Louisiana Considered

The Lafayette Consolidated Government and the 15th Judicial District Court are shutting down “nuisance” properties. In the past week, they closed the Express Inn and Plantation Motor Inn, and plan to close five more properties in the coming weeks. The process is displacing many unhoused people who lived there.  Anna Oakes and Stephen Marcantel , reporters for The Current, have been closely followi...

Earlier this month, a mishap during routine maintenance accidentally misclassified 67,000 Louisiana voters as inactive. The Secretary of State’s office said the issue is already on its way to being fully corrected, but what questions does this bring up about how human error can impact who is able to vote?  Greg LaRose, editor-in-chief at the Louisiana Illuminator, joins us with the latest.  In lat...

  One of Louisiana’s four remaining Medicaid programs may end its coverage for the Ochsner network, potentially impacting 70,000 patients across the state. Ochsner describes itself as the largest Medicaid healthcare provider in Louisiana and has facilities in nearly every region in the state.  Louisiana Illuminator reporter Julie O’Donoghue has been covering this story. She joins us with the lates...

The midterm elections are quickly approaching, and Louisiana has 10 constitutional amendments on the ballot covering a number of issues.  Stephanie Grace , editorial director and columnist at the Times Picayune/The Advocate, joins us to break down the ballot, the public response and why Gov. Landry is not weighing in.  The Louisiana Shrimp Festival returns this weekend at the Broadside. The event...

Hurricane Isaias is officially behind us, and our neighbors along the Gulf Coast are picking up the pieces from this storm. But what can this hurricane tell us about the current state of tropical weather forecasting?  Climatologist Jay Grymes joins us to discuss advancements in forecasting, what storm tracking reveals about potential damage and the state of weather communication and preparation. ...

As we mark Hispanic Heritage Month, we’re looking at the work of immigrant-led organizations across Louisiana. Union Migrante organizes and advocates for immigrant communities statewide, including during “Catahoula Crunch” — a period of heightened immigration enforcement that brought new attention to immigrant families’ experiences in Louisiana.  Rachel Tayber and Sam Cabrera of Union Migrante joi...

Communities across Florida and Alabama are in cleanup mode in the wake of Hurricane Isaias. At least four people were killed. The storm has left a wide swath of damage, and so far, around 400,000 customers lost electricity in the immediate aftermath.  NPR's Debbie Elliott details how the recovery is going in the Florida Panhandle town of Milton.   When Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevot w...

Isaias has been upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane and is set to make landfall overnight.  The storm is headed towards the Gulf Coast and likely to impact several states. Communities spanning from the Louisiana coast to the Florida panhandle are all on storm watch.  Meteorologist Dan Holiday joins us with the latest. A few months ago, a big storm came to Sesame Street. With extreme weather becomin...

The midterm elections are heating up across the country. In Louisiana, the Nov. 3 ballot will have constitutional amendments, six congressional seats, a host of trial judges, appellate and one State Supreme Court race. The ballot also includes a Public Service Commission race and the U.S. Senate race to replace Bill Cassidy.  Stephanie Grace , editorial director and columnist at the Times Picayune...

In 1985, St. Bernard Parish Pet Cemetery owner Dorothy Lou Thompson disappeared. Her body later turned up mysteriously in the Mississippi River, but initial investigations went cold. Decades later, a new witness came forward claiming that Dorothy’s ghost pushed him to talk.  A new HBO docuseries “The Pet Cemetery Murders” dives into the story. Director Phillip Cairney joins us with more.  Artifici...

Election Day is a month away, and the latest polls predict a blue wave in both the House and the Senate. Special education teacher, union member and DSA-backed candidate Lauren Jewett is one of the Democrats hoping to unseat Republican incumbent Steve Scalise for Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District.  Jewett joins us to talk about what she’s learned from her previous campaigns, her political vie...

Last December, officers with Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement embarked on Operation Catahoula Crunch, arresting more than 350 Louisiana residents. While operations have scaled back, arrests targeting immigrant communities are back on the rise.  The Lens reporter Delaney Nolan recently published a data analysis of who ICE is arresting and where. She joins us for more on her...

