The Associated Press

A landmark New Orleans food store that hasn't re-opened since Hurricane Katrina hit nearly seven years ago is getting financial help as it works to make a comeback.

New Orleans officials announced Thursday that the Circle Food Store will receive a $1 million loan from the city's Fresh Food Retailer Initiative, a program started last year to expand access to healthy, affordable food in low-income areas.

The initiative is funded through federal grant money and by the nonprofit Hope Enterprise Corporation.

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission says the fall inshore shrimp season will open at 6 a.m. Monday, Aug. 13.

The opening covers the state's inside waters from the Atchafalaya River and Atchafalaya River Ship Channel west to the Louisiana/Texas state line. The state inside waters from the Atchafalaya River east to the Mississippi/Louisiana state line will open 12 hours later, at 6 p.m.

The commission set the season Thursday.

A man tried to carjack a Louisiana State trooper and two members of the U.S. Marshal's Fugitive Task Force traveling in an unmarked state police unit in downtown Shreveport.

Trooper Matt Harris, spokesman for Louisiana State Police Troop G, says 25-year-old Joshua Carter, of Princeton, approached the car Wednesday about 4:30 p.m. while it was stopped at a traffic light. Harris says Carter began pulling on the car's door handle and demanding that it be opened. When he realized the vehicle was occupied by police officers, he fled.

Prosecutors say a Covington man has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud in connection with a scheme in which he and his wife bilked a sleep clinic out of more than $800,000.

U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office said Thursday Boyd Leahy could face up to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 1.

Boyd Leahy's guilty plea follows a guilty plea last week by his wife to one count of health care fraud.

Organizers of an Ascension Parish balloon festival have moved the event date a second time in two weeks, citing conflicts with local events and a major hot air ballooning competition in Albuquerque, N.M.

Organizers tell The Advocate the Louisiana Hot Air Balloon Championship Festival at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center near Gonzales is scheduled from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sept. 21-22.

The Jackson-Bienville Wildlife Management Area is getting smaller.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says its latest lease with the Weyerhaeuser Company will keep about 25,000 acres open to public recreation such as hunting, fishing, hiking, birding and nature photography.

It says about 7,000 acres will be closed to the public. That's nearly 22 percent of the original size.

The property is in Jackson, Bienville and Lincoln parishes. The department has managed it since 1951.

Xavier University in New Orleans, working with the New Orleans Public Library, has been awarded a grant to host "The Big Read."

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts that is designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.

Xavier was one of 76 not-for-profits to be recommended to host a Big Read project. In a news release, the university said The Big Read in New Orleans will focus on the novel "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest Gaines. Activities will take place Feb. 23 and March 23.

Louisiana's health department has received approval to hire private companies to run state facilities in Hammond and Bossier City that care for the developmentally disabled.

The Civil Service Commission agreed to the plans Wednesday without objection.

Under the plans already backed by lawmakers, the state is turning over the operations of Northlake Supports and Services Center and Northwest Supports and Services Center to private contractors.

A federal audit says the Jefferson Parish Housing Authority illegally paid board members nearly $107,000 and created a conflict of interest and violated federal rules by paying $91,000 to a state legislator's repair company.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development audit says the agency should repay the money and must either document or repay another $450,000. That includes $240,000 paid to four Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputies for security services, $95,000 to its attorney and $81,000 to its accounting firm.

Fifteen New Orleans-area elected officials have told Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Katherine Kimball that she should take steps to ensure that Justice Bernette Johnson succeeds her as the court's chief.

Kimball retires next year. Louisiana's Constitution says the longest serving justice must succeed her. Johnson and Justice Jeffrey Victory each stake claims to being the longest serving.