Posts Tagged ‘budget’

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.

LSU Budget Cuts

Please provide a link back to this post and to EthanKillett.com when referring to this strip.

We just received word that LSU has planned an open forum on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 in the Howe-Russell Geoscience building, room 130. It’s sponsored by the Faculty Senate and both LSU Chancellor Michael Martin and Provost Astrid Merget will be present. Since it’s an open forum, the floor will be open for both questions and input from the general population.

We’ll be present at the event, so if you can’t make it and have any questions, forward them our way by dropping a comment or sending us an email.

The Louisiana State Budget for the 2009-2010 fiscal year is, by now, old news. In one of the most controversial moves in his tenure, Governor Bobby Jindal has proposed a cut of $1.3 billion from the previous budget. This is just one of the many unfortunate consequences of the global recession. This post is the beginning of a new, continual series to examine the new budget and put the effects into perspective. This first installment is focused on, ostensibly, the most draconian of all the Governor’s cuts: the arts.

When a tourist comes to this state, they do so to experience our rich culture. It’s definitely su generis to Louisiana and what we pride ourselves in. The arts are just one of the many indelible aspects of our culture and to harm the arts in any way is an egregious act—except during economic downturns. Arguably, this is the only excuse one can imagine to this iniquity. However, is this as appaling as many believe? The answer isn’t as clear as it may seem.

Continue reading “Focus on the Budget: Arts” →