The state labor department figures released Friday show the initial claims increased to 2,738 from the previous week's total of 2,327. Initial claims were below the comparable week a year earlier at 3,547.

The four-week moving average, which is a less volatile measure of claims, increased to 2,518 from the previous week's total of 2,488.

Continued unemployment claims claimed for the week ending May 18 decreased to 20,735, compared to the previous week's total of 22,517. The four-week moving average for such claims decreased to 22,353 from the previous week's average of 22,902.

According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a nonprofit group that tracks gun regulations around the nation, Louisiana's push is contrary to a national trend toward strengthening firearm laws after the recent Connecticut mass school shooting.

"It puts Louisiana in the same category as a minority of states that spend time on largely symbolic measures," said Laura Cutilletta, senior staff attorney for the Law Center. "These laws clearly are not going to be upheld. It's something the courts will have to decide, not the states."

The most far-reaching gun proposals in the Louisiana Legislature seek to preempt federal law, as a states' rights issue. They have been easily approved in the House and await action in the Senate.

One measure, by Rep. Jim Morris, R-Oil City, would prohibit enforcement of any federal restrictions on semi-automatic weapons. After opponents of the bill repeatedly questioned the legality of the proposal, the Senate delayed a vote, but supporters vowed to return for another attempt to get it passed.

Another proposal, by Rep. Joe Lopinto, R-Metairie, would create the Louisiana Manufactured Firearms and Ammunition Act, to allow gun buyers to circumvent any federal gun law if the weapon was manufactured in the state and remained there. It awaits a hearing in the Senate's budget committee.

Similar efforts have been tried in other states.

A Montana federal appeals court is considering the merits of a state law after a lower court rejected that state's Firearms Freedom Act as unconstitutional. Montana was the first state to create such a law in 2009 that would prohibit federal oversight of state-made firearms.

In April, Kansas lawmakers passed a bill later signed by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback that prohibits federal enforcement of any national firearm laws if the guns are state-made. That prompted a warning letter to Brownback from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder stating that the law violated the U.S. Constitution.

Around the nation, 1,152 bills were filed related to gun regulations this year. Of those, 603 sought to strengthen laws and 549 would weaken them, Cutilletta said.

The trend toward boosting restrictions on guns can be attributed to the December school shooting in Newtown, Conn. that left 20 elementary school students and six educators dead. They were shot with a semi-automatic weapon.

"I think that resonated with people and gave legislators a lot more courage because they knew they had the voices of the people behind them," Cutilletta said.

But in Louisiana, bills aimed at toughening regulations on weapons never made it past the first debate, including one that would have required owners to secure their weapons in a locked box or with some type of safety trigger when stored in a home.

Supporters of proposals to loosen gun restrictions have brushed aside colleagues' arguments that gun access should not be expanded in a state where a study reports the number of per capital gun deaths is nearly three times higher than the national average.

"It's important that we don't govern by crisis," said Sen. Elbert Guillory, D-Opelousas.

Guillory and many other Democrats have voted with Republicans this session to advance pro-gun legislation, like a proposal by Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Bossier City, that would make it a misdemeanor to release or publish the names and addresses of people who own or have applied for concealed handgun permits.

The bill has been backed by both the House and Senate and awaits approval of a final version before heading to Gov. Bobby Jindal's desk. It would carry a $10,000 fine for anyone who publishes the information, like reporters or bloggers.

According to a study by the left-leaning Center for American Progress, Louisiana had more deaths per capita from guns than any other state from 2001 to 2010. The study indicated that Louisiana has the highest gun-homicide rate among residents 19 years old and younger.

Cutilletta's organization gave the state an "F," ranking it 45th out of 50 states in terms of gun safety. She said there appears to be a correlation between "weak" state gun laws and the slew of bills filed in those states that seek to override or nullify federal laws.

Lawmakers in 30 states, including Louisiana, introduced some type of legislation this year to restrict federal oversight of gun regulations, according to data collected by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Although the sense of urgency for restricting possible federal gun control laws has waned since a bill to expand background checks didn't make it out of the U.S. Senate earlier this year, gun advocates say laws that limit federal enforcement are needed on the books.

"It doesn't mean they won't come back in the future," Lopinto said.

Simply put, storm surge is the abnormal rise of sea water. Predicting it is far more complicated, and so is explaining it, as forecasters at the National Hurricane Center discovered, again, during a review of Superstorm Sandy.

"Scientists by their very nature use very sophisticated language, technical language," said Jamie Rhome, leader of the hurricane center's storm surge team. "It turns out that nobody else understands what we're talking about. So once we figured that out, we started using more plain language."

Forecasts during Sandy were exceptionally accurate, but often confusing. Perhaps because so many things contribute to storm surge: intensity, pressure, forward speed, size, where it makes landfall and other factors.

Most people believe storm surge is a wall of water, similar to a tsunami, but it's actually just sea water being pushed toward the shore by winds. It can happen quickly and move miles inland, flooding areas not accustomed to being inundated with sea water.

Large death tolls have been blamed storm surge. At least 1,500 people died during Hurricane Katrina either directly or indirectly because of storm surge, the hurricane center said.

To better explain the danger, forecasters talked to focus groups consisting of local and state officials, law enforcement and hospital associations and other people from Maine to New Orleans. One thing they found out is that when they talk about storm surge, they should say "height" instead of "depth" when explaining how water levels might change.

"We were using 'depth,' thinking this was very clear. It turns out that nobody else does," Rhome said. "They're waiting for height, how high it is, and I would never have guessed in a million years that one word — one word — makes a difference in how people interpret something."

