By: Joshua Rosenberg. June 10, 2026

NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans City Council’s budget amendment vote on drones in April violated Louisiana’s Open Meeting Law, a legal advocacy group said in a demand letter dated Tuesday. 

The April 16th vote, held by the City Council’s French Quarter Economic Development District (FQEDD), was antidemocratic in nature, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said in its letter. Unless the City Council redresses the situation independently, they may expect litigation, the group said. 

“Unless voluntarily reviewed and reconsidered, repudiated, or recalled, action taken at the April 16 meeting on [the motion] invites litigation against the city to cure violations of Louisiana’s Open Meetings Law,” Kayla Vinson, Emily Early, Jessica Vosburgh and Adina Marx-Arpadi said in the letter. The coalition Eye on Surveillance (EOS) and the ACLU-Louisiana, among other organizations, also signed the letter. 

In a 4 to 3 vote on April 16th, the New Orleans City Council’s FQEDD approved a budget item that would allocate $250,000 to a “drone as first responder” (DFR) program that the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) would operate in the French Quarter. Public comment was curtailed to 10 minutes by Councilmember Freddie King.

Councilmembers Aimee McCarron, Matthew Willard and Lesli Harris voted against the measure. Councilmembers Freddie King, Eugene Green, Jason Hughes and JP Morrell voted in favor of it.

“Eighteen people who signed up to speak in opposition to the program were not allowed to make public comment at all, including many whose comment cards were timestamped before the cards of some of the people who did make public comment,” CCR wrote in their letter. “Residents experienced this as political repression,” CCR stated.

The French Quarter Management District (FQMD) –  a nonelected, state-created body – voted in March to approve a budget amendment that would allow the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) to purchase a drone that would operate in the French Quarter. The FQMD reports to the FQEDD.

“[Residents] hoped for – and were entitled to – a different, more open and democratic experience with this Council. While the FQMD is a state body, the City Council is directly accountable to the people of New Orleans. Residents of New Orleans who attended the April 16 meeting were deeply dismayed by the antidemocratic process used by the Council,” CCR said.

The $250,000 DFR program would allow an officer with the NOPD to dispatch a Skydio drone quickly to incoming calls, according to Police Captain Samuel Palumbo of the 8th District. The district includes the French Quarter.

At first, the NOPD asked for $740,000 for the drone program. But a private donor stepped in to cover some $500,000. That last point is of interest to CCR, per its letter.

“Many residents attended this and previous meetings about the use of drones to express their opposition to the use of drone surveillance in New Orleans, given the troubling potential use of drones in dehumanizing, unethical, and racist ways, and to ask questions that remain unanswered about the ‘other partners’ the NOPD has said will support the cost of the drone program,” CCR said in its letter.

Skydio is an American company based in California. The company aided Israel in its genocide in Gaza. Skydio “…gives Israel ‘short-range reconnaissance drones’ capable of navigating obstacles autonomously and [producing] 3D scans of complex structures like buildings,’ according to Anwar Mhajne, writing in the Cairo Review of Global Affairs.

“Community members and organizations demand fair, trustworthy, democratic processes, and community engagement that goes beyond appearances and requires real community input and power,” Eye on Surveillance told The Rosenberg Brief in an emailed statement on Wednesday. “As our political landscape, federally and state-wide, is plagued by authoritarianism, community silencing on behalf of local elected officials is unacceptable, and accountability to our local democratic processes is paramount.”

The City Council did not respond to a request for comment in time for this article’s publication.

By: Joshua Rosenberg. April 29,2026.

NEW ORLEANS — If there were ever a single gauge (there’s not) with which to measure Jewish New Orleanians’ interest in Anti-Zionist spaces, then the RSVP list for Jewish Voice for Peace’s annual Seder might be it. This year, they had to stop taking reservations because they reached capacity.

Seder tells the story of Passover: Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt and towards the “Promised Land.” From the “narrow place” to one of openness and freedom. Today, Jews are searching for an authentic, personal connection to the ritual that’s also rooted in everyday reality, Jewish Voice For Peace-New Orleans (JVPNOLA), told The Rosenberg Brief. 

