Mardi Gras is 100 days away

The Front Page: On the lake, on the streets and on the coast

By Drew Broach | Deputy metro editor

A PIECE OF PARADISE: Just west of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway lies an undisturbed pocket of nature in a parish exploding with real estate development. Near the old neighborhood of Lewisburg at the mouth of the Chinchuba Bayou floodplain, the lakefront land is filled with marsh grasses and cypress trees. For decades, developers have had their eyes on the site, and now the owners have applied for a permit to fill in wetlands and lake bottom, add a bulkhead and a private road and build four houses. The neighbors are not happy.

THE RETURN OF CARNIVAL: By the time Fat Tuesday arrives March 1, two years and four days will have passed since New Orleanians could last rise at dawn to costume, see the Zulu king, toast Rex and walk with St. Anne. We've got the rundown on where Carnival 2022 stands, and an invitation to krewe captains to submit their ball information.

VOLUME VARIABLE: For the third time in four years, Louisiana coastal planners have changed the maximum flow of the Mid-Breton Sediment diversion project, an $800 million proposal to detour part of the Mississippi River into Breton Sound in hopes of building new land. They've dropped it from 75,000 cubic feet per second to to 50,000, largely to avoid cost overruns.

Welcome to the weekend. Check for the latest news all day on NOLA.com.

D.B.