Forecasters also will try to stress that the storm surge isn't just from the ocean and can come from other bodies of water such as sounds, bays and lakes, sometimes well inland.

The hurricane center also plans to show people where to expect storm surge with high-resolution, color-coded maps, much like a radar map on the local news showing rain and severe weather. If forecasters can't post the maps on the hurricane center's website this storm season, which begins June 1, the plan is to have the maps ready in 2014.

The storm season is expected to be a busy one, with federal forecasters on Thursday predicting 13 to 20 named Atlantic storms, seven to 11 of which will strengthen to hurricanes. Three to six of those are forecast to become major hurricanes.

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration evaluation of the weather service's performance during Sandy also recommended increasing the number of storm surge forecasters at the hurricane center, and providing potential storm surge hazards at least 48 hours before the onset of tropical storm or gale-force winds.

Miami-Dade Emergency Management Director Curt Sommerhoff said his priority is getting the public to understand that the county's evacuation zones are based on storm surge, not hurricane winds.

New data from the hurricane center's storm surge models prompted the county to redraw its storm surge planning zones to include inland areas along canals and rivers that previously weren't identified as being at risk for storm surge.

"That's the new message, the surge danger well inland, well in from the coast," Sommerhoff said.

Separate storm surge warnings, similar to current tropical storm or hurricane warnings, will be rolled out in 2015.

The hurricane center dropped estimates for storm surge and inland flooding from its wind scale three years ago because the predictions often didn't match what actually happened. For example, Hurricane Ike was a Category 2 with winds of at least 96 mph when it hit the Texas coast in 2008, but its storm surges was much greater than a typical Category 2 storm.

"Storm surges can behave so differently from storm to storm that you can't just apply a single number or use a scale like you can with the wind. That's been tough, trying to get people to understand that every storm is different," Robbie Berg, a hurricane specialist who has taken the lead on social science at the hurricane center.

Berg said Hurricane Irene didn't produce the storm surge in 2011 that some expected, and the following year, many people were surprised by Sandy's extreme tides and flooding.

Still, the advisories for Sandy were dramatically improved from the ones for Ike, explaining storm surge in layman's terms and easy-to-read bullet points instead of long pages of jargon that required meteorologists and emergency officials to make their own calculations.

The progress may seem subtle, but Berg believes it's helping emergency managers make better decisions about whether to order evacuations.

"For as bad as Sandy was, it almost makes you wonder what would have happened had we not made some of these changes since Ike," Berg said. "I would hope that because of these new changes, they're more educated and they're more prepared to make those evacuation decisions when needed."

Airlines, hotels and campgrounds are commanding higher rates and seeing more customers than a few summers ago, and luxury hotels are selling out. Local businessmen and state officials are optimistic.

But for a travel industry still stinging from the Great Recession, the best it can likely hope for is another summer of steady, but slow, recovery. The blockbuster crowds seen in 2007 have become a distant memory.

Americans' plans for summer travel mirror the current state of the economy. Rising home prices and a soaring stock market are encouraging those at the top of the income ladder to take more lavish trips. But large segments of the population are staying close to home because wages are stagnant, rents are high and the end of the payroll tax holiday has shrunk their take-home pay.

That's why AAA isn't expecting a resounding start to summer this Memorial Day weekend. Citing the "up and down economy," AAA expects 31.2 million Americans to hit the road this weekend, virtually the same number as last year. Throw in planes, trains and buses, and the number of travelers will drop about 1 percent, AAA says.

As vacationers set out this summer, here's what they can expect:

— Gas prices about the same as last year. The national average price of gasoline was $3.66 a gallon Thursday, 2 cents higher than during last year's Memorial Day weekend. Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at GasBuddy.com, expects prices to drift lower after the holiday and fall close to last summer's low of $3.33 per gallon before hurricane season starts to drag them up again.

— More expensive hotel rooms. The average hotel will cost $112.21, before taxes and any other add-on such as resort fees. That's up 4.4 percent from last year's $107.52, according to hotel research firm STR. Hotels are also expected to be slightly fuller, with occupancy rates climbing from 69.3 percent last summer to 70 percent this year.

— Packed planes, steady airfare. Airlines for America, the industry's lobby group, expects 208.7 million people to fly, up 1 percent from last year. About 87 percent of airplane seats will be filled with paying passengers. Domestic fliers will pay $421 on average for a round trip ticket, down $6 from last summer. International fliers will pay $1,087, up $8, according to the Airlines Reporting Corp.

— Amtrak expects to meet or exceed the 8.3 million passengers it carried last summer. But the taxpayer-backed railroad wouldn't disclose how fares compare with last summer's average one-way ticket of $66.39.

Mike Klopp, a commercial insurance salesman in Irvine, Calif., is starting to feel better about the economy. He and his wife plan to take their three kids on a vacation up the coast to Monterey in August — a trip they skipped last year.

But Klopp says local trips are the limit because they're cheaper. Like many others, he's not yet willing to splurge on a dream vacation.

"The kids would love to go to Hawaii, but there's no way I'm going to do that. We've been hunkering down, money is tight right now," he says.

"I'm not sold that things are better," he says.

Other Americans likely agree. Although the unemployment rate has dropped to 7.5 percent, compared with a post-recession high of 10 percent, the Federal Reserve doesn't see it falling below 7.3 percent this year. And economic growth still isn't as strong as it has been after previous recessions. The economy grew at an annual pace of 2.5 percent from January to March. Economists expect the rate to slow to 2 percent from April through June, partly because of the federal budget cuts that started taking effect March 1.

