Jason Saul

The lineup for the 2014 French Quarter Festival was announced Wednesday morning at a press conference in Jackson Square.

This year's Festival, billed by organizers as the "largest free music festival in the United States" features 188 musical acts over four days. This year's French Quarter Festival will take place April 10-13 on stages spread throughout the lower Quarter.

This is a preliminary schedule. A full schedule and lineup will be released in March.

French Quarter Festival 2014 Debuts

Many elections will be held Saturday, Feb. 1, including municipal primary elections for New Orleans mayor, city council and coroner.

Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

You can find information on the races in your area, including polling precincts and sample ballots, on the Louisiana Secretary of State's website:

Click here for the full website.

The City of New Orleans has extended the deadline for paying 2014 property taxes to Friday, Feb. 7 due to the closure of City Hall as a result of the winter storm that shut down much of the region this week.

Property owners can make payments in several ways, including in-person, by mail and online:

In person:

Bureau of the Treasury
City Hall, Room 1W40

The City will provide a drop-off lane at the Perdido St. entrance to City Hall on Friday, Jan. 31 and Friday, Feb. 7.

Find real-time traffic updates, links to live traffic cameras, and much more in this interactive application from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

Louisiana State Police say motorists should not expect to see Interstate 10 reopened before Thursday.

Capt. Doug Cain says the state's major east-west thoroughfare remains closed between the Jefferson/Orleans parish line through Lafayette.

Cain says the concern is that temperatures won't warm up enough to thaw bridges along the highway like the Bonnet Carré Spillway, four miles at LaPlace and Interstate 55 over Manchac.

The Times-Picayune reports Cain also couldn't say when Interstate 12 might reopen.

The City of New Orleans and the metro region have begun to emerge from the winter storm that forced a near-complete shutdown of everything from airports to roads to restaurants, according to a city press conference held Wednesday morning.

Officials say we’re not out of the woods just yet, as dangerous winter weather continues to grip the region and already-freezing or near-freezing temperatures are expected to plunge again this evening.

The GOES-East satellite (a joint project of NASA and NOAA) captured this photo of the winter storm that hammered the South yesterday.

The National Weather Service has canceled the Winter Storm Warning for the New Orleans region as the storm moves offshore, but a Hard Freeze Warning is in effect. Temperatures are forecasted to warm into the mid- to upper-30s today, with hints of sunshine, but will quickly plummet after nightfall.

(h/t @ejimbo_com)

The storm that dumped sleet and ice over the New Orleans region and much of the state has passed out into the Gulf of Mexico, prompting the National Weather Service's New Orleans office to cancel the Winter Storm Warning and replace it with a Hard Freeze Warning.

South Louisiana doesn't see snow very often, so when a winter storm arrives people don't spend all their time stocking up on essentials. This is Louisiana, after all, and many take advantage of the rare opportunity to enjoy the winter weather.

There wasn't much to work with, however, despite systems that swept through the state twice this week, dumping a wintry mix of snow, sleet and ice on cities from Lafayette to Ruston to coastal Mississippi.

Cue the miniature snowman:

South Louisiana has slowly ground to a halt as a winter storm dumps snow, sleet and freezing rain from Lafayette through coastal Mississippi.

The National Weather Service says moderate to heavy sleet continues across most of the region, and a Winter Storm Warning remains in effect for metro New Orleans. The NWS says the Winter Storm Warning is expected to last until Wednesday morning, and will likely be replaced by a Hard Freeze Warning once precipitation finally ceases.