By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with The Lens and our email service, Mailchimp, to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from us. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Schools

Most students leaving from RSD’s 4 closed, failing schools are headed to other substandard schools — The Lens | Four of the Recovery School District’s failing schools will not reopen next year, and in most cases students from those schools will attend substandard schools next fall. Today about 12:30 p.m. Lens education reporter Jessica Williams will appear on WVUE FOX 8 to discuss her story.

When will performance of Louisiana voucher students match parental satisfaction? — NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune | Columnist Jarvis DeBerry distills a key school voucher issue: “What are we to make of parents’ near universal satisfaction with the private schools their children attend when the hard data suggest children at some of those schools are laps behind their public-school counterparts?”

Freedom Drives Success in New Orleans Charter School Revolution — The Pelican Post | The libertarian-leaning public policy think tank quotes Veronica Brooks, policy director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools: “There is nothing magical about being a charter school. What is important are the innovations charters are focusing on.” 

Louisiana’s progress insufficient on $17 million school improvement grant, report says — NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune | Louisiana isn’t making great use of its Race to the Top federal grant money, according to some education observers.

Government & Politics

‘The Lens’ Takes a Closer Look at NOLA 4 Life Fund Recipients — WWNO |  Lens government transparency reporter Charles Maldonado talks with WWNO’s Eve Troeh about his investigation of the Family Center for Hope nonprofit, one of several recipients of funds to reduce violent crime.

African-American men in New Orleans are an untapped workforce, new report says — NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune | A new report concludes: “If New Orleans is to substantially reverse decades of economic decline, high crime rates, and a shrinking city tax base, then greater educational attainment and economic progress for African-American men will be critical.”

Policy-makers fail public again on film tax credit reform — Between The Lines | LSU-Shreveport political science professor Jeffrey Sadow claims the state Legislature’s “fiscal hawks” focused so obsessively on trimming one-time money in the budget that they neglected pruning tax credits that provide little return to the state. 

Environment

Sinkhole grows and threatens Bayou Corne — Stuart H. Smith | Smith, an environmental lawyer, reminds us that the sinkhole is still growing, and recently overtook berms built to contain it. He posts aerial photos of the sinkhole’s dramatic expansion over the past nine months. 

Girl, 5, among those who get messages across at RESTORE Act meeting in Biloxi — The Sun Herald | Environmental advocates are skeptical that Mississippi will disclose exactly how BP oil spill restoration money will be spent.

“The state of Mississippi is going to be completely oriented toward figuring out ways to pour concrete, build buildings and help the contractor buddies who helped get them into office,” said Steve Shepard, Gulf Coast Group chair of the Sierra Club.

“That’s the way the state of Mississippi works.” Mike Murphy of The Nature Conservancy said one way to help ensure the money was allocated fairly would be to develop a ranking system “that is transparent.”

Bloomberg unveils ambitious plan to protect NYC from climate change —  Grist | “New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg laid out an ambitious plan … to fortify the city against the extreme weather and storms we can expect thanks to a changing climate. ‘This is a defining challenge of our future,” Bloomberg said in a speech at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.'”

Criminal Justice

Red-light camera footage, key decisions complicated search for Terrilynn Monette — NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune | After a large-scale, months-long search, Monette’s body was finally found on June 8. But many wonder why it took so long for police and other search crews to find her.

Sources: Grand jury to probe La. company for alleged human trafficking — WWL-TV | A Louisiana oilfield contracting company appears “to be in the cross-hairs of the federal government in a criminal probe.”

Land Use

City says nearly $2 billion in retail lost to parishes – Fox 8 WVUE | Following the city’s announcement of its five-year strategy for business growth, the mayor’s economic development adviser says the upcoming opening of big-box retail stores will help stop New Orleanians from travelling to neighboring parishes to shop.

New Affordable Housing Complex Slated for Bienville and Roman Streets — Mid-City Messenger | Construction on the complex will begin in August, and it will include “31 units, a community center and six parking spaces.”

Jefferson Parish hospitals using savings fast, could risk default in a few years — NOLA.com/Times-Picayune

Jefferson Parish’s two public hospitals have regularly tapped their once-vaunted cash reserves in recent years to stay afloat as their income fell and costs rose. … That’s an unsustainable formula, hospital executives said this week, and if unchanged would put the hospitals at risk of violating their debt terms in five years or less. That’s a driving force, the executives said, behind their efforts to seek a lease with a third-party network to run the two hospitals.

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...