News

As New Orleans students start their summer break, some are leaving their schools behind for good. Four Orleans Parish schools closed their doors permanently, and education reporter Jessica Williams over at The Lens covers the impact on students, parents and educators.

Organizers have canceled Wednesday's display in New Orleans of the submarine that director James Cameron took to the deepest part of the ocean.

The Deepsea Challenger was set for public viewing outside the Audubon Aquarium, but a spokesman for the group transporting the submersible says traffic and space limitations made the one-day visit impossible.

The vehicle was driven by Cameron last year to the bottom of the Mariana trench in the western Pacific.

It’s on its way to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

Who: Don Frampton has been senior pastor of St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church for the past 19 years. After Hurricane Katrina, his church created Rebuilding Hope in New Orleans (RHINO), which has brought more than 6,000 volunteers to New Orleans and built 29 homes through Habitat for Humanity.

In his own words, here's what Don has to say about:

This week on The Reading Life, debut novelist Kent Wascom, author of The Blood of Heaven, and Joanna Leake and Carrie Chappell of UNO's Bayou Magazine.

There are art programs in schools. And there are schools devoted solely to art. A new charter school in Jefferson Parish is getting ready for a unique approach to education that uses art in traditional subjects.

This week on Inside the Arts, Le Petit Theatre is back in business, and we'll talk about the theater's new season and new look. Then, with jazz in the mix, we'll find out what makes a harp swing as the New Orleans Chapter of the American Harp Society kicks off the second annual Jazz and Pop Harp Weekend.

 In Jefferson Parish, a new charter school will soon open with a focus on the arts. And, finally, tomatoes... Creole tomatoes, that is. They're being celebrated in the French Market. 

At the edge of Terrebonne Parish, and on the front lines of Louisiana's coastal erosion crisis, a community center with a long history for the Native American Houma people is focused on resiliency for the future.

The term NORD is thrown around a lot in conversations about crime and public safety. It is actually NORDC now, which stands for the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission — the agency that oversees the playgrounds, ballparks, pools and sports teams that many see as the key to teaching kids community values.

NORDC community centers are often the heartbeat of neighborhood life, especially in the summer. However, when they’re closed — as many still are after Hurricane Katrina— the beat is gone.