KEVIN McGILL

A member of the traditional Mardi Gras group The Tramps holds a traditional coconut throw during the Krewe of Zulu Parade on Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans, Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

New Orleans bids another joyous ‘Fat Tuesday’ farewell to Carnival season

New Orleans is bidding a typically joyous farewell to Carnival season with Mardi Gras parades and street parties. Tuesday brings a massive outdoor costume festival to the bars and restaurants in the French Quarter.

FILE - Trash lines the gutter on Bourbon Street, in the early hours of the morning after Mardi Gras, in New Orleans, Feb. 18, 2015. It’s a beloved century-old Carnival season tradition in New Orleans — masked riders on lavish floats fling strings of colorful beads or other trinkets to parade watchers clamoring with outstretched arms. It's all in good fun but it's also a bit of a “plastics disaster,” says Judith Enck, a former Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator and president of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, file)

Mardi Gras beads are creating a plastic disaster in New Orleans. Are there green alternatives?

It’s a beloved Carnival season tradition in New Orleans — masked riders on lavish floats fling strings of beads or other trinkets to parade watchers.

Pole greasers put Vaseline on the gallery posts during the 54th annual Greasing of the Poles at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in New Orleans, Friday, Feb. 9, 2024. Carnival season 2024 is entering its final days in New Orleans with big parades on the city's main thoroughfares and smaller, offbeat walking clubs strolling the old French Quarter. (Sophia Germer/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

Mardi Gras 2024: What to know as Carnival season nears its rollicking end in New Orleans

Carnival season 2024 is entering its final days in New Orleans with big parades on the city’s main thoroughfares and smaller, offbeat walking clubs strolling the old French Quarter.

FILE - The Louisiana state Capitol stands prominently, April 4, 2023, in Baton Rouge, La. New state House and Senate boundary lines drawn up by the Louisiana Legislature in 2022 dilute Black voting strength in violation of the U.S. Voting Rights Act, a federal judge in Baton Rouge ruled on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024.

Judge: Louisiana legislative districts dilute Black voting strength, violate the Voting Rights Act

A federal judge has ruled that state House and Senate boundary lines drawn up by the Louisiana Legislature in 2022 dilute Black voting strength in violation of the U.S. Voting Rights Act. U.S.

Member of the Mystic Krewe of Femme Fatale have fun with the crowd as the Krewe of Nefertiti rolls along Lake Forest Blvd. in New Orleans East , Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024. (David Grunfeld/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

As Mardi Gras nears, a beefed-up police presence and a rain-scrambled parade schedule in New Orleans

New Orleans’ annual Carnival celebration has entered its high-intensity home stretch with a beefed-up police presence and a weather-scrambled parade schedule.

Lawren DiBella sprinkles colored sugar onto king cakes at Haydel's Bakery in Jefferson Parish, La., Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Fat Tuesday means big business for New Orleans bakers under exploding demand for king cakes

It’s Carnival season in New Orleans and that means the morning lines outside popular bakeries are long and the pace inside is brisk to meet customer demand for king cake. The seasonal sweet has exploded in popularity over the years.

FILE - Gov. Jeff Landry speaks during the start of the special session in the House Chamber on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024, in Baton Rouge, La. The Louisiana Legislature's newly drawn congressional map giving the state a second mostly Black district — a map Republican lawmakers agreed to as a result of a 2022 federal lawsuit filed in Baton Rouge — is being challenged by 12 self-described “non-African-American” voters in a new lawsuit filed in western Louisiana. (Michael Johnson/The Advocate via AP, Pool, File)

A lawsuit seeks to block Louisiana’s new congressional map that has 2nd mostly Black district

The Louisiana Legislature’s redrawn congressional map giving the state a second mostly Black congressional district is being challenged in a new federal lawsuit.

Branford Marsalis performs as he is introduced as the new artistic director for the Ellis Marsalis Center at The Musician's Village in New Orleans, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Branford Marsalis is the new artistic director at New Orleans music center named for his father

Award-winning musician Branford Marsalis is taking on a new job in his hometown of New Orleans. Marsalis was named Tuesday as the new artistic director for the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, named for his late father.

