The ride along North Causeway Boulevard, between Brookside Drive and Louisiana 22 in Mandeville, should be less congested by the end of the year, when the Causeway Commission expects to finish a more than $5 million project to widen the road from two lanes to three.

St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis announced today that will not ask voters to approve a term limit exemption that would allow him to seek a fourth term in 2011.

A 60-year-old woman who answered a man's online ad to share a house was shot in the face by her new roommate Saturday, shortly after she unpacked her belongings in his Slidell home, authorities said.

St. Tammany Parishs annual wetlands restoration project, in which retired Christmas trees are used to help encourage marsh growth, has begun.

A Slidell-area man on Monday pleaded guilty to raping a 17-year-old girl from Michigan.

St. Tammany Parish Councilman Marty Gould has pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated on the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in November.

For most of the last two years, a drive from one end of Mandeville to the other along U.S. 190 has been a maze of orange cones, shifting lane markers and backed-up traffic.

Richard McCullough

Police said a Slidell woman was shot in the face twice by her new roommate Saturday night in a case that has investigators baffled as they try to determine what the man's motive could have been.

The 60-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, did not suffer life-threatening injuries, Slidell Police Capt. Kevin O'Neil said Monday.

"This is the kind of stuff they make movies about," he said.

AP Photo / The Houma Daily Courier, Matt StameyEmergency personnel work at boat launch in Gibson, La. to coordinate recovery efforts for the bodies of eight people killed Sunday when a helicopter transporting oilfield workers went down in western Terrebonne Parish, about 100 miles southwest of New Orleans.

Two New Orleans area residents were among eight men who died on an oil-services helicopter that crashed Sunday afternoon near Bayou Penchant in Terrebonne Parish, according to a senior coroner's investigator. A single passenger survived the accident.

The men were being transported in a Sikorski S76 transport helicopter owned by Lafayette-based PHI Inc. from the company's helipad in Amelia, La., to the Shell Oil Co.-owned Cougar oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, according to Shell spokesman Fred Palmer and PHI spokesman Richard Rovinelli. Amelia is approximately 80 miles southwest of New Orleans.

Allen Boudreaux Jr., 23, of Folsom, and Jorey A. Rivero Sr., 35, of Westwego, perished in the deadly crash, investigator Gary Alford said. Boudreaux worked for New Iberia-based Dynamic Industries Inc. and Rivero worked for MMR Offshore Service Inc., an offshore company with an office in Belle Chasse, Alford said. In a news release Monday morning PHI Inc. listed Boudreaux's hometown as Ama. There was no explanation for why that information differed from Alford's.

With a band of strong storm moving east out of Louisiana, the National Weather Service has canceled the severe thunderstorm watch that had been in effect until 5 p.m. for a wide swath of the state, extending from Lafayette to the Mississippi line and north to Hattiesburg.

Forecasters predict a warm evening with a lingering chance of thunderstorms and fog developing over night. After sunset, expect cloudy skies with a low around 64 and south winds between 10 and 15 mph.

A falling bullet grazed the back of a 25-year-old New Orleans man as he rang in the new year this morning, but authorities said celebratory gunfire overall appeared to continue its years-long decline.

CHUCK COOK / THE TIMES-PICAYUNEChildren's toys sit on the lawn at the home of Robert and Doree Kelly at 74403 Peg Keller Road near Abita Springs Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2008. Fire swept through the home Tuesday, Dec. 30, destroying nearly everything inside.

An Abita Springs-area family is homeless after a clothes dryer sparked a fire at their home while they were on their way to Alabama

Slidell officials will soon open bids for construction of a multi-million dollar animal control center, with an eye toward completing the facility by the spring of 2010.

When developers, in the days before Katrina, unveiled plans for a regional shopping center with a Wal-Mart Supercenter and a Sam's Club south of Covington, hundreds of local residents voiced their opposition to the mass merchandisers setting up shop along Interstate 12 near Louisiana 21.

There will be daily intermittent lane closures on Interstate 10 near Slidell from Monday through Jan. 18 due to construction work, the state highway department said.

Covington city offices will be closed Wednesday through the weekend to complete the move of offices and departments from City Hall to their new permanent home in the Greater Covington Center.

Kita Wright / The Associated PressFormer Jena Six defendant Mychal Bell, pictured here on Sept. 27, 2007, appears at a news conference after leaving LaSalle Parish Courthouse in Jena, La. Bell was arrested Christmas Eve and booked on a shoplifting charge. He later shot himself.

MONROE, La. (AP) -- A teen convicted in the "Jena Six" beating case shot himself in the chest and was taken to the hospital Monday, days after his arrest on a shoplifting charge, police said.

A federal judge Monday refused to give class-action status to the lawsuits claiming that Gulf Coast hurricane victims were exposed to toxic fumes in government-issued trailers.

Mayor Ben Morris has hired a renowned New Orleans architectural firm to rebuild the Slidell Senior Center, finally moving forward with the project after wrangling with FEMA for the past three years to get the agency to pay to fix the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

Mayor Ben Morris has hired a renowned New Orleans architectural firm to rebuild the Slidell Senior Center, finally moving forward with the project after wrangling with FEMA for the past three years to get the agency to pay to fix the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

Scott Threlkeld / The Times-PicayuneGavin May of Fireworks World unpacks 3-inch mortar shells Dec. 24 at his stand on U.S. 190 west of Slidell. May said he expects business to pick up after Christmas.

Like many retailers this holiday season, fireworks vendors in the New Orleans area are worried that the national recession will have a major impact on business.

For the fireworks stands that spring up along major highways this time of year, it is too soon to predict the final tally.

RUSTY COSTANZA / THE TIMES-PICAYUNEA mob of shoppers cruise Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie Friday looking for deals at after Christmas sales.

From his vantage point on a bench at Lakeside Shopping Center, taking a break in the day-after-Christmas bargain hunting, Jim Bialas of New Orleans watched the crowd flowing in all directions and thought the economy seemed strong to him.

A twin-spans construction worker remained in serious condition Friday after plummeting 30 feet into Lake Pontchartrain on Tuesday.

Although traffic on the Causeway is light this morning, southbound and northbound vehicles are limited to the right lane only because of fog.

The 2008 property tax roll for St. Tammany Parish won't be ready for certification by the state Tax Commission until next week at the earliest, which means tax bills can't be mailed until mid- to late January, local officials said.

In the second accident on the new Interstate 10 twin spans construction project in two months, a 65-year-old worker fell from a dangling crane into Lake Pontchartrain on Tuesday afternoon.

A worker was rescued Tuesday afternoon after he fell from a dangling crane into Lake Pontchartrain at the construction site for the new Interstate 10 twin spans between Slidell and New Orleans.

St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis wants voters to approve an exemption from term limits in the parish's Home Rule Charter so he can seek a fourth term in 2011.