Mary Staes
Mary Staes is Digital Content Lead for Very Local. She works with our freelancers and crafts content for our social media platforms and website. Before Very Local, she worked with CBS affiliate WWL-TV as a web producer and weekend assignment editor for about 4 years. She has also handled broadcast coverage for 160 Marine Reserve training facilities while she served as an active duty Marine. As a native New Orleanian, she takes being "very local" to heart. She loves being intertwined with the culture and figuring out how there are less than two degrees of separation between us all, whether we're natives or not.
Celebrating All Saints Day in the city
Instead of the usually somber, spooky look, the cemeteries are full of life on All Saints Day.
$15 million in checks going out to Louisiana residents before Christmas
The Louisiana Treasury Department is making it rain to the tune of $15 million for at least 90,000 who have unclaimed money, according to a report from WWL-TV.
Cocktails of the week: Mer-tinis and Pirate Punch at Audubon’s Mermaid Saloon
Audubon Aquarium is offering grown-ups the chance to see the famous Weeki Wachee Mermaids on the night of Nov. 8 in a so-fin-sticated and kid-free experience at the “Mermaid Saloon.”
A day in chilly Gentilly
It looks residential and low-key, but some of the best food and chill spots in the city are here.
Best Bets: Halloween, Jazz in the Park and Food Truck Fest
Halloween is this week, along with the return of Jazz in the Park and Food Truck Fest.
Bellegarde Bakery bringing organic grains, old-world process to Carrollton neighborhood
Bellegarde Bakery’s new location allows customers to see their stone mill and how bread is still made by hand.
Weekend Picks: Voodoo Fest and all the brews and boos you can handle
Since Halloween falls in the middle of the week, this weekend is the best time to get all your ghouls together for guilt-free fun.
Free parking downtown might soon to get the boot
Think parking downtown is already a hassle? Well, now the chances of you getting a coveted free parking space might get slimmer.
This is Halloween: tricks and treats around town
So maybe you don’t like haunted house or taking candy from strangers. There’s still lots to do for Halloween.
So, you didn’t win $1.6 billion, but you can still get something with that ticket
We hope you didn’t throw away that losing ticket!