KEVIN McGILL

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)
Gulf oil lease sale postponed by court amid litigation over endangered whale protections
A sale of federal Gulf of Mexico oil and gas leases that had been scheduled for Nov. 8 is being delayed pending court arguments that focus on protections for an endangered whale species. The sale had been scheduled for last month.
 
FILE - The rear view on Chartres Street of the newly renovated home of the Louisiana Supreme Court located in the French Quarter of New Orleans, May 10, 2004. A 1992 federal court agreement that led to a Black justice being elected to Louisiana’s once all-white Supreme Court will remain in effect under a ruling Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023 from a divided federal appeals court panel. (AP Photo/Judi Bottoni, File)
Deal that led to Black representation on Louisiana’s highest court upheld by federal appeals panel
A federal appeals court panel is maintaining a 1992 deal that resulted in Black representation on Louisiana’s highest court. Wednesday’s 2-1 ruling from the 5th U.S.
 
In this aerial photo, responders are seen near wreckage in the aftermath of a multi-vehicle pileup on I-55 in Manchac, La., Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. A “superfog” of smoke from south Louisiana marsh fires and dense morning fog caused multiple traffic crashes involving scores of cars. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
What is super fog? The mix of smoke and dense fog caused a deadly pileup in Louisiana
A combination of fog and thick smoke from a marsh fire reduced visibility on Louisiana highways to near nothing on Monday. It caused a series of deadly crashes on Interstate 55 near New Orleans.
 
In this aerial photo, responders are seen near wreckage in the aftermath of a multi-vehicle pileup on I-55 in Manchac, La., Monday, Oct. 23, 2023. A “superfog” of smoke from south Louisiana marsh fires and dense morning fog caused multiple traffic crashes involving scores of cars. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Toll rises to 8 dead, 63 hurt from Louisiana interstate pileup blamed on dense fog, marsh fire smoke
The toll from a fiery pileup in dense fog on a Louisiana interstate has risen to eight dead and 63 injured.
 
Exonerated in 2022, men sue New Orleans over prosecution in which killer cop Len Davis played a role
Two men whose convictions in a 1994 New Orleans murder were tossed decades later have sued the city and several former police officers.
 
FILE - Interim Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, R-Baton Rouge, talks to reporters on July 20, 2018, in Baton Rouge, La. Federal appeals court judges in New Orleans closely questioned voting rights advocates and attorneys for Louisiana Republican officials Friday, Oct. 6, 2023, on whether Louisiana must follow Alabama’s court-ordered path in drawing a new mostly Black congressional district — and how quickly that can and should ahead of next year’s elections. (AP Photo/Melinda Deslatte, File)
Louisiana Republicans are in court to fight efforts to establish new Black congressional district
Voting rights advocates are locked in a court fight with Louisiana’s top Republicans over whether the state must follow Alabama’s court-ordered path in drawing a new, Black-majority congressional district.
 
Crews lay out miles of flexible pipeline to help supply fresh water to Jefferson Parish as salt water slowly moves up the Mississippi River on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023, in Marrero, La. A mass inflow of salt water from the Gulf of Mexico creeping up the drought-stricken Mississippi River is threatening drinking water supplies in Louisiana. (Chris Granger,/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)
Reprieve for New Orleans as salt water creeping up the Mississippi River slows its push inland
Salt water inching up the Mississippi River is progressing more slowly than once projected — buying time for water systems in metropolitan New Orleans that draw drinking water from the river.
 
FILE - Migrants walk past large buoys being used as a floating border barrier on the Rio Grande, Aug. 1, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. Texas attorneys asked federal appeals court judges Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023 to let the state keep in place a floating barrier of large concrete-anchored buoys to block migrants from crossing the Rio Grande — a barrier the Biden administration says was illegally deployed without needed federal authorization. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, file)
Texas asks appeal judges to let it keep floating barrier in place on the Rio Grande
Attorneys for Texas are asking federal appeals court judges to let the state keep in place a floating barrier to block migrants from crossing the Rio Grande.
 
