• Activist to be honored at state ACLU dinner
The ACLU of Louisiana next month will honor Norris Henderson, who has worked for jail changes and voting rights for felons since his 2003 parole from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola after he had served nearly 28 years for a murder conviction.

• DA wants option to go broke
Bracing for a $15 million federal court judgment that he inherited with the office, Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro is looking at every option to avoid such a payout -- including bankruptcy.

• Help sought to ID women
A dog being trained to hunt rabbits last March discovered one of two dead women whom Jefferson Parish coroner's investigators have not been able to identify. Parish workers mowing the lawn near a makeshift Marrero carnival ground in August 2006 found the other.

• NEW ORLEANS POLICE BLOTTER
The New Orleans Police Department reported the following incidents occurring through Dec. 22. If you have information on these or any other crimes, call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll free at 1.877.903.7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn up to $2,500 for tips that lead to an indictment.

• NEW ORLEANS POLICE BLOTTER
The New Orleans Police Department reported the following incidents occurring through Dec. 22. If you have information on these or any other crimes, call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll free at 1.877.903.7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn up to $2,500 for tips that lead to an indictment.

• POLICE REPORTS
ST. CHARLES INCIDENTS

• Teen duo arrested in Metairie robberies
Authorities say a teenage robbery suspect from Metairie ventured no farther than a block from his home to find his victims.

• Two more arrested in armed robbery
Two men sought in a Dec. 30 armed robbery in Terrytown were arrested Tuesday by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

• Victim identified in Mid-City shooting
The Orleans Parish coroner's office has identified a 49-year-old local man shot and killed on the steps of a Mid-City home late Monday night as Kirk Dugar.

• Man pleads guilty in rape of 17-year-old
A Slidell-area man on Monday pleaded guilty to raping a 17-year-old girl from Michigan.

• Municipal Court judge to retire in May
Veteran New Orleans Municipal Court Judge John Shea said Monday that he will retire in the spring, bringing an end to his 30-year career on the bench.

• New district attorney sworn in
After being sworn in Monday, St. John the Baptist Parish's next district attorney said he wants to improve the parish's criminal justice system to create an ideal community.

• NEW ORLEANS POLICE BLOTTER
The New Orleans Police Department reported the following incidents occurring through Dec. 20. If you have information on these or any other crimes, call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll free at 1.877.903.7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn up to $2,500 for tips that lead to an indictment.

• NEW ORLEANS POLICE BLOTTER
The New Orleans Police Department reported the following incidents occurring through Dec. 20. If you have information on these or any other crimes, call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll free at 1.877.903.7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn up to $2,500 for tips that lead to an indictment.

• N.O. civil court has new chief judge
Orleans Parish Civil District Judge Lloyd J. Medley Jr. has been chosen by his colleagues to be the court's new chief judge.

• POLICE REPORTS
The following were reported to law enforcement authorities:

• POLICE REPORTS
ST. CHARLES ARRESTS

• Shooting victim dies in N.O.
New Orleans police homicide investigators were at the scene of a late night shooting Monday that killed one man at St. Ann and North Dupre streets.

• Shot to leg leads to 15 years in prison
A 26-year-old Slidell man on Monday pleaded guilty to attempted murder for shooting his girlfriend's father in the leg.

• Slidell man held in bizarre shooting
A 60-year-old woman who answered a man's online ad to share a house was shot in the face by her new roommate Saturday, shortly after she unpacked her belongings in his Slidell home, authorities said.

• 'I NEVER KNEW THAT IT WOULD BE THE LAST TIME I'D SEE HIM'
Lately, 2-year-old Ja'Shawn Powell would jump out of bed, ready to play with the big truck he received for Christmas, said his mother, Daniella Powell.

• Man gets new trial in 2002 N.O. killing
Seven years have passed since someone gunned down 18-year-old Leroy Batiste Jr. outside an eastern New Orleans apartment complex.

• Victim in Nov. shooting dies
Joshua O'Neal spent almost three months in University Hospital because of wounds he sustained in an Algiers Point shooting before he died Friday morning. When Orleans Parish Coroner Frank Minyard classified his death as a murder Sunday, it pushed the city's homicide tally to five in the first four days of 2009.

