The settlement, first announced in July, includes $5.5 billion in civil Clean Water Act penalties and billions more to cover environmental damage and other claims by the five Gulf states and local governments ...

Cao became the nation's first Vietnamese-American congressman with his unexpected defeated of a scandal-plagued incumbent Democrat, William Jefferson, in 2008. Two years later, he lost the New Orleans-based seat to another Democrat, Cedric Richmond ...

Landry, a Republican who has taken to referring to himself in press releases as "General Landry," said Edwards was too quick to drop the lawsuit, leading to a war of words in publicly released letters and in court filings ...

In the Oct. 24 election, Common Core backers helped elect six BESE members. And they are backing two others in runoffs ...

When it comes to the future of public school policy in Louisiana, the political math gets complicated and party lines blur ...

Louisiana must continue providing Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood clinics for two more weeks while a legal battle continues over Gov. Bobby Jindal's recent order to block the funding ...

A federal judge says he will rule by Monday on Gov. Bobby Jindal's attempt to cut off state Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood's Louisiana clinics ...

Student performance on new, more rigorous standardized tests aligned to Common Core standards was "roughly comparable" to results from tests used in the past, Louisiana's education chief says ...

Pending court approval, settlement money will be used to resolve the Clean Water Act penalties; resolve natural resources damage claims; settle economic claims; and resolve economic damage claims of local governments ...

Public defenders for former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin have told a federal appeals court that Nagin's convictions on 20 counts involving corruption during his two terms as mayor should be thrown out ...