Water leaks come with some simple math: The longer the leak continues, the more it costs. But utility companies don’t always warn customers about potential leaks in their pipes.

That’s the story at the heart of our latest Utility Bill of the Month. The Gulf States Newsroom’s Stephan Bisaha reports on how an undetected leak led to one Alabama family owing thousands of dollars. 

With Thanksgiving officially in the rearview mirror, New Orleans is kicking off the holiday season with its 12th annual Running of the Santas. Event director Steve Schulkens tells us about this music-filled bar crawl, when runners in Santa costumes parade down the streets of the Warehouse District.

Earlier this month, reports emerged that Mitch Landrieu, a former mayor of New Orleans and now a senior advisor to President Biden, is expected to leave the administration at the end of the year. Most of his time in Washington has been marked by efforts to expand broadband across the country.

Over the summer, NPR’s Scott Detrow and Brianna Scott produced a story about Landrieu’s role as Biden’s “infrastructure point person." Today, we look back on that report. 

Today’s episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Diane Mack. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber and our assistant producer is Aubry Procell. Our engineer is Garrett Pittman.

You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at 12 and 7 p.m. It’s available on Spotify, Google Play and wherever you get your podcasts. 

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