NEW ORLEANS — It’s a major concern for the Crescent City, and on Tuesday night, city leaders and neighbors joined together to take a stand against crime.

A makeshift memorial set up in front of the 7th Ward home where a woman and her 13-year-old son were found shot to death early Monday morning added new urgency to the neighborhood’s annual Night Out Against Crime event, just a few doors down on Annette Street .

“We’re out here because this was a senseless, senseless murder and they say not in your backyard, but not on your front porch,” said neighbor Kevin Parker.

Over 265 Night Out Against Crime events were planned in the Crescent City on Tuesday. According to Superintendent Ronal Serpas, that’s the most since 2004. They’re aimed at strengthening communities by bringing neighbors and law enforcement officials together.

Continue at WWL

Killifish, a common bait fish found in Louisiana marshes, might have been affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010, a recent study said.

Conducted by a team of scientists from Louisiana State University and published in the Proceedings for the National Academy, the study found that the common Louisiana coast fish was “hurt severely by the spill and now is turning up deformed and may be unable to produce properly,” The Associated Press reported.

Though Louisiana’s seafood was approved for consumption more than a year ago, the killifish is used by area fisherman and they also are an important food source for other fish, including speckled trout and redfish.

“Sub-lethal” effects were found in the fish as they grew up, the study showed. According to the wire service, the fish are showing signs of damage even though the amount of oil in their tissues and in the water where they were sampled was low.

Continue at Beaumont Enterprise

Every morning is a new nightmare for Tanga Winstead.

After waking up, she walks outside to inspect the destruction left in the wake of the previous night’s crazed Caligulan scene.

Winstead knew she would have to put up with parking problems, noise, litter and the occasional drunk when she bought a house on Annunciation Street next door to Grit’s Bar and F and M’s Patio Bar.

That’s to be expected, she said. It’s New Orleans after all.

But she didn’t expect someone to draw penises on her car or people to defecate in her front yard like goats. She didn’t expect to see people having sex in the parking lot behind her house or to find used condoms, tampons and dirty underwear in her bushes.

Winstead has also had her car scratched, her license plate bent, $100 planter pots smashed and fronds ripped off her palm tree.

“One morning there was someone sleeping on my front stoop. He was literally using my step as a pillow,” Winstead said. “I nearly stepped on his head. I rue the day I bought this house.”

Enraged residents shared similar stories at a Sept. 13 community meeting. They presented Chris Hernandez, owner of Grit’s, and Trevor Palmer, owner of F and M’s, with a good neighbor agreement. Nicole Webre, who lives next to Grit’s and serves as legislative director for Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer, drafted the document. The bar owner and the councilwoman are not related.

The bar owners were given two weeks to review and sign the contract. If they didn’t agree to the stipulations, which include increased security, lighting, noise abatement and video surveillance, the residents threatened to petition the city to impose sanctions or close down both establishments.

F and M’s and Grit’s entered into a consent judgment with the city in 2008 after neighbors lodged similar complaints. The decree required the bars regulate noise levels, pick up trash and hold monthly neighborhood meetings to address community concerns. Grit’s agreed to provide security details through the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff’s office or a professional security company.

Violations of the judgment would result in a $7,500 fine for the first offense and a 30-day suspension for the second.

The consent decree, however, has done little to solve the problem, said Ted Nass, who has lived next to Grit’s for eight years. Excessive noise continues to be a major problem in addition to the more outlandish incidents.

Nass said he has chased drunks out of his backyard cutting up lines of cocaine on his patio table and a couple having sex on his lawn. He even had a drunken bar patron park in his yard and then, hours later, attempt to drive through his fence only to pass out with his foot on the gas pedal after the vehicle got caught on a metal pole.

Two weeks ago, Nass woke up to find more than a dozen planks ripped from his wooden fence, just two years after the last incident. He has also lost several tenants who moved out of a nearby property he rents because they were too freaked out by the unhinged debauchery.

“I had two female law students living here and twice guys tried to break in the back door” Nass said. “One of the law students opened the door with a gun in her hand and the guy started arguing with her. ‘Hey, just let me in so I can sleep on your floor.’ It can be scary especially if you’re a woman home alone.”

Despite the new round of complaints, there is little chance residents will be successful closing the bars, said Justin Schmidt, attorney for F and M’s. Historically, the city only shuts down bars where there is widespread criminal activity that results in violence or murder, though there are exceptions.

In 1999, neighborhood complaints forced Audubon Tavern II to close but only after the bar had been cited repeatedly for violations such as underage drinking.

continue at New Orleans City Business