Mary C. Ehret

ALT Opening of news story: A citizens group and three residents sued the Vermilion Parish police jury and a newly revived industrial development board Monday, alleging they repeatedly violated Louisiana’s open meetings law while advancing SpaceX’s planned $100 billion spaceport. The suit says the police jury revived the Vermilion Parish Industrial Development Board, inactive since 1997, at a July 15 meeting. On Aug. 25, the board approved a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with SpaceX tied to a 25-year property tax exemption estimated at nearly $24 billion. The agenda referred to the deal only as “Project Osprey,” a code name the suit says was used so that “even if a member of the public happened across the meeting notice, they wouldn’t know what the meeting was about.”