LOUISIANA WEEKLY - Page 2 YOUR MULTICULTURAL MEDIUM March 12 - March 18, 2018 Medicaid Poison Pill Kills La

Week of March 12 - March 18, 2018 92nd year of providing ‘News that matters’ VOL.. XCIIII NO.. 26 Since 1925 www.louisianaweekly.com 50 cents The Penalty OPSB must pay $12M to students who for the wrongfully attended school atop hazardous wBya Masrtat Jee wson site The Lens A civil district court judge accused has ordered the Orleans By Ryan Whirty Parish School Board to pay Contributing Writer about $12 million to 1,433 former students who attended In a perfect world, Damon a school built on a hazardous Thibodeaux would receive an landfill decades ago. apology for the 15 years he spent That equates to $1,000 for on death row, mostly in solitary every year each student confinement, in Louisiana’s noto - attended Robert R. Moton rious Angola prison. Elementary School atop the In a truly just society, the law Agriculture Street landfill in enforcement officials who coerced the Desire neighborhood. The him into a false confession in the city and the Housing murder and alleged rape of his 14- Authority of New Orleans year-old step cousin in 1996 would faced similar lawsuits related tell him they’re sorry for steam - to public housing nearby. rolling him into admitting a crime Plaintiffs argued the city and he didn’t commit. the school board did not ensure And the prosecutors and court offi - the area was safe before build - cials who helped convict the former ing homes and the school on Harvey, La., resident in Jefferson contaminated sites. Parish court in 1997 would say to The school district actually him, “We made a mistake.” delayed its groundbreaking in But Thibodeaux is realistic, with 1985 to replace topsoil, but a an awareness — perhaps gained by a decade and a half of undeserved Moton Elementary School on Abundance Street seen through the fence that surrounds its yard. The U.S. Environmental imprisonment and impending exe - Protection Agency declared the school and area around it a Superfund site in 1994. Photo by Marta Jewson/The Lens Continued on Pg. 13 cution — of the stark reality that such apologies just won’t happen. During a Q&A last Wednesday – more than five years after he was exonerated and released in 2012, at Continued on Pg. 13 Lawmakers in the U. S. Senate seek to gut fair housing By Charlene Crowell children. With collective experiences as a people “guarantors’ decision”. Contributing Writer each revision, provide painful reminders of how If allowed to be enacted into law, businesses such full and equal access to credit — government-sponsored enterprises In just a few weeks, civil rights and as banks, and particularly in mortgage lending — (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie N.O. residents housing advocates will commemo - other lenders, remains an unfulfilled promise. Mac, would be eliminated and fair rate the 50th anniversary of the Fair realtors, land - These long-standing concerns have lending requirements could be weak - Housing Act. Just six days following lords, insurance somehow failed to be included in a ened. We’re talking trillions of dollars receive an the assassination of the Rev. Martin companies— new draft legislative proposal on being affected by such a so-called Luther King, Jr., Congress passed the even govern - Capitol Hill. In the name of housing reform without any assurance that fair law on April 10, 1968. ments that previ - finance reform, a working proposed housing promises made half a century update on On the following day, President MORIAL ously used zon - bill by Senators Bob Corker of ago will remain. At the end of 2016, Lyndon Baines Johnson’s signature ing and restric - Tennessee and Mark Warner of the GSEs — Fannie Mae, Freddie monument made it unlawful to discriminate in tive covenants to deny housing Virginia would eliminate the current Mac, along with Ginnie Mae together housing sales, rentals and finance. access — were all obliged to adhere requirement of a “duty-to-serve” all held $16.7 trillion in mortgages on the Although race, color, religion and to new standards of inclusion. markets, particularly those like com - nation’s secondary market. removal national origin were the original pro - Fast-forward 50 years, and much munities of color and rural areas. It’s the kind of policy development Less than three months before he tected classes, in later years the Act of Black America and other people Instead, the promise of inclusion that usually fails to attract major leaves office, New Orleans Mayor was amended to include gender, peo - of color still find that the promise of would be replaced with the vague Mitch Landrieu is laying out a path ple with disabilities and families with fair lending remains just that. Our business judgment of a so-called Continued on Pg. 13 forward for four prominent public