Louisiana

For decades, people assumed the ivory-billed woodpecker was extinct. The last confirmed sighting was in north Louisiana in the 1940s, but rumors of its existence persisted -- giving the bird a controversial reputation and a kind of mythic status.

Now, a ragtag team of birders is trying to prove everyone wrong: that the ivory-bill still lives in the woods of Louisiana. Thanks to some new technology, the team thinks they’re closer than ever before.

This week on the coastal news roundup - an update on Isle de Jean Charles.  It was big news in 2016 when the state was awarded $48 million to relocate people from the disappearing island. But the process has not been smooth; permanent relocation hasn’t happened yet, and a Native American tribe blames that on the state.

WWNO’s Tegan Wendland talked with Chantel Comeradelle, tribal secretary of Isle de Jean Charles band of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw.

This is the final episode of Tripod. For these past three years, we’ve been telling stories about New Orleans. But, before it was ever called New Orleans, this place already had a name: Bulbancha. The people that host Laine Kaplan-Levenson spoke with for this episode use this name when they tell people where they live. They live in Bulbancha, and they are telling today’s story -- what it’s like living in present day Bulbancha, and what it’s been like, as a native person, seeing the city celebrate the Tricentennial… the city’s colonial beginning.

Kathleen Babineaux Blanco: a carpet cleaner’s daughter from New Iberia turned school teacher turned stay-at-home mom turned…Louisiana's first female governor. In 2003, her focus was on education reform, juvenile justice, and economic development. And halfway into her first and only term, it looked like she had a good chance at re-election. But that all changed, with Hurricane Katrina. 

Listen to the Sticky Wicket podcast for free! 

Huey Pierce Long: you either loved him, or hated him. He had thousands of adoring fans, and fearful enemies. Long went from traveling salesman to Louisiana Governor, and then US senator, through his mastery of the media. Then once in power, he waged a war against it.

Sticky Wicket: Louisiana Politics Versus the Press is a new mini series out of WWNO New Orleans Public Radio and WRKF Baton Rouge Public Radio that takes on four historic clashes between Louisiana politicians and the media, one at a time. These relationships have always been love/hate in the Pelican state.

Click on the player above to hear the trailer, and tune in Tuesday, November 13th at 630 p.m. to hear the first episode live on WWNO. 

Five of the six candidates for Louisiana Secretary of State found common ground in a forum Monday evening as they each tried to shake interim Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin’s perceived confidence in his incumbency.

About 40 people gathered Wednesday evening at a New Orleans Labor Union hall to coordinate voter registration outreach efforts, and to educate people on a ballot initiative this fall that could change Louisiana’s non-unanimous jury rule.

Across the country, more and more women are running for elected office - at the local, state and national level. But in the south, women’s representation lags behind the rest of the country.

The week on The Reading Life: Susan talks with Brian Boyles of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, and Nancy Dixon of Dillard University about New Orleans and the World, 1718 - 2018, Tricentennial Anthology.  And Cassie Pruyn, previews her new book is Bayou St. John: A Brief History.