WASHINGTON—Louisiana lawmakers are hoping to tack billions of dollars for enhanced hurricane protection onto the next emergency spending bill for the war in Iraq, which they predict will emerge in a few months. Read More and Discuss

IN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA (AP) — Service canals dug to tap oil and natural gas dart everywhere through the black mangrove shrubs, bird rushes and golden marsh. From the air, they look like a Pac-Man maze superimposed on an estuarine landscape 10 times the size of Grand Canyon National Park. Read More and Discuss

BATON ROUGE—In his first full day on the job, Gov. Bobby Jindal issued an executive order Tuesday designed to hasten billions of dollars worth of public rebuilding projects, from roads and sewers to schools and jails, many of which remain untouched more than two years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Read More and Discuss

The detail-oriented, high-octane chief of staff to Louisiana’s past two governors ended his tenure Monday as executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, after more than two years of lobbying Washington for sufficient recovery resources and of engineering a never-ending string of complex decisions about how to distribute the money when it did come. Read More and Discuss

NEW ORLEANS — Hurricane Katrina’s victims have put a price tag on their suffering, and it is staggering — including one plaintiff seeking the unlikely sum of $3 quadrillion. Read More and Discuss

NEW ORLEANS — In a sign of continuing recovery from Hurricane Katrina, a group that tracks Mississippi River traffic says more deep-draft cargo ships entered the river in 2007 than the year before. Read More and Discuss

NEW ORLEANS — The way Mayor Ray Nagin sees it, 2008 is a tipping point in the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, the year a stronger, better New Orleans begins to rise in earnest from the ruins. Read More and Discuss

WASHINGTON — Before Congress adjourned for the holidays on Wednesday, an Alabama senator put the brakes on legislation that would have freed another $1.2 billion for Louisiana’s Road Home program Read More and Discuss

NEW ORLEANS (AP)—The Road Home aid program has met a target of 90,000 closings with homeowners whose properties were damaged in the 2005 hurricane season, an official said Monday. Read More and Discuss

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A week after Hurricane Katrina, a FEMA official in charge of streamlining the flow of disaster aid issued a directive that would have cut through the red tape and expedited a staggering 1,029 rebuilding projects and $5.3 billion. Read More and Discuss

Gov.-elect Bobby Jindal said Wednesday that he will work quickly to replace Louisiana Recovery Authority Executive Director Andy Kopplin. Read More and Discuss

Outgoing Gov. Kathleen Blanco bid a fond farewell Tuesday to the Louisiana Recovery Authority that she created in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but her former chief of staff who has led the LRA since its inception stole some of her thunder by announcing his departure. Read More and Discuss

With the official release Monday of $3 billion from the federal government to plug the Road Home gap, Louisiana’s hurricane recovery leaders can finally dole out a half billion to local governments they have been holding on to just in case. Read More and Discuss

A listing of various signs of recovery in and around the New Orleans area. Read More and Discuss

WASHINGTON—The Senate voted Tuesday to increase fines and clarify federal jurisdiction over cases in which people fraudulently obtain emergency disaster funds. Read More and Discuss

Congress should rewrite the federal disaster-aid law because it largely ignores communities such as Baton Rouge that harbor disaster evacuees, the mayors of four of the cities that took in hurricane evacuees in 2005 told U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu at a committee hearing Monday in Baton Rouge. Read More and Discuss

New Orleans’ redevelopment agency has a plan to turn thousands of Road Home buyout properties into new homes and green space, a process that could take 10 years and cost more than $15 million a year. Read More and Discuss

With a Saturday deadline looming for Road Home applicants to make appointments, the program still has not heard from more than 16,000 people who filed initial applications but never followed up. All applicants who haven’t had a first appointment must schedule one by Saturday and meet with Road Home staff by Dec. 15—or be eliminated from the program. Read More and Discuss

Public housing advocates and Hurricane Katrina survivors had a special delivery for Sen. David Vitter, R-La., on Tuesday: a turkey with his face on it and more than 130,000 signed petitions urging him to drop his objections to a housing recovery act they say would let them return home. Read More and Discuss

BATON ROUGE - Trailers and hotel rooms provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency were supposed to be temporary housing until evacuees from hurricanes Katrina and Rita could find more permanent places to live. Read More and Discuss

