• Climate change threatens state's birds, report says
Climate change poses a threat to most U.S. bird species, including many that live and visit Louisiana's rapidly disappearing coastline, according to a new report released Thursday by ornithologists with university research laboratories, federal agencies and environmental groups.

• Bill criminalizes cockfight viewing
BATON ROUGE -- An East Jefferson lawmaker has filed a bill for the upcoming legislative session that would make it a crime for people to attend cockfights, which are illegal.

• Vitter's use of symbol is improper, Melancon says
WASHINGTON -- A David Vitter for Senate fundraising letter looks too much like an official document, the Charlie Melancon Senate campaign said Tuesday in a letter requesting a Senate Ethics Committee investigation.

• Cao drops fundraising company
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao's re-election campaign on Monday suspended its relationship with Base Connect, the Washington firm in whose direct-mail fundraising operation they had sunk nearly $400,000.

• State is cutting at-risk youth services
BATON ROUGE -- Truancy prevention, summer-school programs for at-risk youth and tax-preparation help for low-income people are among the programs the state Department of Social Services is planning to eliminate as it tries to shrink its budget in the upcoming fiscal year.

• Board approves tuition increase
BATON ROUGE -- Tuition at most Louisiana State University System campuses would climb 5 percent next year under a plan approved unanimously Friday by the Board of Supervisors.

• Cops: Pentagon shooter had a history of mental illness
HOLLISTER, Calif. -- The man who opened fire in front of the Pentagon had a history of mental illness and had become so erratic that his parents reached out to local authorities weeks ago with a warning that he was unstable and might have a gun, authorities said Friday.

• Senate votes to extend GO Zone housing credits
WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted Friday to approve a two-year extension of Gulf Coast housing tax credits, accepting arguments from Louisiana's two senators and the Obama administration that the action is needed to avert abandonment of 6,000 affordable housing units, mostly in New Orleans.

• Almost all hail the Saints in the House
WASHINGTON -- A House resolution hailing the Saints' first Super Bowl victory brought together Democrats, Republicans and Indianapolis Colts fans Thursday.

• Attorney general presses appeal over birth record
Attorney General Buddy Caldwell asked the full U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday to overturn a January ruling from three of the court's members requiring the state to issue a revised birth certificate listing as fathers two out-of-state men who adopted a child born in Shreveport.

• Bills target use of hand-held cell phones while driving
BATON ROUGE -- Two measures that will make it tougher for motorists to drive while using a hand-held communications device have been filed for debate in the legislative session opening March 29.

• Fees for state's parks will take a hike
BATON ROUGE -- The cost of using state parks and visiting historic sites in Louisiana will go up starting July 1 to help keep the facilities operating, the head of the Office of State Parks told lawmakers Thursday.

• Revise Stafford Act, Nagin asks House panel
WASHINGTON -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin made his last appearance as mayor before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Thursday, pleading for overhaul of the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, whose strictures are blamed for slowing his city's recovery after Hurricane Katrina.

• Senator resigns post on panel
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, waging an underdog race against incumbent Republican Sen. David Vitter, announced Thursday that he has submitted his resignation from the House Budget Committee.

• State shifts focus of economic efforts
BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana's top economic development official said Thursday that his agency is shifting resources from out-of-state recruiting to retaining existing businesses and helping them expand.

• Benefit cut urged if officials convicted
BATON ROUGE -- Two Metairie lawmakers have filed proposed changes in the state Constitution that would bar government employees or elected officials from collecting taxpayer-financed retirement benefits if they are convicted of felonies related to their jobs.

• Bills would allow money to plug budget
BATON ROUGE -- Legislation filed Wednesday for the upcoming session would allow money from the state's rainy-day fund to be used to plug budget shortfalls caused by a decline in federal support for the Medicaid program.

• Finally, something that Congress can agree on
WASHINGTON -- As the House took up a resolution Wednesday to congratulate the Saints for winning Super Bowl XLIV, Indiana Rep. Dan Burton deadpanned some mock disapproval.

• Lawsuit attempts to kill state's florist licensing law
Once again, spring is the time not only for flowers but for the renewed controversy over Louisiana's unique law requiring florists to pass a floral arrangement test to earn a state retail florist license.

• Licenses to drive to cost extra $15 next week
BATON ROUGE -- Motorists who get first-time driver's licenses or renew existing ones will have to dig a little deeper in their pockets beginning Monday.

• Panel OKs raise plan for state workers
BATON ROUGE -- The state Civil Service Commission gave unanimous approval Wednesday to a revised proposal tying merit pay raises for state workers to their on-the-job performance, sending it to Gov. Bobby Jindal who vetoed an earlier version of the plan.

• Tulane to open satellite in B.R.
After operating a New Orleans medical school for 175 years, Tulane University finalized an agreement Wednesday to expand by opening a satellite campus in a joint venture with Baton Rouge General Medical Center.

• Vitter asks for probe into link between toxic drywall, deaths
WASHINGTON -- Sen. David Vitter, R-La., is asking two federal agencies to investigate reports of eight deaths that may be linked to use of toxic drywall from China.

• Ways and Means chairman steps down
WASHINGTON -- When new details emerged in the spring of 2006 about the $90,000 FBI agents found in then-Rep. William Jefferson's home freezer, Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., was tasked by his party's leadership to ask Jefferson to step down from the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

• Jindal makes nominations for board of new hospital
After months of vetting and negotiating behind the scenes, Gov. Bobby Jindal on Tuesday unveiled his four nominees for the governing board of the planned University Medical Center slated for ground-breaking this fall in Mid-City.

• Parishes will have to pay tab for teacher stipends
Under a new state policy with an especially big impact in Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes, local school districts next year will be expected to pay a mandatory $5,000 stipend for each nationally certified teacher, because the Louisiana Education Department is discontinuing its past practice of covering the cost.

• Senate brokers deal to extend jobless benefits
WASHINGTON -- After days of bitter debate, the Senate broke an impasse Tuesday and approved legislation to temporarily extend unemployment and health insurance benefits to jobless Americans.

• Term limits urged for statewide officials
BATON ROUGE -- All statewide elected officials would be limited to no more than three consecutive four-year terms, except the governor who would remain limited to two terms, if a bill filed by a House member becomes law.

• Bills to address guns in church, Who Dat tags
BATON ROUGE -- People legally qualified to carry concealed weapons should be able to bring them to houses of worship as long as the pastor or church board approves, according to a bill filed in advance of the legislative session that begins March 29.

• Black colleges get help from Obama
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama signed an executive order Friday directing all federal agencies to increase opportunities for historically black colleges to participate and benefit from federal programs and to work with the private sector to improve their economic viability.

• Landrieu: State health chief 'wrong' on bill
U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu cranked up the tension in her relations with Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration Friday, offering withering criticism of the Republican governor's health secretary, Alan Levine, as the state's highest profile politicians continue to spar over President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats' effort to overhaul the American health insurance system.