Gulf States Newsroom
Too many local news outlets have disappeared in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. The Gulf States Newsroom was created to ensure that stories related to health care, criminal justice, the economy and other important issues continue to be told. WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana, WBHM in Alabama, Mississippi Public Broadcasting, and NPR are working together as a regional newsroom to plan coverage, share resources and add reporting power in a story-rich region that has for too long gone under-covered.
Support for the Gulf States Newsroom comes from WBHM, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR, the Commonwealth Fund and the Public Welfare Foundation. To learn more about the Gulf States Newsroom, email connect@gulfstatesnewsroom.org.
The Regional Team:
Ryan Vasquez, interim managing editor based at WWNO in New Orleans
Orlando Flores Jr., digital editor based at WWNO in New Orleans
Stephan Bisaha, senior reporter covering economic mobility based at WBHM in Birmingham
Kat Stromquist, senior reporter covering justice, incarceration and gun violence based at WWNO in New Orleans
Nellie Beckett, community engagement producer based at WBHM in Birmingham
Joseph King, sports and culture reporting fellow based at WBHM in Birmingham
Drew Hawkins, public health reporter based at WWNO in New Orleans
Danny McArthur, environment & communities reporter based at Mississippi Public Broadcasting in Jackson
WBHM News Team | WWNO News Team | MPB News Team
Recent stories from the Gulf States Newsroom
- Trump’s plan to bring shipbuilding back to the US? Port fees on Chinese vessels
- Q&A: How lethal injection ‘hides the violence’ of executions in the South and elsewhere
- Brutality and humanity at the Angola Prison Rodeo in Louisiana
- What’s the deal with torpedo bats? See how this Baton Rouge bat manufacturer makes them
- Lil Wayne’s New Orleans Jazz Fest headlining set is a big moment for hip-hop artists
- Birmingham ranked 4th worst in Southeast for ozone pollution, new ALA report says
- Trade wars grew America’s auto industry. Historians warn today’s tariffs won’t
- How neighborhoods in New Orleans are addressing urban flooding
- Trump’s tariffs have been a source of both hope and fear among Gulf South industries
- How HBCUs are helping grow the next generation of Gulf South environmental activists
- March Madness returns to Birmingham with women’s Sweet 16, Elite Eight games
- Data centers bring billions to Mississippi. Are the investments worth the risk?
- Louisiana executes Jessie Hoffman by nitrogen gas in 1st use of death penalty in 15 years
- Attorneys, advocates make last-minute bid to stop Louisiana’s execution of Jessie Hoffman
- In the fight over Louisiana’s execution plans, religion plays a prominent role
- Under Trump, Huntsville might finally gain Space Command. It could also lose much more
- Q&A: What immigrants should know about their Constitutional rights during an ICE visit
- Inside a Mississippi man’s fight with health insurance and a hospital for life-saving surgery
- Glenn Foster Jr’s family uses Super Bowl to bring awareness to his death, demand justice
- Deep cuts to NIH funding would cause economic harm across Trump-friendly Alabama
- New Orleans has beefed up security for Mardi Gras. For smaller parading krewes, it’s costly
- Tourism in New Orleans remains strong despite terrorist attack. Will the trend last?
- U.S. veterans work to make sense of New Year’s Day incidents: It’s ‘doubly tragic’
- Amid sewage issues, a nonprofit is helping Alabama Black Belt residents find solutions
- Watch: ‘Voices of District 2’ highlights challenges, strengths of Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District
- The Gulf South needs more sexual assault nurse examiners. Is teleSANE the answer?
- In New Orleans, focus shifts toward community recovery, healing after terror attack
- The 2024 moments that will stick with us: Reflections from the Gulf States Newsroom
- ‘Driven by something greater’: Meet Birmingham’s trainer to the stars of today and the future
- Q&A: The little-known history of how enslaved people were jailed in antebellum New Orleans
- Alabama leads US in ‘pregnancy criminalization’ cases following Dobbs decision: report
- One-day strikes are in: Why unions are keeping it short on the picket line
- Medicaid coverage is expanding into prisons in 2025, starting with children
- Alabama Black Belt’s sewer crisis a tougher fix for residents in manufactured homes
- In Birmingham, Black men’s groups work to save young men from the cycle of gun violence
- Here are 3 questions to ask before panic buying during a supply chain breakdown
- Challenges to forced prison labor gain steam, have resonance in the Gulf South
- ‘Where’s Jeff?’: Unhoused and struggling with opioid addiction in Birmingham
- Alabama’s 2nd nitrogen gas execution raises questions about method’s future use
- In coastal Louisiana, a sacred mound is returned to the Native American tribe who built it
- Efforts to restore voting rights for people with felony convictions lag in the Gulf South
- 1 reason people don’t evacuate for hurricanes? Rising costs, and they’re getting pricier
- Alabama voting FAQ: How to register, cast your ballot for Nov. 5 election
- ‘Mississippi Five’ parole issues highlight the toll of ‘graying’ in Gulf South prisons
- ‘A terrible experience’: LGBTQ+ students face challenges amid Alabama’s Title IX, sports ban debate
- Alabama, Mississippi receive millions to improve rural health care; here’s how they’ll spend it
- Q&A: Gulf States Newsroom reporters discuss covering Birmingham mass shooting
- Q&A: Is an innocent man on Alabama death row? Here’s the latest on Toforest Johnson’s case
- How Alabama food banks are keeping rural communities fed
- Bill Greason, the oldest-living Negro Leaguer, takes another trip around the bases at 100
- ‘A dream come true’: Alabama ‘grandfamilies’ are set to receive opioid settlement funds
- An art exhibit reckons with Alabama’s death penalty toll
- High school football is back. How are Gulf South schools keeping players safe from the heat?
