Free Republic

The Louisiana Legislature voted overwhelmingly Thursday to move approximately $300 million annually from a fund that pays for higher education and health care to a fund that pays for large transportation projects. Supporters have said the spending will not only improve the state’s infrastructure system, but that it will also create construction jobs. Critics are concerned the proposal would exacerbate an already expected budget deficit in July 2025 affecting state universities, hospitals and other health care programs. Gov. John Bel Edwards needs to sign the legislation for it to become law. Edwards hasn’t decided if he approves of the bill...

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - One man is dead after surveillance video captured him stumbling from door-to-door along Dauphine Street. The Orleans Parish Coroner identified the man as 29-year-old Matthew Clark, of Michigan. FOX 8 obtained video from the 500 block of Dauphine Street that captured the moments just before Clark was killed last Thursday night. The New Orleans Police Department says around 7 p.m., a man inside of a home heard banging on the door, got a gun, and opened the door. Police say Clark entered the residence, and then lunged toward the person who answered the door. That’s when...

A woman was shot in the face and seven other people were hurt in a shooting in New Orleans early Sunday morning, city police said. The woman, who’s in critical condition, and a man with “an undetermined gunshot wound,” were taken to the hospital by EMS, cops said in a social media post. But the other six victims went to hospitals on their own. They were last listed as being in stable condition or as having received graze wounds, police said. A neighbor told the station that people hang out around near the property and other abandoned parcels in the...

Baltimore has its Highway to Nowhere, a road that gobbled up communities before the project was abandoned. Wilmington, Del., had neighborhoods wiped out by Interstate 95. Thousands of Detroit residents lost their homes — and surviving communities were scarred — by the construction of Interstate 375. The Overtown neighborhood in Miami, a majority-Black community, was “flattened,” also by I-95, forcing 10,000 people to leave their homes. In Nashville, bulldozers demolished 620 houses, 27 apartment buildings and six Black churches to make way for the I-40 expressway. All across the nation, American communities bear the scars of the headlong rush to...

The brother of an Alabama-born grandmother who was fatally punched on a French Quarter street last week is trying to understand what motivated her killing, but he expressed relief Wednesday that police had captured a suspect. “We have no earthly idea why this happened,” said Jeffrey Johnson, brother of Margaret “Jane” Johnson Street. “It won’t bring my sister back, but it helps knowing who did it and that they have him.” New Orleans police say Johnson Street, 61, got into an argument with Jeremiah Mark, 23, in the 100 block of Royal Street on April 18 at about 7:45 p.m....

Almost all of the largest cities in the United States are governed by hard-left Democrats. In fact, there is only one Republican Mayor among the top 15 cities in the country and only three among the 30 largest cities.All of the problems in our urban areas today are almost exclusively the result of the failed Democratic Party leadership. While previous generations of Democrats might have tried to find bi-partisan solutions to long standing problems, the party’s leaders in 2021 are woke leftists interested only in pushing their radical agenda.The result has been outmigration, soaring crime rates, a drug epidemic, broken...

Fried chicken is serious business in New Orleans. The city where the Popeyes chain was born in 1972 has no shortage of great places to dine on crunchy, flavorful fried chicken, but when some residents found out this week that Chick-fil-A was moving in, they weren't cluckin' having it. "Something to smile about," New Orleans council member Kristin Palmer tweeted. "The City’s first stand-alone @Chik_Fil_A is coming to #algiers in 2022." The popular chicken chain, which has also been embroiled in controversy for funding anti-LGBTQ organizations over the years, has stayed off Popeyes' home turf — until now.'

One of the most prolific careers in NFL history has come to an end, as New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees announced Sunday on Instagram he has decided to retire after 20 seasons. Brees' four children, Baylen, Bowen, Callen and Rylen, announced in a video: "After 15 years with the Saints and 20 years in the NFL, our dad is finally gonna retire. So he can spend more time with us! Yeah!! Brees added a message to the post that read: "After 20 years as a player in the NFL and 15 years as a Saint, it is time I...

Several armed bystanders successfully stopped a shooting spree that left three dead, including the suspect, in a New Orleans suburb. The shooting happened at the Jefferson Gun Outlet in the suburb of Metairie, Louisiana, around 2:50 p.m., according to a release from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Joseph Lopinto told reporters that a person went into the gun store and shooting range and fatally shot two people on Saturday. Several individuals engaged with the shooter inside the gun shop and in a parking lot outside.

