BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Trashed on social media and censured by Louisiana Republicans, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy described himself Wednesday as “at peace” with his vote to convict former President Donald Trump at his impeachment trial and dismissed the scorching GOP backlash he's received.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A lawyer for the man who fatally shot former NFL star Will Smith in 2016 said Tuesday that he'll seek the man's release on bond now that a Louisiana appeals court has officially vacated his manslaughter conviction by a non-unanimous jury.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An ammunition customer showed no sign of anger or agitation before he launched a sudden shooting rampage at a New Orleans area gun store, the local sheriff said Monday, two days after the attack left three people, including the shooter, dead.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto confirmed that Joshua Williams, 27, who had a legal permit to carry a gun, instigated the exchange of gunfire Saturday afternoon at the Gun Outlet in suburban Metairie.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In the Trump administration’s last days, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a change to rules protecting alligators - a change that opponents consider an end run around the chance that Louisiana might lose a federal court challenge to California’s ban on alligator products.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Power was restored to more homes and businesses Thursday in states hit by a deadly blast of winter that overwhelmed the electrical grid and left millions shivering in the cold this week. But the crisis was far from over in parts of the South, where many people still lacked safe drinking water.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Music blared from the courtyard of a French Quarter restaurant on Mardi Gras morning but nobody was there to hear it until Tom Gibson and Sheila Wheeler of Philadelphia walked out of their hotel’s nearly empty lobby.

“We were expecting a little bit lower key than the normal Mardi Gras,” Wheeler said. But empty Bourbon Street was a shock.