OUTPUT AT 9:46 PM, SATURDAYM

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CURTIS GIRLS AND BOYS WIN STATE BASKETBALL TITLES

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By Bruce NolanSta� writer

With Republican presidential candidates’ date with Louisiana voters less than two weeks away, the state lies largely quiet, mostly untouched by televi-sions ads, robocalls or town-hall meetings that would signify Louisiana’s moment in the national presiden-tial conversation. Indeed, as state Republican Party Chairman Roger Villere Jr. noted recently, the election is so immi-nent that early voting opened on Saturday — a fact that astonished a group of business executives he addressed on Thursday.

“I don’t think people are really engaged in the presidential process at this point,” said state Rep. Tony Ligi of Kenner, a Republican working with Mitt Romney.

PAGE: A-1 Sunday, March 11, 2012 Zone: Metro

7NN01NMA0311

CLASSIFIED F-6

DEATHS B-2

EDITORIAL B-4

LIVING D

LOUISIANA A-3

MONEY E

NATIONAL A-10

PUZZLES D-4

SPORTS C

TELEVISION D-6

TRAVEL D-8

WASHINGTON A-4

175th YEAR

NO. 47

SUNDAY

METRO EDITION • $2.00BREAKING NEWS AT NOLA.COMBREAKING NEWS AT S U N D A Y , M A R C H 1 1 , 2 0 1 2

WEATHER See C-12

STORMS POSSIBLEHIGH

73°LOW

64°

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By Rebecca MowbrayBusiness writer

The health settlement negotiated last weekend between BP and attorneys for private plaintiffs in the oil spill litigation makes tens of thousands of new people eligible for care and compensation from the disaster, and it could make a meaningful difference in the delivery of mental and physical health care in small coastal communities.

But law professors, environmental health spe-cialists and health care practitioners say it all

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But settlement details pending for oil, dispersant sicknesses

BP money in pipeline for people who got ill

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By Je� Adelsonand Bill Barrow

Capital bureau

BATON ROUGE — Lawmakers will convene Monday in the Capi-tol to begin a legislative session to consider what Gov. Bobby Jin-dal described Friday as “a very aggressive agenda” that includes overhauling the state’s education and pension systems and approv-ing a state budget.

Lawmakers have fi led more than 1,500 bills to consider dur-ing the session, which starts at noon and, by law, must end by 6 p.m. on June 4.

While Jindal’s proposals will generate the most intense atten-tion, a panoply of other bills could surface as lightning rods, from a measure that would allow the governor to send the National Guard to New Orleans when the murder rate spikes to proposals that would increase the fi nes for texting while driving and more strictly regulate traffi c cameras.

Other bills less likely to stir the public imagination, but with the potential to have lasting

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Jindal pushes ‘aggressive agenda’

Schools, pensions to stir debate in B.R.

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No visits, ads as primary nears

In Louisiana, it’s all quiet on the GOP front

2012LEGISLATIVE

SESSION

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By Katy ReckdahlSta� writer

A few months ago, voices in her head command-ed Yolande Wells to sit in the middle of a busy Chef Menteur Highway.

“I kneeled and paid hom-age to Abraham. God asked me to,” she said.

Wells, 60, was diagnosed 20 years ago as bipolar. Since then, she’s weathered a span of several years without a major crisis, but she’s gone through some rocky times. A decade ago, her older sister, Berilyn Wells, went to the coroner’s offi ce nine times to commit Yolande because she posed a danger to herself.

But now, Berilyn Wells fears that any attempt to commit or hospitalize her sister will be harder “because they’re cutting beds.”

Safety net for mental illness gets more cuts

Algiers ferry connects east, west

banks imesOurA-7

R AC E F O R P R E S I D E N T

Santorum chips away at Romney’s lead with win in Kansas caucuses,A-2

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By James VarneySta� writer

here are a dozen defend-ers on the Saints’ roster who were with the team between 2009 and 2011, the period in which the NFL claims the team ran a bounty scheme paying fi nancial bonuses for plays that sidelined opponents for all or part of a game.

All told, between 22 and 27 Saints defenders were “willing and enthusiastic participants” in the

scheme that offered somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500, with more during the playoffs, according to the NFL’s report. The league’s fi gures make it a near mathemati-cal certainty some players still with the club were involved.

NFL salaries are notorious-ly difficult to pinpoint and deci-pher, but information available to The Times-Picayune shows New Orleans paid those 12 players still with the team — defensive line-men Jeff Charleston, Sedrick Ellis

Insatiable need to compete could explain Saints bounty suspects’ big risks for meager rewards

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Many already fall throughits tattered threads

Chackbay resident Jorey Danos says he got sick after skimming oil for four months through the Vessels of Op-portunity pro-gram. He says he has piercing headaches and a persistent cough and has lost 50 pounds in four months.CHRIS GRANGER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

Safety Roman Harper puts the heat on Brett Favre dur-ing the NFC cham-pionship on Jan. 24, 2010. In the NFL’s pervasive wagering culture among play-ers, friendly bets can be common, such as when players’ fa-vorite college teams square off.SCOTT THRELKELD / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE ARCHIVE

BEGINS MONDAY

REMEMBER TO SPRING FORWARD?

DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME BEGAN AT 2 A.M.

. .. YEARS

SPORTS

$15 MILLION

MONEY CUT from mental-health services in New Orleans as of Monday

AT ANY COST

See LEGISLATURE, A-12

‘PART OF IT IS THE COMPETITIVE NATURE OF THESE PEOPLE, BUT

IT’S MORE ABOUT THE PRIZES THEY COOK UP FOR EACH OTHER. ...

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY AT ALL.’ ALBERT CANNELLA, a Tulane professor

ers on the Saints’ roster who were with the team between 2009 and 2011, the period in which the NFL claims the team ran a bounty scheme paying fi nancial bonuses for plays that sidelined opponents for all or part of a game.T

See BOUNTY, A-16

Louisiana GOP

primary

March 24

See GOP, A-3

See MENTAL HEALTH, A-18

See BP, A-14