Land Use
Pres Kabacoff outlines $1 billion vision to redevelop New Orleans’ urban core | The Lens – Developer Pres Kabacoff outlines big ideas to redevelop the heart of downtown New Orleans. He envisions the Iberville housing projects as a safe, mixed-income neighborhood. A wing of the old Charity Hospital would become a center for neuroscience research, and a new mall on Canal Street would draw visitors away from Lakeside Shopping Center. Kabacoff is confident funding can be found for all of it.
Gatehouse called out by religious, civic and labor leaders for lack of DBE plan in WTC proposal | NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune – The potential redeveloper for the World Trade Center received criticism for not including disadvantaged businesses in their plan to convert the building into a W hotel and apartment complex.
Criminal Justice
Our Views: Cut judges for savings | BGR – A new report by the Bureau of Governmental Research contends the seven courts in Orleans Parish are overstaffed and that caseload formulas suggest eliminating 25 of the current 45 judgeships.
Half Ounce of Pot Gets Louisiana Man Twenty Years in Prison, By Bill Quigley | The Louisiana Justice Institute –
Karen O’Keefe, who lived in New Orleans for years and now works as Director of State Policies at the Marijuana Policy Project, said, “A sentence of 20 years in prison for possessing a substance that is safer that alcohol is out of step with Louisiana voters, national trends, and basic fairness and justice. Limited prison space and prosecutors’ time should be spent on violent and serious crime, not on prosecuting and incarcerating people who use a substance that nearly half of all adults have used.”
Environment
Federal judge orders EPA to determine ‘necessity’ of regulating nutrients entering Mississippi River | NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune – Ruling appears to be a partial victory for environmentalists:
U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey on Friday ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency must issue a formal finding of whether federal rules are necessary, pushing the agency in the direction environmental groups requested. But the judge also said the agency is not limited to making that judgment solely on environmental reasons.
Environmental well inspections falling short, GAO says | Fuel Fix –
In a new report, the Government Accountability Office faulted the Bureau of Land Management for not including information about the environmental inspection history of many wells in its central database for tracking oil and gas facilities on public lands.
Government & Politics
City revenues won’t keep pace with costs| The New Orleans Advocate – Declining revenue from sources such as traffic cameras, combined with rising costs from pension fund and consent-decree obligations have put the city in a fiscal bind, according to Deputy Mayor Andy Kopplin.
Scalise’s Obamacare replacement is a beautiful unicorn | Slate – Business writer Matt Yglesias thinks Rep. Steve Scalise’s proposed alternative to the Affordable Care Act is a bunch of wishful thinking.
Alabama Primary Puts a Wide Spectrum of Republican Views on Display | New York Times – Conservative opinion writer Quin Hillyer, a former managing editor of Gambit Weekly, is among a variety of candidates running for U.S. Congress in today’s special election in Alabama.
Schools
Jindal has concerns about ‘Common Core’ | The Advocate — “Wading into a national debate, Gov. Bobby Jindal said Monday that he is concerned Louisiana public school classrooms would be saddled with a ‘federalized curriculum’ sparked by a series of tougher standards called Common Core.” This is a new Jindal. The governor initially embraced Common Core —until it started attracting criticism from the Tea Party and other right-wingers he hopes will back his presidential ambitions.
Group forms in protest of Teach for America | The Louisiana Weekly – A new group called “Resistance to Teach for America,” formed in New Orleans in July and opposes what some members call a “boot-camp like mentality” of the teacher-training organization that has been a central part of the post-Katrina school reform movement.