Captain Scott Sartain, public information officer for the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, said the suspect, Gary Linn Wilson, 56, of Longview, has been charged with aggravated robbery.  Sartain said Wilson was allegedly trying to steal oil field pipe and diesel fuel Jan. 18 on FM 125 near Linden-Kildare high School.  “When oil field company employees caught Wilson at the well site, they blocked the entrance and exit and he drove his truck into the woods,” Sartain said. “They chased him, and he picked up a limb and started acting like he was going to hit them with this limb, which is the rea son for the aggravated robbery charge.”

According to the Longview News-Journal, Morris County has two cases pending against Wilson:  an arrest warrant for criminal trespass and a previous arrest for theft of copper wire from a Bowie-Cass Electric Cooperative substation site in Morris County.  A Cass County warrant for Wilson’s arrest was issued Feb. 15. 

Wilson remains in the Morris County Jail charged with theft over $1,500 and less than $20,000.

Bossier City Police photo

Bossier City police are asking for your help in identifying and finding the men believed responsible for stealing at least three riding lawn mowers from home improvement stores.  They were caught on surveilance video taking an orange Husqvarna mower from the Lowes store on Airline Drive back on February 3rd.  They cut a security cable, loaded it into the bed of an older model blue Ford pickup truck, and drove off.  But, as they did, the pickup’s tailgate fell off.  That’s the one you see in the photo accompanying this post.  If you recognize that tailgate or know anything about the stolen mower, you’re asked to call Bossier City Detectives or Bossier Crime Stoppers.

Police think these same guys may have also stolen a John Deer riding mower from the Home Depot store on Airline Drive on February 17th.  In that case, the stolen mower was loaded into a brown Ford pickup.  And they say there’s a chance these same guys may have also stolen another mower from another home improvement store in Shreveport.

Bossier Crime Stoppers is offering a $405 reward for information that leads to the arrest of these thieves.  You can call Bossier Crime Stoppers at 424-4100 or visit the Bossier Crime Stoppers website at www.bossiercrimestoppers.org.

Bossier Sheriff's Department photo

Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Detectives have arrested a Haughton man for allegedly engaging in inappropriate sexual behavior with a juvenile family member and for having hundreds of videos of child pornography.  Detectives say 69-year-old James Bonacci was arrested after a teenaged relative told them that he had engaged in sex with her several times when she was between the ages of 5 and 7 and that he had taken nude photos of her.  They say he’s admitted to them that he had about 1,000 videos of child pornography on his computer but they say he’s denied raping the girl.  After interviewing him, detectives obtained a search warrant for Bonacci’s Haughton home where they seized computer equipment and cameras.  They’re investigating now to determine if additional charges should be filed.  He’s been booked into Bossier Max on charges of aggravated incest, aggravated rape, and pornography involving a juvenile and is being held in lieu of $780,000 bond.

At approximately 11:50 a.m. on February 21, 2012, Shreveport Police patrol officers responded to a home in the 4000 block of North Market Street relative to a home invasion. Upon arrival there, officers contacted an adult male victim who reported he had been out grocery shopping and when he returned home, he discovered an unknown male suspect in his residence. The suspect, who was armed with a handgun stolen from in the home, tied the victim up and subsequently took his keys, cell phone and wallet. The bandit then fled the scene of the crime in the victim’s car, a white 2009 Ford Fusion bearing Louisiana license plate “SMU228”. The victim was not injured.

Detectives and crime scene investigators were immediately dispatched and are working at this hour to identify and apprehend the suspect, described as a black male, approximately six feet one inch to six feet two inches tall with a muscular build. He was described by the victim as being clean-cut and was last seen wearing a black leather jacket. Investigators believe he entered the home through an unlocked back door. Please see a photograph of a similar vehicle attached to this release. Anyone with any information regarding this crime is urged to contact robbery detectives at 318-673-6955 or Shreveport-Caddo Parish Crime Stoppers at 318-673-7373. 

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Federal health officials are warning that deaths from the liver-destroying hepatitis C virus are on the rise, and that baby boomers are especially at risk.

It is estimated that two-thirds of those with hepatitis C were born between 1945 and 1965. So some experts are recommending boomers get a one-time blood test to check for the virus — one that can otherwise go undetected and cause damage for decades.

