Five Louisiana metropolitan areas posted year-to-year increases in foreclosure activity during the first   half of this year. 

How much oil is still in the Gulf of Mexico?

Two New Orleans cops face federal civil rights charges for the alleged beating death of a local man.

Officials say more than 3,000 birds have been collected dead along the Gulf Coast since an oil spill was triggered in April by the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion.

American International Group has set a financial record.  The insurance giant has posted the largest quarterly loss in U.S. corporate history.  AIG says it fell 61-point-seven-billion dollars into the red during the fourth quarter of last year.  Over the past five quarters, the company has lost 100-billion dollars. 

The Coast Guard isn't having much success finding a fishing boat with two NFL players and two other men aboard.  The boat left Clearwater, Florida, Saturday and was reported overdue early Sunday.  Fourteen-foot seas are making the hunt for Oakland Raider Victor "Marquis" Cooper and Detroit Lion Corey Smith especially dicey.

Mother Nature isn't quite finished with winter.  A storm that dumped about ten inches of snow on southern states Sunday flowed into the northeast this morning.  At least a foot and perhaps 15 inches of snow could fall today from Virginia to New England.  Air traffic will probably be affected across the entire U.S.

A 12-hundred-acre wildfire in Bastrop County, Texas, is nearly contained.  The fire started when a tree fell on a power line.  The flames have destroyed 23 homes.  A dozen businesses are also gone, including a local favorite, The Wild Fire Cafe. 

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice starts her new job today.  She'll report for work at Stanford University in California, where she'll be a political science professor.  It's the same job she had before becoming National Security Adviser to President Bush during his first term in 1999 and Secretary of State during the second term.

Rihanna and Chris Brown are together again.  An insider has told "People" magazine the two are spending time together working on reconciliation.  Brown was recently accused of and charged with making criminal threats against Rihanna.  The charge was linked to an alleged altercation that left Rihanna battered.