NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An extra day and the lure of an appearance by the Rolling Stones pushed attendance at the 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival to a half a million people, organizers said Monday. That was the second highest attendance in the festival’s history — just behind the 600,000 attendees in 2001. In 2023, more than 460,000 people passed through the festival’s gates. “This year’s Festival presented as plainly as ever the beauty of Jazz Fest,” festival producer Quint Davis said in a statement. “Watching the Rolling...

Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga, center, looks to the ball as Portland Trail Blazers forward Justin Minaya, left, and center Deandre Ayton, right, during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Portland, Ore., Thursday, April 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Steve Dykes) Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga and guard Gary Payton II were declared out for Friday night’s game against New Orleans, head coach Steve Kerr said in his pregame news conference. Kuminga bruised his tailbone in Thursday night’s 100-92 victory in Portland. Payton missed that game with...

The governor also named the chairs of the Republican and Democratic parties of Louisiana and Steven Procopio, president of the Public Affairs Research Council, a nonpartisan, good government group in Baton Rouge. Landry also named the three chairs of his transition team that is offering recommendations for changes to the constitution. All three are former House members: Loulan Pitre, R- Cut Off; Jim Tucker, R-New Orleans; and Neil Abramson, D-New Orleans. “They have the experience, knowledge, and best interests of Louisiana at heart,” Landry said on Twitter Friday of the...

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—CJ McCollum and Zion Williamson each scored 31 points, and the New Orleans Pelicans beat Sacramento 135–123 on Thursday night to complete a five-game season sweep of the Kings. Williamson went to the locker room late in the second quarter with an apparent left-wrist injury but returned to score 23 points in the second half. “Proving myself right,” he said of his performance. “Simple as that. And then, with my teammates and coaches just trusting me, that means a lot.” McCollum tied a season-high with nine 3-pointers in 12...

SACRAMENTO — Sacramento's path to the playoffs will officially go through the Play-In Tournament after the Kings lost to the New Orleans Pelicans 135-123 at the Golden 1 Center on Thursday night. New Orleans, the Western Conference 6 seed, has been a tough matchup for Sacramento all season. A Kings win over the Pelicans would have moved Sacramento within 1 game of the sixth seed in the Western Conference, which would guarantee a playoff spot, with two more games left in the season for both teams. However, the Kings are...

Two members of Preservation Brass kicked off the 2024 French Quarter Festival by telling lies. In "(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey," trumpeter Kevin Louis sang, "The sun was shining fine." In "Up a Lazy River," fellow trumpeter Mark Braud referenced the "blue skies up above." Neither lyric was true Thursday morning at the NewOrleans.com Stage in Jackson Square. The sky was cloudy and gray; the sun was nowhere to be found. The musicians, like many listeners, wore jackets to ward off a breezy chill. But chilly and gray was...

I’m a firm believer in data-driven policy making, but there’s always a catch: The data must be accurate. Mark Twain’s comment about data (though he didn’t coin it) — “lies, damn lies and statistics” — comes to mind whenever I read glowing media reports about crime trending downward in New Orleans. For example, local media recently noted that New Orleans’ violent crime rate, which declined significantly in the second half of 2023, continued to decline in the first quarter of this year. Murders dropped 31% compared to the same time...