NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A civil rights lawsuit alleging a south Louisiana parish engaged in racist land-use policies by placing polluting industries in majority-Black communities can move forward, a federal appellate court says.
On Thursday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that a trio of faith-based community groups could proceed with a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in the petrochemical buildout in St. James Parish, a region in the heart of Louisiana’s heavily industrialized Chemical Corridor. It is often referred to by environmental groups as “Cancer Alley” for its high levels of pollution.
The lawsuit calls for a moratorium on the construction and expansion of petrochemical plants in St. James Parish. When the lawsuit was filed in March 2023, 20 of the 24 industrial facilities were in two sections of the parish with majority-Black populations.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found in a 2003 report that St. James Parish ranked higher than the national average for certain cancer deaths. Both majority-Black sections of the parish are ranked as having a high risk of cancer from toxic pollutants according to an EPA screening tool based on emissions reported by nearby facilities, the lawsuit notes.
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“We have been sounding the alarm for far too long that a moratorium is needed to halt the expansion of any more polluting industries in our neighborhoods, and too many lives have been lost to cancer,” said Gail LeBoeuf, a lifelong parish resident and co-founder of Inclusive Louisiana. She is a plaintiff in the case.
The case will now go back to the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana, which had previously ruled the lawsuit was filed too late by Inclusive Louisiana and other community groups because the allegations centered on a 2014 parish land-use plan.
But the federal court said the complaint was filed on time and noted that the lawsuit was “replete with allegations of discriminatory land use decisions” in the parish, of which the 2014 plan was just one example.
The court also recognized that the groups had a right to sue the parish for authorizing industrial development which “desecrates, destroys, and restricts access” to the cemeteries of their enslaved ancestors in the parish. Many of the petrochemical facilities in Louisiana are built on former plantations, and few of the burial sites of the enslaved have been preserved.
“I think it’s a real vindication of their struggle,” said Pamela Spees, a lawyer with the Center of Constitutional Rights representing the plaintiffs. “This is a case about long-running ongoing discrimination and now we get to deal with the claims on their merits.”
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St. James Parish did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96.
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Nick Albares ran a close third in the Louisiana Democratic primary for U.S. Senate and has until Tuesday (May 19) to decide whether to seek a recount. He finished less than 300 votes short of making a June runoff.
Though many Democrats voted in Saturday’s primary, political analysts still think the general election race to replace Sen. Bill Cassidy will be the Republican candidate’s to lose.
Political newcomer Jamie Davis finished first in the Democratic primary with 47.4% of the vote. Gary Crockett placed second, making the runoff with 26.3% of the vote. Albares came in third at 26.2% and must now decide whether to finance a recount.
“We are going to talk to our team. We’re going to look at every angle,” Albares told Fox 8 on Saturday night.
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Davis received 163,507 votes, just 16,000 shy of what Rep. Julia Letlow pulled in leading the Republican primary.
“He (Jamie Davis) didn’t spend a lot of money, hardly any money at all,” Dillard University political analyst Dr. Robert Collins said. “He didn’t go on television or have any radio ads or anything like that.”
But Collins predicted that even if Davis wins the June 27 Democratic runoff, he will have a tough time in the November general election.
“I don’t see any path forward for him right now, just realistically,” Collins said. “It’s a red state, and he’s going to be running against a very well-known public official that’s going to have millions of dollars and the endorsement of the president of the United States.”
Albares has until 4:30 p.m. Tuesday to seek a recount, but it could be expensive — up to $750 in each parish where a recount is sought, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
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“Any candidate can request a recount, but you have to pay for it,” Collins said.
Fox 8 asked the Albares campaign if a recount will be requested, but has not received a response.
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The Republican candidate for the District 1 seat on the Louisiana Public Service Commission will now be determined in a June runoff between a state lawmaker and a past parish president.
State Rep. Stephanie Hilferty and attorney and policy consultant John Young bested three other candidates in Saturday’s Republican primary with 28 percent and 31 percent of the vote, respectively. Since neither got more than 50 percent of the vote, the race to represent the New Orleans suburbs on the PSC advances to a June 27 runoff.
The winner will face Democrat Connie Norris, who was unopposed in her party’s primary, and Chris Justin, an engineer running as an independent, in November’s general election.
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Hilferty and Young both vowed to serve as watchdogs against excessive utility spending. They edged out state Rep. Mark Wright, who finished third with 24 percent of the vote.
Sen. Bill Cassidy’s primary loss Saturday brings to an end a two-decade career in public office that was ultimately defined by tensions with President Donald Trump.
Cassidy failed to advance in the Republican primary in Louisiana, as Trump-backed Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming are projected to head to a June 27 runoff.
The result marks another trophy for the president’s collection in his ongoing bid to oust Republicans perceived as disloyal to him.
Throughout Cassidy’s career, there were occasional signs that the physician-turned-politician wasn’t quite in lockstep with his party on a handful of issues, including around health care. But Cassidy’s cardinal sin, in the eyes of the Trump and his supporters, was voting in 2021 to convict the then-former president on impeachment charges of inciting an insurrection on Jan. 6.
