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Gun-arrest data raises questions about profiling
Last year, on Mardi Gras Day, New Orleans police made more gun arrests than any single day in at least 13 years, maybe more, according to arrest data kept on the City Council website, which only goes back that far. Officers arrested 40 people. Most were on Bourbon Street. More...
Formosa Plastics gets air permits back, but a few hurdles remain
Longtime residents of a historically Black community called Welcome, La. are not giving a welcoming response to their potential new neighbors: a massive petrochemical complex proposed for the banks of the Mississippi River in St. James Parish. In 2018, two miles from the proposed plant, retired schoolteacher Sharon Lavigne gathered...
Behind The Lens episode 229: ‘Backtracking on promises’
This week on Behind The Lens, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams ran on a progressive platform promising to do away with his predecessor’s aggressive tactics, but now, in an extraordinary move, his office has linked arms with prosecutors from newly elected Governor Jeff Landry’s office to handle cases instigated by the state police.
District Attorney Jason Williams will cede some New Orleans cases to state prosecutors. What does that mean for criminal justice in the city?
As Jason Williams campaigned for district attorney four years ago, he faced actual opponents. But he may have run hardest against someone who was not in the race — his would-be predecessor, District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro. Cannizzaro had held the office as the city’s top prosecutor since 2008, but...
Behind The Lens episode 228: ‘The river knows what to do’
This week on Behind The Lens, a massive project to restore marshland is underway in the Barataria Basin, an area that has lost over 276,000 acres of land in the past 90 years. In the space of a few days, Lafayette Academy was told it would close, then its fate was reversed, and parents and teachers are still trying to catch their breath.
Marshing Orders
Over the past six months, crews have laid nearly eight miles of pipe from West Pointe à la Hache to an area of open water on the west bank of Plaquemines Parish. The crew’s work doesn’t immediately look unusual: pipeline construction is a familiar process in this part of oil-rich Louisiana. For decades now, crews have torn into marsh to build pipelines.
After herky-jerky process, Lafayette Academy may stay open.
When it comes to Lafayette Academy, Robin Wright has some real history. “It’s a family school,” she said. “Everyone went here. My daughters went here – they’re grown. My older grandsons went here.”. Her granddaughters are enrolled there now. Wright thinks it’s a great experience...
Down the Drain
The Lower 9 senior center – based in Andrew “Pete” Sanchez Multi-Service Center – has the highest participation rate of any senior center in New Orleans. It’s a must-do stop for candidates running for any office. Seniors eat hot meals and compete at the center’s two tables reserved for cards: one for spades and one for pitty-pat.
Behind The Lens episode 227: ‘There’s no real public oversight’
This week on Behind The Lens, learn about our lawsuit against the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice. The Tulane First Amendment Law Clinic has taken on the case to get public records, related to a $9.5 million emergency contract for private security staff, that OJJ has refused to provide after months of requests.
The Lens: Why we’re suing the Office of Juvenile Justice for public records
On Monday, The Lens filed suit against the Louisiana Office of Juvenile Justice, demanding public records tied to a $9.5 million private contract for security staff. Let me explain why we took this serious, but altogether necessary, action. As an independent news organization, one of our jobs is to ensure...
Matthew Kincaid: Strategies that Cede Power to Students
In his new book, Freedom Teaching, Matthew Kincaid tells teachers how to empower their students to take control of their learning. “Control is an illusion,” he writes. “Creating a classroom culture in which you are the only source of knowledge is like being a personal trainer who just lifts weights in front of his clients.”
On Saturday, MLK Parade Again Spans St. Claude Avenue
Here it comes again this year: a birthday parade for Martin Luther King Jr. that returns to its traditional route: St. Claude Avenue, starting at 11 a.m. today (Saturday, January 13). The parade’s announcement came late from organizers at Friends of King School District, who finally resolved parade-permit security a...
Behind The Lens episode 226: ‘The means to fight this’
This week on Behind The Lens, over ten years ago the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit against the then sheriff, citing several deaths to illustrate that his office had a “policy and practice of denying access to constitutionally adequate mental-health services.”. That lawsuit eventually resulted in a...
How Phase III came to be
This story was produced in partnership with the Garrison Project, an independent, nonpartisan organization addressing the crisis of mass incarceration and policing. Mayors agreed to it, opposed it, agreed to it again, and opposed it again. Multiple working groups met to produce lengthy reports on it, and possible alternatives. Advocates tried to stop its construction by blocking zoning permits, funding allocations, and attempting to influence FEMA environmental-impact statements. They camped out in front of City Hall, organized a letter-writing campaign to a federal judge and held rallies and second lines in opposition. A reform candidate ran for sheriff touting her disapproval of it — and won.
‘Auld Lens Syne’ – Top 2023 stories
In the 7th Ward, the Buttermilk Drop – one of the city’s top picks for home-delivery breakfasts – scrambled to pay its December bills, after a hacker switched banking information linked to the bakery’s Uber Eats account. In September, four months after the death of Calvin...
Behind The Lens episode 225: ‘If there’s an accident, it’d be hard to evacuate’ ‘
This week on Behind The Lens, Venture Global’s tax incentives for its LNG export terminal in Plaquemines Parish are eye popping, and some historians and others see parallels with a 100 year old sulfur mining company which built, then nearly destroyed, the town of Port Sulphur. A rare and...
Behind The Lens episode 224: ‘Holding power to account’
This week on Behind The Lens, accusations, and lawsuits, are flying in St. John The Baptist Parish, as the Banner sisters, and their organization, the Descendants Project, work to stop the council from skirting the law and rezoning land in favor of Greenfield Louisiana, which is hoping to build a large grain elevator on a site it owns in the parish.
Public outcry against carbon capture in Louisiana growing
Communities of people across south Louisiana say that they want to protect themselves from what they consider to be a risky and possibly dangerous prospect of having tons of carbon dioxide injected underground to reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. A state legislative task force is now exploring the...
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