The Catholic Church restricts graveyard access

The Front Page: Suing for cemeteries, dancing in the street and the feds seize S&WB records

By Drew Broach | Deputy metro editor

GRAVE MATTER: St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is among New Orleans’ most popular tourist haunts. Before it was shuttered by the coronavirus pandemic, it drew guided tours full of onlookers to see the tombs of Voodoo queen Marie Laveau, civil rights activist Homer Plessy and world chess champion Paul Morphy. But as the cemetery’s owner, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans, readies a reopening of the renowned final resting place, its move to restrict who may guide tours amid the tombs is pitting the church and its preferred tour company against a competitor in a federal lawsuit.

STREET STRUTTERS: One of the most delightful developments of the Mardi Gras season in the past 20 or so years has been the proliferation of tongue-in-cheek marching groups in parades. Think the Pussyfooters, the 610 Stompers and the Amelia Earhawts. And as the Krewe of BOO! parade showed two weeks ago, at least three new ones are prepared to strut their stuff for Carnival 2022.

LOOSE LICENSES: That FBI search of the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board offices Friday morning? The public utility said the feds were seeking records from its Plumbing Department, a day after WWL television reported that S&WB employees who hold gasfitter licenses were letting unlicensed contractors use their credentials to install new gas lines on privately commissioned jobs.

Welcome to the weekend. Keep up with the news all day on NOLA.com.

D.B.