New Orleans’ homicide rate has fallen in recent decades, but the city still has one of the highest murder rates in the country. Each year since 1972, at least 145 people have been murdered in New Orleans. And nearly all of the victims were killed by firearms. Mayor LaToya Cantrell has just announced a new plan to tackle gun violence. WWNO’s Karl Lengel spoke with Joshua Cox, the Mayor's Director of Strategic Initiatives, about the new Gun Violence Reduction Plan.

New Orleans is getting a lot more colorful lately. Local and national artists are turning blank brick and concrete walls into massive outdoor artworks, including five new murals that were recently unveiled on downtown buildings. NolaVie’s Renée Peck speaks to Arts Council Director Heidi Schmalbach about new movements in public art and how it can transform the local community.

At the most human scale Los Angeles is defined by the scenes along legendary streets: Sunset Boulevard, Melrose, La Brea, and Central Avenue. Beginning in the 1920s, Central Avenue was the place to hear jazz, later R&B and bebop. For the late tenor sax player Big Jay McNeely, the scene began on Central Avenue.

A Hubig’s pie was a humble pie. But it had a huge place in the heart of New Orleans. Want proof? Just look at the response when the first little blip of good news on the future of Hubig’s hit the headlines.

This week on Inside the Arts, an arts "happy hour" known as Culture Collision kicks off its 11th celebration in the Arts District. Spokeswoman and WWNO business manager Jametta Youngblood stops by for a chat.

Then, the NOLA Project Theatre Company announces its new season celebrating 15 years of bold, innovative productions. Artistic director A.J. Allegra joins us.

This week on Thinking Outside the Book: Book conservators Sabrena Johnson and Sara White take us on a tour of the off-site facility for Tulane libraries, where overflow from the stacks is awaiting reader requests and books, papers, and posters stay very cool in the summer heat and books go to be repaired and restored.

Rainstorms seem to be getting more intense. In New Orleans, every time it rains, people worry about flooding. A new study from LSU finds that storms in Louisiana are getting bigger and wetter, dropping more rain over a shorter period of time.

WWNO’s Tegan Wendland talked with state climatologist Barry Keim and LSU research associate, Vinny Brown, who looked at climate data going back to the 1960’s.