 BY DEANNA B. NARVESON | Staff writer Sworn into office: In the wake of the deadly terrorist attack in New Orleans, Baton Rouge's incoming Mayor-President Sid Edwards was sworn in at the Raising Cane's River Center Thursday. “We are about to take these first steps into this new era, to achieve this new beginning,” Edwards said at the event. “We know the problems. We see them every day. We know the solutions. All we need to do is get to work and do what needs to be done.” A dark horse candidate at the qualifying date in July, Edwards received the most votes in the November primary and upset Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome with 54% of the vote a month later a runoff. Read the full story.
The latest information we have: The FBI said Thursday that agents now believe a U.S. Army veteran from Houston acted alone when he drove to New Orleans late Tuesday, planted pipe bombs in a pair of ice chests along Bourbon Street, then sped a rented pickup truck into the reveling crowds, killing 14 people in a bloody scene in the wee hours of the New Year. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who was shot and killed by New Orleans police officers after opening fire, had posted videos to social media on his way to New Orleans, “proclaiming his support for ISIS,” said Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counter-terrorism division. Read more.
To those in Baton Rouge's Episcopal School community, Kareem Badawi was a trusted friend and a selfless teammate. On New Year's Eve, Badawi was home on winter break from the University of Alabama when he and a group of Baton Rouge-area friends went to New Orleans. They were on Bourbon Street when Shamsud-Din Jabbar slammed a rented pickup truck into a crowd, then got out and shot at officers before they returned fire and killed him, officials said. Read more about Badawi's life. | 
