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Tuesday, February 9, 2010
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BUSINESS
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The New Orleans Saints’ Super Bowl win may have long-lasting, positive effects on the region’s Hurricane Katrina-damaged psyche, rebuilding residents’ self-confidence and self-esteem, and making them more productive at work, according to at least one expert.
Eight state environmental groups sent a letter to Gov. Bobby Jindal last week asking the state stop acting “in an obstructionist manner on climate change.” NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Super Bowl celebration continues. In the French Quarter, stragglers — decked out in Saints jerseys and team colors — remaining from the all-night party turned to coffee and beignets as dawn broke. NEW YORK (AP) — Dorito’s was a big winner in a measurement of interest in the commercials played during the Super Bowl. TiVo Inc. said the snack company’s ad featuring a boy telling a man to keep his hands off his chips and his mom was stopped and played back in 15 percent of homes with the digital video recorder. AT&T Inc. and the Communications Workers of America have reached a tentative agreement that covers approximately 30,000 workers in Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Baton Rouge-based Soco Plastics LLC, doing business as Geoshield, has opened its second distribution center for ceramic solar-control window films in Saudi Arabia. Lafayette-based LHC Group Inc. will acquire all the assets of Hutcheson Home Health in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., by March 1 and has struck a joint venture with another home-health group in Tennessee, LHC announced today. The Baton Rouge-based Center for Planning Excellence will grant $50,000 in planning assistance to four Louisiana communities, using money CPEX gained from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Louisiana Small Business Development Center Technology Center at LSU, the LSU Louisiana Business & Technology Center and the U.S. Export Assistance Center in New Orleans are the hosts of “Doing Business in the Caribbean Region.” GEISMAR — On a 2,400-acre plot, deer populate the Ascension Parish terrain so thickly this winter the human population has proclaimed the site a deer farm. Alzheimer’s Services and the LSU Life Course and Aging Center will present “Dementia Care Training” 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday at Alzheimer’s Services of the Capital Area at 3772 North Blvd. Investar Bank has named Darren Quillen senior vice president and retail market manager and Renee Graff vice president and controller. Chip Blair of Blair Construction Co. was designated a life director of the National Association of Home Builders. AMERICAN COUNCIL OF ENGINEERING COMPANIES OF LOUISIANA, BATON ROUGE CHAPTER The mall T-shirt shops and street-side vendors aren’t the only retailers seeing a sales boost with the New Orleans Saints appearing in their first Super Bowl. Bars, grocers and any retailers able to work some black and gold fleur-de-lis into their wares are finding eager buyers, while advertisers are paying big bucks for local commercials during the game. Aeroframe Services LLC will add 300 jobs to its aircraft maintenance operations at the Chennault International Airport in Lake Charles, Gov. Bobby Jindal said today. LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. (AP) — Industrial gas supplier Air Products and Chemicals Inc. has made an unsolicited cash bid of about $5.1 billion for smaller rival Airgas Inc. and is willing to make a hostile offer if necessary. For the third consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report has named Southern University as a Top Tier school among Historically Black Colleges and Universities. A local commercial by two LSU marketing students for Gulf Coast Bank & Trust will air during the Super Bowl. Seniors Tracy Gagliardi and Sarah Balcerowicz are part of a marketing class that required students to develop and execute a commercial for a real business. Gov. Bobby Jindal and former White House adviser Karl Rove will address the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association’s 2010 Annual Meeting on March 23 in Lake Charles. NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Gulf of Mexico fisheries council says it wants to increase the amount of red snapper fishermen can catch. U.S. Liquids of Louisiana has opened the Haynesville Express, a new around-the-clock transfer facility for oilfield waste at Hanna. NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Energy Partners Ltd. on Friday increased its production guidance for the fourth quarter and 2010, crediting three new wells in the Gulf of Mexico. In January, the U.S. unemployment rate eased back to its lowest level since August — 9.7 percent, down from 10 percent in December — but the Labor Department added this sobering news: The nation lost more jobs in the recession than previously thought. Every sector in forest products in the South swooned in 2009, with sawmill production falling an industry-worst 21 percent on top of a 23 percent decline in 2008. Madden NFL, which correctly predicted five of the last six Super Bowl winners, picks the New Orleans Saints to beat the Indianapolis Colts 35-31. The video game’s maker, Electronic Arts, runs a Super Bowl simulation each year. In the last six years, EA’s only miss was the New York Giants’ win against the New England Patriots. Barges and ship traffic were a key contributor 5 percent of the time when Baton Rouge exceeded federal standards for the pollutant ozone, according to a study released today by the state Department of Environmental Quality. The city-parish has added a third meeting to help gather public input on how to overhaul East Baton Rouge Parish’s land use and development code. In forest products, every sector in the South swooned in 2009, with sawmill production falling an industry-worst 21 percent (on top of a 23 percent decline in 2008) and pulp and paper mills less hard-hit, an industry group reported. The “Keep West Baton Rouge Beautiful” initiative was one of six affiliates to share $50,000 in grants from the Keep America Beautiful/Anheuser-Busch Environmental Grant Program. NEW ORLEANS — After 12 years of trying to redevelop New Orleans’ World Trade Center, officials say the riverfront land may be worth more without the 33-story building. Andy Kopplin, who served as chief of staff for former Govs. Mike Foster and Kathleen Blanco, is one of 14 people chosen for the 2010 Broad Superintendents Academy, a 10-month training program that prepares people to lead urban public school systems. The Southern University Law Center’s Journal of Race, Gender and Poverty will host a one-day symposium, “State of the Union: The Progress Report,” on Feb. 19 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in 120 and 130 A.A. Lenoir Hall. The Hanover Insurance Group plans to shut down two of the three property insurance companies it operates in Louisiana and shift about half of those 15,500 policyholders to another company, insurance officials said Wednesday. Ferrara Fire Apparatus Inc. in Holden has a contract to supply New York City’s fire department with five heavy rescue trucks. This follows a contract with FDNY in December for 10 new 100-foot rear-mount aerial ladders. The Shaw Group Inc. has won three contracts to help state and local governments navigate the performance requirements for federal stimulus projects, the company announced today. Gov. Bobby Jindal will break ground today on what’s been described by developers as the biggest sugar refinery in the nation. The Baton Rouge Area Chamber has pulled the curtain on its biggest annual event, “BRAC Impact 2010: Momentum!” The celebration will take place March 17 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the River Center downtown. Marked improvements in corporate citizenship, power quality and reliability boosted businesses’ satisfaction with their electric utilities going into 2010 over 2009, according to J.D. Power and Associates. Twenty low-income families in East Baton Parish will get help with closing costs and down payments through a $200,000 Federal Home Loan of Bank of Dallas grant program overseen by Habitat For Humanity. The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas has appointed Milton Bailey as a new member of the bank's 2010 advisory council. Despite decades of effort to diversify its economy, Louisiana remains heavily dependent on oil and gas revenue and is unlikely to recover from the recession before other states, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City economist. NEW YORK (AP) — Dow Chemical Co. on Tuesday said it climbed back to a fourth-quarter profit, driven by strength in emerging markets and gains from acquisitions. Though employment softened late in the year, with greater Baton Rouge down 10,000 jobs from a year earlier, the Capital Region fared well compared with others U.S. cities in looking at 2009 as a whole, chamber officials said in response to metro job numbers released by the federal Labor Department. More than 67,000 area residents covered by Humana Inc. health insurance products will be able to get inpatient and outpatient care at Baton Rouge General Medical Center’s facilities under a new contract that makes the hospital part of the insurer’s network of providers. Amedisys