Roishetta Ozane and her children walk in a second line through the French Quarter during the “Power Up in the Gulf” event for climate justice on Nov. 3, 2023. (Minh Ha/Verite News)
When environmentalist Roishetta Ozane saw swing states begin to turn red on election night, she said she was heartbroken. Despite massive campaigning efforts in key states like Pennsylvania and Georgia, Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris was losing the race to former president and now president-elect Donald Trump.
“At first I felt sad and just kind of hopeless,” Ozane said. “Then I felt angry that so many people didn’t vote. I also felt like it was just like a punch in the gut. I feel like we had done everything, we had made sure people were educated on the issues.”
Ozane is the founder and director of the Vessel Project of Louisiana, an environmental mutual aid group based in Lake Charles. The group provides rebuilding assistance to those who have been affected by hurricanes and campaigns against the fossil fuel industry, which dominates large parts of the region and poses risks to residents through ongoing emissions and, periodically, catastrophic accidents. On the day after the election, Ozane even thought about quitting her work as an environmental advocate as she remembered Trump’s first term.
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Trump has undermined efforts to fight climate change, and in his first term rolled back more than 100 environmental rules, most of which regulated air pollution and emissions standards.
RISE St. James founder Sharon Lavigne. (Photo provided by Goldman Environmental Prize)
Sharon Lavigne, the founder of environmental justice group Rise St. James, said that the election was a setback. She said that clean air and water won’t be a priority for the administration, and is concerned about Trump’s pro-fossil fuel stance. Rise St. James is currently fighting to prevent Formosa Plastics from building a sprawling multi-million dollar complex in St. James Parish. The parish lies in what many call “Cancer Alley,” the industrial stretch along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge known for high cancer rates and heavy industrial pollution from facilities near residences.
“I’m worried about them giving more power to industry to poison us,” Lavigne said. “They’re more concerned about industry than the people.”
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Lavigne’s worries were echoed by other environmentalists, such as Arthur Johnson, the executive director of the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development. He is worried that environmental justice will not be a priority for the federal government after Trump takes office in January.
“You can’t depend on public entities and public leaders to make these decisions that will benefit us,” Johnson said.
Trump announced Lee Zeldin, a former U.S. representative from New York, as his pick for the head of the EPA. Like Trump, Zeldin has a pro-energy, anti-regulation stance. While in Congress, he voted against numerous environmental protection policies, as well as the Inflation Reduction Act, which has put billions of dollars into clean energy initiatives, from solar-powered housing to urban tree planting. Trump has promised to roll back the IRA and increase fossil fuel production.
Ozane said that the federal government should create protections for the environment and frontline communities while President Joe Biden is still in office in order to make it more difficult for policies to be undone once Trump is sworn in. She said Biden should make sure communities receive IRA funds before the inauguration, ban drilling on public land and declare a climate emergency to help move funds to frontline communities.
But in the next couple of days, Ozane no longer felt hopeless as she remembered her history.
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“We’ve always had to fight, especially as Black people, as people of color, as low-income people, we have always had to fight,” Ozane said. “We have always found a way to survive and thrive in our communities and the government is not who is going to save us. We are going to save ourselves.”
In the coming months, Ozane said she will organize and strategize to try to get the Biden administration to fulfill some of her environmental protection goals. Ozane and other Louisiana environmentalists are poised to increase community outreach and form networks that will help them protect themselves, with or without support from the federal government. Johnson said his organization will have more conversations about their work to broaden its impact.
“But we can’t just sit back and wait and say, ‘Let’s see what they’re going to do and then let’s act,’ because then we’re reacting,” Johnson said. “And my point is that we have to not react, but we have to act.”
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This article first appeared on Verite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
A Pentecostal pastor in Louisiana charged with sexually molesting a teenage girl in his church has been convicted of indecent behavior with a juvenile – but was acquitted of the more serious crime of statutory rape.
Milton Otto Martin III, 58, faces up to seven years in prison and must register as a sex offender after a three-day trial in Chalmette, Louisiana, resulted in a guilty verdict against him on Thursday. His sentencing hearing is tentatively set for 15 January in the latest high-profile instance of religious abuse in the New Orleans area.
Authorities who investigated Martin, the pastor of Chalmette’s First Pentecostal Church, spoke with several alleged molestation victims of his. But the jury in his case heard from just two of them, and the charges on which he was tried pertained to only one.
That victim’s attorneys – John Denenea, Richard Trahant and Soren Gisleson – lauded their client for testifying against Martin even as members of the institution’s congregation showed up in large numbers to support him throughout the trial.
