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Louisiana would be one of the “big winner states” under a proposed federal law that would encourage the capture of carbon dioxide from power plants to be pumped into existing oil fields to force more oil to the surface.

In September, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber will resume an annual pilgrimage to model cities with its 2010 Canvas Workshop traveling to Pittsburgh. The three-day, two-night tour in Pennsylvania follows a 2009 trip to Richmond, Va., and earlier BRAC trips to study successful development strategies in Portland, Ore.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Austin, Texas.

Mapp Construction crews have broken ground on Orion Instruments’ planned $5 million facility near Cortana Mall. General Manager Don Sanders said the roughly 60,000-square-foot building is larger than originally expected, but that the project continues apace for a projected opening of no later than Nov.

Baton Rouge is again among the top real estate markets forecast to have strong home price increases, according to Local Market Monitor.

The Public Service Commission is expected today to consider adopting a renewable energy standard for Louisiana utilities, The Associated Press reported. Under a voluntary program recommended by the regulators’ staff, goals would be set for utilities to use a certain percentage of power generated by non-traditional sources.

Terra Industries announced today that it will back out of its $4.1 billion sale to Yara International ASA and instead take CF Industries Holdings Inc.’s offer of $4.7 billion stock and cash.

Home health provider LHC Group Inc. will acquire the assets of Salem Hospital Home Care, located in Salem, Ore., under an agreement announced today. Terms of the deal were not disclosed by Lafayette-based LHC, one of the country’s largest home health companies.

SHREVEPORT (AP) — General Motors has received a fleet order for 849 Hummers, so the Shreveport plant won’t shut down for two weeks in May, after all. GM spokesman Otie McKinley said the plant has a month to build the H3s and H3Ts. He says Hummer production will resume April 12, and the order must be completed by May 13.

TIOGA (AP) — A total of 86 employees at Dresser Inc.’s facility in Tioga will be phased out over the first six months of this year. The company said the Tioga valve facility, which has more than 400 employees, is outsourcing its manufacturing operations and focusing on assembly and shipping.

A 64,000-square-foot former Albertson’s grocery store in Gonzales could become a corporate data center if efforts by the Ascension Economic Development Corp. succeed.

Downtown will soon have better lighting at Repentance Park, more trash cans on the streets and upward of 200 new parking spaces under the interstate.

CATS has released details on its plan to beef up some of its commuter-hour routes on a trial basis to try to get people to and from work more efficiently.

First American Bank & Trust has accepted the $1.2 million high bid for the Bluffs Clubhouse, and the buyer should close on the deal in the next 30 days or so, said David E. Gilmore, who heads Gilmore Auction & Realty Co., on Tuesday.

Specialty chemicals maker Albemarle Corp., of Baton Rouge, will be part of the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium, which will conduct research to develop clean, cost-effective sustainable transportation fuels.

In the Baton Rouge Area Chamber’s Monday release of a new regional innovation strategy, most attention focused on adding oomph to a planned research park and to three business incubators in Baton Rouge.

Downtown will soon have better lighting at Repentance Park, more trash cans and upwards of 200 new parking spaces under the interstate.

Baton Rouge-based specialty chemicals maker Albemarle Corp. will be part of the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium, which will conduct research to develop clean, cost-effective sustainable transportation fuels.

CATS has released details on its plan to beef up some of its commuter-hour routes on a trial basis to try to get people to and from work more efficiently. It will also expand its regular Friday schedule to better feed the Live After Five concert series downtown.

Iberiabank Corp., the holding company of Iberiabank and Iberiabank fsb, has raised $345 million after completing the sale of close to 6 million shares of its common stock at $57.75 per share. The bank netted around $329 million after deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and estimated offering expenses.

Lafayette-based PHI reported 2009 earnings of $13 million, or 85 cents per share, compared to $23.5 million, or $1.54 per share, in 2008, as the air medical industry made fewer flights and an accident lowered flights in the oil and gas segment.

Political heavyweights — including LSU, Southern University and the Baton Rouge Area Chamber — have completed a $145,000 blueprint for making Baton Rouge a region known for innovative companies.

The state’s Office of Group Benefits awarded a contract to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, a move that will add up to 200 jobs in Louisiana, the insurer said Monday.

The state’s Office of Group Benefits awarded a contract to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, a move that will add up to 200 jobs in Louisiana, the insurer said this afternoon.

