Advocate staff photo by TRAVIS SPRADLING
Le'Alan Banks, 17, left, and Dalvin Coates, 15, right, students at Baton Rouge's Career Academy, paddle a kayak Thursday on Greenwood Lake during the Louisiana Outdoors Outreach Programs outdoor excursion at BREC's Greenwood Park in Baker.

Advocate Staff Photo by TRAVIS SPRADLING
Jamee Powers,15; Keyontaye Meariday,15; and Deja Kerlegan,16, students at Baton Rouge's Career Academy, laugh as their team-building exercise, walking using linked boards as 'shoes,' breaks down during the Louisiana Outdoors Outreach Programs outdoor excursion on Thursday at BREC's Greenwood Community Park in Baker.

Advocate staff photo by TRAVIS SPRADLING
Sharon Warning, owner of D&F Concessions, hangs stuffed animal prizes in a balloon dart booth at the four-day Zachary Arts & Music Festival. The fair opened Thursday and continues through Sunday at BREC's Zachary Community Park, and the city's adjacent Zachary Youth Park. Live music, children's activities, food, games and carnival rides from Houma-based Lowery Carnival Company are all part of the activities. More information about the events is available at www.zfest.us.

Advocate staff photo by LIBBY ISENHOWER
The Scotlandville Magnet High School basketball team was presented with medals by the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board on Thursday afternoon for winning the class 5-A state championship last week. Front row, from left: Thaddeus Fortune, Turrell Pierre, DeShawn Washington, Valshawn Brown, Vincent Sanders, Hendrick Foster, Lamarcus Lee, Head Coach Carlos Sample, Assistant Coach Marcus Bradford. Back row, from left: Tre'Lun Banks, Assistant Coach Jeremy Noah, Jared Sam and Damien Jones.

Advocate Staff Photo by HEATHER MCCLELLAND
LSU's Rheagan Courville scored 9.9 on her floor routine during the meet against Alabama in the PMAC Friday, Feb. 24, 2012. Courville took first in all around champion.

Advocate staff photo by RICHARD ALAN HANNON
Episcopal High School Art Club members, from left, Jordan Smith, Addie Ritter and Jennifer Hartmann, work together to paint one of four Angola inmate-made Adirondack-style rocking chairs that will be given to the residents of St. James Place retirement community.

Advocate staff photo by RICHARD ALAN HANNON
Will Degraw, crew leader with Quality Court Industries, works Wednesday to repaint the tennis courts at Southern University. Degraw said it takes 25 gallons of what the manufacturer calls Delta Blue paint to surface one court.

Advocate staff photo by PATRICK DENNIS
Feeding time
Lane Plauche, 5 and his sister Anna, 8, feed the ducks Tuesday at Campus Lake on the LSU campus Tuesday. Their mother, Mimi Plauche, said they save old bread and regularly go to the lake to feed the ducks.

Advocate staff photo by ARTHUR D. LAUCK
All Smiles
Elizabeth Singleton, 4, makes her way around the Trike-A-Thon track on Wednesday at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School. The school's pre-K and kindergarten students held their annual Trike-A-Thon for St. Jude Hospital. More than 100 students participated in the event and the school hoped to raise more than $4,000 for St. Jude.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG
Kentucky’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and teammate Anthony Davis, shown defending against LSU’s Andre Stringer in the SEC tournament, lead the Wildcats into the NCAA tournament as the overall top seed.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG
LSU guard Anthony Hickey goes up for two over after a steal over Kentucky guard Marquis Teague and LSU forward Johnny O'Bryant III. Hickey, a freshman, is expected to be a key player for the Tigers next season.

Advocate staff photo by ADAM LAU
Quality time
Joshua Rucker, left, and Megan Rucker, right, push their daughter Naomi Rucker, 2, on a swing Tuesday at Jambalaya Park in Gonzales.

Advocate staff photo by RICHARD ALAN HANNON
Sing Your Heart Out
Megan Barrera sings "Quando Men Vo" from the opera "La Bohème" Tuesday during Opera Louisiane's "Opera Everywhere in the Square!" in North Boulevard Town Square downtown. In the background, Alex Chapman and his wife Alisia, center, of Ville Platte, and Jennifer Graphia Moree, of Baton Rouge, listen to Barrera. The non-profit opera group is celebrating its fifth anniversary.

Advocate staff photo by BILL FEIG
Break from work
Taylor Jordan enjoys lunch Tuesday outside the State Capitol. Jordan, an LSU freshman from Baton Rouge majoring in mass communication, is working as a House Page in the Legislature, which convened Monday.

Advocate staff photo by TRAVIS SPRADLING
Steven Vo, 12, practices his handwriting. Central Intermediate School teachers make time in their classroom days to teach cursive.

Advocate staff photo by BRYAN TUCK
Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania speaks to a group of supporters Tuesday night at the Lafayette Hilton after winning the Republican Party presidential primaries in Alabama and Mississippi.

Advocate staff photo by RICHARD ALAN HANNON
Courtney Melancon, bottom left, Margo Baker, second row, second from left, TJ Jones, center, and members of the LSU Lady Tigers basketball team react Monday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Centger as their selection to the NCAA women's basketball tournament is anounced. The Lady Tigers earned a No. 5 seed in the Kinston Regional and will play San Diego State in the first round about 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the PMAC.

Advocate staff photo by RICHARD ALAN HANNON
LSU fans, from left, Danna Fuselier, Sue Hodges and Betty Allen cheer as the Lady Tigers take to the Pete Maravich Assembly Center court Monday before the start of the NCAA women's basketball tournament selections announcement.

Advocate staff photo by ADAM LAU
Blaise Bergeron, seated right, chats Tuesday with classmate Tonaia Brown, second from left, while freshman English teacher Kadee Dupuis, standing, helps students Logan Marchand, left, and Kristina Fontenot at St. Amant High School. Dupuis also runs Gator 2 Gator, a program that trains older students to mentor freshmen as part of the freshman academy.

Advocate photo by APRIL BUFFINGTON
Angelo J. Guarino points out his father's name to his wife, Myra Guarino, at the 2012 Louisiana Fallen Firefighter Memorial Ceremony on Saturday outside the Office of the State Fire Marshal.

Advocate staff photo by ADAM LAU
Heather Lea, Lisa McClain, Chad Waguespack and Brandy Hutton, from left, of the Ghosts of Louisiana Paranormal Society, explore the Marston House in Clinton on Feb. 25 as part of their investigation into possible paranormal activity in the deserted former plantation home.

Advocate staff photo by LIBBY ISENHOWER
Breast cancer survivors release balloons Saturday morning after the survivors' parade at the Susan G. Komen Race for a Cure.

Advocate Staff Photo by TRAVIS SPRADLING
Artist Holly Stone-Barker, left, talks about the materials she uses to create her collage art works with LSU Public Relations Campaigns class members, left to right, Unique Mason, of New Orleans; Alyssa Bologna, of Dallas; Lindsay Nunez, of Slidell; and Courtney Rachal, of Luling. The students visited the LSU Museum of Art during its 'Second Saturday: March Memory Madness' event.

Advocate staff photo by PATRICK DENNIS
LSU's Chris Sciambra is safe at first base as Notre Dame's Trey Mancini can't catch the ball in the second inning of LSU's 7-1 loss to Notre Dame on Sunday in LSU's Alex Box Stadium.