FILE - Cardell Hayes enters Orleans Parish Criminal District Court in New Orleans, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023, for a hearing regarding his retrial for shooting former NFL star Will Smith. Closing arguments were slated for Friday, Jan. 26, 2024, in the manslaughter retrial of Hayes, who fatally shot former New Orleans Saints star Will Smith following a traffic crash almost eight years ago. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Closing arguments begin as retrial of ex-NFL star Smith’s killer nears an end

The manslaughter retrial of a man who fatally shot former New Orleans Saints star Will Smith is nearing its end.

FILE - Tesla and SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk addresses the European Jewish Association's conference, in Krakow, Poland, Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. A group of federal appeals court judges in New Orleans is deciding whether a 2018 Twitter post by Tesla CEO Elon Musk unlawfully threatened Tesla employees with the loss of stock options if they decided to be represented by a union. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, File)

Court takes new look at whether Musk post illegally threatened workers with loss of stock options

A group of federal appeals court judges in New Orleans is mulling whether a 2018 social media post by Tesla CEO Elon Musk unlawfully threatened Tesla employees with the loss of stock options if they decided to be represented by a union.

FILE - Priscilla Villarreal, an online journalist from Laredo, Texas, stands outside the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals building in New Orleans, Jan. 25, 2023, with her attorney, J.T. Morris, after the court heard arguments in Villarreal's lawsuit against Laredo and Webb County, Texas, authorities. A divided federal appeals court refused on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, to revive the lawsuit of Villarreal, who said she was wrongfully arrested for seeking and obtaining nonpublic information from police in a case that drew attention from national media organizations and free speech advocates. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill, File)

A divided federal appeals court won’t revive Texas online journalist’s lawsuit over 2017 arrest

A state judge dismissed the criminal case against Priscilla Villarreal — known online as La Gordiloca — saying the law used to arrest her in 2017 was unconstitutional. But Villarreal still wanted to sue officials for damages. She lost Tuesday in a 9-7 decision from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appe

FILE _ "I Voted" stickers are ready to be distributed to each person who filled out a ballot, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Brandon, Miss. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024, over whether Mississippi can continue to permanently strip voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

Can Mississippi strip felons, including tree thieves, of voting rights? Federal judges hear the case

More than a dozen federal appellate judges have heard arguments on whether Mississippi can continue to permanently strip voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies.

FILE - Cardell Hayes enters Orleans Parish Criminal District Court in New Orleans, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023, for a hearing regarding his retrial for shooting former NFL star Will Smith. Hayes fatally shot Smith, who had retired from the New Orleans Saints, and wounded his wife, in a confrontation after a 2016 traffic crash. Hayes' retrial on a manslaughter charge is scheduled to start Monday, Jan. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Retrial begins for man who fatally shot ex-Saints star after traffic collision

A retrial has begun for the man who fatally shot retired New Orleans Saints star Will Smith almost eight years ago.

FILE - Protesters read books in the middle of the Texas Capitol rotunda in Austin, Texas, as The Texas Freedom Network holds a "read-in," April 19, 2023, to protest a bill that would ban sexually explicit materials from library books in schools. On Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024, an order blocking enforcement of the Texas law requiring vendors to evaluate and rate the sexual content of books they sell, or have sold, to schools has been upheld by a federal appeals court. (Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman via AP, File)

Court upholds block on Texas law requiring school book vendors to provide sexual content ratings

A federal appeals court has upheld a block on the enforcement of a Texas law requiring vendors to evaluate and rate the sexual content of books they sell or have sold to schools. The 5th U.S.

FILE - The Louisiana Capitol stands prominently, April 4, 2023, in Baton Rouge, La. A lawsuit to block enforcement of Louisiana's new ban on transgender health care procedures including hormone treatments, gender reassignment surgery or puberty-blocking drugs for anyone under 18 was announced Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, by LGBTQ+ advocates. (AP Photo/Stephen Smith, File)

LGBTQ+ advocates’ lawsuit says Louisiana transgender care ban violates the state constitution

Advocates for LGBTQ rights have announced a lawsuit to block enforcement of Louisiana’s new ban on transgender health care procedures including hormone treatments, gender reassignment surgery or puberty-blocking drugs for anyone under 18.

