By JACK BROOK, Associated Press/Report for America

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell is scheduled to appear in federal court Wednesday for the first time since the Democrat was indicted on corruption charges stemming from an alleged romantic relationship with her bodyguard.

She is expected to enter a plea in response to conspiracy, fraud and obstruction charges in what prosecutors described as a yearslong scheme to conceal an affair with her bodyguard as the two traveled, wined and dined together on taxpayers’ dime.

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Cantrell’s bodyguard, Jeffrey Vappie, has already pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and making false statements after he was indicted in July 2024. He is scheduled to appear in court Friday for the additional charges.

Cantrell, the first female mayor in New Orleans’ 300-year history, was elected twice but now becomes the city’s first mayor to be charged while in office in a state with a reputation for public corruption. She has only four months before she leaves office under term limits.

The mayor once known for her outspoken persona has kept quiet about the charges in the weeks since the 18-count indictment against her and Vappie was announced in mid-August. She did not acknowledge the indictment during public appearances to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina late last month.

Cantrell was already receding into the background of city affairs over the past year and offered no apparent resistance to President Donald Trump’s suggestion earlier this month to send the National Guard and federal agents to New Orleans even as other Democrats bristled.

She’s also been cast as a pariah by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, who announced on Sept. 3 that Cantrell was suspended from involvements in federal transactions with HUD. The City Council issued a statement last week saying it had reassured the Housing Authority of New Orleans and the Office of Community Development that other city officials could sign federal contracts instead.

At times, she and her allies have said the blowback she is experiencing is tinged by double standards she faces as a Black woman. Cantrell said earlier this year, before to the indictment, that she has faced “very disrespectful, insulting, in some cases kind of unimaginable” treatment.

Cantrell and Vappie used WhatsApp for more than 15,000 messages, where they professed their love and plotted to harass a citizen who helped expose their relationship, delete evidence, make false statements to FBI agents “and ultimately to commit perjury before a federal grand jury,” acting U.S. Attorney Michael Simpson said. Vappie’s 14 trips with Cantrell cost taxpayers $70,000, not including Cantrell’s own travel costs, according to the indictment.

In a WhatsApp exchange, the indictment says, Vappie recalled accompanying Cantrell to Scotland in October 2021 on a dreamy trip “where it all started.”

Cantrell, whose husband died in 2023, has denied having anything more than a professional relationship with Vappie. She lashed out at associates who raised questions about the amount of time she spent with her bodyguard, including on wine-tasting trips and in a city-owned apartment, court records show.

Cantrell joins the ranks of more than 100 people brought up on corruption charges in Louisiana in the past two decades, said Rafael Goyeneche, a former prosecutor who is president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a watchdog group.

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

“These failures disproportionately impact Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bengali, and Arabic-speaking communities, with Spanish-speaking students representing 67 percent of all ELLs,” said the Comptroller’s office. New York City Public Schools disputes the findings.

A scene from the first day of school in New York City last week. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

The office of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander found “profound failures” in English Language Learners’ ability to access services and programs designed for them at the city’s public schools. 

An audit released Monday found that a “a significant percentage” of the school system’s English Language Learners (ELLs) hadn’t received the services they’re legally entitled to, such as required courses or a minimum number of instructional minutes.

They have also been denied other legally mandated services, the audit found, such as being identified as ELLs through the Home Language Identification Survey, being tested and placed through the New York State Identification Test for English Language Learners, and receiving a bilingual education or access to an English as a New Language program.

“These failures disproportionately impact Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Bengali, and Arabic-speaking communities, with Spanish-speaking students representing 67 percent of all ELLs,” the Comptroller’s office said in a press release.

Since Spring of 2022, over 237,000 migrants have come to New York City, many from Latin America, and their kids have been filling the classrooms of the city’s public schools, which saw 25,081 new ELL students, a 16.8 percent jump. ELL students represent 19 percent of total student enrollment, according to the Comptroller’s office. 

Many migrant students are also living, or have lived, in the city’s shelter system, which was home to 8,496 migrant families with children as of July (though not all those families have school-aged kids). 

After a student is first enrolled or re-enrolled, schools should identify English Language Learners and test their English skills. If students score below “commanding” on the state’s English Language Learners (NYSITELL) test, they are considered ELLs and are entitled to receive services under these regulations.

