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Paradise Valley, Ariz., offers beautiful sunsets and golf against a desert backdrop. The rural retreat — a blend of resorts and expensive homes — is a popular vacation destination. Gov. Bobby Jindal visited Paradise Valley in April, but not for the links. He was there to raise campaign money.

Lafayette lawmaker Joel Robideaux has the votes to win the No. 2 leadership position in the Louisiana House, in the view of House Speaker Jim Tucker. But a former candidate in the race questioned whether that’s true. “He’s telling people that to keep them from committing to another candidate,” said state Rep. Rick Gallot, D-Ruston.

Investigators still have not determined how an armed robbery suspect died almost five months ago after he fled and fought with police trying to arrest him. The results of an autopsy done on Keltron Charles Singleton are inconclusive, East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore III said.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate is poised to vote on a bill that would provide Louisiana college students with an additional $126 million in student aid during the next decade.

A Dallas federal judge is considering whether to continue a receivership searching for $7.2 billion in investments alleged to have been stolen by jailed promoter Robert Allen Stanford, of Houston.

Livingston Parish sales tax collections fell for the ninth month in a row in February, compared with the same months a year earlier, parish records show.

The Varsity Theatre was transformed into a barber shop of sorts Saturday night as volunteers, many of them women, shaved their heads to raise money for childhood cancer research.

Authorities arrested at least 10 people suspected of driving while intoxicated in East Baton Rouge Parish and booked them into Parish Prison.

SUNDAYS@4: 4 p.m., Baton Rouge Gallery, 1442 City Park Ave. Performance by the East Baton Rouge Parish String Recital. The event is free and open to the public. (225) 383-1470.

The following school lunch menus are for the week of March 22 through March 26.

Public access to the State Capitol became more restrictive as the House and Senate imposed new security measures, House Sergeant-at-Arms Clarence Russ testified Friday.

The Louisiana Legislature’s top budget committee gave final approval Friday to a plan that will close LSU’s Earl K. Long Medical Center in north Baton Rouge by 2014.
 Lawmakers approve BR teaching hospital deal

DURHAM, N.C. -- LaSondra Barrett scored 20 points and LSU used a quick 17-0 run to beat Hartford 60-39 on Saturday in the first round of the Memphis Regional.
•NCAA Women's Scoreboard
•AP Sports: NCAA Women's Brackets

The Tigers stormed back for seven runs in the seventh, then held on to beat Arkansas, 8-7, today at Alex Box Stadium.

Gov. Bobby Jindal scrapped pay raises for some 90,000 state employees on Friday, citing a critical budget emergency. The state Civil Service Commission early Friday approved suspension of pay raises for about 60,000 rank-and-file state employees in the classified state service.

Whether it was transforming dilapidated downtown buildings into condominiums and offices, cleaning up a crime-ridden neighborhood, mentoring and guiding young black boys into manhood or offering legal counsel, Brace B. Godfrey Jr. lived by the adage “we’ve got todo something.”

PORT ALLEN — Police Chief Fred Smith announced Friday that an arrest warrant had been issued for one of his officers accused of kicking a handcuffed motorist several times during a March 12 traffic stop.

A judge ruled Friday that a jury can hear a 911 call Baton Rouge lawyer Chiquita Tate made to Baker police in December 2007 accusing her then-boyfriend, Greg Harris, of beating and choking her.

As additional budget cuts loomed, LSU moved forward Friday with a big groundbreaking ceremony for its $52 million Business Education Complex.

A Baton Rouge police officer who fought with a downtown restaurant manager over a bond election sign while off duty was fired last week, a police spokesman said Friday.

DENHAM SPRINGS — Deputies arrested three people in Thursday night’s hit and run during which a Ford Mustang slammed into a home on Colby Drive, injured two children and drove away, the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office reported Friday.

Parish Attorney Mary Roper issued a blistering response on Friday to Metro Councilman Chandler Loupe’s recent report criticizing her management of her office.

GONZALES — The Ascension Parish Council plans to vote next month whether to create a parish consolidated utilities district serving unincorporated areas east of the Mississippi River.

A former official of the Southern University System sued its board of supervisors Friday, alleging he was wrongly fired last year for complaining of the alleged sexual harassment of other employees.

Moving forward from what they call a past of secrecy and backroom power struggles, Southern University officials promised Friday to make the Bayou Classic a more profitable and transparent event.

When Friday night’s deadline came, Louisiana lawmakers had prefiled 1,907 bills for consideration during the general legislative session which opens March 29.

Legislators agreed Friday to set aside $80 million for economic development projects, giving the Jindal administration a new source of money to replace dwindling incentive funds.

Gov. Bobby Jindal on Friday replaced Baton Rouge lawyer Scott Frazier on the Louisiana Board of Ethics. Frazier is the board’s vice chairman.

Officials in St. Mary Parish want to harness the current of the Atchafalaya River to produce electricity. Morgan City has a pending application for a federal permit for hydroelectric power on the Atchafalaya, and state Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, is pushing legislation this year to create the St. Mary Hydroelectric Authority to pursue projects on the river.

LAFAYETTE — A 56-year-old Hurricane Rita evacuee has been deemed competent to stand trial on a second-degree murder charge in the 2005 stabbing death of her sister in Lafayette.

LAFAYETTE — Over the past few months, they’ve been the most vocal about ensuring N.P. Moss Middle School wasn’t converted into the district’s new technical high school.

LAFAYETTE — An orchestra-backed “Acadiana All-Stars” concert is set for 7:30 p.m. today at the Heymann Performing Arts Center off South College Boulevard.

The Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office fired a deputy warden Friday after he wrote a letter on behalf of an inmate set to be sentenced for a series of burglaries in 2008.

East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested a woman leaving an alleged methamphetamine lab in an abandoned warehouse at 100 Springfield Road, a spokeswoman said today.

Three weeks after being placed on administrative leave, the principal of Scotlandville High School has resigned to seek “job advancement” elsewhere.

PLAQUEMINE — Iberville Parish voters will decide next week whether to repeal term limits the parish’s home rule charter imposes on Parish Council members and the parish president.

A Mid City neighborhood is targeted for a weeklong cleanup effort starting Monday that will include clearing and mowing overgrown lots, removing abandoned vehicles and other measures to spruce up the area, Mayor-President Kip Holden’s office said in a news release.

An LSU leader who founded an international animation festival, a Ruston company reinventing video on the Internet and a Baton Rouge firm focused on eliminating traffic accidents through technology won top honors Friday at the 2009 Governor’s Technology Awards.

Today's funeral notices.

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