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Behind The Lens episode 236: ‘An energy company deciding subject matter’
This week on Behind The Lens, LSU, Louisiana’s flagship higher education institution, has an unusual relationship with the oil and gas industry, in which research and coursework can be directed by them – with a large enough donation to the school. And teachers at local charter school Lycée Français filed union papers with the National Labor Relations Board and asked the charter school’s board to voluntarily recognize them.
Tulane and Port NOLA using arrests to silence Palestine protesters
On Wednesday morning, May 1, at 2 a.m., Tulane and Loyola student protesters woke up in their sleeping bags to a police raid. State troopers were dressed in tactical vests and helmets, carrying automatic weapons, as they cleared the site. “A riot cop pointed a sniper rifle at my head,” said Loyola SDS student Juleea Berthelot. “I was scared for my life.”
EPA in the Crosshairs
Michael Regan cannot catch a break from Louisianans. Last month, as Regan, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), tightened pollution controls in the state, he drew fire. Congressman Clay Higgins (R-La.), an industry proponent, said Regan was doing too much, calling Regan an “EPA criminal” in an April...
Fess: The SongByrd of N.O.
As a vinyl .45 record that reads ‘Atlantic’ flips onto a record player, the piano in the background grows louder and more energetic, punctuated by drums and horns. Then here comes the signature whistling that every New Orleans kid recognizes — it’s from the Professor Longhair song, “Go to the Mardi Gras.”
Deon Haywood: From flames came new dreams
Twelve years ago, during a planning session, a facilitator asked us what would happen if Women With A Vision (WWAV) ceased to exist. No one on our team could truly answer the question. Instead, we replied, “The work will continue to get done, no matter what.”. Little did we...
Environmental Forum: Sharing Our Stories
On Tuesday, May 7th The Lens and Hip Hop Caucus will present an Environmental Justice Media Roundtable focussing on Louisiana Climate Change. The event, Environmental Forum: Sharing Our Stories, will feature local media outlets and community activists. Each panelist will share an environmental story that is important to their community and how they did this story. La’Shance Perry, The Lens’ photojournalist, will explain the importance of photojournalism in environmental reporting and how to do it well. The Lens’ Deputy Editor, Marta Jewson, will outline the role of public records as they relate to past Lens environmental stories. The roundtable will be moderated by Hip Hop Caucus’ senior director of storytelling and communications, Brittany Bell Surratt.
Behind the Lens episode 235: ‘One step behind Exxon’
This week on Behind The Lens, proposed state legislation could mean the loss of food stamp benefits for thousands of residents. And oil giant Exxon was planning on injecting tons of carbon dioxide into the ground in Louisiana, but good luck finding out where the sites are located. Our guests...
Needed: a grid for the future
When the power goes out, it shuts down the economy and potentially costs lives. And while we can’t control the weather, better-planned transmission lines can help ensure that power outages happen less frequently and are less costly when they do occur. What we need is a buildout of regional...
LSU’s fossil-fuel partnerships
For $5 million dollars, Louisiana’s flagship university will let an oil company help choose which faculty research projects move forward. Or, for $100,000, a corporation can participate in a research study, with “robust” reviewing powers and access to resulting intellectual property. Those are the conditions outlined in...
Where Was Exxon Planning to Inject CO2 in Louisiana? It’s a Trade Secret.
This story was originally published by DeSmog and is reprinted here with permission. While two dozen carbon capture projects are proposed in Louisiana, figuring out exactly where companies plan to inject carbon dioxide underground for storage is a bit of a mystery. That’s because a state law passed in 2021 regulating carbon capture includes a provision allowing companies to claim a wide range of project information — including location — as trade secrets.
Thousands of food-stamp recipients may face more strict work requirements
For decades, the federal government has required most able-bodied food-stamp recipients without dependents to work. And for decades, Louisiana has routinely asked the feds to waive those requirements, in areas where unemployment is high and jobs are scarce. The feds granted those requests. The resulting waivers allowed Louisiana to issue...
Behind The Lens episode 234: ‘Rabble-rousing at the Big Green’
This week on Behind The Lens, in St. John Parish, a judge denied a request for a temporary injunction, allowing a Council vote to proceed on rezoning that would pave the way for Greenfield Louisiana to construct its proposed grain elevator there. The beleaguered Sewerage and Water Board of New...
Greenfield wins in St. John, for the moment
On Tuesday, St. John the Baptist Parish Council voted to rezone nearly 1,300 acres of land on the rural West Bank of the Mississippi River from residential to heavy industrial use. The land is currently leased to Greenfield Louisiana, LLC, which plans to build a massive grain-export facility in the historically Black community of Wallace.
Join us April 18 for a new event: Breaking Bread, Breaking News
New Orleans and South Louisiana have a rich tradition of gathering, and food plays a major part in bringing people together. When people gather and eat, they inevitably talk about the issues of the day. For many people that means what is happening in their own backyards. Local news as it were.
There’s healing to be done in New Orleans, say descendants of Homer Plessy and John H. Ferguson
At the top edge of the Bywater, where Royal Street crosses the railroad tracks, a plaque marks a moment that changed our nation’s history. A shoemaker named Homer Plessy was arrested here in 1892 for sitting in a passenger railcar designated for “whites.”. The arrest was planned; Plessy’s...
St. John the Baptist Council could sanction ‘dangerous formula’
On Thursday, The Descendants Project faced off again against Greenfield Louisiana, LLC in the 40th Judicial District Court in Edgard. At the hearing, The Descendants Project asked Judge J. Sterling Snowdy to block the St. John The Baptist Parish Council from hearing a proposed zoning ordinance at its next scheduled meeting, on Tuesday.
Let the bargaining begin
On the Tulane University campus, everything seemed in motion this week: leaves sprouting on big live-oak trees, students in green Tulane t-shirts milling around on the big grassy lawn. Meanwhile, some of the historic university’s instructors were restless in a different way. On Thursday afternoon, a few hundred non-tenured-track...
Flood of suggestions
After focusing on “the frequent failures” of the city’s Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans, Gov. Jeff Landry’s task force released recommendations to improve the city’s water and drainage services. “If there were a citywide confidence/no confidence vote on SWBNO, it might be 90%...
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The Lens is the New Orleans area’s first nonprofit, nonpartisan public-interest newsroom, dedicated to unique investigative and explanatory journalism.
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