$5,031 Per patient cost at interim Charity Hospital in New Orleans in 2009, versus $2,794 at similarly sized teaching hospitals. Source: State Treasurer John Kennedy/Alvarez & Marsal Healthcare Industry Group. Kennedy has been arguing for greater efficiencies in the way the state runs its charity hospitals.
90 Days the Obama administration is proposing for BOEM to review environmental and impact plans for offshore drilling permits. The current review time is 30 days. U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu and David Vitter are objecting to the extension, arguing it will further delay a process that needs to be accelerated. The Commission staff can comfortably conclude that the decision to green-light the underwhelmingly effective, overwhelmingly expensive Louisiana berms project was flawed.
— Dec. 16 National Oil Spill Commission report calling Gov. Bobby Jindal’s controversial berm project a waste of money; the berms captured about 1,000 barrels of oil out of the almost 5 million believed to have spilled. BP spent $220 million to build 10 miles of sand berm and has committed an additional $140 million to complete the project.
1.4 % La.’s population increase since 2000, the third lowest growth in the U.S. and reason the state will lose one congressional seat (and one of its electoral votes) Source: U.S. Census Bureau
In rendering his ruling, District Judge John Trahan all but called the real estate developer a liar for inconsistencies in his accounts of what prompted him to punch a school teacher unconscious.
Frank’s Casing Crew, now doing business as Frank’s International, will make its final appearance on ABiz’s list of the Top 50 Privately Held Companies in Acadiana this year, and once again it will likely be at the top with more than $1 billion in annual revenues. The 75-year-old company specializing in tubular fabrication and installation services to the oil and gas industry plans to offer shares of its stock to the public for the first time.
The defeat, or rather highjacking of House Bill 420 in the final days of this year's Legislative Session, say Reps. Vincent Pierre and Terry Landry, is the result of the propaganda spread by one unidentified local media outlet and an unnamed former state Representative, but nothing to do with the original legislation's lack of checks, balances or details.
City-Parish Council Chairman Brandon Shelvin heaped steady doses of condescending ire on a Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana executive while failing to reveal his financial ties to a BC/BS rival.
Abbeville native David Primeaux was a popular professor until his death late last year, and while he was successful at camouflaging a dark past, he couldn’t outlive it.
Tehmi Chassion’s failure to recuse himself in the school board’s selection of a group health benefits provider raises ‘serious questions’ on whether he violated state ethics law.
He’s a singer. A songwriter. A piano man. A family man. He’s even got his own Wikipedia entry. He’s David Egan. And he knows ancient secrets about the monolithic stones of Stonehenge that he’s not willing to share.