Sen. Lindsey Graham says status quo in the Strait of Hormuz is ‘hurting us all’
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Sunday called for more U.S. military action in Iran.
“I think the status quo is hurting us all. The longer the [Strait of Hormuz] is closed, the more we try to pursue a deal that never happens, the stronger Iran gets,” Graham told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
Graham’s comments come amid a pause in negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, which have not yet led to a deal to end the war.
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Somalia is among the most exposed to ripple effects from the Strait of Hormuz crisis. The East African nation was already facing one of its worst food security crises in years.
Now, poor rains and renewed climate shocks are again pushing harvest expectations down, while global supply chain disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict are pushing up fertilizer and food costs, the world’s leading body on hunger warned.
Notable quote
If they go to war in the Pacific, what you are witnessing now in the Strait of Hormuz is just a dry run.
Singaporean Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan
As the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz drags on, guardians of another critical waterway are worried about the precedent it sets for any potential future clash between the United States and China. The Strait of Malacca carries more than a quarter of global trade, including most of the oil that flows from the Persian Gulf to key Asian markets
‘Meet the Press’
Former FBI Director James Comey said he has “complete faith in our judicial system” as he faces an ongoing federal case over a 2025 Instagram post.
The judiciary is “the genius of our founders,” Comey told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
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“It’s frankly the only leg of our three-legged stool that is still standing in the U.S. government, but it’s standing tall and straight,” he added. “It is the guardian of the rule of law, and I believe in it.”
Politics in brief
Ballroom bill: The Senate parliamentarian said that the GOP budget bill, which aims to fund ICE and Border Patrol alongside $1 billion for the White House ballroom, needs to be rewritten to account for jurisdictional issues.
Gauging the mood: NBC News spoke to roughly 30 Republican National Committee members and GOP activists around the country about how the party can keep control of Congress in November.
Dropping hints: Pennsylvania’s 7th District has been close to evenly split in recent elections. This year, the Democratic primary is also sending signals about what matters to the party.
On Gaza border, Israeli hard-liners lay out their desire to settle Palestinian territory
Right-wing Nachala movement settlers march near the Gaza border near Kibbutz Nir Am, Israel, in April. Erik Marmor / Getty Images
A river of Israeli flags winds through a desert path as hundreds of people march toward the border in a display of their determination to build new Jewish settlements atop the rubble of northern Gaza.
Daniella Weiss, founder of the radical right-wing settler group Nachala, sums up the crowd’s intentions.
“We are here on the way to new Jewish communities in Gaza,” she told NBC News in an interview at the border in late April.
“What we did in Judea and Samaria, we are going to do the same thing here,” Weiss added, a reference to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where illegal Jewish outposts and settler violence against Palestinians have grown dramatically in recent years.
Last month, Aws al-Nasaan, 14, was gunned down in broad daylight in the small Palestinian village of Al-Mughayyir, in the occupied West Bank. The boy’s blood still stained the sidewalk in front of his school days after an Israeli settler shot him dead.
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Napoleon Solo almost didn’t race. Thanks to a jockey’s suggestion, it won the Preakness.
Imagn Images; Getty Images
Before winning the 151st Preakness Stakes, Napoleon Solo almost wasn’t entered in the race known as the middle jewel of horse racing’s Triple Crown.
The horse had competed twice this year and finished fifth both times. It was after the second race that jockey Paco Lopez told owner Al Gold and trainer Chad Summers that there was more to Napoleon Solo’s potential than its most recent finishes indicated.
“Paco told Chad … to go to this race,” Gold said on the NBC Sports broadcast. “I didn’t want to come here. I didn’t think this horse could go this far.”
The faith paid off, and Napoleon Solo overtook favorites Taj Mahal and Iron Honor for the Preakness.
Got maggots? These doctors are bringing the bugs into their practice on purpose
Leila Register / NBC News; Getty Images
The lowly maggot gets a bad rap, mostly known for feeding on corpses and rotting meat. But modern medicine is giving its reputation new life — as a tiny surgeon.
Polly Cleveland, of New York City, turned to so-called maggot therapy in 2023 when she was caring for her late husband, Tom, who developed sores after a hospital stay.
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“You get this little vial with these teeny, tiny little maggots on a piece of gauze,” Cleveland said. “I stuck the maggots in, and by golly, they did their thing” cleaning up the wound.
The thinking is straightforward: Diseased and dying tissue must be removed from wounds in order to prevent infection. To maggots, this dead tissue is food, and they are able to remove it precisely and painlessly.
In case you missed it
The Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho was locked down Sunday following a midair collision during a local air show that sent two fighter jets crashing to the ground.
Thai police charged a train driver with negligence after a crash on Saturday in central Bangkok killed eight and injured 32.
Bulgaria triumphed for its first win at the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, held under the shadow of controversy over the continued participation of Israel.
A Canadian who was a passenger on the MV Hondius cruise ship, which is set to dock Monday in the Netherlands, has tested positive for the Andes hantavirus.
A passenger on board the plane that crashed into the ocean off the coast of Florida last week has been arrested on cocaine smuggling charges.
SpaceX is preparing to launch a new version of its megarocket — a prototype of the system NASA could use to carry astronauts to the moon’s surface.
