The Town Talk from Alexandria, Louisiana • Page 34

llorauhia Dailj Zttm talk Friday. August 5, 1994 D-4 Briefs Restocking the police State police looking to beef up traditional roles 1 of-- Associated Press After years of budget problems made worse by more duties in regulating gambling, Louisiana State Police are restocking their uniformed ranks. Right now. 79 cadets are aiming to graduate in September. An 80-member cadet class is planned for January and another 80 are expected to be trained in June 1995.

"With these troopers, we are determined to beef up the more traditional roles of state police," Col. Paul Fontenot, state police commander, said Thursday. From a high of just under 1,000 tions while the rest will be replacing troopers who have resigned or retired. Fontenot said state police are seeking plenty of applicants: he wants eight to nine applicants for each spot eventually filled in the cadet classes. Cadets are paid $1,504 per month while they are in the 15-week training class and make $1,609 per month upon graduation.

Special emphasis will be placed on hiring minorities and women, Fontenot said. Of the current contingent of 734 troopers, 102 are racial minorities and 10 are women. troopers in 1982. the force fell just shy of 600 during the late 1980s as state budget cuts put cadet classes on the back burner for nearly six years. Over the past few years, the trooper ranks have grown back to 734.

But with the gradual increase in officers, an explosion of gambling-related duties has come. In addition to charitable gambling such as bingo and horse racing, state police now regulate the riverboat casino industry and video poker. Of the current force, 113 troopers are now assigned to gambling regulation, Fontenot said. "The gaming section of state police is the only one we have full staff," he said. "Every troop is short of commissioned people." Fontenot said he also plans to beef up state police's environmental enforcement division, the narcotics division and the ranks of detectives.

Money for the new troopers became available when the Legislature decided this year to allow money originally earmarked to pay for riverboat casino enforcement to be used for any kind of trooper hirings. Of the current class, 30 of the cadets will be filling new posi he lost investment Lawyers, associates gather in New Orleans Paul Fontenot: "We are determined to beef up trie more traditional roles of state police." a Dean Witter receipt, the suit said. The Morgan City newspaper, The Daily Review, quoted sources as saying that an investor typically was paid the guaranteed return the first two quarters. They speculated that the payments came either from the principal deposited by the investor or from other investors. According to the suit, after a couple of dividend payments had been paid out, a pitch was made to let the dividends and principal "ride" to increase the investors' overall return.

Felterman reportedly told investors their earnings were tax-deferred and that no taxable income would be generated until they withdrew money. Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission were in Dean Witter's office in Morgan City, reviewing records, The Daily Review reported. The agencies would neither confirm nor deny an investigation. oyster ban the ISSC meets in Tacoma, Washington next week. Tauzin, on behalf of the delegation, will send letters asking the conference to reject the FDA's recommendation, Johnson said.

Similar bans were proposed in the past, but the conference did not accept them, he said. NEW ORLEANS (AP) Chances are, most residents of New Orleans will see a lawyer sometime soon. Over 10,000 legal professionals began arriving Thursday for the American Bar Association's annual meeting, which will include topics as diverse as the O.J. Simpson case to how lawyers can improve their image. The ABA the world's largest professional organization will host 2,300 meetings and events in 13 hotels and the Ernest N.

Morial Convention Center. Lawyers, judges and other legal professionals will rub elbows with each other and with baseball great Hank Aaron, minister Jesse Jackson, Macedonia's president Kiro Gligorov and several well-known print and broadcast journalists. Among the well-known barristers scheduled to address ABA members during the six-day convention: -Recently confirmed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. -Howard Weitzman, the Los Angeles lawyer who represented Simpson before his June arrest on murder charges.

-Former attorney general nominee Zoe Baird, who was forced to withdraw from consideration last year. -Steven Brill, chairman and chief executive officer of American Lawyer newspaper, which also owns the popular Court TV network. Organization members are expected to nominate their Jody did not intentionally hurt me, my family or the other 200 or 300 people who invested with him." The list of investors is said to include doctors, lawyers, accountants, businessmen and elected officials. Smith said he did not know anything about the case, other than what he read in the newspaper. A Dean Witter spokesman said last month that Felterman had been fired, but refused to comment further.

Attempts to reach Felterman for comment have been unsuccessful. Bob Wright, attorney for the investors, said Felterman told clients the deal was a special offer he could make to only selected customers, and dealings had to be kept quiet. Wright said many of the investors sold property, cashed in retirements and used other means to get money for the investment. Clients were sometimes instructed to write a check made payable to Felterman, who issued looks into been handled," Tauzin said. "I am very concerned that the FDA has fueled hysteria." Johnson said Thursday's scheduled congressional hearing on the proposed ban and its effect was canceled after Tuesday's meeting.

