Happy Hour is not the kind of podcast you expect to hear shocking inside breaking news revelations about corruption in the New Orleans justice system, but you never know who you’re going to be sitting next to in a bar and what they’re going to tell you after a drink or two.

Simone Levine is the Executive Director of Court Watch NOLA. It’s a watchdog organization that keeps an eye on the courts. You won’t even believe the story about Judge Bonin and why he gets defendants who appear in his court to wear and ankle monitor. yes, you guessed it, kickbacks. From the ankle monitor company Sometimes the judge orders defendants to wear the monitors for up to a year – and the defendant has to pay $10 a day to the monitoring company. This is going to be in the NY Times, and we scooped them on Happy Hour!

Lila Turner has only been in New Orleans for 6 months but she’s probably done more good for the city in that time than most of us do in 6 years. Lila is the Development Director for Son of a Saint, an organization that mentors fatherless kids, mostly because the fathers are one step beyond ankle monitoring: incarcerated.

Basch Jernigan is the front man for the NOLA soul/Southern-rock band Roadside Glorious. It’s hard to pin down exactly what they sound like, but that’s a positive. Basch threw away a career in environmental journalism to sing in a rock band. That decision is not doing his student loans too much good but it’s great for the rest of us who love music.

Andrew Duhon unravels a brand new tune called Emerald Blue. If you’re already a Duhon fan you”re going to love this. If this is the first time you’ve ever heard Andrew, you’re coming in at a high point.

If you’d like to see photos by Jill Lafleur from this show recorded live at Wayfare, click here.

Oh, and by the way, wait till you the hear the shocking details of the Consent Decree that keeps both the NOPD and Sheriff’s department under the thumb of the Feds, and who’s getting paid for that. This is quite a Happy Hour. Thank God for cocktails.