Needle-sharing during illegal drug use is the biggest risk factor for becoming infected with the blood-borne hepatitis C virus, but before 1992, when widespread testing of the blood supply began, it was often spread through blood transfusions.

“One of every 33 baby boomers are living with hepatitis C infection,” Dr. John Ward, hepatitis chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Associated Press. “Most people will be surprised, because it’s a silent epidemic.”

Officials are urging testing in light of two new drugs that have the potential to provide a cure. Research published Monday by the CDC indicates the cost of testing millions of middle-aged people would be worth it, since thousands of lives could be saved in the process.

The CDC study analyzed a decade of death records and found the 15,000 deaths related to hepatitis C in 2007 were higher than previous estimates. What’s more, they even surpassed the nearly 13,000 deaths caused by HIV/AIDS virus.

“Mortality will continue to grow for the next 10 to 15 years at least unless we do something different” to find and treat the silent sufferers, Dr. Ward said.

Source: TheCheckup.com

Virgin Galactic

Last month Virgin Galactic announced it would begin offering commercial space flights later this year.

The two-and-a-half hour trip just cracks the space barrier and offers about five minutes of weightlessness. It also comes with a fairly prohibitive price tag of $200,000 a pop.

But let’s say money was no object. Would you want to be among the first commercial space travelers?

Poll Position asked 1,145 adults that very question and found that only 23 percent thought the thrill of the great beyond outweighed the risks. Fifty-two percent said they would not be willing to take such a flight and 26 percent had no opinion.

[Poll Position]

Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

Facing huge budget shortfalls, the United States Postal Service has proposed solutions including closing hundreds of post offices and eliminating Saturday deliveries. Now it may be considering jacking up the price of stamps, too.

The popularity of internet services like online bill pay have led in part to a 1.7 percent decline in mail volume, causing the USPS to anticipate losing $14.1 billion in 2012 — with bigger losses expected in the years to come.

In response, postal officials sent a letter to Congress last Thursday in which they recommended several changes, including the possibility of increasing the price of a stamp from its current 45 cents up to 50 cents. While stamp prices have gone up four times since 2006, chief financial officer Joe Corbett said, “Clearly, we’re [still] underpriced [and] would like the ability to move that price up.”

The USPS says the extra nickel, which would likely be added in one or two-cent increments until 2015, would raise revenues by $1 billion annually. Although taxpayers don’t foot the bill to keep the postal service running, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe told Congress that failing to help the organization limit its losses would result in a “long-term burden to the American taxpayer.”

[Time]

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A new Nielsen poll finds smartphones are becoming less of a luxury and more of a so-called necessity — at least for younger people.

Nielsen gathered data to learn more about the age, income and demographics of the typical US smartphone user. Specifically, the firm wanted to know if lower prices are making the devices more popular among those who earn less money.

Turns out more than half of people between 18 and 24 who make less than $15,000 per year are smartphone owners, compared to 43 percent of those aged 25 to 34 and just 31 percent of folks between 35 and 44 years old.

While researchers don’t know if the people surveyed, especially those in the younger group, have outside financial help (parents, spouses, etc.), it’s clear that even the respondents on limited budgets are making room for smartphone ownership.

But what researchers found most interesting is that although the younger set deems the devices a necessity, older people consider them more of a luxury — which is valuable information for developers, publishers and advertisers.

[TechCrunch]

Paul Morigi, Getty Images

State lawmakers in Indiana were recently presented with a resolution to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts organization and honor the positive influence the group has had on American women. Representative Bob Morris, a Republican from Fort Wayne, was the only representative to refuse to sign, citing a belief that the Girl Scouts is a “radicalized organization.”

The Indiana lawmaker sent a letter to his colleagues saying he plans to pull his daughters from their Girl Scout troop after he found information online claiming that the group “sexualizes” girls and promotes homosexuality. One source he cited was a conservative “news” website called World Net Daily.

In his letter, he claimed to have found allegations that the Girl Scouts are actually a tactical arm of Planned Parenthood that encourages the girls to have sex. He continued to say that the people who the Girl Scouts consider to be role models are all “feminists, lesbians, or Communists.”

