In custody: A 23-year-old white man is being charged with first degree murder in the shooting deaths of two black men and a firing on a black family. And a law enforcement official tells The Associated Press that a copy of an Adolf Hitler speech was found in the suspect’s home over the weekend. Kenneth James Gleason is accused of shooting 59-year-old Bruce Cofield, who was homeless, on Sept. 12 and 49-year-old Donald Smart, who was killed while walking to his job as a dishwasher at a Louie’s Cafe near LSU, last Thursday. Law enforcement have not ruled out the possibility that the killings were racially motivated. Gleason could face the death penalty, District Attorney Hillar Moore said. Read more from The Associated Press.
Economic investment: Pelican State Credit Union of Baton Rouge is among 303 financial institutions to receive a share of $208.7 million in federal funding distributed to increase lending and investment in low income communities. The credit union was awarded $776,500 from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. CDFI Fund Director Annie Donovan says this year’s pool of awardees is the largest in the history of the CDFI Fund. See all of this year’s recipients.
Delayed: Three weeks after Hurricane Harvey ravaged the massive fuel-making industry along the Texas coast, the region’s recovery from storm damage is starting to disrupt plans for crucial maintenance at refineries thousands of miles away from the flood zones, Bloomberg reports. At least 13 refineries from Louisiana to Montana—with a combined 3.27 million barrels a day—have delayed maintenance for weeks or months due to the recovery from Harvey. Some refineries are churning out more fuel to take advantage of strong margins. Others, however, simply don’t have the personnel because workers were dispatched to help repair and restart storm-hit facilities along the Gulf of Mexico. Read more.