Inc., one of the country’s largest home health and hospice companies, has acquired De Queen Home Health Agency in De Queen, Ark., for an undisclosed sum. Entergy Corp.’s fourth-quarter results nearly doubled those from 2008, jumping to $313.8 million, or $1.64 per share, compared to $170.6 million, or 89 cents per share, a year earlier. Providence Engineering has acquired Houma-based GSE Associates, formerly known as Gulf-South Engineers. Adams and Reese will open a new office in Tampa, Fla., in March and add eight attorneys and a certified land planner, formerly with the Ft. Lauderdale-based law firm of Ruden McClosky. NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Tidewater Inc., which operates a major fleet of vessels servicing the offshore energy industry, recorded a 49 percent drop in fiscal third-quarter profit that missed Wall Street forecasts, the company reported Tuesday. NEW YORK (AP) — Marathon Oil Corp. earned $355 million in the fourth quarter, reversing a loss from a year ago, but the company lost money on refining and said it will shift more spending into exploration, particularly the Gulf of Mexico. Building a new home for Louisiana’s economic development department has moved to the back burner but is far from forgotten. NEW YORK (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. said its annual income of $19.3 billion was the smallest in seven years as higher oil prices squeezed profit margins in its refining business. When oil spiked above $147 a barrel in mid-2008, Exxon became the king of corporate profits, setting ever-higher marks for earnings by a U.S. company. Developer Richard Preis has purchased the surface parking lot at the southwest corner of N. 4th and Convention streets downtown and plans to continue to operate it as is. Building a new home for Louisiana’s Economic Development department has moved to the back burner but is far from forgotten. LED Secretary Stephen Moret addressed the topic after a press club luncheon last week, saying he still wants to consolidate his office with some other state functions. The Shaw Group Inc. of Baton Rouge is part of a multi-firm group selected to compete on up to $3 billion in global construction work for the U.S. Air Force through 2014, the company announced today. Baton Rouge-based Albemarle Corp., a specialty chemicals maker, will tout its mercury-control technology this week during six presentations at EUEC, the nation’s largest energy and environment conference held in Phoenix, Ariz. Lafayette-based LHC Group Inc., one of the largest home health providers in the country, has appointed Kenneth Thorpe, co-director of the Emory University Center on Health Outcomes and Quality, to LHC’s board of directors. DETROIT (AP) — General Motors’ plan to sell the Hummer brand to a Chinese heavy equipment maker — and along with it the fate of its plant in Shreveport — has been delayed by a month. Louisiana’s Commissioner of Administration Angèle Davis and state Superintendent of Education Paul Pastorek have been honored by the Reason Foundation with Innovator in Action Awards for 2009. Reason Foundation bills itself as a nonprofit think tank dedicated to advancing free minds and free markets. Alexandria-based T&D Solutions LLC, a power line maintenance and construction company, announced that Huntsman Gay Global Capital has purchased part of the company. Louisiana taxpayers could benefit from state income tax cuts, an increase in the excess itemized deduction and a deduction for school tuition and expenses on their 2009 returns. A law firm has bought a three-story office building at Perkins Ridge on Perkins Road between Bluebonnet Boulevard and Siegen Lane. St. James Place has named Neil Nett as wellness manager of the St. James Place Fitness Center. Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center has achieved magnet designation for excellence in nursing services. BUSINESS ASSOCIATES OF BATON ROUGE Workers’ compensation costs were 35 percent higher in Louisiana than for 14 other states included in a study by Workers Compensation Research Institute, a nonprofit public policy group based in Cambridge, Mass. Workers compensation costs were 35 percent higher in Louisiana than for 14 other states included in a study by Workers Compensation Research Institute, a nonprofit public policy group based in Cambridge, Mass. In 2009, Steelmaker Nucor Corp. signaled a vote of confidence for building its potential multibillion-dollar pig iron and steel complex in Louisiana by buying acreage in St. James Parish. Lafayette-based MidSouth Bancorp Inc. reported fourth-quarter net income dropped to $890,000, or 13 cents per share, from $1.1 million, or 16 cents per share, a year earlier. The LSU AgCenter has scheduled