Skip to content

Focused On

  • Lens Carnival Edition
  • ICE in Orleans
  • Justice
  • In the N.O.
  • Opinion

Main Navigation

The Lens
  • Subscribe
  • ❤ Donate
The Lens
  • Subscribe
  • ❤ Donate

Focused On

  • Lens Carnival Edition
  • ICE in Orleans
  • Justice
  • In the N.O.
  • Opinion

Topics

  • Criminal Justice
  • Environment
  • Government & Politics
  • Land Use
  • Schools

Sign Up for the Latest News

  • The Lens Newsletter
  • About The Lens
  • Our Staff

Follow The Lens

  • Bluesky
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Listen to Behind The Lens Podcast

  • Spotify
  • Lens Carnival Edition
  • Criminal Justice
  • Schools
  • Opinion
  • In the N.O.
  • Environment
  • Podcast
  • About The Lens
  • Support Us

Category
News

Timely coverage of the people, policies, and events shaping New Orleans and Louisiana. This category delivers clear, factual reporting that keeps readers informed about local government, community issues, and stories that matter most to everyday residents.

Council condemns mayor’s threat to scuttle $20 million settlement with Orleans Parish School Board

OPSB had sued because the city was skimming a portion off of the top of its OPSB tax payments; district officials agreed to settle last year, when the School Board realized it was facing a $36 million deficit.
by Marta Jewson February 3, 2025 Updated February 12, 2025

Super Bowl planners: ‘Anticipate any features of the [Lower 9] neighborhood which could be used by media to substantiate Katrina narrative’

by Nick Chrastil February 1, 2025 Updated February 20, 2025

Though she was an infant when Katrina hit, she still feels its effects today

Her family house has framed her world. With its doorway, marked with penciled hash marks to show her height over the years, the house tracked her growth at the same time she tracked its years of repairs after Katrina.
by La'Shance Perry February 1, 2025 Updated February 20, 2025

Thwarted from connecting the Lower 9 to its wetland roots

After Katrina, environmentalists built an overlook on Bayou Bienvenue to give the community access to the wetlands, which had been devastated by salt water from a now-closed canal called MR-GO. Recent construction threatens that key post-Katrina achievement, Arthur Johnson says.
by Delaney Dryfoos February 1, 2025 Updated February 20, 2025

She saw ‘a public-health crisis’ and opened a clinic in the emptied Lower 9

"Alice saved my life," neighbors say. In 2007, Alice Craft-Kerney helped to launch a post-Katrina clinic that was invaluable to neighbors. But it closed its doors after an inexplicably short time.
by Marta Jewson February 1, 2025 Updated February 20, 2025

Planting a flag in the Lower 9 ‘wilderness’

Every year on August 29 – the day that Katrina hit, in 2005 – Green’s family gathers by the place where his mom's house once stood, in shirts that read “Roof Riders." Then they walk the two-block route taken by the floating house, to the oak tree where it stopped.
by Katy Reckdahl February 1, 2025 Updated February 20, 2025

Embracing Katrina narratives

After an insinuation made by a Super Bowl planning committee, reporters from The Lens asked Lower 9 residents what Super Bowl visitors should see, plotted the points on a map, and documented the Katrina narratives that go with each landmark.
by Lens staff February 1, 2025 Updated February 20, 2025

Culturally rich, but unable to rebuild

The night before Katrina made landfall, artist Lionel Milton, who grew up in the Lower 9th Ward, suddenly decided to evacuate, after he experienced what seemed to be an omen.
by Mizani Ball February 1, 2025 Updated February 20, 2025

St. John the Baptist Parish cleared in First Amendment lawsuit

A jury found that the defendants didn’t violate Joy Banner’s right to free speech or the Louisiana Open Meetings Law. But testimony revealed a hatred the Parish President harbors against the co-founders of The Descendants Project.
by Delaney Dryfoos January 29, 2025 Updated January 29, 2025

Losing a community pillar

by Lolis Eric Elie January 28, 2025 Updated December 28, 2025

Posts navigation

  • «
  • 1
  • …
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • …
  • 166
  • »

About The Lens

The Lens fights to reveal and report on issues that impact the community and the region. Staunchly defending the public's right to know and deeply committed to sharing our knowledge with the community at large. We center human impact in all our work.

Our reporting has more urgency than ever.

Sign up to get the latest news on New Orleans and the Gulf South sent directly to your inbox.

 
 

Support The Lens

We depend on your support. A generous gift in any amount helps us continue to bring you this service.

Donate Now

Most Popular

New Orleans’ latest bid for a better grid: a citywide virtual power plantNew Orleans’ latest bid for a better grid: a citywide virtual power plantMarch 2, 2026Julian Spector, Canary MediaEnvironment
Louisiana pipeline explosion shows deep dangers of LNG buildout for our communities, in Louisiana and beyondLouisiana pipeline explosion shows deep dangers of LNG buildout for our communities, in Louisiana and beyondFebruary 27, 2026Roishetta Ozane and Lauren ParkerEnvironment
Louisiana’s “Lightning Amendment” quietly shifts AI data-center costs onto your electric billLouisiana’s “Lightning Amendment” quietly shifts AI data-center costs onto your electric billFebruary 18, 2026Paul Arbaje, The EquationGovernment & Politics

The Lens
The Lens fights to reveal and report on issues that impact the community and the region. Staunchly defending the public's right to know and deeply committed to sharing our knowledge with the community at large. We center human impact in all our work.
  • Bluesky
  • Instagram
  • Facebook
  • About The Lens
  • Our Staff
  • Contact us
  • Corrections
  • Support The Lens
  • Get The Lens Newsletter
INN Member LION Member
© 2024 The Lens. All Rights Reserved.

Our reporting has more urgency than ever.


For more than a decade, we have reported on issues as well as public policy meant to address the needs of residents. The Lens seeks to focus on the inherent inequality that has created a multi-tiered system. We, at The Lens seek to uncover, illuminate, inform and take part in a forward-looking community. Join us.

 
 

Continue to The Lens