Those with higher incomes never stopped traveling, but thanks to new highs in the stock market they now feel secure enough to take longer vacations.

Patrick Veling, the owner of a California real estate data analysis and consulting business, says he's taking his "most expensive vacation ever" this year. Instead of the normal one-week vacation, he and his wife Susan are taking their two adult kids on a three-week vacation through northern Europe that will include a 12-day cruise. They'll see Denmark, Norway, the Shetland Islands, Ireland and the Netherlands.

"My confidence in the economy and my business is now strong enough that my wife and I have pretty much insisted we make this trip," says Veling.

Others are benefiting from rising home prices and low interest rates. Their homes are finally worth more than they owe on their mortgage, and they are finding it easier to refinance. That leaves them more money to spend.

"The improvement in confidence is all in the upper income brackets," says Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial.

During the worst days of the recession, travelers mostly stayed home. Hotels desperate to fill rooms started marketing "staycations" to families who couldn't afford to drive or fly somewhere. Summer air travel fell by nearly 8 percent in two years, from 217.6 million passengers in 2007 to 200.3 million in 2009. Luxury hotels saw their occupancy levels plummet during that period from 72.5 percent to 59.3 percent. More than half the rooms at economy and midscale hotels sat vacant.

There has been a slow and steady climb back, but not all parts of the recovery have been equal.

Luxury hotels such as Four Seasons, Park Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton and Mandarin Oriental are filling 73 percent of their rooms on average, surpassing their pre-recession peak, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from hotel research firm STR.

But budget hotels like Days Inn, Econo Lodge and Motel 6 are still below their 10-year occupancy average and more than 3 percentage points below their peak.

The same pattern holds for fliers.

Domestic traffic is projected to grow 0.7 percent this summer, while the number of people buying more expensive international tickets will climb 2.6 percent, according to Airlines for America.

"Expect luxury travel to continue to rebound — consistent with luxury across all industries — while the rest of summer travel will be flat" as the economy still weighs heavily on middle-income families, says Adam Weissenberg, who heads the travel and hospitality consulting group at Deloitte.

But some less-expensive destinations are seeing a recovery.

Campgrounds fared well during the downturn because they are relatively affordable. Some are now doing better business than ever because the operators have retooled their facilities to entice visitors beyond the typical outdoor types.

Steve Stafford, general manager of North Texas Jellystone Park Camp-Resort in Burleson, Texas, has attracted a broader swath of people with "homesteads." These are recreational vehicles that look like cottages. Now the camp can accommodate campers with tents who only have to pay $32 a night for an empty patch of ground and those who want to stay in the comfort of the largest homesteads for $209 a night.

The 37 existing homesteads were booked solid last year. So Stafford is adding a dozen new ones. Those are already booked, even though they are still being installed.

In recent years, the campground has added activities such as arts and crafts, live bands, laser tag, outdoor big-screen movies and theme weekends to try to lure people back. On the schedule for Memorial Day weekend: A chocolate pudding slip 'n slide.

The moves appear to be working.

"The way it's looking so far, we are going to be way up," Stafford says. "No matter how bad things get, people are going to take a vacation."

The hunt for inexpensive vacations is helping companies that recreational vehicles, too. Traveling by RV means families don't need to pay for hotels and can cook most of their meals. Families may not be ready to buy one — sales are only up slightly — but more are choosing to rent one this summer for as little as $100 a day, or $300 during peak weeks.

At El Monte RV, one of the country's largest RV rental companies, summer bookings from domestic customers are up 20 to 25 percent compared with last year.

"It has stunned us," says marketing director Joe Laing. "We're looking forward to this year. We think it's going to be a good one."

Businessmen and state officials on the Gulf Coast of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi are also hoping for a good summer. The tourism industry there was devastated by the BP oil spill of 2010. As part of a settlement, BP has been financing large advertising campaigns to get tourists back to the region.

"This is going to be the best summer season we've ever had," predicts Tish Williams, executive director of the Hancock County Chamber of Commerce in Mississippi.

Williams has spent $962,000 in BP grants to market her county and a new science center there to tourists in northern Mississippi and neighboring Louisiana.

In Florida, the Pensacola Bay Area Convention and Visitors Bureau says lodging tax revenue is up 7.5 percent this year. The tourism industry has spent BP money as far north as Chicago — a 14-hour drive away — to lure new visitors.

But the most pampered vacationers this summer might not even be human.

The Barkley Pet Hotel & Spa in Westlake Village, Calif., is booked solid this Memorial Day. After a recent 18,000-square-foot expansion — another doggie day camp area for small dogs, another grooming salon and spa and another wing of luxury suites — there is now room for 250 pets.

This summer, they can attend ice cream socials, surf in a beach-like pool or play in the day camps, which are shaded by cabanas and cooled by misters.

Some might say the pets have it better off than their traveling owners.

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With reports from Melissa Nelson-Gabriel in Pensacola, Sue Manning in Los Angeles and Paul Wiseman in Washington.

The House-backed bill would change the current law by reducing the amount of tax levied per month from 5 cents on landline phones to 2 cents and would broaden the tax to include wireless devices. Data-only wireless devices or prepaid cellphones would be exempt.

Representatives from the Louisiana Commission for the Deaf told senators the change was needed because the dollars raised by the existing tax have dropped significantly with the increased use of cellphones.

