The sun had just made its first sliver of appearance at 7 a.m. Tuesday, but the people staying under the I-10 overpass at the corner of Claiborne Avenue and Canal Street had already been up for hours. Several dozen people packed up what belongings they had and carried them out of the encampment and across […]
Author Archives: Michael Isaac Stein
Michael Isaac Stein covers New Orleans' cultural economy and local government for The Lens. Before joining the staff, he freelanced for The Lens as well as The Intercept, CityLab, The New Republic, and Pacific Standard. He was recently awarded a fellowship from the Heinrich Boll Foundation, which he used to report on water scarcity, division, and colonialism in Cyprus.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City Council goes before state appeals court seeking to overturn ruling against Entergy plant
The council argued that there was no Open Meetings Law violation as a result of the Entergy paid actors scandal
Posted inGovernment & Politics
After 35 years, New Orleans is changing the way it regulates Entergy
When it comes to regulating Entergy New Orleans, the City Council has outsourced the vast majority of tasks to out-of-state consultants. Now, the city is trying to build in-house expertise.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Convention Center again defers vote on master architect over lack of inclusion of minority businesses
While the vote was for a single contract, the debate broadened to how the Convention Center approached minority-business participation in general.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Monitors say NOPD academy now in compliance with federal consent decree
Monitors have found department in compliance with at least 11 of 18 major consent decree sections.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Convention Center general manager, Michael Sawaya, sued for violation of public records law
“The public records law means what it says — if the people want to review records of government spending or how decisions are made in positions of public trust those records have to be turned over in a timely fashion,” Scott Sternberg, McKay’s attorney, said.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
‘It will be a mess:’ Traffic headaches from Convention Center Blvd. not expected to go away when construction ends
A plan from three years ago to fix the increased traffic from the lane reduction on Convention Center Boulevard has gone nowhere.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Entergy sues the City Council over lower profit rate and $1 million fine
Company wants to overturn recently passed resolution setting electric and gas rates for the city.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City seeking contract with nonprofit with questionable history handling public funds, but council delays vote
The Family Center of Hope received millions in public funds to build a community center. It was never completed, and the building is still vacant.
Posted inCriminal Justice
District Attorney has dropped 83 percent of domestic violence charges in Municipal Court in last two years
Last month, District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro said that his office was sending almost all domestic violence charges to Municipal Court, rather than state court.