Behind The Lens episode 173: ‘Too vague to be valid’

Nick Chrastil breaks the most recent news over a controversial jail building. Joshua Rosenberg on the relocation of dozens of families from the Gordon Plaza subdivision. Marta Jewson on the state's abortion trigger laws, including a preview of Friday's Orleans Parish Civil District Court hearing.

This week on Behind The Lens.

The City Council held another in a series of meetings this week on progress in the relocation of dozens of families from the Gordon Plaza subdivision, which was built by the city atop a toxic garbage dump and declared a hazard by the EPA.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit handed the city of New Orleans another legal defeat last week in the ongoing battle over a proposed new $51 million jail building known as Phase III.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of one of the state’s three abortion clinics allows them to continue to operate — in theory — despite a trigger law that went into effect immediately following the Supreme Court’s decision striking down Roe v Wade. Attorney General Jeff Landry claims providers operating while implementation of the law could face legal and professional consequences — but his request to halt an Orleans Parish judge’s order was denied by the state Supreme Court. The two square off again in Orleans Civil District Court Friday.

Our guests this week are Lens reporters Nick Chrastil, Joshua Rosenberg, Marta Jewson and editor Charles Maldonado. 

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Carolyne Heldman

Carolyne Heldman has been in media for 35 years, most recently as Executive Director at an NPR member station in Colorado where she was responsible for new multi-platform content initiatives, strategic planning, research, branding, and non-traditional revenue generation. During her tenure she also created and launched four weekly news, public affairs and cultural affairs programs and monthly live Town Hall broadcasts. Heldman moved to New Orleans last summer with her husband and canine companion and they live happily in The Marigny.