The Clune family smile

Alexandria man charged with battery, home invasion
January 4, 2018
Kenneth Authement
January 5, 2018
Alexandria man charged with battery, home invasion
January 4, 2018
Kenneth Authement
January 5, 2018

ment are to be commended. We look forward to seeing how things develop this coming year.


6. Changes made atop Nicholls State University

Just when we were getting used to Nicholls State University President Dr. Bruce Murphy’s droll smile and dedication to the community we learned along with everyone else that a new educator is in charge.

Murphy announced his Dec. 31 resignation in September.


“First, let me express my gratitude for the opportunity to serve as the fifth president of Nicholls State University. It is with mixed emotions that I write to inform you that I will be transitioning from the presidency of the University at the end of the 2017 calendar year to engage in other strategic initiatives in higher education,” Murphy told the Nicholls community in an e-mail.

The Louisiana University System went into immediate search mode, and chose Jay Clune, a Houma native and Nicholls alumnus who went on to further studies at the University of Alabama and then LSU.

For the past 13 years he has worked at the University of West Florida in Pensacola and says he is eager to return to the Bayou Region.


Clune took over the reins at Nicholls Jan. 1.

The Louisiana System’s board chose Clune over John Doucet, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Nicholls and Marcheta Evans, proNvost and vice president for academic affairs at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio.

7. NAACP case raises rancor in Houma


The Terrebonne Parish Branch of the NAACP scored a major victory in Baton Rouge this year, when U.S. District Judge James Brady ruled that the parish’s method of selecting judges violates the U.S. Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution.

The onus is now on the Louisiana Legislature to create a system of choosing judges other than the current at-large election system, which Brady determined robs black voters of the ability to elect judicial candidates of their choice.

Terrebonne Parish President Gordon Dove has squarely placed himself in opposition to change, although change will likely come whether he wishes it or not. The Governor and the Attorney General of Louisiana are the named defendants, and they will have to help make the wheels of government turn to suit the judge’s request, barring an unlikely eventual overturn of the decision on appeal.


One appeal attempt, driven largely by Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, was rejected by the 5h Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. So far Gov. John Bel Edwards and Landry have not submitted plans for correcting the situation although attorney for Edwards are speaking with members of the Terrebonne legislative delegation with hopes of having a new plan presented during the upcoming legislative session.

Even if the locals don’t present an alternative, members of the Black Legislative Caucus have expressed a willingness to do so.

The only proposal on the table currently is from the plaintiffs in the case which would require carving up Terrebonne into five sub-districts from which judges can be elected. Dove has called that proposal a “balkanization of Terrebonne Parish.”


Whatever remedy is found will not be presented to the judge who made the decision, but rather to some other judge in Baton Rouge who will be assigned his cases.

Judge Brady died after a brief illness last month.

8. Thibodaux Massacre recognized by local governments


The City Council of Thibodaux and the Parish Council of Lafourche have both taken action this year to recognize and acknowledge the Nov. 23, 1887 incident known as the Thibodaux Massacre. The post-Reconstruction atrocity was a matter of hidden history for more than a century, until The Times ran a story detailing the shooting spree by some of Thibodaux’s “finest” citizens, who pass down a story that they assaulted striking black sugar workers as a means of “defending” the town.

The number of dead black men and women is estimated at between 30 and 60. There were no known white fatalities.

Time Senior Staff Writer John DeSantis with the help of the Ellender Memorial Library Archives at Nicholls State University was able to identify eight of the known dead, He is now involved with a non-profit effort to verify and remove remains of victims believed to be in a mass grave on Narrow Street so that they can have proper burial. This effort has been done with the help of descendants of those killed and wounded in the attacks.


More information is available at www.LA1887.com

9. Police Chief and businessman arrested in Lockport

The cases are still on-going but the arrests of the police chief in Lockport and a local businessman from there have turned some heads in the south Lafourche community.


Lockport Police Chief Warren A. Vedros Sr. is charged with one count of felony theft, three counts of malfeasance in office, three counts of filing false public records and one count of forgery.

Lockport resident Robert M. Barker Jr., in a separate action, faces two counts of forgery and one count of filing false public records.

Vedros was accused of pocketing money from civic and athletic events for which fees were charged. Barker is accused of falsifying pubic records concerning a civic organization he is involved with. Neither returned calls for comment at the time the charge were announced.


10. House WHIP Steve Scalise has close call in Virginia

U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise R-Lafayette was shot and wounded by a lone gunman who was later felled by police, during a softball game practice in Alexandria, Va. June 14.

A lone gunman annoyed by President Donald Trump’s election was shot and killed.


He was identified as James T. Hodgkinson, 66, from Belleville, Ill., a suburb of St. Louis. Two members of Scalise’s Capitol Police security detail were wounded as they exchanged fire with Hodgkinson.

Fifteen weeks later Scalise returned to the House floor, and he continues working.

Despite the brush with neardeath Scalise is adamant about his anti-gun control position.


The Clune family smile after Jay Clune (third from left) was named the new president of Nicholls State University.

COURTESY