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by Mark Finkelstein February 11, 2006 When's the last time you recall a famous elected official being called a drunk on live national TV? It happened this morning on the Today show. Today was surely looking for a light touch on New Orleans when co-host Campbell Brown interviewed New Orleans magician, comic and eccentric extraordinaire Harry Anderson in a pre-Mardi Gras piece on "Life after Katrina." But the NBC show surely got a bit more than it was bargaining for. When Anderson took some shots at FEMA and the federal response to Katrina, Brown, in an apparent bid for balance,...

A New Orleans resident has received several speeding tickets over the past few years for racing through town at the blistering speed of ... 0 mph. Donald Schulz says he’s been issued at least 10 citations since 2011 for having his pickup truck legally parked along Canal Boulevard. The street has a 35 mph speed limit and a stationary traffic camera on the median. “It’s a nuisance; I've had to take time out of my day several times and go down there and correct the situation,” Schulz told Fox News. “It got so bad that years ago I even had...

The legacy: It was an annual plague. Every summer, as warm weather set in, New Orleans braced for an outbreak of yellow fever. Those who could afford it got the heck out, fleeing to the Northshore or farther. Those who couldn't, stayed. And they prayed. Nearly every year, hundreds of them would be killed anyway by the so-called "saffron scourge" -- sometimes thousands. Then, in 1900, a team led by Army doctor Walter Reed confirmed a key discovery: It was the mosquitoes. The winged pests weren't just annoying. They were deadly, spreading the virus that caused the disease. That breakthrough...

New Orleans police are searching for a man accused of stealing a Louis Vuitton bag stuffed with $25,000 worth of merchandise, including 2 Rolex watches, from a Central Business District store Friday (April 6), NOPD said. Shortly after 2 p.m., the man went into the store in the 100 block of Roosevelt Way, took a Louis Vuitton tote bag, and left the business, police said

If they’re a person of color, they pay $12. If they’re white, he’ll tell them they can either pay $12, or they can pay $30 — two and a half times the base price, which reflects the wealth disparity in New Orleans. He tells them the profits will be redistributed to people of color, but not as charity — just to any minority customers of his who want it, regardless of their income or circumstance. “When I tell black folks what’s happening, 90 percent of them start laughing, like, ‘For real?’ They’re tickled,” he said. “White folks, there’s this blank...

The likely contentious question over who will inherit Tom Benson's estimated $3 billion fortune -- including the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans, his most high-profile and publicly beloved assets -- will be a key issue in the wake of Benson's death at the age of 90. Benson, who died Thursday (March 15), had said he intended to leave the teams to his wife, Gayle Benson. But a long-running family fight over Benson's empire, including the Saints and Pelicans, could reignite in the settling of his estate in court in New Orleans. Details of how Benson decided to pass on his...

FULL TITLE: Transgender visitor at a prison files lawsuit after she was ordered by guards to remove her underwear because a screening machine detected 'unknown object' in her pants A transgender woman who tried to visit her incarcerated brother has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that Louisiana prison officers ordered her to remove her underwear and show her genitals before she could leave the facility. Donald Nelson, a 48-year-old New Orleans resident who goes by the name 'China,' said in the complaint filed Tuesday that officers at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola insisted on searching her vehicle after she refused...

SAARTJ is a pop-up restaurant in the Louisiana city run by local Nigerian chef Tunde Wey who will be charging white customers $18 (£13) extra for their meal. Much like the cafe in Melbourne, Australia which charged a 'man-tax' due to the gender pay gap, SAARTJ is charging an increase to highlight the racial pay gap in New Orleans. In 2013, a study found that the average household income of an African-American in the city was 54 per cent lower than that of a white person.

KIPP Renaissance High School in the Bywater will be closed Tuesday (Feb. 27) "out of an abundance of caution" after administrators learned of a threat to the school made via social media, school officials said in an announcement Monday night. KIPP Renaissance administrators were notified Monday evening of the threat, according to the statement from KIPP New Orleans Schools. School officials launched an investigation and contacted the New Orleans Police Department, which is also investigating the threat.

An 8-year-old boy was robbed at gunpoint in the Little Woods area of New Orleans East on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 24), the New Orleans Police Department said. The boy was approached by a man who demanded the boy give him his keys, according to a preliminary NOPD report. When the boy refused, the man pulled out a gun and said, "Give me the keys or I will kill you." -snip-A10-year-old boy was robbed at gunpoint by three unknown people at 4:19 p.m. on Saturday in the 3000 block of Bruxelles Street near the intersection of Paris Avenue and Gentilly Boulevard,...