The reworked tax would generate about $1.9 million a year, which would supply about 70 percent of the agency's annual budget to continue providing services, said Brandi Berkeley, chair of the commission.

"The revenue generated from the nickel per month from the landline phone services has decreased exponentially to the point that it's insufficient to meet the needs of the deaf communities," Berkeley said.

Tax dollars provide hearing aids, sign language interpretation, captioning and telecommunications services for hearing-impaired indigent and elderly. Berkeley said the commission served 21,396 people in 2012.

Earlier this session, the House approved the idea despite opposition from Gov. Bobby Jindal, who opposes anything that would raise taxes.

Rep. Patrick Williams, D-Shreveport, the bill sponsor, said he continues to work with the Jindal administration on an alternate funding method. But he said they have not come to an agreement.

Supporters have argued the bill isn't a tax hike because it would bring the tax revenue up to the levels previously collected before cellphones caused a drop in landline phone use.

The bill, approved without objection by the Senate committee, heads next to the full Senate for consideration.

Updated recreational landings data and new information from Louisiana and Texas prompted the change, according to a release from NOAA Fisheries, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Charter boat Capt. Steve Tomeny and Randy Pausina, Louisiana's top fisheries official, were happy Thursday to hear that the federal season off Louisiana will be increased from nine days to 24.

Tomeny said some of his customers had talked about canceling trips scheduled after June 9 because they couldn't catch red snapper. "I'll have a few more trips I'll be able to run this year," he said.

NOAA Fisheries also raised the total allowed red snapper catch from 8 million pounds to nearly 8.5 million pounds, with 51 percent for commercial boats and the rest for anglers.

The recreational season opens June 1 in federal waters, which begin nine nautical miles off of Florida and Texas and three nautical miles off of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

"We don't really have a lot of red snapper within three miles," Tomeny said.

Anglers in Mississippi and Alabama, which set their state seasons and limits to match federal regulations, will have 34 days rather than 28 to catch red snapper in federal waters.

The other states all scheduled longer seasons, and Texas and Louisiana both let anglers go beyond the federal limit of two red snapper a day. The varying federal seasons are designed to give anglers across the Gulf an equal chance at red snapper, federal regulators have said.

Anglers off Texas, where they can catch up to four red snapper a day year-round in state waters, will have 17 days in federal waters rather than 12.

Off of Florida, where state waters are open for 44 days starting June 1 with a two-fish bag limit, the season in federal waters will be 26 days instead of 21.

Louisiana has an 88-day weekends-only season, with a three-fish limit. The season started March 23 and runs through September.

The state may cut some of those weekends to allow more time in federal waters, said Pausina, assistant secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

When the Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meets on June 6, he said, he will give them several options that will also include keeping the current state season.

"Obviously the maximum is what Alabama and Mississippi got — 34 days. We could never get 34 days because we've already been harvesting," he said.

Tomeny, who is also a commercial fisherman, said ever-shorter red snapper recreational seasons have forced him to sell three of the four 65-foot charter boats he owned when the recreational red snapper season was six months long.

"But I will say that if they had left it like it was years ago, with the six-month fishing season and four-fish limit, the overfishing would have continued," he said. "A lot of people don't remember what it was like 10 or 15 years ago when we didn't always know if we would catch our limit. It was very tough fishing."

A number of other changes, including individual quotas for commercial fishing boats and reduced shrimping because of high fuel prices, have also helped the species recover, he said.

"All these combine to have this really good comeback in the fishery," Tomeny said. "If they hadn't done it I don't think we'd be worried about how many days, because nobody's interested in going red snapper fishing if it's really poor."

"I don't like getting fired," Ryan said Thursday during his first meeting with reporters since Sean Payton hired him in February to revamp New Orleans' last-ranked defense. "I know I got my feelings hurt and so did our players. We're looking to do something about it."

Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan addresses media at the Saints' training facility in Metairie.

The Saints gave up 7,042 yards in 2012, the most ever in a single season in the NFL. Payton has said that performance forced him to make a change at defensive coordinator, even though he felt bad letting Steve Spagnuolo go after only one highly unusual season.

Spagnuolo never got to coach with Payton, who was suspended all of last season in connection with the NFL's bounty probe. Yet shortly after Payton was reinstated, the relatively calm, analytical Spagnuolo, who favored a read-and-react 4-3 defense, was replaced by Ryan, who runs a pressure-heavy 3-4 scheme (three down linemen, four linebackers).

Ryan also has been known to exhibit a brash demeanor more akin to that of Gregg Williams, the Saints' defensive coordinator from 2009 to 2011.

"Personality-wise they are very similar," Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins said. "They're cut from the same cloth in that they know that players and matchups are what defense is all about and they have a lot of personality and they're aggressive in their play-calling."

Williams often referred to himself as a disciple of retired coach Buddy Ryan, who ran the defense of Chicago's 1985 Super Bowl championship team and later was a head coach for Philadelphia and Arizona. Rob Ryan is Buddy Ryan's son, and New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan's brother.

"They're all from the same school, the Buddy Ryan defense, so there are a lot of similarities between what Gregg was running and what Rob is bringing," Jenkins said. "But I think Rob has a few more wrinkles with the 3-4 and everything, and I think we're going to have fun."

Williams used to boast brazenly of how nasty he wanted his defenses to be, and wound up being a central figure in the NFL's investigation into the Saints' bounty program. The league said Williams administered the program, which paid cash bonuses for big plays, including heavy and sometimes injury-causing hits.

