Eileen Fleming

Tomorrow's Sugar Bowl means more than just victory for Virginia Tech or Michigan. It also generates huge economic development opportunities for the entire New Orleans region.

Greater New Orleans, Inc. President Michael Hecht says the Sugar Bowl and other upcoming sports events are expected to add $400 million to the local economy.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has signed off on a deal that he says will reopen the Saenger Theatre within two years. Plans to reopen the Canal Street landmark seem to have cleared hurdles that have delayed the project.

Mayor Landrieu assembled members in his office of the public-private partnership that he says is putting the Saenger Theatre project back in action.

Two people were killed and more than 60 injured in a pre-dawn multi-vehicle pileup in New Orleans East that shut down a busy stretch of the I-10 for most of the day. Drivers say heavy fog covered the area.

Louisiana officials are investigating what triggered the 40-car pile-up that closed Interstate 10 and left dozens critically injured. A responding tow truck driver says he heard screams from people pleading for help.

Tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents may be getting relief from debt they thought they owed the federal government. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is sorting through rules Congress recently approved.

FEMA sent out 83,000 letters this year to victims of Hurricane Katrina and other 2005 storms. They were told they may have gotten too much federal money. FEMA says it may have made the wrong calculations, but the law requires it try to recoup the funds it paid by mistake.

Officials with the city and port of New Orleans formally accepted a nearly $17 million-dollar Transportation Department grant to build a specialized rail yard at the Napoleon Avenue container terminal.

Port President Gary LaGrange says it's a critical project needed for future growth.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is dismissing calls to bring Louisiana National Guard troops to patrol city streets. The mayor says the move wouldn't stop violence.

Thousands of homeowners in southern states will be reviewing a proposed settlement with the major manufacturer involved in defective Chinese drywall litigation. The deal would pay for repairs and possibly medical expenses if the product made people sick.

The deal involves 4,500 property owners and Knauf Plasterboard. The company will pay for repairs and medical losses. Drywall imported from China from 2004 to 2007 eased demand from the housing boom and hurricane repairs.

The Interior Department is reviewing more than $700 million dollars in bids to drill in the western Gulf of Mexico. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the major bids in the first sale since the BP oil spill last year, and then visited a business still reeling from the spill.

The Interior Department has conducted the first sale of leases on drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico since the BP spill last year. It comes after environmental groups failed to block the sale.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar traveled to New Orleans to announce bids on leases for the western Gulf off Texas. He says deepwater drilling is now safer than it was before the BP well exploded, spilling more than 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf.

The Occupy New Orleans protest no longer occupies Duncan Plaza. A federal judge allowed the city to clear the encampment outside City Hall.

The federal judge refused to issue an order sought by Occupy NOLA. The group has been staying at the park since early October as an offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement for economic equality.