The City Council decided this week that it’s ready to start a process to plan for formal citizen participation – a process that citizens actually have been working toward for years.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Schools
LSU faculty forming union to fight state budget cuts
In light of layoffs due to massive budget cuts within Louisiana’s public-funded university systems, Louisiana State University faculty members are forming a union, falling in line with colleagues at other state universities.
Posted inLand Use
Legislators say Jindal betrayed their trust by shifting money to St. James steel plant
As state officials ratified Gov. Bobby Jindal’s plan to transfer $30 million from myriad local projects to a new steel and iron factory in St. James Parish, New Orleans legislators joined their colleagues statewide in a simple chorus: We were bamboozled.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
What can brown do for Vitter?
While polls show Sen. David Vitter with a comfortable lead over Democratic challenger U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, Vitter’s campaign remains in attack mode. This month, Vitter’s team released a TV ad claiming Melancon voted to award “actual welfare checks” to illegal immigrants. The political advertisement depicts “illegals” pouring through a border fence in celebratory fashion […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Marigny grocery’s state money diverted to new iron factory
A New Orleans food cooperative building a grocery store on St. Claude Avenue is among the many projects statewide that stand to lose money as the state shifts funds to a North Carolina steelmaker’s new St. James Parish operation.
The New Orleans Food Cooperative got $375,000 in the capital outlay budget signed by Gov. Jindal in July. But now the Jindal administration wants to steer $30 million in state outlay funds to Nucor because the company says the subsidy is needed for it to build a new iron factory in St. James Parish – and the grocery store is one of dozens of projects getting axed as state officials juggle the numbers.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
$2 million will let city explore demo of Claiborne overpass
New Orleans was awarded a $2 million federal grant today to study revitalizing Claiborne Avenue, including possibilities for removing a portion of the elevated Interstate 10 expressway.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Land Use
Temporary beds will expand jail population after all
Sheriff Marlin Gusman said Tuesday that his 400 new temporary jail beds will add to the total number of inmates in his custody, despite what he told The Lens and Fox8 News last month.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
HANO chief says he’ll show areas where vouchers are used
The Housing Authority of New Orleans will provide the public with information on where recipients of Section 8 Housing Choice vouchers live, HANO chief David Gilmore said today.
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Land Use
HANO official: Agency not analyzing voucher locations
Despite spending millions to tear down public housing complexes and to implement a voucher program that would end the concentration of poor households, a Housing Authority of New Orleans official admitted Monday that the agency doesn’t analyze voucher use to determine whether new pockets of poverty may be forming elsewhere.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Gusman: I’ve always advocated for smaller jail
Sheriff Marlin Gusman committed to build a smaller jail complex today if data analysis by Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s new working group supports one.