A New York State Education Department Commissioner’s Regulation, CR Part 154, was created to ensure ELLs are not left behind and achieve the same educational goals and standards as non-ELLs. It means parents or guardians should be informed about their child’s English language skills and the program options available to them. 

Additionally, CR Part 154 mandates that every school district provide ELLs with either a Bilingual Education or English as a New Language (ENL) Program. A bilingual program teaches students in two languages—their native language and English—to achieve proficiency in both, while ENL programs prioritize English language acquisition, with support in the student’s first language. 

The audit found that NYCPS did not provide the required courses, the minimum number of minutes of ENL instruction, or the minimum number of minutes of bilingual instruction to almost half (48 percent) of the students in the audit surveyed (145 out of 301). 

When asked, New York City Public Schools (NYCPS, formerly the Department of Education) refuted the findings, stating that the report included students who were enrolled for less than 10 days, meaning they couldn’t be identified as ELLs or take the exam to assess their skills.

The Comptroller’s Office emphasized, in response to NYCPS objections, that the audit results were shared with the department on several occasions and that education officials did not criticize the figures and methodology or ask for revisions during that process.

Education advocates declined to comment on whether the data is accurate or not, or whether the comptroller’s office did a good job reviewing it.

“All I can speak about is our experience on the ground,” said Rita Rodriguez-Engberg, director of the Immigrant Students’ Rights Project at the nonprofit Advocates for Children. “We see families that we serve who are not provided services on time, students who are not identified on time, parents who have never been invited to the mandated parent meeting that they’re supposed to have.” 

A scene from the first day of school in September 2022. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

NYCPS said it has many ways to ensure that ELLs are identified and placed on time: training by each borough’s ELL policy support staff; daily and monthly updates on eligible students sent to superintendents and district staff; and extra help and visits to schools that don’t follow the rules.

The department said it is already complying with one of the report’s recommendations, which is to keep important records on ELL students, and is looking into new ways to collect digital records in a new student information system that’s being developed. Those records include the Home Language Identification Survey, which determines whether a language other than English is spoken at home, as well as parent surveys and program agreement forms.

Advocates were surprised to learn that 40 percent of students sampled by the comptroller’s audit were taught by teachers who do not have the full qualifications to teach ELL. 

“I was most shocked that teachers were not qualified because that’s just something that we, as advocates, and on the side, parent advocacy, we don’t have access to that information,” said Rodriguez-Engberg.

When asked, NYCPS disagreed, saying that English as a New Language courses are often taught by an ENL teacher and a teacher of the subject being studied. In the last school year, 93 percent of ELLs received either bilingual education or ENL instruction from a teacher who was certified, the department said.

School districts must meet certain requirements in offering bilingual education programs, but can also request a waiver if they’re unable to do so. According to the audit, during the last school year, NYCPS requested 150 Bilingual Education Program Waivers.

“It doesn’t come as a surprise to me that schools fill out a waiver to not create a bilingual program, because that requires organization, it requires a budget, it requires hiring a bilingual teacher to be able to teach the class. And I’m just not sure that there are enough teachers in New York City to be able to cover the need,” Rodriguez-Engberg said.

Between the 2022 and 2024 school years, the city opened 103 new bilingual education programs and with an additional 27 new programs anticipated for the current school year, officials said.

NYCPS didn’t specify, but said it’s also developing new programs to help teachers who work with students who speak “low-incidence languages,” which are languages spoken by fewer than 5 percent of the statewide English Language Learner (ELL) population (excluding Spanish and Chinese). 

NYCPS said they’re offering over 566 programs in various languages, including Arabic, Bengali, Albanian, and other low-incidence languages, and assured that every child, regardless of language background, will receive their required instruction and support to succeed in the classroom.

“Well before the release of the auditor’s report, we had already implemented strategic, systemwide initiatives to strengthen language instruction, compliance indicators, and ensure equity in access to higher quality education,” a NYCPS spokesperson said in a statement.

“By expanding hiring for English as a New Language and Bilingual Education teachers and continuing growth of our bilingual education programs, we have taken action to meet the linguistic and academic needs of every student,” the spokesperson added. 

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Daniel@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post Comptroller Finds ‘Profound Failures’ in City Services for English Language Learners appeared first on City Limits.