Judge tosses challenge to Louisiana’s age verification law aimed at porn websites
A federal judge has rejected an adult entertainment group’s lawsuit against a Louisiana law requiring sexually explicit websites to verify the ages of their viewers.
 
FILE - A person previously convicted of a felony felon holds a sign about voter suppression during a Poor People's Campaign assembly, April 19, 2021, in Jackson, Miss. A significant expansion of voting rights in Mississippi was put in doubt Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, when a federal appeals court said it's reconsidering an earlier decision to allow people convicted of certain felonies to cast ballots. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
US court will reconsider ruling that granted voting rights to Mississippians convicted of felonies
A federal appeals court will reconsider its August ruling that would have struck down Mississippi’s practice of permanently stripping voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies. The 5th U.S.
 
FILE - A man walks in front of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, Jan. 7, 2015. A federal judge's plan to hold hearings the first week of October 2023 to draw up congressional boundary lines that would give Louisiana a second majority-Black district has been blocked by an appeals court. (AP Photo/Jonathan Bachman, File)
Appeals court blocks hearings on drawing a second majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana
A federal judge’s plan to hold hearings next week to draw up congressional boundary lines that would give Louisiana a second majority-Black district has been blocked by an appeals court.
 
FILE - A rig and supply vessel are pictured in the Gulf of Mexico off the cost of Louisiana, April 10, 2011. A federal judge has ordered the Interior Department to expand next week’s scheduled sale of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas leases by millions of acres. The Thursday, Sept. 22, 2023, ruling rejected a scaled-back plan announced last month by the Biden administration as part of an effort to protect an endangered whale species. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
Judge blocks government plan to scale back Gulf oil lease sale to protect whale species
The Biden administration is appealing a federal judge’s order requiring the Interior Department to expand next week’s scheduled sale of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas leases by millions of acres.
 
Raquel Smith, right, widow of former NFL New Orleans Saints star Will Smith, and their daughter Lisa Smith leave Orleans Parish Criminal District Court in New Orleans, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023, after a hearing regarding the retrial for Cardell Hayes, who fatally shot Smith and wounded Raquel, in a confrontation after a 2016 traffic crash.. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Retrial date set for man who claims self-defense in shooting death of former NFL star Will Smith
A Feb. 5 retrial date has been set for the man who gunned down former New Orleans Saints defensive star Will Smith in 2016. Cardell Hayes had been convicted of manslaughter months after the killing.
 
Cardell Hayes leaves Orleans Parish Criminal District Court in New Orleans, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023, after 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. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Retrial delayed for man whose conviction in the death of former NFL player Will Smith was overturned
A long-awaited retrial has been delayed for the man who fatally shot former NFL star Will Smith in a confrontation after a 2016 traffic crash. Cardell Hayes had been scheduled for a retrial Monday.
 
FILE - Louisiana State Highway 1 is seen from above Grand Isle, La., on July 27, 2010. Grand Isle will repeal an anti-obscenity ordinance and let a contractor fly a flag from his truck that carries an obscenity aimed at President Joe Biden, under the terms of a lawsuit settlement filed Friday, Sept. 15, 2023, in federal court. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
Louisiana island town to repeal ordinance, let driver fly vulgar anti-Biden flag
A resort island town on the Louisiana coast has agreed to repeal an anti-obscenity ordinance and let a contractor fly a flag from his truck that carries an obscenity aimed at President Joe Biden.
 
FILE - Vehicles enter at the main security gate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary — the Angola Prison, the largest high-security prison in the country in Angola, La., Aug. 5, 2008. A federal judge ruled on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023 that incarcerated youths be removed from a temporary lockup, at a former death row building in Louisiana’s adult maximum-security prison.(AP Photo/Judi Bottoni, File)
Louisiana moves juveniles from adult penitentiary but continues to fight court order to do so
Louisiana officials say they have moved juvenile detainees from a former death row building at the state’s sprawling adult penitentiary.
 
