BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Warning to any state agency trying to plug a budget gap with price hikes on services to citizens: tread carefully — or maybe just reconsider altogether.

Fee increases take a hefty two-thirds vote of lawmakers, and many of the legislators don't seem all that interested in offsetting Louisiana's money woes by charging more to residents.

An unexpected 70 percent jump in the price of a state driver's licenses enacted by the Jindal administration set off a firestorm of complaints from lawmakers, and now they're threatening to repeal the price hike and create a $13 million budget hole for the Department of Public Safety.

The criticism could chill any efforts to boost other fees in state agencies as a way to avoid cuts to services. It also could be read as a looming threat to Gov. Bobby Jindal's proposal that lawmakers give up their authority over college tuition and fee increases.

"I think it will begin to feed on itself. You get one big, heated battle over one fee, like a $15 (driver's license) fee, that will bleed off onto the other fees," said Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton.

Maybe it's that the Jindal administration shouldn't have started with a price hike that hits so many, more than 2 million drivers in the state. Or maybe the administration shouldn't have started with a boost so high, nearly doubling the cost of a driver's license. Or maybe it wouldn't have mattered where the debate began at all.

But lawmakers say the atmosphere for fee increases has grown toxic since the $15 price jump in the cost of a Louisiana driver's license. Legislators say they've been battered by criticism in their district, as residents call the increase inappropriate in the current economy.

A new or renewed basic license now costs $36.50 for four years, under the price hike set by the Louisiana State Police two weeks ago. The charge to drivers is nearly the highest in the South, second only to the $48 cost of a driver's license in Florida.

Sen. Joe McPherson, D-Woodworth, referenced Jindal's anti-tax, scrub-the-budget rhetoric.

"We had a budget problem, and we talked about, 'We're going to tighten our budgets like hardworking American families.' And state police, rather than cutting its budget by $13 million, decided, 'We're going to impose a tax or a fee on driver's licenses,'" said McPherson, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee.

At least two lawmakers have proposed bills to reverse the price increase. Jindal's budget proposal for next year includes the license cost increase, so scrapping the price hike would create a hole in the budget and force lawmakers to make other cuts to rebalance it.

Col. Mike Edmonson, head of the Department of Public Safety that oversees the state motor vehicles office, said the cost increase covers a federal mandate requiring the state to participate in a national driver's license registry. Edmonson said the system helps protect against identity theft and fraud.

The justification didn't seem to make much headway with many of the members of the House and Senate transportation committees, when Edmonson was asked to defend the price hike last week.

"There are many people who have already lost their jobs, and there are many people who are already struggling," said Rep. Barbara Norton, D-Shreveport. She added, "I just don't see how I can go back to my district and say, 'I know you all can afford this.'"

That argument is likely to be repeated for other fee proposals as well, including Jindal-backed legislation to let the state's public colleges substantially raise what they charge their students if colleges meet certain performance standards.

Adley said he's still undecided about that proposal, sought by university leaders around the state as a way to offset some of the recent rounds of hefty budget cuts.

"The tuition thing is going to be very difficult. I want to do what I can to help my universities on the one hand, but on the other hand I don't just like this idea of carte blanche feeing people to death," he said.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Melinda Deslatte covers the state Capitol for The Associated Press.

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Two days before attending his first Oscars ceremony, New Orleans actor and "Hurt Locker" star Anthony Mackie was playing it cool.

The New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts grad admitted being excited about attending the Academy Awards on behalf of his nine-times-nominated film, of course, but there was an easy, restrained quality to his voice as he said it.

"It's been a whirlwind," he said, sincerely but nonchalantly. "We definitely didn't know what to expect when signing on to all of this, but 'Hurt Locker' has kind of come full circle, so we're just riding the wave."

By Oscars Sunday night, under the glare of the flashbulbs lining the red carpet in front of Hollywood's Kodak Theatre, that facade began melting away.

"I'm too excited," he told red-carpet host Robert Osborne in a near-shout upon arriving at the mob-scene that is a pre-Oscar tradition. "My first Academy Awards ceremony. The Saints won the Super Bowl. It couldn't get any better."

A little bit more than three and a half hours later, it got better.

