Back in November 2005, while most of us were still wringing out our houses and trying to figure out how to piece our lives back together, Mayor Ray Nagin announced a plan for free Wi-Fi – citywide! But even before Nagin’s tech guru, Greg Meffert, was convicted of corruption, reality had fallen well short of […]
Category: Government & Politics
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics, Investigations
IG's report slams Sheriff Gusman and Judge Sens for hiring wives
New Orleans Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux issued a report today blasting a cozy wife-hire arrangement between Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman and family friend Administrative Judge Paul Sens. The hires, first reported earlier this year by The Lens and our reporting partners at WVUE-Fox 8, reeked of “impropriety” but were not criminal, the report concluded. I.G. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics
Budgetary shell game: Case of the missing $200G for juvy monitors
How much money did the City of New Orleans appropriate for Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman’s Electronic Monitoring Program this year? a) $200,000 b) $504,000 c) $600,000 d) $704,000 e) $904,000 f) all of the above g) none of the above (Warning: It’s a trick question.) If your guiding document is the adopted New Orleans […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Confessions of a literary impresario: Love's labor not lost
Los Angeles-based writer Matt Sumell reads at a Room 220 event on May 3 at the Antenna Gallery Outdoor Auxiliary. I ordered an obscure novel from an independent publishing house in Brooklyn on May 11, 2011, the day the book was released. A few hours later, the publisher, whom I’d never met, emailed me and […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Schools
Teams will help schools with major curriculum changes
The Louisiana Department of Education today announced the creation of a support team to ease districts’ transition to student curriculum changes and new methods for educator evaluations, both of which will begin in the coming school year. The curriculum, called the Common Core State Standards, is an initiative being used in state education systems across […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Premature adulation: Should we even ask if Anthony Davis will fit the "Bill"?
After reading Times-Picayune sports writer Jeff Duncan’s June 28 column on the NBA draft, only one question remained on my mind: “Who the blazes compared Anthony Davis to Bill Russell?!” As you’re probably aware, the New Orleans Hornets selected Davis with their top pick in the recent draft. And for good reason. The University of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics
Criminal-justice advocates frustrated by talks of new jail
New Orleans criminal-justice reform advocates are lambasting a plan that would add up to 650 beds to the upgraded Orleans Parish Prison complex under construction along Perdido Street. The new jail would represent a departure from city officials’ pledges to keep the total number of inmates to 1,438. That pledge was made April 24 by […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics
Sheriff, city discussing new jail building that would add capacity for 600 additional inmates
This image showing a proposed new jail facility was available through the portion of the city’s website that chronicles the operations of a mayoral panel created to study operations of the Orleans Parish Prison complex. More specific drawings show plans for a more modest three-story building, as opposed to the scale represented here. Sheriff Marlin […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
A look at a disappearing daily ritual for many
With The Times-Picayune set to reduce its print schedule to three days a week, The Lens took a look at readers’ rituals on Monday and Tuesday, two of the days that the paper will drop sometime in the fall. Photographer Bevil Knapp set out across the metro area this week and provides this photo essay […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City looking to spend federal money more efficiently, quickly
It seemed like a simple enough question: How much of a $25 million annual federal allocation did Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration spend last year to help struggling residents and address blight? The precise figure is a hard to cipher, city officials said. On the one hand, the city spent more than $25 million because of […]