Louisiana

On the last afternoon of his life, Bernard Monroe was hosting a cookout for family and friends in front of his dilapidated home in this small northern Louisiana town. Throat cancer had left the 73-year-old retired electric utility worker unable to talk, but family members said he clearly was enjoying the commotion of a dozen of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren cavorting in the grassless yard.

Two former Black Panthers held in solitary confinement in a Louisiana prison since 1972 have been transferred into quarters with other inmates, state corrections officials said Wednesday. Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox were moved into a "maximum security dormitory" on Monday, said Angie Norwood, assistant warden at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. Wallace and Woodfox had been in solitary since their convictions in the death of a guard.

Thirty-six years have passed since she saw him last, but Leontine Verrett has never forgotten the face of the man she still calls her true love. His name was Brent Miller. He was lean and cocksure and strummed his guitar a little too loud. Their romance blossomed on the grounds of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, the plantation turned prison built along a bend of the Mississippi River. He came from a clan where men had served as prison guards for generations.

At 1:28 p.m. on Jan. 17, Baron "Scooter" Pikes was a healthy 21-year-old. By 2:07 p.m., he was dead. What happened in the 39 minutes in between -- during which Pikes was handcuffed by police and shocked nine times with a Taser while reportedly pleading for mercy -- is spawning suspicions of a political cover-up in this lumber town infamous for backroom dealings. Racial tensions also are mounting; Pikes was black and the officer involved is white.

Seeking to defuse growing racial tensions in the small Louisiana town of Winnfield, the district attorney announced Monday that he would seek an indictment against a white officer in the death of a black man who was shocked nine times with a Taser while handcuffed. Winn Parish Dist. Atty. Chris Nevils said he would convene a grand jury Aug.

Chris Moreno lost his job managing a print shop two years ago, just after his wife became pregnant and they'd started building a house on 40 acres near the shores of Caddo Lake. He fretted he'd have to relinquish his humble piece of paradise, where he indulged his country boy's passion for hunting raccoons and catching catfish. But now fortune has smiled on Moreno: He's poised to become a millionaire, all because of that 40 acres he bought eight years ago for $45,000.

An Oklahoma woman invited to a rural Louisiana campsite for a Ku Klux Klan initiation ritual was shot and killed after she asked to leave, the sheriff of a New Orleans suburb said Tuesday. Eight people were arrested after authorities found the woman's body hidden under some brush several miles from the remote campsite. Investigators found weapons, several flags and six Klan robes at the site, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain said in a news release.

Just a few days ago, congressional candidate Anh "Joseph" Cao of New Orleans had typical underdog problems: Many people didn't know who he was or how to pronounce his name or what, exactly, he was running for. On Monday -- two days after his victory over the Democratic incumbent, Rep. William J.

The newly elected mayor of Westlake was found shot to death over the weekend. He was to take office today as the community's first black leader. Gerald Washington, 57, was found dead in the parking lot of a former high school. He had been shot in the chest, police said.

The shooting death of the newly elected mayor of a southwestern Louisiana town has been ruled a suicide, but the case has been turned over to state police at his family's request, investigators said Tuesday. The body of Gerald "Wash" Washington, 57, was found Saturday night lying next to his truck, a single gunshot wound to the chest. A pistol was nearby.