News & Politics: Blog of New Orleans, Gambit

NOPD makes another Mother's Day shooting arrest

Alex Woodward — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:13:18 -0500

New Orleans Police Department officers arrested another suspect related to the Mother's Day second line shootings. This afternoon, Monique Pepe, 19, was charged with being an accessory to attempted second degree murder for allegedly hiding 24-year-old Shawn Scott, who was arrested along with his 19-year-old brother Akein Scott.…

Akein Scott's brother and 4 others in custody for Mother's Day shootings

Alex Woodward — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:30:00 -0500

Returning to the intersection of Frenchmen and North Villere streets, city officials and law enforcement announced the capture of second line shooting suspect Akein Scott as well as his brother, 24-year-old Shawn Scott, and four others.

New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Ronal Serpas confirmed Shawn Scott as the second shooting suspect.…

Akein Scott in custody

Alex Woodward — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:15:00 -0500

Akein Scott, the 19-year-old suspect in the Mother's Day second line shootings, was arrested from a home in the Little Woods neighborhood in eastern New Orleans late last night. He appeared in Orleans Parish Magistrate Court this morning with bail set at $500,000 for each charge — Scott was booked with 20 counts of attempted second degree murder.…

Original Big 7 will "re-do" Mother's Day second line

Alex Woodward — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:02:00 -0500

Original Big 7 Social Aid & Pleasure Club organizers announced it will "re-do" its second line parade, interrupted by the shooting at its Mother's Day procession, at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 1. It will follow the same route.…

The Mother's Day shootings: What constitutes an act of terror?

Kevin Allman — Tue, 14 May 2013 18:00:41 -0500

On Sunday, hours after the Mother’s Day shooting in the Seventh Ward, FBI New Orleans spokeswoman Mary Beth Romig told the Associated Press the gunfire that injured 19 people was, as far as federal investigators knew, not an act of terrorism. “It’s strictly an act of street violence,” Romig said.…

Mother's Day shooting suspect had prior arrests

Alex Woodward — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:50:31 -0500

A few hours following a community rally at the site of the Mother's Day second line shooting, New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) officials named Akein Scott, 19, as the suspect, seen in the surveillance footage.

This is not Scott's first brush with the law.…

Photos: Community rally gathers at site of second line shooting

Alex Woodward — Mon, 13 May 2013 22:33:26 -0500

As sun set at the intersection of Frenchmen and North Villere streets, 200 people gathered at the site of yesterday's Original Big 7 Social Aid and Pleasure Club's annual Mother's Day second line, which ended prematurely as 19 people were injured in a shooting. Mayor Mitch Landrieu, members of New Orleans City Council, community leaders and others spoke into a microphone at the center of the intersection.…

Officials update Mother's Day second line shooting

Alex Woodward — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:30:29 -0500

New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) and federal authorities gathered outside NOPD headquarters this afternoon to provide updates following the shooting at a second line yesterday that injured 19 people, three critically.

NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas said most of the wounds were "superficial, glancing wounds," though those that remain in critical condition faced "direct gunshot wounds."

"We have no ability to give you the condition of persons who went through surgery today, but we know they’re still receiving medical attention," Serpas said.

Investigators are still trying to determine whether there was more than one gunman at the scene, and if there was more than one weapon.…

3 people remain in critical condition following Mother's Day shooting

Alex Woodward — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:18:01 -0500

Three patients at LSU Interim Public Hospital remain in critical condition following yesterday's shooting at a second line, according to hospital spokesperson Marvin McGraw. One patient is listed in stable condition.…

Video: Mother's Day second line shooting

Alex Woodward — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:18:00 -0500

The New Orleans Police Department released video from yesterday afternoon's shooting at a Mother's Day second line in the 7th Ward. The video surveillance footage below shows frames of the event that injured 19 people, including Gambit correspondent Deborah Cotton.…

Mass shooting at Mother's Day second line in 7th Ward; 19 injured, including Gambit correspondent Deborah Cotton

Kevin Allman — Sun, 12 May 2013 20:41:00 -0500

The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) estimated that as many as three gunmen opened fire on a Mother's Day second line procession in the Seventh Ward this afternoon, injuring 19 people, according to the latest figures provided by the NOPD.

Many of the victims of today's shooting were taken to Interim LSU Hospital, where doctors said the victims' gunshot wounds ranged from flesh wounds to more serious damage.…

A failure to lead

Clancy DuBos — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:52:00 -0500

Imagine yourself the manager of a local grocery store. Now imagine that you forgot to order king cakes in time for Carnival season.…

ReFresh Project breaks ground on Broad Street

Alex Woodward — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:25:00 -0500

Developers and public officials broke ground on the 60,000 square-foot ReFresh Project, anchored by a Whole Foods Market, on Broad and Bienville streets in Mid-City. The development, spearheaded by L+M Development Partners and Broad Community Connections, takes over the former Schweggman's site, which has been vacant since Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures in 2005.…

Stacy Head responds to Landrieu's food truck veto

Alex Woodward — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:10:00 -0500

On May 1, Mayor Mitch Landrieu vetoed New Orleans City Council's passing of council vice president Stacy Head's food truck ordinance, a pilot plan package at that would've updated the city's decades-old mobile vendor laws. Head responded with a compromise plan — to at least open 75 mobile vendor permits in the interim while drafting a Landrieu-approved plan.…

