The Daily Review from Morgan City, Louisiana • 6

Page 6, The Daify Review, Morgan City, Friday, April 3, 1 998 I lowered bv committee "4 J0 bill hard, calling it an attack on social drinkers. On Thursday, they were up apinst the emotional testimony from loved ones of three people killed in accidents involving drivers with a .08 percent blood-alcohol level. Kathy Gerald of Bogalusa clutched a picture of her 21 -year-old daughter. "She was murdered by a man with a blood-alcohol level of .08 (percent)," Mrs. Gerald told the committee.

"It's been almost six years. I'm still awakened in the night by the image of my daughter being thrown through the wind- BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) It was a victory for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, but it may be short-lived. A House committee on Thursday approved legislation that could make it easier to arrest and convict drunk drivers by lowering from .10 percent to .08 percent the blood-alcohol level that is considered proof of drunkenness in Louisiana. The House Criminal Justice Committee voted 6-4 in favor of the bill, breaking a 5-5 tie that had bottled up the bill last week.

The Louisiana Restaurant Association and various influential liquor-related lobbies are fighting the f'3 shield-It wasnt the emotion that broke the committee tie, however. Rep. Beverly Bruce, D-Mansfield, said she had initially opposed the measure because she wanted to resist federal pressure for the lower standard. The U.S. Senate has approved highway legislation that would withhold federal money from states that don't enact the lower standard.

But this week, a U.S. House committee working on identical legislation refused to hold the highway money hostage. Bruce said the lessening of the federal pressure convinced her to vote for the bill Thursday. To become law, the bill still must run a tricky political gauntlet: passage by the full House, approval by a Senate committee that already has voted down similar legislation, then passage by the full Senate. Aside from the legislative path, there is another complication.

The bill is being considered while the Legislature is in special session. The session was called by the governor, who issued a narrowly drawn "call" essentially an agenda that strictly defines what lawmakers can debate and vote on. Mr. Lucky's owner files suit against state FBI, Justice plea entered NEW ORLEANS (AP) The FBI and U.S. Justice Department struck a criminal plea agreement with one oftheirown.

The compromise allowed former FBI agent and former world-class sprinter Daron A. Council to plead guilty Thursday to demanding and taking $6,000 in bribes from a cocaine dealer in exchange for information and other help. As their part of a plea bargain, federal prosecutors dropped a charge accusing Council of setting up a drug deal so that he could confiscate and keep a second dealer's cash. Council, who had been on administrative leave since his arrest Nov. 21, faces 10 to 16 months in prison and up to $500,000 in fines.

Prosecutors from the U.S. Justice Department in Washington asked that he get a year and a day in prison. Sentencing was scheduled July 8 before Judge Edith Clements. The maximum sentence for each of the three counts on which he was indicted was 15 years and $250,000 in fines, but federal sentencing guidelines call for the smaller total sentence. Council had been an FBI agent in New Orleans since 1992, the year after he beat Ben Johnson in the 100-meter race marking Johnson's return from his steroid suspension in 1991.

The plea bargain proposed Wednesday by the FBI and accepted Thursday by U.S. District Judge Martin L.C. Feldman was delayed because Clements was out of town. Council's plea admitted that in November 1997, he offered to sell information about drug investigations to a cocaine dealer, who gave him two $500 casino chips and $2,000 in cash for the information. He also admitted that, for another $3,000, he offered to give the dealer a phony FBI receipt for cash supposedly confiscated by the FBI.

The idea, according to an FBI affidavit released in November, was that the dealer would tell his creditors that the FBI had taken a large amount of money, and the creditors would ease off. I The FBI said in November that it began two-month investigation of Council when an alleged drug traf- ficker told an agent that Council had offered to do whatever he wanted for $5,000. "boilerplate language" similar to that issued to others informing them of investigations and license actions, she said. Mr. Lucky's lost its video poker license because the truck stop violated regulations when it quit selling fuel for almost two months last year.

IOTA ETA OMEGA will again sponsor the "Art in the Park" children's activity during the Day in the Park, sponsored by the St. Mary Parish Arts and Humanities Council. This year's festival will be Sunday in downtown Lawrence Park in Morgan City. All events are free and are open to the public. Festivities begin at noon and will continue until 5 p.m.

Above, Shoirdae Henderson makes a simple mask in preparation for "Art in the Park." Jazzland Park master plan OK'd by council Legislative Briefs BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) A truck stop owner fighting the state over the revocation of his video poker license has filed a defamation suit against state gambling regulators. The state district court suit by John C. Mangano, the owner of Mr. Lucky's truck stop in Baton Rouge, contends the Louisiana Gaming Control Board, board chairman Hillary Crain and the former head of the attorney general's gaming division defamed him in public documents.

