Outstanding local development projects honored

The Baton Rouge Growth Coalition honored the commercial and residential development projects that are improving the Capital Region at its annual Good Growth Awards on Thursday evening. About 40 projects were nominated for the awards, co-sponsored by Business Report. The winners are: II City Plaza, the 232 Third St. mixed-use building, Amedisys Home Health Care, the new headquarters for the Baton Rouge Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, renovations to BREC City Park, the new phase of BREC Stanford Park, the Campbell residence in St. Francisville, improvements at City-Brooks Community Park, Cypress Mounds baseball complex, Edward Oaks, Fieldhouse Condominiums, Gulf Coast Bank and Trust Company, Iberville Parish Veteran’s Memorial, the Lalonde residence in Baton Rouge, Louisiana House, the remodeled LSU Laville Dining Emporium, Nottoway Plantation, the renovations and additions to the O’Brein House, the Powell Group offices, the Rhorer residence in Baton Rouge, Southdowns Village remodeling and Victory Commons.

Distinguished service awards were presented to Tom Cook, the former growth coalition president; Walter Monsour, the former city-parish chief administrative officer; and Michael McDuff, the former executive director of the coalition. The annual Quality of Life award was presented to the Planning Commission staff for their work in developing a stormwater management program.

Pinnacle reports $298 million quarterly loss

Pinnacle Entertainment, which plans to build a casino resort on River Road near Gardere Lane, says it lost $298 million in the fourth quarter as the slumping economy drove down the value of casinos and land. The Las Vegas-based company reported a loss of $4.97 a share, a figure that was driven up by about $320 million in impairment charges the company wrote off for a drop in the value of its properties. Much of the writedown came from undeveloped land Pinnacle owns in Atlantic City, N.J.; company officials were quick to stress the drop didn't come from casino operations. In the fourth quarter of 2007, Pinnacle had a $19.2 million loss, or 30 cents a share. Revenues at Pinnacle casinos were up 18% for the quarter, from $219 million in 2007 to $259 million. At its L’Auberge du Lac resort in Lake Charles, revenues went from nearly $77.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2007 to $89.3 million. In February, Pinnacle received three-month extensions from the Louisiana Gaming Commission for the construction of its south Baton Rouge casino and its Sugarcane Bay resort in Lake Charles because of the tight global credit markets. The company says it could be forced to ask for another extension in May if credit isn’t available. One of the reasons Pinnacle needs additional financing is the company wants to build a $407 million convention and entertainment center in Lake Charles, between L’Auberge and Sugarcane Bay.

Unions expect Landrieu to back bill

The top lobbyist for the nation’s largest labor union organization says he’s confident U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu will vote for the Employee Free Choice Act, otherwise known as "card check," when the measure is introduced in Congress in the coming weeks. "In some states it’s more difficult than others to be publicly out there right now in the face of the anti-Employee Free Choice Act campaign," says Bill Samuel, the AFL-CIO‘s legislative director. "There are some members who would prefer to stay behind the curtain until the vote is closer." Landrieu was a co-sponsor of the EFCA, which would make it easier to organize a union, when it stalled in the Senate in 2007, but her office has not declared a position since the new Congress convened. Supporters would likely need 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a Republican filibuster. President Barack Obama has pledged his support for the measure.—David Jacobs

LaPolitics by John Maginnis: Legislator looks to challenge Vitter

Several names have surfaced as possible challengers to Sen. David Vitter next year, but Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Livonia, is the first to say he is strongly considering it. "I clearly think David Vitter can be beat," he told LaPolitics. "And I think I can be the one to beat him." Marionneaux says he will know by the end of the legislative session if he is in a position to run or if he will step aside. On the Republican side, former state Rep. Tony Perkins will not enter the primary, according to state party chairman Roger Villere, who says he spoke with Perkins this week. The head of the Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council told Politico earlier he would consider challenging Vitter. Marionneaux's interest pleases former Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who is actively seeking a challenger to Vitter. "I think he would be David Vitter's worst nightmare. Rob is fearless," she says. "I think he can really wage a tough campaign, and I think he can raise the money." Blanco estimates the race would cost $5 million. Vitter reports $2 million cash on hand.