He also mentioned an allegation that the organization allows transgender females to join. This misstatement of the facts was most likely based on a situation that arose last fall when a transgender male child was refused membership in a Colorado troop, but then allowed to join by the national organization, which encourages inclusiveness.

The scouts have received criticism for this inclusiveness and many groups and websites have been working very hard to “expose” them. Diane Tipton, president of the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital said in response, “Misinformation is passing as fact. The Girl Scout organization does not take a position on abortion or birth control, and these topics are not part of the Girl Scout program or our materials. We believe these matters are best discussed by girls with their families.”

At this time, the Girl Scouts are not planning any changes in policy, but they have released a statement explaining where they stand on sensitive issues.

[via Huffington Post]

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The price of gasoline continues to climb.  AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report says we’re paying, on average, $3.44 for a gallon of regular gasoline in Shreveport/Bossier today.  That’s 43-cents more than we were paying at this time last year and a 17-cent bump in just the past month.  Statewide, the average today is $3.50.  Nationally, it’s $3.57.

Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

Over the last few months, there has been some data that suggests the sluggish economy could be improving. Mainly, the unemployment rate, which has dropped to 8.3 percent after reaching a 26-year high of 10 percent in late 2009. However, according to a new survey from Poll Postion, the public is split on whether America is entering into a period of economic recovery.

Thirty-eight percent of the 1,242 registered voters polled said the economy is improving while another 38 percent said it was still deteriorating. Twenty-two percent believe the economy is staying the same.

What political party the respondent belongs to seemed to have a big influence on their economic views. Sixty-eight percent of democrats believe the economy is getting better, whereas 53 percent of republicans think it continues to get worse. Political independents surveyed tended to agree with the republicans.

[Poll Position]

A late-morning fire in Shreveport’s Highland neighborhood has heavily damaged one house and caused minor exposure damage to the house next door. Spokesman Fred Sanders tells us firefighters were called to the 500 block of Wall Street just before 11 o’clock. Chief Sanders says it took eight engine companies and almost 30 firefighters nearly half-an-hour to bring the fire under control. There have been no reports of injuries from that fire. Cause of the fire is still under investigation but Sanders says there’s a possibility that it may have been electrical.

First Saturday Tour: Six Degrees of Art History 3 March, 2:00 p.m.

Back in the 1990s, a popular urban game arose, “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”, in which players connected the actor in many ways to just about any other person, place or activity in Bacon’s background. The game came from a much older theory advanced after World War I that the globe had grown smaller through communication. Indeed, Italian inventor of the radio, Gugielmo Marconi, once stated that he could span the globe with just six radio relay stations.

Art and artists, too, are also connected, as you’ll see on this tour with your guide, Ashleigh Newberry-­‐Mills. It begins in our lobby, where some of the connections are easy: works by Asher Durand and Thomas Cole, both founding members of the Hudson River School, hang nearby. In the Remington gallery, sculptor Sally Farnham was a protégé of Frederic Remington, while nearby Childe Hassam was close friends with painter Charles Schreyvogel. Mary Cassatt, the famous American Impressionist, was a friend of Alfred Stevens, who was a colleague of all the major French Impressionist painters. And on and on it goes. Then, you’ll learn how John James Audubon is connected to Josiah Wedgwood and even Charles Darwin, and the 18th century artist and architect, Giovannia Piranesi, and Mary Cassatt, and on and on. It’s a walk where you’ll discover works of all these artists, and lines that connect them through time and across continents.

Special Exhibition:

Associated American Artists: Art by Subscription 20 March – 27 May

In the depths of the Depression, it would seem that art would be the last thing a hungry public would buy. But buy they did in the 1930s, through World War II, and for decades to come. They purchased art from Associated American Artists’ (AAA), which issued its inaugural catalogue of prints in 1935, offering for sale works of great American artists for [ive dollars each.

