• Covington puts tax on ballot
The Covington City Council, at the urging of Mayor Candace Watkins Tuesday night, placed a one-quarter-cent sales tax increase referendum on the Nov. 4 ballot for city police officers pay raises and to hire more firefighters.

• New law will send board back to school
Thanks to an amended state law requiring school board members to receive more training in education-related issues, school officials next year will be going back to the classroom.

• Slidell woman dies in accident
A Slidell woman was killed in a morning wreck on Interstate 12 near Lacombe on Tuesday, State Police said.

• Covington land add passes panel
An annexation that would pave the way for a 50-acre commercial center in northern Covington, where a par-3 golf course and driving range is located, has received the backing of the city's Zoning Commission.

• 3 booked in Slidell apartment drug raid
Three people were arrested after local and federal investigators discovered $14,000 in counterfeit bills and 14 grams of heroin inside an apartment in Slidell, authorities announced Tuesday.

• POLICE REPORTS
St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office

• U.S. 11 bridge lanes to close
Maintenance work will close lanes on the U.S. 11 bridge over Lake Pontchartrain Thursday and Friday.

• 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.

• Meetings on rezoning plan reset
St. Tammany Parish planning officials have postponed until Sept. 16 their public meeting to unveil a proposed rezoning plan for the unincorporated areas of southwestern St. Tammany.

• Man held in heist try in Mandeville
An Independence man was arrested after Mandeville police interrupted a trio trying to break into an ATM with a welding torch early Saturday, authorities said.

• No decision on model home display
As expected, the Slidell Zoning Commission has tabled a decision on whether to let a local businessman place two model homes on Lindberg Drive near his modular home store.

• Folsom residents are facing the future
Folsom residents told planners Monday night about their interest in maintaining the rural, small-town feel of their village while also welcoming certain, inevitable expansions and changes to their zoning, demographics and culture.

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

• Judge adds 12 years to sentence
A family pleaded with a state judge Friday to increase the sentence against the drunken driver who killed their 26-year-old son and husband, Daniel L. Hare Jr., in a two-vehicle wreck last Thanksgiving morning.

• Man says Slidell's behavior unmodel
A Slidell man who recently opened a modular home business on Gause Boulevard said city officials have ruined his business after reneging on a deal to allow him to place two model homes near his store for customers to tour.

• Recall drive hits residency snag
Cries for Eddie Price's political head began on Internet blogs months ago. This week, the Web chatter grew deafening after a state audit found that the Mandeville mayor was not only a recipient of gifts from a Mandeville police Christmas charity but apparently was using public money to finance his vacations.

• Safety patrols to be out on streets
St. Tammany deputies will be on patrol in neighborhood streets again today as part of an effort to increase safety on residential roads.

• POLICE REPORTS
SLIDELL POLICE

• 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.

• Residents crowd council meeting
Mandeville residents packed a City Council meeting Thursday night to express their outrage after a state audit report revealed that Mayor Eddie Price racked up thousands of dollars in personal charges on the taxpayers' dime and accepted lavish golf trips from companies that do business with the city.

• 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.

• Mother's death echoes her son's
After her son died in a car accident, Loretta Crawford remained a doting mother.

• School Board alters travel expense policy
The St. Tammany Parish School Board on Thursday unanimously approved a change to its travel policy that will require the board president's sole approval on members' travel reimbursement requests.

• Misuse of debit cards alleged
A Marrero man has been booked by Slidell police with using fake debit cards to buy expensive electronic equipment at Wal-Mart.

• Council rejects shift in filling openings
A proposal to allow the Slidell City Council to appoint an interim member when a seat becomes vacant in the middle of the council's four-year term failed to pass muster Tuesday night.

• 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.

• 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.

• Slidell's assistant police chief proposal also fails
An effort to create the position of assistant police chief in Slidell failed Tuesday after one City Council member said the post would not be in the best interest of residents, as it could lead to political patronage down the line.

• Zoning options could shrink
New regulations being written for Covington will streamline the city's zoning codes, with 14 classifications instead of 25, consultants working on the project said.

• Electronic bingo proposal fails in Pearl River
Electronic gambling doesn't belong in Pearl River, the town's leaders have decided.

• Passport fair to be held Saturday in Covington
The U.S. Postal Service will conduct a passport fair Saturday at the Covington post office, 1775 N. Columbia St.

• 2 St. Tammany school projects near completion
The renovation of Brock Elementary School in Slidell and construction of a new high school off Louisiana 1088 near Mandeville are moving forward, with both projects expected to be completed in the coming months.

• 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.

• Suspect pleads guilty to raping girl
A Denham Springs man has pleaded guilty to raping a 13-year-old girl in the Covington area, a crime whose investigation in 2004 touched off accusations of dirty detective work and judicial bias in St. Tammany Parish.

• Folsom to hold meeting on growth
The village of Folsom will hold a special public meeting Monday at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the village's growth, development and ways to maintain its small-town feel.

