• Sky-high electric bills spark pleas for help
Faced with a $355.89 electric bill she can't afford, 73-year-old Antoinette Wenzel of Kenner called Entergy Louisiana LLC last week to register for help in the state's newly declared energy emergency.

• BUILDING HOPE
Workers in yellow hard hats swarmed a few blocks in the Lower 9th Ward on Monday, as contractors with Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation hurried to build its first houses by the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

• Lab project poised to rise in N.O.
Construction should begin in the coming weeks on the New Orleans BioInnovation Center, a business incubator on Canal Street that will help researchers at the city's major universities take their findings from the laboratory to the marketplace.

• Master plan for schools unveiled
As school leaders officially unveiled an ambitious $685 million school construction plan at the Contemporary Arts Center -- a gallery proposed as the location of a new high school -- educators across the city applauded the massive scope of the effort but seemed thirsty for more details.

• Troy Carter: Promises a fresh perspective
When a fifth-place finish in the 2nd Congressional District race two years ago dashed his hopes for a political comeback, Troy Carter chalked up the defeat to voters having little time to focus on elections amid the everyday difficulties of life in the year after Hurricane Katrina.

• Crime down in most areas of Jeff
The crime rate in unincorporated Jefferson Parish was down during the first half of 2008 despite increases in murders and rapes, according to statistics released by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

• Jaume murder trial jurors vetted
Seven years after a slaying stunned the north shore, jury selection began Monday in the trial of a 29-year-old man charged with first-degree murder of Samantha Jaume, who was shot to death in her Mandeville area home after she and her children returned from a shopping trip.

• Parish Council rolls back tax rate
The St. Charles Parish Council on Monday voted to roll back property taxes, forgoing an estimated $414,000 in revenue that could have resulted from the rising value of the parish tax rolls.

• GO IN PEACE
Hundreds of families jammed little Blessed Sacrament Church on Sunday to share stories, revisit memories, laugh, weep and pray together for what may be the last time. But in an unexpected twist, leaders announced plans to transplant themselves whole -- music, ushers, worship style and all -- to nearby St. Henry Catholic Church next Sunday and for the foreseeable future.

• Schools in N.O. compete to draw students
When Alex Hochron arrived in New Orleans last month to head a new freshman academy at Cohen High School, he saw hundreds of signs lining neutral grounds promoting charter schools.

• James Carter: Working behind the scenes
As Hurricane Katrina raced toward shore almost three years ago, it seemed inevitable to James Carter that such a monster storm would cause massive suffering. So Carter, an attorney in private practice at the time, decided to send his wife and young son out of harm's way, then hunker down in his Algiers Point home so he could join the immediate relief effort.

• Second Razzoo bouncer going on trial
The second of four Bourbon Street bouncers accused of killing a Georgia college student on New Year's Eve 2004 is scheduled for trial today in Baton Rouge.

• New Orleans schools set for building boom
Armed with $685 million in recovery cash, New Orleans public school leaders aim to radically remake the city's bloated portfolio of aged school buildings, most of them rotted as badly from neglect and plummeting enrollment as from the final blow of a biblical flood.

• NOW IT GETS INTERESTING
There's hotter-than-normal water on the surface of the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Gulf of Mexico. The water's still a bit cooler than normal off the Pacific coast of South America.

• Holes abound in city's review of contractors' NOAH work
Orleans Parish Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Lagarde was surprised -- and perturbed -- when a sign bearing the logo of the New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Corp. popped up in the yard of his Lakeview home.

• Couple who bought home can't beat wrecking ball
The pile of rubble that a city-hired wrecking crew left at 5132 Kendall Drive in Gentilly Woods on Saturday was supposed to be the DeJan family's new home.

• River attracts wary eyes
August and September don't just deliver the region's nastiest hurricanes; most Mississippi River bank failures traditionally occur during those months as well.

• Hughes rejects plan to stop closings
Archbishop Alfred Hughes Friday rejected a plan that might keep open three small Uptown Catholic parishes, effectively telling parishioners at 93-year-old Blessed Sacrament parish that this Sunday's service will be their last.

• VA brass keep options open on site of hospital
Last year, frantic that they might lose the veterans hospital to another city or even another state, local and state leaders pulled together a plan to commandeer land in a historic but struggling neighborhood on the edge of the Central Business District and offer it to the federal government as a place to build.