FILE - Flood waters surround storm damaged homes on Aug. 31, 2021, in Lafourche Parish, La., as residents try to recover from the effects of Hurricane Ida. Attorneys for 10 states and numerous Louisiana local governments are hoping a federal judge will block a new system for calculating rates for federal flood insurance. Arguments were being heard Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023 in New Orleans federal court over rates that the government began phasing in in 2021. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Louisiana, 9 other states ask federal judge to block changes in National Flood Insurance Program
Attorneys for 10 states and some Louisiana local governments hope a federal judge will block a new system for calculating rates for federal flood insurance.
 
FILE - A smartphone displays the apps for Facebook and Messenger in New Orleans, Aug. 11, 2019. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, temporarily blocked a lower court order curbing Biden administration efforts to combat controversial social media posts on topics including COVID-19 and election security. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
Supreme Court pauses order curbing Biden administration efforts to block social media posts
The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked enforcement of a lower court order curbing Biden administration efforts to combat controversial social media posts.
 
Appeals court pauses removal of incarcerated youths from Louisiana’s maximum-security adult prison
A federal appeals court has temporarily halted a judge’s order to remove juvenile detainees by Friday from a former death row building at an adult penitentiary in Louisiana.
 
FILE - Oakland, Calif., Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick stands before a baseball game, July 25, 2017, in San Francisco. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Monday, Sept. 11, 2023, that she has chosen Kirkpatrick, a former chief of police in Spokane, Wash., and Oakland, Calif., to head the New Orleans Police Department, a nomination subject to the approval of the City Council. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
Police veteran hailed for reform efforts in Washington, California nominated to be New Orleans chief
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Monday that she has chosen Anne Kirkpatrick, a former chief of police in Spokane, Washington, and Oakland, California, to head the New Orleans Police Department.
 
President Joe Biden arrives at Indira Gandhi International Airport to attend the G20 summit, Friday, Sept. 8, 2023, in New Delhi. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Appeals court scales back order squelching Biden administration contact with social media platforms
A federal appeals court has significantly whittled down a lower court order curbing Biden administration communications with social media companies. The 5th U.S.
 
FILE - Vehicles enter at the main security gate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary — the Angola Prison, the largest high-security prison in the country in Angola, La., Aug. 5, 2008. A federal judge ruled on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023 that incarcerated youths be removed from a temporary lockup, at a former death row building in Louisiana’s adult maximum-security prison.(AP Photo/Judi Bottoni, File)
Judge orders Louisiana to remove incarcerated youths from the state’s maximum-security adult prison
A federal judge has ruled that incarcerated youths be removed from a temporary lockup at a former death row building in Louisiana’s adult maximum-security prison by Sept. 15.
 
FILE -A box of ivermectin is shown in a pharmacy as pharmacists work in the background, Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021, in Ga. A federal appeals court Friday, Sept. 1, 2023 revived a lawsuit by three doctors who say the Food and Drug Administration overstepped its authority in a campaign against treating COVID-19 with the anti-parasite drug ivermectin(AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)
Court revives doctors’ lawsuit saying FDA overstepped its authority with anti-ivermectin campaign
A federal appeals court in New Orleans has revived a lawsuit by three doctors who say the Food and Drug Administration overstepped its authority in a campaign against the use of a drug that is not approved to treat COVID-19.
 
Matthew Wagner, a biologist from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, holds a threatened pearl darter fish, which haven't lived in the Pearl River system for 50 years, as they are released in the Strong River, a tributary of the Pearl River, in Pinola, Miss., Monday, July 31, 2023. Wildlife experts say a number of pollution and habitat problems likely contributed to the disappearance of pearl darter from the Pearl River system. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
In Mississippi, a tiny fish is reintroduced to the river where it disappeared 50 years ago
A species of tiny fish that once flourished in the U.S. South’s Pearl River is being reintroduced there after disappearing 50 years ago.
 
