Lawmakers back federal crackdown on credit cards

The state Legislature is only one step away from officially endorsing a congressional act signed just a week and a half ago by President Barack Obama. The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act is the first consumer-protection law of its kind. Among other functions, the act shields consumers from arbitrary interest rates, protects students from aggressive solicitations and requires more detailed billing and disclosure information. Monday, state lawmakers on the House Commerce Committee unanimously passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 47 by Sen. Butch Gautreaux, D-Morgan City, which expresses support for the act. The resolution has already been approved by the full Senate and is now pending action on the House floor. Gautreaux says he’s drawing attention to the federal act because almost 80% of American households rely on credit cards and the average outstanding balances on these accounts are roughly $10,000 each. Additionally, credit card delinquency rates have risen by more than 60% percent since 2005. Gautreaux says the act is the very least the federal government can do to help out consumers, especially in light of the assistance offered to the financial sector earlier this year. “Many of the largest credit card issuers have received billions of dollars in taxpayer funded federal bailout funds,” Gautreaux writes in his resolution. To read the full story about other legislation aimed at the credit card industry, click here.—Jeremy Alford

Investar Bank to build third location

Investar Bank plans to build a third location and operations center on Coursey Boulevard. Vice President Brandy Patrick says the 4,500-square-foot project does not have a definite start date. The Baton Rouge-based community bank has locations on Perkins Road and on La. 1 in Port Allen. For a recent Business Report profile of Investar Bank, click here.—Emma James

Shaw gets military fuels contract

The Shaw Group's environmental and infrastructure division has been awarded multiple contracts from the Department of Defense to manage fuel at eight military bases. The value of the five-year contracts was not disclosed. The deal covers environmental assessment, remediation and emergency response support services at defense fuel support points in Charleston, S.C.; Fort Hood, Texas; Tampa, Fla.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Savannah, Ga.; Verona, N.Y.; Melville, R.I.; and Norfolk, Va.

LRCE moves into new home

The Louisiana Resource Center for Educators has moved into its new home on Florida Boulevard after renovating 25,000 square feet of a 30,000-square-foot building it bought last year from Louisiana Office Supply for a little under $1.7 million. A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be at 11 a.m. on June 30. The space LRCE formerly leased in Bon Carré was 15,000 square feet. Nancy Roberts, LRCE executive director, says the organization simply outgrew its old home as its alternative certification educator-training program has grown from 50 enrollees when it began to 370 today. Also, LRCE's library has roughly doubled to more than 40,000 titles since moving into Bon Carré in 2001. "We have real nice training rooms and good sounds system, Internet connectivity and lots of bandwidth, lots of capability to do distance learning," Roberts says. LRCE spent $1.6 million renovating the new location.—Steve Clark

Louisiana GDP growing less than national average

The value of all goods and products produced in Louisiana increased by 0.3% in 2008, less than half the national rate of growth. According to figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, that still puts Louisiana ahead of the Southeastern average, which showed no growth from 2007 to 2008. The national GDP was up 0.7% in 2008, compared with a 2% jump from 2006 to 2007. The BEA blamed the declining growth on downturns in several major industries, such as construction, manufacturing, finance and insurance. Louisiana's per capita GDP was $32,842. Alaska posted a 2% decline in GDP because of a dip in the oil industry last year. North Dakota was the biggest gainer; the state GDP was up 7.3% because of improvements in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting industries. See the full report here.

Plane debris found in path Air France jet took

Brazilian military pilots spotted an airplane seat, a life jacket, metallic debris and signs of fuel in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean today as they hunted for a missing Air France passenger jet that carried 228 people. They found no signs of life. The pilots spotted two areas of floating debris about 35 miles apart, about 410 miles beyond the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, roughly along Flight 447's path from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, says Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral. "The locations where the objects were found are toward the right of the point where the last signal of the plane was emitted," Amaral said. "That suggests it might have tried to make a turn, maybe to return to Fernando de Noronha, but that is just a hypothesis." Amaral says authorities would not be able to confirm that the debris is from the plane until they can retrieve some of it from the ocean for identification. Brazilian military ships are not expected to arrive at the area until Wednesday. The discovery came more than 24 hours after the jet went missing, with all feared dead. Michael and Anne Harris, a couple who had lived in Lafayette, were onboard the plane. Michael Harris was a geologist in Devon Energy's Rio de Janeiro office. For a profile of Michael and Anne Harris, click here.

GM has tentative deal to sell Hummer

General Motors says it has tentatively agreed to sell its Hummer brand, a day after the U.S. automaker filed for bankruptcy protection with hopes that it will transform its most profitable assets into a new company within just 30 days. The Detroit-based company did not name the proposed buyer or the price, but said the sale will likely save more than 3,000 U.S. jobs in manufacturing, engineering and at various Hummer dealerships. The Shreveport GM plant produces the Hummer and the Hummer pickup truck. "We're not today in a position to be able to identify a buyer. It was part of the agreement," GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson told CBS's The Early Show. ''We believe the buyer is quite capable of closing." Critics had seized on the rugged but fuel-inefficient Hummer as a symbol of excess as GM's financial troubles grew and gas prices rose. Sales at Hummer, which is known for hulking sport utility vehicles like the H3, have been in a steep slide since gasoline prices rose to record heights last summer. For the first four months of this year, Hummer sales are down 67%.

U.S. pending home sales rise 6.7% in April

The number of U.S. homebuyers who agreed to purchase a previously occupied home in April posted the largest monthly jump in nearly eight years, a sign that sales are finally coming to life after a long and painful slump. The National Association of Realtors says its seasonally adjusted index of sales contracts signed in April surged 6.7% to 90.3, far exceeding analysts' forecasts. It was the biggest monthly jump since October 2001, when pending sales rose 9.2%. "This is yet another positive indication that the bottoming process is forming," Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a note to clients. "Now if only prices would stabilize." Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the index would edge up to 85 from a reading of 84.6 in March. Typically there is a one- to two-month lag between a contract and a done deal, so the index is a barometer for future existing home sales. The index was 3.2% above last year's levels and has risen for three straight months after hitting a record low in January. A nearly 33% sales increase in the Northeast and a 9.8% jump in the Midwest led the overall surge. Sales contracts rose 1.8% in April from a month earlier in the West, but fell 0.2% in the South.

Poll: Most say they're ready for hurricane season

Fifty-nine percent of people who responded to a Daily Report poll say they are ready for hurricane season. Thirty-six percent say they aren't prepared, and 5% were undecided. More than 1,000 people participated in the survey. Hurricane season started Monday.

Today's question: Should the Legislature tap into the rainy-day fund to offset higher education budget cuts?

News roundup: New Lamar billboards go to New York ... Mortgage rates heading up

Green in the Bronx: Lamar Advertising has introduced an environmentally friendly digital billboard, which uses less power and doesn't emit light. The new billboard, which was installed in the Bronx, is undergoing testing before it goes online in a few weeks. Lamar says the neighborhood-friendly billboards are 50% to 75% more energy-efficient than its conventional digital billboards.

Time to get locked in: Mortgage rates increased last week, with the average 30-year fixed rate going up by nearly 5%. According to the Zillow Mortgage Rate Monitor, the average 30-year rate was 5.25%, compared with 5.02% in the week before. Fifteen-year rates saw a smaller increase, going from 4.6% to 4.78% in a week.