TOY STORY: Fifty years ago, Buddy Wood bought an Airline Drive toy store and tried to do something a little different. On Thursday, he was still doing it, selling toys people didn't even know they wanted until they got there, and offering gift wrapping to boot. Our Ben Myers has a dispatch from an oasis at least somewhat removed from the typical consumerist maelstrom that is the American Christmas.
LIVES REMEMBERED: New Orleans is a city of music, but underneath it all is a steady, relentless drum beat violence, of lives ended before what anyone would consider their rightful time. Today, in the Bywater, it's 26-year-old Taylore Jones. In Westwego, it's 17-year-old Jaheim Shavers and 16-year-old Elijah Walker. Missy Wilkinson and Michelle Hunter have the stories told by those picking up the pieces.
DEPLETED SAINTS: Stretch them hammies. Thanks to COVID-19 infections, the Saints are digging deep into the roster to field a team against the Miami Dolphins.
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About 30 friends, family members and self-described service industry “lifers” gathered at Washington Square Park Thursday night for a candlelight vigil honoring Taylore Jones, 26, a musician and Cafe Negril employee who was fatally stabbed in her Bywater home early Tuesday morning. Read more
A bloody March 12 shootout on Louisiana Street in Westwego instantly claimed the life of 17-year-old Jaheim Shavers, who was hit multiple times by gunfire. Read more
The omicron variant of COVID-19 is sweeping through NFL locker rooms, and the New Orleans Saints are not immune from its effects, as two of the team's quarterbacks — Taysom Hill and Trevor Siemian — landed on the NFL's COVID-19 list Thursday afternoon. Read more