“People are looking for a space that’s honest and direct about what is happening, and not avoiding it, and how it is related to our Judaism in the sense that it’s our Judaism and Jewish ritual being used to justify this genocide and actions in Gaza,” Ariel Moyal, a member-leader with the group, said. 

“People say I feel despairing about it or angry,” Moyal said. “I haven’t known what to do, and I need to do something. JVP is a space to do that, and to be together in it.”

The reality is that Israel has been committing the most egregious crimes imaginable with total impunity. The reality is the world has watched a live-streamed genocide that Israel perpetrated against Palestine. 

Any Seder, or any other ritual, would be empty if Jews were to ignore that reality, Moyal said. 

And right now, people are seeking out spaces that honor that truth, Cypress Atlas, a member-leader with JVP NOLA told The Rosenberg Brief. 

“The things we’ve seen the most participation in have been ritual, holiday, Shabbat spaces. All the spaces that people might seek community through organized Judaism,” Atlas said. 

Institutional spaces ignore that truth at their own peril, she said,

“I’ve gone to several services at different synagogues here in town,” Atlas said. “And there’s always been a point where dedication to Israel as a nation-state comes up at some point. It’s in those moments, I kind of check out.”

Even if the nomenclature is catching up to the sentiment, that is.

“People who value peace and liberation and an end to oppression are just seeking other spaces. I think a lot of people maybe don’t identify as Anti-Zionist – yet,” she said. “Hopefully we can get them there. But a lot of people might just be uncomfortable with that allegiance to a genocidal state that is using Judaism as a moral cover for the most horrible things many of us have ever seen.”

Editorial note: Joshua Rosenberg is a member of JVP. Rosenberg attended this year’s Seder.

Correction: an earlier version of this story used language that was less than precise when discussing Jews and Hebrews. That error has been corrected.

Supporters were also targeted.

By: Joshua Rosenberg. April 21, 2026

NEW ORLEANS — The Chevron Out of French Quarter Fest coalition received an overwhelmingly warm reception from the people gathered at the Willow Dispensary Stage at French Quarter Festival (FQF) on Saturday evening before they were promptly kicked out of the show by the New Orleans Police Department.

The Chevron Out campaign planned to celebrate the fact that, starting in 2027, Chevron would no longer be a sponsor of FQF. The police virtually immediately began removing campaign members (who were wearing matching t-shirts) from the crowd.

They next targeted people who were carrying Palestinian flags (which the campaign had distributed). The band Sweet Crude was playing their set at the time. FQF announced it was dropping Chevron as title sponsor for the 2026 season, but the company remained a sponsor for this year.

“We followed the rules defined by the festival and remained extremely conscious and respectful of the other festivalgoers, festival staff, and the artists performing,”  Matt Banks, an organizer with Chevron Out, told The Rosenberg Brief in a statement. “The New Orleans Police Department officers who trespassed us did the opposite.” 

“They cited rules that did not exist and floundered when pressed for information,” Banks said. “They were extremely disruptive to the crowd and festivalgoers, many of whom were escorted out simply for supporting us visibly.”

Among other things, “[u]nauthorized signage, pamphlets, or flyers,” are prohibited by the festival. Flags are not mentioned in the festival’s materials.

The NOPD is recorded as telling attendees they could either keep their flags and leave, or let them confiscate the flags and stay.

“Everybody with a flag, y’all have the leave,” one officer said.“You can’t have it in here at all.”

“If you wanna keep it, you can leave out with it,” he also said. “But if you want me to take it, you can enjoy the festival.”

In 2025, Chevron was ordered to pay Plaquemines Parish more than $740 million for its role in land loss, a serious problem in southern Louisiana. Chevron appealed the ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court, on April 17, ruled that the case must be moved to federal court, which was seen by court observers as a major victory for the company.

Also, according to Chevron Out, Chevron doesn’t have a net-zero emission policy and “refuses to align its activities with the temperature goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.”

The company has also aided Israel in its genocide in Palestine.

The crackdown left at least some festivalgoers deeply disappointed.

