AP - Barry Cowsill, a member of the popular 1960s singing family The Cowsills, was found dead on a wharf nearly four months after he disappeared when Hurricane Katrina flooded the city. He was 51.

AP - Since Hurricane Katrina, Jolie Bonck has been living in a FEMA trailer in front of her flood-wrecked house.

AP - The Bush administration handed out the first hurricane relief payments to schools and colleges, awarding more than $250 million on Thursday to four Gulf Coast states as part of a $1.6 billion in recovery aid.

Reuters - New Orleans residents and supporters angrily confronted demolition workers in one of the city's hardest-hit neighborhoods on Thursday amid heated debate over the proposed razing of houses destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

USATODAY.com - For President Bush, 2005 was a year of growing public impatience with the Iraq war, angst over gas prices, devastation from Hurricane Katrina, the collapse of his Social Security plan and a firestorm over domestic spying. Now he faces a challenge that's upended the best-laid plans of his predecessors. His sixth year in office.

AP - Gov. Kathleen Blanco joined federal officials Thursday to celebrate the reopening of a major bridge over Lake Pontchartrain that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

AP - Tropical Storm Zeta became less organized early Friday, but forecasters were trying to determine if it broke the record for the storm to last the longest into January.

USATODAY.com - For President Bush, 2005 was a year of growing public impatience with the Iraq war, angst over gas prices, devastation from Hurricane Katrina, the collapse of his Social Security plan and a firestorm over domestic spying. Now he faces a challenge that's upended the best-laid plans of his predecessors. His sixth year in office.

AP - The city says 5,500 buildings may need to be torn down because hurricane-related damage has made them unsafe, but many black residents worried that their homes will be demolished without their consent.

Reuters - Tropical Storm Zeta weakened into a depression on Friday and appeared likely to dissipate, bringing a final and overdue end to the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, U.S. forecasters said.

AP - A major bridge over Lake Pontchartrain that was torn apart by Hurricane Katrina reopened fully to traffic just before dawn Friday.

AP - The Bush administration handed out the first hurricane relief payments to schools and colleges, awarding more than $250 million on Thursday to four Gulf Coast states as part of a $1.6 billion in recovery aid.

USATODAY.com - For President Bush, 2005 was a year of growing public impatience with the Iraq war, angst over gas prices, devastation from Hurricane Katrina, the collapse of his Social Security plan and a firestorm over domestic spying. Now he faces a challenge that's upended the best-laid plans of his predecessors. His sixth year in office.

AP - Hurricane Katrina evacuees around the nation who faced a Jan. 7 deadline for checking out of their government-funded hotel rooms have received a reprieve: Federal officials will keep paying for the rooms beyond that date as they iron out issues arising from a class-action lawsuit.

AP - It's lunchtime and Elvira and Nick are having a quick bite, then it's back to an afternoon of swimming in their big glass house on the Mississippi River.

Reuters - New Orleans could take three to five years to regain its population of nearly half a million before Hurricane Katrina, Mayor Ray Nagin said on Sunday, in a more optimistic view than some predictions the historic jazz city may never fully recover.

AP - The city agreed Friday to wait two more weeks before beginning the wholesale demolition of thousands of storm-damaged homes while a federal judge decides whether to hear a challenge from community activists.

AP - Tropical Storm Zeta fell apart Friday in the open Atlantic, finally bringing the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season to an end.

AP - With the city in dire financial shape because of Hurricane Katrina, companies are lining up for the opportunity to become the first-ever corporate sponsors of New Orleans' Mardi Gras celebration.

Reuters - Tropical Storm Zeta weakened and began to break apart on Friday, bringing a final and overdue end to the costliest and busiest Atlantic hurricane season on record, U.S. forecasters said.

Reuters - The first Carnival season since Hurricane Katrina officially began in New Orleans on Friday, despite objections from people who say it is too soon to throw a Mardi Gras party in the battered city.

Reuters - The razing of the most severely storm-damaged houses in New Orleans will not begin for at least two weeks after a federal judge on Friday ordered that the proposed demolition process undergo more legal scrutiny, attorneys said.

AP - The paddlewheeler on which they had planned to take a Mississippi River excursion was being used to house Hurricane Katrina relief workers. But Phoenix residents Barbara Levy and Skip Hanson still had French Quarter antique stores and restaurants to enjoy.

AP - The Bush administration handed out the first hurricane relief payments to schools and colleges, awarding more than $250 million on Thursday to four Gulf Coast states as part of a $1.6 billion in recovery aid.

USATODAY.com - For President Bush, 2005 was a year of growing public impatience with the Iraq war, angst over gas prices, devastation from Hurricane Katrina, the collapse of his Social Security plan and a firestorm over domestic spying. Now he faces a challenge that's upended the best-laid plans of his predecessors. His sixth year in office.

AP - Hurricane Katrina evacuees around the nation who faced a Jan. 7 deadline for checking out of their government-funded hotel rooms have received a reprieve: Federal officials will keep paying for the rooms beyond that date as they iron out issues arising from a class-action lawsuit.

AP - It's lunchtime and Elvira and Nick are having a quick bite, then it's back to an afternoon of swimming in their big glass house on the Mississippi River.

AP - With the city in dire financial shape because of Hurricane Katrina, companies are lining up for the opportunity to become the first-ever corporate sponsors of New Orleans' Mardi Gras celebration.

AP - The city agreed Friday to wait two more weeks before beginning the wholesale demolition of thousands of storm-damaged homes while a federal judge decides whether to hear a challenge from community activists.

AP - Sixteen dolphins from a marine park that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina - including several that were swept out to the Gulf of Mexico and later rescued - have been moved to a resort in the Bahamas.