• Woman pushed from pickup ID'd
The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office has identified the woman who died Friday after her boyfriend pushed her out of a pickup truck at a busy Metairie intersection, then ran over her in the street.

• Metairie man ran over girlfriend, police say. She dies after being pushed from truck at busy Metairie intersection
An Metairie man who police say pushed his girlfriend from his pickup truck at a busy Metairie intersection, then ran over her in the street, remained in custody Friday night booked with negligent homicide.

• New Orleans Police officers shot man 12 times from behind. Family seeking answers in death
The 22-year-old man killed early Thursday in a police shootout was wounded 14 times, with 12 of the bullets hitting him in the back of his body, Orleans Parish Coroner Frank Minyard said.

• Stolen laptop computer phones home
When someone snatched a portable computer from a booth at a Metairie Burger King on Dec. 1, it was the laptop that "phoned home" to signal where it had been taken.

• Cameras help recover 3 stolen cars in one day
Tuesday was the most successful day thus far in the new effort by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office to find stolen cars with the use of special cameras that scan license plates in traffic, a spokesman said. Deputies recovered three stolen vehicles in Algiers, Harahan and Terrytown.

• Charges pending in Slidell knife fight
An apparent knife fight in Olde Towne Slidell early Thursday landed one man in jail and could result in an additional arrest.

• Man injured by New Year's bullet in N.O.
A falling bullet grazed the back of a 25-year-old man as he celebrated the new year in eastern New Orleans, but authorities said overall, celebratory gunfire appeared to continue its years-long decline.

• Pedestrians killed on busy road in Kenner
Two people were killed four hours apart after stepping into traffic on Airline Drive in Kenner, police said Thursday.

• Suspect is named in Harvey slaying
Police have named a suspect in the Dec. 18 killing of Harry Smith, a Metairie man found shot to death in the parking lot of a Harvey fast-food restaurant.

• Year begins with 3 shooting deaths
Three men were shot dead in separate incidents Thursday morning in New Orleans, including one man who was killed in an alleged shoot-out with police.

• 1 suspect cleared in Jeff murder case
The Jefferson Parish district attorney's office has refused to prosecute a Kenner man in the kidnapping and shooting death of another man in March, an attorney said Wednesday.

• DA reassigns elite prosecutors
Aiming to bring more homicide cases to trial in 2009, newly elected Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro has done away with an elite team of prosecutors assigned to murders and instead installed them in specific courtrooms where they will serve as senior trial attorneys.

• Louisiana Supreme Court Chief justice Pascal Calogero Jr. signing off after 36 years on bench
When Pascal Calogero Jr. first was elected to the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1972, friends said he'd just won a job for life, as he'd likely face little or no opposition during election seasons.

• Mandeville Police Chief Tom Buell quits after missteps in Mandeville
By New Year's Eve, Tom Buell's office was stripped of the horse-themed artwork that spoke to his longtime passion for the animals.

• New Orleans murder rate drops in 2008
As 2008 wound to a close, New Orleans' official murder tally stood at 179, about 15 percent fewer killings than in the previous year.

• Westwego woman guilty in theft
A Westwego woman has pleaded guilty to theft of federal Hurricane Katrina assistance, the office of U. S. Attorney Jim Letten said Wednesday.

• Woman shot to death in Reserve
St. John the Baptist Parish authorities are investigating the fatal shooting of a Reserve woman after a botched robbery, a Sheriff's Office spokesman said Wednesday.

• Enough, already: Cop-turned-pastor Rev. John Raphael reactivates his vigil against violence in New Orleans
After dark on the last Sunday of 2008, the Rev. John Raphael, the cop-turned-pastor, changed clothes after the evening service at his New Hope Baptist Church and drove a few blocks to the South Claiborne Avenue neutral ground. He came simply to plant himself in full view at a major urban intersection, fasting, to bear witness against the shootings that ravage New Orleans.