For the last several months, Gulf States Newsroom reporter Drew Hawkins  has been investigating non-disclosure agreements that Louisiana politicians have been signing regarding data centers — in particular, the massive data center underway in Richland Parish. Recently, he learned of ties between Meta, the company that owns the data center, and the owner of the media group that runs the Times-Picay...

 Country music legend and world-renowned philanthropist Dolly Parton passed away just over a month ago. Among the hundreds of commemorations across the world, New Orleans honored her by doing what the city does best: a second-line jazz funeral. Louisiana Considered intern Ryann Goldberg joined in on the fun, speaking with some of the thousands of participants.  The Capital Area Autism Network is r...

Social media has changed who gets to tell stories—and who audiences turn to for information. Influencers can reach thousands of people instantly, sometimes faster than traditional news organizations. But at the end of the day, influencers are not journalists.  New Orleans influencer Aubrey Avocado joins us to discuss the power of having an audience, the trust that comes with it, and the distinctio...

Last month, Gov. Jeff Landry announced a SpaceX launch site is coming to South Louisiana. Educational and economic development organizations are now retooling their workforce training programs in preparation for potential job opportunities.  Christiaan Mader, founder of the Current in Lafayette, tells us more.   New Orleans may be losing its accent. In a recent study by the American Dialect Societ...

We love our beaches. We build homes beside them, vacation on them, and spend billions of dollars trying to keep them from disappearing. But beaches are supposed to move—and as sea levels rise, keeping them in place is becoming more expensive, more difficult, and possibly impossible. So what happens when the sand, the money, and the time start running out? Coastal geologist Rob Young says we’re goi...

It’s Thursday, and that means it’s time to hear the latest on politics with The Times-Picayune/The Advocate’s editorial director and columnist, Stephanie Grace . Today we discuss the New Orleans budget and the plan to dig the city out of its major deficit.  Federal funds that helped unhoused people get off the streets could be taken away by the state, forcing them to move into a temporary shelter...

People on probation and parole are responsible for covering part of the cost of their community supervision. Some of those are one-time expenses. But many of them are monthly payments that can add up. Elise Gregg from the Gulf States Newsroom spoke to people across the region about the financial burdens that come with being on parole. For years, Anita Raj, executive director of Tulane’s Newcomb In...

Every year, COVID case numbers spike at the end of the summer, and this year is no exception.    Dr. Jennifer Avegno , an emergency medical physician and New Orleans Deputy Mayor of Health and Human Services, joins us to discuss the latest spike. Orleans Parish students are seeing some of the biggest academic gains in the country, according to a new report from Stanford and Harvard researchers, ra...

Since the start of this academic year, LSU has closed or repurposed multiple cultural centers on campus. The LGBTQ+ Center closed entirely, and the African American Cultural Center and Women’s Center are grappling with a major overhaul.  LSU Reveille Senior News Reporter Vivian Sarhan has been following this closely and joins us with the latest.  Rural hospitals and medical services across the cou...

It’s the 40th anniversary of the Baton Rouge Interfaith Federation, a nonprofit that brings people of different faiths together to educate and support the community. They work together to coordinate charitable projects between faith communities to better distribute resources.  Alex Cox, our Report for America Corps member and Baton Rouge reporter, took this opportunity to have a roundtable discuss...

It’s Thursday and that means it’s time to catch up on politics with The Times-Picayune/The Advocate’s editorial director and columnist, Stephanie Grace. Today, we discuss the New Orleans city budget and why residents are speaking out against the latest proposals.  We are still in the midst of hurricane season in Louisiana, and in New Orleans community groups are constantly brainstorming ways to ke...

Tribal colleges and universities are higher education institutions chartered by Native American tribes. There are more than 30 of them across the country – but none in the Gulf South. Elise Gregg of the Gulf States Newsroom spoke to indigenous students around the region who don’t have a tribal college of their own. Artificial intelligence is becoming unavoidable. It’s not just data centers, the en...

Most Americans don’t want data centers built near their homes. But jobs can be a selling point, even if they’re temporary. The Gulf States Newsroom’s Aubri Juhasz visited a community college near the Richland Parish Meta data center that’s helping locals get hired. A grocery store dating back to the 1930s sat vacant in the Holy Cross neighborhood of New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward for more than 20 ye...