In a dramatic overhaul, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber, LSU, Southern University and other partners will rewrite the way they spur research-based businesses and jobs into being.

There's good news for Louisiana's sugar cane producers. The Wall Street Journal reports that some big-name food and beverage products, such as Hunt's ketchup, have begun dropping high fructose corn syrup in favor of higher-cost sugar because consumers prefer more natural products.

About 35,000 AT&T Inc. union workers in Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee have approved a new, three-year contract.

Gonzales-based Crown Crafts has amended its financing agreement with CIT Commercial Services, a subsidiary of CIT Group Inc., to extend the agreement until July 11, 2013. The amendment also allows the infant-and-toddler products maker to declare cash dividends on its common stock of up to $500,000 in any calendar quarter.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana will serve as a pilot for the national Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association's online health community.

The warehouse on Mammoth Avenue leased by Moran Printing has changed hands.

Entergy Corp., Louisiana Economic Development and development partner Blane Canada Ltd. starting Tuesday will offer a four-session online seminar for communities interested in helping expand and retain local businesses.

A long-awaited initiative to raise Baton Rouge’s business profile in the research and technology arena is scheduled to be unveiled today. At LSU’s South Campus, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber — along with higher education and state economic development partners — will discuss a new model for incubating research-driven companies and building greater wealth, job creation and a higher quality of life in the region.

LOS ANGELES — Movies in 3-D are becoming such big moneymakers that Hollywood studios are cramming them into the nation’s theaters, even though there aren’t enough screens available to give each film its fullest possible run.

Baton Rouge has five screens capable of showing digital 3-D movies, though that figure is expected to grow as theaters add projectors to capture moviegoers willing to pay more — and more often — for the enhanced experience.

Symposium set



Lafayette-based Iberiabank has named Barry F. Berthelot as executive vice president and director of organizational development and J. Keith Short as executive vice president and president of the Collier, Lee and Monroe county markets in Florida.

Diola Bagayoko, Southern University’s distinguished professor, chair of the department of physics and director of the Timbuktu Academy,  has received the 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science Lifetime Mentor Award. Bagayoko earned the award because of “his extraordinary effort to significantly increase the number of African-American Ph.D.s in physics and chemistry” through the creation and later the expansion of the Timbuktu Academy.



AMERICAN COUNCIL OF ENGINEERING COMPANIES

The city-parish last week wrapped up three public workshops, with about 400 residents in three locations over two nights working on maps of the parish, showing how and where they want to see Baton Rouge developed — and redeveloped — in the decades to come.

An auction of the Bluffs Clubhouse on Friday brought in a high bid of $1.2 million, with 10 potential buyers registered for a bank’s auction of the property, according to David E. Gilmore, who heads Gilmore Auction & Realty Co.

The Louisiana economic development department’s entertainment office will court business Friday through March 21 in Austin, Texas, at the massive South by Southwest film and music festival known as SXSW.

PLAQUEMINE — Dow Chemical Co.’s annual DowGIVES community grant program is now accepting applications, Dow spokesperson Abby Cook said in a news release.

An auction of the Bluffs Clubhouse Friday brought in a high bid of $1.2 million, with 10 potential buyers registered for the sale, according to David E. Gilmore, who heads Gilmore Auction & Realty Co.

The state Department of Environmental Quality’s Underground Storage Tank Division is offering four training opportunities for underground storage tank installers and repair contractors.

Louisiana Economic Development’s entertainment office will court business March 12-21 in Austin, Texas, at the massive South by Southwest film and music festival known as SXSW.

Fertilizer maker CF Industries Holdings Inc. has launched its hostile takeover bid for rival Terra Industries, which last month agreed to sell its holdings to Yara International ASA for a $4.1 billion in cash.

Monsanto Co. held the grand opening this morning for an expansion of its Luling plant, creating 26 new jobs as the plant increases its production of Monsanto’s Roundup agricultural herbicide by 20 percent.

The state Department of Environmental Quality has sent out letters to 180 natural gas pipeline operators in Louisiana, seeking information on any mercury-containing meters they use or have used in the past.

Parish E-File.com, the Louisiana Department of Revenue’s online sales tax collection service, has collected more than $1 billion in state and local sales and use taxes, the agency reported.

Nominations from nearly two dozen Louisiana Guard and Reserve military service members have placed their employers in contention for the 2010 Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award.

Marine fabricator Signal International of Mobile, Ala., has bought assets of New Orleans-based Bender Shipbuilding & Repair Co. out of bankruptcy for $31.3 million.

