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Top Story

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

Murrill: NOPD is breaking laws if it doesn’t ‘fully cooperate’ with ICE, Border Patrol

In the letter, Murrill cited policy in the NOPD Operations Manual that bars NOPD officers from assisting federal immigration authorities except in limited instances.
by Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator December 5, 2025 Updated December 7, 2025

Reapproval of Commonwealth LNG project rankles Cameron locals, environmentalists

Louisiana Dept. of Conservation and Energy issues another permit after state judge ruled the original shouldn’t have been granted.
by Elise Plunk, Louisiana Illuminator December 5, 2025 Updated December 5, 2025
A low-angle view of a tall bronze monument featuring a worker holding a broom, with additional sculpted figures and architectural forms rising behind him, set against a bright sky with scattered clouds and surrounding trees.

New Orleans does not want or need a mass enforcement operation

New Orleans cherishes its immigrant community. We owe them safety, dignity, and the assurance that this city will stand with them. What is happening across the country cannot become our reality.
by Royce Duplessis December 5, 2025 Updated December 5, 2025

We learned from Katrina what government-created trauma looks like. Let’s not repeat it.

As we learned from Katrina, when government decisions destabilize families and communities, the psychological impact on children is profound and lasting.
by Stacy Overstreet December 4, 2025 Updated December 6, 2025

How cornbread dressing was banned from Angola prison’s Thanksgiving menu

by Bernard Smith November 26, 2025 Updated December 2, 2025
Four men smile as they stand behind large wooden bins filled with sweet potatoes, loading black “Inspire the City” tote bags during a Thanksgiving food giveaway outside the Mahalia Jackson Center in New Orleans.

Holiday giveaway brings hope to Tremé amid immigration fears

“When I saw the brother Jamar (McNeely) giving out turkeys and hams, I said, ‘Let me bring the vegetables,’” said DeLance Vanderhorst of Healthier NOLA.
by Gus Bennett November 26, 2025 Updated December 2, 2025

Last call at the First and Last Stop

Over the past 75 years, more than a dozen Black proprietors have run the First and Last Stop Bar, a longtime gathering spot for 7th Ward neighbors and Black-masking Indians. But earlier this month, a new owner posted an eviction notice on the door.
by Katy Reckdahl and Gus Bennett November 20, 2025 Updated December 11, 2025
Assistant principal at Frederick A. Douglass High School smiles and dances among students in a school auditorium after announcing the school earned an A+ rating, with the stage band playing and students celebrating around him.

Compare 2025 school performance scores for New Orleans charters

As a district, NOLA Public Schools improved from a C to a B. The move up appears to be driven by a jump in A-rated schools in the city.
by Marta Jewson November 20, 2025 Updated November 23, 2025

Oily waste from Smitty’s Supply disaster will be injected under Jefferson Parish landfill

Waste has been stored and recycled at other sites, but LDEQ grants an emergency exemption for River Birch.
by Wesley Muller, Louisiana Illuminator November 14, 2025 Updated December 17, 2025

States’ death penalty policies are heading in sharply different directions

Forty-one people have been executed so far this year, the highest number since 2012.
by Amanda Watford, Stateline November 7, 2025 Updated December 17, 2025

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