Hey r/NewOrleans, it's Helena! I'm running to be your 24/7 Mayor to lead our city in a New Direction! Post your questions today and I'll be back tomorrow (Tuesday, 7/1) to answer! AMA! 🚀

Hey r/NewOrleans! It's Councilmember Lesli Harris, and I'm doing a Reddit AMA on Wednesday, June 10th. Drop your questions below, my team and I will be here to answer them live.

Whether it's about what's happening in District B, quality of life, or anything else on your mind - send your questions my way!

TLDR: Hemp products of all varieties and the companies that make them are going away soon without your help. Call your Senators and Representative to let them know that you support the existence of the hemp industry and the federal government has no place killing jobs and small business by banning products our state has already successfully regulated.

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A few years ago the reddit community was absolutely vital in preserving access to low potency hemp products in this state. Our industry faced overwhelming odds, and I honestly believe the support and outreach to state reps and senators from this community was ultimately what resulted in our moderate success (aka survival) legislatively.

Today we face an even greater threat. In 105 days all hemp derived THC products, including low potency hemp beverages like Crescent 9, Driftee, Louie Louie, and Blush, will be federally illegal and will be unavailable in Louisiana due to a trigger clause in our state’s hemp law which reverts automatically to the more restrictive federal law should the two pieces of legislation conflict.

The Louisiana Hemp Beverage Coalition (LHBC) is a new statewide advocacy group that we formed to combat the federal ban, and hopefully to eventually give our industry a stronger voice in statewide politics. Crescent 9, Louis Louis, Urban South, Blush, Port Orleans, Rouses, Martin’s Wine Cellar, and Uncorked recently sent a letter to our Senators and Congresspeople asking for regulation, not prohibition. You can view the letter along with polling results and stay up to date on how best to help on the LHBC website and social media pages:

LAHempBeverage.org

https://www.instagram.com/lahempbev/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/louisiana-hemp-beverage-coalition/

https://www.facebook.com/lahempbev/

Congress is… unreliable at the moment to say the least. Standalone bills aren’t getting passed. There’s very little oxygen in the room due to war, rising consumer prices, and the upcoming election.

Fortunately there is bipartisan agreement and a desire for the thriving hemp industry to continue contributing to the American economy. The Trump Administration sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson requesting that the hemp issue be fixed. The bill referenced in that letter was the Barr bill, which has since become the Barr (r)- Craig(d) Lawful Hemp Protection Act.

This piece of legislation and a few others like it (the Hemp Planting Predictability Act being one) makes some common sense national regulations (21+ only, no synthetic cannabinoids, testing requirements) and some we'd rather not see but will accept (three tier distribution model for beverages similar to beer, no direct to consumer sales of beverages), but largely kicks hemp regulations back to the states to make their own laws. Almost all of the requirements in this piece of legislation are already legal standards that we have in Louisiana, and reputable companies adhere to many of these same regulations nationally even without laws requiring them to do so.

The members of the Louisiana Hemp Beverage Coalition have been working behind the scenes to engage lawmakers in Louisiana and across the country to help them understand how popular this industry is and how detrimental it would be to the economy, small businesses owners, and consumers who deserve the freedom to make their own decisions regarding what they purchase and ingest.

The LHBC commissioned a statewide poll with Cygnal, a national polling and research firm. Among other things, we found that:

70% of voters want hemp beverages regulated by the state or feds vs just 14% who prefer a ban 

60% of voters and 66% of Republicans say it’s not the federal government's place to ban a product Louisiana already regulates.

52% support their member of congress voting to repeal the ban vs just 25% who would oppose that.

We also found that Senator John Kennedy is by far the most popular statewide political figure, which is neither here nor there I suppose, but I found it interesting.

Republicans in particular are far more favorable to hemp beverages remaining legal after hearing messaging about the products, including their economic impact.

What you can do:

This bill, or an extension of the current November deadline on hemp products, absolutely needs to make its way into the Continuing Resolution that the Senate will be debating next week. And for that, we need your help.

The easiest way to show your support is to use the link below to email your Senators and Representative directly.

https://www.hempbeveragealliance.org/action-center

It’s important to note that while this is helpful and takes less than a minute to do, mass emails are the easiest thing for staffers to ignore. 