He said the hearing would probably be postponed until after NOKIA BAG PHONE cellular Rep. says MORGAN CITY. La. (AP) -State Rep. Jack Smith became the first of a reported list of distinguished investors to acknowledge he sank money into a losing investment believed to have cost 200 people more than $10 million.

Smith, D-Patterson, told a Republican Club on Wednesday that he had invested money with Jody M. Felterman, a Dean Witter Reynolds stockbroker being sued by former clients and believed to be under investigation by federal officials. The class-action suit, filed against Felterman by three investors, says Felterman told clients an investment would yield a 40-percent annual return, at a time when interest rates were hovering at about 4 percent. Smith said he was naturally disappointed with the investment, in which he lost money. "It's no secret that Jody is a very close friend of mine," he said.

"When the facts about exactly what occurred do come to light, I would hope that it will show that Congress Associated Press Federal food officials want to restrict the use of Gulf Coast oysters and members of Louisiana's congressional delegation met behind closed doors this week to determine why. "The mere mention of the possibility of a ban has already sent shock waves throughout the industry," said Congressman Billy Tauzin, as quoted by his press secretary Ken Johnson. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had recommended to the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference, which makes rules for the shellfish industry, that it require oysters from the Gulf Coast be shucked and their containers tagged with warnings that they should only be eaten cooked. The FDA proposed the ban because of deaths associated with vibrio vulnificus, a bacteria that is more prevalent in the warm waters of the Gulf Coast.

The ban would not affect oysters taken from the Pacific or Atlantic coasts. Johnson said Reps. Tauzin, Bob Livingston, R-Metairie, William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, and Sens. John Breaux and Bennett Johnston met with FDA Deputy Commissioner Carol Scheman to discuss the issue that has sparked several calls to the congressmen from the state's oyster industry and restaurant owners. Johnson said Tauzin told Scheman there was evidence that Pugent Sound oysters contain more bacteria than those harvested in the Gulf states.

"The issue that concerns us the most is the way in which this has DISPLAY YOUR COLLECTION SEE OUR STANDS HANGERS HILL HARRIS 1504 METRO DR. Norplant lawsuit NEW ORLEANS (AP) Four people have filed a class action suit against the company that markets and distributes Norplant, a device touted as the latest alternative to the birth control pilL The plaintiffs claim undesirable side effects from a half dozen matchstick-sized Norplant tubes implanted in their arms, as well as painful surgery and disfigurement related to removing them. The suit, which was Tiled last month in state district court, is at least the fourth action filed in the United States against Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories over the implants. The firm, a division of American Home Products markets, packages and distributes Norplant kits to doctors at $365 each. The drug and capsules are manufactured by a another company in Finland.

Wyeth-Ayerst spokeswoman Audrey Ashby declined comment on the suit. But she said the Norplant system has been tested and used for 20 years in 39 countries. Inmate hangs self MANY (AP) A Sabine Parish Jail inmate hung himself in his cell with his shoe laces, authorities said. Gerald Maurice Carr, 21, of Many, had been jailed for 12 days on an aggravated battery charge when he was found dead Tuesday night. He had been accused of stabbing a man at an apartment complex.

Carr had been placed on suicide watch at the jail Saturday. He had been depressed and was not getting along with other inmates, Sheriff James Alfice Brumley said. The prisoner was found hanging only about 10 minutes after a guard checked his cell, the sheriff said. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Sabine Medical Center. Orleans optimistic NEW ORLEANS (AP) New Orleans residents are more optimistic than their suburban counterparts that their home parish will become a better place to live in the next five years, according to a biannual poll.

That reverses a longstanding trend, pollster Susan Howell of the University of New Orleans said. The Orleans Parish poll, conducted May 6-19 just after Mayor Marc Morial took office, found that 54 percent of the respondents thought New Orleans will become a better place to live in coming years. Only 33 percent gave that answer two years ago. Among Jefferson Parish residents interviewed July 19-24, 35 percent said that parish will become a better place to live in the next five years. That figure is down from 49 percent in 1992.

