Halle Parker

New Orleans

Health Reporter at Verite

Covering the environment & communities who rely on it 🌱 for @WWNO + breakfast enthusiast, VA native, @sejorg board, @longwoodu, she/her ⚽️ [email protected]

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Articles

Lawsuit alleges Louisiana law undermines community air monitoring

2 weeks ago | veritenews.org | Halle Parker

Six Louisiana environmental and community groups are asking a federal court to bar the state from enforcing a law that makes it harder for residents in industrial areas to share data collected from their own air monitoring of petrochemical facilities. The state law went into effect just under a year ago with the support of the petrochemical industry, whose facilities are excluded from the law.
Effort to make ‘intentional exposure’ to STDs a crime in Louisiana fails

4 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Halle Parker

Rep. Patricia Moore, D-Monroe, at the Louisiana State Capitol on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (John Gray/Verite News)A Louisiana House committee shelved a bill Wednesday that would have made it illegal for someone to “intentionally” expose another person to an “incurable” sexually transmitted disease after steep concerns that criminalization could worsen the state’s proliferating STD rates. This was the second time Rep.
La. lawmakers shelve bill criminalizing ‘intentional exposure’ to STDs

1 month ago | shorturl.at | Halle Parker

A Louisiana House committee shelved a bill Wednesday (May 7) that would have made it illegal for someone to “intentionally” expose another person to an “incurable” sexually transmitted disease after steep concerns that criminalization could worsen the state’s proliferating STD rates. This was the second time Rep.
At rural golf resort, Republican state utility regulators end ambitious plan to increase energy efficiency

1 month ago | veritenews.org | Halle Parker

Last year, Louisiana’s top utility regulators passed new standards to create a new, independently managed state program aimed at lowering energy consumption and saving customers money. The standards were more than a decade in the making. Louisiana became the first state in the South to embrace the model. But the move proved short-lived.
Tell me how you’re doing: Meet Verite’s new health reporter

1 month ago | veritenews.org | Halle Parker

“How you doin’?” It’s my favorite Southern greeting. Since moving to Louisiana six years ago, it’s rare for me to walk down the street — or go anywhere, really — without hearing the familiar line. I’m annoyingly polite, so it took me a while to understand that, in this city, this question isn’t really a question. Here, “How you doin’?” is the same as saying “hello.” Even after bouncing from neighborhood to neighborhood, finally settling in the Upper 9th Ward, I still get tripped up sometimes.
Fueling Knowledge, Part Two

2 months ago | wwno.org | Halle Parker

Last time, we learned about the nearly century-old bond between the oil and gas industry and one university — LSU. In the second and final episode of our series, "Fueling Knowledge," we look at how much money is flowing into universities and what the industry may hope to get in return. This relationship comes with big benefits: student mentors, scholarships, research funding, and new buildings, among others. But is all that money truly free? No strings?
Fueling Knowledge: Oil and gas money shapes research, creates ‘echo chamber’ in higher education

2 months ago | floodlightnews.org | Pam Radtke Russell |Halle Parker |Piper Hutchinson |Pam was part

Gulf Coast — 14 min read Listen to the related Sea Change podcast from WWNO/WRKF. Jackson Voss loves his alma mater, Louisiana State University. He appreciates that his undergraduate education was paid for by a program dreamed up by an oil magnate and that he received additional scholarships from ExxonMobil and Shell. But the socially conscious Louisiana native was also aware of what the support of those companies seemed to buy — silence.
Fueling Knowledge: Oil and gas money shapes research, creates ‘echo chamber’ in higher education

2 months ago | yahoo.com | Pam Radtke Russell |Halle Parker |Piper Hutchinson

Louisiana State University President William Tate IV visits Shell’s facility in Convent, La., in 2023 to talk about his plan to focus on five areas at the university, including energy. Shell has announced it will convert the former oil refinery into one that produces lower carbon fuels. (Louisiana State University)This is Part 2 of a two-part investigative project exploring the relationship between the fossil fuel industry and Louisiana State University. Read Part 1 here.
‘Solar for Y’all’ faces hazy future in Louisiana

2 months ago | yahoo.com | Elise Plunk |Halle Parker

Workers install solar panels on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Net-Zero Energy Residential Test Facility in Gaithersburg, Md. (Photo courtesy of NIST)The future of millions of dollars in funding to help low-income Louisiana residents access solar energy has grown increasingly uncertain as the Trump administration attempts to slash grant programs awarded under its predecessor.
Fueling Knowledge: Part One

2 months ago | wwno.org | Halle Parker

Universities have grown increasingly close with the fossil fuel industry. Oil and gas money is flowing into universities around the world, shaping everything from students’ careers to climate research that can influence global energy policy. Some professors and students are sounding the alarm. They worry this influx of fossil fuel money could compromise the credibility of research institutions, tainting the information produced.