• Plan swaps sounds of gunfire for jazz
A group of churches and nonprofits Friday announced a novel plan to steer young people away from violence and into the teaching hands of some of the city's best jazz musicians and artists. The price of entry: a gun.

• READY TO DIVE IN
Call it the Phelps Phactor, or simply Phelps Phever.

• Fire razes Slidell office project
A nearly completed office building in Slidell was gutted by a four-alarm fire Thursday night.

• Parish debates setting millage rate
St. Charles Parish residents concerned about property tax rates will have their chance to be heard Monday as the Parish Council considers levying 26.88 mills of property tax.

• Trailer count ebbs in Kenner
Just a couple of dozen FEMA travel trailers remain in Kenner yards, down from several thousand at the height of the post-Katrina rebuilding effort.

• A raft of new state laws take effect today, targeting everything from firearms at work to cockfighting to home-repair fraud
BATON ROUGE -- Starting today, employees can bring their firearms to work, but can't ride in the bed of a pickup truck if they take interstate highways to get there.

• Ex-DA asked feds to look at killings
Anticipating that Criminal District Court Judge Raymond Bigelow would toss the indictment accusing New Orleans police officers of shooting people after Hurricane Katrina, Orleans Parish District Attorney Keva Landrum-Johnson last week sent a letter to the U.S. Justice Department, asking the federal government to consider taking over the case.

• READY TO DIVE IN
Call it the Phelps Phactor, or simply Phelps Phever.

• CARRYING MORE THAN FOOTBALL
BATON ROUGE -- Richard Murphy came to LSU as a blue-chip football recruit who had recovered from a serious knee injury. He also arrived an orphan.

• Health-care prognosis brightens
Despite the mass exodus of doctors from the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina nearly three years ago, a journal published today reports that doctors have returned here at a rate that has pushed their per-capita number above the national average, one of many signs medical professionals say indicates the local health-care system is recovering.

• Mandeville probe changes hands
The state attorney general has opened an investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing by Mayor Eddie Price and other Mandeville officials after St. Tammany District Attorney Walter Reed recused himself from the case.

• More pupils enroll, attend schools
Attendance and enrollment are on the rise in St. John the Baptist Parish public schools this year, school officials said.

• Waste panel gives nod to Slidell firm
An advisory committee gave top billing Thursday to a Slidell waste company to begin hauling garbage from Jefferson Parish curbsides next year.

• Waste station runs into static
Residents north of Covington, saying they don't want a "dump" near their homes, are asking St. Tammany Parish officials to revoke a zoning permit for a solid-waste transfer station initially approved by the Zoning Commission almost two years ago.

• Charges rejected against Danziger 7
Murder and attempted-murder charges against seven New Orleans police officers -- accused of shooting unarmed civilians on the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina -- were tossed out Wednesday by Criminal District Court Judge Raymond Bigelow, who concluded that a prosecutor violated grand jury secrecy.

• Budget surplus is windfall for coast
The state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority agreed Wednesday to spend $300 million in 2007 budget surplus money on a variety of hurricane protection and coastal restoration projects, including $100 million that will help speed completion of 100-year east bank and West Bank levees in the New Orleans area.

• Captain blames collision on tug
A second round of Coast Guard hearings will commence this morning to determine what caused last month's collision between a tank ship and fuel barge on the Mississippi River, which spilled a load of oil that is still being cleaned up.

• La.'s ACT average hits new high
In an achievement hailed as an unprecedented level of readiness for college, Louisiana's high school seniors this year attained the state's highest overall score ever on the ACT entrance examination.

• Louisiana modernizes sex-crime registry
Law enforcement officers and residents throughout Louisiana soon will have a new tool to track sex offenders, replacing an outdated system that relies on dozens of departments to monitor them throughout the state.

• Navy signs federal city lease
In a significant step toward making a campus for federal agencies and the military a reality in Algiers, the Navy and planners have agreed on basic terms for a 75-year lease of the Naval Support Activity's West Bank site, setting the stage for congressional approval.

• Parents protest school changes
Waving signs imploring "Rescind," parents from three Jefferson Parish public schools urged the School Board on Wednesday to reconsider its plan to dissolve one high school and alter grade configurations and campuses of two others.

