News from the South - Louisiana News Feed
Proposed legislation aims to protect Mississippi River fisheries
Proposed legislation aims to protect Mississippi River fisheries
by Elise Plunk, Louisiana Illuminator
March 5, 2025
A new congressional bill aims to improve fisheries and environmental quality in the Mississippi River basin with a federally funded commission.
“This is a bill that’s way past its due,” said U.S. Rep. Troy Carter Sr. D-Louisiana, who is co-sponsoring the Mississippi River Basin Fishery Commission Act of 2025 with U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell R-Mississippi. It was introduced Feb. 24 in the House Committee on Natural Resources.
The goal is to fund grants for habitat restoration, fisheries research and the mitigation of invasive species.
It aims to support the growth of the fishing industry throughout the basin, as well as reinforce partnerships between local, state and federal agencies involved in the management of the river and its tributaries. The commission would be federally funded, and draw down on federal dollars to support restoration projects and fisheries management.
“The Mississippi, a mighty, mighty estuary, is not only a major tool for moving commerce back and forth, but it’s also a place where people make a living, fishing on the river,” Carter said. “This bill endeavors to make sure that we are protecting that asset.”
While commercial fishing has declined in recent decades, and updated research is necessary to establish the exact value of recreational, commercial and subsistence fishing in the Mississippi River, one study valued it as a billion dollar industry in the basin.
The river’s ecology has long dealt with challenges such as industrial and agricultural pollution, habitat destruction and prolific spread of invasive species. Part of the difficulty in addressing these problems come from the sheer size of the basin, with its geography covering over a third of the continental United States.
“For decades, states have struggled to find dedicated resources to adequately manage large river species that cross many state, federal, and tribal jurisdictions during their lifetimes,” Ben Batten, deputy director of Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and chair of the Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Resource Association, said in a press release.
Large river species such as invasive carp are a problem the new commission would address, building on the work of the interstate cooperative, a multistate, multi-agency organization formed in 1991 that has focused on reducing invasives. The four varieties of carp originating from Asia – silver carp, black carp, grass carp and bighead carp – have spread at alarming rates and harm existing fisheries.
Communication amongst the numerous jurisdictions in the basin — states, cities, towns and tribal entities — can be difficult. Collaborative groups encourage more cohesive policy between basin states, such as the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative and the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association, and there have been efforts to pass a river compact.
The United States and Canada share a partnership through the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. The Mississippi River Basin Fishery Commission would be part of the Department of the Interior, and include other agencies, like the U.S. Geological Survey, Fish and Wildlife Service and Army Corps of Engineers.
Due in large part to a lack of standardized testing, and often limited resources, health experts and government agencies often offer conflicting advice as to whether fish from the Mississippi River are safe to eat. Fish advisories warning against consumption of river fish in one area may not exist in neighboring states, varying from one side of the river to the other.
The bill authors request $1 million to launch the commission in 2026, then $30 million each year for the following three years
While many fish the Mississippi River for sport rather than to eat, some rely on the river as a source of food.
General health advice for eating fish caught from the Mississippi does exist, such as throwing back the biggest and fattiest fish, washing them before filleting, and broiling or grilling the catch to avoid certain pollutants.
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Halle Parker with WWNO-FM contributed to this story from New Orleans. This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation.
Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.
Halle Parker with WWNO-FM contributed to this story from New Orleans. This story is a product of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, an independent reporting network based at the University of Missouri in partnership with Report for America, with major funding from the Walton Family Foundation.
The post Proposed legislation aims to protect Mississippi River fisheries appeared first on lailluminator.com
News from the South - Louisiana News Feed
Showers may linger into Monday morning
SUMMARY: Rain and thunderstorms have persisted in Southeast Louisiana since this morning, affecting areas from the South Shore to the coast, with some rain totals reaching up to four inches. The rain is expected to taper off by 9 PM, but more showers could redevelop overnight, particularly near the coast. Tomorrow, showers will continue into the morning, with cooler temperatures and cloudy skies. By midday, the weather will clear up, and sunny conditions will return by Tuesday, following a cold front. The rest of the week will see dry weather, with temperatures in the 70s.

Showers may linger into Monday morning
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News from the South - Louisiana News Feed
Someone paid $2,138 for a reservation at a French Quarter restaurant. Should this be outlawed?
by Wesley Muller, Louisiana Illuminator
April 6, 2025
People are buying and selling table reservations at iconic New Orleans eateries for eye-popping amounts via third-party websites, often without the restaurant’s knowledge.
Critics want lawmakers to ban the burgeoning online business they consider a racket, arguing that it undermines the fine-dining experience and could potentially leave restaurants with empty tables. However, proponents of the practice say it benefits both diners and restaurants when done properly.
Some iconic restaurants topped the list during a recent scan of the New Orleans section of Appointment Trader, one of several platforms designed to let people with scheduling conflicts sell highly coveted reservations on the open market. A Saturday night reservation at Brennan’s later this month is available for a suggested bid of $235 — a discount compared to the whopping $2,138 someone paid for a four-top at Antoine’s during the Super Bowl weekend.
Are those prices based on genuine demand for seating at the restaurants, or is it artificially inflated by technology built to cash in on wealthy tourists desperate to dine in the city’s elite culinary corners?
That’s a question Louisiana lawmakers will try to answer in the coming months as they consider House Bill 90, sponsored by Rep. Troy Hebert, R-Lafayette. The legislation could ban companies such as Appointment Trader, Dorsia and Wuw Wuw from operating in Louisiana.
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Specifically, Hebert’s bill prohibits third-party companies from offering or arranging reservations at any restaurants that have not agreed to the service through a contract.
