Lakefront braces for surge; brain eater spreads; poverty rises in suburbia

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Schools

New book charts why poor kids forgo top colleges | Hechinger Report – Author Alexandra Walton Radford urges colleges to do a better job of reaching out to high-achieving students from low-income brackets. Solutions would include “more publicity about need-based aid, better explanations of net price versus sticker price, and better high school counseling.”

What if we thought of Louisiana education like football? | NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune – Columnist Jarvis DeBerry asks a dangerous question: We demand athletic excellence on the collegiate gridiron, so why don’t we do the same for academic excellence in the classroom?  

Teen sleep: Montgomery to study proposal to shift high school starting time | The Washington Post – A new proposal for schools in Montgomery, Ala., would push back high school start times 50 minutes, from 7:25 a.m. to 8:15 a.m., in order to promote student health and well-being. Teens aren’t morning people, apparently. Interestingly, officials don’t claim the proposed start times would improve student performance; studies on that point are inconclusive. Start times for middle and elementary students will be adjusted earlier under the plan, to stagger school transportation traffic peaks.

Government & Politics

Who’s got that public record you want? Government begins to comply with new law | The Lens – Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office wasn’t listing custodian of public records on web — until The Lens asked why. State Rep. Chris Broadwater’s law makes it harder for agencies to stonewall on fulfilling records requests.

City reviewing disadvantaged-business status of Conley law firm | The Lens – The Lens reported ties between the Conley and another firm, raising questions about its independence.

Face Of Poverty In New Orleans Increasingly Suburban | WWNO – Nationally, more poor people live in suburbs than in central cities. What will this trend mean for the Greater New Orleans region?

Criminal Justice

Sheriff agrees to pay $900,000 in legal fees to civil rights group that sued prison | The Lens – Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman must reimburse Southern Poverty Law Center for fees and costs from its suit against prison brutality. The remaining question: Who pays for the consent decree — city or sheriff — and how?

Two large security districts balk at NOPD reforms | The New Orleans Advocate

Two neighborhood security districts in New Orleans are balking at a plan to fold the work of their self-funded police patrols into the city’s new system for managing off-duty police details, with at least one district threatening to take its business elsewhere.

Environment

Justice Department rests in second phase of BP oil spill trial | NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune – We know a lot of BP oil spilled in 2010. This phase of the trial attempts to determine how much. The article summarizes yesterday’s testimony, which can get technical. For more stories on the trial I recommend the daily link roundups at the MississippiRiverDelta.com.

As another parish tests positive for amoeba, senator asks Jindal to increase chlorination standards | NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune – State Sen. J.P. Morrell urges increased chlorination standards, after De Soto Parish tested positive for a brain-eating amoeba that can be lethal if it enters tissues in the upper nose.

La. shuffling funds to pay for Bayou Corne sinkhole | The Advocate – The state Department of Natural Resources has used borrowed funds from state and federal sources to pay for sinkhole costs. “The Jindal administration banks on recouping the money through litigation against Texas Brine Co. and a Dallas subsidiary of oil giant Occidental Petroleum. To date, the state’s sinkhole-related expenses are approaching $10 million.”

Land Use

Major Construction Set To Begin On Lakefront Pumping Stations | WWNO   

Residents along the Lakefront are being advised to brace themselves for some major construction work. The Army Corps of Engineers is starting work on three permanent canal closures and pumps at 17th Street and Orleans and London Avenues.

The $615 million project is designed to keep storm surge out of city canals. In a major storm, gates will close and stormwater will be pumped out of the canals into Lake Pontchartrain.

The corps is planning 24-hour construction schedules to get the three stations completed in 2017.

Rebirth of the Big Easy | Multi-Housing News Online – The apartment industry trade magazine likes the potential it sees in New Orleans — high occupancy rates, rising rents — and overviews promising submarkets that are primed for redevelopment.