IEM expects better university collaboration in N.C.

IEM President Madhu Beriwal hopes collaboration with the universities in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area will help take her company to the next level. Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State are near Research Triangle Park, where IEM is moving. She met with the chancellors of the universities before making a decision to move. One school arranged a meeting with five deans, all of whom spoke about ways they could collaborate with IEM, Beriwal says. Collaboration with Baton Rouge’s universities can be problematic, she says. “From a business perspective, perhaps the process has not been figured out within the administration as to how companies can collaborate with the university,” Beriwal says without mentioning LSU or Southern by name. “There are people who want to work with us; there are people we want to work with. They’re trying, but it’s not a streamlined process for making it happen.” IEM, a disaster-management consulting firm Beriwal founded 24 years ago in Baton Rouge, announced Monday it was moving its headquarters to North Carolina.—David Jacobs

Perkins Rowe loses scrap on public records

Lenders trying to foreclose on Perkins Rowe won another minor victory today in their $165 million foreclosure suit against developer Tommy Spinosa—this one having to do with what information is allowed in the public record. Both attorneys for Spinosa and for KeyBank National Association, which heads the group of lending institutions on the project, had agreed that a protective order was needed in the case to keep confidential some financial records related to the mixed-use development, but there was disagreement over what the protective order should cover. Spinosa had asked for advance notice of any of his financial information that KeyBank shares with federal and state regulators. KeyBank had argued it should not be forced to limit what it provides to regulators or how quickly it turns over such information. Magistrate Judge Steven Riedlinger ruled today in favor of KeyBank, granting the protective order the bank wanted. Attorneys for both sides declined to comment, but legal observers say the ruling is an important procedural step but is not a significant development in the case. —Stephanie Riegel

Streamlining commission loses members

Two members of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s Commission on Streamlining Government resigned Dec. 10. In identical letters to the House leaders that appointed them, complete with matching spelling and punctuation errors, state Reps. Jim Morris, R-Oil City, and Brett Geymann, R-Lake Charles, wrote that they felt “greatly honored” to have served. “However, do [sic] to my enormous time constraints; I can no longer be an active member and feel I must leave the job for someone who can contribute the time and input that is so greatly needed.” Sen. Mike Michot, R-Lafayette, says he’s staying put on the committee—for now.

The commission’s original goal was to draft a list of cost-saving recommendations for the 2010 budget by today. While that mission was accomplished, a decision was made during the fall to keep the group on the clock to help prepare for another shortfall expected in the 2011 budget. “I’m going to wait and visit with (Commission Chairman) Sen. (Jack) Donahue after the first of the year,” Michot says. “If it’s just the occasional meeting, that’s fine. But if it’s a heavy schedule between now and August, with all the time constraints of session, I may have to take another look.”

The resignations, and maybe those still to come, could provide Jindal and others with an opportunity to appoint an entirely new commission, even though the loudest players (read: Treasurer John Kennedy) want to stay on for the ride. For the full version of this story, click here.—Jeremy Alford

November home sales up 38% locally

There was a 38% increase in the number of homes sold in the Capital Region during November, compared with the year before. There were 576 houses sold in November, according to the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service, compared with 417 in November 2008. Average sale prices were down 3.4%, from $185,622 in November 2008, to $179,272. Livingston Parish saw the biggest improvement in sales, with 145 homes sold in November at an average price of $157,954. That's nearly double the 76 sales that happened last year, at an average price of $144,558. East Baton Rouge also saw a jump in home sales, from 232 in November 2008, to 307. The average sale price was down slightly, from $190,527 to $185,036. Ascension Parish saw the smallest increase in home sales, up from 76 in November 2008, to 90 last month. In the other category, which includes MLS transactions in parishes such as West Baton Rouge, Iberville and the Felicianas, there were 34 homes sold at an average price of $202,970, compared with 25 sales at an average price of $186,950 in November 2008. Through the first 11 months of the year, Capital Region home sales are down 7%, from 6,879 in 2008 to 6,385. The average sale price is down 5.4%, from $202,627 in 2008, to $191,586. Read the rest of Real Estate Weekly here.—Timothy Boone

