 | BY CHAD CALDER | Staff writer |
Good morning and thanks for joining us. Here are some of the day's top headlines.
Getting out: It's been 16 years since Louisiana used contraflow, the process of converting all lanes of interstate traffic in the New Orleans metro area to one direction to speed evacuation. But the rapid intensification of storms in recent years has many asking whether that could even work today, and how we should approach hurricane preparedness under that new reality. Mike Smith has the story.
Hung juries: When Louisiana debated joining every other state besides Oregon and forcing juries to arrive at unanimous verdicts, many district attorneys argued raising the bar would result in a spike in hung juries. Voters went ahead with the change regardless, and enough time has passed to see if that prediction has come true. Has it? Gordon Russell has the answer.
School cellphone ban: State lawmakers this week approved a ban on cellphone use by students during class, taking a page from other U.S. states to push back on the excessive use of cellphones by teens. Elyse Carmosino talked to students and educators about the ban.
Thanks for reading, and check out all the latest news, sports and entertainment coverage from The Times-Picayune. Chad | 