- These 3 farms are an example of Mississippi’s growing network of sustainable agriculture
- A plan to fix Jackson’s water system could cost all of Mississippi its food stamps
- Q&A: A New Orleans Dollar General employee discusses $12M settlement, store closures, more
- Meet the people working to protect Southern protesters’ civil rights
- A new EPA grant is sending millions to the Alabama Black Belt to solve sanitation issues
- Nissan workers in Mississippi consider another union campaign: VW ‘proved it can be done’
- Need help with breastfeeding? Here are some local resources for Alabama parents
- Voting advocates in Alabama’s District 2 are training, gearing up for 2024 election
- Q&A: Baldwin & Co. bookstore owner on James Baldwin’s impact, carrying on his legacy
- In Louisiana, mutual aid networks help residents prepare for the peak of hurricane season
- Women’s health care in the Gulf South is ‘bleak,’ new report says. Here’s how Alabama ranks
- In Mississippi, student filmmakers tell Emmett Till’s story through their lenses
- This free training aims to address the Gulf South’s shortage of sexual assault nurses
- The UAW’s union dreams seemed unstoppable. Then came the realities of the South
- Thousands of Dollar General stores now sell fresh produce. Could it improve rural food access?
- Q&A: Prison reform advocate Terrance Winn on gun violence in Shreveport, Louisiana
- Should heat waves get names like hurricanes? Some believe it could help save lives
- Gun violence and incarceration issues go ‘hand in hand’ in this Louisiana city, residents say
- In the fight against gun violence, this Gulf South city is searching for ways to save lives
- Q&A: Ruth Leitman on filming The Pink House, the frontline in the fight for abortion rights
- ‘This ain’t the same sun’: Extreme heat is changing summertime for kids in the South
- In Northeast Mississippi, Black cowboys celebrated Juneteenth with a horse show
- As dollar stores continue rural expansion, a Louisiana parish found a new way to push back
- A family’s search for their native and formerly enslaved heritage in South Alabama
- Jon Batiste reflects on the South’s musical history: ‘I’m rooted in something bigger than me’
- Gulf South sees record ACA Marketplace enrollment, driven by enhanced subsidies
- How a Mississippi canoe company is raising a new generation of river caretakers
- 4 takeaways from a year of investigating nightmare utility bills
- After their son died in a Louisiana jail, a family struggles for answers
- Alabama actress finds home at center stage
- Birmingham’s poet laureate writes her homecoming
- Gulf South states among U.S. leaders for juvenile life without parole sentences, study shows
- Researchers look into community health impact of wood pellet production in rural Mississippi
- Q&A: Bobby Carter on leading Tiny Desk, his time at Jackson State, early career advice
- ‘Stupidity of politics’: Medicaid expansion effort dies in Mississippi
- A New Orleans garden paid hundreds of dollars in fees for a sewer that doesn’t exist
- Florida’s 6-week abortion ban will have a ‘snowball effect’ on residents across the South
- Birmingham is 3rd worst in the Southeast for ozone pollution, new report says
- Why haven’t Kansas and Alabama — among other holdouts — expanded access to Medicaid?
- Q&A: How harm reduction can help mitigate the opioid crisis
- Alabama’s racial, ethnic health disparities are ‘more severe’ than other states, report says
- Q&A: A former New Orleans police chief says it’s time the U.S. changes its marijuana policy
- How food stamps could play a key role in fixing Jackson’s broken water system
- Crawfish prices are finally dropping, but farmers and fishers are still struggling
- For some Gulf South schools, a March Madness loss can still be a win off the court
- ‘Anybody can be a lobbyist’: In Mississippi, incarceration fuels legislative advocacy training
- 1 year after devastating tornado, Rolling Fork mobile home park residents fight to return home
