For nearly a decade, Calvin Pep used what he’d learned on the streets to stop bloodshed through Cure Violence, a city-funded effort to prevent violence. From his teen years on, Pep had been “both a victim and a perpetrator,” as he describes himself. He’d been shot. He’d faced a murder charge. His co-workers had similar […]
Posted inNews
School zone speed enforcement ends Friday
The city will stop enforcing school zone speed limits on Friday as most schools in the city wrap up their school years, city spokesman John Lawson confirmed. The city’s school zone cameras, which enforce 20 m.p.h. speed limits for two hours each morning and evening on weekdays during the school year, will cease ticketing for […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Neighborhood security stopped 3 young Black males; A federal judge is weighing a lawsuit over it
Lawyers representing police officers who are accused of racially profiling and pulling guns on several young Black males who were searching for a lost dog argued in federal court Wednesday that the officers didn’t violate the constitution and are entitled to qualified immunity from the civil rights claims. The case, brought as part of the […]
Posted inCharter Schools
Lycée Français board considers $165K CEO contract amid financial concerns
The board of Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans will consider a three-year, $165,000 salary contract for CEO Chase McLaurin, with the potential for significant annual increases, at its board meeting Tuesday night, as the school grapples with financial concerns. The draft contract includes the potential for two $15,000 increases. One, if the school is accredited […]
Posted inNews
Superintendent eyes racial disparities in school enrollment
Williams presented data on what she called “eligibility schools,” or the handful of New Orleans public schools with some type of eligibility requirement. She identified 10 schools, four with academic requirements and six with a language requirement.
Posted inNews
Orleans jail monitors disclose for first time issues found under Hutson’s leadership
Monitors tasked with overseeing the New Orleans jail and tracking its compliance with the long-running federal consent decree said staff falsified suicide-watch documentation, rubber-stamped investigations to justify uses of force, and that the facility is dangerously understaffed.
Posted inNews
A charter group closes final school, makes decision on future of daycare
NOCP CEO J’Vann Martin said the board directed the center’s staff to report directly to them and has implemented “strict financial controls” and will help ensure the center has back-office support from NOCP or a third-party business vendor.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Louisiana leads nation in percentage of people in adult prisons for crimes they committed as kids
A new report by the national non-profit Human Rights for Kids has found that the degree to which the United States punishes crimes committed by kids is far out of line with international standards, calling the mass incarceration of children as adults “one of the largest government-sanctioned human rights abuses against children in the world […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
After 23 years in prison for killing her abuser, she hopes no one in Louisiana has to do that again
On Dec. 2, 1996, Beatrice Taylor hobbled out of her apartment complex to a nearby payphone and dialed 911. She told a Gretna police dispatcher she needed officers to come out to her home for the second day in a row, according to court records. Her ex-boyfriend had become violent again, stomped on her foot and broken […]
Posted inCharter Schools
Gifted group asks school district to expand services
Universal screening and a gifted coordinator could help expand gifted services in Orleans Parish, advocates say.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Orleans Parish Sheriff Hutson withholding investigative records related several ‘serious’ uses of force on mental health tier
In late January, a sergeant working in the New Orleans jail called for backup because a detainee, who was housed on a tier reserved for people with mental health needs, had a broomstick in his cell. When three deputies arrived, they found the cell window covered in feces and “a large amount of unknown liquid […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Drug-related deaths at Angola prompted strip searches, but who is bringing in contraband?
Abdullah Muhammad entered the gates of the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola as a 25-year-old with a freshly issued life sentence. At intake, before he was issued a prison jumpsuit, guards searched him and told him to disrobe. “Anytime anyone forces you to take your clothes off, it’s traumatizing,” Muhammad said. He remembers feeling tense […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
In Linda Frickey case, DA Williams using controversial legal doctrine to seek life sentences for 4 teens
The decision by District Attorney Jason William to charge the teens as adults was controversial, if not surprising. During his campaign for DA, Williams promised to keep all cases involving kids in juvenile court, and frequently cited research on youth brain development that indicates kids are more susceptible to peer pressure, more likely to engage in risky behavior, and less likely to consider the consequences of that behavior.
