Might have heard around town about these dudes selling DVDs of themselves shooting guns and stuff. I hear a director’s cut is on its way with new deleted scenes. (okay that last part was a joke. )

A three-month old suburban New Orleans baby was found dead in her crib after she bled to death from more than 100 rodent bites. This is almost as insane as the fire ants that almost killed another kid in Louisiana we posted about a while back.

FoxNews.com has the full story →

Until the start of LSU Football season. First game is on Saturday, September 5 at Washington in Seattle, WA. Kickoff at 9:30 PM CST. Broadcasting on ESPN and the LSU Sports Radio Network.

Time recently published an article on the South’s growing obesity rate:

So there you have it. Southerners have little access to healthy food and limited means with which to purchase it. It’s hard for them to exercise outdoors, and even when they do have the opportunity, it’s so hot, they don’t want to. To combat this affliction, some Southern states have adopted programs to fight rising obesity. In 2003, Arkansas passed a school body mass index–screening program that assesses weight and sends the results home to parents. Tennessee encourages its schools to buy fresh ingredients from local growers. And in 2007, Mississippi adopted nutritional standards for school lunches. Most of these programs are relatively new, so it will be a few years before experts can determine their efficacy. “I think there’s reason for optimism,” says Barrett. “But it’s likely that the Southeast will lag behind the rest of the country for some time to come.”

There’s some good points in this article. Obviously culture does play a huge part in obesity for Louisiana, but some of these other factors are huge players as well. One factor that the article didn’t mention is race, which according to extrapolation CDC data plays significantly into these rates as well.

Currently Louisiana has an obesity rate of 28.3%, which puts us at number 6. The Department of Health and Hospitals does have a separate council on obesity called the Louisiana Council on Obesity Prevention whose main goal is to reduce the obesity rate. There’s also the popular “Louisiana 2 Step” marketing campaign sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana. Also, Pennington Biomedical Research Center is one of the foremost obesity and nutrition research centers in the world. Needless to say, Louisiana is quite invested in this issue.

Continue reading the article on Time.com →

Bobby Jindal published another opinion article, this time in the main section of the Wall Street Journal.

In Washington, it seems history always repeats itself. That’s what’s happening now with health-care reform. This is an unfortunate turn of events for Americans who are legitimately concerned about the skyrocketing cost of a basic human need.

In 1993 and 1994, Hillary Clinton’s health-care reform proposal failed because it was concocted in secret without the guiding hand of public consensus-building, and because it was a philosophical over-reach. Today President Barack Obama is repeating these mistakes.

The reason is plain: The left in Washington has concluded that honesty will not yield its desired policy result. So it resorts to a fundamentally dishonest approach to reform. I say this because the marketing of the Democrats’ plans as presented in the House of Representatives and endorsed heartily by President Obama rests on three falsehoods.

You can read the full article on the WSJ web site →

A few notes to aid your reading and analysis:

• This is an important issue to Jindal. His first major governmental position was as Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals under Governor Mike Foster. Later, he was appointed by President Bush and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate to be the Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation.
• In this article, Jindal refers to a Lewin Group report. The Lewin Group is a corporation that provides health and human resource consulting. The full report can be found here.
• Jindal discusses the ineffectiveness of bureaucracies in major decision making. Marketing mogul Seth Godin wrote an intriguing article a few years ago concerning this. You can read it here.

About a month ago we reported that Baton Rouge was under consideration to be the filming location of a new sci-fi movie featuring Aaron Eckhart. Today it was announced through the efforts of Mayor-President Kip Holden and the Baton Rouge Film Commission that Baton Rouge would be the filming location for the movie Battle: Los Angeles.

IMDB has a little more information about the movie, and has been updated with the filming location.

In our last report we mentioned rumors of parts of North Boulevard and I-110 being used as filming locations. I haven’t seen confirmations of this. We’ll keep you updated with all movie-related information.

Update
@visitbatonrouge sent us a link to a video of the official announcement. See the video below.

The traffic court in Baton Rouge has begun a traffic amnesty program for anyone with an unresolved traffic matter. The period lasts for two weeks, beginning July 20, 2009; the Court will open on Saturday, July 25, 2009 from 9 AM to 1 PM for payment only. During this period, Judges have waived any late fees and bench warrant fees for anyone who handles their outstanding traffic matters in the Court. Note that this doesn’t include court fines or court costs, which still must be paid.

You can check if you’re eligible by referring to this list →

Walking with Dinosaurs, an award-winning BBC TV series has been turned into an arena theatrical event and is coming to Baton Rouge October 2 through October 4 at the Baton Rouge River Center. The show features 15 life-size dinosaurs, including the Tyrannosaurus-rex, in a stunning lifelike documentary of their 200 million year domination.

Watch some exclusive footage of this production here →

Purchase tickets now during the presale →

Baton Rouge has been nominated for the Best Tennis Town in America. After a vetting process by a panel of USTA judges and several nominating letters from Mayor-President Kip Holden, BREC Superintendent and others, Baton Rouge has made it into the top 10. The prize is $100,000 towards any community wide tennis programming or facility enhancements.

You can view the Baton Rouge profile and vote for our great city here →

[Ed. note: The following is an excerpt from an opinion piece written by Bobby Jindal published by the Politico today.]

Things in Louisiana are looking up. We are announcing major economic development wins and private capital investment and reducing government spending in order to live within our means. We just completed a grueling legislative session where we all had to work together, Democrats and Republicans, to find a way to do more with less.

We trimmed government spending, protected vital services and refused to raise taxes. (As is the case in any legislative body, some gave it a try). I can’t say our legislative session was much fun, but it was necessary, and it is the American way. Or, at least we thought it was.

In the meantime, I’ve been catching up on the news in Washington. I wish I had not…

Click here to continue reading this article on the Politico →