A man was charged with threatening to kill a federal judge after already being convicted once of the same crime, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Tuesday in Minneapolis.

Robert Phillip Ivers, 72, was charged with threatening to assault and murder a federal judge, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson. Ivers was federally convicted in 2018 of threatening to kill a U.S. district judge. At the time, Ivers was living in West Fargo, N.D., but he had previously run for mayor in Hopkins.

“At a time when Minnesota is reeling from acts of violence, the last thing we need is someone spreading fear into our churches, libraries, and courts,” Thompson said in a statement. “Ivers’s threats are bone chilling.  After the past few months, we are not taking chances.  When someone threatens our community, we believe them, and we will act swiftly to protect Minnesotans.”

The criminal complaint gave the following details of what led up to the latest charge:

On Sept. 3, Ivers was allegedly caught printing copies of a manifesto called “How To Kill a Federal Judge” at the Wayzata Public Library and showing them to library staff, including a page that talked about killing children and had a picture of a gun on it. He also gave library staff a three-page flyer that advertised his manifesto and said that the document was “designed to teach extremists on how to plan, train, hunt, stalk and kill anyone including judges, their family members, politicians and more!”

The flyer said that the “harsh reality is that judges are going to die.”

After library staff reported the encounter to police, investigators discovered that Ivers had been reported for “concerning behavior” while at an Episcopal church in Minnetonka on Aug. 28, which was a day after the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis.

He allegedly attended multiple church services and told parishioners he would be attending future church events, such as a family picnic and potluck, a blessing for children going back to school that had state lawmakers scheduled to attend, and an annual baptism service.

After searching his name online, church staff saw that he had a history of threats of violence, a felony conviction and racist commentary so they contacted law enforcement.

While he was on the way to jail after his arrest on the evening of Sept. 3, Ivers told Wayzata officers he was having a heart attack, so they brought him to the hospital from the jail. He was later released from the hospital and rearrested on Sept. 5.

During a search of his vehicle they found numerous items, including a photo of the former pope with cross hairs centered on his head; 20 copies of a 236-page spiral-bound book called “How to Kill a Federal Judge” by Robert Ivers; several flyers advertising the book; a list of federal judges; a copy of the “Anarchist Cookbook”; a white foam box with a toy replica firearm; a box of Co2 cartridges and pellets; and a box of fireworks.

During an interview with detectives, Ivers admitted showing his manifesto to library staff. When asked if he thought his book might have scared anybody, Ivers allegedly shouted, “It was supposed to!”

In the manifesto, Ivers wrote about perceived wrongs he believed had been done to him by the judicial system. He discussed them — and his anticipated revenge — at length, authorities said in the criminal complaint.

The manifesto also had disturbing sketches Ivers had allegedly drawn and handwritten threats to kill judges, their children and pets, the complaint said.

“Ivers made clear his purpose was to instill fear. He wrote, ‘If this book doesn’t instill fear in you then your (sic) already dead.’”

The manifesto contained names of federal judges and it appeared that Ivers was “fixated” on the judge who had ruled against him in his lawsuit against an insurance company, leading to his 2018 conviction.

“These actions will not be tolerated,” said Special Agent in Charge Alvin M. Winston Sr. of the FBI in Minneapolis.  “As this chilling case confirms, we are fully committed to protecting judges who devote themselves to our communities and legal system.”

Ivers made his first court appearance Tuesday.

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Vikings fans might remember Daniel Jones. He spent the tail end of last season holding a clipboard on the Minnesota sideline. And he helped the New York Giants knock the Vikings out of the 2022 playoffs.

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Daniel Jones (17) scores a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

The modestly talented quarterback burst onto the scene in Week 1 in Indianapolis’ blowout win over Miami. Led the Colts to a score on EVERY drive of the game. And now he’s among the leaders of fantasy free-agent prospects.

He’s not the only fast-rising QB. Atlanta’s Michael Penix Jr. and the Jets’ Justin Fields each ran for two touchdowns in Week 1, and they lead offenses that look to be better than expected.

Here are other interesting players available to pick up in most leagues.

Jacory Croskey-Merritt (Commanders RB): Our Deepest Sleeper of last week had 83 yards on only 10 carries with one TD against the Giants. Didn’t take him long to claim the No. 1 job in Washington.

