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January

7 - LSU’s football team wins its second BCS championship in four years, 38-24 over Ohio State

25 - Baton Rouge Area Chamber President/CEO Stephen Moret is appointed secretary of Louisiana Economic Development; Steven Grissom is appointed Moret’s interim replacement

February

The real estate market normalizes after three years of unprecedented growth following Hurricane Katrina; sales remain stable, but worries surface about consumer confidence with news of an impending national recession

8 - Huey Wilson, a master jeweler-turned-business icon and philanthropist who pioneered the catalog showroom industry in the late 1950s, dies at age 80

9 - East Baton Rouge Parish voters approve a referendum that allows Pinnacle Entertainment to develop its Riviere casino resort on River Road

16 - LSU Chancellor Sean O’Keefe announces his resignation effective June 1; former president William Jenkins is named interim chancellor

March

Legislators overwhelmingly support the elimination of sales taxes on utilities and the acceleration of tax phaseouts on machinery and corporate debt to improve the state’s business climate

8 - Voters approve three propositions to extend property taxes for East Baton Rouge Parish schools; the revenue will go to new schools, discipline and truancy, and higher salaries for teachers and school workers

10 - Despite national recession worries, economist Loren Scott forecasts a “soft landing” for the Capital Region

17 - Scott Wester is named President/CEO of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center; Wester replaces Bob Davidge, who retired after nearly 30 years

27 - Adam Knapp, 34, is named BRAC president/CEO

30 - A fight involving police and patrons or passers-by along Third Street leads to a call by city officials and nightclub owners for heightened safety measures for downtown’s fledgling scene

April

9 - More than 3,500 area real estate agents and builders form a coalition aimed at restoring consumer confidence in the Capital Region market

15 - Baton Rouge Coca-Cola ships 480,000 bottles with a commemorative LSU-BCS championship label to Louisiana and Mississippi

24 - Republican presidential candidate John McCain headlines Business Report’s Business Awards and Hall of Fame Banquet

30 - State officials announce Albemarle Corp. will relocate its headquarters from Richmond, Va., to Baton Rouge

30 - Citing family issues, Howard Taylor resigns as Capital Area United Way CEO; Angela Woods is named interim CEO

May

13 - Developer Pete Clements unveils plans for River Park, a potentially $600 million multi-use development on 36.3 acres next to Hollywood Casino; the plan calls for 800 to 1,200 condominium units; 250,000 square feet of retail; 640,000 square feet of office space; 280-room flag hotel; 220-room suite hotel; meeting, convention and exhibition space and 6,000 parking spaces

24 - Kofi Lomotey, executive vice president and provost at Fisk University in Tennessee, is selected as Southern’s new chancellor

June

The Legislature passes a comprehensive workforce reform legislation carrying an estimated $40 million price tag

5 - Michael Martin, president of New Mexico State University, is selected as LSU’s new chancellor

9 - Gasoline prices reach a national average of $4 a gallon for the first time

13 - Eli Jones, a professor of marketing and associate dean for executive education programs at the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business, is named dean of LSU’s E.J. Ourso College of Business

25 - Bercen, a specialty chemicals company serving the paper industry, announces it will relocate its headquarters, research and development and technical labs from Rhode Island to Denham Springs

30 - Under mounting public pressure, Gov. Bobby Jindal vetoes a 120% pay raise that legislators approved for themselves

July

Facing new financial disclosure rules and a power shift with ethics reform approved by the Legislature in February, 10 of the 11 members of the Louisiana Board of Ethics walk off the job

The price of oil peaks above $147 a barrel

1 - A group led by urban design firm Chan Krieger Sieniewicz is selected to develop the second phase of Plan Baton Rouge

18 - Bert S. Turner, who built Turner Industries into the state’s largest privately owned industrial service business, dies at age 86

23 - The Metro Council approves a $989 million capital improvements package for the Nov. 4 election, including economic development, infrastructure and public safety projects

August

7 - Mayor Kip Holden retains attorney Mary Olive Pierson to investigate a smear letter accusing Holden of infidelity

15 - Developer Tommy Spinosa purchases one acre on Perkins Road next to his Rouzan TND

20 - State officials announce Electronic Arts, the world’s largest maker of video games, will bring one of its six testing centers planned in the world to LSU

21 - LSU officials celebrate the school’s first appearance in the top tier of the U.S. News & World Report rankings of colleges and universities

21 - Karen Profita, senior vice president for the Children’s Miracle Network Radiothon, is named CEO of the Capital Area United Way

26 - Shaw Group and Westinghouse Electric Co. unveil plans to build a $100 million module facility for nuclear and chemical plants at the Port of Lake Charles; Shaw also announces a 15-year commitment to keep its headquarters in Baton Rouge

September

ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery Manager Stan Vanderleeuw leaves to become manufacturing director of ExxonMobil Petroleum and Chemical for the Europe/Middle East/Africa operation; Steve Blume, the company’s Singapore refinery manager, fills the local position

1 - Hurricane Gustav makes landfall near Cocodrie in Terrebonne Parish; near-record 91 mph wind gusts in East Baton Rouge plunge the parish into darkness

12 - Hurricane Ike brushes past coastal Louisiana on its way to making landfall at Galveston, Texas, on Sept. 13

25 - