By Matt Davis, The Lens staff writer | An Orleans Parish Sheriff’s deputy booked last month with simple assault had previously been suspended for allegedly chasing and roughing up a woman in an apparent road-rage incident, records show. Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman suspended Deputy Mark Andry for 10 days in February over the road-rage incident. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Two Eris Parade arrestees ask for "vague" charges against them to be quashed
By Matt Davis, The Lens staff writer | Two defendants accused of disturbing the peace at an unpermitted parade in the Marigny have filed motions to quash charges against them because they say the state is being too vague about what they did wrong. Ron Morrison, 24, and Jonathan Cromwell, 30, filed the motions to […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
Grocer forging ahead with plans to resurrect Seventh Ward's iconic Circle Food Store
By Ariella Cohen, The Lens staff writer It was the place to go if you wanted to put food on the table, a uniform on your child or even a doctor’s eye on that lingering ear infection. Best known as a full-service grocery, Circle Food Store had physicians and dentists working in cramped offices a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics, Investigations
Questions surround DA's decision to drop charges in gun-waving cop's case
Ex-cop Devyn Swanier lost his job but not his liberty. The young man he bullied thinks justice has not been served. Experts are split on the question.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
Neighborhood Participation Plan cranking up after three years stuck in neutral
By Karen Gadbois, The Lens staff writer | Three years after New Orleans voters approved a necessary charter change, City Hall is finally getting around to implementing the so-called Neighborhood Participation Program to give disparate communities all across the city a more direct voice in the governance process. According to a just-released “Scope of Work,” […]
Posted inOpinion
Senator using skewed numbers on oil industry’s safety record
By Benjamin Leger, The Lens contributing opinion writer | Testifying in front of the Senate Energy Committee in May 2010 while the Deepwater Horizon was still gushing oil into the Gulf, Louisiana’s U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu voiced her opposition to the moratorium on deepwater exploratory drilling: Since 1971, not a single spill in the Gulf, […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Oversights or plagiarism? Jim Brown’s mea culpas don’t add up
My piece about the lifted texts in Jim Brown’s online opinion columns grew new legs on Sunday when Gambit published a 3,000-word story on the matter, and a 3,000-word sidebar so readers could compare excerpts from Brown’s columns with their original sources. Hearty applause to writers Kevin Allman and Alex Woodward for pursuing this issue […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
The Lens wins press club awards for investigative reporting, social media
By Matt Davis, The Lens staff writer | The Lens won considerable recognition at the Press Club of New Orleans Awards on Saturday night. Co-founder and staff writer Ariella Cohen won first place in the print investigative category and the Alex Waller Memorial Award for her entry “Following the money: the use and abuse of Katrina […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
Star turn for Central City bar – but can it still operate legally as the joint it's long been?
By Karen Gadbois, The Lens staff writer | And this week the award for most creative argument in support of a zoning decision goes to attorney Ed Washington. Washington’s mission was not a simple one, but he had chosen to accept it. The goal: to get the Board of Zoning Adjustment to bless plans that […]
Posted inOpinion
Let culture buffs fund the arts – not govt. bureaucrats
By Kevin Kane, The Lens contributing opinion writer | In an opinion piece posted recently at The Lens, New Orleans’ online investigative news site, arts writer and editor Nathan C. Martin recently criticized the Louisiana legislature for cutting statewide funding for the arts. While Martin rightly celebrates Louisiana’s culture, his argument for increased government subsidies falls […]