Tagged: community

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will address the National Urban League Conference on July 25 in New Orleans.

The conference by one of the nation's oldest civil rights organizations is focused on increasing employment for African-Americans, who now face a jobless rate of 13.6 percent, nearly 5 percentage points higher than the national average. 

Immigration advocates in New Orleans say the Supreme Court’s ruling this week on immigration policy will lead to racial profiling. The Congress of Day Laborers is reaching out to minority leaders for support.

A new development of affordable housing in Central City, a neighborhood plagued by blight and abandoned houses, is seeing a flourishing of solar panels.

The Times-Picayune reports that residents in the Harmony Neighborhood Development are putting solar panels on their homes.

The development, being built by a nonprofit, is being constructed using federal funding to convert blighted and vacant properties into the new affordable housing.

BELLE CHASSE — The Louisiana National Guard says members of the group known as the "Bayou Militia" have bid farewell to families and friends during a deployment ceremony held at the Naval Air Station in Belle Chasse.

Thursday's ceremony was for about 250 members of the Louisiana Air National Guard's 159th Fighter Wing. The Guard gave few details about their mission, saying they are deploying in support of overseas operations in southwest Asia. 

Women from around the nation are gathering in New Orleans for the 2nd Annual FestiGals Weekend. It's an empowering getaway weekend festival created for women by women. Among the highlights this year are celebrity  designed bras to fight cancer.

More info at festigals.org

The pastor of the Franklin Avenue Baptist Church is poised this week to become the first African-American president of the Southern Baptist Convention. His career as a church pastor was not something he imagined as a child.