Louisiana Considered

Louisiana’s habitual offender law has been in place since 2009. Often referred to as a “three strikes” rule, it’s a controversial law that allows judges to put people convicted of certain crimes in prison for extended sentences, if they’ve had previous felony convictions. A recent effort attempted to undo this law, but last week the Louisiana Supreme Court struck down the changes.  Reporter Richar...

The Livingston Parish school district is suing TikTok and Instagram, saying the social media apps have built addictive platforms that caused a mental health crisis among teenagers. The district is also suing two internet service providers, alleging that they are responsible for facilitating minors’ access to social media platforms.  Jacqueline DeRobertis, who covers Livingston Parish for The  Advo...

Tulane University, Ochsner Health and the nonprofit RH Impact were awarded a seven-year $16.5 million grant in August to research Louisiana’s high maternal mortality rate. The money will help establish the Southern Center for Maternal Health Equity, which will aim to research and find solutions for pregnancy-related complications and deaths.  Dr. Joseph Biggio , OB-GYN and system chair for the Mat...

Today marks the beginning of a whole new industry here in the Gulf of Mexico: offshore wind energy. The Biden administration opened the first-ever wind lease sale in the Gulf, and 300,000 acres of the Gulf will be auctioned off. Companies will now bid for the rights to put giant wind turbines off the coast of southwest Louisiana and east Texas. It’s a big day to say the least. And there’s been a w...

Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in Louisiana and nationwide . According to the Orleans Parish School District, more than 60 children have been shot this year and 19 have died. Even as violent crime in general is dropping, the percentage of gun deaths of children under the age of 18 has increased nationally. In response, New Orleans public schools are taking a more active ro...

News broke last week of an unmonitored interrogation facility at a Baton Rouge Police warehouse, dubbed “the Brave Cave.” One officer resigned shortly after the news broke and others have been reassigned.  Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome announced Thursday that the Baton Rouge Police Department’s street crimes unit had been disbanded. She joins us today to discuss how the “Brave C...

Today – Sept. 5, 2023 – marks 51 years since the massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympics, when members of a Palestinian terrorist organization murdered 11 athletes competing for Israel. One of the victims was David Berger, a Jewish-American Tulane graduate who lived in New Orleans before moving to Israel, the country he would represent as a weightlifter on the world stage. Lafayette attorney and Caju...

It's summertime. Most of us hope to spend time on the beach, or by a river, or a pool, and we thought we'd try to understand why? Why do we want to be by water, and why does it make us feel so good? And it’s not just us. Understanding how the power of water makes us healthier and happier is actually a growing field of research. Today, we're diving into our human connection to oceans and how we can...

The Baton Rouge Police Department is under scrutiny after news broke of its so-called “Brave Cave,” a BRPD warehouse at police that was allegedly used as an unmonitored interrogation room. One BRPD officer resigned shortly after the facility’s existence was reported Tuesday.  Lara Nicholson has been covering this story for the Baton Rouge Advocate and she joins us for more.  Last week, the U.S. De...

Last week, a series of wildfires broke out in Beauregard Parish in southwestern Louisiana, near the Texas border. Several communities received evacuation orders and the parish sheriff’s office estimates that 40,000 acres have burned so far. According to the most recent reports from Wednesday August 30, the fire is 50 percent contained – but dry vegetation and high winds are beginning to push the f...

In the final days of June, the federal Environmental Protection Agency suddenly closed what environmental advocates once hailed as a landmark civil rights investigation into Louisiana’s permitting process for industrial projects. The investigation’s abrupt closure came after months of negotiations between Louisiana’s Department of Environmental Quality and federal regulators. The year-plus investi...

Earlier this summer we spoke with Mark Raymond Jr., who has been fighting for more accessible buildings and services in New Orleans since a boating accident left him partially paralyzed in 2016. Raymond’s Split Second Foundation built New Orleans' first gym designed for people with disabilities.  Now, he’s running the “Roll with Me” campaign, a program in which he invites local civic leaders to na...

