crime

‘Reznor’ graffiti taggers caught on surveillance camera on Camp Street, police say

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A group of graffiti taggers writing the name ‘Reznor’ — which appears on signs and buildings across Uptown and much of the rest of New Orleans — were caught on video in the Central Business District earlier this month, New Orleans police said. Four taggers scrawled the word on “several window of a downtown restaurant” in the 300 block of Camp Street around 12:45 a.m. Aug. 19, according to a NOPD report. They then left toward Poydras Street, the report states. “Two out of four subjects were observed wearing white latex gloves during the incident,” the report states.

schools

Orleans schools closed Tuesday amid flooding concerns

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All Orleans Parish School Board and Recovery School District campuses in New Orleans will be closed Tuesday amid concerns about flooding, and may remain closed later in the week depending on the weather, officials said. For details, see the news release from the Orleans Parish School Board below:

Due to the threat of severe weather expected from Tropical Storm Harvey, the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) and Recovery School District (RSD) will close all schools for Tuesday, August 29th. Further announcements concerning school for Wednesday – Friday will be made in a timely fashion based on up to date forecasts. The decision to close school for Tuesday applies to students and classes for all public direct-run and charter schools throughout Orleans Parish. Both OPSB Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr. and RSD Superintendent Kunjan Narechania urge families and staff to adhere to all warnings from the city to ensure their safety.

schools

Lycee leader to step down at school year’s end

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Keith Bartlett — who led Lycee Francais away from the brink of catastrophe five years ago and has since overseen the doubling of its student population and secured a top performance rating from the state — will retire at the end of the 2017-18 school year, he announced. “I was only supposed to be here one year, and this is year number five,” Bartlett said. “It just looks like it’s the right time.” It would be hard to overstate the turmoil that threatened to consume the school prior to Bartlett’s arrival. By midway through the school’s second year, both the school’s founding principal and founding director had departed under disputed circumstances, and the governing board was dealing with a funding shortfall that required unexpected layoffs.

crime

Weekend robberies reported on Jena, Pine streets

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Two women had their purses taken from them by force on Jena and Pine streets Saturday afternoon, New Orleans police said. Shortly before noon Saturday, Aug. 27, a woman in her 40s was sitting in her vehicle with the doors unlocked in the 800 block of Jena Street (near Constance Street) when a stranger opened the door and took her purse off her lap, according to the initial NOPD report in that case. “The victim had a brief struggle with the subject trying to get the purse back,” the report states. “The victim lost grip of the purse and the subject fled the location on a brown bicycle.”

public safety

Threat of heavy rain from Tropical Storm Harvey continues, New Orleans officials say

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While New Orleans was spared the worst of Hurricane Harvey’s possible impacts over the weekend, the meandering tropical storm could still bring a significant amount of rain to the city over the coming week, New Orleans officials said. “Heavy rainfall remains possible through next Sunday with chances of localized flooding occurring,” Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s office said Sunday afternoon. “The current forecast indicates 4 to 10 inches of rain in New Orleans through next Sunday, with some local amounts higher due to potential rain bands. Higher winds should also be anticipated in these rain bands.” The storm’s center is currently on a path to re-enter the Gulf, drifting slowly northeast and strengthening slightly before making a second landfall on Wednesday between Houston and Beaumont, Texas.

business

Rouses on Tchoupitoulas robbed at gunpoint

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The Rouses grocery on Tchoupitoulas Street was robbed at gunpoint early Saturday, New Orleans police said. Around 3:45 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, a man armed with a gun forced two employees inside the store and into the manager’s office, according to the initial NOPD report. Inside, he made one of the workers open the safe, then took the money from it and left, the report states. Further details were not immediately available.

schools

Lusher High School names new principal

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Lusher High School has a new principal for the 2017-18 school year, as its founding leader moves into a support role within the Lusher administration. New principal Steve Corbett, a former teacher and administrator at Lusher High School who has spent the last several years leading schools in New York, briefly introduced himself to the Lusher’s governing board during their first meeting of the school year Saturday morning. Corbett succeeds founding Lusher High School principal Wiley Ates, who is remaining with Lusher in a full-time support role, CEO Kathy Riedlinger said. She said she and Ates began discussing the transition during the last school year, after decades of working together dating back to their time at John Dibert school in the 1970s. “If I could have picked anybody I knew in the city of New Orleans to be the founding principal of Lusher High School, it would have been Wiley Ates,” Riedlinger recalled Saturday.

crime

Two wounded in shooting on Magazine Street

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Two people were wounded in a shooting Friday afternoon on Magazine Street in the Lower Garden District, New Orleans police said. Shortly after 3:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, 25-year-old James Alexander and another man got into a “physical altercation” near Magazine Street and St. Mary streets, according to the initial NOPD report. Guns were drawn and shooting began, leaving two victims — ages 20 and 24 — both wounded, the report states.

weather

Hurricane Harvey effects begin to arrive on Texas coast; rainy remnants may drift toward Louisiana

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The effects of Hurricane Harvey are beginning to be felt along the Southern coast of Texas on Friday morning, but the National Hurricane Center predicts the system to slowly drift northeast back towards Louisiana into next week, bringing rainfall that could once again test New Orleans’ beleagured pumps. Harvey should draw near to the coast near Corpus Christi, Texas, by Friday evening, according to the 10 a.m. forecast from the National Hurricane Center. Its path will continue northwest into Texas through Sunday, at which time the models suggest it could bend back out toward the Gulf of Mexico again and travel up the Texas coast toward Houston and Galveston, retaining tropical-storm strength even through Wednesday. New Orleans city officials and a National Weather Service meteorologist are expected to give an update on expected effects for New Orleans at 2 p.m. Friday.