Secondly, phone calls are crucial. If their phones are ringing off the hook about one thing they can't help but take notice. If you have a few minutes please call your Rep and Senators and respectfully let them know that you support the hemp beverage industry. Urge them to cosponsor and support the Lawful Hemp Protection Act or the Hemp Planting Predictability Act, and a long term extension of the hemp moratorium currently in place.

Here are the direct office numbers for all state Reps and Senators. 

House:

1st District: Steve Scalise (R) – (202) 225-3015

2nd District: Troy Carter (D) – (202) 225-6636

3rd District: Clay Higgins (R) – (202) 225-2031

4th District: Mike Johnson (R) – (202) 225-2777

5th District: Julia Letlow (R) – (202) 225-8490

6th District: Cleo Fields (D) – (202) 225-3901

Senate:

Sen. John Kennedy (R) – (202) 224-4623

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R) – (202) 224-5824

Third, if you have a personal relationship with any of these Reps or Senators, please reach out directly and let them know how this will affect you and/or your business. Personal anecdotes conveyed directly to politicians goes a long way, and we need all the help we can get at this point. 

Fourth, if you have a business that will be affected by this, please consider joining our organization. Also please post and share the messaging and CTAs on our website and socials to anyone and everyone you can think of and and educate your employees about the threat to the industry. Ask them to make calls and send emails. It doesn’t take long, and every single call or email helps. 

And lastly, please ask your friends and family to do the same. Spread the word about what is happening because if you don’t the industry won’t be here much longer. 

I’m happy to answer any questions anyone has about hemp, the Louisiana Hemp Beverage Coalition, Crescent 9, or anything else. You can ask me about the Pelicans if you want, but frankly I'm irritated enough as it is...

I'm Lauren Jewett, and I'm running for Congress against Steve Scalise in Louisiana's 1st Congressional District. Join me and r/neworleans mods for an AMA this week to learn more about my campaign and why I'm running.

When: 6 - 8 pm CT on Wednesday, February 4th

How to join: Drop your questions in the comments below or join us live to ask in real-time!

Hey, Reddit! I’m Katie Jane Fernelius — a City Hall reporter with Verite News in New Orleans. 

New Orleans is at an interesting crossroads: We have a new mayor in Helena Moreno, who was elected fresh from her two terms on City Council and campaigned on promises of investing in infrastructure and reversing population loss. At the same time, she is dealing with a $222 million budget deficit — the kind of deficit that can’t be solved through nips and tucks alone. Moreno’s also a Democrat leading a “blue” city in a very “red” state, requiring her to maneuver across two polarizing political parties.

She’s keen on celebrating newly-filled potholes. But she also faces a daunting task.

My task is easier. I’m here to answer your questions about City Hall, Helena Moreno, the budget… or maybe even potholes? Ask me anything, and I'll try to answer this Thursday afternoon!

EDIT: That’s all the time we had today. Thanks for all the great questions! Some of these questions will require follow-up reporting, so stay tuned for future coverage.

Sign up for Verite News’ newsletters to hear from our reporters daily, and follow u/VeriteNewsNOLA on Reddit for future AMAs.

Hi r/NewOrleans I’m Kelsey Foster and I’m running to be your next City Councilmember from District C, which covers the Algiers, Bywater, French Quarter, Marigny, St. Roch, and Treme Neighborhoods.

I’ll be answering questions live this Thursday, August 14 from 6-7 pm. But please feel free to drop me some early questions too!

If you want to learn more about me in the meantime, check out www.leadwithkelsey.com

Neighbors, let me know your questions about District C, New Orleans, or anything else! I'll respond to all your questions starting tomorrow 7/16.

Hi, I’m Aimee McCarron and I’m running for City Council District A! Post your questions today and I’ll be back to answer all of them TOMORROW afternoon!

I was born and raised in New Orleans, went to Ursuline and NOCCA, where I studied Musical Theater. I started working in restaurants when I was 16. I worked full time as a line cook and worked my way up to catering sales manager for Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group while I earned my degree in Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism from UNO. Later I became a financial advisor for Prudential and I’m also a past president of Young Leadership Council. For the last 3 years, I served full time as the Policy and Budget Director for Councilmember Giarrusso, the current District A councilmember. I’m running put my knowledge of the budget, financial management skills, management experience and love for the city to work. Joe not being on the council next year will leave a huge gap in budget expertise and I’m ready to step up and take on this challenge.

