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settlement filed the following month showed the couple would sell three adjacent lots near her parents' house and split the $25,000 in proceeds. Freeman also agreed to pay Gouaux $39,000.
• But June was also the month that Gouaux and her father filed a complaint against Freeman. And on Oct. 23, he pleaded guilty to one of two criminal telephone-harassment charges based on that complaint, said Lafourche Parish Clerk of Court Vernon H. Rodrigue.
• He was given a deferred sentence of a $250 fine or 10 days in jail, put on unsupervised probation for a year, and the second count of criminal harassment was dismissed, Rodrigue said.
• On Nov. 27, Freeman was issued a citation for simple battery domestic violence against his current wife, Denise Taylor Freeman, the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff's Office said in a news release. A court date had been scheduled for Jan. 16, 2014.
• ___

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 1 million Americans are bracing for a harrowing, post-Christmas jolt as extended federal unemployment benefits come to a sudden halt this weekend, with potentially significant implications for the recovering U.S. economy. A tense political battle likely looms when Congress reconvenes in the new, midterm election year.
• Nudging Congress along, a vacationing President Barack Obama called two senators proposing an extension to offer his support. From Hawaii, Obama pledged Friday to push Congress to move quickly next year to address the "urgent economic priority," the White House said.
• For families dependent on cash assistance, the end of the federal government's "emergency unemployment compensation" will mean some difficult belt-tightening as enrollees lose their average monthly stipend of $1,166.
• Jobless rates could drop, but analysts say the economy may suffer with less money for consumers to spend on everything from clothes to cars. Having let the "emergency" program expire as part of a budget deal, it's unclear if Congress has the appetite to start it anew.
• An estimated 1.3 million people will be cut off when the federally funded unemployment payments end Saturday.
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