Proposed Lake Charles bank has B.R. ties

A startup Lake Charles bank plans to start installing its temporary branch later this week. Lakeside Bank, which features a number of officials with ties to Baton Rouge, has raised more than one-third of its initial $12 million capital campaign. "There are no new bank charters around," says Hartie Spence, Lakeside's CEO. "The last bank to open was the South Louisiana Business Bank in Prairieville, and that was 18 months ago. People like to invest in bank stocks." Lakeside Bank will be a "plain-vanilla community bank," catering to small- and medium-sized businesses and households. Spence was the president and chairman of Hancock Bank Louisiana from the late 1990s to the early part of this decade. Mike Anderson, the former CEO of Omni Bank of Baton Rouge, who is the chief lending officer, joins him. Board members include Willie Staats, a longtime LSU banking professor, and State Sen. Willie Mount, a former mayor of Lake Charles. Spence says he's not concerned about installing a temporary location before all start up capital is raised. "We know we're going to raise the money," he says. "We want to get going as fast as we can."—Timothy Boone

Maginnis: Landrieu's late mayoral bid shakes up state politics

Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu's late entry into the New Orleans mayoral race has an impact on politics across the state, says John Maginnis. Landrieu is the early frontrunner, and Louisiana Republicans are looking at the chance to put one of their own in the No. 2 spot, should Gov. Bobby Jindal not complete his term or the next. But Landrieu faces a number of obstacles in his third bid to become mayor of his hometown. "Within three months we will know if Mitch Landrieu meets his destiny or his Waterloo," says Maginnis. "For now, the campaign unfolding demonstrates that, however the rest of the city's long recovery is faring, its politics is back to full form." Read the full column here.

(John Maginnis publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com.)

Professor receives $5 million grant for research and education center

LSU and Southern University mechanical engineering professor Eyassu Woldesenbet has received a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish the Next Generation Composites Crest Center, or NextGenC3. The center, which will be housed at Southern, will work to invent strong, lightweight materials, while also exposing students from the elementary to doctoral level to engineering and science education and research, LSU says.

OLOL heart center gains accreditation

The Heart Center at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center has earned the top accreditation for chest pain, the only hospital in the state to do so. The Heart Center has received Chest Pain Accreditation Cycle III, which means when a patient goes to OLOL, they will receive care that meets or exceeds national measures in acute cardiac medicine.

Winnings drop at B.R. casinos

Winnings at Baton Rouge's two riverboat casinos were down 22% in November, compared with the year before. The Belle of Baton Rouge and Hollywood Casino Baton Rouge brought in $14.6 million last month, compared with nearly $18.7 million in November 2008, according to figures released by state police. The Belle posted the biggest drop, with winnings down 23% from nearly $7.1 million to $5.5 million. Hollywood did slightly better, dropping 21%, from $11.6 million in November 2008, to $9.1 million. Gambling revenue at Louisiana's state-licensed casinos fell 16.7% from November 2008. State police say the 13 riverboats won $122.8 million in November, down from $149 million the previous November.

Pinnacle scales back Sugarcane Bay plans

Louisiana gambling regulators have approved a reduction in Pinnacle Entertainment's investment in the company's second casino resort in Lake Charles. Without objection, the state Gaming Control Board agreed today to cut Pinnacle's minimum investment in Sugarcane Bay from $350 million to $300 million. The project includes a second gambling riverboat and 400-room hotel next to Pinnacle's L'Auberge du Lac casino resort. Pinnacle officials say Sugarcane Bay's cost were cut by redesigning the hotel so it can share certain functions with the existing hotel, such as a check-in area. The reconfigured hotel will also have less restaurant and retail space than previously planned. Pinnacle agreed to have Sugarcane Bay finished by the end of June 2011. The company also plans to build a casino resort on River Road.

News roundup: Hammond girl named nation's top high school student-athlete ... Two Louisiana managers make 'worst bosses' list

High school Heisman: Malia Cali, a senior at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Hammond, was named the winner of the Wendy's High School Heisman. The award is presented to the nation's top male and female student athletes. Cali, a three-year all-state selection in track and field, cross-country and soccer, is the top ranked student in her senior class.

Bad news: Two Louisiana managers have been named on a Web site list of the 25 worst bosses of the year. St. Tammany Parish Coroner Dr. Peter Galavan made the eBoss Watch, after a former employee filed a complaint this fall with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, accusing him of racial and sexual harassment. Sean Benton, the water distribution superintendent for the city of Monroe, made the list after his employees recorded a four-hour meeting in which he used hundreds of obscene words and ordered one supervisor to physically attack an equipment operator. See the full list here.