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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The New Orleans Hornets are the latest team to beat the Charlotte Bobcats. Greivis Vasquez scored 20 points and the Hornets handed the Bobcats a franchise-record 17th straight loss, 75-67 on Monday night. The Hornets played without leading scorers Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The NBA is awarding New Orleans the 2014 All-Star game, now that Saints owner Tom Benson has agreed to buy the Hornets and sign a lease extension at New Orleans Arena.

NBA Commissioner David Stern, who made the announcement in New Orleans with Benson and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on Monday afternoon, says the All-Star game is a reward to the city and state for efforts to secure the Hornets' long-term future in Louisiana.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Saints are done with their first day of voluntary workouts and there was no sign of quarterback Drew Brees. Brees was in New York on Monday to join players' union officials at NFL offices to discuss the team's bounty program. It's not clear when Brees might join Saints teammates for workouts. He's seeking a long-term contract extension.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Louisiana House is getting ready to decide whether the state Board of Ethics should have a bit more power in enforcement of the state ethics code.  Currently, the Board of Ethics cannot appeal decisions by a board of administrative law judges.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Louisiana House has agreed to prohibit smoking within 25 feet of the entrance to any building where smoking already is banned.  Louisiana prohibits smoking in restaurants, public places, public buildings and many places of employment. The measure now heads to the Senate.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge has extended a deadline for BP and a team of plaintiffs' attorneys to file details of a proposed settlement designed to resolve billions of dollars in economic damage claims spawned by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The company and lawyers representing more than 100,000 individuals and businesses were expected Monday to ask U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans to give preliminary approval to the settlement agreement.

Early Monday evening, Barbier extended the deadline to Wednesday morning.

The man driving the investigation into the General Services Administration, California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, took the top seat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after the GOP won a majority in 2010.

Issa has led several splashy investigations since. But he's also been dogged by allegations of his own.

Issa has made news in recent months by threatening to subpoena Attorney General Eric Holder, and by calling a panel of only men to talk about women's contraception.

The Car Alarm Voice

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Hornets are enjoying a win for the fourth time in five games. On Sunday, Eric Gordon scored 18 points to lead New Orleans to an 88-75 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies. Saints owner Tom Benson attended his first game since Friday's announcement that he had agreed to buy the Hornets from the NBA.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Offseason workouts are getting underway on Monday for the New Orleans Saints and Drew Brees still hasn't committed to showing up. The star quarterback is looking for a long-term contract extension, while the team has slapped him with the franchise tag. That amounts to a one-year deal with no long-term security in the case of an injury.

THIBODAUX, La. (AP) — Nicholls State University will hold a conference Wednesday reviewing the effects of the BP oil spill two years ago.

Keynote speaker is Donald Boesch, appointed by President Barack Obama to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.

Boesch is a professor of marine science at the University of Maryland.

Other speakers include Robert Dickey of the Food and Drug Administration, state health officer Jimmy Guidry and LSU environmental sciences professor Ed Overton.