WVLA, WGMB eliminating production of local news

Effective today, WVLA and WGMB will no longer be producing or anchoring a local newscast out of Baton Rouge. The NBC affiliate will continue to air newscasts at 5 p.m. and 10 p.m., and the Fox newscast will air at 9 p.m., but the broadcasts will originate out of a sister station in Tyler, Texas, with local news, sports and weather shipped in.

What this means for staffing on the news side at the two stations is unclear. Jim Baronet, general manager of the stations, would not give further details. A weekend WVLA newscast had been originating from KETK in Tyler since the fall. WVLA and FOX News Louisiana have struggled in the ratings ever since they began airing local news exactly two years ago. In quarterly ratings periods it has never earned more than a 1% share of the viewing audience, which translates into 2,000 households or so at best. The statewide news program aired in several cities around the state, though only in Baton Rouge was the newscast broadcast live in its entirety. For sister stations in Lafayette and Shreveport, certain local segments were pre-recorded to look live. It was a cost-saving measure designed to enable parent company Communication Corp. of America to air news in several markets for the price of producing one.—Stephanie Riegel

Stanford victims set to testify

The Louisiana Stanford Victims Group will be appearing before the Legislature at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in House Committee Room 6. Stanford victims will testify before the committee in support of Rep. Bodi White’s bill to increase the criminal penalties for financial fraud in Louisiana. The group, affiliated with the national Stanford Victim’s Coalition, also will be headed to Washington, D.C., on Friday to continue working with U.S. Sen. David Vitter’s office to petition for Certificates of Deposit that were held within the United States to be covered under the Securities Investor Protection Corporation. SIPC works to return customer cash, stock and other securities when brokerage firms close due to bankruptcy or fraud. The Stanford victims affirm in a petition, that the “Stanford Group was an active SIPC member and the CDs were sold as SIPC insured.” Read the SIPC Coverage Petition here.

Chelsea's liquor license gone for now

Chelsea’s Café will close at 10 p.m. this week, and live music has been canceled after the state office of Alcohol and Beverage Control took the restaurant’s liquor license. Judge Trudy White granted a temporary restraining order so the restaurant could continue selling liquor, but dissolved the injunction this morning after hearing arguments from both parties.

Chelsea’s owner David Remmetter and the ATC met this morning in a crowded courtroom filled with about a hundred young professionals, artists, Perkins Road overpass-area neighbors and attorneys to show their support of the restaurant.

Brian DeJohn, attorney for the ATC, says the time to get rezoning had lapsed and now Remmetter asked the court to step in to allow this “illegal operation.” “If it looks like a bar, acts like a bar, smells like a bar, it doesn’t matter what your numbers are,” DeJohn says of the ratio of food and liquor sales, which Remmetter had proven that he was in compliance. “You can’t thumb your nose at the system and ask for an injunction.”

Brian Brown, attorney for Chelsea’s Café, says Remmetter had every right to file the order, according to the letter of the law. Brown told the court he and his client went into the March 19 hearing with “a spirit of cooperation,” to see if they could resolve the problem and understand these “poorly written rules.” Brown says Remmetter paid his fees and brought evidence of his rezoning proceedings to the ATC office. “We can’t force the Metro Council into speeding up the process,” Brown says.

Remmetter defends his case to the ATC at a hearing scheduled for Monday. Read the complete story here.—Rebecca Breeden

Coke holds grand opening for new facility

The Coca-Cola Bottling Company held a ribbon cutting today for its new, expanded facility in north Baton Rouge. The 781,000-square-foot plant is worth about $178 million. It incorporates many of Coca-Cola's environmentally friendly initiatives and is the first bottler to be LEED-certified as a green building. While the plant is open, Coke still is busy making additions. The company is adding two lines to the plant in order to distribute VitaminWater to bottlers across Louisiana and the South. The company expects the expansion to add up to 113 jobs by 2012 with an average salary of $45,000. This will bring the total employment at the plant up to more than 600 workers. Baton Rouge is now a regional production and distribution hub for the Coca-Cola system, officials say. Construction on the plant began in May 2007; the expansion was announced in May 2008.

Forbes: B.R. is 12th most violent metro area

The Baton Rouge area ranks 12th in the nation for violent crime, according to a Forbes magazine analysis of FBI crime statistics. The ranking is based on the 2008 FBI uniform crime report counting four categories of violent offenses per 100,000 people: murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. New Orleans ranks 11th on the list; Detroit is No. 1. Forbes says it evaluated every U.S. metropolitan statistical area with more than 500,000 residents.

