On this week’s episode, COVID cases are way up with the rise of the Omicron variant, prompting some New Orleans schools to go to remote learning again. COVID isn’t the only reason schools are being shuttered. This week, the New Orleans school district announced the upcoming closures of some under-enrolled schools in its effort to “right-size” the system.

Also, the New Orleans City Council takes a vote on a permanent pedicab limit, despite objections from a newly formed company seeking to operate in the city.

And a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of prisoners at David Wade Correctional Center, a Louisiana state prison, claims the facility doesn’t provide adequate mental health care and keeps people with mental illness in solitary confinement for months or years on end. After nearly four years, the case is finally going to trial next week.

This week’s guests are Lens reporters Marta Jewson, Nick Chrastil and Michael Isaac Stein and editor Charles Maldonado.