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MAURICE — The lobby for the Village of Maurice City Hall will reopen on Thursday Aug. 6.
“Our operations will be limited due to COVID-19 impact,” Maurice Mayor Wayne Theriot said, “so we ask everybody’s understanding and cooperation.”
Maurice City Hall closed on July 27 due to possible COVID-19 exposure.
“We ask for your prayers for our employees and families who are/were affected by this virus,” Theriot said.
Theriot reminds those who need to visit city hall, or anywhere in public, to follow guidelines from Gov. John Bel Edwards’ current Phase II order.
“Please wear a mask and practice social distancing when out in public,” Theriot said.

LAFAYETTE — A Rayne man was sentenced in federal court in connection with the killing and transporting of a federally protected and endangered whooping Crane.
Kaenon A. Constantin, 28, was sentenced on July 30 to five years of probation, according to United States Attorney David C. Joseph.
During his period of probation, Constantin must complete 360 hours of community service related to wildlife conservation. Also as part of the sentence, Constantin’s hunting privileges have been suspended until he completes the community service.
United States Magistrate Judge Hanna also ordered Constantin to pay a $10,000 fine and to pay $75,000 in restitution to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
In November 2019, Constantin was named in a federal bill of information for violating the Lacey Act in May 2016. Specifically, on May 20, 2016, Constantin and a juvenile, using .22-caliber rifles, shot at a pair of whooping cranes in a field in Acadia Parish.
One of the cranes, identified as L5-15, fell dead in the field, and Constantin and his accomplice retrieved its carcass. The other crane, identified as L3-15, flew too far north into another field so that it could not be retrieved, but investigators later recovered its carcass.
After retrieving L5-15’s carcass, they noticed that it had transponders on its legs and received information that the bird was a whooping crane.
Constantin and the juvenile transported the carcass to the juvenile’s residence, where they severed the legs from L5-15’s carcass by using a knife and removed the transponders. They then transported the knife, carcass, severed legs, and transponders along a nearby road and discarded the evidence.
When initially approached by investigators shortly after the crime, Constantin lied about his involvement, causing the investigation to continue for nearly two more years before he finally confessed in April 2018.
The Lacey Act is a comprehensive federal law that protects against wildlife crimes, such as international and domestic wildlife trafficking. The Act prohibits, among other actions, a person from knowingly transporting wildlife, when in the exercise of due care the person should have known that the wildlife was taken or possessed in violation of, or in a manner unlawful under, any underlying law, treaty, or regulation of the United States.
Whooping cranes are a federally protected species under federal laws and regulations, including the Endangered Species Act. They are large birds, standing nearly five feet tall and with wingspans of 7.5 feet.
“Our agents take any investigation of illegally shooting whooping cranes very seriously,” added LDWF Secretary Jack Montoucet. “Chief of LDWF Enforcement Col. Chad Hebert and I applaud the judge in this case for imposing severe monetary punishments to help deter anyone from this behavior,
“The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has spent a lot of resources in an effort to bring back the native whooping crane to a sustainable population, and senseless shootings like this case make that mission much more problematic.”
The United States Fish & Wildlife Service and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Danny Siefker prosecuted the case.

BATON ROUGE - Gov. John Bel Edwards announced today that he will extend his Phase Two order, including the statewide mask mandate, closure of bars to on-site consumption and crowd size limits of no more than 50 people for at least another 21 days.
The current order expires on Friday, August 7. Gov. Edwards will sign a new order before the end of the week that extends this order through Friday, August 28.
“Louisiana is beginning to see the positive impact of the mask mandate in its COVID-19 data, including a decline in the number of people who are reporting to emergency rooms with COVID-like symptoms, decreasing new cases across the state and declining or plateauing hospitalizations in many regions of our state. Still, every single one of our 64 parishes has high COVID incidence. According to the White House report yesterday, Louisiana is in the red zone for cases, indicating more than 100 new cases per 100,000 people in the last week, and also for COVID-19 test positivity, indicating a rate above 10 percent. In its weekly recommendations to the state, the White House Coronavirus Task Force specifically recommends continuing both the statewide mask mandate and the closure of bars to on-premises consumption.”
“We may be seeing fewer new cases but there still is a lot of COVID statewide. We now have ticked above 50,000 active confirmed cases, which means there is more COVID in our state than ever before. We need deeper, sustained gains. That is why I am extending the restrictions we have in place for another 21 days, so we can continue the progress we are making and protect against additional spread of COVID-19.”
“We know the statewide mask mandate is working, and I am deeply appreciative of the vast majority of Louisianans and businesses who are acting responsibly and caring for their neighbors by wearing masks, staying home when they are sick, practicing social distancing and washing their hands frequently,” Gov. Edwards said. “We are in this together for the long haul, and I am confident that we can continue to slow the spread of COVID-19 in our state, if each and every Louisianan will recommit to these necessary mitigation measures. We are at a critical point in our battle against COVID-19, and we need every person in our state to play their part.”

Vermilion Catholic High graduates Aneliese Hebert and Ethan Hunt completed their senior year by winning the National Championship in the Performing Arts category at the National Beta Convention.
A few months earlier, the duo won the state competition out of more than 60 contestants. They sang, “God Is” which was originally sung by Kanye West.
At state, they got to perform on stage. However, because of the coronavirus, the National Beta Convention in Texas was canceled. So, Hunt and Hebert sent the video of their state singing performance to the judges judging the Performing Arts category at Nationals.
Last week they received word that their performance captured first place on the national level.
The night the two were going to learn how they did at Nationals, the two families had planned to have a “watch party” at the Hebert home. An hour before the party, the two families heard that Hebert and Hunt were selected as the national winners. It turned into a celebration party, instead.
VC Beta Club sponsor Laura Humble contacted her before the party.
“We were both excited,” said Hebert, who is 18 and making plans to go to LSU in August.
The duo almost did not happen. A few weeks before the state competition, Mrs Humble approached Hebert and Hunt about teaming up to sing at the state Beta Convention. Singing at the Beta convention was never a priority for Hunt. But it was for Hebert who competed her freshman, sophomore and junior years but never reached the top 10 on the state level.
Hebert, who had already sung with Hunt, had to convince her classmate to sing with her at Beta. Once he said OK, then they had to find a song to sing.
While driving in a car en route to go eat, Hebert played a Kanye West gospel song. Hebert turned around to Hunt and jokingly said, “We should sing this for BETA.”
A few days later, they agreed “God Is” was their song, and Hunt trimmed down the song from five minutes to two minutes.
“It was a Gospel song we both enjoyed,” said Hunt. “It grabbed a lot of attention.”
The two only practiced singing the song twice before the state competition.
Hunt, who plays the piano, sat behind the keyboard, and Hebert stood for the state competition.
Both said they were disappointed they could not perform on stage at the national level. Hebert said she cried because she missed out.
“This has been a crazy year with the quarantine,” she said. “I was disappointed that we did not have a prom, and we missed the National Beta convention, which was a letdown.”
For Hunt, known as Ethan Hunt Piano Man on the music circuit, winning state and nationals is more exposure for his music career.
Hunt, 19, admits he fell in love with performing when he was 12-years-old. He competed in the talent show at a summer 4-H camp and loved being on stage in front of a crowd. The next year he began taking piano lessons and eventually taught himself how to play the piano.
Since the age of 13, his music career has grown. He now writes and records his music. He has filmed at least four music videos that can be seen on Youtube.com. He has performed in Austin, Texas, Nashville and Branson, Missouri over the last four years.
First a National and State BETA award. What could be next? How about a Grammy Award?
“I want to make more music,” he added. “I will see where this takes me. I have come a long way.”