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Brad Arton, the owner of the Chick-fil-A in the Mall of Louisiana, just told me that he plans on giving away 200 sandwiches tomorrow at 11:15am somewhere in the Mall of Louisiana. He’ll also be giving out 500 coupons somewhere on the LSU campus at 1:30pm. Follow him @bdarton on Twitter to get the location and the free chicken. And who doesn’t love Chick-fil-A—especially when it’s free?
Just to be totally clear: There have been no confirmed cases of swine flu H1N1 in Louisiana. The closing of the school in Lafayette this week was a precautionary move only by the DHH and Governor Bobby Jindal. Some of the kids did test positive for the flu, but only for the common A strain.
There is no reason as of this moment to be alarmed about the Swine Flu. The DHH and the Governor are taking precautionary measures to ensure public safety. We’ll keep you informed as the case develops.
Here’s a good rundown of what’s been breaking in the last 24 hours.
Reuters is reporting that Baton Rouge-based Albemarle Group’s profits dropped 60% for the first quarter as a direct result of the contraction of the consumer electronics, automobile and construction industries. Recently, we featured the Albemarle group in our Forbes Fortune list article.
Chelsea’s—a local restaurant and bar that has been operating around the LSU area for the past 20 years—is being threatened by the state alcohol licensing board for some, allegedly, fraudulent accusations of business misconduct. While the Baton Rougean has never reviewed Chelsea’s—we should get on that—, they have been a valued business member for quite some time. To revoke their liquor license would, in effect, kill their business. The full story is here.
Today was the opening session to the State Legislature’s Regular Session. You can view Bobby Jindal’s opening address to our legislative body on YouTube: part 1 and part 2. This is a highly crucial moment in our state as they rework the Governor’s proposed budget.
As always, we’ll keep you informed of further breaking news.
Also, we unveiled the Baton Rougean’s weather feed this week. It posts the daily forecast every night and also updates for any breaking NOAA emergency bulletins (such as advisories, watches, or warnings). It updates live and runs 24/7/365. I’d recommend subscribing to its updates via text from Twitter (I do) to stay updated on the go. You can catch it on Twitter @btrweather.
We also got our hands on some interesting data we’d like to analyze. If anyone has a background or any experience working with statistics or some other analysis, please contact me.
I met up with my family on a cool and breezy Thursday afternoon for an early evening dinner at Di Giulio Brothers Italian Restaurant on Perkins Road near College at Acadian. I had heard many great things about this quaint place, but had never actually been. They offer a variety of your standard Italian fare as well as some Cajun-infused po-boys. However, they are known for their pizza, which I hear is quite delectable. We had a pleasant experience and I would patronize them again.
Overall, the food was very good. It’s something you’d expect from a typical Italian restaurant. The menu was large enough for anyone to find something to eat. Their signature is their pizzas. I tried the chicken parmesan po-boy. The other members of my party had their house salad garnished with sauteed shrimp and the meatball po-boy. Everything we eat was very good and prepared with the utmost of culinary quality. I was very full after the meal with no room for dessert (which is good considering they didn’t have cheesecake, which is my favorite dessert). My po-boy was an interesting Cajun-influenced version of a typical Italian dish. I was considering getting the chicken parmesan until I saw it as a po-boy. I recommend getting this dish or their meatball po-boy, which was incredible. The meatballs were so delicious. For their menu selection we give them a 4/5 because, despite the po-boys, there aren’t many original dishes.
We sat outside at Di Giulio’s, which is a fantastic setting on such a day as when we visited. I imagine it would be nice for any family or general party. In fact, there were a couple of other parties outside enjoying the breeze and an after-work meet up. Inside, the restaurant is slightly more intimate and I imagine that it’d be a great place to take a date. Italian is always a great choice so I give it romantic points. I recommend this as your next date spot. I know it’ll be mine. (Speaking of which, do I have any single lady readers?)
