Katie Jane Fernelius (Verite News)

When New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell backed out of a $90 million legal settlement with the Orleans Parish School Board earlier this year, her administration pointed to the city’s own troubled finances.

Defying New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, the New Orleans City Council voted on Thursday (April 10) to dedicate $10 million to New Orleans public schools — partly fulfilling the terms of a legal settlement that Cantrell rejected.

A New Orleans resident has filed a lawsuit against the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, alleging that a group of deputies “unnecessarily and unlawfully” approached, detained and beat him up outside of a gas station in Terrytown last year.

New Orleanians could have a chance this fall to expand the municipal bill of rights — by amending the home rule charter to prohibit any laws that arbitrarily and unreasonably discriminate against someone based on conviction history.

“The problem in our city is not that we’re too high tech,” tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Matt Wisdom said. “It’s that we don’t have enough technology in infrastructure.”

“The city’s financial positioning has taken a major shift,” Chief Financial Officer Romy Samuel said at a special meeting to discuss the school board settlement on Feb. 11.

Encampment residents were sent to a new temporary shelter, located in a warehouse in Gentilly.

As concerns have mounted over the city’s anti-terrorism protocols in light of last week’s deadly truck attack on Bourbon Street, local and state officials have both promised official investigations.

An Orleans Parish judge on Monday (Nov. 25) issued a temporary restraining order against the Louisiana State Police, days after state troopers distributed flyers to homeless residents in the French Quarter warning them to vacate or else face legal action.

The New Orleans City Council is poised to pass Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s $1.78 billion budget for 2025 at its regular meeting on Thursday (Nov. 21) – but with some notable additions.