Ryan's approach also fosters toughness, Jenkins said, and that is something Saints players embrace, even as they are mindful of the scrutiny they faced from the league in the past.

"There's a line and you don't cross it, but you want to get as close to that line as you can," Jenkins said. "We definitely want to be a physical, feared defense."

Because the Saints' offense, designed by Payton and orchestrated by quarterback Drew Brees, is perennially among the NFL's best, New Orleans has not always had to be good on defense to win.

They ranked 25th of 32 teams in 2009, when they won their only Super Bowl. They ranked 24th in 2011, when they went 13-3 and advanced to the divisional round of the NFC playoffs before falling to San Francisco in a thriller.

So Ryan, whose defense in Dallas ranked 19th last season, doesn't need to work miracles, but he does need to make the Saints' defense a little closer to average.

"It was bad last year," Saints safety Roman Harper said. "There's no sugar coating or anything like that, so we've got a lot of room to improve."

Payton said he did a lot of research on Ryan, interviewing players and coaches who have worked with him, before concluding he would be right for the job.

"I like his passion," Payton said. "I like the way players respond and I think he's a perfect fit."

Ryan has studied some of the schemes the Saints executed well under Williams and brought some of them back, even with the same terminology.

"I know our successes, where that's been. It's been a pressure team, I know that," Ryan said. "But I also know we can do more with our coverage, and we have to."

Jenkins said Ryan's scheme better suits the strengths of Saints defenders, noting that the roster includes cornerbacks who can hold their own in single coverage long enough for Saints safeties, who've been effective blitzers, to disrupt quarterbacks.

If successful, Ryan could for the first time serve as a defensive coordinator on a winning team, something he never did while holding that post in Cleveland, Oakland and Dallas. However, he did win Super Bowls as a defensive assistant in New England.

"I'm fortunate enough to be with great program like the Saints, led by Sean Payton. I haven't felt this way since I was in New England with Bill Belichick," Ryan said. "I just feel like a sense of urgency. I can't wait to give everything I have to this organization. I know everybody is on the same path."

Notes: The Saints waived DE Greg Romeus, a 2011 seventh-round draft choice out of Pittsburgh who never played because of injuries to both knees. ... Charles Brown, one of the candidates to replace free-agent departure Jermon Bushrod as starting left tackle, did not practice because of an unspecified weightlifting injury. Payton said he preferred not to discuss injuries during the offseason. ... Payton also held linebackers Jonathan Vilma and David Hawthorne out of practice and did not specify why.

Commissioner of Administration Kristy Nichols says all deals, including a takeover of University Medical Center by Lafayette General Medical Center, will be completed next month.

Nichols was addressing questions raised by the Legislature's financial analysts about whether next year's budget will be short of the money needed to cover the privatization.

She says she's asking senators to amend the budget to address the financing gap. She says anticipated lease payments, additional state dollars and federal Medicaid money will close the gap.

Nichols says the total operating budget for all LSU-affiliated hospitals will be $1 billion next year, an increase from $955 million. She says the state will net $100 million in savings because of lease payments.

Assistant Attorney General Butch Wilson told a judge that the grand jury was being empaneled Thursday as part of an ongoing investigation into the award of the now-canceled contract for Client Network Services Inc., or CNSI.

The issue arose during a hearing on CNSI's public records lawsuit, tied to the contract termination.

The Jindal administration canceled CNSI's contract in March after news surfaced about a federal investigation. Jindal health secretary Bruce Greenstein, a former CNSI vice president, resigned a week later.

CNSI has sued the Jindal administration, alleging breach of contract and saying it did nothing wrong.

The National Flood Insurance Program reauthorization was approved last year. Landrieu, D-La., had an amendment that was defeated that would have stalled premium increases of 20 percent or more annually for some residents in the program.

The new Strengthen, Modernize and Reform The National Flood Insurance Program Act would indefinitely delay the hikes until six months after Congress receives an affordability study by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The bill also protects properties that are currently "grandfathered."

Landrieu tells The Advocate she has not yet decided on how she will try to move the bill forward.

"It could be standalone. It could be amended onto another bill," she said. "It could be part of the appropriations process, of which I'd have a good bit of influence on since I chair the committee."

Landrieu chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA's funding.

The insurance fear is that proposed flood maps will cost Louisiana residents and business owners a lot more in the congressional effort to make the flood insurance program more self-sustainable.

The proposed flood maps are still under federal review but more parts of the state's coast are becoming high-risk velocity zones, or V-zones, where insurance rates increase more. The program also is going to start phasing out "grandfathered" rates next year.

The NFIP allows homeowners and businesses in flood zones that have trouble getting private insurance to obtain policies backed by the federal government.

Nearly 500,000 people in Louisiana participate in the NFIP. The program has been in financial distress with a loss of more than $20 billion, largely due to payments made after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Landrieu said balances must be found to ensure the insurance is "affordable, accessible and self-sustainable."

The nearly $1 trillion Senate farm bill being debated this week keeps the federal sugar program intact and provides the option for price-control insurance for southwestern Louisiana rice farms that was lacking in last year's version of the bill.

But a proposed amendment by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., to end the federal import restrictions on sugar was defeated Wednesday on a 45 to 54 vote with both U.S. senators from Louisiana, Mary Landrieu and David Vitter, in opposition.

"The amendment would effectively kill America's no-cost sugar program," Landrieu said, noting that Louisiana has 427,000 acres of sugarcane in 22 parishes and adding that the state's sugar mills produced a record 1.6 tons of raw sugar last year.

