Alex Lubben

New Orleans flood agency wants to expand its police force again. Key vote is upcoming. The New Orleans Flood Protection Authority is proposing to expand its police force and raise spending by $2 million. Watchdog groups say the agency’s focus should remain on flood protection.

New Orleans flood agency wants to expand its police force again www.nola.com/news/environ... via @alexlubben.bsky.social #lalege

New Orleans levee board turmoil rises after resignations, allegation police chief was punched A battery allegation against a levee board member has intensified a year-long dispute at a New Orleans–area flood authority.

New Orleans levee board turmoil rises after resignations, allegation police chief was punched; Two remaining board members not appointed by Gov. Jeff Landry are resigning www.nola.com/news/politic... via @alexlubben.bsky.social #lalege

Louisiana drilled more coastal oil wells than any other state. Thousands have sunk in the Gulf. A shrimp boat’s sudden sinking reveals a hidden danger: thousands of Louisiana oil wells drilled in marsh now lie underwater. They endanger boats, leak oil, and may leave taxpayers with the cleanup co...

More than 3,600 wells once drilled on land or in wetlands are now in open water — a result of decades of erosion, sinking land and rising seas.   Some leak. Many endanger boats. Hundreds may fall to taxpayers to clean up.

www.nola.com/news/environ...

Louisiana drilled more coastal oil wells than any other state. Thousands have sunk in the Gulf. A shrimp boat’s sudden sinking reveals a hidden danger: thousands of Louisiana oil wells drilled in marsh now lie underwater. They endanger boats, leak oil, and may leave taxpayers with the cleanup co...

Louisiana has more coastal oil wells than any other state. They're sinking: Thousands, once in marsh, are now in open water, thanks to land loss & rising seas.

Many leak, some sink boats, and cleanup costs could fall to taxpayers.

My latest for @nolanews.bsky.social: www.nola.com/news/environ...

Louisiana drilled more coastal oil wells than any other state. Thousands have sunk in the Gulf. A shrimp boat’s sudden sinking reveals a hidden danger: thousands of Louisiana oil wells drilled in marsh now lie underwater. They endanger boats, leak oil, and may leave taxpayers with the cleanup co...

Louisiana has more coastal oil wells than any other state. They're sinking: Thousands, once in marsh, are now in open water, thanks to land loss & rising seas.

Many leak, some sink boats, and cleanup costs could fall to taxpayers.

My latest for @nolanews.bsky.social: www.nola.com/news/environ...

Federal cuts threatened to curtail New Orleans area levee inspections. Money has now been found. The Army Corps has secured funding for annual inspections of New Orleans’ levee system after earlier budget cuts. But next year’s funding is still in doubt.

NEW: The Corp found funds to do crucial annual levee inspections in New Orleans. We reported last week that the inspection would not happen this year due to federal funding cuts.

My latest for @nolanews.bsky.social: www.nola.com/news/environ...

New Orleans' vital levee system will be inspected less often. Federal cuts are to blame. For the first time in years, New Orleans’ levees will skip annual safety inspections. Federal budget cuts are halting the checks that protect the city from the type of flooding that occurred 20 years ...

NEW: 20 years after Katrina, the Corps doesn't have funding to fully inspect New Orleans’ levees this year or next.

Story for @nolanews.bsky.social here:
www.nola.com/news/environ...

My profile for @nolanews.bsky.social of John Carmouche, the attorney who just won a $745 million verdict against Chevron:

www.nola.com/news/environ...

Yep, added a link in the second paragraph. thanks for pointing out that it was missing

Vertical land motion in Greater New Orleans: Insights into underlying drivers and impact to flood protection infrastructure Satellites provide perspective on the sustainability of New Orleans.

Here you go -- apologies for not including, it was under embargo while I was writing: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

An invasive fish in Louisiana waters was thought wiped out. It's back, and biologists are worried. Invasive and hungry, these farmed fish escaped from a corporate retreat near Port Sulphur, La., nearly 20 years ago. Despite a massive eradication effort in 2009, scientists have made an unsettling di...

That scientist, Marty O'Connell at UNO, had a hunch that the fish might not have been wiped out.

He went back down there last year, threw in a net, pulled up a bunch of tilapia. They're back.

Full story here:

www.nola.com/news/environ...

In this file photo from 2009, Mike Wood, a Biologist/Program Manager for Wildlife and Fisheries explains the agencies recent efforts using the fish toxicant rotenone to help eradicate tilapia, an invasive fish native to Africa in lower Plaquemines Parish. The fish have been found in a series of drainage canals, ditches and borrow pits from Diamond community south to Port Sulphur. He is standing by one of the borrow pits that was treated and aerated to stir up the rotenone and now has numerous dead tilapia floating on the surface. (Staff photo by Susan Poag, The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)

The company, Freeport-McMoRan, cut a very big check to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries in 2009 to help it wipe out the tilapia. They tried to do exactly that, with a potent fish-killing chemical that a scientist described as taking a "bazooka" to the waterways.

LDWF fisheries biologist Joel Caldwell holds juvenile tilapia collected from a canal in Port Sulphur on Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)

Sometime before Katrina, one of the world's biggest mining companies stocked a fishing pond on its corporate lodge in Plaquemines Parish with tilapia, a non-native fish that can gobble up everything and take over ecosystems.

There are at least 40 lawsuits pending about the same issues. How this case pans out will affect those other lawsuits, and could result in tens of billions in damages.

