On This Day: The current I-10 Twin Span Bridge was constructed after the original bridges were extensively damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
📷: The Times Picayune
#onthisday
#neworleans
1/ After Katrina, 32K people received grant $ to elevate their homes. But some were told they could use it for repairs.
Then Louisiana sued them for not following the fine print.
After a news investigation, the state now says it will drop those suits. (🧵 by
@richardawebster
)
Rhetoric around some proposed solutions to homelessness in New Orleans is "often dehumanizing, and frames houseless people as dangerous — rather than as acutely vulnerable neighbors," writes
@delaney_nolan
:
A proposed road in City Park would cut through the Grow Dat Youth Farm site. The group's leadership, and the teens who participate, are ready to fight back against it.
On this day in 2005, Six Flags New Orleans closed for the last time ahead of Hurricane Katrina. In the storm's aftermath, the park was left submerged in 6 feet of water. It took over a month for the water to leave the theme park, leaving it completely devastated.
Born July 22, 1939, Oretha Castle Haley was an American civil rights activist in New Orleans where she challenged the segregation of facilities and promoted voter registration. She enrolled in the Southern University of New Orleans, then a center of student activism.
Did you know St. Augustine Church in New Orleans is said to be the oldest Black Catholic parish in the United States?
Established by free people of color in 1841, it was one of the first 26 sites designated on the state's Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.
‘Everyone will die in prison’: How Louisiana’s plan to lock people up longer imperils its sickest inmates
By Verite News reporter
@RichardAWebster
in partnership with
@propublica
's Local Reporting Network.
@katyreckdahl
writes about the Dolliole family, a staple of New Orleans’ 7th Ward and the effects that gentrification has had on the historically Black neighborhood
"Mardi Gras is transgressive. It’s a chance for everyday folks to upend the rules and openly mock systems of oppression. By sharing our creativity for the sole purpose of delighting ourselves and others, we practice for a freer, more liberated world."
A new study credits an Instagram account with an unpublishable name with helping to fix the city streets through shame, satire and ridicule, reports
@RichardAWebster
:
Louisiana legislators will soon consider a bill that would empower local and state law enforcement officials to arrest people on suspicion of being in the country illegally.
By Verite reporter
@_josiejo
“I definitely do not think that they should continue to be able to do this type of television show in New Orleans to just exploit the trauma of people who are really suffering,” Councilwoman Helena Moreno said.
18 years ago today, Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a category 3 hurricane at the southeast coast of Louisiana & Mississippi. The hurricane left the city of New Orleans devasted resulting in 1,392 fatalities and caused damage estimated between $97.4 billion to $145.5 billion.
St. Tammany library board reverses course on pulling challenged books from shelves
This story, by
@ByPiperHutch
, was originally published by
@IlluminatorLA
.
A new group, Friends of Grow Dat, has formed to help advocate for the popular youth program and oppose plans to build a road that would displace it.
By Verite reporter
@drewcostley
“The whole of New Orleans really needs to be reconstructed because there’s a lot of places I be wanting to go,” said Francis Falls. “Everybody, not just me. A lot of people with disabilities can’t move around."
"By all accounts, in his personal life Harry Connick Sr. was a kind man who loved and was loved by his friends and family. But so were the innocent people who he sent to prison to die."
An op-ed by Jee Park and Richard Davis of
@_ipno_
The watchdog agency for the city of New Orleans has found that two city employees may have broken a number of state and city laws, including criminal statutes, while leading Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s scandal-plagued “smart cities” initiative.
Facial recognition tech, hailed to curb crime, disappoints in NOLA. Only used 13 times by New Orleans PD from Sept. '22 to Jul. '23, with zero arrests. Report by City Council consultant AH Datalytics reveals just 5 potential IDs, 2 as 'bad matches'.
@RichardAWebster
@propublica
@NOLAnews
@WWLTV
13/ Attorney Shermin Khan, who represented more than 50 of the 3,500 people who were sued over the elevation grants, responded to the news this way:
"It's about damn time."
@RichardAWebster
@propublica
@NOLAnews
@WWLTV
12/ “I decided on my watch it was going to be over,” Fudge said. “The federal government is doing something that it has never done before for the people of Louisiana.”
Police officer’s false claim could have sent a man to prison for 50 years
The latest story in our investigative series "In the Dark" on the Baton Rouge Police Department.
@RichardAWebster
@propublica
@NOLAnews
@WWLTV
8/ Upon hearing the news, Celeste Matthews, one of the homeowners featured in the news outlets’ investigation, said, “Thank you, Jesus, thank you. I am elated. Now I can relax.”
The Orleans Parish School Board on Thursday (Jan. 18) unanimously voted to maintain its current property tax rates — called a “roll forward” — which will mean higher tax bills for some homeowners later this month.
