| By DREW BROACH | Deputy metro editor |
REMAKING OUR STREETS: For teenagers cruising in the 1970s and 1980s, Gause Boulevard was a fully developed commercial corridor crammed with gasoline stations, fast food joints, strip malls and office buildings. It retains much of that character today — a bustling, if congested, hodgepodge of businesses — decades after Slidell’s population boom fizzled out. Now Gause’s future is an open question. LOST IN THE GULF: The Coast Guard found small parts of a helicopter that crashed into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday morning about 10 miles off the mouth of the Mississippi River's Southwest Pass. Four people were missing, including an offshore oil worker whose wife is pregnant. THE BIG BANG: The New Year’s Eve fireworks display on the Mississippi River is a New Orleans tradition, and planners are shooting for an especially memorable one to ring in 2023. On Saturday at midnight, technicians plan to fire off about 2,500 effects in rapid succession over 12½ minutes, including larger-than-normal shells that produce explosions with 1,000-foot diameters. Thanks for starting your Friday with Morning Headlines. Catch the latest news all day on NOLA.com. D.B. | 