Shaheen and Toomey argued the program prevents a free market and increases costs for consumers.

"What we have here is a sweet deal for sugar growers and a bad deal for consumers," Shaheen said.

The Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/16boLPu ) Landrieu countered that sugar costs in the U.S. are still 14 percent lower than the world average and that the sugar program maybe affects the cost of a candy bar by a "penny or two."

While the House farm bill proposal also maintains the sugar program, a tougher fight to keep it is expected in that chamber where a simple majority vote is needed for amendments. The Senate is debating amendments on a 60-vote threshold.

Vitter said the Senate farm bill is much better than last year's version, which was passed by the Senate but died in the House for a lack of action during the so-called "fiscal cliff" fight at the end of the year.

"It deals with a lot of Louisiana crops in a lot fairer way," Vitter said of the Senate bill.

The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday advanced a resolution that calls on state education officials to stop implementation of the Common Core standards, which have been adopted in 45 states and are being phased into Louisiana schools.

Following the nearly three-hour meeting before a standing-room-only crowd, the committee didn't back the legislation, instead choosing to forward it to the full Senate without action. The move keeps the resolution alive, without a committee endorsement.

The standards, created by committees of education officials from dozens of states, are a grade-by-grade rubric of skills and knowledge that students should acquire in core subject areas, such as math and English. They are being incorporated into the standardized tests given each spring to Louisiana's public school students.

Resolution sponsor Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, and other opponents, said that by adopting the national standards and testing to them, Louisiana is abdicating local control of its curriculum to the federal government.

Laura O'Halloran, with a right-leaning group called the Louisiana Power Coalition, said state officials had no idea when the standards were adopted what they were agreeing to give up. This "usurps" the state's sovereignty, she said.

"Not just Louisiana, but America's as well," she said.

In addition, backers of the resolution said they were concerned about the way student information would be collected and used by the U.S. Department of Education. They feared the information would not be secure and could lead to privacy issues.

Many of those who supported Crowe's resolution were affiliated with local tea party groups. They repeatedly characterized Common Core as "federalized government" and the "nationalization of education."

Proponents of the standards, including state Superintendent of Education John White, said the nationally aligned standards will raise student achievement and will allow Louisiana to compare its students' academic progress to other states.

They are standards, not a curriculum, White said.

"They are a set of very basic descriptions of what students should be able to achieve to be successful beyond high school," he said.

Amy Deslattes, a New Iberia high school teacher who piloted the English standards, said she saw tremendous growth in her 12th-grade students. The students were writing on a "college-level" and wouldn't need remediation, she said.

The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education adopted the new standards in 2010, and they will be fully phased into Louisiana's curriculum and testing by the 2014-15 school year.

White said BESE will have a meeting in June at which student data collection will be discussed.

Crowe said he felt "slighted" that the Legislature did not have any input in the decision. He said he brought the resolution so opponents could air their concerns.

Approval in an 88-4 vote came over objections from religious groups that raised ethical and moral concerns about surrogacy. Those opponents heavily lobbied lawmakers to reject the measure.

Lawmakers sided with the pleas of their colleague, Sen. Gary Smith, who has two children with his wife through surrogacy and who sponsored the legislation.

"All those notes on your desk? Forget about them," said Rep. Joe Lopinto, R-Metairie, urging lawmakers to discard the requests to reject the bill.

Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, said surrogacy births were currently taking place in Louisiana without clear guidelines on the legal rights of the parents, the surrogate or the child.

Lopinto used his own personal story to push for passage, describing the medical treatments his wife underwent and the years of waiting before she gave birth to twins through successful in-vitro fertilization.

"This bill gives the miracle of life. Enjoy it. Embrace it. This is something that we need to be proud of," he said.

There is opposition to surrogacy among some social conservatives. The in-vitro fertilization that's required can cause the destruction of embryos, a problem for some anti-abortion groups.

The conservative Louisiana Family Forum, which holds significant sway in the House, opposed the bill, saying surrogacy would destroy embryos and "radically redefines the family."

"I believe in the right to life. This gives the right to life," Lopinto said.

No one spoke directly against the bill on the House floor. Rep. Stephen Ortego, D-Carencro, one of the four opponents, raised questions about morality.

"If a child is a gift, then we really can't see that as something that is owed to somebody," he said.

Leger said the bill was drawn up in consultation with judges, lawyers, experts in family law and theologians.

"At the end of the day, this bill is setting up a reasonable, responsible and appropriate regulatory scheme ... that seeks to protect the surrogates, to protect the parents and particularly to protect the child," he said.

The bill would spell out that a surrogate only could be allowed for a married couple who can't otherwise have a biological child.

To be a surrogate, a woman would have to be at least 25 years old, have given birth to a child and undergo mental and physical evaluations. She would have to agree to relinquish all rights to the child she would be carrying for the married couple, in a surrogacy contract.

"The intent of the bill is pro-family," said Rep. Sherman Mack, R-Livingston.

Smith watched the debate from the side of the House chamber, often talking with lawmakers during the discussion.

Smith's proposal returns to the Senate for approval of changes before heading to Gov. Bobby Jindal's desk. Earlier this session, the Senate voted 30-4 for the bill, and Smith said he didn't object to the House changes.

As changed and approved by the Senate, the bill would not apply to private companies. It was agreed to in a 23-13 vote over the objections by Sen. Ed Murray, who was pushing to include all businesses located in the state.

Murray, D-New Orleans, said women in Louisiana routinely make less than men who perform the same jobs. He said there is more salary disparity in the private sector, than among state employees.

