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New Orleans is set to become the largest metro area in America without a daily newspaper. The award-winning Times-Picayune is laying off half its news staff.

Star-powered testimony has wrapped up in federal court in New Orleans. Actors Kevin Costner and Stephen Baldwin are facing off over profits from a device aimed at cleaning up the BP oil spill.

News of the widespread layoffs at The Times-Picayune, the city’s only daily newspaper and a mainstay of morning routine for generations of New Orleanians, continued to reverberate throughout the city’s media establishment late Tuesday.

Half of the news department at the Times-Picayune is being cut. Some employees are being offered a spot in the digital Nola.com operation.

Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman confirmed Friday that he is working to outsource the management of the lucrative off-duty private security details available to his deputies.

In a written statement, Gusman said that “the Sheriff’s Office is reviewing a plan that involves a third party to assist with the handling of detail assignments,” but nothing has been decided.

Gusman said that his office is “working to update many of our policies and reporting rules to increase the efficiency and accountability of the paid detail program.”

NEW YORK — An arbitrator has ruled Monday that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has the authority to discipline former Saints defensive end Anthony Hargrove for the New Orleans bounties program.

Hargrove, Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma and DE Will Smith, and linebacker Scott Fujita, now with Cleveland, appealed their suspensions and will appear before Goodell next Monday.

BATON ROUGE — Voters will face a list of questions in the fall election, constitutional changes proposed by lawmakers for them to consider, including provisions about gun rights and pension revocation.

Nine proposals to amend the Louisiana Constitution will be on the Nov. 6 ballot after the action of the legislative session.

In the most attention-grabbing item, voters will decide whether to toughen the state's constitutional protections for weapon owners and whether to remove a provision that gives the Legislature explicit authority to limit concealed handguns.

Swedish developer Skanska and joint venture partner MAPP Construction, a Baton Rouge-based construction firm, have secured the second piece of the state contract for the new University Medical Center in New Orleans. Skanska said the second portion of the contract is for $130 million and Skanska's share is $118 million.

Actor Stephen Baldwin says nobody asked him to invest any money or join Kevin Costner in lobbying BP to use oil cleanup devices that the two actors were touting in the aftermath of the 2010 spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Baldwin testified Monday at a trial for his lawsuit against Costner over a multimillion-dollar business dispute involving the cleanup devices.