—The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is scheduled to vote next week on whether to back State Superintendent Paul Pastorek's proposed legislative agenda that includes term limits for school boards, eliminating board member salaries, education requirements for members and prohibiting interference with superintendents on hiring, firing and contracts. Board sources predict a close vote, with some members who usually back Pastorek questioning if the time is right to take on school board members and their allies in the Legislature. "I'm not sure if it will come up for a vote," says BESE member Glenny Lee Buquet of Houma, who often backs Pastorek. Another BESE member supports Pastorek's plan in principle but doesn't like the way he has gone about it, including criticizing school boards.

—With Judge Tucker Melancon taking senior status in the Western District this week, Sen. Mary Landrieu has another federal judgeship recommendation to make to President Barack Obama. If Landrieu chooses to recommend a black judge for the Western District, two leading candidates are state district judges Jules Edwards of Lafayette and Alonzo Harris of Opelousas. Two Lafayette attorneys, Mike Juneau and George Arceneaux, have been mentioned; so has Beth Foote of Alexandria, the president of the state bar association who is known to be very close to Landrieu.

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

U.S. jobless rate jumps to 8.1%; 651K jobs lost

The nation's unemployment rate increased to 8.1% in February, the highest since late 1983, as cost-cutting employers slashed 651,000 jobs amid a deepening recession. Both figures were worse than analysts expected, and the Labor Department's report shows America's workers being clobbered by a wave of layoffs unlikely to ease in the coming months.

"There is no light at the end of the tunnel with these numbers," says Nigel Gault, economist at IHS Global Insight. "Job losses were everywhere, and there's no hope for a turnaround any time soon." February's net job loss came after even deeper payroll reductions in the prior two months, according to revised figures released today. The economy lost 681,000 jobs in December and another 655,000 in January.

Employers are shrinking their work forces and turning to other ways to slash costs—including trimming workers' hours, freezing wages or cutting pay—because the recession has eaten into their sales and profits. Customers at home and abroad are cutting back as other countries cope with their own economic problems. Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost 4.4 million jobs, more than half of which occurred in the past four months.

Poll: Majority think B.R. should try vouchers

Fifty-eight percent of the people who responded to a Daily Report poll say East Baton Rouge Parish should try a pilot program for school vouchers, like the one under way in New Orleans. Thirty-three percent of respondents were against a pilot program, and 9% were undecided. More than 900 people participated in the survey. The vouchers are used to cover the cost of private schools for children who are in failing public schools.

Today’s question: Should the Legislature look at reducing the number of college and universities across the state as a way of saving money?

News roundup: New York Times maps the recession … Study shows subprime loans didn’t lead to more homeowners … EST Group sold for $40 million

Where the pain is: The New York Times has posted an interactive map of the United States that shows county-by-county how much unemployment has gone up in the past year. Not surprisingly, areas hardest hit by the housing bust and the manufacturing slide have lost the most jobs, and areas that had traditionally high unemployment fell even further. To see the map, click here.

Subprimes used for house flipping: A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis finds that before the housing bust, many people used subprime loans as bridge financing in order to speculate in the rapidly rising real estate market. Yuliya S. Demyanyk, now a senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, found that about 80% the subprime loans originated between 2001 and 2006 exited the market within three years, by pre-payment or default. "Subprime mortgages were very risky all along," she says. "The extent of their risk, however, was hidden by the rapid appreciation in house prices, allowing termination of the mortgage by refinancing or pre-payment. When pre-payment became costly—with zero or negative equity in the house increasing the closing costs of refinancing—defaults took their place." Read the report here.

Company has about 20 B.R. employees: Curtiss-Wright Corporation has acquired all of the stock of EST Group for about $40 million in cash. EST, which has about 20 employees in Baton Rouge, makes heating and cooling systems used in the defense and energy industry. EST posted nearly $20 million in sales last year, Curtiss-Wright says the deal offers it growth opportunities in markets such as nuclear power, oil and gas and naval defense.