Investigations

Street Cop founder Dennis Benigno speaking at his company’s 2021 conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey

Watchdog finds police training firm taught cops offensive and ‘likely illegal’ tactics

BY: - December 9, 2023

TRENTON, New Jersey — Instructors at a police-training conference in Atlantic City that drew 1,000 officers — including hundreds from New Jersey — glorified violence, encouraged insubordination, and promoted unconstitutional policing tactics that undercut a decade of police reform, a state watchdog said in a blistering report released Wednesday. Speakers at Street Cop’s six-day forum […]

Jefferson Parish to vote on tax break for company that crawfished on 100 jobs

BY: - November 29, 2023

The Jefferson Parish Council and its school board will both consider a multi-million dollar tax break next week for a Texas fertilizer company that reneged on its promise to bring more than 100 six-figure-salaried jobs to the parish.  Both are scheduled to meet Dec. 6 and will likely call for a vote on a $3.6 […]

‘Tapped Out’: Investigation finds deeper issues with New Orleans drinking water

BY: - November 21, 2023

Emails and interviews with Sewerage and Water Board officials, combined with an extensive analysis of their data, have revealed deeper, more extensive problems within New Orleans’ drinking water testing and sample collection programs than the Illuminator and our investigative news partners at WVUE-TV Fox 8 previously reported earlier this month. For example, GPS data show […]

Dr. Charles Preston, coroner for St. Tammany Parish

St. Tammany coroner fires employees who report ‘toxic’ workplace

BY: - November 17, 2023

A supervisor with the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office secretly watched and laughed at a woman’s emotional screams and cries while identifying her dead son’s body two months ago, according to former employees with knowledge of the incident — including the new coroner-elect who will take over next year. The supervisor was promoted to an […]

Sewerage and Water Board plant

Tapped Out: New Orleans drinking water testing procedures don’t follow gov’t regulations

BY: - November 8, 2023

NEW ORLEANS — Dr. Stephen Giepert, his wife Alathea, and their two energetic young children live and thrive in the Lake Terrace neighborhood. They were relieved recently when it became clear an encroaching saltwater wedge in the Mississippi River would not threaten the city’s water supply. But that relief was short lived when the Louisiana […]

Water is held in an aerating pond at the Sewerage & Water Board plant in New Orleans.

Tapped Out: Investigation reveals S&WB employees skipped, falsified drinking water tests

BY: - November 7, 2023

NEW ORLEANS — Records the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans sent to the state health department show plant worker Louis Pierre Jr. traveled to five locations Feb. 17 in neighborhoods on the city’s west bank to collect and analyze drinking water samples. The samples, required under state law, measure the amount of chlorine […]

Downtown New Orleans seen across the Mississippi River from Algiers.

New Orleans’ drinking water supply remains at risk

BY: - November 2, 2023

Forecasts for saltwater intrusion along the lower Mississippi River have grown more encouraging. While plans are in motion to safeguard the water supply from excess salt, the slow-motion crisis has raised public awareness of the various water intakes along the river.  The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans has four such intake structures, two […]

Flashing blue and red lights on the top of a police car

Police beating outside bar 20 years ago reveals entrenched BRPD Internal Affairs flaws

BY: and - October 22, 2023

The good Samaritans at Southdowns Lounge managed to break up the one-sided beatdown in the parking lot. The victim stumbled to his car and drove off, never to resurface or be named in any official records. But it wasn’t over. The men involved in the attack had moved to the nearby Sonic Drive-In that shared […]

Power lines span an open field under cloudy skies

Lack of oversight on transmission spending leads to higher electric bills, consumer advocate says

BY: - October 8, 2023

Electric customers have fallen into a “regulatory gap” that’s allowed billions of dollars of transmission construction to happen without oversight of need, prudence or cost effectiveness, according to a complaint filed with federal regulators by the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel. And though the complaint to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was made on […]

Does Venture Global’s Louisiana LNG plant profit from pollution?

BY: - October 4, 2023

Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass liquid natural gas (LNG) export terminal is in the longest ever commissioning period for a plant of its kind. The 19-month duration has enabled the company to sell LNG on the spot market at a much higher price than if the plant was fully operational. Now, experts say the unprecedented delay […]

Images of the departmental uniform patches of the Alexandria Police Department, Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office and Pineville Police Department are shrouded in smoke with a dark background that features lights from a police car and a prison cell bars

Wrongful deaths, beatings, false arrests alleged in lawsuits against Rapides law enforcement

BY: and - September 20, 2023

A string of lawsuits lays out allegations of death, violence, negligence and unwarranted arrests, stops and searches against Rapides Parish law enforcement in recent years. Plaintiffs point fingers at leadership for permitting a climate of misconduct.   A Louisiana Illuminator review of federal and state court records since 2020 found multiple complaints against the Rapides Parish […]

Attorney General Jeff Landry speaks to reporters before qualifying Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, for the governor’s race Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, at the Louisiana State Archives building in Baton Rouge.

Large donors to Landry paid millions to settle allegations of public health care overcharges

BY: - September 12, 2023

When Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry first took office in 2016, he emphasized his role in combating fraud in Medicaid, the government-backed health insurance program for people who are poor, pregnant or living with a disability. Landry, now the Republican frontrunner in the governor’s race, highlighted the work of the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. […]