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 inLens Carnival Edition
The Lens Carnival Edition 2025
Our reporters stayed on their beats, covering how Carnival affects the way New Orleans works – and doesn’t work.
Posted inOpinion
Redemption and the Ultimate Punishment
“I remember feeling a flush of anger that the State of Louisiana was giving Bordelon what he wanted, relief from his guilt,” writes the author, who visited Angola with a film crew in 2010 as Louisiana was preparing to execute Gerald Bordelon. “My husband had died a few years before that, leaving me a widow and mother to two small children. Death, for me, was not something a governor should casually enter into with a signature — or that Bordelon could chase, to relieve his personal agony.”
Posted inEntergy
Renewable energy could meet the intense appetites of AI data centers. But Entergy is looking to fossil fuels.
Entergy, the Louisiana utility, has dragged its feet on renewables. Now, it seems that a proposed Meta data center in northern Louisiana might instead create an “urgent” push for dirty, fossil-fuel power. To power the center, Entergy will rely mostly on new gas-fired generators – paid for by ratepayers.
Posted inLens Carnival Edition, New OrLEaNS, News, Top Story
Taking in parades together, but apart
New Orleanians maintain certain traditions at Carnival parades. We say hello to strangers, tote wagons and folding chairs and blankets. But along the St. Charles parade route, we most often settle in areas with our people.
Posted inBehind The Lens
Behind the Lens episode 266 Carnival Part I: ‘Throw less, throw better’
Nick Chrastil on how gun laws clash during Carnival, including on the parade route. Delaney Dryfoos on krewes’ efforts to make parades greener. And Marta Jewson on high school marching bands — and their budgets.
Posted inLens Carnival Edition
Scattershot statutes
Is it illegal to carry a concealed gun while watching a parade in Louisiana? Depends who you ask.
Posted inLens Carnival Edition
A satire of tragedy: the first Mardi Gras after Katrina
At that point in 2006, hardly anything seemed worthy of celebrating. Except everyone wanted and needed the kind of emotional release that comes with Carnival. We needed one day that brought New Orleans back to normal – or the abnormal, some would say.
Posted inLens Carnival Edition
Two decades of crotches as canvas
Best known for their merkins – pubic wigs – the Bearded Oysters have now been a symbol of feminist liberation for 20 years, within a few local parades, including Muses
Posted inLens Carnival Edition
The price of Passionfruit: how band directors balance the books
New Orleans band directors must see band as a small business, if they want to provide students — especially students in this high-poverty city — with instruments, uniforms, daily bus rides, food after parades, and all the tools they need to boost musicianship.
Posted inLens Carnival Edition
Floating an idea: a greener Carnival
Observers say that New Orleans may be seeing a culture shift, toward a more sustainable Carnival. This year, one parade – Krewe of Freret – even banned plastic beads. Key to these efforts is Grounds Krewe, a local nonprofit, which provides local krewes with tens of thousands of environmentally conscious parade-throws — read below for the Top Five sustainable throws!