Seventy of those prints are on view at the Norton when Associated American Artists: Art by Subscription opens on March 20. They include works by Grant Wood (March, 1939); Thomas Hart Benton (Wreck of the Old ’97, 1944); Frederic Castellon (Memories, 1941); Mabel Dwight (The Farmyard: Feeding the Geese, 1947); and Lawrence Beall Smith (Seaside Nomads, 1946). Others in the exhibit include works by John Costigan, Miguel Covarrubias, John Steuart Curry, Doris Lee, Luigi Lucioni, Reginald Marsh, and Samuel Thal. The prints are reproduced as etchings, mezzotints, aquatints, and original wood engravings.

April

First Saturday Tour: Coyote Sky 7 April, 2:00 p.m.

While it’s not on April Fools’ Day, we take that same, playful spirit of the Native American “trickster” in this tour that meanders through indoors and outdoors. No, we don’t trick you, but we’ll look behind canvases, sculpture and nature itself to [ind great tales of native peoples in the misty past of their mythologies.

Coyote Sky begins in the museum at the massive work by Albert Bierstadt, Garden of the Gods. In depicting an Indian village in the heart of the mountains, Bierstadt infuses the painting with the ideals of the Hudson River School of art—heavily romanticized and awe-­‐inspiring. It’s one of Bierstadt’s contributions to our own early American mythology. As Pablo Picasso once said, “Art is a lie that tells the truth.” Bierstadt may have fudged on the details but he certainly represented the vast, awesome visual power of the American landscape.

Native American mythologies are peppered with trickster gods, among them, the coyote. They saw the wily animal as naturally clever and tricky, and endowed with both animal and human traits. Another animal intertwined through Native American myth is the buffalo, like those portrayed in A.D.M. Cooper’s Inquest on the Plains, in which seven buffalo stand around a deceased warrior. It was one of Cooper’s works implying the end of an era and a people.

Outside, the tour winds into our botanical gardens, lush with spring’s blooms of thousands of azaleas. We’ll enjoy the blossoms, but here we’re looking through the stone of sculpture into myths stretching far beyond our shores. We’ll see the gorilla, and learn myths from West Africa, and [ind other fanciful stories engendered through the sculptures of a mountain lion, otters, and even a pig. You’ll enjoy the fanciful fables, painting, sculpture, and a beautiful day among galleries of art and acres of [lowers.

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“Krewe of Carpenter” parade on Tuesday, February 21st, at 8:00 a.m. at St. Joseph School. Royalty from local Krewes will be in attendance, as well as Bishop Michael Duca, from the Diocese of Shreveport. Students from both of our K-4 classes will be riding in their decorated “floats” and throwing beads to the rest of the student body.

(Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

BIG CROWDS SHOWED UP FOR THE HIGHLAND PARADE AS MOTHER NATURE COOPERATED. BRANDON OLDENBURG OF MOONBOT STUDIOS SERVED AS GRAND MARSHALL.  HE’S NOW OFF TO HOLLYWOOD FOR THE OSCARS. A MOONBOT SHORT FILM IS NOMINATED FOR AN ACADEMY AWARD. WE DO HAVE ANOTHER PARADE ON THE WAY FOR THE LOCAL AREA. THE KREWE OF AESCLEPIUS PARADE ROLLS TOMORROW AT 6:30 AT PIERRE BOSSIER MALL. ALL OF THE KREWES WILL THEN MEET ATOP THE TEXAS STREET BRIDGE TUESDAY NIGHT AT MIDNIGHT TO BRING AN END TO THE CARNIVAL SEASON AS LENT BEGINS.</p>

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Men who are involuntarily childless due to subfertility are at a significantly lower risk of developing prostate cancer, according to a recently released study.

Around one in seven couples have problems conceiving despite trying for at least a year. In roughly half of cases, the childlessness is due to the man’s reduced fertility.  Subfertility is defined as being less than normally fertile though still capable of reproducing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 18 percent of men are diagnosed with male-related infertility problem.

But, there is one slight advantage for men who suffer from this condition, researchers say.

Scientists at Lund University in Sweden found that subfertile men who could not have a child were at nearly 50 percent lower risk of suffering from prostate cancer than men who have fathered at least one child. The study involved 450 men with prostate cancer along with 450 men who did not have the cancer.

Researchers found that the connection between reduced prostate cancer risk and subfertility is stronger than the connection between prostate cancer and other factors previously studied, for example diet, smoking, alcohol consumption and a number of different disease.

Source: TheCheckup.com