spaces where Confederate-era mon - uments once stood. In an exclusive interview with FOX 8 News, the mayor said enough time has passed to talk about a formal process to re- purpose those spaces. New Orleans, and its police department accused of Last year, during a two-month span, the mayor orchestrated the City Council-approved removal of secretly using controversial software to combat crime four monuments, beginning with the Explosive allegations recently sur - Palantir to trace ties to gang mem - know, those kinds of things.” using the information that it had a Battle of Liberty Place obelisk and faced that accuse the City of New bers and help predict whether some - Serpas said that the technology was right to, to reduce the chances of ending with the Robert E. Lee statue Orleans and the New Orleans Police one “would commit violence or just one of a number of tools being people shooting and killing each at Lee Circle on May 19. Department of secretly using policing become a victim.” used at the time to identify informa - other in our city.” Also removed were monuments technology in its effort to fight crime. “The only knowledge I have is that tion that he says police have a right to. But local attorney and adjunct honoring Confederate President But City officials say the online story it’s very similar to another software “To predict where to interdict UNO professor Kurt Garcia told Jefferson Davis on Jefferson Davis “is the result of inadequate research by program called Coplink,” Serpas, who crime, to predict where to interdict FOX 8 News that the use of the Parkway and Confederate General an offbeat publication.” now teaches criminal justice at Loyola shootings, and that was very impor - technology raises questions about According to m article published University, told FOX 8 News in a tant to us in the gang group reduction implications for citizen’s privacy Continued on Pg. 2 by The Verge and The Investigative recent interview. “It was a way of tak - strategy to identify people who had and civil liberties. Fund in 2012, the NOPD under for - ing information that was gathered and been shot or were going to be shot or “This type of technology perhaps mer Superintendent Ronal Serpas, a make sense of it, connections between were part of shooting networks,” should have been best put out in the childhood friend of New Orleans people who had been arrested together Serpas explained. “I’m unaware of open for open discussion by the pub - Mayor Mitch Landrieu, used polic - or people on social media who had any instance where any member of ing technology from the company made threats against other people you the NOPD did not follow the law in Continued on Pg. 2 THE LOUISIANA WEEKLY - Page 2 YOUR MULTICULTURAL MEDIUM March 12 - March 18, 2018 Medicaid poison pill kills La. Legislative special session By Christopher Tidmore quarter penny but down from 5 and concern from some Black Administration expected too much of the temporary new penny tax Contributing Writer percent currently scheduled to Caucus members over a “gutting of conservatives. Regardless of the and some of the sales tax exemp - expire July 1. The Lake Charles of Medicaid” killed any chance of outside-libertarian lobbying, most tions—both of which expire on The key moment of the failed Republican needed 70 votes to Leger’s reaching 53. of Leger’s fellow legislators had July 1 to get us through this crisis,” legislative special session was pass, but was steadfastly opposed By Sunday night, it was obvious won the 2007 election specifically he continued. “I also believe a lim - Friday afternoon, March 2nd, by the Caucus, as well as 27 mem - that the Leger had actually lost more promising to repeal the Stelly plan. ited state Constitutional when New Orleans Democratic bers of his own party—who swore ground on the Right, amidst heavy The Foster-era tax reform’s limita - Convention must be held over the Rep. Walt Leger came up short in to oppose any tax increases. lobbying by anti-tax groups like the tion of itemized deductions was next two years because we simply his attempt to limit itemized Unlike the Tea Party members of “Club for Growth”. Grover hated by self-employed middle must reform the system that puts deductions—and produce an addi - the GOP, most members of the Norquist, promoter of the infamous class voters, who saw proportional - the things that Louisianans value, tional $79 million in revenues. His Legislative Black Caucus were “no new taxes, ever” pledge, tweet - ly higher income tax hikes than such as education and our medical measure narrowly lost, 50-51. He willing to reverse course on the ed, “Louisiana taxpayers are count - their income might have warrant - system — at such a disadvantage needed just 53 votes, a bare major - sales tax measure, if Leger could ing on the legislature to protect ed.

Load more