| By DREW BROACH | Deputy metro editor |
TRYING TO TEACH: Amid Louisiana’s historic teacher shortage, the state has a backlog of about 6,500 aspiring teachers and other educators awaiting paperwork from the Department of Education so they can enter the classroom or take on new roles. GREEN GRANT: The Biden administration is awarding a $50 million grant to a New Orleans-led initiative to turn south Louisiana into a hub of “green hydrogen” activity. H2theFuture, a project spearheaded by Greater New Orleans Development Foundation, won the money for its efforts to transition the state’s economy away from hydrogen produced by fossil fuels toward a cleaner form of hydrogen that is created using renewable energy. (Want more environment news? Subscribe to our free Louisiana Coastal Watch newsletter, emailed weekly.) AT LAST: A proposal to create a new publicly funded agency to promote a bio-innovation district in New Orleans looks finally set to win City Council approval, although in a scaled-back form that gives council members final say over how it spends taxpayer dollars. Such an agency has been a dream of city economic boosters in one form or another for decades. (Subscribe to our free NOLA Business Insider newsletter, emailed weekday mornings.) Welcome to the weekend. Thanks for starting yours with Morning Headlines. D.B. | 