NEW ORLEANS NEWS

• Cloudy review holds up grants
The New Orleans City Council is expected to decide this week whether to hand out $5 million in grants to 20 local businesses and nonprofits, even though members of the council and Mayor Ray Nagin's administration acknowledge that the proper review process hasn't been followed.

• FIRMLY PLANTED
To say that the Brother Andre community garden in the Upper 9th Ward was "a bit overgrown" before Saturday was an understatement, Venice Williams said as she yanked a patch of knotted roots from a shrub run amok and added it to a large weed pile.

• Downtown board sets budget, goals
The Downtown Development District has set itself some ambitious goals for 2009, such as reducing graffiti in the Central Business District by 50 percent and lining up a site and financing for a new home for Civil District Court somewhere in the district.

• Dope dealer convicted in killing
An Orleans Parish jury convicted a 23-year-old man of murder this week, a year after a 37-year-old man was shot in a Central City intersection as dozens of people watched.

• Tax break to boost historic projects
After a concerted lobbying effort by a group of New Orleans developers and preservationists, Congress voted last week to extend a tax incentive that should help spur the restoration of historic buildings in cities devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

• Fest haul going to good cause
Officers in two New Orleans police districts and firefighters at four of the city's engine houses should have reason to smile each time someone buys a beer, bottled water, soda or poster at the Gentilly Fest today.

• Car fires might be work of arsonist
Several recent vehicle fires in the Uptown area have piqued the interest of police and fire investigators, sparking an investigation into a possible arsonist.

• Man shot to death in Iberville complex
A 37-year-old man was shot to death Friday night in the Iberville public housing complex in what police described as a "narcotics deal that went bad."

• Council leaves retreat with team spirit
The New Orleans City Council hasn't lacked for consensus this year -- its votes on key issues such as authorizing public housing demolitions and making the inspector general's office permanent were unanimous -- but the members weren't always on the same page, either.

• Worker dies in fall at hotel
A 39-year-old man waterproofing windows at a Warehouse District hotel was fatally injured Friday morning when he apparently slipped off a ladder and fell, the coroner's office and a hotel representative said.

• NEW ORLEANS POLICE BLOTTER
The New Orleans Police Department reported the following incidents occurring through Thursday. If you have information on these or any other crimes, call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll free at 1.877.903.7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn up to $2,500 for tips that lead to an indictment.

• Council leaves retreat with team spirit
The New Orleans City Council hasn't lacked for consensus this year -- its votes on key issues such as authorizing public housing demolitions and making the inspector general's office permanent were unanimous -- but the members weren't always on the same page, either.

• Fresh era beginning for School Board
For many years leading up to Hurricane Katrina, most Orleans Parish School Board members regularly fought proposals for a state takeover and charter schools. They often courted teachers union support -- then a big factor in getting elected -- and decried school choice and state intervention as ploys to dismantle and weaken the public education system.

• Church-merger pace surprises some
The Archdiocese of New Orleans appears poised to close two small Uptown Catholic parishes within weeks, rather than waiting for the end of the year, as many parishioners expected.

• Officials grilled about cameras
New Orleans City Council members spent more than an hour Thursday grilling Nagin administration officials about the city's crime camera program, questioning whether the millions spent on the cameras were properly authorized and whether they have produced meaningful results.

• Man stabs wife's friend, police report
A 36-year-old man stabbed a friend of his estranged wife more than 24 times Wednesday morning in the West Carrollton neighborhood, police said.

• School Board delays decision on job cuts
The Orleans Parish School Board again deferred a vote Thursday on its superintendent's recommendation to lay off about 30 employees to keep its 2008-09 budget balanced.

• Burglar has familiar face
A burglar broke into Tomatillo's restaurant on Esplanade Avenue during late-night raids last week, walking away with bicycles and bottles of alcohol, police said.

• NEW ORLEANS POLICE BLOTTER
The New Orleans Police Department reported the following incidents occurring through Thursday. If you have information on these or any other crimes, call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll free at 1.877.903.7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn up to $2,500 for tips that lead to an indictment.

