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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...
Mississippi River and its mayors step onto international climate stage, at COP28
One in 12 people globally consume commodities grown in the Mississippi River basin, by some estimates. More than 60% of grain in the U.S. moves along the waterway to reach international markets. So, climate impacts — particularly recent swings between droughts and floods — hit the river hard.
Behind The Lens episode 223: ‘History and art everywhere you look’
This week on Behind The Lens, the New Orleans Police Department has begun implementing drones to fill gaps in recruitment. The eyes in the sky will be deployed strategically according to officials, but some privacy advocates are concerned. In some areas of the city, the iconic crescent and star water...
St. John Parish sued for shutting down critic, told not to rezone controversial site
Once again on Thursday, the lawyers for St. John the Baptist Parish Council and Greenfield Louisiana, LLC were called to defend their clients in front of a judge in Louisiana’s 40th Judicial District Court in Edgard, La. On the same day, they faced a new allegation – a First...
Judging a block by its covers
THIS WEEK, a Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans contractor in a neon-green vest quietly made his way through a block of Mid-City, lifting the round metal disks out of front sidewalks and yards to install new “smart” water meters. But as he left, one thing was...
Behind The Lens episode 222: ‘A safe space’
This week on Behind the Lens, the Buttermilk Drop scrambled to pay its December bills, after a hacker switched banking information linked to the Buttermilk Drop’s Uber Eats account and they feared $10,000 in lost revenue. The Orleans Parish School Board voted to close the Living School, a small...
Living School mom asks school board: ‘What’s more important, test scores or actual students?’
At the Living School, 16-year-old Jameson Phillips finally brought himself up to grade level. “It’s the first time in his life that he’s not behind in school,” said his grandmother, Shawn Bazile, who took in Jameson a few years ago. The key, she believes, has been the...
Bakery Scraped By With Crumbs Because of Uber Eats Hacker
The Buttermilk Drop does more morning business than nearly anyone else on the city’s Uber Eats, its owners say. People hit the order button nonstop every morning, buying boxes of the bakery’s signature pastry, the Buttermilk Drop, and bigger breakfasts: shrimp and grits, omelets, breakfast rice with sausage and eggs, breakfast sandwiches, fried chicken, pancakes, waffles and French toast.
NOPD: Drones just ‘body-worn cameras in the sky’
Alone, in the middle of a parking lot, sat a lifeless drone. Officially known as a “small unmanned aircraft system,” the drone is the latest high-tech surveillance tool that the New Orleans Police Department plans to put to work. Ironically, it sat in a lot near the NOPD...
Joy Banner told to curtail remarks or risk arrest
Tuesday’s council meeting in St. John the Baptist Parish started as usual, with the Lord’s Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. Then the council opened public comment, before it voted on that evening’s agenda. Each speaker was allotted three minutes. Joy Banner was first to approach the...
Climate report indicates dire future for Mississippi River basin, which is already feeling impacts
The Fifth National Climate Assessment, released earlier this month, warns of wide-ranging climate impacts throughout the United States. The implications for people and the environment in the Mississippi River basin are extreme, but experts stress that it is not too late to slow the worsening effects. From its headwaters in...
Louisiana’s rare growing coast, anchored by black willows and bald cypress trees
It looks so natural. But the shape of the lower Mississippi River – the way it curves, winding like a snake – was carefully engineered. Its design provides water to industry between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and accommodates ship navigation leading out into the Gulf of Mexico through Plaquemines Parish.
Lighthouse network expands, as St. John Parish opens Louisiana’s largest resilience hub for solar energy and storage
On Thursday morning, as federal energy secretary Jennifer Granholm entered the church in LaPlace, the Rev. Shawn Anglim cued the crowd to sing. “Let us rejoice, when the solar power comes and the lighthouse shines,” sang the crowd at New Wine Christian Fellowship, adapting the lyrics of “Come, Let Us Sing,” a traditional African-American hymn.
Behind the Lens episode 221: ‘A force multiplier’
This week on Behind the Lens, the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office is implementing new predictive analytics software they say can help combat crime in certain areas — and that even modest, strategic changes can deter future illegal activity and a pilot program was just launched to test that theory. Some critics are concerned.
The DA’s office wants to use predictive analytics software to direct city resources to ‘places that drive crime.’ Will it work?
Lower 9th Ward native Brandi Charlot took a family-owned shotgun house and turned it into her shop, Blucid Floral. The little aqua-painted structure on St. Claude Avenue, between Forstall and Lizardi Streets, is a sought-after gem for flower lovers. The blocks around it need some work. As Charlot walks down...
Judge halts industrial rezoning for proposed grain elevator site in St. John Parish
OVER THE WEEKEND, JOY BANNER prepared for the vote on Monday. Taking to social media, she warned that the planning commission for St. John the Baptist Parish might rezone a key piece of residential land in her hometown of Wallace, La., clearing the way for a gigantic grain elevator and export terminal.
State releases 2023 school performance scores for New Orleans schools
At a special Orleans Parish School Board on Dec. 4, Superintendent Avis Williams will propose ending contracts with three charter schools: Lafayette Academy, Living School and Moton Elementary’s contracts. This typically means either school closures or takeovers by a new charter operator. Williams has recommended renewing or extending contracts...
Behind The Lens episode 220: ‘Mothers want their kids out of there’
This week on Behind The Lens, Jackson Parish is housing kids awaiting adjudication in a detention center unlicensed to do so while collecting roughly $200 a day per kid from surrounding parishes, a judge lifts a two-day halt on Phase III jail building construction and state A through F letter grades for schools are due out soon.
Judge Reese gives green light to Phase III construction, says city did what it had to do, by bypassing City Council approval to move capital funds
Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration acted appropriately when it bypassed the City Council to reallocate $32 million of funding for a controversial jail facility, a New Orleans judge ruled on Wednesday. U.S. Judge Lance Africk has ordered the special-needs jail facility, known as Phase III, be built without any further...
Venture Global could be taking more than it gives in Plaquemines Parish
Nearly a century before Venture Global began building a massive liquified natural gas export terminal there, Port Sulphur got its start, as a company town. But when the company was finished, it took down much of the town with it. Environmentalists and economists see parallels today. They warn that Venture...
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