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The Louisiana Legislature's top financial adviser is retiring.

Legislative Fiscal Officer Gordon Monk has worked in state government for 33 years. His last day will be Aug. 8. Monk told The Advocate (http://bit.ly/NztEFS) a contentious legislative session convinced him it was time to go.

The Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget plans to name a temporary replacement on Monday. Lawmakers will pick a permanent fiscal officer when they are next in session, likely not until 2013.

A New Orleans city councilman pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal criminal charge of misusing federal money intended to help a nonprofit organization after Hurricane Katrina and diverting some of it to one of his political campaigns.

Jon Johnson, who is 63, faces up to 5 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

U.S. District Judge Lance Africk set sentencing for Oct. 25.

Johnson said he will resign from his seat on the council.

Lake Charles city officials are taking a new look at alternative fuels for public vehicles. City Councilman Rodney Geyen has been pushing Lake Charles City Hall officials to research the costs and savings of using natural gas to run vehicles.

Geyen points to the Lafayette Consolidated Government as an example of what can be done. Lafayette officials have told Geyen that a $25,000-a-month fuel bill for five city buses was reduced to $1,800 a month using compressed natural gas.

An Orleans Parish criminal court judge who has been criticized for her backlog of cases is resigning.

Orleans Parish Criminal District Judge Lynda Van Davis submitted a letter of resignation from the bench on Tuesday. Davis, a former state and federal prosecutor who was elected in 2003, said her resignation is effective Dec. 31.

Davis says she's resigning because she's getting married.

Public housing residents near a 17-story hotel slated to be imploded Sunday in New Orleans are worried about dust blanketing their homes.

The Times-Picayune reports that the state decided not to move the 400 households in the Iberville housing complex before the hotel is imploded. Now, some residents are upset about not being told what precautions to take when the building is brought down.

Fifty-four-year-old Lanetter Dorsey said she was in poor health and doesn't feel comfortable staying inside her Iberville apartment during the implosion.

INTRACOASTAL CITY — A rupture in a south Louisiana natural gas pipeline erupted into a fire that led to an evacuation and road closures.

State police say the rupture and fire were reported around 4 a.m. Wednesday in southern Vermilion Parish.

The area is sparsely populated. State police said only one residence was evacuated and two businesses were prevented from opening until the pipeline was shut down and the fire went out around 6:30 a.m.

U.S. Sen. Mary L. Landrieu says $1.4 million in grants has been set aside for Louisiana organizations to prevent homelessness among veterans.

Landrieu said Tuesday the money was awarded through the Supportive Services for Veterans Families Program, which is part of the Department of Veterans Affairs' initiative to end homelessness among military veterans.

More than two years after the catastrophic BP oil spill, environmental groups say billions of dollars BP is expected to spend on restoration should go toward buying tens of thousands of acres of coastal land for conservation, rebuilding Louisiana's eroding wetlands and creating nearly 200 miles of oyster reefs.

The school bus company that transports most public school students in New Orleans has laid off its drivers in a dispute over $7.2 million in unpaid bills.

Blaine Krage, a spokesman for Warrenville, Ill.-based Durham School Services, told The Times-Picayune Tuesday that the company has sent termination letters to 142 drivers and 55 bus monitors telling them "we will not need their services this upcoming school year."

Even with $523 million in announced health care cuts, Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration has slashed only two-thirds of the spending needed to close the entire gap in Louisiana's Medicaid budget.

The administration is banking on better-than-expected revenue projections to close the remaining budget hole.

If that doesn't pan out in the next few months, more reductions are on the horizon. And even if the funding does show up, there could be legal hurdles to accessing the cash to fill the Medicaid budget.