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Partial settlement reached in Hard Rock collapse
UNO enrollment down again yearslong slump fuels financial crisis BY MARIE FAZIO Staff writer
the massive structural failure, which caused the top three floors of the $85 million building to pancake and collapse, killing three workers, injuring hundreds of others and shutting down commerce on surrounding city streets for months. In the wake of the disaster, more than 130 lawsuits were filed against developer 1031 Canal Development, which is owned by Mohan Kailas and his family; Citadel Builders, the general contractor; dozens of subcontractors; and their insurance companies. The cases were eventually consolidated, and settlement talks began in 2023. While a dozen or so individual suits
The University of New Orleans is down about 800 students this fall, a significant decrease for the small institution where a yearslong enrollment slump has fueled an ongoing financial crisis. About 5,700 students are enrolled at UNO this school year, according to a fall head count shared with faculty and staff this week that includes undergraduate and graduate students, as well as high schoolers who take courses at UNO. The total is down from about 6,500 “Enrollment students last fall was lower than and a far cry from we’d hoped, yet the university’s peak of 17,000 stu- understandable dents. given the UNO President challenges Kathy Johnson we’ve said in an email to experienced faculty and staff this week that the over the course university’s revof the past enue will be $1.1 year.” million less than anticipated due to KATHy JOHNSON, the enrollment deUNO president cline. The reduced revenue comes as the university’s financial crisis has led to layoffs and furloughs, building closures and other cost-cutting measures over the past year. “Enrollment was lower than we’d hoped,” she wrote, “yet understandable given the challenges we’ve experienced over the course of the past year.” Still, Johnson said, the university is not operating at a deficit, as it was last
ä See SETTLEMENT, page 4A
ä See UNO, page 6A
STAFF FILE PHOTO By CHRIS GRANGER
The Hard Rock Hotel was under construction on Canal Street in New Orleans when it collapsed on Oct. 12, 2019.
Group representing workers, bystanders gets tentative deal BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer
Nearly six years after the Hard Rock Hotel collapsed on Canal Street while under construction, the committee that represents more than 400 workers, bystanders and business owners who claim they were harmed by the disaster have reached a tentative settlement with the building’s owner. Attorney Walter Leger Jr. announced the “agreement in principal” with 1031 Canal Development and its insurers on Thursday morning in Orleans Parish Civil District Court. It came during a hearing that had been scheduled ahead of an upcoming trial in the case.
Trump takes Fed firing to Supreme Court BY MARK SHERMAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors. The Republican administration turned to the high court after an appeals court refused to go along with ousting Cook, part of President Donald Trump’s effort to reshape the Fed’s seven-member governing board and strike a blow at its independence. The White House campaign to unseat Cook marks an unprecedented bid to
ä See FIRING, page 4A
WEATHER HIGH 94 LOW 74 PAGE 8B
Details of the settlement must still be finalized and will not be disclosed publicly, said Leger, co-lead counsel for the plaintiff steering committee. The deal does not apply to dozens of other lawsuits filed by victims — as well as by 1031 Canal Development — against the engineer, contractors and steel manufacturer involved in building the 18-story hotel. “This is only a partial settlement,” Leger said in an interview after the hearing. “We reserve our rights to sue the others and so does 1031 … But it is a big, big step and the first step in settling this case.” The development comes less than a month before the sixth anniversary of
Palmer to head up preservation efforts Former council member taking over nonprofit
BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer
Kristin Gisleson Palmer, a former New Orleans City Council member with decades of experience restoring blighted properties, has been named executive director of the Preservation PHOTO PROVIDED Resource Center. For Palmer, 58, taking over Former New Orleans City Council member Kristin Gisleson Palmer is the 51-year-old nonprofit orthe new executive director of the Preservation Resource Center. ganization, which works to
Business ...................12A Commentary ................7B Nation-World................2A Classified .....................1E Deaths .........................3B Opinion ........................6B Comics-Puzzles .....3D-6D Living............................1D Sports ..........................1C
preserve and revitalize historic neighborhoods across the city, is something of a homecoming, she said Tuesday. One of her first jobs out of college in the early 1990s was with the center. She later returned to the organization for several years before running for council, where she served two nonsequential terms. “I feel like I am coming full circle,” said Palmer. “I love the PRC so much. This is something I have always wanted to do.” Palmer succeeds Danielle
ä See PALMER, page 6A
13TH yEAR, NO. 38