First big storm of season could reach hurricane force and is expected to bring potentially heavy rains and flooding

Tropical Storm Edouard headed toward the US Gulf coast early on Tuesday and was expected to strengthen significantly – possibly reaching hurricane force – before bringing potentially heavy rains and flooding into parts of Texas and Louisiana.

The storm was upgraded on Monday night from a tropical depression, and forecasters with the National Hurricane Center (NHC) expect it will make landfall in Texas later on Tuesday.

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© Photograph: NOAA/AP

© Photograph: NOAA/AP

© Photograph: NOAA/AP

State to offer up to 5,000 trappers chance to snare reptiles whose numbers have risen to 3m from fewer than 100,000

The first recreational alligator hunt in Louisiana in more than half a century is about to commence in the swamps of that state, with up to 5,000 hopeful trappers facing strict rules in order to snare a reptile.

The state’s fish and wildlife commission banned alligator hunting in 1962 to allow the species to recover after decades of unregulated killings for meat and hides dropped numbers there to below 100,000.

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© Photograph: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images

Survivors begin receiving letters with payment amounts months after $305m settlement agreement was struck

Survivors of child rape and other sexual abuse within New Orleans’s Roman Catholic archdiocese learned that $641,000 or so is the most they can individually get under a settlement approved in December to resolve a years-long bankruptcy protection case.

Those amounts were communicated in letters that hundreds of clergy abuse survivors participating in the New Orleans archdiocese’s bankruptcy began quietly receiving on Tuesday. The figures are well below a $2.4m jury verdict awarded to an unrelated Louisiana religious sexual abuse claimant in June 2025 after the state’s legislature temporarily eliminated filing deadlines for such cases.

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© Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

© Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

© Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

Lillian Smart most likely contracted the parasite while swimming in a lake in northwest Louisiana, the state Health Department and a family spokesman said.

Lillian Smart of Ruston infected with fatal Naegleria fowleri, likely after swimming in Lake Claiborne, health officials say

An eight-year-old Louisiana girl has died after contracting a rare, typically fatal brain-eating amoeba after a swim in Lake Claiborne.

Lillian Smart, of Ruston, died on Saturday, one day after celebrating her birthday, her family announced in a public Facebook post on the “Love for Lillian” page.

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© Photograph: Love for Lillian Smart/Facebook

© Photograph: Love for Lillian Smart/Facebook

© Photograph: Love for Lillian Smart/Facebook

Thomas Bailey, 58, faces charge of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling near Covington, Louisiana

A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer was jailed on Friday on allegations of breaking into a woman’s apartment.

Thomas Bailey, 58, faces a charge of unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling after his arrest by the sheriff’s office of St Tammany parish, Louisiana, the agency said in a statement.

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© Photograph: Aaron M Sprecher/Getty Images

© Photograph: Aaron M Sprecher/Getty Images

© Photograph: Aaron M Sprecher/Getty Images

Jacque St Ann, 17, and his friends broke into Plaza Tower and he fell as they were descending an interior staircase

A high school student recently fell to his death after entering an abandoned high-rise tower in downtown New Orleans with his friends – in an apparent case of urban exploration highlighting the dangers of unaddressed city blight.

New Orleans police said Jacque St Ann, 17, and his friends, of the nearby community of Belle Chasse, Louisiana, traveled into the city and broke into the fenced-off, 45-story Plaza Tower in the central business district, which has stood derelict for years.

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© Photograph: Belle Chasse High School via Facebook

© Photograph: Belle Chasse High School via Facebook

© Photograph: Belle Chasse High School via Facebook

The New York Times is examining how public health is changing in the state, from the whooping cough outbreak to vaccine policies, and we want to hear from you.

© Kathleen Flynn/Reuters

Dr. Evelyn Griffin is pushing for more emphasis on wellness and prevention. She has also aligned with the MAHA movement in fighting government mandates and questioning the safety of some vaccines.

© Christiana Botic for The New York Times