Big Metro Council meeting set for Wednesday

The Metro Council is scheduled to take up Mayor Kip Holden's $989 million bond issue Wednesday, along with voting on millage rates and making an appointment to the library board. The council will discuss setting an election date for the proposition. The bond issue would use a new 9.9 mill property tax and a half-cent sales tax to cover nine projects, including traffic signal synchronization, new public safety complex, new parish prison, River Center expansion, drainage improvements and nature-themed Audubon Alive attraction. The council also will vote on rolling several millage rates forward, even though the assessed value of properties has gone up. The East Baton Rouge Parish Library Board, Emergency Medical Services, Baton Rouge Municipal Fire Protection and Benefits, Brownsfield Fire Protection District No. 3, Downtown Development District and Alsen Fire Protection District No. 9 are all asking to hold their millage rates at 2007 levels. The board will discuss a new member for the library board to fill the seat vacated by Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret. The candidates are Kathryn Arrington, Elizabeth Bingham, Tanya Freeman, Tommy French, Marano Hinojosa, Eric Lewis, Eleanor Perret, John Radford, Elaine C. Rougeau and Keokah Sanders.

Ralph and Kacoo's workers vote down union

Waiters and bartenders at Ralph and Kacoo's overwhelmingly voted against plans to unionize. Ken Fails, head of the local chapter of the National Alliance of Servers, Bartenders, and Related Trades, National Union, who was spearheading the effort, says the staff voted down the measure 23-2. "It was ugly," he says. Fails says the restaurant unfairly fired him and two other employees after they pushed for a union vote. He's filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board about his termination and what he called "unfair practices" that Ralph & Kacoo's management did in the weeks leading up to the vote. "The employees said it all in their vote," said Fred Preis, a labor lawyer in New Orleans who was representing Ralph and Kacoo's. "They honestly believe they are in this together with management." Preis says the restaurant denies any of the unfair practice charges made by Fails, and it is defending itself against the allegations.—Timothy Boone

McCain to meet with Jindal against VP pick backdrop

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee U.S. John McCain is scheduled to meet with Gov. Bobby Jindal on Wednesday in New Orleans, amid speculation that he will announce his vice presidential pick this week. Robert Novak, the longtime political columnist, reported Monday that McCain wants to reveal the name of his running mate in the next few days in order to take away from the attention that U.S. Sen. Barack Obama has been getting for his trip to the Middle East and Europe. Jindal has frequently been named as a potential running mate for McCain, although for weeks the governor has declined interest in being named vice president.

Boudreaux’s exit eliminates need for GOP Senate election

Less than a week after qualifying for the U.S. Senate race, J. Jacques Boudreaux has decided to withdraw. Boudreaux, who owns a small landscape contracting company in Baton Rouge, would have opposed state Treasurer John Kennedy on Sept. 6 in the Republican primary election. The GOP primary would have cost Louisiana taxpayers an estimated $1.8 million. Kennedy was endorsed by state Republicans nearly two weeks before qualifying started; the race has been a priority for the party because U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu is seen as the only incumbent Democrat with a shot of being defeated in November. “It just didn’t generate the interest that I thought it would,” Boudreaux says. “What I have learned in the last week has just been incredible. There are some very unhappy voters in our state. But until they are willing to stand up too and demand some change, nothing is going to happen.” Boudreaux plans to file his withdrawal from the race this afternoon. Along with Kennedy and Landrieu, other candidates in the race are Libertarian Richard Fontanesi of Baton Rouge and independents Jay Patel of Hammond and Robert Stewart of New Orleans.—Olivia Watkins

Senate campaign defined by money—so far

This year’s U.S. Senate race hasn’t exactly shaped up as an exchange of ideas and plans yet. Incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, opened the contest by defining it with her successes on earmarks, an issue that challenger John Kennedy, the state’s Republican treasurer, has railed against. While Landrieu argues earmarks are a measure of delivering for the state, Kennedy calls them pork-barrel spending.

And then last week the two campaign traded barbs over fundraising numbers. Eager for a win, Kennedy’s campaign released second-quarter figures to the media that they claimed topped Landrieu’s. But according to an Associated Press report, Kennedy’s numbers were slightly misrepresented. That’s because $89,000 worth of donations were incorrectly reported because of an obscure discrepancy. Landrieu’s team wasted little time pointing out in news releases that she outraised Kennedy $1.54 million to $1.45 million.

The latest fisticuffs over money came Monday, when Kennedy’s campaign lashed out at Landrieu for raising money with the help of “gun-grabbing liberal” Mike Bloomberg, the Republican mayor of New York who was formerly registered as a Democrat. The Times-Picayune reported over the weekend that Bloomberg will be hosting a $1,000-per-person fundraiser July 30 for Landrieu in his Manhattan townhouse. In response, Kennedy’s campaign put out a news release pointing to Bloomberg’s anti-gun and pro-gay marriage stances.—Jeremy Alford

Back-to-school spending to increase 5.5%

The average family will spend $594 on back-to-school shopping this year, compared with $563 in 2007, according to a report from the National Retail Federation. Nearly 8,400 people were polled for the survey, which also found that 20% of parents set aside part of their tax stimulus checks for back-to-school spending. While spending on clothes, shoes and school supplies is expected to increase slightly, the NRF says most of the gains will come from electronics, such as new cell phones and computers. The total spending for kindergarten through 12th grade this year is estimated to reach $20.1 billion.

Real Estate Weekly: What will Starbucks do with shuttered stores?

Real Estate Weekly has news on what could happen to the Starbucks locations closing around Baton Rouge. The Seattle-based coffee chain is closing nine of its 18 stores in the Capital Region. Also: Louisiana mortgage insurers are cracking down in some cities, Houma-based Synergy Bank purchases a Prairieville site, Moore Planning receives a Mississippi honor and the latest columns from Brian Andrews and Tom Cook. To read the newsletter, click here.

News roundup: Bistro Byronz to open Shreveport location; Ralph's Market coming to Pelican Point; commercial real estate prices increase

Mid City eatery expanding: Bistro Byronz is set to open a second location in Shreveport today. The Government Street restaurant, which opened two-and-a-half years ago, is also planning locations in the Willow Grove TND and in Mandeville. A place to shop: Ralph's Supermarket is set to open a location in the Pelican Point Golf Community in Ascension Parish Wednesday. This will be the third location for the locally owned grocery chain, which has stores on Jones Creek Road and on La. Highway 44 in Gonzales. Apartments, warehouse action up: Commercial real estate prices increased 3.1% nationally from April 2007, according to the Standard & Poor's/GRA Commercial Real Estate Indices. The report found that apartment prices were up 5.7% nationally, while warehouse prices increased 4.8% and the cost of office space was virtually unchanged.