TRUMP SIGNS BILL TO RELEASE EPSTEIN CASE FILES 8A
N O L A.C O M
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T h u r s d ay, N ov e m b e r 20, 2025
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Federal judge ends NOPD consent decree
N.O. to get $125M short-term loan $20M reimbursement coming from S&WB
BY BLAKE PATERSON and BEN MYERS Staff writers
rick and former interim Chief Michelle Woodfork, who was among four of them in attendance. It followed a Justice Department report in 2011 that found the city’s police force had made a habit of violating residents’ constitutional rights, with tragic consequences. “We have been at this for more than a decade,” Morgan told a crowd, dressed mostly in blue. “We all shared the same goal: turning the NOPD into a first-class, empathetic, procedurally just, constitutional law enforcement agency.” Several of the police officials and others involved in creating or implementing the consent decree in its early years attended Wednesday’s proceeding, along with Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams, Mayor-elect Helena Moreno and all
New Orleans officials have finalized a plan to receive $125 million by selling bonds and secure a $20 million reimbursement from the Sewerage & Water Board that will allow the city to make payroll for 5,000 city employees through next year and avoid immediate cuts to city services. But steep cuts to spending are still on the horizon, according to Mayor-elect Helena Moreno, who has taken the lead on crafting next year’s budget before a Dec. 1 deadline. It remains an open question, meanwhile, whether the city will need to tap into its $37 million rainy day fund to make ends meet through the end of the year. The council, which met Wednesday to finalize the terms of its bond deal, deferred a vote on dipping into the rainy day fund until its regular meeting on Thursday, after Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration said there was enough cash in city coffers to make this week’s payroll. After the meeting, however, Cantrell’s administration re-upped its request with the council to dip into the fund, arguing that the money is needed to pay city vendors. As of Wednesday afternoon, council leaders said they had yet to receive the information they needed to support the request. “They have provided no justification,” said City Council President JP Morrell. “When you’re talking about tapping the rainy day fund, you better have a memo with numbers and graphs.” The city has to pay back the $125 million revenue bond, which is being issued by JP Morgan, by June 30, 2026. To achieve that, officials say they’ll have to cut into next
ä See DECREE, page 4A
ä See LOAN, page 5A
STAFF PHOTO By BRETT DUKE
U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan makes her way to her seat after speaking during a gathering marking the end of the New Orleans Police Department consent decree at Loyola University Law School on Wednesday.
Order terminates court’s 12-year oversight of police force BY JOHN SIMERMAN and MISSY WILKINSON Staff writers
A federal judge ended her 12-year oversight of the New Orleans Police Department on Wednesday, clearing the city and Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick to run the city’s police force free of the court monitoring and blueprint for reform that officials say has helped transform a department once mired in scandal. U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan issued her order shortly before 1 p.m. inside a Loyola Law School auditorium packed with current and former police brass and city officials. “Everyone in this room should be rightly proud about what NOPD accomplished here,” Morgan said. Morgan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, granted the long-
“We have been at this for more than a decade. We all shared the same goal: turning the NOPD into a first-class, empathetic, procedurally just, constitutional law enforcement agency.” U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE SUSIE MORGAN
standing request by Mayor LaToya Cantrell — and recently joined by the Justice Department — to terminate the consent decree before work by the department on a two-year “sustainment” plan was complete. Her order marks the end of an era for the city’s police force. The NOPD consent decree spanned the bulk of the last two mayoral administrations and the work of five police chiefs, including Kirkpat-
Supreme Court to hear La. coastal suit
Convention Center hotel design OK’d
$745M Plaquemines Parish verdict hangs in the balance
Project to have taller tower, $80M public investment
BY ALEX LUBBEN
BY ANTHONY McAULEY
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Jan. 12 in a high-stakes legal dispute that could have wider implications on dozens of lawsuits pitting Louisiana coastal parishes against oil companies over historic damage to the state’s wetlands. At stake is a $745 million verdict, handed down in April by a jury in Plaquemines Parish. But the ruling could ultimately affect a range of cases involving billions in damages. The Supreme Court agreed in June to hear the case, but the date for arguments was only recently announced. The case, Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Plaquemines Parish, is one of dozens of lawsuits accusing major oil companies of violating coastal use
The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center board on Wednesday unanimously approved a new design for a $600 million “headquarters” hotel, marking a milestone for a project that has been in planning for decades but repeatedly reshaped in scope, location, height and cost. The roughly 350-foot tower would rise at the edge of the historic Warehouse District and is scheduled to open in 2030 if it secures the required city approvals. The vote included an additional $10 million in direct
Staff writer
Staff writer
ä See COURT, page 4A
WEATHER HIGH 78 LOW 69 PAGE 8B
RENDERING PROVIDED By RULE JOy TRAMMELL + RUBIO, ARCHITECTS
The redesigned Omni Hotel on Convention Center Boulevard will have just over 1,000 rooms and serve as a new ‘headquarters hotel’ for the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. It is scheduled to be completed in 2030.
Business ......................6A Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................7D Deaths .........................4B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
Convention Center investment, bringing the agency’s total cash commitment to $80 million. Convention Center CEO Jim Cook said the extra funds replace the previously anticipated purchase of the Mississippi River Heritage Park, which will no longer be part of the hotel footprint. The center has already spent $21 million acquiring the former Sugar Mill site, where the development will be located. The remainder of the public contribution comes through rebating five hotel occupancy and sales tax streams generated at the hotel, as well as a lower property tax rate. “We’re at a moment in time where we’re facing very strong competition from other markets for convention business and for supporting
ä See HOTEL, page 5A
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