Safura Syed

1 week ago | yahoo.com | Safura Syed

Sharon Lavigne, founder of the environmental justice group Rise St. James, holds a sign while pointing out where her property was damaged by high wind during Hurricane Francine. (Drew Costley/ Verite News)As a resident of St. James Parish, Barbara Washington is already surrounded by plastics manufacturers, chemical companies and natural gas refineries that populate the parish.

1 week ago | veritenews.org | Safura Syed

As a resident of St. James Parish, Barbara Washington is already surrounded by plastics manufacturers, chemical companies and natural gas refineries that populate the parish. But the local government is looking to pave the way for more industry — at the expense of her community’s health, she told Verite News.

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Safura Syed

Revelers gather on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter on Aug. 13, 2021, in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)NEW ORLEANS – The City Council committee voted Monday to advance an ordinance that protects sex workers from prosecution and arrest when reporting a crime and to prevent admittance of condom possession as evidence for prostitution.

3 weeks ago | veritenews.org | Safura Syed

Unionized nurses at University Medical Center announced Monday (April 21) that they will hold a one-day strike on May 1, timed to coincide with international labor holiday May Day and a busy Jazz Fest weekend. Nurses have been negotiating their contract with LCMC Health, the private nonprofit that manages the public hospital, for over a year. The nurses have been advocating for higher wages, better retention rates and more worker safety measures since they started negotiations last March.

4 weeks ago | veritenews.org | Safura Syed

The federal government has terminated two grants for African American history and culture awarded to the Whitney Plantation, a museum aimed at memorializing slavery, as the Trump administration works to strip federal funding from arts and cultural institutions. The Institute of Museum and Library Services ended grants awarded through a program aimed at supporting African American museums last week.