What to know about Mardi Gras 2023, Drew Brees' lightning stunt, French President Macron arrives in New Orleans and more. Here's a look at today's top stories in New Orleans for Friday, Dec. 2, 2022.
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Mardi Gras 2023 is Feb. 21, and Carnival starts up a few weeks earlier, on Jan. 6 as always.
A shortage of police officers and other municipal workers prompted City Hall to prune blocks from the routes of all New Orleans float parades in 2022. And the treks of several of the city’s foot parades were finalized at the last minute, with some changes to starting and stopping places, depending on workforce availability.
Though Carnival fans hoped the parades would return to their usual lengths in 2023 the city leadership decided that the paths of the parades would remain reduced in the upcoming season.
An East Feliciana Parish man who was an extra in Oscar-winning actor Will Smith’s upcoming film, "Emancipation," was struck in the face by a 50-pound camera during filming for one of the movie's action scenes, according to a lawsuit filed in Baton Rouge.
James Walker Jr., is going after several behind-the-scenes Hollywood heavy hitters, alleging their negligence led to the workplace mishap last year. Walker filed his lawsuit Tuesday in the 19th Judicial District Court.
Antoine Fuqua, the filmmaker and producer behind such hits as "Training Day," "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Equalizer," is among the defendants named in the complaint, as is a company owned primarily by Smith and his wife.
French President Emmanuel Macron was greeted by cheering crowds Friday afternoon in New Orleans, the city his countrymen founded 304 years ago.
A brass band welcomed Macron and his wife, Brigitte, at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, along with Gov. John Bel Edwards.
From there, Macron’s motorcade headed straight to the heart of the old colony, the French Quarter. Specifically, they went to Jackson Square and the Cabildo, where the Louisiana Purchase was signed in 1803.
Throngs of onlookers crowded the streets of the Quarter to get a look at the president, the first French head of state to visit the onetime colony since Valery Giscard d’Estaing came in 1976. The only other French president to visit New Orleans was the legendary Charles de Gaulle, who came in 1960.
A 75-year-old from Missouri who was visiting New Orleans with his wife was beaten to death in his St. Charles Avenue hotel room, New Orleans police say.
The suspect in the grisly attack — 29-year-old Martin Hurtado — was arrested and booked into Orleans Parish Justice Center with second degree murder in connection with the homicide at the Avenue Plaza hotel Thursday night.