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NEW ORLEANS — The head of an advocacy group in New Orleans is expressing frustration with delays in the effort to get recognition for sites where levee breaches led to catastrophic flooding after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The Army Corps of Engineers has jurisdiction over one of the sites and has the right to say whether it believes the sites belong on the National Register of Historic Places. But the corps has held back on giving its view, saying the matter involves facts that are still at issue in lawsuits.

BATON ROUGE, La. — A bloc of conservative Republicans in the House couldn't stall a budget bill that taps into one-time dollars to help piece together spending plans year after year.

The House voted 63-38 Thursday to send the bill to the Senate, raising questions about whether the coalition was fracturing and would be unable to hold together in negotiating a final version of next year's $25 billion operating budget with the Senate.

The Orleans Parish School Board has appointed an interim superintendent.

Stan Smith served as the chief financial officer for the board since 2006. The board said Thursday that Smith will step in for Superintendent Darryl Kilbert, who officially retires June 30. 

GRETNA, La. (AP) — School administrators in Jefferson Parish say more than 2,500 students will be directly affected by the decision this week to close seven public school campuses.

Those students will shift among 27 campuses, The Times-Picayune reports.

The decision means next week, with the conclusion of the 2011-12 school year, the seven Jefferson schools will adjourn for the last time.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Gin bottles, cannons, muskets and ceramic dinnerware, some 200 years old, have been discovered at a shipwreck site in little-chartered waters off the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Suspended Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma has filed a defamation lawsuit against NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. The lawsuit claims Goodell has made false statements about Vilma while discussing the NFL's bounty investigation of the New Orleans Saints. Goodell has also suspended Vilma for the entire season. 

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Costco Wholesale Corp. will build its first Louisiana store in New Orleans.

The Times-Picayune reports (http://bit.ly/JRh3Mb) the big-box warehouse store will be in the Carrollton area off the city just off Interstate 10.

Costco intends to invest more than $40 million in a membership-only facility on the site of the former Carrollton Shopping Center across from Xavier University.

JEFFERSON, La. (AP) — The Huey P. Long Bridge will close at midnight Friday and is not expected to reopen until midnight on Sunday.

State transportation officials said the shutdown is necessary for removal of old lanes on the bridge, which is being reconstructed.

Drivers can use the Crescent City Connection or the Interstate 310 Bridge at Luling as alternate crossings of the Mississippi River.

Widening of the bridge is expected to be completed in 2013. 

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's lawmakers disagree over how to craft a new ban on bullying at public schools.

Two different proposals advanced Wednesday in the House, one by Baton Rouge Rep. Patricia Smith getting 71-16 backing on the House floor and another by Port Allen Sen. Rick Ward getting passage from the House Education Committee.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Two bills focused on deterring pregnant women from getting abortions have been overwhelmingly approved by two legislative health committees. One bill gives women the opportunity to listen to a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed. The other would ban abortion after 20 weeks post-fertilization, excepted in limited medical cases.