Category Archives: Louisiana

New Orleans man found guilty of manslaughter for 2016 killing of former NFL player

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Cardell Hayes faces up to 40 years in prison for the shooting after a traffic altercation that left Will Smith dead

A jury found a New Orleans man guilty of manslaughter after he shot and killed former NFL player Will Smith in 2016.

Cardell Hayes, 36, could face up to 40 years in prison after the guilty conviction. Hayes’ lawyers tried to argue that he shot Smith out of self-defense following a traffic accident that escalated to an altercation in April 2016. But prosecutors for the Orleans parish district attorney’s office said that Hayes had fired needlessly, according to ESPN.

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Biden’s delay of ‘carbon bomb’ projects could be a big deal – but will it last?

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Climate activists cheer decision to pause all pending liquified natural gas export licenses, but is it just a delay till after November elections?

Joe Biden has, at least for a while, defused a ticking carbon bomb. Climate activists and the fossil fuel industry are now left wondering how long it will last.

The decision on Friday by the Biden administration to pause all pending export licenses for liquified national gas (LNG) to consider the climate impact of the projects has been hailed as a momentous shift in the status quo by those concerned by the unfolding climate crisis.

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Biden administration reportedly pauses approval of ‘carbon mega bomb’ gas export hub

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Calcasieu Pass 2, positioned near the rapidly eroding Louisiana shoreline, would be the biggest such export terminal in the US

The Biden administration will reportedly pause a decision on approving what would be one of the world’s largest gas export hubs, amid concern from climate experts that greenlighting the project would create a “carbon mega bomb”.

The project, Calcasieu Pass 2, or CP2, would be positioned near the rapidly eroding Louisiana shoreline and be the biggest such export terminal in the US and part of a huge expansion of new gas infrastructure along the Gulf of Mexico.

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Louisiana court upholds air permits for petrochemical complex in Cancer Alley

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Decision helps clear path for Formosa Plastics to build US’s largest petrochemical complex of its time

A Louisiana appellate court has upheld air permits for a giant proposed petrochemical complex in a region known as Cancer Alley, enraging local advocates.

The decision, issued on Friday, will help clear a path for Formosa Plastics to build the nation’s largest petrochemical complex of its kind. The project has long faced staunch opposition from local and national environmental justice groups.

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States to award anti-abortion centers roughly $250m in post-Roe surge

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At least 16 states will fund largely unregulated facilities that try to convince people to continue their pregnancies

In the months since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, at least 16 states have agreed to funnel more than $250m in taxpayer dollars towards anti-abortion facilities and programs that try to convince people to continue their pregnancies.

Much of that money is set to go to anti-abortion counseling centers, or crisis pregnancy centers, according to data provided by the Guttmacher Institute and Equity Forward, organizations that support abortion rights. It has been paid out throughout 2023 and will stretch into 2025.

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US archbishop secretly backed bid to free priest convicted of raping child

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‘I join you in the prayer to guide those regarding your appeal,’ Gregory Aymond of New Orleans wrote to priest given life sentence

As he reached the end of his 41-year life, Kevin Portier had endured child rape at the hands of a southern Louisiana Catholic priest for whom he had served as an altar boy; a highly publicized trial that sent the clergyman to prison for the rest of his days; and the trauma associated with those experiences.

But one of Portier’s harshest ordeals came within his final two years alive. Representatives of the church that he had been raised to believe in approached him at his home, at his job and at a relative’s funeral to ask him to lend his support to efforts to secure an early release for his rapist, Robert Melancon.

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‘The devil was in that building’: New Orleans church orphanages’ dark secrets

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Survivors of institutions run by Catholic diocese recall litany of sexual abuse as bankruptcy process keeps documents hidden

This is the final installment of a three-part series exploring how the archdiocese of New Orleans’s bankruptcy stands apart from other cases of its kind. The first installment ran on Wednesday 29 November 2023, and the second installment ran on Friday 1 December.

Call her Sheila.

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US Coast Guard looking for source of pipeline leak in Gulf of Mexico

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A 67-mile long line was closed last Thursday after after an estimated 1m gallons of crude oil was released

The US Coast Guard said on Tuesday it is still seeking the source of a leak from a pipeline linked to a Houston-based firm, off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico which it estimated has released more than 1m gallons of crude oil.

The 67-mile long undersea pipeline was closed by Main Pass Oil Gathering Co (MPOG) last Thursday after crude oil was spotted around 19 miles offshore of the Mississippi River Delta, near Plaquemines Parish, south-east of New Orleans.

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In climate-vulnerable New Orleans, residents face battle to lower carbon emissions

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Amid the heat and humidity, energy bills in New Orleans are surging – but the options for low-income residents are severely limited

Darlene Jones spends most of her time holed up in the bedroom to minimize the amount of electricity she uses to cool and light her home in downtown New Orleans.

Air seeps out from the doors and windows of the 1890 one-bedroom shotgun house – and through the bashed-up floorboards and ceiling that Jones cannot afford to repair. She has wrapped foam around the leaky air-conditioning pipes, and taped handwritten signs on the front door above the metal letterbox that read “Please close the slot”.

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Republicans secure all statewide offices in Louisiana after sweeping runoff races

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GOP win elections on Saturday in once-bipartisan state for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer

Upon January’s arrival, Republicans will control every elected statewide office in once-bipartisan Louisiana after the GOP swept runoff races Saturday for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer.

