A terrifying encounter outside an Amelia-area business has led to the arrest of a 27-year-old Morgan City man, and the woman at the center of the ordeal is now safe after authorities say she was forced into a vehicle by an allegedly intoxicated man. St. Mary Parish Sheriff Gary Driskell announced that Guillermo Cerpa Carmona was taken into custody early Sunday morning on a warrant charging him with simple kidnapping, simple battery, and false imprisonment. The case began when the woman, still shaken, was dropped off at another business in Assumption Parish and immediately approached law enforcement there. Her account…

The U.S. Department of Justice has quietly taken a major step toward reshaping how it handles fraud cases that involve taxpayer money, and the decision is making waves in legal and government-contracting circles. At the heart of the move is a simple but powerful idea: the government should be clear, consistent, and fair when deciding which whistleblower lawsuits to push forward and which to leave by the wayside. For decades, the False Claims Act—often called the “Lincoln Law” because it traces its roots to Civil War-era efforts to stop contractors from swindling the Union Army—has allowed everyday citizens, known as…