LSU’s Women in Business program, housed in the E.J. Ourso College of Business’ Stephenson Entrepreneurship Institute, has changed the date of its “Non-traditional Ways to Market Your Business” seminar to 11:15 a.m.-1 p.m. March 26 at the Ione Burden Conference Center at 4560 Essen Lane.

THIBODAUX — Have fun learning business etiquette at a dinner hosted by the Society for Human Resource Management at Nicholls State University at 6 p.m. March 15.

The two sides in a legal battle at Perkins Rowe fired shots at each other this week: The development’s lenders have asked the judge to force developer Tommy Spinosa to charge a fairer price to cool tenant spaces at the development, while Spinosa claimed KeyBank National Association has been the cause of Perkins Rowe’s financial troubles by taking money from the development to slow its own sinking fortunes.

The recession, as it did in the consumer economy, cooled interest from business prospects considering relocations or expansions, but Ascension Parish economic development officials said Thursday there are distinct signs of recovery in their field.

PJ’s Coffee, Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, Shanghai Tokyo Restaurant and Pita Pit will join a pharmacy CVS at the former University Shopping Center site outside the north gates of LSU.

H&E Equipment Services Inc., of Baton Rouge, lost $11.9 million, or 35 cents per share, during 2009, compared with a profit of $43.3 million, or $1.22 per share, in 2008, as demand for the company’s heavy equipment remained poor.

PJ’s Coffee, Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, Shanghai Tokyo Restaurant and Pita Pit will join CVS at the former University Shopping Center site outside the north gates of LSU.

Baton Rouge-based H&E Equipment Services Inc. lost $11.9 million, or 35 cents per share, during 2009, compared to a profit of $43.3 million, or $1.22 per share, in 2008, as demand for the company’s heavy equipment remained poor.

Lafayette-based LHC Group reported annual net income of $43.9 million, or $2.43 per share, for 2009 compared to $30.2 million, or $1.69 per share, a year earlier.

Catalyst Rx, the pharmacy benefit management subsidiary of Catalyst Health Solutions Inc., has won a new service contract with the Louisiana Office of Group Benefits after submitting the winning bid for the work.

AT&T plans to add more than 60 new cell towers in Louisiana and upgrade nearly 280 existing sites to 3G as part of a national $18 billion to $19 billion improvement program in 2010.

The Real Economic Impact Tour visits Baton Rouge on Friday as part of a 100-city national tour promoting the economic well-being of people with disabilities, including their ability to file taxes.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shoppers shrugged off the snow and worries about the economy to buy full-price spring clothing and other items at the nation's malls, resulting in the strongest retail sales gain since November 2007, a month before the recession started.

The Baton Rouge area ranked third-best in the United States in 2009 for economic development project success, according to Site Selection magazine.

The owner representative of the Renew Paper mill that’s embroiled in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court case said a buyer is highly likely to rehire workers and to restart the paper mill near St. Francisville.

COVINGTON - Like love and war, beer builds character. Henryk Orlik knows this. By 21, that momentous legal age for Americans, the German brewmeister had invested a quarter of his life already in the fine points of barley, hops and yeast.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Real estate firm Latter & Blum Inc. fired its president Tuesday after he provided a newspaper with information about assessment values and home prices in suburban Jefferson Parish.

Baton Rouge General Medical Center and Tulane University School of Medicine have finalized an agreement to create a satellite training campus in Baton Rouge.

A report — citing 2.1 million jobs lost in construction, with a 7.2 percent decline in Louisiana — calls on Congress to set up a program that would retrofit homes for better energy efficiency.

For the 12th consecutive year, Entergy Corp. has won a storm response award from the Edison Electric Institute. Entergy won for its work restoring power to more than 111,000 customers in Arkansas following an ice storm last year.

The Baton Rouge area ranked third-best in the U.S. in 2009 for economic development project success, according to Site Selection magazine.

Iberiabank Corp., the holding company of Iberiabank and Iberiabank fsb, has priced 5.2 million shares of the company’s common stock at $57.75 per share. The stock issue is expected to generate around $300 million, with net proceeds to the company of around $286 million.

LSU and Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center are jointly hosting the spring meeting of the Southwest chapter of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, or SWAAPM, at LSU’s Lod Cook Conference Center on Friday and Saturday.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Work on the last external fuel tank for the space shuttle to be built in New Orleans has reached a major milestone, according to Lockheed Martin Space Systems, the company building the tank.