“I was (wrongfully) under the impression that [FQF] had removed Chevron as a sponsor altogether. I finally felt proud again to attend my favorite festival in the WORLD,” one Instagram user wrote. “Being anti-genocide is non-negotiable, and we should expect that of all organizations we choose to support.”

The NOPD and FQF did not respond to requests for comment in time for this article’s publication.

Editorial note: Joshua Rosenberg is a member of NOSHIP, which is a coalition member of Chevron Out. Rosenberg was present at the event on Saturday.

The meeting’s public comment period was limited to 10 minutes.

By Joshua Rosenberg. April 16, 2026

NEW ORLEANS —  In a 4 to 3 vote, the New Orleans City Council French Quarter Economic Development District approved a budget item on Thursday that would allocate $250,000 to a “drone as first responder” program that the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) would operate in the French Quarter. Public comment was curtailed to 10 minutes.

Councilmembers Aimee McCarron, Matthew Willard and Lesli Harris voted against the measure. Councilmembers Freddie King, Eugene Green, Jason Hughes and JP Morrell voted in favor of it.

King, who ran the meeting, limited the public comment period to 10 minutes. There were at least a dozen public comments that were not heard by the committee as a result.  

“This whole process feels very undemocratic to me,” Chris Lang, a resident of New Orleans, said. “The fact that we’ve restricted this to only 10 minutes to be allowed for public comment is… just a disgusting abuse of power. I’d rather see this be a 30 minute conversation, an hour-long conversation.”

“As folks have mentioned, the French Quarter is highly surveilled as is. We don’t need another drone under the pretense of cost savings to be able to do what we should be providing for residents through proactive deterrence of crime which is more education, more investments in food and housing and other things,” Lang said. “It’s a total breach of our privacy.”

Morrell apologized for the limited public comment period.  

“I apologize for the truncated time for this discussion,” he said. “I will meet with Councilmember King and my colleagues to see if we can allocate more time for issues like this and schedule better. That is on us. That is something we’ll work on.”

The French Quarter Management District (FQMD) –  a nonelected, state-created body – voted last month to approve a budget amendment that would allow the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) to purchase a drone that would operate in the French Quarter. The FQMD reports to the French Quarter Economic Development District (FQEDD)

Including comments sent electronically, there were some 66 people who spoke out against the drone program at that meeting.   Four spoke in favor of it.

On Thursday, when the public comment period was limited, there were three people who spoke in favor of the drone program and three who spoke against it.  

The $250,000 DFR program would allow an officer with the NOPD   to dispatch a Skydio drone quickly to incoming calls, according to Police Captain Samuel Palumbo of the 8th District. The district includes the French Quarter.

At first, the NOPD asked for $740,000 for the drone program. But a private donor stepped in to cover some $500,000. 

Skydio is an American company based in California. The company aided Israel in its genocide in Gaza. Skydio “…gives Israel ‘short-range reconnaissance drones’ capable of navigating obstacles autonomously and [producing] 3D scans of complex structures like buildings,’ according to Anwar Mhajne, writing in   the Cairo Review of Global Affairs.

The drone would be equipped with neither facial recognition technology nor weapons, Palumbo said Thursday.  

The drone would have a height restriction of 400 feet, per the Federal Aviation Administration, Palumbo said. But there’s no limit on how low the drone can fly, he said, meaning it can operate at ground-level. The drone would also move “as a crow flies,” Palumbo said, meaning that it may fly over residential areas.

Willard seemed to trip Palumbo up with a question at one point:

“How does the public know if a drone deviates from NOPD policy on drones?”

“That’s a difficult one,” “Palumbo responded.

“Is there like an internal review?” Willard asked.

“There have been reports of drone operators doing things that they weren’t supposed to be doing,” Willard later said. “I just want to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to make sure that the policy is being followed.”

The fact that the drone is recording from the moment it launches until the moment it returns to its dock is a guarantor enough that drone operators will follow policy and protocol, Palumbo said. 

“Because if there is that suspicion that they’re doing something, they would have recorded the evidence themselves,” he said.

Members of the public began to speak up themselves towards the end of the meeting.  