Gambit TV: Talking local media on Informed Sources

Gambit TV — Sat, 04 May 2013 10:59:00 -0500

Gambit editor Kevin Allman appeared on last night's Informed Sources on WYES-TV to discuss this week's tumult and realignment in the local media world with The Times-Picayune and The Advocate. The panel included host Larry Lorenz, producer Errol Laborde, reporter Dawn Ostrom and WWL-TV investigative reporter David Hammer.…

Stacy Head introduces a "short-term relief" measure for food trucks

Alex Woodward — Fri, 03 May 2013 09:56:00 -0500

New Orleans City Council did not take action on Mayor Mitch Landrieu's veto of the re-drafted food truck ordinance, originally passed in council last month. City Council will address the issue at its May 16 meeting, where it could overturn the veto.…

Mayor Mitch Landrieu vetoes food truck ordinance

Alex Woodward — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:10:56 -0500

Following last month's passage of a long-brewing ordinance redrafting the city's decades-old mobile vending laws, Mayor Mitch Landrieu has vetoed it, citing fears that it violates the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment. "It would be unwise to sign this ordinance into law in its current form when it appears certain that it will be invalidated by the court," Landrieu wrote in his formal letter to clerk of council Peggy Lewis.…

House committee strikes down bill banning discrimination of gay state workers

Alex Woodward — Wed, 01 May 2013 14:20:02 -0500

Louisiana's House Committee on House and Governmental Affairs failed to pass a bill which would "prohibit discrimination in state employment on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression."

Authored by State Rep. Austin Badon, D-New Orleans, who in 2011 introduced a bill to protect gay students from bullying, House Bill 85 would allow gay state employees who were discriminated against to appeal to the state Civil Service Commission. Current law allows discrimination appeals based on discrimination of political beliefs, sex or race and, provides for hearings and decisions in those cases.…

May Day: a march for immigration reform and a rally at City Hall

Alex Woodward — Wed, 01 May 2013 09:53:00 -0500

Today is May Day, or International Workers Day. In New Orleans, immigrant workers and their families and supporters plan to march to City Hall to demand better workers' rights and call for an end to deportations.…

John Georges talks about his purchase of The Advocate

Kevin Allman — Wed, 01 May 2013 00:04:00 -0500

The Advocate, which moved into the New Orleans market from Baton Rouge earlier this year in response to The Times-Picayune going to a three-day-per-week production schedule, has been sold to New Orleans businessman and sometime-political candidate John Georges. The announcement of the "Georges Media Group" and its buy will be announced officially on Wednesday at a 10 a.m. press conference at The Advocate's Bluebonnet Road offices, which will be attended by Gov. Bobby Jindal and various politicos and dignitaries.…

NOPD consent decree selection postponed

Alex Woodward — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:40:06 -0500

Today, U.S. District Court Judge Susie Morgan was scheduled to select one of the two final firms that would monitor the New Orleans Police Department and implement reforms as ordered under the federal consent decree. That decision has been postponed another two weeks until May 14.…

Second line and march planned to protest "crackdown" on music venues

Alex Woodward — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 16:36:00 -0500

A flyer labeled "Bywater Rising" asks "Are you tired of the following?" followed by a list of complaints musicians, venue owners and others have made in the wake of the City of New Orleans' enforcement of noise complaints and alcohol and entertainment permits.

The flyer lists "business closures and harassment from city government"; "taking of public spaces from the people who need it most"; "artists, musicians and buskers being forced off the street and into starvation"; and "the je ne sais quoi of New Orleans being packaged and incorporated," adjacent to a fleur de lis with Mickey Mouse ears crossed out in red.…

Legislation would allow Children's to purchase shuttered NOAH property

Charles Maldonado — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:35:22 -0500

A newly amended state House bill, advanced by the state House Natural Resources Committee today, would allow Children's Hospital to purchase the shuttered New Orleans Adolescent Hospital for $29 million. Children's agreed to lease the property in January but balked at the terms of the agreement, which required that it reopen NOAH as a child and adolescent psychiatric hospital.…

Y@ Speak: Suspicious packages

Lauren LaBorde — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:51:00 -0500

Krewe DuVieux 2014: "Suspicious Packages" #YouAreWelcome
— skooks (@skooks) April 19, 2013

The horrible Boston Marathon bombings happened this week, and terror and panic followed in the form of lockdowns, bomb threats, suspicious packages and Diner en Blanc. Also this week: Earth Day celebrations, a dumb Katrina/other bad thing comparison, wine ice cream?

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Prayer Flag Day kicks off monthlong Dalai Lama events in New Orleans

Alex Woodward — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 15:55:00 -0500

In preparation for His Holiness the Dalai Lama's first-ever visit to New Orleans in May, the team organizing his visit invites New Orleans residents and businesses to raise Tibetan prayer flags beginning April 20 through May, when the Dalai Lama hosts two public talks (both already sold out) May 17 and May 18.

Presented by Tulane University's School of Social Work, more than 60 events will celebrate the visit.…