• School hiring routine getting upgrade
With lessons learned after a former elementary school custodian was arrested on sexual assault charges involving students, St. Tammany Parish school officials say a number of initiatives, including an outside review, are helping the School Board continue to strengthen its hiring and screening process.

• St. John tax rates to hold steady
Both the St. John the Baptist Parish Council and Sheriff's Office will keep their property taxes at the 2007 rate, allowing the taxing bodies to capture some extra revenue as property values in the parish rise.

• Tax bills may rise, Chehardy warns
Jefferson Parish property values have largely climbed back to their pre-Katrina levels, Assessor Lawrence Chehardy said Wednesday in forecasting that owners could face higher tax bills this year.

• Contracts linked to mayor's family
The lavish golfing and hunting excursions enjoyed by Mandeville Mayor Eddie Price, courtesy of city contractors and a prominent local developer, were perhaps the most sensational revelations in a report released Monday by the Louisiana legislative auditor.

• Utility panel declares first energy emergency
The Louisiana Public Service Commission on Tuesday unanimously declared the state's first "energy emergency," a move that allows elderly, low-income and disabled customers to defer paying portions of their electricity bills for as long as a year. The commission also called on the state to appropriate $20 million for energy assistance and efficiency programs.

• Katrina transplant convicted in Texas
Nearly nine years ago, a New Orleans jury apparently didn't believe testimony that Rondel Allen marched a United cabdriver out to a grassy field during a robbery and shot him in the back of the head.

• Louisiana's ban on cockfighting takes effect Friday
BATON ROUGE -- Some call it a blood sport. Others call it a way of life. But whatever the view, as of Friday cockfighting will be illegal in Louisiana, the last state in the nation to outlaw it.

• Five deaths leave parish grieving
It was, St. John Parish the Baptist Parish Councilman Danny Millet said, the kind of phone call that stops you in your tracks.

• Teen found guilty in rival's killing
After about an hour of deliberations Tuesday, an Orleans Parish jury found a teenager guilty of murder for shooting down a neighborhood rival who had bested him in a fistfight.

• Five boating deaths come as harsh blow
As the parents of several men involved in a boating accident gathered inside a room in a Baton Rouge hospital early Sunday morning, a doctor turned to each of them to deliver the devastating news.

• Price lived lavishly on contractors, city
The state legislative auditor issued a scathing report Monday on the city of Mandeville, describing an administration where the mayor flew to golf tournaments on a private jet owned by a city contractor and where abuses of city credit cards by top officials were rampant.

• Officials scrap contract to issue grants
In another failed start for a recovery program that has languished for two years, Louisiana officials decided Monday to scrap a contract for doling out home-raising grants after they concluded two top bidders had conflicts of interest.

• Board to vote on lowering millage
St. Charles Parish School Board members agreed Monday to vote on a proposal to lower the district's property tax millages at the board's Wednesday meeting.

• Feds get files from recovery nonprofit
Federal investigators collected documents Monday from the shuttered New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Corp., the city-chartered and city-financed nonprofit that ran a home-remediation program in 2006 and 2007.

• First day of school surprisingly smooth
With thousands of students moving to different schools Monday, the result of a revised desegregation plan that includes redrawn attendance boundaries and four new magnet schools, the first day of classes in Jefferson Parish could have been disastrous.

• Landowners can expect higher tax valuations
The St. Tammany Parish property tax rolls for this year, to be released next month by the assessor's office, will reflect higher values for most properties.

• DETERMINED TO SUCCEED
In his gut, Floyd Allen knew the news couldn't be true.

• Last of the oil barge pulled from river
The last remaining piece of the wrecked oil barge DM 932 was taken from the Mississippi River on Sunday, 18 days after an early-morning collision released hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel into the water.

• Oil spill fallout differs by state
Almost three weeks into the cleanup of hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil spilled in New Orleans' backyard, there has been an atypical silence from Louisiana's political leaders about one of the largest Mississippi River oil spills in a decade.

• 4 dead, 1 still missing in boat crash
The son of a top St. John the Baptist Parish official was among four boaters killed in a head-on collision Saturday afternoon on the Blind River, officials said.

