Choose your location
The Lens
Behind The Lens episode 233: ‘A Black hamlet’
This week on Behind The Lens, the planning commission of St. John the Baptist Parish voted to allow heavy industrial uses on a disputed plot on the parish’s rural West Bank after years of contentious debate. And under new Governor Jeff Landry, seismic changes to the criminal justice system...
Entergy’s quiet power moves
Lately, public scrutiny has shined a bright spotlight on Entergy New Orleans’ $1 billion Operation Gridiron. The New Orleans City Council has been rightfully cautious, given the fees that would hit residents and the recent evidence of company deceit in pitching their plans to the council. Operation Gridiron is...
New criminal-justice laws bring unforeseen consequences
As Louisiana’s regular legislative session begins, all eyes are on the state’s criminal justice policy, particularly the $26-million appropriations bill aimed at implementing stricter crime-prevention measures. We live in this community and see public safety as a priority within our city and state — and within the Orleans...
Senate Bill 8, which is now law, favors tyranny over justice
There is no greater tyranny than government taking a person’s liberty without the criminal process being a “fair fight.”. Public defenders are the nation’s firewall that protects the indigent accused from the “machinery of law enforcement.” But who should appoint the person to run public defense in Louisiana?
St. John Parish vote opens door to controversial grain terminal
On Monday evening — after years of debate and court battles — the planning commission of St. John the Baptist Parish finally voted to allow heavy industrial uses on a disputed plot on the parish’s rural West Bank. The large swath of agricultural land in Wallace, La....
Don’t jeopardize CPRA’s success
Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) has completed 157 projects, benefiting 55,000 acres of coastal wetlands, improving 370 miles of levees and constructing 70 miles of barrier islands. Now, we feel like its success may be in jeopardy, with the governor’s suggestion to move the restoration and protection...
Behind The Lens “Sunshine Week” episode 232: ‘It’s so powerful to see’
This week on Behind The Lens. The Louisiana Public Records Act, also known as Louisiana’s Sunshine Law, was enacted by the state’s legislature in 1952, assuring transparency and disclosure in government and business. At The Lens, we are celebrating Sunshine Week, highlighting the importance of this law in our ability to fulfill our mission.
Peanut in Limbo
For the past 11 months, New Orleans bandleader Thaddeus Ramsey has been living in Bermuda, near a vaunted island beach – against his will. It all started a year ago, when he withdrew $8,000 from his Chase bank account in mid-April, 2023, as he prepared for a trip to Bermuda that turned into a year of limbo.
New Orleans criminal-justice leaders grapple with entering the Landry era
Several of the measures passed during the whirlwind special session on crime at the state legislature in Baton Rouge, which wrapped up earlier this month, are raising concerns in New Orleans. The measures are likely to significantly increase the jail and prison populations throughout the state. On Monday, the City...
Climate-weary Mississippi River delegation lobbies for help in D.C.
Washington, D.C. — Mayors from 10 states along the Mississippi River gathered in D.C. last week to lobby for funding to protect and restore one of the world’s most important working rivers. The convening was part of the annual capital meeting of the Mississippi River Cities & Towns...
Behind The Lens episode 231: ‘We cannot allow it to fail’
This week on Behind The Lens, the community lost another great musician on Mardi Gras morning when Kerry “Fatman” Hunter was killed after he was struck by a car. And the Orleans Parish School Board voted last month to keep a beloved school open as a direct-run institution. Though the district has run a handful of schools in recent years, taking over in emergency situations, the Leah Chase School will be first direct-run intentionally opened in the post-Katrina era.
Join us March 21 to learn how to find public records related to criminal justice
Public records are citizens’ window into local government. In 2018, The Lens offered its first public-records workshop. Lens journalists were joined by attorney Scott Sternberg and gave a detailed explanation of how public records can be used to hold government agencies accountable. We explained what people can learn from government records, why they’re entitled to see them, and how to get them.
Senate Bill 3 most likely to affect teens charged with petty crimes.
The Louisiana legislature is poised to pass Senate Bill 3, which would lower the age to criminally prosecute children as adults to seventeen. This move will exclude all 17-year-olds from the juvenile justice system, no matter what they’re accused of. Issues such as a school-yard fight or shoplifting — while by no means trivial — are often a part of normal transient adolescent behavior, or at least they were.
Fatman Set the Pace
Around downtown New Orleans, drummer Kerry “Fatman” Hunter was basically kin to everyone. “He was family. Not by blood. But family,” said Glen Finister Andrews, who saw Hunter as a mentor. Partly in music, since Andrews also plays the snare drum. “But mostly, I learned about life,” Andrews said. “Life, more than the drum. Tips from here to there.”
Behind The Lens episode 230: ‘It’s easy to get lost in the fun of Mardi Gras’
This week on Behind The Lens, The Krewe of Choctaw throws plastic tomahawks and feathered headdresses, while their membership has no indigenous members, representing a harmful portrayal of culture to those of Choctaw heritage who continue to protest and call for change. Gun arrests spike during Mardi Gras and nearly...
Keeping a Lid on Carnival Trash
Without garbage trucks, St. Charles Avenue could not come to life during Carnival. A day of parades leave the street and neutral ground awash with trash. Street-cleaning crews carrying brooms and wheeling trash bins work into the night to clear the way for morning traffic on the avenue. There’s a...
Civil Rights Icon in a Gown
She began breaking barriers as soon as she appeared in the world, as the first Black infant born at the Sara T. Mayo Hospital on Jackson Avenue, then called the New Orleans Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children. These days, members of the Young Men Illinois Carnival Club call...
Shoebox Floats Everywhere
To top off her stunning, gold-sequin dress, Homer Plessy Community School Principal Lorraine Fedison-Winder grabbed a lavish pearl-and-pink-feather headpiece from her office desk. With her costume correct, the principal, in her gold and feathers, opened the front door and stepped onto North Tonti Street, the main entrance of the Plessy...
From Back-a-Town to St. Charles, on Foot.
When I was a kid, our Mardi Gras started at Grandma Lit’s house. She lived on South Rocheblave Street and MLK Boulevard, right across from the Calliope public-housing project. That’s my childhood. While there is a common thread, a festive air, that connects the entire city on Mardi Gras...
The Sting of Fake Tomahawks
As the rain fell last weekend, the bravest of parade-goers lined historic St. Charles Avenue. From down the street, the massive head of a dark-haired woman dressed in buckskin moved toward them. As if on cue, spectators dressed in warm hats, thick jackets and plastic ponchos cheered and raised their hands up.
The Lens
1K+
Posts
3M+
Views
The Lens is the New Orleans area’s first nonprofit, nonpartisan public-interest newsroom, dedicated to unique investigative and explanatory journalism.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.