TV cameras watched as he leapt from his seat and lifted co-star Brian Geraghty off the ground in an enthusiastic embrace. The cameras watched as Mackie and Geraghty, along with co-star and best actor nominee Jeremy Renner, rushed the stage. As director Kathryn Bigelow accepted the movie's sixth Oscar of the night, the three men stood behind her, their arms around each other's shoulders — brothers in arms — and beamed and hooted and reveled in the moment.

Yeah, it's been a whirlwind all right, and a long road from the 30-year-old Mackie's youth in New Orleans' 7th Ward.

"It was a quintessential New Orleans childhood," he said. "Played in my school band from elementary to high school. Went to NOCCA (and Warren Easton Senior High), went fishing in City Park — a typical New Orleans childhood."

But he wasn't exactly a typical kid. He could act, this one. After NOCCA, it was on to Juilliard and a string of roles that earned him notice on the New York stage. Just like that, a film career was born, bringing praise nearly every step of the way, in films such as "Half Nelson" and another best picture winner, "Million Dollar Baby."

Then came "The Hurt Locker," a little film about a big subject, shot in the scorching Jordanian desert about three miles from the Iraq border.

"It was twice as intense (making the film) as it is watching it," Mackie said. "It was just so hot and so unpredictable. ... But we had a good time — we tried to have as much of a good time as we could. We had a lot of Iraqi refugees working on the film, and they really gave us the insight of what was going on at the time of the war in Iraq."

What was really unpredictable is that their little film caught on with critics while hitting the film-festival circuit in late 2008 and early 2009. "Nobody expected it," Mackie said. "We knew we were all there for the right reasons and to make a good film, but nobody knew it would be accepted the way it has been. It's truly been a surprise for everybody involved."

As much as critics have gushed about the film — it has earned a score of 94 on the movie-review aggregator Metacritic.com, and a 91 percent "fresh" rating at RottenTomatoes.com — audiences have shied from it, as they have from most movies dealing with the war in Iraq. Worldwide, the film made just $16 million — $100 million less than "Alice in Wonderland" made in just its opening weekend, and almost $2 billion less than James Cameron's "Avatar," its major competition at the Oscars, has grossed to date.

"It definitely says a lot at this stage in my career to be going to the Oscars for a film that's nominated for best picture, and (with) a co-star that is nominated for best actor," Mackie said. "It says a lot for everything we put into the film and the relationships that we made making the film."

As evidenced by their Oscar-night pose on the Kodak Theatre stage, those relationships only strengthened as awards season had the movie's stars tuxing up nearly every other week to collect more hardware. "It's funny when you get to see the same group of people over and over again, you instantly become cohorts, you instantly become friends, because you realize you're all on the same path," he said.

The awards season commotion only adds to an already busy time for Mackie. This summer, he co-stars with Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in Universal Pictures' big-budget sci-fi romance "The Adjustment Bureau," based on a Philip K. Dick story. Before that, he played seminal New Orleans jazzman Buddy Bolden in the biopic "Bolden!," shot partially in New Orleans but which has yet to land a distribution deal. He also continues working to get a passion project off the ground, a movie about barrier-breaking Olympic athlete Jesse Owens, which Mackie will produce and star in.

And just three nights before the Oscars, he opened playwright Martin McDonagh's new Broadway play — "A Behanding in Spokane" — with Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell. That kept him in New York until the morning of the Oscars, when he hopped a cross-country flight to Hollywood for Sunday night's show. Monday morning, it was back to New York.

To put it simply, he said: "It's been a whirlwind adventure."

Despite it all, Mackie's still a New Orleanian through and through. Although he moved to New York some years ago to focus on his film and stage career, his family still lives in New Orleans. Two years ago, he said, he bought his own place here.

"When I'm not working, I'm in New Orleans," he said, calling from New York. "I keep my place here because I do most of my work out of New York. So when I'm not here (in New York), I'm in New Orleans. When I'm not in New Orleans, I'm here."

Whether or not he's working, you can find him in New Orleans on Saints game days. He's a season-ticket holder and a passionate fan — so much so that he flies in for every home game.

It was Mackie, in fact, who was responsible for New England Patriots fan and "Adjustment Bureau" co-star Damon wearing a Saints jersey on a recent appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman." It was the result of a bet that would have seen Mackie trumpeting the Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady on "The View" if the 2010 NFL post-season had gone differently.

"(But) we have bragging rights," he said. "I don't care if we lose every game next season. I keep telling people you can't take it away from us until you take it away from us."

He's talking about the Lombardi Trophy, of course, not the Oscar, or that memorable Oscar-night moment when he and his "Hurt Locker" band of brothers got to take the stage.

That's something that can never be taken away.

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Information from: The Times-Picayune

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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — State Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret has received legislative backing for his plan to use $80 million in federal hurricane recovery money to compete for business projects.

The Legislature's joint budget committee agreed Friday to the proposal, which requires Moret to get the budget committee's approval for each individual project before it can receive money.

The $80 million would come from flexible federal block grant aid given to the state after Gustav and Ike struck in 2008, so the dollars must be spent in hurricane damaged parishes. The plan needs approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development before it is final.

Moret is seeking the money as other grant funds in his department shrink and the state faces budget shortfalls that threaten his department's ability to get new grant dollars.

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COLUMBIA, La. (AP) — The Army Corps of Engineers is assessed a levee cave-in along the Ouachita River near Columbia.

John Stringer, executive director of the Tensas Basin Levee District, said on Thursday the corps sent a team of engineers to measure and photograph the site, located near La. Highway 4 and U.S. 165 in Caldwell Parish.

Corps spokesman Kavanaugh Breazeale confirmed the assessment but said it would take days before the team is ready to make a recommendation.

Stringer is holding out hope that the corps will recognize the cave-in, along with others in the last six months, is a result of flooding.

Since the heavy flooding from November and December rains, Stringer tells The News-Star that he has recorded 11 cave-ins up and down the Ouachita River.

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West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Mike Cazes says David Williams, who now faces prosecution in the double homicide, had been held in jail since his Aug. 11 arrest on a count of simple rape.

Detective Kevin Cyrus said Williams was arrested Thursday after investigators received Crime Stoppers tips implicating him in the shooting and burning slayings of 27-year-old Drexel Swayzer and 25-year-old Jamey Williams, both of Baton Rouge.

Cyrus tells The Advocate that investigators are looking for at least two more people believed to have been involved in the slayings.

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Ejigiri started 2009 as dean of Southern's Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy of Urban Affairs and then briefly served as dean of the Graduate School.

Now, he is back at tenured professor status with a salary more than $30,000 less per year.

The lawsuit alleges the Southern Board and administration conspired to deprive Ejigiri of his legal equal protection because he is a native of Nigeria.

Southern's legal response argues that the pay cut is not a reduction in pay, but a reduction in work because moving from dean to professor entails switching from a 12-month employee to a nine-month employee.

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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A federal grand jury in Baton Rouge has indicted two Plaquemine men, charging them with illegally hunting alligators.

According to a release from the U.S. Justice Department, the indictment alleges that 43-year-old Clint P. Martinez and 47-year-old Michael A. Martinez acted as paid guides on sport alligator hunts. The indictment alleges that they were involved in the illegal possession, transportation and sale of alligators.

If convicted the men would face up to five years in prison for each of nine counts. The Justice Department announced the charges Wednesday. When called for comment, Michael Martinez said he had not been notified of the indictment. There was no phone number listed for Clint Martinez.

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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Students across Louisiana are preparing to take standardized tests and the state wants to help.

The Department of Education is offering help to parents and students through its tutoring hotline, which was initially launched in 2008. Over the last two years, the hotline has fielded about 200 calls per day.

The hotline is available, starting this week, between the hours of 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and continuing through April 9. Students in any grade level can call but the help specifically targets 4th and 8th grade students who participate in the state's LEAP test, which determines whether they are promoted to the next grade level.

The toll-free number is 1-877-453-2721.

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On the Net:

For additional resources, including test-taking tips for families, please visit www.louisianaschools.net.

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Hydraulic fracturing, also known as "fracking," has become widespread and unlocked extensive natural gas reserves, but the technique has raised concerns about environmental damage.

EPA said Thursday that its $1.9 million study, expected to be done by 2012, would look at the industry's affect on groundwater, surface water, human health and the environment more generally.

Drillers say the practice is safe, but concerns have mounted that unregulated fracking will taint drinking water, siphon off too much surface, deplete aquifers and produce briny wastewater that can kill fish.

©2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.