The Phunny Phorty Phellows and the Krewe of Oak toast as they kick-off Carnival season at the streetcar barn on Willow Street in New Orleans Saturday Jan. 6, 2024. (David Grunfeld/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

Carnival begins in New Orleans with Phunny Phorty Phellows, king cakes, Joan of Arc parade

The countdown to Mardi Gras has begun in New Orleans. Saturday marks the arrival of Carnival season and a group known as the Phunny Phorty Phellows kicks things off with a festive streetcar ride.

Suit challenges required minority appointments to Louisiana medical licensing board

A law requiring that some members appointed to the board that licenses and regulates physicians in Louisiana be from minority groups is being challenged in federal court.

FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2015 file photo, college students and abortion rights activists hold signs during a rally on the steps of the Texas Capitol, in Austin, Texas. The Biden administration cannot use a 1986 emergency care law to require hospitals in Texas hospitals to provide abortions for women whose lives are at risk due to pregnancy, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024. It's one of numerous cases involving abortion restrictions that are playing out in state and federal courts after the U.S. Supreme Court ended abortion rights in 2022. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

In Texas case, federal appeals panel says emergency care abortions not required by 1986 law

A federal appeals court in New Orleans says the Biden administration cannot use a 1986 emergency care law to require that Texas hospitals provide abortions for women whose lives are at risk due to pregnancy.

FILE - Teliah Perkins stands in front of the federal appeals court building in New Orleans, May 3, 2023, following a hearing on her lawsuit against two St. Tammany Parish, La., sheriff's deputies stemming from her arrest in May 2020. In an opinion issued Thursday, Nov. 30, a federal appeals court largely sided with the two white Louisiana sheriff's deputies in a lawsuit filed by Perkins, a Black woman, who accused them of using excessive force against her outside her home as they investigated an allegation she had been riding a motorcycle without a helmet. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill, File)

Court largely sides with Louisiana sheriff’s deputies accused in lawsuit of using excessive force

A federal appeals court has largely sided with two white Louisiana sheriff’s deputies in a lawsuit filed by a Black woman who accused them of using excessive force against her.

In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, a Clean Gulf Associates 95-foot response vessel skims crude oil approximately 4 miles southeast off South Pass Louisiana, Friday, Nov. 17, 2023. A Unified Command composed of the Coast Guard, Main Pass Oil Gathering Company, LLC, and the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office is coordinating measures to assess, contain and mitigate the impact of the spill. (U.S. Coast Guard/Courtesy Clean Gulf Associates via AP)

Search is on for pipeline leak after as much as 1.1 million gallons of oil sullies Gulf of Mexico

As much as 1.1 million gallons of oil may have been discharged into the Gulf of Mexico from a pipeline system off Louisiana’s southeast coast.

Tesla didn’t squelch United Auto Workers message when it cracked down on T-shirts, court says

A federal appeals court in New Orleans says automaker Tesla did not infringe on its workers’ rights to unionize when it ordered employees at a California assembly plant to stop wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the United Auto Workers logo.

FILE - A man walks in front of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Jan. 7, 2015, in New Orleans. A Louisiana lawyer who objected to the state bar association’s public statements on a variety of issues, from simple health tips to LGBTQ rights, can no longer be forced to join or pay dues to the association, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Jonathan Bachman, File)

Appeals court frees attorney from having to join, pay dues to Louisiana bar association, for now

A federal appeals court says a Louisiana lawyer who objected to the state bar association’s public statements on health tips and LGBTQ rights, among other topics, cannot be forced to join or pay dues to the association.

FILE - A rig and supply vessel are pictured in the Gulf of Mexico, off the cost of Louisiana, April 10, 2011. An auction of federal Gulf of Mexico leases for oil and gas drilling must be held in 37 days, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, rejecting environmentalists arguments against the sale, and throwing out plans by the Biden administration to scale back the sale to protect an endangered species of whale. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Lease of Gulf waters delayed by whale protection debate must continue, court rules

A federal appeals court has ordered the Biden administration to carry on with an auction of oil and gas drilling leases for Gulf of Mexico waters in 37 days — rejecting arguments by environmentalists. The 5th U.S.