FILE - Three wind turbines stand in the water off Block Island, R.I, the nation's first offshore wind farm, Aug. 15, 2016. In a first-of-its kind auction for the Gulf of Mexico, a company bid $5.6 million Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023 to lease federal waters off the Louisiana coast for wind energy generation. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)
$5.6 million bid for one offshore tract marks modest start for Gulf of Mexico wind energy
A company has bid $5.6 million to lease federal waters off the Louisiana coast for wind energy generation. Tuesday’s one-of-a-kind auction marked a modest start for wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico.
 
FILE - A rig and supply vessel are pictured in the Gulf of Mexico, off the cost of Louisiana, April 10, 2011. The Biden administration's plan to protect an endangered species of whale by scaling back an auction of oil and gas drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico is being challenged by the oil industry. The conflicting federal lawsuits — one filed Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023, in southwest Louisiana by oil interests, the other announced Friday, Aug. 25, in Washington by the organization Earthjustice — focus on a planned sale of oil and gas leases set for Sept. 27 in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
Energy interests and environmentalists fight Biden oil lease plan from different sides
Oil companies are challenging a Biden administration move to protect an endangered species of whale by scaling back a planned September auction of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas leases.
 
A view of the Upper Pontalba building in New Orleans' French Quarter on July 19, 2023. The building hosts businesses on the ground floor and coveted apartments on its upper floors. One of the apartments has been traditionally used by city mayors for meetings, special events or visiting dignitaries but the City Council –overriding a veto by Mayor LaToya Cantrell—has voted to put the apartment back into commerce following months of controversy over Cantrell’s use of the space. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill)
In a rebuke to mayor, New Orleans puts a historic apartment out of her reach and into commerce
A coveted apartment in New Orleans’ historic French Quarter will no longer be reserved for use by whoever holds the position of mayor.
 
FILE - Wilson Ruiz, a crew member of the Joe Griffin, looks out at the oil slick at the site of the BP Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig collapse in the Gulf of Mexico on May 6, 2010. The Biden administration has tightened offshore oil drilling safety regulations, including rules regarding the use of “blowout preventer” devices on offshore oil and gas drilling rigs. Planned changes announced last fall were finalized Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2023 — more than 13 years after the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers and spewed an estimated 130 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
US tightens some offshore oil rig safety rules that had been loosened under Trump
The Biden administration has tightened offshore oil drilling safety regulations, including rules regarding the use of “blowout preventer” devices on offshore oil and gas drilling rigs.
 
FILE - Mississippi Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch addresses the crowd at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Miss., July 26, 2023. A court ruling striking down Mississippi's practice of permanently stripping voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies should be reconsidered and reversed, the state said Friday, Aug. 18, 2023, as it asked for new hearing by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Enforcement of the voting ban, which is part of the state's constitution, was blocked by in a 2-1 decision by a panel of 5th Circuit judges on Friday, Aug. 4. Mississippi attorneys, led by Fitch, asked the full New Orleans-based court to reconsider the case. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Mississippi seeks new court hearing to revive its permanent stripping of some felons’ voting rights
Mississippi is asking a federal appeals court for a second hearing on whether it can permanently strip voting rights from people convicted of certain felonies. A divided panel of 5th U.S.
 
FILE - President and CEO of the Audubon Nature Institute Ron Forman, center, speaks during a news conference at the Audubon Zoo, July 14, 2018, in New Orleans. Forman, who is credited with transforming New Orleans’ Audubon Zoo from a wretched “animal prison” to a world-renowned showcase, will retire at the end of 2024, the Audubon Nature Institute announced Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. (Brett Duke/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP, File)
Ron Forman, credited with transforming New Orleans’ once-disparaged Audubon Zoo, to retire
The man credited with transforming New Orleans’ Audubon Zoo from a wretched “animal prison” to a world-renowned showcase has announced plans to retire next year.
 
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