Reservists in action BOSSIER CITY (AP) About 100 members of the 917th Reserve Wing left Barksdale Air Force Base on Wednesday to help enforce the United Nations' no-fly rule over Bosnia. They were heading for Aviano Air Force Base In Italy, where they were to relieve regular Air Force crews. For three weeks, the reservists will help fly, maintain and support a dozen A-10 thunderbolt attack jets. This marks the second time in six months that members of the 917th are supporting the no-fly rule. Sulfur carrier AMELIA (AP) The builders of a molten sulfur carrier are breathing a sigh of relief after an uneventful first trip from its shipyard in Amelia to the Gulf of Mexico.

The vessel, one of a handful manufactured in the United States in recent years, is returning to Louisiana, where it will be named and christened at a New Orleans ceremony this weekend. Its manufacturers at McDermott Shipyard had worried about silting problems from the recent high water, but said the vessel's trip to the Gulf, under tow by Tidewater went smoothly. According to the shipyard, the vessel is the first ocean-going U.S. flagged commercial ship built on the Gulf Coast in several years. Research partnership NEW ORLEANS (AP) The U.S.

Department of Energy has awarded $23 million to a partnership of Tulane and Xavier universities' researchers to determine whether nuclear weapons plants across the country pose immediate or long-term threats to people and the environment. Researchers from the two New Orleans universities have established the Consortium for Environmental Risk Evaluation conduct the year-long study. first female president-elect. If elected at the conclusion of the meeting, Albuquerque lawyer Roberta Cooper Ramo in 1995 would become the ABA's first woman president Children, both as criminals and as victims of violence, will also be a major focus. Members also will take action on controversial proposals addressing pretrial publicity and gun violence.

Although most of the meeting's agenda was set before Simpson's case began unfolding, the high-profile arrest and legal proceedings have proven to be compelling topics for the convention. Several attorneys lawyers and journalists, including Weitzman, will talk about ways to ensure both a fair trial and a free press during celebrity court cases. Another panel will talk about ways lawyers can select jurors in such cases. Drafted before Simpson's arrest, the resolution regarding pretrial publicity would advise lawyers on both sides of high-profile cases to refrain from releasing information or making statements that could bias potential jurors or somehow taint the legal process. The measure on gun control calls on members to support greater regulation of handguns to curb gun violence.

While both measures are voluntary and cannot be enforced by the organization, individual states are encouraged to incorporate them into codes regulating the legal profession. Hotel in the downtown area of New Orleans, have exceeded original projections. But too many passengers have been enjoying the free river ride rather than sitting down at the tables. Part of the problem may be the Queen of New Orleans name, Grossman said. "There was a little bit too much emphasis on the nautical," he said.

"The Queen of New Orleans could signify almost anything. With the Flamingo, Hilton will be incorporating one of the most famous names in gambling. The original Flamingo in Las Vegas was built by mobster Bugsy Siegel. That casino gave impetus to development of the Las Vegas Strip. The Flamingo changed ownership several times and is now the casino trademark of Hilton.

In addition to Las Vegas, there are now Flamingo Hilton hotel-casinos in Reno and Laughlin, Nev. Grossman said that despite the disappointing gambling take, the Queen had boosted the New Orleans Hilton hotel's occupancy rate and food and beverage sales. MAX N.O. casino to be revamped Sl 0 llll M) MOTOROLA i i NEW ORLEANS (AP) After six months of too many riders betting too little money, Louisiana's first floating casino on the Mississippi River will be revamped with a new boat and one of the most famous names in gambling lore. Sometime in November, the Queen of New Orleans, just a stone's throw away from the proposed site of the world's largest land casino on Canal Street, will become the Flamingo Casino New Orleans.

"The word Flamingo says said Marc Grossman, a spokesman for Hilton Hotels, half-owner of the casino. "It will highlight what the vessel is." Replacing the current boat will be a new vessel that will accommodate 2,400 passengers, instead of the current 1,500. The Queen, which opened Feb. 10, has been dragging far behind the state's other five riverboats in terms of win-per-passenger -the average amount each passenger leaves behind at the gambling tables. Through June 30, the period for which the latest casino revenue figures are available, the Queen has averaged only $31 in gambling revenue from each passenger.

By comparison, the nearby Star Casino at Lake Pontchartrain has taken in just under $50 from each passenger. Players at Lake Charles is the champion so far with $91. Harrah's Shreveport and the Isle of Capri at Bossier City have taken in about $60 and $49 respectively. The state's sixth riverboat, the Horseshoe Casino at Bossier City, will report its first revenue figures this month. Hilton says the number of passengers boarding the Queen, which docks next to the Hilton i ORIG.

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