Authorities in Iberia Parish and LA State Police are looking for Paul Stanley Collins Jr. who is accused of shooting to death his estranged wife - the mother of his two children.

The government is doling out $20-million to farmers in eight states, including Louisiana, to create habitats for migratory birds whose usual Gulf wintering spots may be fouled by the massive BP oil spill.

Louisiana is entering the grip of a summer heat wave for the weekend and into next week.

Some six-thousand runners are in New Orleans this weekend. The Mardi Gras Marathon is Sunday. The event is among the oldest road races in the nation. The course stretches between City Park and Audubon Park and includes the French Quarter and Superdome.

The Louisiana Association of Educators hopes to convince lawmakers to pass another across-the-board pay increase for teachers and all other public school employees during the upcoming regular legislative session. Louisiana public school teacher salaries were bumped up to the Southern Regional Average last year, but Joyce Haynes, president of L-A-E says the S-R-A was based on 2005 numbers. During his campaign, Governor Jindal spoke of a "value-added" pay raise for teachers. Haynes says the L-A-E wants to define "value added" so that teachers who advance their own education can be rewarded.

State Police say a man suspected in a Saturday hit-and-run was shot as he came to his door wielding a shotgun.  Troop A spokesman Johnnie Brown says 54-year-old Carson Arnett was shot in the groin after he pointed the shotgun at Trooper Arman Douglas, who, along with Trooper Paul Charles, had gone to the residence in the 32-hundred block of Madeira Drive to question Arnett about the accident.  The hit-and-run took place around 11 a.m. on I-10 at Bluebonnet Boulevard.  Brown says troopers knocked on Arnett's door after it was determined that a maroon Dodge Caravan parked in his driveway was involved in the wreck but had left the scene.  Brown says Arnett's injuries were non-life-threatening, and neither trooper was injured.  Brown says Douglas, who fired the shot that wounded Arnett, will be placed on paid administrative duty until the investigation into the shooting is concluded.  Arnett faces charges of attempted murder of a police officer, hit and run, and careless operation.    

Here's a look at stories making national news.

A new national poll finds former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is currently the Republican with the chance of defeating President Obama in 2012. 

Arizona has filed an appeal in the federal lawsuit which resulted in an injunction against portions of the state's new immigration law.