The New Orleans Saints say they have the experience and leadership to have productive offseason practices even without their star quarterback. New Orleans is holding its first three offseason practices, called organized team activities, Tuesday through Thursday. Drew Brees is still holding out for a new contract.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Planning groups in Baton Rouge and New Orleans have set aside money to study building passenger rail service linking the two major metropolitan areas.
The Advocate reports that the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Planning Organization last week approved spending $105,000 in federal money for a feasibility study of a commuter rail service to New Orleans.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. Bobby Jindal's legislative package takes strong measures against convicted sex offenders. A handful of bills targeting sex offenders are making steady progress through the Legislature, including the state's attempt to keep sex criminals from social networking websites.
Rita Benson LeBlanc will become vice chairman of the board of the New Orleans Saints and Dennis Lauscha will take over as president of the team.
Owner Tom Benson has announced Sunday that LeBlanc, his granddaughter, will expand her duties to include more management responsibilities in various Benson interests outside of the team.
NEW ORLEANS — The head of an advocacy group in New Orleans is expressing frustration with delays in the effort to get recognition for sites where levee breaches led to catastrophic flooding after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The Army Corps of Engineers has jurisdiction over one of the sites and has the right to say whether it believes the sites belong on the National Register of Historic Places. But the corps has held back on giving its view, saying the matter involves facts that are still at issue in lawsuits.
BATON ROUGE, La. — A bloc of conservative Republicans in the House couldn't stall a budget bill that taps into one-time dollars to help piece together spending plans year after year.
The House voted 63-38 Thursday to send the bill to the Senate, raising questions about whether the coalition was fracturing and would be unable to hold together in negotiating a final version of next year's $25 billion operating budget with the Senate.
The Orleans Parish School Board has appointed an interim superintendent.
Stan Smith served as the chief financial officer for the board since 2006. The board said Thursday that Smith will step in for Superintendent Darryl Kilbert, who officially retires June 30.
GRETNA, La. (AP) — School administrators in Jefferson Parish say more than 2,500 students will be directly affected by the decision this week to close seven public school campuses.
Those students will shift among 27 campuses, The Times-Picayune reports.
The decision means next week, with the conclusion of the 2011-12 school year, the seven Jefferson schools will adjourn for the last time.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Gin bottles, cannons, muskets and ceramic dinnerware, some 200 years old, have been discovered at a shipwreck site in little-chartered waters off the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Suspended Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma has filed a defamation lawsuit against NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. The lawsuit claims Goodell has made false statements about Vilma while discussing the NFL's bounty investigation of the New Orleans Saints. Goodell has also suspended Vilma for the entire season.