The Republican success, in a state that has had a centrist Democrat in the governor’s office for the past eight years, means that political conservatives have secured all of Louisiana’s statewide offices for the first time since 2015. Republicans secured the governor’s mansion in October and also hold a two-third supermajority in the state house as well as the senate.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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Louisiana must draw new congressional map by mid-January for 2024 elections

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Deadline comes after federal court ruled that state’s current map disfranchises Black voters – one-third of the state’s population

The Louisiana state legislature has until the middle of January to enact a new congressional map after a federal court ruled that the state’s current map illegally disfranchises Black voters.

A conservative federal appeals court in New Orleans issued the deadline on Friday. According to the order, if the state legislature doesn’t pass a new map by the deadline, then a lower district court should conduct a trial and develop a plan for the 2024 elections.

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One dead after super fog causes spate of road accidents near New Orleans

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Portion of Interstate 10 closed after wildfire smoke combines with fog to severely reduce visibility

At least one person died as several vehicle accidents were reported near New Orleans after an extremely dense fog rolled into the area on Tuesday morning.

Officials closed a portion of Interstate 10 in both directions after a combination of wildfire smoke and fog produced what is known as a super fog in the area. Visibility for drivers on Tuesday was reduced to about a quarter of a mile, the National Weather Service said.

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‘Bloodiest prison in the US’: children detained in Louisiana’s Angola prison allege abuses

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Juvenile prisoners were routinely punished by fellow inmates at the ‘Alcatraz of the south’, according to a new lawsuit

On his 16th birthday, Charles “Chuck” Daniel was put behind bars.

Then, six months later, in the summer of 1996, he would find himself transferred to Louisiana’s Angola prison – referred to by some as the “Alcatraz of the south” – to serve out a 149-year sentence for attempted murder and armed robbery that in effect amounted to life imprisonment.

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Louisiana pastor charged with sexual abuse of teenage girl

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Milton Martin, 56, of First Pentecostal Church of Chalmette, accused of abuse of girl, now 28, who was member of congregation

Authorities in Louisiana have charged a Pentecostal pastor with sexually molesting a teenage girl who was a member of his church.

Milton O Martin III, 56, faces one charge each of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile – colloquially referred to as statutory rape – and of indecent behavior with a minor, records obtained by the Guardian show.

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Fossil fuel firms spent millions on US lawmakers who sponsored anti-protest bills

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About 60% of oil and gas operations protected from protest due to money spent on lobbying, says Greenpeace USA report

Fossil fuel companies have spent millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign donations to state lawmakers who sponsored anti-protest laws – which now shield about 60% of US gas and oil operations from protest and civil disobedience, according to a new report from Greenpeace USA.

Eighteen states including Montana, Ohio, Georgia, Louisiana, West Virginia and the Dakotas have enacted sweeping anti-protest laws which boost penalties for trespass near so-called critical infrastructure, that make it far riskier for communities to oppose pipelines and other fossil fuel projects that threaten their land, water and the global climate.

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US university professors are tired of being Republican culture war targets

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The GOP’s fight to seize control of American colleges is leading to resignations by higher education faculty

During his 18-year tenure at Louisiana’s largest public university, journalism professor Robert Mann courted backlash for speaking out against the state’s top political leaders.

Republicans called for Mann’s firing after he criticized former governor Bobby Jindal amid the state’s 2016 budget crisis. In 2021, Mann drew the ire of Jeff Landry, then state attorney general, for a tweet lambasting Landry’s effort to block a Covid-19 vaccine mandate at Louisiana State University.

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Trump-backed Republican Jeff Landry wins Louisiana governor’s race

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Rightwing attorney general holds off crowded field and will replace Democrat John Bel Edwards, who has served two terms

Attorney General Jeff Landry, a rightwing Republican backed by Donald Trump, has won the Louisiana governor’s race, holding off a crowded field of candidates.

The win is a major victory for the Republican party as they reclaim the governor’s mansion for the first time in eight years. Landry will replace current governor John Bel Edwards, who was unable to seek re-election due to consecutive term limits.

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Louisiana denies clemency hearings to five death row prisoners

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There was a rush to hold hearings before the anti-death penalty governor, John Bel Edwards, leaves office in January

The Louisiana state board of pardons has voted against granting clemency hearings to five Louisiana death row prisoners, effectively ending a campaign to hold hearings for 55 death row inmates before the state’s anti-death penalty governor, John Bel Edwards, steps down in January.

On Friday, the four-member panel sitting in Baton Rouge denied the hearings to four people on a split vote, and by a majority to a fifth, Winthrop Earl Eaton, who was convicted in the 1985 killing of a Louisiana pastor, on the grounds that he is unlikely to be executed because he is mentally incompetent.

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New Orleans ex-police officer awaiting execution loses chance at clemency

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Antoinette Frank, the only woman on Louisiana’s death row, was convicted in the 1995 death of a fellow officer and two others

A New Orleans ex-police officer awaiting execution for the murders of a fellow officer and two other people during a 1995 restaurant robbery lost a chance at clemency Friday during a meeting of Louisiana’s pardon board.

Antoinette Frank’s bid for a clemency hearing failed on a 2-2 vote after emotional testimony.

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Louisiana principal apologizes for punishing student’s off-campus dancing

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Public school principal reinstates 17-year-old’s leadership role and scholarship endorsement and requests leave for rest of school year

A Louisiana public school principal has apologized and requested leave for punishing a student and questioning her religious beliefs after he saw a video of her dancing at an off-campus party.

The 17-year-old student government president and scholarship candidate was videotaped dancing at an off-campus party following Walker High School’s 30 September homecoming festivities. A hired DJ took the video and posted it on social media. Three days later, Jason St Pierre, principal of the public high school near the state capital of Baton Rouge, told the student she would be removed from her position with the student government association and that he would no longer recommend her for college scholarships.

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