Palin said she will "argue with every ounce of my being for Washington to pay attention."

"That is not always easy, but it is right," she said. "It is clear to many that some of our priorities as a nation are kind of reversed, and it is my imperative, and it should be all of our imperative, that we get our government priorities right, because if they are misdirected, obviously America is going turn into something that we don't recognize."

At another moment during her speech, the former vice presidential candidate got a cheer from the crowd by repeating a line of attack that was frequently used against Obama during last year's presidential campaign.

Palin explained that Alaskans believe in "the roots of our country, so deep, so strong."

"They're what we need to cling to," she said. "Clinging to, you know, that includes our clinging to our second amendment rights, and our faith in God. Many of us do cling to that strong faith in God."

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival had a big year.

Organizers say the event set a post-Hurricane Katrina attendance record of more than 400,000 for its two-week run. But some in the city's tourism industry say the shadow of the national recession was felt anyway.

Trial is scheduled to start Monday for a former Army Corps of Engineers consultant and a subcontractor charged with conspiring to bribe another consultant for confidential information about a Hurricane Katrina levee project.

Just 24 hours after Myaia Knox bought her dream house on North Sibley Street in Metairie, a contractor finishing a job found a sign in the front yard referencing the Ku Klux Klan.

it's that time of year again, beads, parades and king cake. ya'll are all welcome, it is not all as bad as you think, in fact the party is just starting... throw me something mister!

NEW ORLEANS -- It's a revisionist history that equals big bucks for the New Orleans Metro area. On Wednesday, the U.S. Census Bureau re-calculated its population estimates, after several parishes appealed the original numbers.

In the three years since Hurricane Katrina, immigrant laborers have transformed the rebuilding city, forging support networks, establishing businesses, packing churches and starting families.

ANGELINA JOLIE and her partner BRAD PITT want to settle down in New Orleans, Louisiana - because the city's racial diversity ...

COVINGTON, La. (AP) - A woman was murdered in rural southeast Louisiana in connection with a Ku Klux Klan initiation ritual, the sheriff of a New Orleans suburb says. Eight arrests were reported.

The woman, whose identity has not been released, was recruited via the Internet to come to Louisiana from Oklahoma for a KKK initiation, according to a news release Tuesday from St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain.

Strain said the woman arrived in Slidell, La., last week and was taken to a remote campsite, but she was shot Sunday after a fight broke out when she asked to be taken back to town.

One of the suspects, identified as 44-year-old Raymond "Chuck" Foster, no address available, was booked with second-degree murder.

Seven other suspects are under arrest, including Shane Foster, Raymond Foster's son, WWL-TV reports.

Five others were booked with obstruction of justice and charges were pending against two others.

well, that shocks us here in david dukeville!

but the faces we saw in early voting did look a bit sad and remorseful...

louisiana blue!

A sign marking the site where Emmett Till's battered body was pulled from a river in 1955 has been ripped down by vandals, authorities said.

the picayune is a fairly conservative newspaper. this is a bit of a shock to a lot of people, not so much to others...

A federal jury Tuesday convicted a woman of conspiring with a former Louisiana lawmaker to conceal her illegal operation of an insurance business by laundering money.

Prosecutors contend Gwendolyn Moyo sold bogus construction bonds and laundered roughly $2 million to hide her operation. Moyo argued she was acting as an insurance consultant and did not need a license. She accused the government of pressuring business associates to testify against her.