Sam Karlin

Hurricane-prone New Orleans is lacking trees. They could help with rising heat. A contractor cut down 107 trees in New Orleans that were planted by a nonprofit. Here's why it's emblematic of larger challenges in the fight against extreme heat.

Trees in New Orleans often carry memories of hurricane damage. But as @sam-karlin.bsky.social explores in his series on rising summer temps and heat deaths in Louisiana, trees can make a huge difference in cooling down cities. Still, our canopy is sparse
www.nola.com/news/new-orl...

In Louisiana, heat-related deaths have soared. The quiet disaster is ‘going to get worse.’ Extreme heat is a silent threat, one that experts warn could become more deadly as temperatures continue to rise.

As summers in Louisiana get hotter, heat-related deaths are soaring.
But it’s a quiet disaster, @sam-karlin.bsky.social
reports in his new deep dive. No blue taped roofs or spray painted homes that show the true toll.
Louisiana is doing little to prevent it.
www.nola.com/news/environ...

Do you have a link?

voting for mayor based on whether they can deliver this in downtown new orleans

I believe my political ideology is increasingly that everyone should have access to a high quality Italian deli sandwich at a reasonable price for lunch every day, without fear of financial insecurity.

Here are the raw vote totals for the winners in the key swing states.

PA
2020: Biden 3,458,229
2024: Trump 3,543,308

WI
2020: Biden 1,630,866
2024: Trump 1,697,626

MI
2020: Biden 2,804,040
2024: Trump 2,816,636

As water runs brown in rural Louisiana, residents fear water systems are 'ticking time bomb' In Hessmer, Mayor Robbie Dauzat said he “thanks God" every day without a water system breakdown. “Our whole system is just a ticking time bomb waiting for something to happen.”

Great story from @sam-karlin.bsky.social about just how many rural communities in Louisiana are facing water systems on the verge of a breakdown. Water is brown, murky and lots of federal $$$ still has not been enough to fix it.

www.nola.com/news/louisia...

Ernest S. Harbaugh, a Cybertruck owner from Ohio, states that 28 children laughed at his Cybertruck after a minor problem resulted in it being towed on a flatbed.

Please don't put in the newspaper that 28 children laughed at me

Well, They Made A Cubs Fan The Pope [UPDATE] | Defector Update (5:55 p.m.) Contrary to the ABC News report, Chicago’s WGN-TV caught up with the new pope’s brother, who said that Robert Prevost actually grew up a White Sox fan, not a Cubs fan. The original ...

You never like to have to do this sort of thing as an editor, but if you have to update and amend a story, "the pope is actually a White Sox fan, contradicting earlier reporting" is a pretty good reason. defector.com/well-they-ma...

john do u want in on our pizzaballa groupchat? vibes are pretty bad rn

Asked if he's experienced cognitive decline, Joe Biden says no and rambles on before being cut off by Jill Biden.

JOE BIDEN: You know, one of the things that, that, well, I'm, I'm talking too long —

JILL BIDEN: The people who wrote those books were not in the White House with us.

I need the citizens of Bluesky to be ready to grieve together when it's not Pizzaballa

Climate change is coming for Florida’s real estate. Why don’t prices reflect it? So far, property values have remained remarkably resilient to flood risks – more resilient than many of the actual homes.

Read the whole story, the second installment in a
@miamiherald.com series on real estate and sea level rise, here: www.miamiherald.com/news/local/e...

Screenshot from The New Yorker: One morning a few weeks ago, I met de Blasio at his regular coffee shop in Park Slope. He had just come from the gym—the same one that he’d insisted on commuting to every morning from Gracie Mansion, no matter how much grief the press gave him for it—and was wearing sweats. He held forth among his fellow-patrons with a spirit of magnanimous, possibly unreciprocated camaraderie, greeting a startled man by the door with a familiar “How you doing, brother?” and ordering his breakfast (scrambled egg whites, cheddar, ham, and tomato on multigrain toast) as “mi sandwich especial.” These days, de Blasio most often makes the news for his love life or for such momentous moves as dyeing his salt-and-pepper crewcut. But he’s sensed a bit of de Blasio nostalgia creeping into town. “Since I left office, the No. 1 thing that people come up to me on the street and talk about is pre-K,” he told me, lacing his iced espresso with a heavy pour of simple syrup. “The No. 2 thing that people talk about is that Onion headline.” He quoted it for me, savoring every word: “Well, well, well, not so easy to find a mayor that doesn’t suck shit, huh?”

bill de blasio in park slope, ordering his breakfast sandwich as “mi sandwich especial” and quoting the onion headline omg

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Blue sky is constantly logging me out so when I come here I’m viewing a generic feed and it’s mostly Patton Oswalt (?)