Sen. Page Cortez, R-Lafayette sponsored the amendment, based on a Texas law, and called it a progressive "baby step." Without it, the bill faced a lot of opposition from the business community, Cortez said.

Murray's bill failed by one vote last week without the amendment.

On Wednesday, Sen. Conrad Appel, R-Metaire, repeatedly asked Cortez whether the amended law would affect private business owners. He opposed Murray's original bill saying it would make private businesses vulnerable to lawsuits.

This is "strictly for women who are employed by the state of Louisiana?" ask Appel, a business owner. "There's no right of action against a private entity?"

Cortez's amendment says that "a woman who performs public service for the state is entitled to be paid the same compensation for her service as is paid to a man who performs the same kind, grade and quality of service, and a distinction in compensation may not be made because of sex."

It also defines "employer" as "any department, office, division, agency, commission, board, committee or other organizational unit of the state."

The bill now moves to the House for consideration.

With a 35-0 vote Wednesday, the state Senate gave final legislative passage to a one-year suspension of the law that had been slated to take effect in July.

Jindal can't veto the suspension, which gives lawmakers time to learn the resolution of several outstanding concerns.

A district court judge has ruled the law unconstitutional, saying it didn't get enough votes to pass. That ruling is on appeal at the Louisiana Supreme Court. Meanwhile, leaders of two state retirement systems have raised concerns about tax implications and possible costs of the changes.

The retirement change, approved by lawmakers last year, created an investment account similar to a 401(k) plan for certain state employees hired after July 1. That would stand in place of a monthly retirement payment based on salary and years of employment.

With the delay, it will apply to workers hired after July 1, 2014 — if the law is upheld by the Supreme Court.

Under the changed system, the contributions made by the employee and the state would be invested, and the account would grow at the rate of investment earnings. The employee would never lose money for investment slumps, as in a traditional 401(k) plan.

Louisiana was set to become the first state in the nation to provide only the "cash balance" retirement plan for certain employees, without also offering federal Social Security benefits.

The switch to the new pension plan would apply to rank-and-file state employees and university staff, not to law enforcement or other workers deemed to be in hazardous duty. It also wouldn't change the retirement benefits offered to public school employees.

Supporters of the cash balance plan described the change as a way to rein in the costs of retirement programs that are billions of dollars short of the money they'll need to pay for all benefits promised. Opponents said the new investment account wouldn't give state workers enough of a safety net.

It's unclear whether the change would save the state money.

Financial analysts disagree widely on its implications, with the Legislature's retirement analyst saying the new plan could cost the state more and the analyst hired by the Jindal administration predicting hefty savings.

The House had approved the measure. But Rep. Ted James, D-Baton Rouge, ran into concerns in the Senate that he said Wednesday can't be worked out before the session ends June 6. The bill, which passed the House 87-0, was voluntarily deferred without a hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee.

James' bill would prohibit employers and public schools, including colleges and universities, from requesting information such as usernames, passwords or other authentication information that allows them to access personal online accounts. Private schools were amended out of the bill.

The bill was designed to protect the personal access information of employees and students, but would not have prohibited employers or schools from requesting access information to company-owned devices that are issued to employees.

There was some concern about how the law would affect or regulate employer- or school-owned equipment that was used by students, such as school-issued email addresses, James said.

Rep. Walt Leger, the number two ranking member of the House, said Wednesday that he's shelving his proposal to let the campuses raise tuition according to a plan devised by the Board of Regents. He said he doesn't have the two-thirds support of lawmakers required to pass the bill.

"The votes are not there, and I don't believe they will be there this session," said Leger, D-New Orleans, "As far as I'm concerned, it's done."

A day earlier, a separate proposal by Shreveport Republican Rep. Thomas Carmody to remove the legislative approval requirement for college tuition hikes failed in the House, falling 19 votes short of passage.

Leger said he still supports getting the Legislature out of micromanaging tuition rates, but he doesn't believe the effort will gain traction during the current four-year term that Gov. Bobby Jindal and lawmakers are in office.

"I do think it's a conversation that needs to continue," he said.

Lawmakers have worried about the impact on the state's free college tuition program called TOPS, which covers the full cost of tuition for students who meet certain academic benchmarks and test scores in high school. Any increase in tuition raises the state's price tag for TOPS.

Other concerns have been raised about continuing to shift costs to students who have faced several years of tuition and fee hikes.

"Isn't this in a way a tax on their dreams?" Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, said during debate on Carmody's bill.

Several legislators also have said they see no net benefit in raising tuition rates if Jindal and lawmakers are going to then shrink state financing for colleges.

Jindal has repeatedly proposed, and lawmakers have approved, offsetting state dollars for colleges with increased tuition — and then declared that the schools weren't taking budget cuts.

The Board of Regents, which governs higher education in the state, has urged lawmakers to relinquish their control over tuition, saying that no other state requires a two-thirds vote of lawmakers to raise charges on students and that Louisiana's tuition rates remain among the lowest in the South.

Higher education leaders say schools are struggling to recruit and keep faculty, maintain courses and programs for students and remain competitive with schools in other states because of five years of budget cuts.

Jindal and lawmakers have stripped an estimated $650 million in state financing from higher education since 2008, according to the Board of Regents. Only about half of that gap has been filled by tuition increases.

"How are they supposed to continue to operate in a state that will not put up the money?" Carmody said during debate on his bill.

