Behind The Lens episode 242: ‘Extreme heat and dirty water’
La'Shance Perry, Nick Chrastil and Katy Reckdahl on the jail exceeding its population cap and Angola prisoners still forced to work the fields in extreme summer heat.
Nuns Harnessing the Sun
The Sisters of the Holy Family are constructing solar panels on the order’s New Orleans East motherhouse, to create the city’s 12th solar-driven Community Lighthouse – and, over on Dwyer Road, they’re installing solar panels to reduce their neighbors’ Entergy bills.
‘It isn’t very clear who is responsible for the jail getting to that cap’
The Orleans Justice Center has surpassed the city’s jail population cap, sparking questions about how to increase releases while reducing bookings — and what the rising jail population means for the health of those incarcerated and for the city of New Orleans.
Behind The Lens episode 241: ‘Radical Black joy’
Getting everyone’s input on City Park, our backyard
An online survey by the authors — local and national network of certified planners, architects, urban designers, and landscape architects — seems to indicate that outreach for City Park’s new Master Plan never happened, certainly not in any comprehensive manner.
Angola prisoners ask to end field work in worst heat
For decades, Angola has forced prisoners to work in fields in extreme heat. Today, they’re urging a federal judge to halt the practice — prisoners have filed a motion as part of a proposed class-action lawsuit to end the practice of forced agricultural labor at the prison
“We should have a sense of urgency”: Drainage tile drives nutrient pollution
Agricultural drainage tile, a system used by farmers to increase crop yields, is a main contributor to excess nutrients in waterways.
Could the Mississippi River benefit from Chesapeake Bay’s strategy to improve water quality?
Sluggish progress on reducing nutrient runoff into the Bay marks an inconvenient truth, but offers lessons for others seeking to clean their watersheds.
Not just a Gulf problem: Mississippi River farm runoff pollutes upstream waters
Worsening local effects on health and recreation in states like Minnesota and Wisconsin are spurring action on problems that also cause the Gulf of Mexico’s chronic “dead zone.”