training sessions across the state to certify contractors, painters and others renovating pre-1978 buildings that may contain lead-based paint. Entergy Nuclear, the nation’s second-largest nuclear power operator, has signed an agreement with Nebraska Public Power District to extend management support services to the Cooper Nuclear Station until January 2029. Clarence Cazalot, the New Orleans native and LSU graduate who heads Marathon Oil Corp., will be a featured speaker for the March 7-9 annual meeting of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association. Crews have begun moving dirt for a new CVS drugstore and three buildings on the site of the former University Shopping Center just outside the north gates of LSU. Crews have begun moving dirt for a new CVS drugstore and three buildings on the site of the former University Shopping Center in the heart of the Chimes Street area of LSU now called Northgate. Rebecca Rainer, spokeswoman for Block Construction, said the site’s owner, Philadelphia-based Campus Apartments, isn’t ready to discuss the project. Couyon’s, the Texas barbecue eatery at Burbank Drive and Gardere Lane, will move by March to commercial space in the Staybridge Suites hotel near LSU. Now a piggyback location in a Shell convenience store, Couyon’s will triple its space, change from a quick-service to a full-service restaurant, add new sides and steaks and move from eight to about 20 employees. Some things won’t change. The Shaw Group Inc. has been awarded a five-year environmental services contract by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Kansas City District. Shaw is one of four firms that will compete on task orders of $300 million, if all options are exercised, through 2014. LAFAYETTE (AP) — Rapidly expanding Iberiabank Corp. posted a huge gain in fourth-quarter profit as it took over the assets of two failed banks in Florida, the company reported. Iberiabank earned $106.2 million, or $5.23 per share, compared with year-ago earnings in the fourth quarter of $7.7 million, or 57 cents per share. Teche Holding Co., the parent of Franklin-based Teche Federal Bank, reported $1.74 million in first-quarter 2010 fiscal year earnings, about the same as the year-ago quarter when the company earned $1.77 million. The West Baton Rouge Chamber will stage its 25th Annual Membership Banquet on Feb. 10, with Secretary of State Jay Dardenne serving as the keynote speaker. Stella Boutique is planning to open in the former Living Foods building in the next two weeks, and work continues on the adjacent Perkins Road Hardware building next door. Louisiana’s ethics overhaul includes some unfinished business, according to the Public Affairs Research Council. The Baton Rouge-based government watchdog issued a report today claiming that some of the ethics changes ushered in with a 2008 movement have weakened the state’s ability to monitor and enforce compliance with the laws. A Federal Reserve publication cites Louisiana’s entry into the group of states that are struggling with rising unemployment. Piggly Wiggly has opened its grocery store in the former Winn-Dixie location on Government Street at Rebel Drive. ALEXANDRIA (AP) — Baton Rouge real estate developer Bob Dean and Hospitality Initiatives Partnership have reached an agreement in principle for the sale of Alexandria’s historic Hotel Bentley. Antares Technology Solutions Inc. is opening an office in Houston. NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Receivables Exchange, an online marketplace where businesses can bid their unpaid accounts for sale, said Wednesday that it has obtained $17 million in financing from a major venture capital firm and two current investors. Home Bancorp Inc., the holding company for Lafayette-based Home Bank, reported net income of $4.7 million for 2009, or 58 cents per share, compared to $2.7 million, or $1.32 per share, a year earlier. Baton Rouge officially kicked off an 18-month initiative to overhaul its land use and development plan, with the mayor and lead planner imploring the public Tuesday night to get involved and become “citizen planners.” Albemarle Corp. rebounded in late 2009, earning nearly five times what it did in the final quarter of 2008, when the recession and slumping consumer demand dragged down company profits. On the strength of the Sony Pictures Entertainment release, “Battle: Los Angeles,” film and TV production soared in the Baton Rouge area during 2009 with an estimated $70 million in spending. Citing an uncertain economy, The Shaw Group Inc. is delaying pay raises for most of its corporate staff, despite approving raises for its executive staff this year and despite the company’s amassing record cash reserves of $1.6 billion. |
