Taxpayers foot $81,000 bill for DC Mardi Gras
The Times revealed in February Louisiana's annual Capitol Hill bash cost taxpayers at least $81,000 to send local officials to party.
The newspaper's findings also included a private dinner party for 75 and thousand of dollars spent on toney hospitality suites.
Collision Course: Are Louisiana's DWI laws flaws?
The Times' 2009 investigation of DWI arrests and convictions in the Shreveport/Bossier City area shows:
- 29 percent of drivers arrested and charged with DWI by Shreveport police appear to have avoided prosecution.
- At least 527 offenders were arrested as repeat DWI offenders. Of those, some 58 had three or more DWI arrests over a span of about six years. Some had as many as three arrests in one year and others had two or more arrests within the same day, week or month.
- 42 percent of offenders arrested for their third or subsequent DWI got their charges reduced.
- 93 percent of first- and second-time DWI offenders prosecuted at Shreveport City Court received a suspended jail sentence. Most offenders prosecuted through Caddo District Court got suspended jail or prison sentences.
Read the complete Collision Course series including a chilling account of the death of a 15-year-old Good Samaritan at the hands of a repeat drunken driver.
