Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Singers for the 2017 Ascension Idol competition have been chosen from auditions held Feb. 2, where judges chose 16 youths to compete to become the seventh Ascension Idol.

Donna Robinson, of Gonzales, recently was voted by members of the Crescent City Sound Chorus of Sweet Adelines International to join the Sweet Adelines Wall of Fame.

The Microbusiness Enterprise Corporation of Ascension, in partnership with the Donaldsonville Downtown Development District, will hold its next entrepreneurship course at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Lemann Memorial Center in Donaldsonville. The course

The Gonzales Garden Club presented its 50th annual Arbor Day ceremony on Jan. 20 at the new Jambalaya Festival Association headquarters in Gonzales.

With Girl Scout cookie booths open from Feb. 24 to March 12, customers can find the nearest sales point by using the Cookie Finder App.

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Courtney Dumas sixth-grade language arts classes at Gonzales Middle School spent the holiday season raising money to buy sweet cases from the nonprofit Together We Rise.

Rising seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade students are invited to attend Summer @LSMSA to be held for two sessions on June 4-10 and June 11-17 at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts in Natchitoches.

Area preschool teachers affected by the August flood have received 47 Rebounding Through Play kits from the Knock Knock Childrens Museum.

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Members of Knights of Columbus Council 8342 of St. John the Evangelist Church recently built a wheelchair ramp for a local family who was displaced by August flooding.

For one night, the 80s will return to Baton Rouge as part of The Taste, a fundraiser for Mary Bird Perkins-Our Lady of the Lake Cancer Center.

A record amount of money was donated during the eighth annual phonathon held Feb. 6-9 and sponsored by the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts Foundation.

Ascension Civil Court cases filed in Ascension Parish between Jan. 30-Feb. 3.

The following people were booked into the Ascension Parish prison from Feb. 9-16.

PIERRE PART - A man accused of felony sex crimes in a July 2016 incident in Pierre Part was arrested in Orleans Parish Tuesday and is now in the Assumption Parish Detention Center, Sheriff Leland Falcon said.

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DONALDSONVILLE - In December, the Mississippi River began flowing into Bayou Lafourche faster than it has for the last half century, thanks in part to the $4.8 million transformation of a railroad crossing over the bayou.

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The owner of a Baton Rouge construction company accused committing post-flood contractor fraud in Ascension Parish was back in jail in East Baton Rouge Parish for allegedly ripping off a 67-year-old woman in a storm repair deal back in 2014.

The owner of a Baton Rouge construction company accused of committing post-flood contractor fraud in Ascension Parish is wanted on similar allegations in Livingston Parish, Walker and Baton Rouge but remained at large Monday.

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GEISMAR The Geismar Volunteer Fire Department station on La. 73, one of seven out of 11 fire stations that flooded in Ascension Parish, has regained a semblance of normalcy.

Matthew Morris, the Complete Construction Contractors owner who allegedly defrauded more than a dozen Ascension Parish flood victims, is now wanted by multiple law enforcement agencies -- Baton Rouge police, Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office and

The state plans to appeal the decision to exclude Ascension and St. James parishes from a federal disaster declaration that left residents there ineligible to receive federal assistance for their losses during the Feb. 7 tornadoes.

NAPOLEONVILLE An Assumption Parish man admitted to running a marijuana grow operation in his home, something he called his "pastime," but avoided jail time in a plea deal with prosecutors this week.

GONZALES A Gonzales-area man who admitted Wednesday to stealing a toolbox from a shed at Holy Rosary Church in St. Amant last summer was sentenced to 10 years in state prison under a deal with prosecutors that allowed him to avoid an even longer

GONZALES Ascension Parish Sheriff Jeff Wiley fired Deputy James Atkins II on Tuesday just hours before Gonzales Police arrested him over a domestic incident with his former girlfriend from nearly a week earlier.

GONZALES A Denham Springs man faces up to five years in state prison after pleading guilty to negligent homicide in a 2013 Ascension Parish crash that killed a 83-year-old Gonzales woman, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The Ascension Chamber of Commerce honored the successes of 2016 during its annual Awards Banquet on Feb. 7 at Houmas House Plantation.

GONZALES - City staff met this week with the contractor hired to repair the flood-damaged Gonzales City Hall and the work will be pursued on an "aggressive timeline," said city engineer Jackie Baumann.

After a six-month absence brought on by August flooding, St. Amant High School students returned to their campus Monday.

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Parish wrestlers compete in LHSAA tournament

Ascension Parish students have been recognized by the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center for academic achievements during the fall semester.

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