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Category: Top Story

This category showcases the lead coverage readers need to know, offering context, clarity, and insight into issues shaping New Orleans and beyond.

Great River Road dropped from consideration as a National Historic Landmark, for now

The head of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the president of St. John Parish said the West Bank is “now open for business.”
by Delaney Dryfoos February 21, 2025 Updated February 21, 2025

OPSB goes to court to get $20 million – and to stop the city from skimming money from schoolkids

While recent furor has focused on the city’s fumbled $20 million deal with the Orleans Parish School Board, district leaders say it’s more important to stop the city from taking a “collection fee” off the top of school tax payments.
by Marta Jewson February 20, 2025 Updated April 2, 2025

Behind the scenes of Super Bowl shelter planning

Emails show that state officials considered creating a shelter in a barge moored in Industrial Canal — and that prominent local developers knew about the shelter long before some city officials.
by Nick Chrastil February 12, 2025 Updated February 20, 2025

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

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

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 January 28, 2025

Trial begins in First Amendment suit against St. John the Baptist Parish

Joy Banner of The Descendants Project brought the lawsuit after the Parish Council chairman threatened her with prosecution and imprisonment for speaking during the public comment period of a 2023 meeting.
by Delaney Dryfoos January 27, 2025 Updated January 27, 2025

Pairing of Arctic air and moisture from the Gulf created record-breaking snowfall

The celebrated New Orleans snowfall is twice what Anchorage has recorded all winter long. Meteorologists attributed it to a perfect dance between weather systems.
by Delaney Dryfoos January 23, 2025 Updated January 30, 2025

New Orleans Health Department launches a misoprostol map

To assist physicians and patients, the NOHD announces the launch of a map of Orleans and Jefferson Parishes, which pinpoints pharmacies that are stocked with the controlled substance misoprostol.
by La'Shance Perry January 16, 2025 Updated January 16, 2025

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