On Tuesday, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, lawyers from the ACLU of Louisiana and Cooley LLP argued in front of a three-judge panel on behalf of Bilal Hankins, a Black teenager stopped at gunpoint moments after he and his friends had approached officers for help in finding a lost dog. […]
Posted inBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens episode 239: ‘It’s unconscionable’
Nick Chrastil on an eye-popping State Police contract The Lens had to sue to obtain. It’s been one year since JPSO shot and killed Calvin Cains III and his family is suing for body camera footage. And a redesign of City Park could disrupt Grow Dat Youth Farm.
Posted inOpinion
How federal tax dollars meant to fight climate change could end up boosting Louisiana’s fossil fuel production
The more carbon dioxide the factories produce and capture, the more federal money the projects can receive.
Posted inCriminal Justice
‘Show us the video’
It’s been almost a year since Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies shot and killed 18-year-old Calvin “Trey” Cains III in the parking lot of his mom’s Metairie apartment complex Yet his mother, Mallory Woodfork, and his father, Calvin Cains Jr., are still searching for answers about their son’s final moments — and demanding accountability from […]
Posted inEnvironment
Stories behind the soil: Le Petit Jardin de Belle
A new road threatens to cut through the “safe haven” for youth created through the Grow Dat Youth Farm, in what critics see as an unnecessary focus on motor vehicles.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Louisiana paying D.C. attorneys $1,000 an hour to defend against probe into state police
Last year, the firm began raking in big money for legal services related to a DOJ investigation into patterns of misconduct by the Louisiana State Police.
Posted inOpinion
We are not helpless in the face of climate change.
If we bring the right people to the table and think outside the box, we can reduce insurance rates, bring down heat levels within our city, put our youth to work, have strong roofs, dry streets, cooler neighborhoods and be a national leader in climate adaptation.
Posted inBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens episode 238: ‘Juvenile Jails’
Nick Chrastil and Katy Reckdahl on a bill that would provide funding to build new local juvenile-detention faciilites. Marta Jewson and La’Shance Perry on the Living School’s final days as it prepares to close its doors.
Posted inSchools
Living Memories
This week, as the Living School moves toward its final graduation, the Class of 2024 mourns the closure of their unique high school — and explains why it mattered.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Paying sheriffs to keep the kids
‘State dollars attached to each juvenile’ would allow sheriffs to build more local juvenile-detention centers, then get paid to keep kids who are placed in state custody. Is the state paying to keep kids closer to home or incentivizing people to put kids in jail?