ALL FLEETWOOD MAC SONGS THAT DO NOT FEATURE A STEVIE NICKS LEAD VOCAL ARE NOW TARIFFED AT 250%

not sure if they didn't read the whole post or what, but it's staying open. kermit is just not going to run the day-to-day anymore

Costs to build gas plants triple, says CEO of NextEra Energy 
 - Gas Outlook NextEra Energy’s CEO said that gas turbines have a multi-year backlog, leading to soaring costs for new gas-fired power plants.

😲 “We built our last gas-fired facility in 2022, at $785/kW. If we wanted to build that same gas-fired combined cycle unit today…$2,400/kW" - NextEra CEO John Ketchum
gasoutlook.com/analysis/cos... 🔌💡

Louisiana's insurance crisis is, in large part, a direct result of soaring costs for reinsurance. Insurance companies buy protection (reinsurance) through companies in Bermuda, Singapore, London. Companies here rely heavily on it to offload extreme hurricane risk.

High risk, high reward: How Wall Street cashes in on hurricane risks in Louisiana Investors are betting big on hurricane trends. Here's how they're cashing in on "cat bonds."

Hedge funds and pensions invest in these high-risk, high-reward bonds in hopes of making significantly higher profits than regular bonds.

In exchange, they promise to pay out the entire principal if a hurricane hits and causes a certain amount of damage. www.nola.com/news/busines...

A Louisiana lawmaker has introduced a bill to have the state government issue "catastrophe bonds" in a bid to inject more capital into the reinsurance market.

I went to Bermuda last year to report on the growing cat bond market, where Wall Street cashes in on La. hurricane risk

Louisiana abruptly ends long-sought program to make homes more energy efficient Despite years of efforts into funding the energy efficiency program to help residents save money, the Public Service Commission abruptly ended it.

Louisiana abruptly ends long-sought program to make homes more energy efficient www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/... via @sam-karlin.bsky.social #lalege

Five weeks ago, Mary Kate Cornett was a first-year business major dating another Ole Miss student.

Then a spurious claim about her and her boyfriend’s father spread — and was amplified by Pat McAfee, Barstool personalities and others.

http://dlvr.it/TJtKS4

There's a whole cottage industry of baloney justifications for the plagiarism machine having one-way IP rights, but I simply do not see how "produce this work in the style of [specific artist] which you can do because you have their complete works in your training" can possibly be fair use.

the 1919 Anaconda Standard was a little less respectful to baseball

Chef, artists, business owners come out against Louisiana execution using nitrogen gas After Louisiana scheduled its first nitrogen gas execution for March 18 -- currently being blocked by a federal judge -- business and faith leaders have complained.

Over 100 New Orleans biz owners have asked Louisiana not to go forward w/ nitrogen gas executions:
"Executions — especially those by experimental and gruesome methods — don’t send the right message about Louisiana, our culture, and our people" they say
www.nola.com/news/louisia...

Louisiana homes with fortified roofs often save residents over $1,000 a year, report says Most people who have taken advantage of a state grant program to install a stronger roof have seen insurance premiums drop, according to a new report. The median recipient saw a 22% discount, saving t...

Stronger roofs, a key part of making Louisiana habitable in the face of climate change, are saving most homeowners more money in insurance premiums than they cost. Story: www.nola.com/news/louisia...

Jefferson Parish Council votes down 'divisive' Gulf of America resolution by Van Vrancken The vote to adopt Trump's renamed Gulf of America failed six to one, even though most of the council members are Republican.

The Republican-dominated council of Louisiana's Jefferson Parish, which abuts the Gulf of Mexico, rejected a symbolic measure to rename it the Gulf of America on local maps, @laranicholson.bsky.social reports. www.nola.com/news/jeffers...