Eden Roth, a Jewish student at Tulane University in New Orleans, discusses tensions on campuses in the aftermath of the Hamas raid on Israel and Israel's response, at the Hillel Center in New Orleans on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill)

Clashes over Israel-Hamas war shatter students’ sense of safety on US college campuses

The Oct. 7 Hamas raid on Israel — and Israel’s response — have led to demonstrations on college campuses that have sometimes turned violent. The unease is felt acutely at Tulane University in New Orleans, where 43% of students are Jewish.

FILE - People wait in line to enter the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, Jan. 9, 2019. Members of a three-judge panel at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, heard an appeal by the Biden administration to a lower court ruling in Texas last year that blocked the use of the government's abortion guidance. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Biden administration guidance on abortion to save mother’s life argued at appeals court

The Biden administration has asked a federal appeals court to uphold health care guidance issued last year that says hospitals must provide abortions for women whose lives are at risk due to pregnancy.

A prosthetic device for a wounded U.S. soldier, part of the new pavilion of the National World War II Museum, is shown inside an archival wing of the museum before they are put on display, in New Orleans, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. The latest major addition to the museum is called the Liberation Pavilion. And it's ambitious in scope. The grim yet hopeful addition addresses the conflict's world-shaping legacy. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Grim yet hopeful addition to National WWII Museum addresses the conflict’s world-shaping legacy

The latest major addition to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans is called the Liberation Pavilion. And it’s ambitious in scope.

FILE - A rig and supply vessel are viewed in the Gulf of Mexico off the cost of Louisiana, April 10, 2011. A sale of federal Gulf of Mexico oil and gas leases that had been scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, was officially postponed by the Biden administration on Thursday, Nov. 2. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Sale of federal oil and gas leases in Gulf of Mexico off again pending hearings on whale protections

The federal government has officially postponed a sale of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas leases amid legal fights over protections for an endangered species of whale. Bidding on the leases had been set for next Wednesday.

FILE - A rig and supply vessel are viewed in the Gulf of Mexico off the cost of Louisiana, April 10, 2011. Democratic and Republican leaders of the U.S. Senate's energy committee want President Joe Biden's administration to forge ahead with a sale of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas leases on Nov. 8, 2023, even though it's no longer under a court order to do so. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Senate energy panel leaders from both parties press for Gulf oil lease sale to go on, despite ruling

U.S. Senate energy committee leaders want President Joe Biden’s administration to proceed with a sale of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas leases. This is despite the administration being no longer under a court order to do so.

FILE - Three wind turbines stand in the water off Block Island, R.I, the nation's first offshore wind farm, Aug. 15, 2016. Four tracts of federal Gulf of Mexico waters of the coasts of Texas and Louisiana, ranging in size from nearly 57,000 acres (23,100 hectares) to over 495,000 acres (200,230 hectares), were designated Thursday, Oct. 27, 2023, for development of wind energy by the Biden administration. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)

Four tracts of federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico are designated for wind power development

The Biden administration has designated four tracts of federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas and Louisiana coasts for development of wind energy.

FILE - In this aerial photo, sediment and mixed river water is seen as a tanker ship moves upriver, Sept. 26, 2023, in Plaquemines Parish, La. Salt water from the Gulf of Mexico has caused problems for water systems in Plaquemines Parish. Fears that it would reach New Orleans’ water intakes have abated amid improved forecasts, but officials in the area say the threat could return in years to come as climate change, sea level rise and dredging of the river for commercial traffic all could contribute to salt water intrusion. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

A salty problem for people near the mouth of the Mississippi is a wakeup call for New Orleans

Drought. Sea level rise. Dredging for cargo ships. Those are just some of the complex factors blamed for an inland flow of salt water from the Gulf of Mexico into the Mississippi River.