My overall experience at Di Giulio’s was good. It wasn’t fantastic like my experience at Dingo’s was, but then again not every restaurant has a Patrick Muller. Regardless, we recommend Di Giulio’s as a good Italian pick in Baton Rouge.
Old State Capitol
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We received a tip via Twitter that CC’s is running a new promotion for their 90th birthday. They have some new Mochassippi flavors that were created by their coffeehouses in different districts. One of these new flavors will become a permanent menu item and you can cast your vote simply by purchasing your favorite of the new flavors. The most popular drink will become the new Mochassippi flavor. The Baton Rouge district’s flavor is the Dutch Nut. Samplings will occur semi-frequently at your neighborhood CC’s, so head down there today!
The annual two-day fan fest generally known as the NFL Draft ended today after a grueling 12 hours of constant coverage by ESPN. I watched bits and pieces of it and covered the LSU draft picks live via Twitter. We had 10 players that went into the draft and six of them were drafted in decent positions. Below is the full rundown. (And before you ask: no, I don’t know what a rundown is. Bonus points to whoever catches that.)
Listed in order of draft pick.
Overall, I’d say LSU had a pretty decent showing considering who we put up for draft. It seems the Chiefs are trying to rebuild our all-star defensive line with their acquisition of Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson. Also, it’s good to see Demetrius drafted despite his recent injuries. It’s likely he would have been drafted a few rounds earlier, but regardless a draft is good. (By the way, if you haven’t written your get well soon wishes to Demetrius, you can do so by signing our community card.) There are four others who weren’t drafted, including Darry Beckwith, ILB; Marlon Favorite, DT; Brett Helms, C; and Kirston Pittman, DE. The next stage is a crucial point for these guys as they seek to be signed as free agents. If not, well, then I guess it’s to the real world doing whatever with their college degrees.
Update
LSUSports.net is reporting that all four of the above players plus Tremaine Johnson, DE, have signed free agent contracts to NFL franchises. They also mention what we published earlier: The Chiefs now have five former LSU players on their roster and have used their first round pick for the last three years to pick up an LSU player. They are the first franchise to do this.
I’m pleased to announced a new feature on the Baton Rougean. It’s our weather feed and it’s on Twitter. You can follow us @btrweather for the latest Baton Rouge forecast, updated every night. You can also select to subscribe to the feed via RSS or via text message on Twitter to keep updated on-the-go. This is coming to you live from our Weather Center. Additionally, we’ll bring you breaking emergency weather updates from the same feed. This feed updates with only weather-related information and will receive an average of one update per day. You can subscribe to our regular Twitter feed, which covers Baton Rouge news, @btrblog.
The USA Bid Committee announced to stadium operators last week that their venue was a part of their bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. This is the first of many crucial steps in securing the Cup. If selected, this would represent the first major return of the sport since 1994. Stadiums must have a capacity of at least 60,000. Tiger Stadium, with it’s 92,400 person capacity, is one of the 20 stadiums with greater than 80,000 capacity. Of course, some more historic venues have more weight than Tiger Stadium and it’s too early to speculate, but it might be safe to say that other venues are more likely to get the bid.
But this is important to Baton Rouge. It shows that our city, and not only our stadium, stood up to what is likely a rigorous set of criteria to even be considered. And if we were chosen—well, I don’t even have to speak of the economic impact. It would be tremendous both for our city and state.
We’ll keep on this story as it develops over the coming years. I hope to be able to break great news in the near future. Thanks to @nolagregschultz for the tip.
You can read more on the US Soccer web site.
The NFL Draft starts today at 3:00pm. We’ll be covering it live via Twitter, updating in realtime. Follow us @btrblog for all the LSU goodness.
We have a whole bevy of great players in the draft this year, including:
By the way, we hear great reports from Miami concerning Demetrius Byrd’s condition following his accident. They expect full recovery in time for spring training. You can send your get well wishes to him via our community get well soon card animated by our very own Ethan Killett, BTR Toons creator.
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