WWNO News

A coalition of conservation groups on Friday announced the formation of the Atchafalaya Basin Coalition and sent a letter to Gov. John Bel Edwards imploring him to consider the Louisiana Nature Conservancy as a landowner, rather than a conservation group, when choosing members of a newly-formed task force.

It’s been a busy week for the Orleans Parish School Board. During its last two meetings of the year, members rejected tax exemptions for the Folger’s Coffee Company, approved new accountability measures for charter school finances, received an update on music and art education, and amended district-wide discipline policies to account for virtual learning.

The New Orleans City Council passed two key criminal justice reform measures Thursday.

One measure, which was approved on a 6-1 vote, bans the New Orleans Police Department’s use of four controversial surveillance technologies — facial recognition programs, characteristics tracking systems, StingRay cellular phone surveillance devices and predictive policing software.

COVID-19 cases reported by New Orleans public schools were down this week, but not by much. The district reported 76 active cases across 39 schools compared to 80 active cases the week before.