Ruston Daily Leader (Newspaper) - June 24, 2003, Ruston, Louisiana Readers ask for relationship See page Hustons Hometown Newspaper Since 1894 The Ruston Daily NCAA champs Rice takes NCAA baseball See page Blood drive planned Blood Centers will hold a blood drive from 14 Wednesday at the Arbor and Terrace Activity Staff Report Enrichment program offered A youth enrichment program will be offered from 68 Friday at Fellow ship Baptist Church in For more call 2471133 or 247 For transportation or pickup call 2470094 or Staff Report Program finds senior adults jobs Lincoln Parish senior adults age 55 and older can take part in Experience an agency that finds jobs for Apply at the Ruston Job Center or call Staff Report Support group plans meetings The next meetings of the Trinity United Methodist Churchs bereave ment support The Wounded Healers will meet today at in Room 219 of the For more call Frank Edens at 255 6992 or Jesselyn Oest at Staff Report Prosecutor drops charges in 27yearold murder NEW ORLEANS AP While blasting his predecessor for hiding evidence in the trial of two men con of murder 27 years the Orleans Parish district attorney has dropped the charges in the face of a second Gregory Bright and Earl Truvia had been convicted in the 1975 shooting of a teenager at a public housing complex and were serving life Those convictions were thrown out last year after defense attorneys raised questions about the credibility of the lone The defense assembled by the non profit Innocence Project New showed that the Sheila was battling drug addiction and mental illness at the time of Defense attorneys also showed that prosecutors knew about Castons but failed to tell the defendants NATIONAL BRIEFS Firefighters tackle mountain wildfire AP Firefighters fanned out above and below a raging wildfire on a mountaintop north of Tucson in an attempt to beat back flames that have destroyed more than 250 homes in a vacation Crews used bulldozers to fight the blazes northward spread on Mount Lemmon by digging a firebreak con thinner vegetation and an area that already was burned over last Firefighters also cut a line across the fires southern where crews battled all weekend to protect homes after burning embers started fires across earlier The blaze has charred more than acres of pine forest on the mountain and was only 15 percent contained early firefighters spokesman Gerry Engel About 950 firefighters had been Price 500 Copyright Ruston Leader photo by DARRELL JAMES Swinging to title Beau Stuckey of The Cleaners takes a swing at a ball during his clubs march to an win over bienville Motors during AAA divisional title game action in the Ruston Dixie Baseball Association Monday Stuckey contributed to the victory with a double and run batted Big Band sound returns to region By Raley Taliaferro Staff Writer The Debonnaires big band style mu sic will swing through Ruston for their yearly reunion and perform from 7 until Sunday on the main floor of the Louisiana Tech Student The formed by Tech stu dents in are celebrating 56 years of with most of its original This years concert honors the de parted lead tenor Charles Gwin and Billie Wilson the wife of the Debonnaires original leader and Frank We love doing the reunion each year for two the first one because we love seeing each other and the second reason because we love playing Mack Hearne of Baton We started having the reunion in 1991 and we decided that we had to do it every year until we Assisting the Debonnaires musically this year are Charles Hogan of Jim Kersh of Baton Brian Lassiter of Arkansas and Mike Dunn of Admission to the concert is free and requests of attendees will be played when and if Input time set for agendas By Mary Margaret van Diest Staff Writer The Lincoln Parish Library Board of Control took action before it was re quired by law to offer the general public the opportunity to appear before the board with Comment time is reserved on each meetings About a year ago action was taken to require that public libraries offer the general public the opportunity to make comments before the board at regular Lincoln Parish Library Di rector Katherine Brown We felt that was important long before it be came a requirement and it has been uti from time to time by our The policy appears on each board meeting agenda immediately following the call to order and the approval of the It reads as follows The general public is welcome at all Library Board of Control Each board agenda reserves time for comments from the Persons wishing to speak before the board must sign the signin sheet before the board All speakers are limited to a maxi mum presentation length of three min Groups wishing to present to the board are