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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.

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
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

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
A 3x3 grid of insect photos showing eight identical bees and one green beetle in the top right corner, symbolizing mistaken identity in scientific research funding.

This Ecologist Lost Her Grant for Studying Diversity—of Insects

The federal trawling of grants for misaligned priorities has brought in bycatch at Louisiana Tech University.
by Hannah Richter, Sierra Magazine November 4, 2025 Updated November 4, 2025

Louisiana will cover most SNAP recipients for November; Landry points the remaining 53k to food banks

Gov. Jeff Landry said his health department will find the money to cover $147 million in benefits next month for the elderly, disabled and children.
by Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator October 31, 2025 Updated December 5, 2025
Dominque Jones-Johnson sits at a table showing photos of her incarcerated father on her phone to a group of smiling young girls at the Daughters Beyond Incarceration headquarters in New Orleans.

When a parent goes to prison, a child pays the price

Louisiana spends too much of its budget on criminal justice while ranking low in healthcare, education, infrastructure, and economic wellbeing. We could redirect those resources.
by Dominque Johnson October 28, 2025 Updated October 28, 2025

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