Louisiana

My name is Ashley Volion. It has always been a dream of mine to become a professor and to open a nonprofit for people with disabilities, within my Louisiana community, that would teach them about their bodies and their sexual health. For me this aspiration is deeply personal – I have cerebral palsy and have worked hard all my life both to live independently and to support my community. [...Read more]

Baton Rouge, Louisiana - A June 14th release of Naphtha – a mixture of flammable liquid hydrocarbon – from ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge Chemical Plant is under investigation for being severely under-reported by the corporation. [...Read more]

It is “Back to School” season in New Orleans. But a recent article by Andrew Vanacore in the Times-Picayune shows that despite recent improvements to the labyrinthine enrollment process, some parents are still finding it impossible to get their children into the school of their choice in New Orleans. [...Read more]

Through updates from local residents, Bridge the Gulf learned neighborhoods in and around Laplace, Louisiana were especially hard-hit by flooding from Hurricane Isaac.  As soon as it was safe, Cherri Foytlin traveled to Laplace and the surrounding area. 

LaPlace, LA

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On August 3rd, a nearly 400-foot wide sinkhole opened up near Bayou Corne and Grand Bayou in Assumption Parish, Louisiana, turning cypress forest into a massive slurry-filled hole. Residents have been evacuated, and officials are scrambling to identify the cause and solution to the sinkhole. Are we watching a disaster unfold? Has anything like this happened before? When will evacuated residents be able to return home? [...Read more]

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 Ashley Alleman and her husband knew something was wrong months ago. Amid reports of unexplained bubbling in nearby Bayou Corne, they’d been feeling strange rumblings beneath their home, rumblings they’d never felt before. [...Read more]

A couple of days ago a friend of mine and I decided to embark on a fateful trip. We had heard that not far from our current location, (a fisherman’s meeting about the BP settlement, near New Orleans), a sink hole approximately 200 feet wide had formed and that it was threatening a nearby bayou community.

According to our sources, the depression was forcing the evacuation of 150 families. [...Read more]

By Shaun King, crossposted from Women With a Vision. I arrived for my internship at 215 N. Jefferson Davis Parkway on a sunny Tuesday morning. This location had been home to Women With A Vision for the past three years. [...Read more]

For most people in Louisiana, cracking the shell off a crawfish, sucking the head, and swallowing the tail meat is a joyous part of what it means to call this place home. But peeling crawfish is not so fun for guestworkers from Mexico, who allege that they are facing slave-like conditions in a Louisiana plant. [...Read more]