“They seemed to have missed the point.” 56 years and nothing’s changed? www.facebook.com/share/v/1CqW...
facebook.com
Mark Schleifstein
@mschleifstein.bsky.social
Freelance environment reporter in the Big Easy, retired from The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate | nola.com
A spaceport would reshape this remote community on Louisiana's southwestern coast, bringing potentially thousands of jobs but also construction, noise and other changes. www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/...
‘We all know something's happening’: Pecan Island residents react to potential SpaceX spaceport
Big white Xs appeared on the roads around Pecan Island a few weeks ago. Nobody will say what they're for. Residents suspect SpaceX, which sources say is set to gain control of 130,000 acres of Louisia...
theadvocate.com
There is a process for this, and it feels like the community is being shut out,” wrote LEAN executive director Marylee Orr. “This is about protecting the community, public health and the natural resources in that area.” lailluminator.com/2026/08/05/t...
Two years after ‘red mud’ escaped alumina refinery, LDEQ hasn’t penalized company
Two years after environmental regulators first documented 'red mud' waste from the Atalco alumina refinery escaping into public waterways, the state has yet to penalize the company.
lailluminator.com
This court case will be fun to watch: Capital One said it had no reason to make a political statement with the closure of Trump’s accounts in 2021 and the move had everything to do with activity in the accounts being flagged by anti-money laundering experts with the bank. apnews.com/article/trum...
Trump accounts were closed in 2021 due to concerns over possible money laundering, Capital One says
Capital One closed President Donald Trump’s accounts in mid-2021 after flagging financial activity that resembled money laundering.
apnews.com
FAA proposal would waive 13 laws governing rocket launch and reentry licenses, &protections under Natl Env Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, National Historic Preservation Act, & coastal and marine mammal protections. www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/...
SpaceX is planning a rocket-launching spaceport in coastal Louisiana. Here are the plans.
After months of speculation, a source close to the deal has confirmed an 18-mile stretch of coastal south Louisiana called Pecan Island will be the site for a new space port for Elon Musk's SpaceX.
theadvocate.com
I'm shocked, simply shocked. What's next? Olympian sues president for slander? apnews.com/article/refl...
Justice Department drops criminal case against ex-Olympian charged with damaging Reflecting Pool
The Justice Department has moved to dismiss a criminal case charging a former Olympian with deliberately damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
apnews.com
Louisiana’s plan is to build a repository in a salt dome beneath the Gulf to permanently store highly radioactive spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactors. www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/...
Louisiana pitches plan to store radioactive nuclear waste underneath the Gulf
Louisiana wants federal support for a sweeping nuclear plan that includes new reactors, data-center power and research into storing spent fuel in offshore salt domes. The state is one of five finalist...
theadvocate.com
Has Trump ever read this? The Fourteenth Amendment forbids any state to deny to any person “life, liberty or property, without due process of law” or to “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” www.loc.gov/item/today-i...
Today in History - July 28
The Fourteenth Amendment | Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis | The “Bonus Army”
loc.gov
The Library of Congress’s holdings on work attributed to Homer go back about 2,000 years, with a papyrus fragment from “The Iliad,” the precursor to “The Odyssey,” and then continue as the centuries go by. blogs.loc.gov/loc/2026/07/...
blogs.loc.gov
While Louisiana law allows most parishes to impose zoning restrictions in unincorporated areas, they must do so "in accordance with a comprehensive plan," which Caddo does not have. The parish can regulate those areas, just not through zoning. www.shreveportbossieradvocate.com/news/plan-to...
Plan to regulate data center work camps revealed a limit to Caddo's authority. Can they do it?
A Caddo Commissioner's ordinance meant to regulate data center work camps revealed the parish has limited authority to do so without a master plan in place.
shreveportbossieradvocate.com
Just below the grassy surface, chambers have been built capable of holding 440,000 gallons of water — about two-thirds of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. www.nola.com/news/educati...
A dungeon for water? On Tulane's campus, managing stormwater goes deep.
A new project unifying greenspace at Tulane is also designed to help with one of the city’s most pressing problems: managing stormwater.
nola.com
Live downwind from Waterford 3, River Bend, some other nuclear power plant? Thank Trump for this! apnews.com/article/nucl...
As Trump boosts nuclear power, regulators seek to eliminate a longstanding radiation safety practice
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing to eliminate a foundational safety principle that has for 50 years minimized the radiation people in the United States are exposed to, and that has been ...
apnews.com
Time for a slurry of Louisiana Public Records Law requests! ‘Gag order’: More than 100 Louisiana state employees signed NDAs with Gov. Landry’s office veritenews.org/2026/07/24/j...
‘Gag order’: More than 100 Louisiana state employees signed NDAs with Gov. Landry’s office - Verite News New Orleans
More than 100 of Landry’s employees have signed a strict confidentiality agreement with the governor’s office binding them to secrecy about what they learn on the job.
veritenews.org
Impeach? “With one exception, the 284 terminated grants had a recipient location and/or at least one place of performance in a state that awarded its electoral votes to Kamala Harris in the 2024 election & has two Democratic-caucusing Senators (“Blue State” grants)” www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...
Trump Administration Admits Canceling Grants to States That Did Not Vote for Him
Federal officials said in court documents that they halted billions of dollars in funding for energy projects to states “based solely” on whether they backed President Trump in the 2024 election.
nytimes.com
Pay no attention to those White men behind the boardroom curtain! apnews.com/article/eeoc...
US civil rights agency moves to end demographic data collection after 60 years
The Trump administration is seeking to toss aside a 60-year-old requirement for tens of thousands of private sector employers to submit workforce demographic reports each year to the Equal Employment ...
apnews.com
Floodlight/Guardian analysis found La’s monitors located miles from major polluters and fail to test for some of the most dangerous chemicals. ‘A public health emergency waiting to occur’: how US industry groups spent years fighting who gets to measure toxic air www.theguardian.com/environment/...
‘A public health emergency waiting to occur’: how US industry groups spent years fighting who gets to measure toxic air
Air polluters try to ensure toxic emissions happen far from monitors – but the people who live nearby still feel it
theguardian.com
Add this to Trump impeachment list: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/b...
Trump Administration Sought Phone Records of Times Journalists and Their Relatives
The government is aggressively seeking the confidential sources of Times reporters who wrote about the president’s new Air Force One. The Times has asked a judge to quash the subpoenas.
nytimes.com
Louisiana’s coastal marshes, already fading away, will drown faster, and high-tide flooding in coastal communities, once an occasional nuisance, will become chronic. www.nola.com/news/environ...
The Gulf’s heating faster than the world's oceans. Louisiana is at ground zero.
The Gulf is in the throes of a turbulent new era that holds enormous consequences for Louisiana and the other states along its coast. “These are not theoretical concepts, one Tulane scientist said. “T...
nola.com
Add this to Trump impeachment list: Even though such investigations are intended to determine whether the officers were in fact attacked, they can provide a crucial means of gathering evidence implicating the agents themselves. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/19/u...
Federal Agents Were Told FBI Will No Longer Investigate ICE Confrontations
Senior officials deny such a change is in the works, despite guidance shared with agents around the country in recent days.
nytimes.com
Major quake, 7.3, in Pacific off Mexico near Guatemala border gets Orange "Pager" significant damage reading from USGS: earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/...
Reporters, editors, here's a great example of how SciLine can help your staff do its work: www.sciline.org/learn/omb-fe...
sciline.org
“Their concern for the Gulf may be heartfelt. But concern, without injury, is not standing,” the ruling said of the plaintiff environmental groups. www.nola.com/news/busines...
Nation's first floating LNG terminal, to be located off Louisiana, survives court challenge
The project will include vessels anchored to the Gulf seabed off southwest Louisiana that will liquefy natural gas for export to Asia and Europe.
nola.com
USFWS and NOAA to abandon traditional definition of "harm" in Endangered Species Act, relying on Scalise dissenting opinion in old SCOTUS case. So in the future, "First do no ... never mind!" public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2026-14195.pdf