WASHINGTON — Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Gov.-elect Bobby Jindal thanked Congress on Tuesday for recently approving $3 billion more for the Road Home program but said more money is needed. Read More and Discuss

When members of the National League of Cities convene in New Orleans this week to discuss the most effective ways to run local governments, they will use the city as a living laboratory for an issue of paramount concern: how to prepare for and recover from disaster. Read More and Discuss

WASHINGTON—In what Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., called a “$12 billion day,” the Senate last night approved a defense bill with $3 billion to close a gap in Louisiana’s Road Home program after earlier overriding President Bush’s veto of a water bill authorizing at least $6.9 billion for coastal restoration and flood control projects. Read More and Discuss

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Wednesday delayed a vote on a comprehensive $23 billion water resources bill that would authorize at least $7 billion for Louisiana hurricane protection, flood control and coastal restoration projects. Read More and Discuss

WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators on Tuesday agreed to provide an additional $3 billion for Louisiana’s Road Home rebuilding program. Read More and Discuss

In recent months, the Road Home’s weekly progress reports have painted a picture of a once-struggling homeowner aid program that’s turned the corner: More than 10,000 award letters going out each month, about 10,000 applicants collecting their money each month, disputed cases getting resolved in the required time. Read More and Discuss

NEW ORLEANS — Merci beaucoup! That’s what Mayor Ray Nagin wants to say to New Orleanians for their commitment to rebuilding their homes and the city following Hurricane Katrina. Read More and Discuss

Just as the number of temporary trailers and blue roofs in Jefferson Parish plummeted in the second year after Hurricane Katrina, the storm’s imprint on the government’s financial outlook has faded but not disappeared. Read More and Discuss

Gov. Kathleen Blanco highlighted her administration’s accomplishments during a northwest Louisiana visit that included sit-downs with local media and people pushing for a Cyber Innovation Center in Bossier City on Monday and Tuesday. Read More and Discuss

Gov.-elect Bobby Jindal on Tuesday tapped another member of Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s Louisiana Recovery Authority to serve on his transition team. Read More and Discuss

Speaking to a national audience for the first time as the Louisiana governor-elect, U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal downplayed the historical significance of his primary victory and instead emphasized the state’s continued needs for federal aid to bolster hurricane recovery and coastal restoration. Read More and Discuss

WASHINGTON — When President Bush called Bobby Jindal to congratulate him on Sunday, the governor-elect immediately asked the chief executive for a meeting to discuss hurricane recovery efforts. Read More and Discuss

Two years ago, economist Loren Scott wouldn’t have believed it possible, that Louisiana — ravaged by $200 billion in hurricane damage — would return to its pre-Katrina job level so soon. Read More and Discuss

WASHINGTON—Despite objections from Gulf Coast lawmakers, a Senate committee has unanimously voted to overhaul of the National Flood Insurance Program without adding optional coverage for wind damage. Read More and Discuss

Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. faces two rivals in his re-election bid, with his pursuit of criminal charges against a New Orleans doctor in the deaths of patients after Hurricane Katrina figuring prominently in the race. Read More and Discuss

WASHINGTON—Despite a threat to delay an emergency spending bill until 2008, Democratic congressional leaders say there is still a chance this year to fill the gap in Louisiana’s Road Home program before money runs out. Read More and Discuss

The state’s “Road Home’’ program for homeowners with severe or major damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita will run out of money by the end of the year without additional federal dollars, the head of the Louisiana Recovery Authority said Tuesday. Read More and Discuss

WASHINGTON—The Senate voted 81-12 Monday to send President Bush a water bill with nearly $3.6 billion in authorized Louisiana projects, buoying hopes of supporters that Congress has the numbers to override a threatened presidential veto. Read More and Discuss

Three of the four leading candidates running for governor were noncommittal at a forum Monday on their plans for Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s Louisiana Recovery Authority. Read More and Discuss

Two years after wind and flood left more than 100,000 homes and commercial buildings in New Orleans in varying states of ruin, about 9,000 properties have met the wrecking ball—and at least 6,000 more may still have to go. Read More and Discuss

Gov. Kathleen Blanco will go to Washington in October to ask for an additional $4 billion to $5 billion to help Louisiana residents rebuild their homes damaged or destroyed by hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Read More and Discuss