The Associated Press

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana lawmakers have agreed to shorten voting hours on most election days, and Gov. Bobby Jindal must decide whether to accept the bill. Currently, poll hours run from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. The measure pushed by Secretary of State Tom Schedler will push back the opening to 7 a.m. on Saturday elections. The change will start in 2013. 

BATON ROUGE — Gov. Bobby Jindal has signed into law a 10-year, $37 million tax break for the New Orleans Hornets, part of the state's deal to keep the NBA team in Louisiana.

Jindal announced the signing Tuesday, in a list of bills that he agreed to enact into law.

The bill by Jefferson Parish Rep. Cameron Henry, a Republican, extends an existing tax break that saves the Hornets $3.7 million a year through Louisiana's Quality Jobs Program. The rebate will be extended through the 2024 NBA season.

There finally could be some good news for the Hornets, who suffered through a miserable season as part of the fallout from the Chris Paul trade.

The deal that led to lots of losing in New Orleans also yielded two picks in Wednesday night's NBA draft lottery.

With luck — something that has been in short supply for the Hornets lately — New Orleans could end up with two of the top overall picks in the June 28 draft.

Or if the tough luck continues, the worst-case scenario is that they'll pick seventh and 13th overall.

A deal has been reached to resolve nearly all of the remaining court claims from allegations that government-issued trailers exposed Gulf Coast residents to hazardous fumes after Hurricane Katrina.

Lead plaintiffs' attorney Gerald Meunier told The Associated Press on Monday that a class-action settlement agreement has been expanded to include several companies that manufactured, installed or refurbished FEMA trailers after the 2005 storm.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Senate's budget-writing committee refused to agree to deep cuts pushed by House Republicans for next year's $25 billion state operating budget.

Senators on the Finance Committee restored an estimated $350 million to next year's 2012-13 spending plans. 

The body of a pilot whose helicopter crashed in the Gulf of Mexico has been recovered. The Coast Guard says divers from the vessel Ocean Inspector found the pilot inside the aircraft's cockpit. The helicopter, owned by PHI Inc., crashed yesterday and was used to take people to oil rigs. 

New Orleans police say a 29-year-old man died after falling into a canal near Irish Bayou in New Orleans East.

Officer Garry Flot, a police spokesman, says the body of Harold Johnson of New Orleans was found Sunday afternoon, near the spot where he fell in earlier that day.

Flot says said the death will be listed as unclassified until an autopsy.

The Louisiana Board of Ethics says campaign contributions for Gov. Bobby Jindal and dozens of other candidates came from "straw man entities" linked to a landfill company.

The Times-Picayune reports that Jindal received $40,000 in 2007 from companies linked to River Birch Inc. The Board of Ethics alleges in a May 18 lawsuit that the donations violate a $5,000 cap from one company if all the money came from River Birch.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing another $9.2 million to help southeast Louisiana recover from Hurricane Katrina.

St. Bernard Parish is getting back $1.4 million spent to demolish and remove thousands of houses that couldn't be repaired after the 2005 storm.

The largest grants are $3.3 million to repair flood and wind damage at Brown Hall on the Southern University at New Orleans campus, and nearly $3 million for a crane rail extension at the Port of New Orleans.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. Bobby Jindal's proposal to create a new retirement plan for future rank-and-file state workers has failed to get final legislative passage. The proposal would create a cheaper investment account similar to a 401(k) plan for state employees hired after July 1, 2013.