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Land Use

Owen Courreges: Disgrace at Elk Place | Uptown Messenger – The columnist wonders why the city can invest millions for a new streetcar, but can’t provide basic shelter or seating for thousands who use buses at a major transit hub.

Traffic study to look at French Quarter flows | NOLA DEFENDER – The  study will assess how “party buses, mini cars, Segways, mobile cocktail lounges and amphibious vehicles” effect pedestrian and motor traffic.

A vision for the rivers | Pittsburgh Magazine – Pittsburgh dramatically transformed its riverfront during the past 15 years. Should New Orleans take some notes? The Bureau of Governmental Research will conduct a panel discussion on this very topic next month, free to the public, with registration required.

Lisa Schroeder is president and CEO of Riverlife. Her nonprofit organization, founded in 1999 as the Riverlife Task Force, has been the engine for the transformation, creating the award-winning vision for the redesign of the riverfront and pushing new projects.

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“What was most important for Pittsburgh was greening the riverfront, connecting [the rivers] to neighborhoods, making the waterfront the front door and lining rivers with spectacular architecture that presented the best of Pittsburgh to the world,” explains Schroeder.

Schools

Sean Wilson to be next leader of International High School, ending 8-year run at ISL | The Lens – School leader at International School of Louisiana switches charters to fill role once held by Anthony Amato.

Louisiana high school graduation rate improving, though still behind national average | NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune – Story contains links to datasets where readers can inspect statewide graduation data and compare graduation rates in New Orleans and Baton Rouge school systems.

Column: Stop forcing high school students to passively accept censorship | The Maroon – Loyola University instructor Michael Giusti, who advises The Maroon campus newspaper, is concerned that high schools are “beating students into compliance and submission,” and many of them enter college without a healthy appreciation of the First Amendment.

White House raises the bar for colleges’ handling of sexual assault | The Chronicle of Higher Education  “In 20 pages of recommendations, the White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault provides practical instructions for colleges to identify, prevent, and respond to sexual assault. And it prescribes several steps to improve and bring more transparency to federal enforcement of applicable civil-rights laws.”

Criminal Justice

Oklahoma appellate courts wrestle over death penalty secrecy statute | JURIST – The state of Oklahoma prepares to have its first double execution in years  amid questions over the source and composition of its execution drugs. Criminal defense attorney Adam Banner argues that “all available information should be accessible” in death-penalty debates.

Government & Politics

Louisiana legislators reject gay rights bill | Associated Press  — State Rep. Herbert Dixon, D-Alexandria, noted that religion had been used in the past to justify racial discrimination, and compared it to present day arguments opposed to gay rights bill.  

Teen births cost taxpayers millions | The Advocate – “Louisiana has seen a 37 percent decline in the teen birth rate between 1991 and 2010. The impressive strides made have saved taxpayers an estimated $160 million in 2010 alone, compared to what they would have paid if rates had not fallen.”

Opinion: The ‘stupid party,’ revisited | CNN – You can’t say Gov. Bobby Jindal isn’t relentlessly focused when it comes to writing opinion pieces in national publications. In this one Jindal says that Republicans may act stupid, but Democrats are worse because they think Americans are stupid. Also, in an aside, he calls Attorney General Eric Holder a liar.

Environment

Oil field deaths rose sharply from 2008 to 2012 | Houston Chronicle – During the ongoing “drilling and fracking frenzy” oil field fatalities were up nationally from 2008 to 2012. However, workplace deaths in Louisiana decreased by 2 percent.

Zeringue: Diversions are essential to coastal restoration | The Advocate – The new coastal czar acknowledges that diversions won’t return the Louisiana coast to its former glory, but they are an important means to maintain a sustainable coastal land form.

Coastal restoration fund maneuver used to balance budget | WWNO –  Appropriations Chairman Jim Fannin said the state is using the state Coastal Restoration Fund “as a bank”.”

Mark Moseley

Mark Moseley blogs at Your Right Hand Thief. Until mid 2014, Mark Moseley was The Lens' opinion writer, engagement specialist and coordinator for the Charter Schools Reporting Corps. After Katrina and...