| By Drew Broach | Deputy metro editor VIRUS IN THE VULNERABLE: As the calendar turned to the new year, Louisiana's nursing homes confronted a familiar foe: skyrocketing coronavirus cases among residents and staff, worsening an already dire staffing crisis and creating worry among advocates. The explosion in new cases is striking: Louisiana's roughly 270 nursing homes have reported almost 1,000 new cases among residents in the past two weeks and more than 2,700 new cases among employees. Both numbers are more than six times what was reported in the last week of December, and represent some of the highest numbers at any time during the 22-month pandemic. FUNERAL FOR A VAMPIRE WRITER: The late Anne Rice, the New Orleans-born author of the beyond-popular 1976 novel “Interview with the Vampire” and several sequels, returned to her hometown Saturday afternoon. In a private funeral under dramatic purple-gray skies, with mist and occasional downpours, the acclaimed queen of contemporary Gothic literature was placed in a stately, neoclassical crypt at Lake Lawn Park. NEW NAMES: Streets in Old Mandeville bear the names of presidents and historic figures from the American and French revolutions. Now two of them will be named after Mandeville residents from far more recent times: a Tuskegee Airman and the first - and so far only - Black woman to wear a Mandeville police uniform. Thanks for starting this chilly Sunday with us. Check the latest news all day on NOLA.com. D.B. | 