This week on Behind The Lens, host and producer Tom Wright talks to reporter Michael Isaac Stein about a new proposal to curb short-term rentals in New Orleans. Councilwoman Kristin Palmer wants to tie residential short-term rental licenses to a homestead exemption and require license holders to be on site while visitors are there.

Palmer’s plan would also place some additional limits on commercially zoned properties, though she doesn’t go as far as the City Planning Commission in a report issued in the fall.

Michael also discusses an IRS complaint filed against Entergy’s nonprofit arm, the Entergy Charitable Foundation. Lawyer Bill Quigley says the company’s efforts to lobby the New Orleans City Council through groups that have received money from the foundation may violate nonprofit tax law.

And Marta Jewson has the latest on Harney charter school. Orleans Parish schools Superintendent Henderson Lewis plans to take over the troubled charter in January. That means that all Harney staff members have to reapply and reinterview to keep their own jobs. And those jobs will only last for a few months. Lewis plans to close Harney at the end of the 2018-2019 school year.

Behind The Lens is available on Apple Podcasts.

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