• Northshore Harbor Center taps manager
The Northshore Harbor Center Board of Commissioners on Tuesday named interim general manager Kathy Lowrey to the permanent position.

• Police say shooting victim didn't steal gun
Deputies no longer believe a Slidell area teen who was accidentally shot in the face with a stolen gun last month was involved in the theft of the weapon, a St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office official said this week.

• After guilty verdict, a plea
Two days after his former Slidell High School classmate and accomplice was convicted of the murder, Edric Cooper, 20, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday in the shooting death of illegal immigrant Jose Luis Martinez-Carpio.

• 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.

• Car plows into woman's bedroom
For years, Dorothy Durham's friends have warned her that her home on K Street where Ninth Avenue dead-ends into it near Covington was just waiting for an accident.

• Slidell man booked with raping girl, 12
An 18-year-old Slidell man has been arrested on suspicion of raping a 12-year-old girl, authorities said Monday.

• School bus involved in wreck
A St. Tammany Parish school bus slammed into the back of a Toyota on Monday evening after the car cut in front of it while turning onto Louisiana 59 near Mandeville.

• Moore withdraws from Division B judge race
Madisonville lawyer Patrick E. Moore has withdrawn from the 22nd Judicial District Court's Division B race for judge, whittling the Oct. 4 contest to two candidates.

• Slidell asks for comment on master plan
Residents have one more chance to offer opinions on Slidell's master planning process, with officials hosting a second final meeting on the subject Wednesday after an initial meeting was poorly attended.

• Causeway worker cited in 5-car crash
A Lake Pontchartrain Causeway motorist-assistance driver was cited with reckless driving after causing a fiery, five-vehicle pile-up Thursday night while en route to help clear another accident on the bridge, authorities said.

• 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.

• Murder case in jury's hands
A St. Tammany Parish jury continued to deliberate late Friday evening in the second-degree murder trial of a New Orleans teenager accused of murdering a Salvadoran man in 2007.

• 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.

• 2 teens booked in car burglaries
Two Slidell-area teens allegedly burglarized at least 50 unlocked cars in subdivisions around the city before being caught by St. Tammany Parish sheriff's deputies, authorities said Friday.

• Candidate asks board to stay mum
Before the St. Tammany chapter of the Alliance for Good Government held a forum for judicial hopefuls Wednesday night, one candidate urged the group not to make an endorsement in his race.

• 'Conservative' budget for schools proposed
St. Tammany Parish schools Superintendent Gayle Sloan on Thursday night introduced a $334.5 million budget for the coming year that forecasts a 1.5 percent increase in spending, and pay increases for teachers and noncertified employees.

• Repair grant deadline is today
Today is the final day for St. Tammany Parish residents to apply for grants of at least $1,000 to be used for repairs of homes damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

• Road work to bring delays
The ongoing project to resurface a stretch of Interstate 12, from U.S. 190 south of Covington to the Bayou Lacombe bridge, will result in nightly lane closures from Sunday through next Saturday morning.

• Road work to bring delays
The ongoing project to resurface a stretch of Interstate 12, from U.S. 190 south of Covington to the Bayou Lacombe bridge, will result in nightly lane closures from Sunday through next Saturday morning.

• Jury hears murder defendant's confession
In his first confession to a Slidell area murder, a New Orleans teen told detectives that his friend "E" had fired the fatal shots.

• 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.

• Man gets 6 years in drug case
A Las Vegas man has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for conspiring to distribute Ecstasy in St. Tammany Parish, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office announced.

• Report studies race in arrests
Minorities make up 16 percent of the population in St. Tammany Parish, but they represent 31 percent of those arrested in the unincorporated areas in the first quarter of 2007, according to a three-parish study by the ACLU, which says racial profiling remains a problem in Louisiana.

• Slain man's friends testify at trial
Authorities imprisoned six illegal immigrants from Central America for eight months in 2007 so that they could testify about witnessing their friend's murder, but St. Tammany prosecutors called only two to testify Wednesday, during the second day of the trial of the accused shooter.

• FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
With a new classroom wing and high hopes for the first day, students at Pope John Paul II Catholic High School filed into the Slidell school Wednesday to begin the 2008-09 school year.

• Charter changes up to voters
The Covington City Council, as expected, has called a Nov. 4 election for voters to decide 11 proposed changes to the city's Home Rule Charter.

• Hazardous material forces clinic evacuation
Fumes from an unknown hazardous chemical that was brought into a walk-in medical clinic in Covington forced the evacuation of the clinic Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.

• Robber spurned at Slidell Wendy's
A tall, skinny man with a short Afro and perhaps a mole next to one of his eyes tried to rob the Wendy's restaurant at 2405 Gause Blvd. in St. Tammany Parish on Tuesday evening, firing a handgun several times, according to the Sheriff's Office.

• Covington 79-year-old is crash victim
A motorist who died Tuesday after his pickup truck was hit broadside by an 18-wheeler north of Covington has been identified by authorities as William J. Guarino.

• POLICE REPORTS
St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office