“They haven’t even shared who the $500,000 funder is,” Alex Jaouiche, a steering committee member with the local coalition Eye on Surveillance said from the audience section of the chamber as the vote was taking place.   “There’s a private investor owning our NOPD and they’ve refused to share the name,” Jaouiche said. “There’s a secret, private investor funding two-thirds of the program.”

Correction: A previous version of this story said “‘drones’” as first responders in the title. That has been corrected to “‘drone.’”

“This is the worst I have ever seen.”

It’s been eight months since a massive explosion took place at Smitty’s Supply Inc. in Roseland, La., and residents are deeply upset with the pace of clean-up – or the lack thereof – and what they see as their government’s dismissiveness, absence, and/or duplicity. 

“It’s time for our parish and local officials to stand up for us,” Arlene Hodges Bankston, a resident of Roseland, said on Saturday at a protest rally and march held in the town. “Big industry should be made to follow standards put in place to keep its surrounding citizens safe. But our state officials allow them to skirt the regulations in the name of profit. It’s time to put [an] end to profits-over-people.” Roseland is located in Tangipahoa Parish.

There was a huge explosion and fire at Smitty’s that rocked Roseland on August 22, 2025. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to lead the clean-up as the agency said in September, 2025. Smitty’s is a company that produces industrial and commercial lubricating fluids.

The EPA has recovered some 11.2 million gallons of total waste as of October 15, 2025, according to the agency’s website. But the response so far has been wholly inadequate, residents said on Saturday. 

“What we’ve seen is a constant release of chemicals into these ponds that flow directly into the Tangipahoa River – it’s going unabated,” Jody Hart, a drone pilot who’s documented the impacts of the explosion and fire, said on Saturday. “We’re seeing wildlife die off. We’re watching oil sheens that never seem to go away. It just gets worse every day. Every time it rains, it gets worse,” Hart said. “So our Tangipahoa River from here down is contaminated to the lake. It’s wrecked. And who knows how long it’ll take to come back?”

Multiple people who spoke on Saturday also accused the EPA of lying about the explosion’s health risk. Freelance journalist Steve Middendorp posted documents on Facebook that suggest the EPA was downplaying the urgency of the health risk to the public, while acknowledging it internally. 

“…there is an immediate risk to public health,” a memorandum written by Bray Fisher, an on-scene coordinator, said on August 27, 2025, according to Middendorp’s post. On the same day, the agency told the public that “…there is no indication of any imminent threat to public health.”

For Mike Bales, an affected nearby resident who’s spent a career working on environmental disasters, the degradation of the river is his main concern.

“My biggest problem with this thing is we’re eight months and we’re still getting product in the river,” Bales told The Rosenberg Brief. “What in the hell is going on?”

The river runs into Lake Pontchartrain. From there, the contamination can spread exponentially, Bales said, noting that shrimp, crabs and fish from the lake are caught and shipped all over.

“I have managed some very, very large incidents over my life,” Bales said told the crowd at the rally. “I’ve been part of (the) Exxon Valdez (oil spill), the BP oil spill, multiple hurricanes, well blow-outs, etc.,” he said. “This is the worst I have ever seen.”

“We’re eight months and still getting product into the river? Come on. From the top down: the EPA, the state. Where the hell’s our governor? It’s ridiculous,” Bales told the crowd.

Among other chemicals, Bales told The Rosenberg Brief that toluene has been found in affected areas. Toluene is a volatile organic compound. 

From the very beginning, the Smitty’s explosion should have been designated as a “national response declared by the federal government,” Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré (Ret.), the featured speaker at the rally, told the crowd.

“I don’t think it’s still too late to do that if the state and the federal government want to do the right thing to correct the record and make this a national-level response like the BP response was,” Honoré said.

By: Joshua Rosenberg. April 1, 2026

The city of New Orleans killed a $5.4 million grant meant for recycling on Tuesday. At least one powerful, politically well-connected force had been angling for its demise.

A Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling for Communities (SWIFR) grant was originally awarded to the city by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Cantrell administration in September 2023 for $3.9 million. A matching grant from the Recycling Partnership, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting recycling, along with other funding bumped that figure to above $5 million. New Orleans was one of 25 cities selected for the SWIFR grant. The grant would also have provided funding for recycling education and to develop a Solid Waste Master Plan.

