| By Drew Broach | Deputy metro editor
THE CANNIZZARO CONNECTION: The Bayou Mama Bears have nothing to do with Goldilocks but quite a bit to do with Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry. They're members of a new political advocacy group allied with the putative gubernatorial candidate in opposition to such matters as public health mask and vaccine mandates and the federally enforced consent decree over the New Orleans Police Department. Among its founders is Laura Rodrigue, a former Orleans Parish prosecutor whose father, Leon Cannizzaro, is Landry's top criminal deputy and a former Orleans district attorney.
THE IKE DIKE: Spain, France, the Republic of Texas, the Confederacy and the United States have all taken turns building coastal defenses to protect Galveston Bay. Now the Corps of Engineers is giving it a try, with the $30 billion "Ike Dike" initiative to keep the Gulf of Mexico from swamping Galveston, charging up the Houston Ship Channel and flooding the fourth most populous city in the United States. The price tag dwarfs the $14 billion that was spent on post-Katrina protection for the New Orleans area, but in both places, the defenses might not be strong enough to withstand the rising seas and fiercer storms in this era of climate change.
KNOCK KNOCK: There's life yet in the ivory-billed woodpecker. So says a group of ornithologists from Project Principalis and the National Aviary, asserting in a new report that the all-but-extinct bird was spotted in Louisiana as recently as October. With a distinct black and white plumage and ivory bill, the woodpecker has long captured the public's attention and was, in part, the inspiration for Walter Lantz’ “Woody the Woodpecker” character in 1940. By then, its population had already dwindled, largely because of the destruction of its forest habitat and increased pursuit from hunters and collectors; a nationwide search in the 1930s found just 22 of the species in Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana; in 1944, the bird was seen in Madison Parish near Tallulah.
Thanks for starting your Sunday with us. Check NOLA.com for more news throughout the day. D.B. | 
