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The Louisiana Ballooning Foundation has canceled the Louisiana Hot Air Balloon Championship and Festival that had been scheduled for the first weekend in August in East Baton Rouge Parish.

The Advocate reports ( http://bit.ly/NCr4B2) officials in neighboring Ascension Parish say they will hold a festival and balloon race in October, though it won't be affiliated with the Louisiana Ballooning Foundation.

Linda Wunstel, president of the foundation's board, said the East Baton Rouge event was canceled because of funding problems.

A nonpartisan government watchdog group is asking Superintendent of Education John White to seek legislative guidance as he designs the accountability standards required of schools participating in Louisiana's new voucher program.

The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana sent a letter Tuesday to White, urging him to present his draft accountability policies to the House and Senate education committees for the program that will use tax dollars to send students to private schools.

Louisiana's motor vehicles commissioner, Nick Gautreaux, is leaving the job in August.

Gautreaux told The Advocate that he is planning a career in corporate development and governmental work, a move that will keep him closer to home and his five children in Youngsville.

A former state senator, Gautreaux took the position as commissioner of the Office of Motor Vehicles in December 2010. His last day will be Aug. 5, according to a spokesman for the Louisiana State Police, which oversees the office.

Gov. Bobby Jindal's budget office won't provide most of its records tied to the state's alternative fuel vehicle tax credit program and a controversial ruling about qualifying vehicles that was rescinded by the governor.

A lawyer for the Division of Administration said records requested by The Associated Press are shielded by a public records exemption. Only one e-mail was provided. Other records were kept hidden, citing an exemption given to the governor for items involving his "deliberative process."

New Orleans has a reputation for its rich food, and the extra pounds it can pack on its fans. But a Tulane University doctor is working on a culinary plan to return the city’s cuisine — and the national diet — to its healthier roots.

A teenage son of New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu has been arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

A spokeswoman for the New Orleans Police Department says 19-year-old Benjamin Landrieu was arrested early Tuesday. He was booked into the city's jail on charges that also include reckless operation of a vehicle.

The mayor said in a statement that his loves his son but there will be legal consequences for his actions in the courtroom and "family discussions in our living room." Mitch Landrieu also said his son will be treated "just as any other citizen."

In a move to stop charter schools from expelling students too frequently, the state agency running most of New Orleans' public schools has issued new guidelines on what constitutes the kind of behavior that will get a student thrown out.

FARMERVILLE, La. — Union Parish Schools Superintendent George Cannon says the district is struggling financially for the current fiscal year after cuts planned for the past year apparently didn't happen.

Cannon said some of last year's planned $1.6 million in cuts were not carried out as planned.

A St. John the Baptist Parish couple found hiding in Georgia after they failed to show up for a trial in the death of the woman's 8-year-old son are back in Louisiana.

The Times-Picayune reports (http://bit.ly/SEHmcg) that 46-year-old Errol Victor and 38-year-old Tonya Victor had a court hearing Monday in LaPlace.

The couple disappeared on the eve of their second-degree murder trial last August and was arrested in Tifton, Ga., on April 14, after being featured on an episode of "America's Most Wanted."

WATERPROOF, La. — Tensas Parish Sheriff Rickey Jones says he isn't sure how an escaped inmate stole and drove an unmarked police car 1,800 miles across the country, but he says it won't happen again.

Forty-three-year-old Benjamin Gottke was a trustee in the Tensas Sheriff's Office kitchen.

Last week, he acquired keys to an unmarked police car.

He was arrested in Maine on Saturday after he fled authorities while attempting to enter Canada. He had been serving time for simple burglary and had about nine months left on his sentence.