Washington Commanders running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt (22) celebrates after scoring a touchdown during an NFL football game against the New York Giants, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, in Landover. (AP Photo/Daniel Kucin Jr.

Travis Etienne (Jaguars RB): Turns out the Jacksonville running back shuffle also settled quickly as the former Clemson standout had 16 carries for 143 yards and one TD.

Travis Etienne Jr. #1 of the Jacksonville Jaguars carries the ball against the Carolina Panthers during the game at EverBank Stadium on Sept. 07, 2025 in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

Javonte Williams (Cowboys RB): Got off to a great start with two early TD runs in the opener in Philly. And the Dallas offense looked pretty good against the defending Super Bowl champs.

Dallas Cowboys running back Javonte Williams (33) is upended by Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean (33) as Williams runs the ball in the second half of an NFL football game Thursday, Sept. 4, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Marquise Brown (Chiefs WR): Suddenly, it appears Hollywood will be Patrick Mahomes’ top target for at least the next month. He led the shorthanded Chiefs receivers with 10 catches and 99 yards against the Chargers.

Los Angeles Chargers defensive back Elijah Molden (2) tackles Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Marquise Hollywood Brown (5) in an NFL football game, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in São Paulo, Brazil. (AP Photo/Jeff Lewis)

Quentin Johnston and Keenan Allen (Chargers WR): You be happy to grab either of these fellows who had Week 1 TDs. Johnston had five catches for 79 yards, Allen seven for 68.

Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Quentin Johnston (1) catches a touchdown pass against the Kansas City Chiefs in an NFL football game, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in São Paulo, Brazil. (AP Photo/Jeff Lewis)

Sitting stars

Don’t trust Seattle RB Kenneth Walker against Pittsburgh, mostly because he’s losing ground in the backfield to teammate Zach Charbonnet. … Same deal in Cleveland, as Jerome Ford has already been eclipsed by Dylan Sampson. … Tennessee RB Tony Pollard is hindered by a weak offensive line and won’t do much against the Rams. … Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce will have as little success against Philly as he did in Super Bowl LIX. … And until Miami QB Tua Tagovailoa shows any signs of competence, leave WRs Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle on your bench.

San Francisco 49ers linebacker Dee Winters (53) tackles Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker III (9) during an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025 in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ben VanHouten)

Matchup game

Green Bay’s Josh Jacobs will extend his touchdown streak to 10 games on Thursday night against the Commanders. … Denver rookie RB R.J. Harvey had one nice long run in the opener and will gain more ground against the Colts. … Cincinnati’s weak pass defense will spark the official coming out party for Jacksonville WR Travis Hunter. … Rams receivers Puka Nacua and Davante Adams can have big games against Tennessee. … And two other wideouts we like this week are Tampa Bay rookie Emeka Egbuka and the Cardinals’ Marvin Harrison Jr.

Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs (8) during an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer)

Injury watch

The big Week 1 loss was 49ers tight end George Kittle, who it is said will miss “a few weeks” because of a bad hamstring. … The Chiefs will likely be without WR Xavier Worthy after he dislocated his shoulder in a collision with teammate Travis Kelce. … Las Vegas tight end Brock Bowers insists he’s going to play this week despite leaving the opener with a knee injury. … Others listed as questionable include ‘Niners WR Jauan Jennings and Falcons wideout Drake London.

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle (85) runs down the field during an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025 in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ben VanHouten)

Deepest sleeper

One of the few bright spots for Cleveland last week was Harold Fannin Jr. He tied the NFL record for rookie tight ends by making seven catches in his debut. He led the Browns with nine targets and tallied 63 yards against Cincinnati. Maybe it’s not that surprising considering he had 117 receptions in his senior season at Bowling Green.

Harold Fannin Jr. #44 of the Cleveland Browns runs the ball against Jordan Battle #27 of the Cincinnati Bengals during the first quarter during the game at Huntington Bank Field on Sept. 07, 2025 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

The Thursday pick

Commanders at Packers (-3½)
Pick: Packers by 7

Micah Parsons #1 of the Green Bay Packers sacks Jared Goff #16 of the Detroit Lions at Lambeau Field on Sept. 07, 2025 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images)

You can hear Kevin Cusick on Thursdays on Bob Sansevere’s “BS Show” podcast on iTunes. You can follow Kevin on X — @theloopnow. He can be reached at kcusick@pioneerpress.com.

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