Only about 2-4% of what’s consumed by those in New Orleans gets recycled, according to the city. The grant’s funds evaporated at the end of March, according to an analysis reviewed by The Rosenberg Brief.

The grant would have provided the city with 83,000 residential recycling carts, turning our recycling system into an “opt-out” one instead of one that’s “opt-in.” Currently, less than half the city opts-in to recycling, a figure that breaks down largely along wealth and racial lines. 

“Because of that disparity, and because we’re all paying into it, what it’s showing is that the Black community, the Black New Orleanian population is [essentially] subsidizing recycling for their white counterparts while not having the disposable income to do so because of the wealth gap, the wealth disparity…  ” Chris Lang, who worked on the grant for the city as a Circular Economy Policy and Program Manager, told The Brief. “In order to move around that barrier, we were hoping to transition from an opt-in program to an opt-out program.”

Lang cited a study from The Data Center, published in 2024, which found the median net worth of white households to be $181,000, while that figure is $18,000 for Black households in the New Orleans metro area.

Not the city’s framing

The city is not saying it’s killed the grant. 

“The City of New Orleans has requested a no-cost extension from the EPA for its Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling (SWIFR) grant, shifting the focus toward education, outreach, and long-term planning instead of a massive cart deployment,” the city said in a press release on Tuesday. “Residents can already request a free recycling cart by calling 311.”

But attempting to change the scope of the grant this late in the day is tantamount to killing it, Lang said.

“A guaranteed way to get your grant canceled after you have not spent any of the money for two years is to then all of a sudden change the scope of work…” Lang told The Brief.

That’s a sentiment shared by Osarumwense Adun, who runs the Noirlands account on Instagram.

“Despite being advised by multiple community members not to submit a ‘no-cause time extension’ with changed language to the grant, the [Helena] Moreno administration has decided to do so anyway, thus putting a nail in the coffin into the grant, and essentially making New Orleans a loser city,” Adun said on his channel.

To whose advantage?

New Orleanians currently pay for recycling, whether they use the service or not. $6 out of the $24 we pay in our monthly sanitation fees already goes towards recycling. And since 58% of the city doesn’t recycle, that’s essentially free money to the city’s trash collectors. In terms of households, the largest trash collector in the city is IV Waste, which is run by Sidney Torres. Torres, along with other waste-related people and organizations, is also a serious political donor. At times, Torres has, donated the maximum amount allowed by law to candidates, including Mayor Helena Moreno (then-councilmember) and New Orleans City Council President JP Morrell, both in 2025.

For instance, since 2017, Moreno received between some $84,000 and $144,000 in political donations from waste-affiliated companies and people, according to a tracker shared with The Brief.

Torres was actively opposed to the SWIFR grant, Lang said. 

“Sidney Torres didn’t want to move forward with it,” Lang said, referring to the grant. “He said, ‘I will not ever support an opt-out program.’”

IV Waste denied neither that Torres actively opposed the grant nor that he worked behind the scenes to kill it.

“IV Waste fully supports and encourages public efforts to recycle as we are currently doing now through the 311 system,” the company said in an emailed statement to The Brief. “Any professional and wise approach to recycle [sic] must include a well-considered and comprehensive plan which is sustainable both in terms of concept and in fiscal responsibility.  The city must be able to afford the plan short term and long-term.”

IV Waste, along with other waste haulers, collect $6 million in profits from the current recycling status quo by essentially not providing a service that New Orleanians already pay for, according to an analysis reviewed by The Brief.

The SWIFR grant did not die a neglected death. Lang and others, dating back to January, repeatedly emailed New Orleans City Councilmembers to schedule a public hearing regarding the grant. Their efforts were mostly denied, ultimately. 

Who is affected?

The impacts of poorly managed solid waste management systems are most acutely felt by those with the least social standing and ability to effect change, according to a body of scholarly research.

The stakes are life and death, argued Lang.

