Eighteen years ago this week, Derrick Todd Lee received the death penalty in Louisiana. He was the state’s most notorious and prolific serial killer. I was there in the courtroom when the verdict was handed down.

The controversy around Registrar of Voters Sharon Branan’s allegations that the new district maps have been tampered with after the legally allowed deadline in order to serve the interests of certain politicians finally exploded into the public eye at the October 13 Plaquemines Parish Government (PPG) council meeting.

The October 13 meeting of the Plaquemines Port Harbor & Terminal District (PPHTD) was an unusually brief and uneventful one. But the commissioners did introduce a resolution to hire a new executive director of PPHTD, though the sections stating who was being hired and how much they were making were left blank.

Early voting will be held Tuesday, October 25 through Tuesday, November 1 (excluding Sunday, Oct. 30) from 8:30 a.m.

For many years, leadership in Plaquemines Parish, from both the public and private sector has professed that realizing development of the Port on both banks of the Mississippi River is Plaquemines Parish’s economic future. That assertion intensified following the 80 percent reduction in oil and gas revenues to the Plaquemines Parish Government and the loss of thousands of jobs in the oil and gas sector.

October 5, 2022 Lucinda K. Kinney, 34, Baton Rouge: fugitive warrant.

A pillar of democracy is the public’s right to watch the process of government. Several aspects of the law include rights to view public documents and requirements that government bodies conduct business at properly noticed public meetings. These are often referred to as “Sunshine Laws’’ because governments are supposed to operate in the light of day and not in the dark behind closed doors. And they are supposed to take care of the public’s business with a quorum of the body present, which in Plaquemines is 5 members.

October 7, 2022 Suit 67688, Sheldon Williams vs. Jamie Nickerson Scott, Jamie Nickerson, Custody.

As a service to its readers, The Plaquemines Gazette reports arrests and suits filed in Plaquemines Parish. Information listed here is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but due to the possibility of human or mechanical errors in filing, entering, and transcribing documents, this information is not guaranteed. Before acting on this information, please consult the official records.

A proposed $2.8 billion methanol plant development in Plaquemines Parish, which has been dormant since early 2019, recently announced an “offtake agreement” with Trinidad and Tobago’s state owned energy company, signaling that parish plant is finally ready to continue development.