Bill would change megafund statute

A Senate committee unanimously agreed to Gov. Bobby Jindal's proposal to rework rules governing an economic development fund, changes that would be used to help keep open a chicken processing plant in north Louisiana. The bill by Republican Sen. Mike Walsworth to revamp the $414 million economic development megafund heads next to the full Senate for debate. It is expected to be heard on the Senate floor Wednesday. Jindal wants to use the fund on four projects totaling $259 million. But two don't meet the criteria for receiving the dollars, including the $50 million chicken plant deal. Walsworth's bill would change the law so the projects would qualify. Lawmakers still would have to approve the spending separately.

Lamar-Dixon on the market

The Ascension Parish Council is meeting tonight to discuss purchasing the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center, but two local Realtors are already marketing the property to private investors. Ty Gose and Tony DeMarco with NAI/Latter & Blum have been selected by the Lamar-Dixon Expo Foundation to market the property. Gose says the asking price for the 240-acre site, which includes 500,000 square feet of buildings, is confidential. But he says it's more than the $7.5 million the parish wants to pay for the site. "This property costs $55 million to build," he says. The foundation is looking for the best possible price for the facility, DeMarco says, and that could involve retrofitting the buildings for light industrial use and marketing its proximity to rail lines and highways.—Timothy Boone

Former insurance commissioner rescues five in Vermilion Bay

Robert Wooley, former commissioner of the Louisiana Department of Insurance, helped pull five people from chilly water Saturday morning in Vermilion Bay near Cypremort Point Yacht Club, the club reported on its Web site. Wooley and his crew of three were in a sailboat race when Wooley says he looked off to the port side and saw a life jacket in the distance, which turned out to be a man and a boy. The crew took down the sails, turned on the engine (disqualifying Wooley’s boat from the race) and went back to pick up the two people, who said their boat had been swamped and three more people were in the water. Wooley picked up the other three, two adults and a child, and brought the crew of five back to where they had launched.

“I don’t think the children could have stayed in the water a whole lot longer because it was pretty cold,” Wooley says. “The adults would have lasted a little bit longer, but they were five miles from shore.” Wooley says the five people were extremely lucky that he happened to look in their direction. Wooley, who was insurance commissioner from 2000 to 2006, is a member of the Special Business Service Group at the Adams and Reese law firm.—David Jacobs

Specter says he's switching from GOP to Dems

Veteran Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania abruptly switched parties, a move intended to boost his re-election chances that also pushed Democrats within one seat of a 60-vote filibuster-resistant majority.

"I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans," Specter said in a statement posted on a Web site devoted to Pennsylvania politics and confirmed by his office. Several Senate officials said a formal announcement was expected at mid-afternoon. Even before the event took place, Specter attended a Senate subcommittee hearing on the swine flu outbreak and took a seat on the Democratic side of the dais.

President Barack Obama called Specter almost immediately after he was informed of the switch to say the Democratic Party was "thrilled to have you," according to a White House official. Spurned Republicans said his defection was motivated by ambition, not principle.

Specter, 79 and in his fifth term, is one of a handful of Republican moderates remaining in Congress in a party now dominated by conservatives. With Specter, Democrats would have 59 Senate seats. Democrat Al Franken is ahead in a marathon recount in Minnesota, and if he ultimately wins his race against Republican Norm Coleman, he would become the party's 60th vote. That is the number needed to overcome a filibuster.

'Real Estate Weekly' has news on new Lamar office

Real Estate Weekly is out with news about how Lamar Advertising may have a new office by the end of 2010, how the rising foreclosure numbers for Baton Rouge aren't a cause for concern, where local home prices stand in early 2009, along with the latest columns from Brian Andrews and Tom Cook. To read the newsletter, click here.

News roundup: Cox adds more HD channels, now up to 61 ... Cortana adding shoe store ... Shaw appoints Westinghouse chairman to board of directors

More to choose from: Cox Communications has added five high-definition channels, bringing the HD lineup in Baton Rouge up to 61 channels. Local cable customers can now get BET, Major League Baseball, Fox Business, Biography and WGN in HD.

On the good foot: Shoe Time is now open in Cortana Mall, near Sears in the old Wherehouse Music store. The 4,500-square-foot store sells shoes for men, women and children. Owner Sohail Kahn also has Shoe Time locations in Shreveport and Monroe.

Nuclear veteran added to team: Stephen R. Tritch, the chairman of Westinghouse Electric, has been named to the Shaw Group's board of directors. Tritch has been with Westinghouse for 38 years and is a former president and CEO of the company. Shaw and Westinghouse are part of a consortium that is designing advanced nuclear power plants for the Chinese.