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Behind The Lens episode 272: 'Growing threat'

1 week ago | thelensnola.org | Carolyne Heldman

This week on Behind The Lens, the Calcasieu river’s ongoing pollution, on top of decades of hazardous waste dumping, earned it a top 10 slot on American Rivers’ 2025 list of most endangered rivers. The Orleans Parish School Board heard a settlement offer from the City of New Orleans in a years-old tax lawsuit. The school board contends the city has illegally skimmed millions of tax dollars from schools.
School leaders, board “cautiously optimistic” about city’s settlement offer in tax-skimming lawsuit

1 week ago | thelensnola.org | Marta Jewson

The Orleans Parish School Board will meet Monday morning to consider a settlement offer from the city of New Orleans in a six-year-old legal battle over property taxes. School leaders hope to add money to their strained coffers, though they don’t yet know the offer’s details, they said. Getting to this point has been a political rollercoaster.
LNG terminals threaten to push Calcasieu River pollution ‘beyond repair’

2 weeks ago | thelensnola.org | Delaney Dryfoos

In southwest Louisiana, James Hiatt still considers the Calcasieu River to be sacred fishing grounds. But for decades, Hiatt and other locals have been told that they can get sick from the seafood they catch in the river, which contains mercury and other toxins. As increasing numbers of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) terminals rise up along the river, locals fear that the contamination could worsen rapidly.
In Louisiana's Cancer Alley, a legacy of resistance lives on.

3 weeks ago | thelensnola.org | Ned Randolph

On a recent Wednesday night, three flares were raging from the industrial smoke stacks at Norco Shell, so bright they in could be seen miles away from the interstate at the Bonnet Carré Spillway. They were my guide to Woodland Plantation in La Place, Louisiana, whose new owners were commemorating the site of the largest enslaved revolt in U.S. history.
Behind The Lens episode 271: 'Death warrant'

4 weeks ago | thelensnola.org | Carolyne Heldman

This week on Behind The Lens, a court order last year mandated some protections for incarcerated men at Angola who work the Farm Line for little or no compensation in the brutal summer heat. In response, state officials made few meaningful improvements to conditions. This summer, newly instituted policies could make things even worse.
One Iowa landowner fights to farm a designated wetland. Others could face consequences downstream

1 month ago | thelensnola.org | Jared Strong |Jess Savage |Illan Martin Ireland

DELAWARE, Iowa — In northeast Iowa, a wispy stand of trees looks out of place. It is surrounded by crop fields on the north side of a four-lane highway, an oasis of nature that is uncommon in rural Iowa, where farming every inch of land is paramount. Its owner hopes to cut and till it for cropland. But he can’t do it without risking his business. For now.
‘A living laboratory’: An accidental delta taught Louisiana scientists how to rebuild wetlands

1 month ago | thelensnola.org | Elise Plunk |Eva Tesfaye

ST. MARY PARISH, La. — Amid the rapid erosion of Louisiana’s coast, something hopeful is happening where the Atchafalaya River meets the Gulf. A flow of sediment from a decades-old river diversion has accidentally given birth to new wetlands. While that small delta is dwarfed by what’s washing away all around it, researchers have gained knowledge from Wax Lake Delta that could help save the rest of Louisiana’s coast and contribute to a better understanding of wetland science across the globe.
Framing wetlands as a flooding solution won bipartisan support in Wisconsin. Could it work elsewhere?

1 month ago | thelensnola.org | Madeline Heim |Caitlin Looby

ASHLAND, Wis. — In less than 10 years, three catastrophic floods ravaged northwestern Wisconsin and changed the way people think about water. The most severe, in July 2016, slammed Ashland with up to 10 inches of rain in less than a day — a month’s worth of rain fell in just two hours. As rivers swelled to record highs, major highways broke into pieces and culverts washed away. It took months for roads to reopen, with more than $41 million in damage across seven counties.
Lycée Français forked over $408k after error during last renovation

1 month ago | thelensnola.org | Marta Jewson

After missing a crucial step in the renovation of its Leonidas campus, Lycée Français de la Nouvelle Orléans ended up paying more than $408,000 in property taxes — even though public schools are exempt from such charges in Orleans Parish. Footed by taxpayers, the costly error is the kind of problem that can occur when novice boards – like those that commonly oversee charter schools in the city’s decentralized system – are in charge of multi-million projects, experts say.
Behind The Lens episode 270: 'The wrong schools'

1 month ago | thelensnola.org | Carolyne Heldman

This week on Behind The Lens, the Louisiana Department of Education and Orleans Parish School Board have asked a federal judge to release them from a decade-old decision forcing them to operate under a consent decree which was instituted on behalf of special-education students who weren’t receiving proper services in the early days of New Orleans’ charter school system.