@RichardAWebster
@propublica
@NOLAnews
@WWLTV
11/ Homeowners sued by the state were living a “nightmare,” HUD Sec. Marcia Fudge said, worried they wouldn’t be able to pass their homes on to their children.
@RichardAWebster
@propublica
@NOLAnews
@WWLTV
5/ Several of them preemptively declared bankruptcy, their attorneys said. Some feared they would lose their homes.
"You’re not helping the people of Louisiana. You’re knocking us farther and farther back," said Michelle Williams, who was sued along with her husband.
We're thrilled that Tristan has joined the team! As local news readers know, he has done exceptional work on the environment beat. And we can't wait to see what he'll do next. Welcome aboard, Tristan!
Excited to join the growing staff at
@veritenewsnola
, a nonprofit news site here in New Orleans. I'm still on the climate & environment beat. Looking fwd to projects and partnering with other pubs. Tips or ideas: tbaurick
@veritenews
.org
1—When Louisiana announced Feb 16 it was no longer pursuing 1000s of lawsuits against Katrina victims who misused $30k grants to raise their homes, Lisa Ruiz’s heart skipped. (:thread:by
@richardawebster
)
The approaches to the westbound lanes were completed with a ribbon cutting ceremony on September 8, 2011 and the opening of all 6 lanes the following morning. Portions of the old twin span have since been repurposed into St. Tammany Parish Fishing Pier.
In an interview with Verite News, Henderson pointed to the recent special legislative session on criminal justice as a particularly salient example of the consequences of one-party rule in Louisiana.
By Verite reporter
@mchelleliu
@RichardAWebster
@propublica
@NOLAnews
@WWLTV
6/ In May the news outlets found that, even as Louisiana officials hoped to wipe away these lawsuits, a law firm it hired had accelerated the pace of legal filings. Upon hearing this, the state paused collection efforts.
On the 18th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall, one brown brick house, just off of Mirabeau Avenue in Gentilly, stands as a reminder of the devastation of August 2005.
This is at least the third civil rights lawsuit involving alleged deputy misconduct that Sheriff Joe Lopinto has settled in the past several months, a pattern that has prompted renewed calls for a Department of Justice investigation into the sheriff's office.
@RichardAWebster
@propublica
@NOLAnews
@WWLTV
10/ “It’s been a miserable thing for the state of Louisiana to pursue these individuals because we knew the vast majority of them were never going to pay,” Edwards said.
"A study published last week by Tulane University researchers found that people living in areas lacking both abortion and maternity health care were more likely to give birth prematurely than those with more reproductive health services. "
Facial recognition technology that has been touted as an important tool to reduce violent crime in the city was used by NOPD only 13 times from Oct. 1, 2022, to July 1, 2023, resulting in zero arrests, according to a new report.
@RichardAWebster
@propublica
@NOLAnews
@WWLTV
4/ Many of those homeowners said Road Home representatives had told them they could use the money for repairs, according to the news outlets’ investigation. The state sued them anyway, seeking a total of $103 million.
Did you know there were 3 HBCUs founded in New Orleans during the Reconstruction era?
Straight University (Founded in 1868)
New Orleans University (Founded in 1869)
Leland College (Founded in 1870)
#NOLA
#History
#HBCUs
@RichardAWebster
@propublica
@NOLAnews
@WWLTV
3/ The lawsuits were filed against homeowners who received grants to elevate their homes after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 but used the money to rebuild instead.
The state of Louisiana has withdrawn from an agreement to temporarily stop transferring incarcerated youth to a former death row unit at Angola.
The reversal comes at the end of a federal court hearing on the future of the controversial facility.
Amid record-setting heat earlier this summer, the New Orleans City Council asked Entergy New Orleans and the Sewerage & Water Board to suspend service disconnections until Oct. 1. But the utilities are continuing to cut customers off.
Happy Birthday, Professor Longhair!
Born on Dec. 19, 1918 in Bogalusa,
#ProfessorLonghair
taught himself how to play on a piano with missing keys so his style became distinct. He began his career in
#NewOrleans
in 1948 where he was first called "Longhair" at the Caldonia Club.
The first of the new spans opened to eastbound traffic on July 9, 2009 and on April 7, 2010, the second span was opened to traffic and the old twin spans were permanently closed to traffic.
Verite reporter
@bmisick
has been in Baton Rouge all week covering a hearing that will determine whether the state will be able to continue using a former death row facility at Angola for temporary juvenile detention.
Read her summary.
A majority of New Orleans City Council members on Tuesday (Jan. 30) voted to deny most of an ambitious electrical grid-hardening proposal — along with additional ratepayer charges to help fund it — pushed by Entergy New Orleans for months.
"I ain’t never thought a two-year sentence would turn into life,” said Markus Lanieux, who sat with Verite News and ProPublica for 10 Zoom interviews over six months from the Hunt Correctional Center. “They just throw you away for any little thing.”