• 'Jena 6' teen Mychal Bellshoots himself in chest
BATON ROUGE -- Conflicting stories emerged Tuesday about the self-inflicted gunshot wound of a Louisiana teenager who came to prominence as a central member of the "Jena Six."

• Lon Adams pleads innocent in dad's death. Officials feared Metairie man was planning to buy a gun, flee state with son
Lon Adams, the Metairie man who kept his father's skeletal remains in an upstairs bedroom of his home for more than two years, pleaded innocent Tuesday to manslaughter in the death.

• Bullet claims life of mother-to-be Coty Simmons in New Orleans
When mother-to-be Coty Simmons settled in for a nap in the back seat of her sister's boyfriend's car Dec. 15, no one knew she'd never again wake up.

• Judge leaving to get fresh angle
Ending 15 years on the bench without a hint of ceremony, Judge Raymond Bigelow finished his tenure at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court on Monday by simply proceeding with his morning's docket and walking out of the building when his work was done.

• NEW ORLEANS POLICE BLOTTER
The New Orleans Police Department reported the following incidents occurring through Dec. 18. If you have information on these or any other crimes, call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll free at 1.877.903.7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn up to $2,500 for tips that lead to an indictment.

• NEW ORLEANS POLICE BLOTTER
The New Orleans Police Department reported the following incidents occurring through Dec. 18. If you have information on these or any other crimes, call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll free at 1.877.903.7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn up to $2,500 for tips that lead to an indictment.

• Pair arrested in car break-ins
Two men have been arrested in a crime spree that involved 11 vehicle break-ins in Metairie in a single day, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office said Monday.

• Paradis man, 44, booked in attempted murder
A Paradis man who allegedly pushed his girlfriend into the path of an oncoming car has been booked with attempted first-degree murder, according to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office.

• Suspect in rape attempt booked
A 22-year-old man who police suspect tried to rob, then tried to rape a woman in a Carrollton alley on Christmas Eve was placed behind bars Saturday.

• 3 arrested in armed robberies
The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office arrested three young men early Saturday morning in connection with a spate of armed robberies on the West Bank during the past two weeks, including three in one hour on Christmas Eve.

• 'I did not shoot Liz,' convict declares
LAFAYETTE -- Vince Marinello did not expect to spend the holidays behind bars.

• N.O. man booked in Sept. 6 killing
An 18-year-old New Orleans man was arrested Saturday morning and booked with the fatal shooting of Robert Santinac, whose Sept. 6 death was the first homicide in New Orleans following a one-week lull after Hurricane Gustav.

• Bullets injure 3-year-old in car
Gunshots injured a 3-year-old boy in the closing hours of Christmas Day, while across town a man was shot in an unrelated incident a few hours later, New Orleans police reported.

• Girlfriend is booked with helping suspect
A 23-year-old woman who authorities believe helped the suspect of an early morning Raceland murder flee to New Orleans was arrested at a Des Allemands truckstop Friday, according to the Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office.

• Record must have both men's names
The state of Louisiana must issue a birth certificate for a Shreveport-born toddler that includes both names of his adoptive parents -- an unmarried same-sex couple -- to honor the New York court decision that granted them custody of the boy in 2006, a federal judge has ruled.

• Visitor to Lutcher badly hurt by bullet
The most seriously wounded victim of a Christmas morning shooting spree in Lutcher was a Baton Rouge man who had come to visit relatives and watch the community's annual bonfire celebration, St. James Parish Sheriff Willy Martin Jr. said Friday.

• Suspect caught in shooting at club
Authorities have arrested a Garyville man they suspect of shooting five people outside a Lutcher nightclub early Christmas morning, St. James Parish Sheriff Willy Martin said.

• Teacher eludes obscenity charges
The Orleans Parish district attorney's office has declined to press obscenity charges against a popular high school choir director after concluding that evidence against the educator didn't meet the legal definition of the crime.

• Prosecutors seek to thwart delay in U.S. Rep. William Jefferson's corruption trial
WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors are asking a Virginia appeals court not to further delay U.S. Rep. William Jefferson's corruption trial, saying the government "should be afforded an opportunity to proceed with its prosecution" in a case first brought more than 18 months ago.