Posted inEnvironment
Leaks beneath pump stations responsible for New Orleans’ drinking water went uninvestigated for two years
Leaks from beneath one of three Sewerage and Water Board pump stations that distribute the majority of New Orleanians’ drinking water went uninvestigated by the Board for nearly two years. The drinking water leaks were discovered during major upgrades to the Claiborne Avenue Pumping Station on the northern edge of the Carrollton Water and Power […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
How will the DA’s decision to revive the habitual offender law impact plea negotiations in New Orleans?
Earlier this month, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams announced that he was going back on his campaign promise to never utilize or threaten to use the state’s habitual offender law, which can dramatically increase prison sentences for people who have been convicted of prior felonies. And for the first time last week, prosecutors with […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Proposal to give police 25-foot buffer raises constitutional concerns
Getting within 25 feet of a police officer after being told to stop would be a crime under a measure being pushed by a Louisiana lawmaker, but the idea is raising constitutional concerns among advocacy organizations, who say it could deter people from witnessing and recording police abuse when they see it taking place. State […]
Posted inNews
School zone lights must now work in order to ticket drivers
An ordinance passed by the New Orleans City Council requires school zone flashing yellow lights to be working properly for camera tickets to be valid
Posted inEnvironment
Judge dismisses suit over Plaquemines LNG facility, environmental groups review options
Judge Wilson Fields of the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge on Monday sided with the state in dismissing the group’s petition but did not rule on the merits of their case. The environmental groups are now evaluating their legal options.
Posted inEnvironment
Bill would end eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines
Fears of explosions prompt CO2 pipeline bill.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Only those who have experienced jail can understand the bigger picture
In New Orleans, where incarceration touches nearly every block, jail population counts are much more than numbers – they represent families fractured, futures derailed, and communities under pressure.
Posted inOpinion
The New Orleans jailbreak: crisis, blame, and a system built to break
Some of the loudest voices talking about problems that led to the jailbreak are the same ones who’ve supported underfunding and cuts to social services, education, and mental-health programs—drivers of crime and incarceration in the first place.
Posted inEnvironment
Tracking the sediment carried by the muddy Mississippi
New research shows that typically, less than 10% of land-building alluvium reaches the Bird’s Foot Delta region, the southernmost reach of the river, where it meets the Gulf.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Judge’s order requires Farm Line ‘be treated with human decency’
For the second consecutive year, a federal judge tells the DOC to provide Farm Line workers with protections from the sweltering Louisiana heat.
Posted inCriminal Justice
‘It’s just not fair’
Nearly 1,000 Louisiana prisoners, including a Jefferson Parish man convicted by an 11-1 jury verdict, hope for relief in a non-unanimous jury bill that could hit the Senate floor on Wednesday.
Posted inBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens episode 273: ‘Caught in the lurch’
Delaney Dryfoos on the the largest new delta in North America. Marta Jewson on how the decentralized New Orleans school district caught one special education student in the lurch between NOLA Public Schools and KIPP New Orleans.
Posted inSchools
KIPP and NOLA Public Schools argue over special education of a kindergartener
Parents said that their young child was too sick to go to school. But the school disagreed, and so the child received no services last year, then started this year with no services. It’s still unclear who’s to blame — and how to catch other students before they fall through the cracks.
Posted inOpinion
Working for bike safety, after suffering a severe bicycling injury
Bejasa, an avid bicyclist who spent three months in a wheelchair after being hit by a car, asks Lens readers to join her at two upcoming bicycle-safety events this weekend. See details below.
Posted inOpinion
Legislature must demand that Mid-Barataria Diversion proceed, as planned
At stake is decades of scientific consensus, years of bipartisan commitment and the credibility of Louisiana’s entire coastal program.
Posted inEnvironment
Through a new Mississippi River channel, Mother Nature shows the land-building power of sediment diversions
As the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion flounders amid politics, some scientists say that doubts about its effectiveness can be addressed by Neptune Pass, which branched off the Mississippi on its own and is creating the largest new delta in North America.