U.S. Marine Alliance, want to cap the royalties at 2011 levels, saying they’ve morphed into a huge expense, totally unrelated to their original purpose, which hurts the industry’s competitiveness as it tries to keep up with new technology. The alliance says the royalty payments now amount to a bonus averaging $15,500 annually for East Coast workers who already earn more than $50 per hour.

Hospital in sight for eastern N.O.

NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu says construction is about to start on a $130 million hospital in eastern New Orleans, which has been without a hospital since Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city in August 2005.

Morial, other city officials and Archbishop Gregory Aymond planned a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday afternoon at the site where Pendleton Memorial Methodist Hospital stood before the storm.

Landrieu said in October that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had paved the way for construction by agreeing to insure a $97.6 million loan for the hospital.

His office says the project will revitalize that area’s economy while restoring full-service health care to residents in eastern New Orleans — an issue Landrieu has emphasized since taking office in May 2010.

The container carriers and port operators, represented by the U.S. Marine Alliance, want to cap the royalties at 2011 levels, saying they’ve morphed into a huge expense, totally unrelated to their original purpose, which hurts the industry’s competitiveness as it tries to keep up with new technology. The alliance says the royalty payments now amount to a bonus averaging $15,500 annually for East Coast workers who already earn more than $50 per hour.

The union says the payments aren’t a bonus, they’re an important supplemental wage. It argues that in its previous contract, management agreed to remove the royalties cap in exchange for being allowed to use $42 million of royalty payments to cover a previously negotiated wage increase. There’s no way the union can allow the alliance to revive the cap now and accept the cuts in worker income and union revenue, McNamara said.

The sides have traded charges of inflexibility, though both also point to a history of cooperation since the last East Coast-wide strike in 1977. No one has ruled out renewing talks.

But with time so short, companies are pushing up shipment dates or finding alternative transportation, said Steve Lamar, executive vice president of the Washington-based American Apparel and Footwear Association.

Companies are already worried about restocking after the holidays, and some are still dealing with the effects of the West Coast shutdown and Superstorm Sandy, he said.

“You’ve already got companies and ports and trade that have been battered by a couple of situations over the last couple of months, and we still have this uncertainty,” Lamar said.

In Philadelphia, port executive Robert Blackburn estimates a strike could affect 60 percent of the tonnage the port handles.

“Frankly, there’s not a lot we can do except that hope that cooler heads prevail and, if they don’t, perhaps there will be intervention by the president,” Blackburn said.

From The Associated Press.