Lycée Francais board votes to make offer on Priestley building

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The board of directors overseeing Lycée Francais de la Nouvelle-Orleans have decided to make an offer to buy the old Alfred C. Priestley Junior High School building from the Orleans Parish School Board. “We’re excited about the property and what we can do there,” said board member Mary Jacobs Jones, who is chair of the school’s facilities committee. The board unanimously voted to submit an offer letter for the long-shuttered west Carrolton school building Friday, the day the bid closes to schools. Under state law, charter schools have first dibs at the Priestley building, because it is currently considered surplus by the OPSB and slated for public auction. Other charter schools could seek to buy the building as well, but any charter school has priority over private developers at this stage.

politics

NOPD getting ready for Operation Save America anti-abortion protests

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The New Orleans Police Department’s Second District is preparing for Operation Save America anti-abortion protests planned for Uptown starting this weekend, police said at a meeting in headquarters Friday. Operation Save America, a fundamentalist Christian conservative organization that opposes abortion, has planned a series of protests from Saturday (July 19) to July 26 that they refer to as “Battle for the Heart and Soul of New Orleans.” The movement is sparked by Planned Parenthood’s designs for a new 7,000-square-foot facility on South Claiborne Avenue that would perform abortions, according to the organization’s website. “We have some unfinished Kingdom business to complete as we seek the Lord to uproot and overthrow these altars of Moloch,” Operation Save America representatives wrote on the website. Organizers claim that the city’s number of what they refer to as “death camps” have whittled down to one in New Orleans proper, from 8 in 1995.

arts, books and music

‘How Stella Got Her Groove Back’ author to present latest novel at Octavia Books

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Terry McMillan, a New York Times bestselling author, will read her new book “Who Asked You?” at Octavia Books tonight. The event is scheduled at the bookstore on 513 Octavia Street at 7 p.m.
For more information, read the Octavia Books posting below:

Family ties are tested and transformed in the new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author of Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back.  WHO ASKED YOU? opens as Trinetta leaves her two young sons with her mother, Betty Jean, and promptly disappears.

schools

Lycee Francais still deciding when to begin middle-school expansion

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The governing board of Lycée Français de la Nouvelle-Orléans is still contemplating when to begin its expansion into the middle school grades — whether to wait until its current students reach those levels, or to begin adding those grades earlier. During a meeting held Tuesday evening, board member Mary Jacobs Jones presented three options for expanding the French immersion school to include middle school grades. The school’s charter currently calls for an expansion to add sixth and ninth grades in the 2015-16 school year, two years from now. One option would be to continue with that plan, according to Jones. The school would have to hire at least three new teachers and possibly a new administrator to oversee the new section.

crime

Two teen co-perpetrators charged in Panola Street home-invasion, police say

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Solving the second of four major recent home invasion cases in the Carrollton area, investigators have charged two teens with participating in a home-invasion last week on Panola Street in which two women were tied up and robbed, New Orleans police said. Aaron Johnson, 17, and Kevin Jones, 18, are both charged with armed robbery, false imprisonment with a weapon and aggravated burglary in the April 4 attack on Panola Street, police said. Police had previously arrested 21-year-old James Johnson on Wednesday evening after finding him in a home on Hickory Street where he had just raped a woman, and he confessed to participating in the Panola Street case, officials said at the time. On Friday at the citywide meeting of NOPD ranking officers, Second District Commander Paul Noel praised the arrests as the result of hard work done by investigators. “That was amazing work by the detectives,” Noel said during a meeting in headquarters Friday.

city government

Property tax for Audubon Zoo, Aquarium on the ballot Saturday

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On Saturday (March 15), Orleans Parish voters will decide on more than just runoff races for City Council seats. A property tax worth up to $11.9 million a year is up for vote for the Audubon Nature Institute, the organization that supports the Uptown-located Audubon Zoo, as well as the Aquarium downtown and other sites around the city. Supporters of the millage say it is a renewal of an already-existing tax. But dissenters say that it’s a new tax, because it could mark an increase in funds for the Institute for a period of 50 years. “The millage is critical to Audubon and the success we’ve had over the years,” Audubon Nature Institute CEO Ron Forman said in a campaign supporting the proposed millage tax renewal.

crime

Police investigating armed robbery on Magazine Street

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Police are investigating an armed robbery that occurred Thursday afternoon in American Apparel, located at 3310 Magazine Street between Louisiana and Toledano streets, according to an incident report from New Orleans police and employees working in the area. The suspect walked into the store around 2:40pm, and then spent nearly two hours asking the store’s employees their opinions on different articles of clothing, according to a police report by Officer Frank Robertson. The man walked to the cash register as if he was about to check out, when he produced a semi-automatic pistol and pointed at the clerk and demanded she open the register, according to the report. The employee handed the over $800 in cash, police said. He also ran ourt of the store with over $200 in merchandise, according to the report.

arts, books and music

Three local shops to make way for NYC tenant in new Magazine Street development

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An upcoming redevelopment slated for three buildings on the corner of Magazine and Nashville streets means that a handful of local shops are moving to make way for a New York City-based business, small business owners and the location’s development company said this week. Butler Callahan Holdings development company bought the property on the 5700 block of Magazine, in an area that currently houses the three specialty shops Rare Cuts, Vom Fass and Parcels and Post.  Ben Butler, a managing partner of the company, said Thursday that while he can’t yet announce the name of any new businesses slated to take over the spot, he can say that the company is “in lease negotiations with a very exciting tenant out of New York City.” “It’s going to be a great addition to the neighborhood,” Butler said. “We have a lot of interest in the property.” Butler expects construction to begin in May.

blight and demolition

New ‘lot maintenance program’ allows city to cut grass on blighted private property, on owner’s dime

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A new “lot maintenance program” passed by New Orleans City Council will allow the city to cut grass on blighted private property, recording the cost on that property owner’s tax bill. The program, created as part of an amendment to an existing ordinance, allows the city to cut overgrowth, remove debris and perform routine maintenance on a private lot if the grass or growth is over 18 inches, there is trash or debris and/or if there is “noxious” growth, such as poison ivy, according to a presentation given by city administration in a Housing and Human Needs committee last month. “We have all seen these lots that look like jungles, we all know how much they hurt the redevelopment of our communities,” Councilwoman Stacy Head said at the committee meeting. “Bottom line, we need to get the grass cut and we need to make it happen faster. This ordinance is designed to do just that.”

city government

Prison reform symposium to be held at Loyola’s College of Law

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The controversial Orleans Parish Prison consent decree will be discussed during a symposium on prison reform this Friday. The Prison Reform: Progress, Policies & Practices symposium will “initiate a dialogue between legal practitioners, community activists and others involved with reshaping the U.S. prison system,” according to a press release. Legal experts, criminal justice advocates and watchdogs will speak at the event, held at the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. For more information, read the press release below:
Legal experts, criminal justice advocates and watchdogs will convene Friday, Feb. 7 at the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law to discuss and explore effective prison reform, including an examination of the controversial consent decree in New Orleans.