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“That was the most courageous thing I’ve ever seen a young woman do,” the lawyers remarked in a statement, with Denenea saying it was the first time in his career he and a client of his needed deputies to escort them out the courthouse. “She not only made sure he was accountable for his crimes – she has also protected many other young women from this convicted predator.”
Neither Martin’s attorney, Jeff Hufft, nor his church immediately responded to requests for comment.
The documents containing Martin’s criminal charges alleged that he committed felony carnal knowledge, Louisiana’s formal name for statutory rape, by engaging in oral sex with Denenea’s client when she was 16 in about 2011. The indecent behavior was inflicted on her when she was between the ages of 15 and 17, the charging documents maintained.
A civil lawsuit filed against Martin in parallel detailed how he would allegedly bring the victim – one of his congregants – out on four-wheeler rides and sexually abuse her during breaks that they took during the excursions.
The accuser, now about 30, reported Martin to Louisiana state police before he was arrested in March 2023. Other accusers subsequently came forward with similar allegations dating back further. Martin made bail, pleaded not guilty and underwent trial beginning on Tuesday in front of state court judge Darren Roy.
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Denenea said he believed his client’s testimony on Wednesday was pivotal in Martin’s conviction, which was obtained by prosecutors Barry Milligan and Erica Moore of the Louisiana attorney general’s office, according to the agency.
As Denenea put it, it seemed to him Martin’s acquittal stemmed from uncertainty over whether the accuser initially reported being 16 at the time of the alleged carnal knowledge.
State attorney general Liz Murrill said in a statement that it was “great work” my Milligan and Moore “getting justice for this victim”.
“We will never stop fighting to protect the children of Louisiana,” Murrill said.
Martin was remanded without bail to the custody of the local sheriff’s office to await sentencing after the verdict.
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The lawsuit that Denenea’s client filed against Martin was stayed while the criminal case was unresolved. It can now proceed, with the plaintiff accusing the First Pentecostal church of doing nothing to investigate earlier sexual abuse claims against Martin.
The plaintiff also accused the Worldwide Pentecostal Fellowships to which the Chalmette church belonged of failing to properly supervise Martin around children, and her lawsuit demands damages from both institutions.
Martin’s prosecution is unrelated to the clergy molestation scandal that drove the Roman Catholic archdiocese of nearby New Orleans into federal bankruptcy court in 2020 – but the two cases do share a few links.
State police detective Scott Rodrigue investigated Martin after also pursuing the retired New Orleans Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker, a serial child molester who had been shielded by his church superiors for decades. Rodrigue’s investigation led to Hecker’s arrest, conviction and life sentence for child rape – shortly before his death in December 2024.
Furthermore, Denenea, Trahant and Gisleson were also the civil attorneys for the victim in Hecker’s criminal case.
Newlab New Orleans is deepening its energy-tech ambitions with a new partnership alongside JERA, Japan’s largest power generator, to accelerate next-generation carbon capture solutions for heavy industries across Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, The Center Square writes.
The collaboration brings JERA Ventures into Newlab’s public-private innovation hub, where startups gain access to lab space and high-end machinery to commercialize technologies aimed at cutting emissions and improving industrial efficiency.
The move builds momentum as Newlab prepares to open its fifth global hub next fall at the former Naval Support Activity site, adding New Orleans to a network that includes Riyadh and Detroit. JERA’s footprint in Louisiana is already growing—from a joint venture on CF Industries’ planned $4 billion low-carbon ammonia plant to investments in solar generation and Haynesville shale assets—positioning the company as a significant player in the state’s clean-energy transition.
Federal immigration authorities are keeping a tight lid on key details as “Catahoula Crunch” closes its first week in southeast Louisiana, Verite writes.
The operation—one of Department of Homeland Security’s largest recent urban crackdowns—began with raids at home-improvement stores and aims for 5,000 arrests, according to plans previously reviewed by the Associated Press. While DHS publicly highlighted arrests of immigrants with violent criminal records, AP data shows fewer than one-third of the 38 detainees in the first two days had prior convictions.
Meanwhile, advocacy groups report widespread fear in Hispanic communities, with residents avoiding hospitals, schools, workplaces and even grocery stores amid sightings of federal agents.
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Business impacts are already visible: restaurants and Hispanic-serving corridors like Broad Street appear unusually quiet, with staff shortages forcing menu cuts and temporary closures. School absenteeism has doubled in Jefferson Parish, and protests have spread across New Orleans and surrounding suburbs as local leaders demand transparency around federal tactics.