Workers at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans East on Thursday (Feb. 22) rolled out the latest piece of hardware for the nation's new deep-space rocket. Watch the video above to see the piece being shipped out. The piece, a structural test version of the intertank that will eventually be housed in NASA's Space Launch System, was loaded Thursday morning onto the agency's Pegasus barge. The barge, first used during the Space Shuttle program, will carry the intertank to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama for testing. Michoud Assembly Facility on Thursday Feb. 22, 2018 rolled out the...

Baltimore’s highest-ever per capita homicide rate in 2017 also made it the deadliest big city in the country, USA Today reported Monday. Though official data from the FBI won’t be available until later in the year, USA Today reviewed the homicide rates in the nation’s 50 largest cities and Baltimore came out on top. The 342 homicides the city experienced in 2017 were a 17 percent increase over the prior year, and translated to a rate of 56 killed per 100,000 people. That easily outpaced New Orleans and Detroit, which both had about 40 killings per 100,000 people, according to...

A Black Lives Matter activist who made headlines after video of him wrestling a Confederate flag out the the hands of a protester in Charleston, South Carolina went viral, was shot and killed in New Orleans Tuesday. A spokesperson with the New Orleans police department confirmed the death of 32-year-old Muhiyidin Moye, who went by Muhiyidin d'Baha, to NBC News in an email Wednesday. Police said d'Baha was shot in the thigh early Tuesday morning and transported to a nearby hospital where he died from his injuries.

A leader of the Black Lives Matter movement died early Wednesday morning in New Orleans after being shot in the thigh, according to multiple reports. Muhiyidin Elamin Moye, 32, was shot in the thigh while riding a bicycle, police told The New Orleans Advocate.

A Black Lives Matter activist from South Carolina died Tuesday (Feb. 6) after being shot in the thigh earlier in the day on Bienville Street in New Orleans, according to the NOPD. The shooting victim has been identified as Muhiyidin Moye, an NOPD spokesman said Tuesday night. Moye -- who preferred the last name d'Baha, according to the Washington Post -- and was called "Moye" or "Moya" by loved ones, was struck by gunfire shortly before 1:30 a.m. in the 1900 block of Bienville Street. d'Baha's mother did not want to speak with a reporter when reached by phone Tuesday...

The storm drains of New Orleans got a thorough cleaning over the past few months and among the trash and debris, workers found 93,000 pounds of Mardi Gras beads, city officials said Thursday. The 46 tons of beads were all found in the popular downtown thoroughfare on St. Charles between Poydras Street and Lee Circle, the Times-Picayune reported. While the vast amount of Mardi Gras beads indicate good times were had in the area, city officials said it also means litter needs to be decreased. Overall, the $22 million, three-month clean-up project yielded 7.2 million pounds of debris in city...

The Minnesota Vikings’ final act of sportsmanship in their shock victory over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday cost bettors a lot of money. The Vikings won the NFC Divisional Round game over the Saints on a last-second 61-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Stefon Diggs at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. When Diggs ran into the end zone, the clock read 0:00, meaning the game was over. But the rules of football stipulate that even if a team scores a touchdown with no time left on the clock, it still needs to kick an extra point. Diggs’ touchdown gave...

Marcus Williams missed the important tackle in the New Orleans Saints’ season, allowing Stefon Diggs to score a miraculous touchdown and send the Minnesota Vikings to the NFC Championship Game next week. After the game, the amateur editors at Wikipedia had their say. Pro Wrestling Walrus @RasslinWalrus Oh my god, the Wiki trolls already got poor Marcus Williams of the #Saints. 🤣🤣 8:16 PM - Jan 14, 2018 “Easiest tackle in football history?” We’ll leave that to your opinion, but Williams did have the chance to send the Saints to the next round of the playoffs. The Saints’ second-round draft...

[British General Edward] Pakenham delayed his main assault until Jan 8, when he had brought up nearly 10,000 men, and planned to attack with about 5,500, keeping the rest in reserve. [snip] The men on both sides knew an attack was planned on the 8th. Jackson, clearly felt that some sort of night attack was coming . Jackson, was awakened by a messenger who arrived from Morgan across the river, requesting more troops. Morgan and Patterson could see some activity by the British on the river and feared they were going to send a large force across the river to...

HOUSTON - U.S. Coast Guard officials are trying to make contact with a Texas-bound, single-engine plane they say is missing. Officials say the plane took off from Oklahoma City Wednesday and was headed to Georgetown Municipal Airport but diverted at some point and headed south. Coast Guard officials say they lost contact with the pilot after the plane flew past Freeport. The New Orleans Coast Guard is sending a plane to make communication with the aircraft. Officials have not said at this time whether the plane crash. They are labeling the incident an "aircraft emergency." It is unknown at this...