STARKE, Fla. (AP) – Florida on Tuesday became the first state in nearly a decade to carry out two executions in a single day, the last an 80-year-old man who was the second-oldest inmate known to receive a lethal injection in modern U.S. history.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Tropical Storm Bertha formed Monday evening in the Gulf of Mexico south of the Florida Panhandle as it drifts erratically toward populated coastal areas bearing a threat of heavy rain, storm surge and damaging wind gusts, forecasters say.

CAIRO (AP) – After calling off a fresh round of strikes against Iran, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that new talks to wind down the war would start Monday, even as Iranian officials claimed their diplomatic efforts were focused on neighboring nations.

Tropical Storm Bertha strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday but was expected to weaken as it chugs closer to the U.S., potentially bringing coastal flooding and heavy rain from the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana.

Louisiana’s attorney general was indicted Thursday over accusations she threatened the jobs of New Orleans leaders who fought a Republican-led overhaul of local courts in the heavily Democratic city.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – President Donald Trump’s preferred candidate for U.S. Senate in Louisiana is looking to clinch the GOP nomination Saturday and deliver another win for the president, who has sought to replace Republicans who cross him with hand-picked loyalists.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – The rapper Mystikal, who received multiple Grammy nominations in the early 2000s, will serve 20 years in prison for raping a woman at his Louisiana home in 2022.

After a blitz of congressional redistricting ahead of the midterm elections, a national battle for partisan control is about to enter a new phase that could affect representation on everything from tax rates to social safety net programs, teacher salaries, housing regulations and local road repairs.