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More than $2.5 million in unclaimed state income tax refunds are scheduled to be deposited into the state treasury on Friday.

The Advocate reports the money will become unclaimed property, joining more than $500 million in paychecks, apartment deposits, gift certificates, mutual funds and stocks as well as oil and gas royalties currently held by state government because no one has stepped forward to claim them.

Of the 7,462 taxpayers notified by mail about their uncashed checks, 2,173 responded and claimed $1.7 million.

A New Orleans nonprofit organization wants a federal court order that would require officials of the Louisiana State Penitentiary to grant center attorneys and a medical specialist access to death-row inmates and records at Angola.

Advocacy Center attorneys say in a civil lawsuit that prison officials have refused to allow them to pursue prisoner reports that death-row temperatures have exceeded 100 degrees.

Louisiana Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain says none of the salmonella-tainted cantaloupes that recently killed two people and sickened 141 nationwide have been traced to Louisiana.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the salmonella outbreak is linked to contaminated cantaloupe grown in southwestern Indiana. The outbreak comes a year after cantaloupes contaminated with listeria from Colorado killed at least 30 people and sickened 146.

Despite efforts to shrink the number of Louisiana's governing boards and commissions, the total of such panels is higher now than when Gov. Bobby Jindal took office in 2008.

That's according to a review by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor's office released this week.

The auditor's report says as of June 2012, the state had 492 boards and commissions created by law or executive order. That compares to 484 such panels in 2008. The high point was in 2004, when 513 boards and commissions were on the books.

Kenner police say a 5-year-old girl's back was gashed and both of her ankles cut when her father used her as a shield from her mother's knife attack. According to the arrest report, the wound in her back needed 22 staples, and her ankles needed a total of 11 stitches — seven in the left and four in the right.

The Times-Picayune reports 25-year-old Kenisha Caples and 44-year-old Maurice Sparkman were arrested Sunday, a day after their fight.

The Center for the Study of New Orleans at Loyola University will celebrate the Crescent City’s rich musical heritage with the second annual NolaLoyola “Beats of the Streets: The Brass Brand Tradition in New Orleans,” on Friday, Sept. 28. The full day of events is free and open to the public.

The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office has retrieved the body of a Mandeville man from Lake Pontchartrain.

Capt. George Bonnett, the sheriff's spokesman, says the coroner's office identified the victim as 59-year-old Charles Ellis. Deputies pulled the man's body from the lake Saturday afternoon. Bonnett says Ellis is believed to have been swimming in the area near the Mandeville harbor.

Toxicology tests are pending. An exact cause of death remains under investigation.

Bonnett said Monday that there were no obvious signs of foul play.

A New Orleans Police officer has been suspended following his weekend arrest for suspicion of drunk driving.

Harahan Police arrested 57-year-old Eddie Polite early Sunday after spotting him driving the wrong way down a one-way street with no headlights.

Police chief Mac Dickinson told The Times-Picayune Polite was taken into custody after he refused to take a field sobriety or Breathalyzer test. Dickinson says investigators later obtained a warrant to draw Polite's blood. Results are pending.

A new study shows there's a diminishing amount of blight in New Orleans. But the overall level is stubbornly high.