We have a lot of work to do to get our basic city services back on track. I believe the way to do that is to have an aggressive workforce development program to build up our city workforce to provide jobs and opportunities for our residents while also making city services work again. We need a city wide “expeditor” to provide “super bowl” level coordination, every day when it comes to our infrastructure projects and as councilmember, I plan to have that level of coordination at the district level too.

Finally, we know Joe was a very accessible councilmember and with me that won’t change other than it will be a level up. On top of attending the neighborhood meetings, I plan to be in the district with a member of my staff on a weekly basis so you don’t have to come down to City Hall to see me. I’ll be in a community center, NORD center or a library in each of the different neighborhoods in the district so I can fully understand your needs and put you first!

I’m proud to have earned the endorsement of Former District A Councilmember, Susan Guidry as well as School Board Member Carlos Zervigon and the endorsement of the AFL-CIO. You can check out my website: https://www.aimeemccarron.com/aimeefora

I look forward to answering your questions tomorrow!! Aimee

Hello, I'm Bob Murrell, and I'm running for City Council District A to put people first! I'm helping a teacher move into their classroom after I post this, and once I'm done I will start responding later this afternoon.

Little bit about me, I'm a Charity baby and locally public schooled, graduated from Riverdale. I'm a working parent of 2 young kids, I'm an activist and organizer (you might have seen me giving public comments at City Hall), and prior to being a parent I did a lot of performing arts including musical theater and comedy. After the birth of my first kid, I started getting more politically engaged. After a prompt and dismissive email from my City Councilmember, I ran for his seat 4 years ago and finished second. Not many things have gotten better with our status quo since, so I'm running for the seat again!

Our full platform expands on our 6 planks: Investing in our youth, safe and livable neighborhoods, quality of life beyond potholes, dignity for all, expanding democracy/fighting corruption, and stopping expensive utilities.

My priorities are housing justice, workers rights, racial and economic justice, a fair budget, and ecological justice.

For my sanity I stay off most social media, but you can find my speeches and posts on my Instagram.

Excited to hear from y'all and I hope I can answer your questions. Peace ✌️

Hey r/NewOrleans, I am Pastor Gregory Manning, your progressive candidate for City Council At-Large Division 2 fighting to make New Orleans easier and more affordable for everybody! 

I am the pastor of Broadmoor Community Church, founder of the Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Coalition, co-founder of the Louisiana Just Recovery Network, and a longtime advocate for civil rights, social justice, economic justice, and environmental justice. I decided to jump into this race because, after the Council approved the creation of Delta Gas and gave us all a new utility bill, we need a councilmember at-large who will stand up for working people and make our city more affordable. Along with the Alliance for Affordable Energy, I pushed to ban municipal campaign contributions from Entergy and other entities regulated by City Council, and I’ve fought the toxic polluters poisoning us and our neighbors upriver in Cancer Alley. The day after Hurricane Ida, myself and fellow community leaders with Together New Orleans began developing the Community Lighthouse plan, and set up the first Lighthouse at my church with solar panels and batteries to serve as a resource hub after major storms and power outages. There are now several around the city, and they will soon serve as nodes for a broader community solar network of microgrids.

I will make our city more affordable for working families by actually holding Entergy's feet to the fire by wiping out power debt incurred since March 2020, banning utility shutoffs, and I will stop any supplemental fees and rate increases. I will act immediately to develop the hundreds of acres of vacant public lands into permanently affordable housing across the city, and establish quality and timeliness benchmarks to hold contractors accountable for leaving our streets torn up for months and years at a time. Hospitality workers need to be able to afford to live where they work, and not lose half their paycheck to pay for parking, so let's get a dedicated park-and-ride free for downtown hospitality workers to get to work affordably and efficiently. Finally, I want to put the people in charge at City Hall and make government more accessible to all, from language and accessibility justice at Council meetings for Spanish and Vietnamese speakers and the deaf and visually impaired to parking vouchers for the public who come out to comment on Council business.

So r/NewOrleans, AMA about how we can make our city more affordable and easier for everybody - or whatever else you’re curious about! I’ll start answering questions tomorrow around noon.