“This is not just a throwaway issue,” he said. “It’s throwing people’s lives away prematurely.”

“There’s a whole ecosystem of people who are like this is f*cking corruption,” he said. “This is collusion. [It’s] corruption to kill this grant, which has severe equity concerns. It’s doubling us down In the business-as-usual which, in my own research, equates to premature Black death.”

Update: This story has been updated with more information. 4/1.

By Joshua Rosenberg. March 30, 2026.

NEW ORLEANS — The French Quarter Management District (FQMD), a nonelected, state-created body, voted Monday to approve a budget amendment that would allow the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) to purchase a drone that would operate in the French Quarter.

The $250,000 Skydio drone would not serve to make the French Quarter a more attractive and welcoming place, according to many of the city residents who spoke at the Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday. Including comments sent electronically, there were some 66 people who spoke out against the drone program. Four spoke in favor of it.

“I can tell you right now these drones will only make the city more dangerous for me,” Edith Romero, an organizer with a Eye on Surveillance (a coalition of local groups in New Orleans concerned with surveillance) said during the meeting, adding that her experience as an immigrant can’t help but inform  her position on the issue. “ICE and CBP use drones to do raids and to kidnap my people,” she said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, respectively.  “This is the third time here saying please don’t give the weapons that arm separating the families of immigrants,” she said. 

The FQMD is a state political subdivision, governed by a 13-person Board of Commissioners. NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick was seated alongside the FQMD on Monday, seated next to Police Captain Samuel Palumbo of the 8th District, which includes the French Quarter.

Palumbo pledged that the drone program is not a significant departure from how the agency already uses drones and that the drone will not become weaponized with tasers or facial recognition technology.

But further expansion of drone usage can be something of a Pandora’s Box, one of the residents opposed to the program said on Monday.

“One drone does not remain a party of one drone forever and we have masses of evidence that makes that plain,” this resident said. “In a 2023 report issued by the ACLU, they encouraged citizens to recognize that every permission and investment in drones is a green light to whatever version of those drones are going to come next: drones relying on AI, drones normalized in cities across the U.S., drones constantly hovering, drones with tasers, drones with guns,” they said, possibly referring to this report.

The FQMD voted on the $250,000 budget item. That was not the original ask. 

At first the NOPD asked for $740,000 for their drone program. But a private donor stepped in to cover some $500,000. Residents asked the FQMD about the identity of the private donor, but their questions were ignored. 

Skydio is an American company based in California. The company aided Israel in its genocide in Gaza. Skydio “…gives Israel ‘short-range reconnaissance drones’ capable of navigating obstacles autonomously and [producing] 3D scans of complex structures like buildings,’ according to Anwar Mhajne, writing in  the Cairo Review of Global Affairs.

The budget item will apparently go before the New Orleans City Council, according to one of the FQMD Commissioners.

Ultimately, the FQMD had a chance to stand up for our rights, Romero said.

“This is not only an opportunity to say ‘no’ to a horrible investment — it’s an opportunity to say ‘yes’ for  constitutional rights. This means our right to privacy, our right to the Fourth Amendment… this is also a moment where you can stand with our free speech…” she said.

Update: This story has been updated with more information. 3/31/26

Governor Jeff Landry’s political action committee spent campaign money this year on high-end luggage and dining in two of our country’s elite cities: Miami and Washington D.C, according to reports released Monday by the PAC: CAJUN PAC II.

One report listed $4,170.09 as a “donor gift expense” on February 10, 2026 from Black Voyage Technologies in Miami,  Florida. Black Voyage sells high-end luggage. 

A separate report shows the PAC spent $1,844.40 on a “Staff Dinner/Venture Global” at The Occidental, a restaurant near the White House in Washington, D.C. 

When CAJUN PAC II previously made suspect campaign expenditures, Landry worked to change the law.

Venture Global has been a major lobbyist in the state of Louisiana. Kyle Ruckert, a former Landry chief of staff, was previously a lobbyist for the company. Venture Global has three Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) plants in Louisiana and is poised to become the largest American LNG company.

Landry’s press team did not respond to a request for comment.

Update: This report has been updated with more information