BY DOUG GRAHAM | Staff writer FEMA has suspended payments on at least five resilience projects in Louisiana — upgrading levees, installing flood structures, raising elevations and the like, Rep. Troy Carter, D-New Orleans, said Tuesday. The agency's administrator said FEMA needed to marshal its remaining dollars for efforts to neutralize the immediate threat to life in the event of another storm or wildfire or flood or tornado. Money for disaster relief is tied up in the ongoing fight among House Republicans over how best to fund the federal government next year. What happens if in the meantime a big storm hits and exhausts the Disaster Relief Fund? Carter asked. Hamid Ghassemi, former owner of the Import One used car dealership, has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars for masterminding the death of his ex-wife. District Judge Tarvald Smith on Tuesday called the murder-for-hire plot "the most diabolical, selfish, heartless, cowardly act imaginable.” Read more about the emotion-packed sentencing hearing here. Whoever invented cabbage ball probably came up with the name because the ball is about as big as a head of cabbage. When the balls are brand new, they’re reasonably hard, also like a cabbage. But after they’ve been batted a few times, they soften up, like a boiled cabbage. The game — played pretty much like baseball, with a pitcher, catcher, batters and fielders — was a schoolyard staple in the region for decades. And cabbage ball is still popular with many adults. | 