Thursday is the final day to register for the March 9 event, “GNO 2.0: The Economic Evolution,” the annual meeting of Greater New Orleans Inc.

The Renew Paper mill south of St. Francisville could be sold shortly after an April 9 hearing, according to court documents filed in the parent company’s bankruptcy case.

Baton Rouge residents accepting the challenge to become citizen planners did just that tonight, crowding around maps of the parish and armed with brightly colored stickers to lay out what kind of development they’d like to see in the coming decades.
 City plan claims new strategy

Dow Chemical sold its Styron plastics division to Bain Capital for $1.63 billion, the company said Tuesday, ending months of circling by Bain and other private equity firms.

Baton Rougeans will get their first chance tonight to participate in the city-parish’s overhaul of its land use and development plan. The first of three workshops will be held 6-8:30 p.m. in the Baton Rouge River Center ballroom.

NEW YORK (AP) — CF Industries made a new $4.74 billion offer for Terra Industries on Tuesday, just six weeks after vowing to end its hostile pursuit of the fertilizer producer. Both companies operate fertilizer plants in Donaldsonville.

NEW YORK (AP) — Dow Chemical sold its Styron plastics division to Bain Capital for $1.63 billion, the company said Tuesday, ending months of circling by Bain and other private equity firms.

Among the options Louisiana officials are considering for the GM auto plant in Shreveport is one in which a future Hummer manufacturer would occupy less than a third of the 4.5 million-square-foot facility and other auto operations could move into other areas.

Dupré Logistics LLC will expand its Strategic Capacity Services group into Colorado Springs, Colo., to serve the Rocky Mountain region.

The LSU E.J. Ourso College of Business will host the groundbreaking for its new home — the Business Education Complex — on March 19 and expects to complete the building by spring 2012 and move in by that summer.

Lafayette-based Iberiabank has announced a $300 million stock offering of its common stock. The underwriters will have a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 15 percent of the offered amount of common stock from the company, Iberiabank said.

For the second time in three months, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber has hired an economic development professional from the Phoenix region, this time choosing United Kingdom native Iain Vasey as its chief dealmaker.

V-Vehicle Co., the San Diego startup that wants to build cars in Monroe, may have to return state money temporarily and push its production schedule back because it failed to win federal financing by March 1.

Baton Rouge General will add around 18,000 square feet of physician offices and clinic space in a $6 million project at its Bluebonnet campus.

Baton Rouge General is adding a $6 million, 18,000-square-foot physician clinic over the existing critical care tower at its Bluebonnet Boulevard campus.

LAFAYETTE — Business interests are mustering forces to fight proposed federal greenhouse gas limits that some say could devastate the state’s manufacturing and oil-and-gas sectors.

The Port of Greater Baton Rouge hopes to select a company to run the grain elevator at its Port Allen facility by June, with about a nine-month window for that company to begin operations if a new one is selected.

The Insurance Department’s agreement to allow The Hanover Insurance Group to transfer half of its homeowners policies to another firm could weaken a Louisiana law that prevents insurers from dropping policyholders who’ve been customers for at least three years, Senate Insurance Committee Chairman Troy Hebert said Friday.

A fourth-quarter survey by Capital One Bank shows Louisiana’s business climate as a stable one, but seeds of concern emerged in late 2009.

Chase is closing a national processing center in Baton Rouge, a move that will eliminate 247 account maintenance jobs downtown, the company announced Thursday.

Lamar Advertising Co. reported fourth-quarter and annual losses for 2009, and the company’s losses were greater than stock analysts expected.

General Motors is open to hearing from potential buyers for its Hummer brand, a move Baton Rouge’s local dealer predicted Wednesday after a deal with a Chinese company collapsed and elimination of the brand was announced.

Chase Bank is closing its account maintenance operations in Baton Rouge, a move that will eliminate 247 back-office jobs, the company announced today.

General Motors Co.’s deal to sell its Shreveport-made Hummer brand to a Chinese firm collapsed Wednesday, but a local dealer said he’s holding out hope that the brand can attract another buyer.

MONTPELIER, Vt. — The Vermont Senate has voted to block the state’s only nuclear plant from operating after 2012. The plant is operated by Entergy Corp., of New Orleans.

FRANKLIN – Cox Communications told the St. Mary Parish Council that it is not economically feasible to run high-speed Internet service to several areas of the parish, including the Irish Bend community and Four Corners.

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