• Dangers lurk in Gulf's waters
PENSACOLA BEACH, FLA. -- From his vantage point in a two-story command post about 150 yards from shore, Bob West watches over paradise.

• HOUSING SLUMP HITTING HOME
New Orleans, awash in insurance and federal rebuilding grants after Hurricane Katrina, for many months seemed to resist the relentless decline in real estate prices that afflicted once incandescent markets in California, Florida and Nevada. This year, however, the national malaise has finally started to dampen the local market.

• Tugs operate under radar on river
Arriving at the worst oil spill on the lower Mississippi River in nearly a decade, Coast Guard officers found a rookie at the helm of the towboat Mel Oliver, which had put the barge it was pushing on a collision course with an oncoming ship.

• Verify work or pay up, city tells contractors
City officials have been unable to verify work allegedly done by 19 contractors under a taxpayer-financed home-remediation program, including a company owned by Mayor Ray Nagin's brother-in-law and another firm whose owner has had business partnerships with the former head of the embattled New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Corp., records released by City Hall late Saturday show.

• Utility customers sweating high bills
Last month, Metairie resident Sherry Lloyd's electricity bill from Entergy Louisiana LLC was $408.27 despite her efforts to conserve power at her 1,100-square-foot home.

• Feds to sweep NOAH offices for records
The Poydras Street offices of the embattled New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Corp. will be cleaned out Monday morning by federal investigators hunting for documents related to a home remediation program supervised and financed by Mayor Ray Nagin's administration, a board member of the nonprofit group said Friday.

• Firm ready to build St. James iron plant
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Nucor Corp. plans to build a 500-employee iron plant in Convent and wants to break ground in January, as long as Louisiana grants the necessary environmental permits and the Legislature backs an incentives package crafted by the administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal, the steelmaker's chief executive officer said.

• CHINA WOWS WORLD with opulent Olympic opening ceremonies
BEIJING

• Board aims to renew 18-mill tax
The St. John the Baptist Parish School Board will ask voters on Nov. 4 to rededicate 18 mills of property tax, extending the life of the tax and earmarking the tax revenue for pay raises, academic programs, retiree health insurance and $46 million in bonds to pay for capital projects.

• Council firm on trailer vacancy date
St. Tammany Parish officials are holding firm on a looming Aug. 29 deadline for people to move out of travel and FEMA trailers, but apparently will make concessions for residents who have legitimate reasons why they can't meet the mandate.

• Deseg plan has Jeff schools hustling
When Jefferson Parish public schools open their doors Monday, they won't just welcome the start of a new school year. They also will usher in a new chapter of history.

• Jeff pupils will be making history
When Jefferson Parish public schools open their doors Monday, they won't just welcome the start of a new school year. They also will usher in a new chapter of history.

• N.O. police watchdog to focus on big picture
Within four months, New Orleans should have its first independent monitor to oversee how the New Orleans Police Department conducts investigations into allegations of police misconduct.

• Pupils head to class in next weeks
Seven new public charter schools will usher in the new school year as they start classes this month, catapulting the number of charters in New Orleans to 47.

• School starts like clockwork, mostly
In Estates of Northpark near Covington on Friday, Julie Barbin's son Nicholas was less than pleased when his bus picked him up on time for the first day of school.

• Louisiana given 30 years to pay to raise levees
President Bush has agreed to give Louisiana 30 years to pay its $1.8 billion share of the cost of raising hurricane protection levees in the New Orleans area, Gov. Bobby Jindal and Gulf Coast Recovery Coordinator Maj. Gen. Doug O'Dell said at a surprise news conference Thursday evening.

• BAYOU TO BEIJING
BEIJING -- Their dreams were spawned in sweaty gyms, on crumbling asphalt tracks and atop the choppy waters of Lake Pontchartrain.

• Editor's pick
SEIMONE AUGUSTUS

• Mayor says NOAH probe reveals some 'discrepancies'
Mayor Ray Nagin told the New Orleans City Council on Thursday that his staff can't confirm that taxpayer-financed contractors working for New Orleans Affordable Homeownership Corp. performed any work at 90 of the 870 blighted properties assigned to the agency.

• Mandeville police chief ordered to submit files
When FBI agents interviewed Mandeville Police Chief Tom Buell at his home Monday night, they also served him with a subpoena for records from the scandal-plagued Christmas charity he controlled.