Hebert could not be reached for comment, but the Louisiana Restaurant Association, a trade group that asked Hebert to file the legislation, said it is modeled after similar laws recently enacted in other states such as New York. They all describe the legislation as a measure to prevent “restaurant reservation fraud.”
Appointment Trader, founded in 2021, lets users buy and sell reservations and appointments of all kinds through auction-style bidding. Sellers can set their own asking prices, and bidders can make offers at any rate. Additionally, prospective buyers can use the platform as a concierge service, offering a fee to any user who can secure them a reservation at a particular establishment.
In its early days, the platform was limited mostly to hotspots such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Las Vegas. It has since gained popularity and expanded into smaller markets including New Orleans and virtually anywhere else one has a reservation they want to sell. As of Thursday, the platform had clocked over $6 million in trades within the last 12 months.
In a phone interview, Louisiana Restaurant Association spokeswoman Wendy Waren said platforms like Appointment Trader are selling reservations without the restaurants’ permission or knowledge. If no one buys the reservations, tables just sit empty, which can cause seating delays or prevent genuine customers from getting a reservation and actually bringing business to the restaurant, she said.
“It creates artificial scarcity,” Waren said. “It’s like somebody’s hijacking the process.”
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New York hospitality trade groups have accused the platforms of using software bots to snap up reservations and sell them on what they call a “black market.”
Appointment Trader founder Jonas Frey said he is just trying to solve a problem with a legitimate service that can benefit all parties, particularly the restaurants. The 37-year-old software engineer is a German immigrant who came to the U.S. five years ago and came up with the idea for his platform while waiting in a long line at his local motor vehicles office in Las Vegas. He now lives in Miami with his wife and is serious about maintaining legitimacy on his platform, he said.
“I’ve basically lived in a computer all my life, and nothing gives me more joy — well almost nothing — than when thousands of people use the software I built to solve a problem in their life,” Frey said.
In phone interviews this week, Frey explained how users on his platform must sell at least half of the reservations that they post or risk account suspension. This prevents people from trying to book all the available tables and hoard them to create artificial demand. Also, the free-market style platform means that unsold reservations put downward pressure on the prices in a given area, he said.
The app is still quite new in the New Orleans market as there have only been a handful of transactions, so the current 90-day average bid prices have been skewed by reservations sold during special events such as the Super Bowl. Frey said those “one-offs” are not the norm.
In a market such as New Orleans, diners can typically get reservations without paying if it’s a normal weekend, but it can be next-to-impossible at certain restaurants in other cities. Reservation trading lets people sell valuable bookings that they, for whatever reason, can’t use or no longer want,
When someone has a coveted reservation but a scheduling conflict prevents them from using it, they might not bother calling to cancel, leading to what restaurants call “no-show reservations.”
Just a few no-shows can disrupt a restaurant’s operations and cost it thousands in lost sales. Approximately 28% of American diners have admitted to ghosting on their reservations, according to a 2021 OpenTable survey.
“Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if you could just resell it?” Frey asked.
Lisa Blount, director of marketing for Antoine’s, said she’s all in favor of entrepreneurs figuring out new ways to make money in the restaurant industry. She’s less worried about no-shows because Antoine’s requires credit cards to make reservations, but she does have a few other concerns.
At Antoine’s and other fine dining eateries, the staff take a lot of time to learn about their customers when they make a reservation, Blount said. They might be on a tight schedule, have diet restrictions or could be visiting for a special occasion. This kind of information allows the restaurant to make preparations with food ordering, shift scheduling and other arrangements.
“There’s a lot more to coming to our restaurant than just buying a ticket,” Blount said. “We try to know a lot about you before you even get in the door.”
Blount said she worries that trading or selling reservations to unknown customers could stymie a restaurant’s ability to offer its best level of service. She also said she hates the idea of an unwitting customer paying for a reservation and then showing up and seeing empty tables because it turned out to be a slow evening. The customer would feel scammed, and it could damage the restaurant’s reputation, she said.
Still, Blount said she’s open to the concept of reservation trading if there are ways to control for those kinds of issues.
Frey said he is actively trying to partner with restaurants to make the app better for all parties. His platform currently takes a 30% cut of each transaction, and he offers partner restaurants an equal share of the net proceeds. So far, Frey said he has not landed any partnership agreements as he tries to keep his company alive through an onslaught of state legislation.
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Bans on reservation trading apps are already in place in New York and Arizona, and a similar bill is currently pending in the Illinois legislature.
Some large corporations could lose a chunk of their business if reservation trading catches on. Restaurant booking platforms such as OpenTable and Resy are free for customers to use. They make money by charging restaurants a fee for every reservation made through their app.
Platforms like Appointment Trader threaten to disrupt the online booking sector by flipping that business model on its head. Under Frey’s partnership model, restaurants would get paid just to let customers inside.
But all that depends on genuine demand existing in a particular market area.
“There’s so many restaurants here,” Blount said from her New Orleans office. “We’re not New York.”
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Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.
The post Someone paid $2,138 for a reservation at a French Quarter restaurant. Should this be outlawed? appeared first on lailluminator.com
News from the South - Louisiana News Feed
KSAT highlights the excitement of Men’s Final Four Tip-Off Tailgate
SUMMARY: The Men’s Final Four Tip-Off Tailgate in San Antonio has generated significant excitement. Reporter Avery Everett highlights the vibrant atmosphere at Civic Park, where basketball festivities blend with fun activities. Attendees celebrate with live music and watch the games on a big screen. The tailgate features a merchandise booth, where fans can purchase San Antonio-themed items, and a bull-riding game. Many locals express pride in their city being celebrated, with food, entertainment, and camaraderie thriving. The event culminates with a concert across the street, creating a festive spirit for both basketball fans and San Antonio residents alike.

KSAT takes a look at what the Men’s Final Four Tip-Off Tailgate has to offer.
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