The documents were filed in connection with the license revocation case. Mangano is challenging a 1997 notice telling him of the pending revocation on the grounds that he was "unsuitable" for a license and conducting "criminal activities" at the truck stop. Mangano's attorney, Jill Craft, said the allegations are "patently untrue" and the state put on no evidence to back them. Denise Bottcher, a spokesman for the attorney general, said the suit would have to be reviewed and the agency would have no 'immediate comment. The attorney general's office acts as legal counsel for the gambling board.

The former gaming division head, Jenifer Schaye, said she did not defame Mangano. The notice used Judge Tyson up for U.S. district seat 0. magistrate among four cleared for federal judgeships large amphitheater for entertainment. However, a legal dispute may be developing over the rights to the name Jazzland.

A group of eastern New Orleans businessmen uninvolved in the park have tried to acquire rights to the name and has asked the park's developers for $8 million to settle the matter. An attorney for the park's primary developers, Tom and Dian Winingder, said the offer was refused. The other group, headed by De-mond Crump and Curtis Bordenave, have been turned down for the name by the Louisiana secretary of state's office, which registers corporate names." However, an attorney for Crump and Bordenave said that group is considering a suit against the state. Schutte Fleming Wright. The chairman, Sen.

Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said at the start of the meeting that the judges wouldn't be considered, which upset the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont. Leahy pushed for a vote, which came at the end of the session after the committee cleared a bill to increase the number of high-skilled immigrants admitted to the country. Leahy said it would be irresponsible to delay the judges. "I think it attacks the independence of the court and I think it is not a responsible act on the part of the United States Senate," he argued.

unscrupulous health care providers were getting rich and abusing the program. Psychiatric hospitals "cropped up overnight, lawmakers said. "We need this program," said Sen. Chris Ullo, D-Marrero. "But let's watch it and not let it get out of hand so that the money gets to the children and not into somebody's pockets who will be riding around in a $125,000 car." NEW ORLEANS (AP) The master plan for an $80 million entertainment park to be known as Jazzland has been approved by the city council.

The council on Thursday also authorized the city to complete an application for another $10 million in low-interest federal loans for the project. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development already has committed $15 million. Construction at the proposed site, a swampy stretch of eastern New Orleans, could begin by midsummer. Under the current the park would open in 2000." The park was first proposed in 1990, but has struggled to obtain public and private financing.

Backers say it will attract 1.4 million visitors a year to its five themed areas, which will include rides and a Louisiana. He is a federal magistrate in the district. A. Howard Matz, 54, of Los Angeles, for the Central District of California. He is the principal partner in the law firm of Bird, Marella, Boxer, Wolpert Matz, P.C.

George Caram Steeh III, 51, of Mount Clemens, and Arthur Tarnow, 56, of Detroit, for Michigan's Eastern District. Steeh is a Macomb County circuit judge; Tarnow is an attorney. The committee did not act on the nomination of Susan Oki Mollway to be a U.S. District Court judge for Hawaii. Mollway, 47, of Honolulu, is a partner in the law firm of Cades leans, and chairman of the finance committee, reminded his colleagues that the Medicaid program grew from less than $1 billion in 1988 to $4.3 billion in 1995 because optional programs got out of hand.

The federal government then began withdrawing funds and the program now is at $3.2 billion. During the quick growth, legislators complained that the poor were not getting healthier, but that kids go into bars." Now, those under age 21 are prohibited from buying alcohol but bar owners have had problems enforcing the law because of the underage people who also frequent the establishments, Cain told his colleagues Thursday. The Senate Judiciary Committee decided 4-1 to stop the measure from going through the legislative process. BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) An extra 10,000 seats for rabid LSU football fans will become a reality if the Legislature goes along with the Senate Education Committee.

The panel has approved a bill that would allow LSU to sell all tickets to the seats to the Tiger Athletic Foundation, which in turn, would charge an extra price to its members. The extra money would be used to pay off a $30 million to $35 million loan to build the extra seating. The bill, approved unanimously Thursday, now goes to the Senate. BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -Tolls on the New Orleans and Donaldsonville bridges across the Mississippi River must be extended for another decade or taxpayers throughout the state will have to pay the tab for debt service and maintenance, lawmakers were told.

With that warning from highway officials, the Senate Committee on Revenue and Fiscal Affairs unanimously approved the bill Thursday. earning $1,750 a month. The family of four total is just an example used in the debate. The income line varies as to the number of children in a family. Up to 37,000 more children could be given health care under the bill in the first year, Hines said.

