AP - The governor proposed a $1 billion plan Monday to ease the post-hurricane insurance burden on Louisiana homeowners by sending them refund checks to cover recent rate increases.

AP - A Houston man is charged or suspected in at least seven homicides in 11 weeks stemming from what authorities describe as a war between entrenched Houston drug dealers and their newly arrived rivals from New Orleans.

AP - Hurricane expert William Gray downgraded his forecast for the 2006 Atlantic storm season again Tuesday, predicting one more hurricane, two more named storms but no intense hurricanes.

AP - Louisiana voters on Saturday approved consolidating the New Orleans area's levee boards, the generations-old agencies whose politically appointed members were criticized after Hurricane Katrina for failing to maintain the area's levees and floodwalls.

AP - Mark Twain's writings often centered on a fascination with Mississippi River steamboats, which is the reason British tourist Nicola Collins recently took a voyage on the Natchez, one of only five true steam-powered sternwheelers operating in North America.