asked to designate one person to make the A copy of all information provided the board about agenda with the exception of those items to be discussed in executive ses is available for public Our library staff as well as our board are always interested in knowing what people in the community think about mat ters that affect the library or its Brown We need to have an ongo ing dialog with the public we serve and this policy allows for Ouachita officials surrender Monday MONROE AP Two Ouachita Par ish police jurors and five other current or former city officials surrendered to depu ties to face counts after an investi gation into bribery and Police Jury President Daryll Police Juror King assistant par ish administrator Woodson McGuffee and Flynn the purchasing agent for the Public Works were driven in squad cars from the courthouse to the parish jail Bo Boy the former director of Public and Jerry Dean the fired shop foreman at the Public Works depart also surrendered Berry was indicted on three counts of public bribery and Dawson was indicted for alleged malfeasance in McGuffee was indicted on one count of malfeasance in office and Jones was in on one count of filing false public The work is just now Dis Attorney Jerry Jones The state legislative auditor started the investigation in March A year an audit showed the police jury had used public money and employees to pave private clear private property and work on a sewer line at a police jurors a was hav ing more than of road material moved to his churchs parking and using police jury employees to repair his home with police Prosecutors met this month with from the Federal Emergency Man agement Agency and local officials to dis cuss possible federal The police jury received more than million from FEMA to buy houses in the parish that have a history of Local investigators have questioned if that money was spent A grand jury returned the indictments The presiding judge of the grand jury made the documents available Mon Berrys bond was set at and bond for the others ranged from to All six men had posted bond and been released by Monday Former parish fire chief Don Nugent was also but did not surrender Sheriffs Deputy Royce who heads the sheriffs investigative di said who lives in is scheduled to arrive in Monroe by airplane about noon Tuesday to surren Ruston ties strong at Miss Louisiana pageant By Mary Margaret van Diest Staff Writer For three Miss Louisiana contestants with strong Ruston years of effort and preparation paid off at this years pageant held over the weekend at the Monroe Civic Melissa Clark of Ruston won the Miss Louisiana title and an opportunity to com pete in the Miss America pageant this She entered as Miss Louisiana Tech University and is a former Queen Dixie Molly Causey of Ruston placed second in the state She entered as Miss Fair and she is a former Queen Dixie She is currently a student at Louisiana Tech Krystal of Shreveport placed in the Top 10 and won the Newcomer Award for the highest point total for a first time She entered as Queen Dixie Gem and she is a student at Louisiana Tech Executive Director of the Annual Squire Creek Louisiana Peach Festival Pageants Lue Napper said the local suc cesses were all well The same sentiments were expressed by ers of those events David Hedgepeth and Judy What the public sees on stage is re ally not a true reflection of the years of work and preparation it takes to do well in the higher level Napper In Melissas case she has been working out with a strength coach to prepare her for the fitness aspect and she chose a seven minute song for her talent which she had to relearn in a two minute format to meet the time Napper said without extremely good interview skills and in depth knowledge of her no contestant can do We try to help our local girls with all aspects of Napper con Just in casual conversation we will bring up possible interview ques tions and help them think through an swers which they can logically We dont even say that we need to re hearse we just do it on an infor mal That way it feels completely But it all helps them feel pre pared and confident when the time ar See page 3 Leader photo by MARY MARGARET van DIEST General Manager of The Atrium in Monroe Don OToole congratulates Melissa Clark on her winning the Miss Louisiana title this past Clarks first press conference was held Sunday at The WEATHER Tonight Partly cloudy with isolated evening showers and lows in the mid Wednesday Partly cloudy with isolated showers and highs in the lower INDEX 1112 2 4 9 Page 5 7 8 2 QUOTE Religion is a not a Harriet English writer and social critic 180276 Call 2553071 TODAY to receive home delivery of The Ruston Daily Leader ONLY for 4 months