It's summertime. Most of us hope to spend time on the beach, or by a river, or a pool, and we thought we'd try to understand why? Why do we want to be by water, and why does it make us feel so good? And it’s not just us. Understanding how the power of water makes us healthier and happier is actually a growing field of research. Today, we're diving into our human connection to oceans and how we can...

Last year, the state of Louisiana moved dozens of incarcerated children to an old death row facility at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, the largest maximum security prison in the country. Advocates say the kids — mostly Black youth — are suffering from isolation and extreme heat. And at a recent hearing in Baton Rouge, civil rights lawyers asked a federal judge to take emergency action...

It’s not easy to picture what’s in the air we breathe. But earlier this month, a researcher debuted a new tool that could help visualize pollution in the Gulf South region. The Coastal Desk’s Halle Parker tells us how some environmental groups are already using the new device. Baton Rouge’s Tigerland district, near Louisiana State University, is a popular after-hours hangout for college students,...

This month marks 18 years since Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the southeastern United States, uprooting the lives of many who lived in New Orleans and the surrounding Gulf states. It took the storm only a matter of days to wreak havoc on the region. But it took – and continues to take – years to repair all of the damage, which is just as much emotional and psychological as it is physical.  In...

Public schools in Baton Rouge canceled classes Monday after an employee sickout that began with bus drivers expanded over the weekend to include cafeteria workers. Charles Lussier, reporter for the Baton Rouge Advocate, tells us about the conditions that led to the strike and negotiations between school officials and union representatives.  After 82 years, a Louisiana sailor who died aboard the US...

Today on Louisiana Considered, we bring you the latest episode of our climate change podcast, Sea Change. Humans have always used stories to make sense of the world…that’s just how our brains work. And, so it makes sense that we need stories to help us understand the enormity of climate change. Today, we talk with Jeff Goodell, Katharine Wilkinson, and Nathaniel Rich — three authors who write book...

More than half of Louisiana residents have experienced physical violence in their lifetimes. One in five Louisianans has been threatened or harmed with a gun. Researchers at Tulane University have been studying the impacts of people’s experiences with violence in the Louisiana Study on Violence Experiences Across the Lifespan .    Anita Raj , executive director of Tulane’s Newcomb Institute, led t...

Last week, the state broke ground on its costliest and most controversial project aimed at rebuilding Louisiana’s degraded coastline and maintaining the marsh as sea levels continue to rise. Located in Plaquemines Parish, the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion will totally alter the landscape off the parish’s west bank.   The Coastal Desk’s Halle Parker joins to tell us more about the project and th...

Mississippi’s water has received plenty of scrutiny these last few years. Consumer Reports, Mississippi Today, the Clarion Ledger and Mississippi Public Broadcasting partnered to test water systems all over the state and found widespread contamination. The Gulf States Newsroom’s Danny McArthur joins us to discuss what residents will do now that they know what’s in their water.   Operatic tenor Jam...

In 2020, Lake Charles, Louisiana was devastated by Hurricane Laura. Just six weeks later, the city was hit again by Hurricane Delta.    Today, we listen to a report from The Gulf States Newsroom’s Stephan Bisaha, who traveled to the city to speak with residents about ongoing recovery efforts. He also tells us what’s being done to fortify Lake Charles against future storms.    It’s back-to-school s...

Earlier this week schools across the state opened their doors for the first day of the new year. And at Louisiana State University, students will head to campus in just 2 weeks.  But it wasn’t always that LSU was open to everyone. Back in 1929, the first class of women began living on the university’s new campus. Roughly 30 years later, Black students began living in the dorms as well. Today we ar...

About a year ago, President Joe Biden proposed a highly anticipated plan to erase up to $20,000 dollars in student loan debt per borrower. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately struck down the plan in a 6-3 decision. In late June, Biden announced a new plan to cancel loans by invoking the Department of Education to enact debt forgiveness in their rule-making process, known as the SAVE plan. T...

Graduate assistants — those students seeking master’s degrees and PhDs at universities who often help with research and teaching courses — can sometimes struggle to make ends meet. That’s because their wages are often put directly back into the institution to pay for their degrees. Piper Hutchinson of the Louisiana Illuminator talked with graduate assistants who are calling for higher pay. She joi...