Five years after the Gert Town neighborhood started collecting $404,000 for community renewal, the non-profit dispensing the cash refuses to give residents an accounting of how it’s being spent.
Category: Government & Politics
Posted inGovernment & Politics
House votes to jack up Traffic Court fees, despite ample current revenue streams
By Matt Davis, The Lens staff writer | The state House this afternoon voted 86 to 1 to approve a bill that would let New Orleans Traffic Court charge higher fees even though its budget has ballooned recently. The legislator who sponsored the bill and one of the court’s judges gave different reasons why the […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Likening BP’s blowout to an airline crash still doesn’t fly
Last July, I took issue with a dubious airline analogy promoted by foes of the offshore drilling moratorium during BP’s Macondo deepwater oil gusher of 2011. Big Oil apologists repeated the analogy ad nauseam: “We don’t ground all airplanes after one crash, do we?” They hoped to portray the Obama administration’s response to the blowout […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics
Despite record income, Traffic Court judges pushing bill to give themselves more money
By Matt Davis, The Lens staff writer | A bill scheduled for debate Wednesday on the floor of the state House would let New Orleans Traffic Court charge higher fees even though its budget is booming. Further, the legislator who sponsored the bill and one of the court’s judges gave different reasons why the bill […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Jim Brown makes interesting points; some are even his own
Former Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown hosts a radio talk show on a nationwide network of affiliates. He’s also one of the most widely reprinted political commentators in the Louisiana blogosphere. From the Daily Kingfish to the Louisiana Conservative, from Bayou Buzz to various other outlets around the state, Jim Brown’s columns have received significant […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
If at first you don't succeed … Developer vows to re-bid Auditorium makeover plan
By Ariella Cohen, The Lens staff writer | The political ally of former Mayor Ray Nagin whose plan to turn the Municipal Auditorium into a media production facility was slammed as a boondoggle, hasn’t given up on the project. On Saturday night developer Stewart Juneau will host a fundraiser to benefit restoration of the Armstrong […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City contracts proving hard to monitor as electronic routing system is overhauled
By Ariella Cohen, The Lens staff writer | The long road city contracts travel before being signed is, at least temporarily, even twistier and more dimly lit than it was when Ray Nagin was mayor. For the two years before Mayor Mitch Landrieu took office, city officials and the Inspector General could monitor the progress […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics, Opinion
Traffic camera bill could shoot a $12 million hole in New Orleans budget
Last year Rep. Jeff Arnold, D-Algiers, said, “It is no longer if we get rid of these cameras, it is a matter of when.” He was talking about traffic cameras, and he was right. While his proposal to unplug the cameras stalled in the Legislature in 2010, this year the passage of his bill looks downright […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
A year after Nagin, frustration mounts over continuing delays in post-Katrina projects
By Ariella Cohen, The Lens staff writer | As Mayor Landrieu marks a first year in office, his capital projects team is still troubleshooting design problems on more than half of the 113 federally funded recovery projects it selected from the much longer list passed on by his predecessor at City Hall. This leaves many […]
Posted inGovernment & Politics
City Hall jacks luxury car to settle tax debt owed by French Quarter bar owner
The 2002 Bentley that was repossessed By Karen Gadbois, The Lens staff writer | [Update, 20:30:] According to petition documents obtained by The Lens, these are the names of the bars, business, and owners that were named in the suit for alleged non-payment of taxes, that led to the seizure of The Bentley: Newport Corporation […]