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The 2004 Essence Festival
drew its largest audience ever this year. About 228,000 fans attended the 10th annual festival, held in New Orleans over the Fourth of July weekend, making it the largest annual gathering of African Americans in the United States, according to festival officials. This year&185;s headliners included Prince, Mary J. Blige, LL Cool J, and Gladys Knight.

Frank X. Neuner,
president of the Louisiana Client Assistance Foundation and treasurer of the Louisiana State Bar Association, was recently honored by the National Client Protection Organization. Neuner, of Lafayette, won the Isaac Hecht Law Client Protection Award. The honor cites his work reforming the LSBA&185;s Client Protection Program, which helps those who have been victimized by unethical attorneys.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Michigan
recently awarded a $1.2 million grant to the Louisiana Assembly on School-Based Health Care (LASBHC), a nonprofit organization that provides help and advocacy for school-based health centers. The money will fund a LASBHC project to educate Louisiana citizens about the centers, which provide health care and education to students and families. Louisiana has 52 such facilities in the state.

Michael Whetstone
admitted he used his position as a New Orleans police officer to extort money from people in the French Quarter. During his sentencing last week, in which he received an 18-month prison term, Whetstone apologized for his crimes, which included handcuffing people and threatening to arrest them unless they paid up. His ex-partner, Sidney Webb, awaits trial and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

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