+2 Will Sutton: ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith is the winner of a Thumbs Down Award. Where do you stand? BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Aug 21, 2026 In broadcasting, there’s something called a Q score. To put it simply, it measures brand recognition across various demographics, likability versus polarization and trust. The Q score is one o…
+5 Will Sutton: A New Orleans elected official will withdraw his reelection campaign, retire BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Aug 11, 2026 Lambert Boissiere III was elected to the Orleans Parish First District constable seat in 1997 and took office in 1998. He continued serving in that capacity until 2005, when he was elected to …
+5 Will Sutton: Former Dillard president leaving UNCF will give fundraising secrets to select HBCUs BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Aug 7, 2026 Dr. Michael Lomax became president of Dillard University in New Orleans in 1997. He increased enrollment at the Jewel of Gentilly by about 50%. Fundraising tripled. Some reports say private gi…
+3 Will Sutton: Listen to Ben Crump closely. In Nolan Wells’ death, maybe race isn’t the issue. BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Aug 5, 2026 It’s been more than a month since the lifeless body of Nolan Wells was found just off of Horn Island, Mississippi. Before the Fourth of July, most people outside of the Ocean Springs, Mississi…
+5 Will Sutton: ¶¶Òõh ranks dead last again. For better or worse, here’s why I won’t leave. BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 31, 2026 In yet another ranking, the state of Louisiana is last. Dead last.
+6 Will Sutton: New Orleans officials made a strategic mistake in latest scuffle with state BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 29, 2026 We’ve been through a lot in recent weeks. There’s been some head-spinning, toe-tapping, neck-throwing, lip-smacking moments as the guv, the AG, the mayor, the DA and City Council members point…
+5 Will Sutton: Welcome Cleo Fields back to a place where he shouldn't be BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 29, 2026 U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields campaigned and earned the title of congressman twice in his career. And he’s lost the title twice.
+4 Will Sutton: Nolan Wells’ death strikes a chord when you’ve been the only Black person in a room BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 29, 2026 Nolan Wells has been laid to rest, but the court of public opinion is not at rest.
+29 Photos: Nolan Wells remembered at memorial service marked by grief, questions and a call for answers By CHRIS GRANGER | Staff photographer Jul 20, 2026 Read more: Al Sharpton, Tyler Perry together offer $100,000 for tips tied to death of Nolan Wells
+4 Will Sutton: Legislature, governor want New Orleans to play by the same rules — until they don’t BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 29, 2026 So many of us have focused so much on the Orleans Parish judicial cuts passed by the ¶¶Òõh Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Jeff Landry that I think most of us missed the drama behi…
+6 Will Sutton: ¶¶Òõh Haitians are caught in a federal flurry of deportation decisions BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Jul 15, 2026 A short time ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the Trump administration can send thousands of people home to their native countries. Actually, we’re talking more than 1 million people. …
+5 Will Sutton: An improved Essence Festival deserves financial investment BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 29, 2026 The early reports about the Essence Festival of Culture are in, and the multiple-event was far better than the 2025 fest.
+4 Will Sutton: New Orleans’ French Quarter problems were too much for Essence Festival ‘essies’ BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 29, 2026 The unexpected Saturday night French Quarter explosion disrupted the fun of some fest-goers at Essence Fest, columnist Will Sutton argues.
+3 Will Sutton: Essence is back. Not the festival. The magazine. Another way to say they love ¶¶Òõh BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 29, 2026 Essence was a monthly in my youth days. It became a six-times-a-year publication, then a quarterly publication.
+4 Will Sutton: For Essence Fest, here’s where to see Black culture, Black excellence in New Orleans BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 9, 2026 I love the Essence Festival of Culture. The annual July event provides so much pleasure — and, as Frankie Beverly would say, happy feelings.
+2 Will Sutton: These two Democrats would vote for John Fleming for U.S. Senate. Here’s why. BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Jun 27, 2026 This is the first time in a long, long time since ¶¶Òõh voters have voted in closed party primaries, and Saturday they’re voting in a closed voter primary runoff in two races to succeed U.…
+3 Will Sutton: Some Orleans judges are losing their jobs. Who? I’ll tell you. BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 3, 2026 I agree with Gov. Jeff Landry and the ¶¶Òõh Legislature that Orleans Parish should have only the number of judges they need. That number should be determined based on the number necessary …
+2 Will Sutton: SCOTUS supports religious freedom — except when it comes in a different package BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 3, 2026 The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently ruled in favor of protecting people who have specific faith and religious practices, arguing that mainstream religious values and organizations must be …
Will Sutton: Why Ronald Greene’s mom says settlement doesn’t settle anything BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 3, 2026 Nearly everyone in ¶¶Òõh knows the name Ronald Greene. He’s the man that ¶¶Òõh State Police said died in a single-car accident near Union Parish near Monroe in 2019. Then they were cau…
+9 Will Sutton: Essence Festival bringing back ¶¶Òõh flavor with local book partner BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 9, 2026 The Essence Festival of Culture made a way out of no way when then-Mayor Marc Morial worked with the Black publishing company to celebrate its 25th anniversary in New Orleans at what was then …
+3 Will Sutton: Essence Festival can’t afford major hiccups, mess ups as it bounces back BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 9, 2026 In just a few weeks, New Orleans will once again host the Essence Festival of Culture, a major event that has called Louisian home for more than 30 years.
+3 Will Sutton: An HBCU draw, nurtured by New Orleans, will write next chapter in Atlanta BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Jun 9, 2026 The HBCU Legacy Bowl was an idea that some scoffed at.
+3 Will Sutton: Gov. Jeff Landry should have saved the Orleans judge cuts for later BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 3, 2026 After blasting Orleans Parish judges for not being good, for not doing enough work and because there are too many judges in New Orleans, Gov. Jeff Landry had a choice: Sign a bill that would d…
+3 Will Sutton: Who’s the next Zulu king: An everyman or a rainmaker? I’ll tell you, and more. BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated Jul 3, 2026 You may have heard of King Shaka kaSenzangakhona. No? Maybe you’ve heard of Shaka Zulu, the man credited with the emergence of the Zulu Nation in the 19th century by bringing together rival gr…
Will Sutton: The NAACP wants Black athletes to boycott schools like LSU. Should they? BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist May 29, 2026 With the NAACP and other groups backing the idea that Black athletes should combat recent redistricting in many Southern states by denying their talents from Southern schools, columnist Will S…
+2 Will Sutton: Legislature should make like these judicial candidates and move on BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist Updated May 27, 2026 Attorney John Fuller became Criminal District Court Section J Judge John Fuller on Wednesday morning in the courthouse where he’d been practicing for years as a defense attorney. He’s used to …
Will Sutton: The flimsiness of Gov. Jeff Landry’s so-called mandate never more clear BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist May 21, 2026 ¶¶Òõh Gov. Jeff Landry was elected with 51.6% of the vote in 2023. Fewer than 548,000 voters chose Landry to replace Gov. John Bel Edwards.
Will Sutton: In one N.O. judicial race, the ‘community over connections’ candidate won BY WILL SUTTON | Staff columnist May 17, 2026 The well-worn cliche says if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.