opinion

Danae Columbus: Catholic school graduates continue tradition of public service

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What do Judge Kern Reese, Councilmember Kristin Gisleson Palmer, Sheriff Marlin Gusman, State
Rep. Royce Duplessis, Judge Paul Bonin and Clerk of First City Court Austin Badon all have in common? Their Catholic school education helped mold them into the public servants they are today. Catholic schools have been prominent in New Orleans since 1727 when Governor Bienville invited the Ursuline nuns to establish a school and orphanage here. What makes Catholic school graduates want to become servant leaders? “Serving the community was an important part of what the Josephite fathers drilled in us every day,” said Badon, one of dozens of current or former elected officials who graduated from St.

crime

Woman beaten, robbed at gunpoint outside Third Street home, police say

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A woman was beaten to the ground and robbed at gunpoint outside her home on Third Street early Thursday morning, New Orleans police said. The victim, a woman in her 30s, was “walking through the gate of her home” in the 1800 block of Third Street (between Dryades and Baronne streets) around 2:40 a.m. Thursday (July 18), when an unknown assailant approached from behind her, according to the initial NOPD report. “The subject struck the victim in the head and the victim fell to the ground,” the report states. “The subject pointed a gun at the victim mouth and demanded property. The victim complied.”

crime

Suspect in Vincennes Place auto burglary caught on camera, police say

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A man who ransacked a Broadmoor resident’s pickup truck earlier this month was caught on surveillance camera, and investigators are hoping the public can help identify him, New Orleans police said. The suspect arrived in the 4000 block of Vincennes Place in a gray 2010 Toyota Tundra around 5:30 p.m. July 5 and got out of the passenger side, according to a NOPD report. He opened the victim’s car door and got in for a few seconds, then tried the victim’s second vehicle but could not find an unlocked door, so he departed in the same pickup he arrived in, the report states. The victim later found that the first car had been ransacked and that his wallet had been taken from it, the report states. The Toyota pickup truck the suspect arrived in had a Louisiana handicapped license plate (H314660), and police learned it had been stolen two days prior from the intersection of Vincent Road and Linden Street in New Orleans East, the report states.

weather

Barry upgraded to hurricane, moves slowly across southern Louisiana

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Barry reached hurricane strength late Saturday morning with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph, crawling northwest at 6 mph through southern Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center said in its 10 a.m. update. The storm remained about south of Lafayette, and 50 miles west of Morgan City at 10 a.m., the hurricane center said. Its hurricane-strength winds were about 45 miles from the center, but tropical-storm winds could be felt as far as 175 miles away. “As it moves inland, Barry is forecast to weaken below hurricane strength in the next few hours, and it is forecast to weaken to a tropical depression on Sunday,” meteorologists said. As rain bands continue to come ashore, a high risk of flooding remains, the forecasters warned.

weather

Morning rains bring 8 inches of water, city says; many neighborhoods report flooding

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Heavy rainfall Wednesday morning brought as much as eight inches of rain to the streets in three hours, city officials said, out pacing the city’s drainage system and causing flooding across many Uptown neighborhoods from Carrollton to the Lower Garden District. Tornado and flash-flood warnings were issued throughout the morning, until the rain began clearing closer to noon. Residents shared social-media photos of kayakers on Magazine Street in the Lower Garden District and Irish Channel, as well as on Freret Street, while many side streets along Carrollton Avenue were covered in water too deep to drive through safely. “Residents are asked to stay off of the roads until water recedes,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s office said in a news release. “As of 11 a.m., standing water remained on many roads throughout the city and the National Weather Service extended a Flash Flood Warning through 1:45 p.m.”

crime

Two men robbed at gunpoint on Erato Street, police say

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Two men walking on Erato Street were robbed at gunpoint Sunday evening, New Orleans police said. The victims, one man in his 20s and one in his 30s, were walking in the 1800 block of Erato Street (near Baronne Street) when an unknown man with a gun accosted them from behind, according to NOPD reports. He took their belongings and left, driving off in an early-2000s white Chevrolet Tahoe, the report states. Further details were not immediately available. Anyone with information is urged to call the NOPD Sixth District station at 504-658-6060 to speak to a detective, or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111 to leave an anonymous tip that could be eligible for a cash reward.

weather

Rainy weekend ahead as Gulf storm organizes, forecasters say

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Heavy rain is expected in New Orleans this weekend as showers over the Florida Panhandle are moving into the Gulf of Mexico and developing into stronger storm system, the National Hurricane Center warned Tuesday morning. The storm system is expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico today (July 9), and could become a tropical depression Wednesday or Thursday while continuing to move west, forecasters with the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at 6 a.m. Tuesday. “Once the system is over water, environmental conditions are expected to be conducive for tropical cyclone formation,” the advisory reads. “Regardless of whether or not a tropical cyclone forms, this system has the potential to produce heavy rainfall along portions of the northern and eastern U.S. Gulf Coast later this week.” The city of New Orleans encouraged residents to be prepared for heavy rain, though the amounts will be difficult to predict until the storm organizes further.

elections

Gov. John Bel Edwards kicks off re-election campaign with Lower Garden District rally (full video)

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Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards kicked off his re-election campaign Monday morning with a rally in the Lower Garden District, drawing a crowd of New Orleans supporters with his message of progress on health care and the economy and promises of more funding for public education. Edwards, an Army veteran and attorney from Amite who served as a Democrat in the state House of Representatives, was elected governor in 2015 over Republican former U.S. Sen. David Vitter, filling the vacancy left by his term-limited predecessor, Bobby Jindal. On Monday morning, Edwards met with a packed room of supporters on Thalia Street to launch his re-election campaign in New Orleans. Edwards based the case for re-election on two of his early priorities — expanding health care coverage to thousands of Louisianans under the Affordable Care Act, and filling the budget deficits he said he inherited from the Jindal administration. “Bobby Jindal is so far in the rearview mirror today we can just about forget about him,” Edwards said.

opinion

Danae Columbus: What to the immigrant is the Fourth of July?

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On July 5, 1852 former slave, abolitionist and orator Frederick Douglass delivered an impassioned speech — known today as “What to the Slave is the 4th of July” — to President Millard Fillmore, congressional leaders and members of the Ladies Anti-Slavery Society at Rochester New York’s Corinthian Hall. Douglass’s stirring words struck at the heart of racial and social injustice as he chastised his predominately white audience for their hypocrisy. In that era, our country’s leading elected leaders enslaved Africans while espousing freedom, justice and equality. Not too much has changed in 150 years. While many – but not all – descendants of enslaved Africans have made great strides, America’s new hypocrisy also includes the way our government treats current migrants fleeing from war, gang violence or economic hardship in Central America and the Middle East.

crime

New Second District commander to broadcast weekly crime meetings via live video

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Residents of the New Orleans Police Department’s Uptown-based Second District will soon have an entirely new level of access to crime information in their neighborhoods, as the district’s recently-appointed commander plans to begin broadcasting his weekly meetings using live video. Commander Jeff Walls previously served in the Third District — which covers lakefront neighborhoods like Lakeview and Gentilly — and had a similar program there. Every week, when Walls would conduct his regular meeting with supervising officers in the district, the meeting would be broadcast over the Internet using Facebook’s live video feature. The Third District had around 30 different neighborhood groups that had an interest in crime, Walls said, and their leaders would regularly tune into the Facebook live broadcasts. They could even type questions into Facebook as comments that Walls or other officers could answer during the meetings, he said.