A preponderance of local homes have lead in their water, if the startling results from tests by the Water Collaborative of Greater New Orleans are representative of the entire city. For months, the nonprofit Water Collaborative collected water samples from homes across Orleans Parish. Eighty-eight percent of homes tested positive...

This week on Behind The Lens, in violation of state law the Jackson Parish Jail had been housing kids awaiting trial without the required license to house them — and, somehow, without the knowledge of the Department of Children and Family Services, the agency that was overseeing juvenile-detention facilities at the time.

FALL SEMESTER IS IN FULL SWING at Tulane University. However, for senior Emma De Leon, it’s a bittersweet time. Last year, De Leon dedicated her time to the construction of a document which was meant to convince Tulane to divest from fossil fuels in what she called the ‘culmination of many hours of research, discussion, writing, and collaboration’. But now in her last year, De Leon has to ensure that the momentum she gave the movement doesn’t die out when she graduates.

A new Louisiana law was designed to limit reproductive rights in the state. But the pill it restricts is key to the survival of patients experiencing miscarriages or giving birth. In 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Louisiana’s so-called trigger law immediately went into effect, banning abortion...

On Saturday afternoon, I sat down for two-and-a-half hours with a group of young African American men, between the ages of 18 and 22, hearing what they think about our city. They all graduated from high school. They are registered to vote. All of them work two jobs, taking care of themselves while handing over much of their paychecks to support their households, which include their parents, siblings, nieces and nephews.

Residents of St. James Parish are asking a federal court, again, to bar future heavy-industrial construction in the parish’s Black communities, which are beset by high rates of asthma, cancer and maternal-health risks. On Monday, members of Inclusive Louisiana, Rise St. James and Mount Triumph Baptist Church will enter...

This week on Behind The Lens, Louisiana became the first state in the nation to classify two medications commonly used in maternal health care as Schedule IV controlled substances. That requires the drugs be kept under lock and key. And mayors along the Mississippi River are working together to keep the river navigable during drought.

It’s become an all-too-familiar lament in New Orleans that the charter school system lacks accountability and transparency. Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans (LFNO), where three of my five children are enrolled, has long been caught in a tug-of-war between the administration and the community they’re supposed to serve.

The Lens won four first-place awards and several additional top honors from the annual Press Club of New Orleans awards in 2024. First place in Feature Reporting/Serious Feature: Katy Reckdahl for “Revell Andrews: Picture of Potential”. First place in Education Reporting: Marta Jewson and Katy Reckdahl for “Living School...

In early April, inspectors from the state’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) traveled to north Louisiana to visit the Jackson Parish Jail. Their mission was to determine whether the jail should be licensed to hold youth being detained pre-trial. The visit was belated. For months prior, Jackson...

This week on Behind The Lens, in one of its first moves since taking over licensing and oversight from the Department of Children and Family Services, the state Office of Juvenile Justice has authorized the use of mace and pepper spray in local juvenile detention facilities. Venture Global, the large...

NEW ORLEANS —— During pregnancy, the amount of blood in the body increases 50%. But it can dip to low – and deadly – levels within minutes. Pregnancy complications, most often during delivery and miscarriage, can trigger critical, excessive bleeding. That bleeding, postpartum hemorrhage, is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide.

Baton Rouge, La. — Mayors from 10 states along the Mississippi River convened in Louisiana’s capital this week to announce a cooperative agreement between the working river’s ports. In town for the annual Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative (MRCTI) meeting, the mayors also called upon the...

This week on Behind the Lens, a dozen insurance companies went belly-up after the 2020 and 2021 hurricane seasons with even more companies announcing they will no longer provide insurance in the state in the intervening years. Now, politicians are stepping in with different proposals they say will help homeowners.

On the Gulf Coast, as attention has turned to the development of Tropical Storm Francine, employees within Venture Global’s liquified natural gas (LNG) plant in Plaquemines Parish are preparing for the upcoming storm – among other things. Just last week, federal regulators gave Venture Global the go-ahead to start cooling the plant’s equipment ahead of the export of its first cargo of LNG.

In one of its first moves since taking over licensing and oversight from the Department of Children and Family Services, the state Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ) has authorized the use of mace and pepper spray in local juvenile detention facilities. OJJ had already sanctioned the use of mace and...

Lens reporter Marta Jewson wrote this piece for a series on covering school closures. It is reprinted here with permission from The Grade. School closures are different in New Orleans — not the closures themselves, which happen annually in the nation’s only marketplace-model essentially all-charter city, but in how highly decentralized the schools are and in the history of parental disenfranchisement that marks the city’s history.

This week on Behind The Lens, a discussion with Deborah G. Plant, an independent scholar and author of the book “Of Greed and Glory: In Pursuit of Freedom for All” in which she analyzes the many ways in which slavery continues in America today and charts our collective course toward personal sovereignty for all.

Three years after Hurricane Ida made landfall in southern Louisiana, many homeowners are still struggling to afford the cost to insure their homes. Since Ida, rates for customers of Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-run insurer of last resort, have increased by 164% on average, according to data analyzed by The Times-Picayune.

On this week’s episode, in what some critics are calling “greenwashing”, a prominent University of Louisiana Lafayette agreed to help spread fossil fuel industry talking points on social media and in op-ed pieces for newspapers. The unusual arrangement is part of larger, national pattern according to a congressional report.