• State official suggests shakeup at polls
Concerned that some voters not affiliated with a political party were erroneously blocked from casting ballots in Saturday's Democratic congressional primaries, Louisiana's secretary of state asked Orleans Parish election officials Wednesday to consider replacing the poll commissioners involved.

• Beaten student sues cabbie, police
A Tulane University law student says his night out with friends last summer ended with a vicious beating by an angry cab driver, as a New Orleans policeman looked on, after he couldn't pay the fare.

• N.O. agrees to return weapons
Agreeing to settle a lawsuit filed by the National Rifle Association, the city of New Orleans promised this week to return hundreds of firearms seized by police from law-abiding citizens during the chaotic days that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

• Man run down by car minutes after shooting
New Orleans police are investigating a Central City shooting in which the victim's brother took justice into his own hands minutes after Wednesday morning's gunfire.

• N.O. man indicted anew in drug death
Federal prosecutors have obtained a new indictment against a 23-year-old New Orleans man accused of providing a Lusher High School student with the heroin that led to her death earlier this year.

• Role in heroin ring may lead to life term
A New Orleans man pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to involvement in a major conspiracy to distribute cocaine and heroin to customers whose ranks included an alleged drug dealer who has been implicated as the source of the heroin that killed a Lusher High School student early this year.

• NEW ORLEANS POLICE BLOTTER
The New Orleans Police Department reported the following incidents occurring through Tuesday. If you have information on these or any other crimes, call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll free at 1.877.903.7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn up to $2,500 for tips that lead to an indictment.

• Fifth person slain in day and a half
The city's latest murder victim died Monday night inside his eastern New Orleans bedroom, where a friend found him with a gunshot wound to the head.

• Pampy Barré begins 5 years in federal prison
Restaurateur and political operative Stan "Pampy" Barré, a key player in the biggest New Orleans City Hall scandal in decades, reported to a Florida federal prison Tuesday to begin a five-year sentence.

• Dutch will share knowledge at Tulane
A four-day conference designed for local planners to learn from the Netherlands' experience of managing the water that surrounds their country will start Friday at Tulane University.

• Study revises CBD height limits
Consultants who have spent several months studying what height limits should be imposed in historic sections of the Central Business District said Tuesday that new buildings should be limited to six stories in much of the area between Poydras Street and the Pontchartrain Expressway, though much greater height would be allowed along edges of the district.

• Venetian Isles gets good news: The water's fine
After nearly three weeks under a boil-water advisory, residents of the eastern New Orleans enclave of Venetian Isles can resume drinking, cooking, bathing and washing with water directly from the tap, the Sewerage & Water Board said Tuesday.

• Injured teen seeks safety after shooting
In the past year, trouble has been returning to the neighborhood that replaced the St. Thomas public housing complex, said a woman who had a shooting victim dash into her apartment Tuesday night at the intersection of Josephine and Annunciation streets.

• Trio arrested after chase, gunfire
Police arrested three men Tuesday afternoon after chasing them through Irish Channel and Uptown neighborhoods where they crashed their car and one pointed a gun at a police lieutenant, drawing the officer's fire, police said.

• NEW ORLEANS POLICE BLOTTER
The New Orleans Police Department reported the following incidents occuring through Sunday. If you have information on these or any other crimes, call Crimestoppers at 504.822.1111 or toll free at 877.903.7867. Callers do not have to give their names or testify and can earn up to $2,500 for tips leading to an indictment.

• Driver hits, kills pedestrian Monday
A 35-year-old man driving through Central City early Monday hit and killed a New Orleans man crossing the street, the New Orleans Police Department said.

• 2 men fatally shot in separate incidents
Two men were shot to death Monday night in unrelated crimes in Algiers and in the Lower Coliseum Square neighborhood, and a 17-year-old boy was wounded in one of the incidents, New Orleans police said.

• Driver plows into two tailgating Saints fans
A 49-year-old New Orleans man driving on Lafayette Street in the Central Business District on Monday afternoon apparently lost control of his car, hitting two men who were tailgating before the Saints game, police said.

• WVUE-TV anchor booked with DWI in Mandeville
WVUE-TV news anchor John Snell was booked with DWI after an early-morning traffic stop in Mandeville last week.