Houses are being decorated as floats because the pandemic has resulted in the cancellation of the customary parades during the carnival season
Continue reading...Category Archives: New Orleans
Dozens test positive for Covid after swingers convention in New Orleans
Forty one people test positive after ‘Naughty in N’awlins’ event which saw about 250 people congregate in mid-November
Forty-one people have tested positive for coronavirus after attending a swingers convention in New Orleans, in what officials have called a “super-spreader event”.
The gathering, called “Naughty in N’awlins” saw about 250 people congregate in the city in mid-November. It went ahead despite cases rising in Louisiana at the time.
Continue reading...Hurricane Zeta kills at least six as 100mph winds race through south
More than 2.6 million without power in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, with life-threatening weather to continue
More than 2.6 million customers were without power on Thursday morning across several southern states and at least six people had been killed after Hurricane Zeta howled ashore in Louisiana with winds over 100mph then weakened to a tropical storm and raced through the region.
According to the website PowerOutage.us, shortly after dawn at least 2 million were without electricity in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, and the number grew from there. Georgia has the most outages, with more than 800,000 people in the dark.
Continue reading...‘A perfect storm’: poverty and race add to Covid-19 toll in US deep south
Whole families are falling victim as African Americans are hit disproportionately hard by the coronavirus pandemic
Last weekend, at two churches in New Orleans, two pastors read from separate passages of the Bible as they buried four members of the same family. Each had died within days of each other after contracting the novel coronavirus.
Related: 'A nightmare all over again': after surviving Katrina, New Orleans battles Covid-19
Continue reading...New Orleans: two people killed by Mardi Gras floats in one week
- Man appears to fall underneath large tandem float on Saturday
- Woman, 58, was run over and killed on Wednesday
A man was hit and killed by a Mardi Gras float in New Orleans on Saturday evening, the second such death in a week.
The individual, who was not immediately named, was killed at around 7pm after he appeared to fall underneath a large tandem float during the Krewe of Endymion parade near the city centre.
Continue reading...US drinking water contamination with ‘forever chemicals’ far worse than scientists thought
Highest levels of PFAS in Miami, Philadelphia and New Orleans, report by environmental watchdog finds
The contamination of US drinking water with manmade “forever chemicals” is far worse than previously estimated with some of the highest levels found in Miami, Philadelphia and New Orleans, said a report on Wednesday by an environmental watchdog group.
The chemicals, resistant to breaking down in the environment, are known as perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Some have been linked to cancers, liver damage, low birth weight and other health problems.
Continue reading...‘A story about freedom’: why an artist is re-enacting a forgotten slave revolt
Hundreds of people dressed in costume will reconstruct an 1811 Louisiana slave uprising, the largest in US history
In the middle of a grassy traffic island, adjacent to a nondescript strip mall in southern Louisiana, stands the only physical memorial to an event that rocked the racist foundations of the United States.
A brown plaque, erected to commemorate a plantation home, has one short, embossed aside: “Major 1811 slave uprising organized here.”
Continue reading...US mayors seek to bypass Trump with direct role at UN climate talks
‘If cities are invited to be at the table, I believe they will help accelerate the work that needs to be done’ said LA mayor Eric Garcetti
US mayors are seeking to go over President Trump’s head and negotiate directly at next month’s UN climate change conference in Santiago, they said as they met in Copenhagen for the C40 World Mayors Summit.
Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti, who rallied US mayors to commit to the Paris climate agreement after Trump announced his intention to withdraw the country in 2017, said he would ask the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Thursday to give American cities a new role in UN climate talks.
“I’m going to bring it up with the UN secretary general,” Garcetti said. “If cities are invited to be at the table, I believe they will help accelerate the work that needs to be done. Hopefully, we can do it in concert with our national governments, but [we can do it] even where there is conflict.”
Garcetti, who was announced on Wednesday as the next chair of the C40 group of global cities, said he would use his position to seek “a more formal role in the deliberations” at the conference.
“The United Nations works directly with cities all the time ... so they shouldn’t feel feel scared about jumping down to that local level,” he said.
Hurricane Barry: storm strengthens as officials warn of heavy rain to come
- New Orleans residents told to seek shelter as 50,000 lose power
- NHC director details ‘amazing amount of moisture’
Tropical Storm Barry strengthened into a category one hurricane on Saturday as it neared the Louisiana coast, threatening millions with heavy rains and storm surge. The storm was expected to weaken after it moved inland but forecasters encouraged residents in New Orleans to be patient and stay vigilant.
More than 12 hours after city officials anticipating crippling and potentially historic flooding told residents to “shelter in place”, a few rays of sun peeked through the clouds on Saturday morning, adding a glint to the mostly dry city streets.
Continue reading...New Orleans: evacuations ordered as city braces for possible hurricane
Forecasters say the biggest danger is not destructive winds but heavy rain as it was upgraded to tropical storm Barry on Thursday
Mandatory evacuations were ordered south-east of New Orleans, Louisiana, on Thursday as the city and a surrounding stretch of the Gulf coast braced for a possible hurricane over the weekend that could unload heavy rain and send water spilling over levees, in the first big test for flood defenses since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The strength and speed of the wind increased on Thursday and by mid-morning was upgraded to become tropical storm Barry.
Continue reading...New Orleans to apologise for worst mass lynching in America’s history
Mayor LaToya Cantrell will say sorry for 1891 killing of 11 Italian Americans after some were acquitted of murdering police chief
The mayor of New Orleans is to apologise to Italian Americans for the historical lynching of 11 Italian immigrants in what is considered the nation’s worst such incident.
“This has been a longstanding wound,” said Michael Santo of the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy. Santo said that when the city was asked earlier this year for an apology, Mayor LaToya Cantrell embraced the idea, appointing Human Relations Commission head Vincenzo Pasquantonio as liaison.
Continue reading...‘Like a ghost town’: how short-term rentals dim New Orleans’ legacy
As rentals with companies such as Airbnb proliferate in the area, raising rent and property taxes, officials are enacting laws to protect local residents
New Orleans’ Treme is regarded as the nation’s oldest African American neighborhood, but some of its residents, like Darryl Durham, now say that legacy is fading quickly.
Related: Nowhere for people to go: who will survive the gentrification of Atlanta?
Continue reading...Names In The News
White House aides, reporters and other famous-for-Washington types were set to gather without President Donald Trump to toast press freedom.
Plots, schemes and strippers: Digging into the JFK files
President Donald Trump ordered the release of more than 2,800 records related to the John F. Kennedy assassination on Thursday, but bowed to pressure from the CIA, FBI and other agencies to delay disclosing some of the most sensitive documents for another six months. Even so, the thousands of pages that were published online by the National Archives Thursday evening describe decades of spies and surveillance, informants and assassination plots.
Museum of History displays ‘Fighting for the Right to Fight’
Before the Civil Rights marches of the 1950s and 1960s, there were a group of young African-American men who fought for equality and the right to defend their country. The stories of these exceptional men will be shared in 'Fighting for the Right to Fight: African- American Experiences in World War II,' a new exhibit on display through March 5, at the St. Petersburg Museum of History, 335 Second Ave. NE, St. Petersburg.