Chevron says it's going to fight this all the way to SCOTUS.

Story: www.nola.com/news/environ...

The historic $745 million verdict against Chevron in Plaquemines "is one of the largest … ever won by a local government for environmental damage — not only in the United States, but globally,” says @michaelgerrard.bsky.social. But the verdict is just the beginning of a much larger fight.

Billions at stake as oil firms face off against Plaquemines Parish in coastal damages suit A colossal Louisiana legal showdown began this week in a Plaquemines Parish courtroom, as attorney John Carmouche, who has led a statewide fight to make the energy industry pay for

Billions at stake as oil firms face off against Plaquemines Parish in coastal damages suit

www.nola.com/news/environ...

They left their sinking Louisiana island with state help. But will their new community unravel? “I’m not going to lie, most people are probably struggling right now,” one resident said.

Just over two years ago, people who had lived their whole lives on Isle de Jean Charles moved into brand new homes in a government-built subdivision. Already some worry about being priced out.

Story at @nolanews.bsky.social:

www.nola.com/news/environ...

Gov. Jeff Landry's adviser is reshaping New Orleans levee authority. 'Look at Elon Musk' Gov. Jeff Landry's point person in New Orleans is taking a hands-on approach to reform at the east bank's flood control authority.

Shane Guidry, who says he is to Jeff Landry what Elon Musk is to Trump, is reshaping the agency tasked with protecting the New Orleans metro area from storm surge flooding.

www.nola.com/news/environ...

Attacker drove down 3 blocks of Bourbon Street with no barriers. How did that happen? Most of the attack victims were killed on portions of the street that would have been protected by at least one police car. But NOPD has now acknowledged that there were no police cruisers parked as...

Attacker drove down 3 blocks of Bourbon Street with no barriers. How did that happen?

www.nola.com/news/crime_p...

Scientists put microphones at the bottom of the Gulf to hear whales. It was eerily quiet. Scientists initially expected some whale populations to rebound a decade after the BP oil spill. New research suggests they haven't recovered.

After the BP oil spill, scientists expected some whale populations to recover within a decade. New research suggests that hasn't happened.

www.nola.com/news/environ...

Decided to join bluesky since my story is blowing up here- thanks everyone who's read it! Update: Amazon contacted Ms. Scott-Windham and is now giving her time off with pay.

Alabama mom hit by truck, then shot in Bourbon Street attack: 'It's just so disturbing' A night of revelry was coming to a close for Alexis Scott-Windham and her friends in the early hours of New Year's Eve after they came from Mobile, Alabama to

“The Amazon warehouse where she works denied her request for a leave of absence, and she worries she'll have to find a new job once she's recovered.”

www.nola.com/news/crime_p...

Plan to replace New Orleans' Industrial Canal lock being revived. Neighbors are pushing back. The project has led neighbors to put signs in their yards that read “The Canal Will Kill.”

I wrote about where the Corps' plan currently stands here: www.nola.com/news/environ...

Decades ago, the West Bank also faced an industrial canal bottleneck. Here's what happened. One human lifetime. That’s how long we’ve been debating whether the lock of the Industrial Canal should be widened — “we” meaning shipping interests, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Here's Richard Campanella with a deep history of the Industrial Canal and the long debate over whether to widen it: www.nola.com/entertainmen...

New Orleans tourists describe 'cops everywhere' in French Quarter before Bourbon Street attack Before a driver plowed through crowds of revelers on Bourbon Street, people said they felt safe thanks to the large number of law enforcement officers present — precautions that made the carnage even ...

In the hours before a driver plowed through crowds in New Orleans' French Quarter, revelers noticed droves of law enforcement officers stationed at the festivities — precautions they said made the carnage even more stunning. @nolanews.bsky.social
www.nola.com/news/crime_p...

Who is Shamsud-Din Jabbar, suspect in alleged Bourbon Street terrorist attack in New Orleans? Shamsud-Din Jabbar was a recently-divorced Texas resident, though it was unclear what ties he had to New Orleans.

Real estate agent, Army veteran, Texas resident.
Who was Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the suspect accused of killing at least 10, injuring dozens on Bourbon Street in New Orleans?
www.nola.com/news/crime_p...

Our journalists are following every update on the Bourbon Street attack. We'll be covering it around the clock.

Find the latest on NOLA.com here: www.nola.com/news/crime_p...

Plan to replace New Orleans' Industrial Canal lock being revived. Neighbors are pushing back. The project has led neighbors to put signs in their yards that read “The Canal Will Kill.”

Wrote about the effort to revive the 70-year-old plan to replace the lock on the Industrial Canal for @nolanews.bsky.social www.nola.com/news/environ...

Head of New Orleans levee authority resigns amid clash over agency’s police force Kelli Chandler will officially step down from her position leading the South Louisiana Flood Protection Authority–East on Jan. 3.

New from me: The head of the east bank’s flood control agency is stepping down after she opposed a Landry-backed plan to expand the role of the agency’s police force.

www.nola.com/news/environ...

Gov. Jeff Landry denounced a $3 billion coastal restoration plan. Shrimpers are thrilled. Commercial fishermen in South Louisiana, already struggling to make ends meet, worry that a massive coastal restoration project could put an end their way of life.

Louisiana has a plan to slice open a section of the Mississippi River to keep a key section of the coastline from eroding. But doing so could harm fisheries, and shrimpers worry that the project could kill their industry.

I went to Buras to talk to them about it.

www.nola.com/news/environ...