A suspect fatally shot two people at a gun store in a suburb of New Orleans on Saturday afternoon, and the shooter also died during gunfire as others engaged the suspect both inside and outside the outlet, authorities said. ...the initial shooter fired inside the Jefferson Gun Outlet in the suburb of Metairie, striking the two people who were later pronounced dead. ...several other people — whether employees or store customers — then opened fire on the shooter, both inside and outside of the building. The suspect also was killed, according to Lopinto. He added that two other people were...

Megan Boudreaux was feeling down three months ago after she learned that New Orleans wasn’t going to issue Mardi Gras parade permits for 2021 because of the pandemic. The annual holiday wouldn’t be the same, she said, without the elaborate floats made months in advance of Fat Tuesday’s 50-plus parades. “I decided, ‘Well, okay then, I’m going to decorate my house instead, pull some beads out of the attic and throw them at the neighbors,” said Boudreaux, 38, who works as an insurance agent in New Orleans.

The future Hall of Fame? quarterback is calling it a careerWhile the world awaits what's expected to be a retirement decision from Drew Brees, another NFL legend has opted to make his decision quickly. Philip Rivers, 39, recently noted he'd consider retirement but was also open to returning to the Indianapolis Colts for a second year, if they'd have him. Just over one week after being eliminated from the playoffs at the hands of the Buffalo Bills in an AFC wild-card game, Rivers is instead going to hang up his cleats -- he told The San Diego Union-Tribune -- ending...

New Orleans Police say a man walked into the store around 9:30 p.m. Hingel says soon after, shots flew. "The customer walked in, went over to the coolers, walked over and started coming behind the counter," he said. "Apparently the girl didn't get the money out fast enough and started shooting." However, another employee stepped in. "The cooler man pushed the girl on the ground and went behind the wall a bit and came out and told the man get on the floor," said Hingel. "And the guy started shooting at him again." The armed robber, who's name isn't yet...

The shooting happened Friday afternoon while the officers were on patrol. The officers had no contact with the suspect before he opened fire at their vehicle, Superintendent Shaun Ferguson told reporters. One officer, a four-year veteran, was hit by a bullet in the left cheek, just below his eye. He is in serious condition and is stable. The bullet is lodged in his skull, Ferguson said at a news conference near the scene. The other officer, a 16-year veteran, had minor abrasions. Both were taken to a hospital by fellow officers who came to the scene. The officer who was...

Roy Moore was dragged through the mud as evil scum for accusations similar to those Jacob Blake’s girlfriend made to police, but Blake is being sainted. ast Friday, New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees and his team broke with the pack to hold practice as nine other NFL teams canceled theirs in the wake of the police shooting of Jacob Blake. They put Blake’s name in big black letters across the front of their helmets in what Sporstcasting.com writer Stephen Sheehan called “a powerful visual signal.”New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton explained after practice that, “The idea of putting his...

A man claims that when he was 11 in the '70s, Ellen DeGeneres, then in her 20s, would call him names and bully and fat-shame him when she worked as a recruiter in New Orleans.(snip) Gravolet says DeGeneres worked at Snelling Personnel in the New Orleans branch, a company owned by Gravolet's mother.(snip) Gravolet says the comedian was "was just the meanest, nastiest, most horrible person." He told "Daily Mail TV": "One incident stands out in my mind. I was sitting beside her desk. I was drawing, and she criticized the drawings. She said 'I guess that would look nice...

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Former NFL coach Mike Ditka had a lot to say about the NFL players who plan to take a knee during the national anthem. He simply doesn’t care for it and he suggests anyone who’s taking a knee for the national anthem may as well get out of the country. But don’t listen to me. Take it from the man himself as quoted by TMZ: “If you can’t respect our national anthem, get the hell out of the country. That’s the way I feel. Of course, I’m old fashioned, so I’m only going to say what I feel. You don’t...

Drew Brees, Russell Wilson and other NFL stars voiced their concerns that the NFL wasn’t doing enough to protect them for the coming season by tweeting under the hashtag, “we want to play.” Drew Brees and other NFL stars tweet that the @NFL isn't prepared for the new season with coronavirus #WeWantToPlay https://t.co/HRKirOZ1LH pic.twitter.com/OEadhgjEY8— The Right Scoop (@TheRightScoop) July 20, 2020

BATISTE: Marxist Take ‘Em Down NOLA Ignores Fact That Blacks Owned Slaves, TooThe Take ‘Em Down NOLA movement ignores unpopular historical facts while leading its removalist campaign. The group crusades against slave owners and people connected to the short-lived Confederate States of America, but it has long avoided the reality that Black people owned Black slaves and Blacks were part of the Confederacy. As complex as that past may be to some, New Orleans, Louisiana, has an even more convoluted history. And some of the Black heroes, honored with memorials, meet Take Em Down’s qualifications for removal.Louisiana led all states...