Outside of tuition increases, other proposals to raise new dollars for colleges remain alive in the Legislature, including a House-backed bill that would allow campuses to increase fees for students, with the dollars dedicated to building maintenance and upkeep.

Also nearing final passage is a measure that would allow the Louisiana Community and Technical College System to borrow more than $250 million for construction projects outside of the traditional construction budget process.

The number of students performing at grade level in math, science, English and social studies on the spring tests nudged up to 69 percent from 68 percent in 2012. It marks a 9 percent improvement, but more than 30 percent continue to underperform.

The numbers showed that New Orleans schools taken over by the state from the long-troubled local district after Hurricane Katrina making the most improvement among all districts in the state, moving from 51 percent to 57 percent of students performing at grade level.

Education Department figures showed improvement was stronger in school districts with Head Start programs or the state's LA4 early childhood education program for pre-kindergartners. Charter schools' growth was better than other public schools' growth by about 2 percent.

The figures released Wednesday also included performance of students attending private schools with state-funded tuition vouchers, although the performance was hard to gauge overall because results were not posted for numerous schools with small numbers of voucher students.

White said overall the performance of the voucher-supported students in private schools in the state scholarship program improved by less than a percentage point. However, he noted that there were only 500 test-takers in the 2011-12 school year compared to the 2,000 in the current school year, the first year in which the voucher program, which was piloted in New Orleans, was expanded statewide.

The Education Department said seven New Orleans area private schools in which voucher students performed poorly will no longer be allowed to accept new voucher students: Life of Christ Christian Academy, Faith Academy, Upper Room Bible Church Academy, Bishop McManus, Holy Rosary Academy, Conquering Word Christian Academy and Conquering Word Christian Academy-Eastbank. The department said about 140 students who had planned to attend those schools with vouchers this fall will be directed to other schools.

"Their schools had a record of low performance that we are not going to tolerate," White said.

Most of the schools that will no longer be allowed to accept new voucher students have been in the program since it began in 2008.

Roughly 8,000 students have been approved for vouchers with more than 130 schools participating in the program this year. It remains unclear how the state will fund the program in light of a recent state Supreme Court ruling that last year's funding method, through a formula meant for public schools, violated the state constitution.

Exactly how badly they performed wasn't clear, in most cases. For instance, no results were available in any subject for third-graders at any of the schools except Bishop McManus, where more than 80 of 100 voucher students were performing at below grade level in math, science and social studies.

Standardized tests in fourth and eighth grades are known as LEAP tests and are used to determine whether students will be promoted to the next grade.

Statewide, fourth-graders who met the promotion standard this spring numbered 43,616 or 79 percent of all those who took the promotion test in the spring. Last year, the number was 44,775 or 80 percent of those taking the test in spring of 2012.

Eighth-graders who met the promotion standard this spring numbered 36,841 or 74 percent. Last year, the figures were 36,163, or 73 percent of all spring 2012 eighth-grade test takers.

For promotion, those taking the LEAP test must score at least "basic" — deemed performing at grade level — in either English language arts or mathematics and no worse than "approaching basic" in the other subject. Students who do not earn these scores must attend summer school or are retained.

Speaking after Wednesday's conclusion of conference meetings in Destin, Fla., Benson said Sun Belt members are comfortable with having 11 teams in 2014, and do not want to rush to add another school simply so the conference can hold a championship game for football.

"We believe that even though we may have to wait an extra year, that we need to get it right," Benson said. "We need to make sure that the total pool of prospective members is given an opportunity to develop."

The league wants any new school to be a good geographical fit, officials said, adding that the decision to wait is also aimed at promoting stability in a league that is currently undergoing significant changes in membership.

"At some point, this whole conference realignment issue across this country has to use some common sense," said Sun Belt Conference President and Troy University Chancellor Dr. Jack Hawkins, Jr. "I do hope it's more stable. I hope there's less movement and I hope that conferences across America will mature just a bit before they react in a knee-jerk fashion."

Four schools — North Texas, Florida International, Florida Atlantic and Middle Tennessee — are leaving this summer for Conference USA. A fifth, Western Kentucky, joins Conference USA in July 2014.

Meanwhile, the Sun Belt is adding seven new members, two of which are joining for football only and which will be replaced by two other non-football-playing members in all other sports.

Georgia State and Texas State are joining in all sports this summer. Next summer, the league will add Appalachian State and Georgia Southern in all sports, as well as Idaho and New Mexico in football.

Current member Arkansas-Little Rock and incoming member Texas-Arlington will compete in sports other than football.

The Sun Belt will have eight football teams this coming season: Arkansas State, Georgia State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Texas State, Troy, South Alabama and Western Kentucky. The league also has two current bowl tie-ins with the New Orleans Bowl and the GoDaddy.com Bowl in Mobile, Ala.

Benson said the Sun Belt hopes to add at least a third tie-in with a new bowl this summer, mentioning a proposed bowl in Little Rock as a strong candidate.

"The Sun Belt Conference is very, very interested in Little Rock as a potential bowl site," Benson said. He added he has been in talks with organizers of another potential bowl site, but said it was too early to offer specifics.

Sun Belt members went into the league's spring meetings after being courted by a handful of schools that are looking to join the conference as a 12th member.

Liberty was the only candidate Benson was willing to mention. Jacksonville State, Sam Houston, Lamar and James Madison also have reportedly expressed interest.

"Liberty University received strong consideration," Benson said. "However, the timing of making any further additions was delayed for various reasons. But that's probably about all that we can really discuss at this time in regard to any individual universities that may have applications to be considered."