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City Council eyes Mardi Gras panel Lafayette parade route changes prompt debate BY STEPHEN MARCANTEL
to Mardi Gras parade routes and events. The council successfully introThe Lafayette City Council took duced an ordinance that seeks to a step closer to creating an adviso- create a nine-person Mardi Gras ry committee to approve changes Activities Advisory Committee at Staff writer
Tuesday night’s council meeting. It also deferred a vote on a measure that would have provided space for the Lafayette Convention and Visitors Commission along the Jefferson Street parade route.
But the makeup of that committee and whether or not a parade would still be coming to Jefferson Street was part of a heated debate between council member Kenneth Boudreaux and Mayor-President Monique Boulet. The debate centered on whether the council had authority to ap-
Supreme Court to hear La. coastal suit
prove or disapprove changes to Mardi Gras parade routes following an October announcement by Boulet that moved the route along Jefferson Street. The change caught some people, such as Boudreaux and his
ä See PANEL, page 4A
Comey case faces new hurdle
Justice Department handling of grand jury under scrutiny
$745M Plaquemines Parish verdict hangs in the balance
BY ALEX LUBBEN
BY ERIC TUCKER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Jan. 12 in a high-stakes legal dispute that could have wider implications on dozens of lawsuits pitting Louisiana coastal parishes against oil companies over historic damage to the state’s wetlands. At stake is a $745 million verdict, handed down in April by a jury in Plaquemines Parish. But the ruling could ultimately affect a range of cases involving “The obligation billions in damages. The Supreme Court couldn’t be agreed in June to hear clearer. You have the case, but the date to restore the for arguments was only property back recently announced. The case, Chevto its original ron U.S.A. Inc. v. condition. … Plaquemines Parish, is That’s the law. one of dozens of lawThat’s what the suits accusing major marsh deserves.” oil companies of violating coastal use laws and JOHN CARMOUCHE, destroying wetlands. attorney The issue the Supreme Court is taking up, however, does not have to do with land loss or pollution, but rather where the case should be heard. The lawsuits were originally filed in state court. Chevron, Exxon and other major oil companies have long argued that they belong in federal court, a jurisdiction that is seen as friendlier to the companies. Chevron has argued that it was acting under federal contracts during World War II, when the oil and gas it extracted from Louisiana lands was used to produce aviation fuel for warplanes, and so the lawsuits belong in federal court. Lower courts have repeatedly rejected that argument. The April trial was the first of 42 similar lawsuits, all led by Baton Rouge-based law firm Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello, on behalf
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey hit another hurdle Wednesday as the Justice Department acknowledged a possible lapse in how the case was presented to a federal grand jury for indictment. The concession risked further imperiling a politically charged prosecution already subject to multiple challeng- Comey es and demands for its dismissal. It came during a hearing in which Comey’s lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff to throw out the case on grounds that the government was being vindictive and as a separate challenge to Lindsey Halligan, the hastily appointed and inexperienced prosecutor who secured the indictment, is pending. The revelation that the full grand jury did not review a copy of the final indictment is the latest indication of the Justice Department’s seemingly disjointed pursuit of a criminal case against one of President Donald Trump’s political enemies. Comey was fired by Trump in May 2017 while overseeing an FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign. The two have been publicly at odds ever since, with Trump deriding Comey as “a weak and untruthful slime ball” and calling for his prosecution. Concerns about the legal process came into focus earlier in the week
Associated Press
Staff writer
STAFF FILE PHOTO By MATTHEW HINTON
A rusted oil pipeline in the Bayou Gentilly oil field has been abandoned, according to lawyers representing Plaquemines Parish in their lawsuit against oil and gas ä See COURT, page 4A companies.
Mom earns expert marksmanship badge in the history She’s first woman in uty of the St. Landry Sheriff’s St. Landry Sheriff’s Parish Office to earn the Office history to do so agency’s expert
Whatley. For Krull, a resource officer at North Central High School, the decision to push herself came from the responsibility she feels walkmarksmanship ing school hallways every day. badge. With school shootings becoming BY JA’KORI MADISON The badge is Krull more common nationwide, Krull Staff writer awarded to those said she never wants to question Deputy Kiley Krull had no idea who complete an advanced fire- whether she could protect her her voluntary training would allow arms course, which was created ä See BADGE, page 4A her to become the first female dep- by training director Capt. Neil
WEATHER HIGH 82 LOW 69 PAGE 6A
Business ...................10C Commentary ................3B Nation-World ................2A Classified .....................5A Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................2B Comics-Puzzles .....7C-9C Living............................5C Sports ..........................1C
ä See COMEY, page 5A
St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Kiley Krull has earned an expert marksmanship badge. PHOTO PROVIDED By KILEy KRULL
101ST yEAR, NO. 143