REVERSAL OF FORTUNE: For two consecutive years now, New Orleans has logged an increasing number of killings, erasing gains in public safety achieved in the past decade and saddling the city with the highest homicide toll in 17 years. New Orleans ended 2021 with 218 homicides, including ones on New Year's Eve in the Marrero Commons area and in Gert Town.
NOT QUITE WHITE: New Orleans' first-ring suburbs of Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes saw explosive population growth as White enclaves in the mid-20th century. But countervailing forces - including strides made during the civil rights era and trends in housing prices - have been remaking the old image with a more diverse one.
CASINO VOTE COATTAIL: St. Tammany Parish spoke loudly and clearly on whether to allow a $325 million casino resort near Slidell: 63% said no. Less clear is how the passions stirred in that campaign will affect the politicians who promoted or opposed the gambling proposition.
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Leading up to the controversial Dec. 11 referendum to allow a casino to be built in the Slidell area, political observers were expecting a close outcome that could go either way. But that prediction proved to be stunningly wrong, as 63% of the nearly 60,000 St. Tammany Parish voters who turned out said no to the proposed $325 million casino resort. Read more