More would become eligible in BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) The state's liquor industry won the battle in a Senate committee, which refused to pass a bill that would prohibit underage drinkers from entering bars. "It tightens the noose around the necks of some citizens," said liquor lobbyist George Brown of the bill to keep those from 18 to 21 from enter-, ing drinking establishments. "It just closes a loop hole," said the author, Sen. James David Cain, D-Dry Creek.

"The present law is unenforceable because we let these help move him through the confirmation process. "I'm sure the senators are aware of the need we have here. I'm confident everything will go OK," Tyson said. Tyson graduated from LSU in 1970, then from the LSU School of Law in 1973. He then formed a law firm with Freddie Pitcher and the two worked together from 1973 to 1978.

Pitcher eventually became the first black judge elected to serve on City Court, the state district court bench and the state 1st Circuit Court of Appeal. Pitcher, now in private practice, hailed his former partner's nomination for the federal judgeship. have no access to insurance or cannot afford it. Hines, chairman of a governor's task force that studied the problem, said the first-year cost to Louisiana would be nearly $9 million. That money would draw about $35 million in federal funds.

Gov. Mike Foster has committed to finding the money for the state program when the Legislature meets in its fiscal session that follows this special session. The bill allows Medicaid to embrace all children of families that have income as much as 33 percent above the poverty line. The poverty line for a family of four is about $1,600 a month. Anyone with income above that level is not eligible for Medicaid.

With the bill, coverage would be given to children in families of four WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate Judiciary Committee cleared four of President Clinton's nominees for federal judgeships, moving them toward likely Senate confirmation. More than 80 vacant judgeships are waiting to be filled. Democrats blame Republican opposition to "liberal" judges for the unfilled slots, while Republicans counter that the White House has been slow in sending nominations to Capitol Hill. The U.S. District Court nominees who cleared the committee by voice vote Thursday are: -Ivan L.R.

Lemelle, 47, of New Orleans, for the Eastern District of future years. The problem, he acknowledged, is that the federal government has funded the program for only five years. There is a possibility that the state could be left to handle the entire funding. Sen. John Hainkel, R-New Or- BATON ROUGE, La.

(AP) -State District Judge Ralph Tyson has been nominated by President Clinton to become the third judge and the first black judge to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. "I'm really excited about the developments and am honored to be nominated," said Tyson, a Democrat. The White House announced the nomination in a news release issued from Dakar, Senegal, where Clinton was on an official visit. Tyson's nomination must go to the U.S.

Senate Judiciary Committee for confirmation. Tyson, 49, said he was confident the drastic need for another judge in federal court at Baton Rouge should BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) The Louisiana Senate will go cautiously into an optional program that would provide health insurance for thousands of poor children who have no access to care, Realizing that Medicaid once got out of hand and that the federal government began cutting its share of funds, Louisiana will enter this program a bit at the time, proponents said during Thursday's debate. "There are 250,000 children in Louisiana with no medical home," said Sen. Don Hines, a Bunkie physician and author of the bill to approve the program.

The bill was approved without objection. Now, the House gets it. The children it covers are from mostly working poor families that are not eligible for Medicaid and "appy row. Birthdayy 'With (ovefm youTjamuu 7 4f A State health insurance improvements noted BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) At one time, complaints about the state's health insurance program outnumbered all other constituent calls, several lawmakers told the House.

Claims are being paid quicker now and the program is operating more smoothly, but it could be even better if the governor were given more control over it, they said. Representatives agreed. By a 100-0 vote and with Gov. Mike Foster watching from the side, the House approved his bill Thursday. The measure now goes to the Senate.

The bill calls for the Division of Administration, which develops the state budget and oversees state spending for the governor's office, to oversee the board of the State Employees Group Benefit plan. Supporters have said the board now is essentially an independent agency. Six of the 11 board members would be elected from participants in the insurance program, with four being active employees who have experience in insurance, management, health or personnel. The remaining two would come from among retirees. There are no experience requirements for them.

The five remaining board members would be appointed by the governor. They would be chosen from the private sector based on their experience and expertise in insurance, management, health and personnel. Foster's bill also increases the state share of premiums currently paid for retirees from 60 percent to 75 percent for those covered by Medicare. The increase will be phased in over three years. 1 limn 1 A IV.

I warm tm himmrmumMiitiMSlPt THE FEDERAL AVENUE block from Duke Street to Everett Street recently was recognized by the Morgan City Garden Club Cleanest City Committee with a Project Pride block award. The award recognizes churches, businesses, schools and city blocks where citizens do an outstanding job in keeping their property weed and litter free. Shown in front of the Young-Sanders Center with the award is Cyrus Provost, a member of the center's board..