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Southeastern Louisiana University's Division of Extended Studies is offering a non-credit course on makeup for filmmaking.

Available for high school students and adults interested in the film industry, the course will be taught by Tara Bennett, a freelance makeup artist with experience in makeup for photography, film, and theatrical stage.

The course is scheduled on the university's main Hammond campus on Wednesdays from 6-8 p.m. from Sept. 12- Oct. 10. The cost is $125, which includes all materials needed, and one continuing education credit will be awarded.

Registration begins Wednesday at Nunez Community College in St. Bernard Parish. Fall-term classes are scheduled to start on Aug. 20.

More registration information is available by calling 504-278-6467 or online at www.nunez.edu.

A Houston-based brine company has agreed to make a "significant contribution" to a fund for residents ordered to evacuate their homes after a sinkhole formed in Assumption Parish that may be connected to one of the company's salt caverns.

The Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness said Saturday that Texas Brine Co. LLC's original permit for the cavern requires the operator to provide assistance to residents in areas deemed to be at immediate potential risk. The permit requirement arises in the event of a sinkhole and evacuation.

Lightning from a thunderstorm has sparked a wildfire in southwest Louisiana on the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge.

The blaze is located within Management Unit 1 or waterfowl hunt unit E, located in the north-central portion of the refuge. The area is bordered on the east by Back Ridge canal, the south by Central canal, the west by Beach canal and the north by open water.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who had been considered a possible running mate for Mitt Romney, praised the Republican presidential candidate's choice of Paul Ryan for the GOP ticket.

In a statement issued Saturday, Jindal called Ryan a "good friend and one of the smartest guys I served with in Congress. He has the courage of his convictions, which is what our nation needs."

The hundreds of hotel rooms planned or under construction in Shreveport-Bossier City might be missing their intended clients.

The Times reports hotel operators had counted on guests in town for business in the Haynesville shale oil field.

But a slowdown of natural gas production has cut into room nights.

More than 1,300 hotel rooms are in final planning phases or under construction in Shreveport-Bossier City. An additional 169 rooms have gone into operation this year in Bossier City.

Plaquemines Parish officials say they're prepared to use barges to supply fresh water to processing plants in Port Sulphur, Dalcour and Pointe-a-la-Hache if necessary.

The parish gets its water from the Mississippi River, but that source of water is being threatened by the intrusion of salt water from the Gulf of Mexico due to low river levels.

Besides using barges to ship in fresh water, the parish says it may rely on freshwater piped in from neighboring parishes.

Authorities in St. Tammany Parish say some lanes of U.S. Highway 190 from U.S. Highway 11 to Interstate 10 will be closed through Monday afternoon for repair work.

At least one lane in each direction will remain open at all times, officials say.

The lane restrictions will allow crews to replace centerline striping.

Officials at a Houston-based brine company told residents of a rural Louisiana town that it will be at least 40 days before they get definitive answers about an enormous sinkhole that opened up in Assumption Parish.

Mark Cartwright, president of Texas Brine Co., said Friday the company spent the last week "intensely focused" on an emergency response as they try to figure out the cause behind a sinkhole near Bayou Corne.

A Syrian-born man who became the hero-rescuer in Dave Eggers' best-selling nonfiction "Zeitoun" book, which chronicled the eerie aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the nightmarish side of the American justice system, has been accused of plotting to murder his ex-wife, her son and another man.

Abdulrahman Zeitoun, 54, faces charges of offering $20,000 to a fellow jail inmate in exchange for the killings. Zeitoun also faces a domestic abuse battery charge after he allegedly beat his wife, Kathy Zeitoun, on a New Orleans street.