Land Use
Live blog Tuesday: RTA board to vote on charging pedestrians to ride Algiers ferry | The Lens – The Lens live blogged coverage of the Regional Transit Authority’s meeting. The upshot: The RTA board approved charging fares to pedestrians on the Algiers Point/Canal Street ferry.
BioDistrict falls well short of projected budget, fails to hold required hearings, report says | NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune – The much-ballyhooed BioDistrict did not come close to its projected budget numbers for 2012. It had planned on $1.6 million in revenues, but only took in $175,370.
Enforcement changes for N.O. noise regs suggested | The Advocate
A new report on noise levels in New Orleans neighborhoods that concluded the city’s enforcement mechanisms are inadequate seems to have effectively restarted the process of writing a new sound ordinance.
Criminal Justice
Live blog: Mitch Landrieu holds first meeting to discuss city’s 2014 budget | The Lens – Tuesday’s meeting is for residents of City Council District C. The Lens will live blog the proceedings starting at 6 p.m.
New Orleans and U.S. in Standoff on Detentions | The New York Times
The Orleans Parish sheriff will no longer honor many requests from the federal immigration authorities to detain people who are suspected of being here illegally, making New Orleans one of a growing number of jurisdictions to adopt such a policy and the first to do so in the Deep South.
Holder’s drug penalty plan: How will it impact NOLA? | FOX 8 WVUE –
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced new federal sentencing guidelines that would decrease punishments for low-level drug offenders. Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche comments: “You’re seeing the federal government move in a direction that many states have already begun to explore, recognizing that the cost of corrections is crushing the states.”
Environment
Sequester hits Restore Act funding for Louisiana, other Gulf states | NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune – The Office of Management and Budget is withholding nearly $40 million in coastal restoration funds until the President and Congress can agree on a budget deal to end sequestration.
BP sues US government over suspension from new federal contracts | Fuel Fix – BP considers it an “abuse of discretion” for the Environmental Protection Agency to suspend the company from new government contracts. “Among other things, the company was ineligible for new contracts worth up to $1.9 billion to provide fuel to the government this year. BP has been a major supplier of fuel to the U.S. military.”
Government & Politics
Not only did the City of New Orleans spend $9.3 million more in 2012 than it collected that year, but it also had major holes in the way it tracked $240 million in federal grants, according to a series of annual independent audits released Monday. …
The overspending of the city’s $529 million general fund in particular is likely to come into sharp focus as Landrieu and the City Council hammer out the government’s 2014 spending plan this fall.
Bill Cassidy Senate event …| TheLensNOLA Twitter: – Opposition tracking is the norm in major political campaigns these days. And now comes sophisticated technology to foil the other side’s tracking efforts.
Bill Cassidy Senate event last night in Metairie: His guys have white noise apps to distort pro-Landrieu camera/mikes pic.twitter.com/5OrAkgcUNM
— The Lens (@TheLensNOLA) August 13, 2013
Schools
Perspectives of Irreplaceable Teachers | The New teacher Project – Over a hundred top teachers were surveyed, and results indicate that most of them feel the drawbacks to the profession will force their exit within five years.”They [top teachers] have a troubling love/hate relationship with their profession. Our respondents cherish the opportunity to make a difference in their students’ lives, but they feel beaten down by many aspects of the profession, like low pay, excessive bureaucracy, and ineffective leaders and colleagues. About 60 percent plan to stop teaching within five years as a result.”
Louisiana’s higher education leaders need to devise a plan on how to better fund the state’s public universities, House Speaker Chuck Kleckley said Monday. The Lake Charles Republican said while lawmakers can be involved in the discussion, the ultimate plan should be one drawn up by education leaders and presented to the state Legislature for approval.