NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the state ended months of speculation Tuesday by announcing plans to build two new hospitals near downtown New Orleans in an effort to shore up the city’s ailing health care system. Government and business leaders lauded the huge, post-Katrina redevelopment effort as critical to their efforts to revive the local economy and embark on the creation of a biomedical research corridor capable of competing with others nationwide.—-Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected]