U.S. approves first deepwater permit since oil spill

The U.S. has approved the first deep-water drilling permit in the Gulf of Mexico since last year's massive oil spill.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement says the permit is to continue work on a well about 70 miles southeast of Venice, La.

Noble Energy Inc. is the operator of the well. The company started drilling on the well four days before the Deepwater Horizon exploded. Drilling activity was suspended on June 12 when the U.S. placed a moratorium on deep-water exploration.

Disagreements emerge over La. court redistricting

When lawmakers gather next month to redraw Louisiana's political district lines, maps for the Louisiana Supreme Court and state appeals courts may be left on the cutting room floor.

Lawmakers are required to redraw the boundary lines of congressional, legislative, Public Service Commission and education board districts when new census figures are released. There's no such requirement about the courts, even though they were included in the special session agenda.

House and Senate leaders are split on the matter.


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Integrated Resource Planning Overview

We all want New Orleans to become a green, sustainable, and more energy efficient city at the lowest cost to its residents. Luckily, the opportunity to make some drastic positive changes is before the City Council right now. This opportunity is in the form of Entergy New Orleans' Integrated Resource Plan (IRP)

What is an IRP?
An Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is document created by a utility for its regulators that lays out how the utility plans to provide power to its ratepayers in the coming years. It addresses both “demand-side” and “supply-side” options. In an IRP, a utility must assess its long-term power generation resources, and include room for new options. Entergy New Orleans (ENO) submitted its IRP in January 2011 to the City Council, and the Utility Committee is currently reviewing it. If accepted, the process will repeat every three years to ensure that goals are met and the IRP evolves to include new technologies and best practices.

Why is the IRP important to you? Read on to learn more about this pressing issue.

Louisiana to lose a seat in Congress

Louisiana will lose a seat in Congress and therefore one of its nine electoral votes because of the results of the 2010 U.S. Census, it was announced today in Washington.It is among 10 states to lose representation because of population shifts. Besides the number of House seats, the state population totals also determine how hundreds of billions of dollars a year in federal spending on education, housing, law enforcement and other programs are divided among the states. So Louisiana stands to get a slightly smaller share of those programs. Read more here

Orleans Parish Prison holds almost as many state inmates as local prisoners

In the mid-1970s, when singer Johnny Cash pleaded with Orleans Parish Prison in song to release his green-eyed son, the jailhouse held about 800 prisoners. Three decades later, the prison, known to locals as OPP, consistently ranked as one of the 10 biggest jails in the country, far out of proportion to the city's size. Read more here

Landrieu privately negotiated for new property tax increase

If the City Council ratifies a tax increase Saturday that members privately negotiated with Mayor Mitch Landrieu, it will take one of the final actions needed to produce a balanced 2011 budget. Despite the back-channel politicking that will result in a higher bill for most city property owners, Landrieu on Friday proclaimed the protracted budget effort “the most open process – end of story.” Read more here

House Passes the DREAM Act!

The DREAM Act would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented youth with a clean criminal record who commit two years to the military or to college. Read more here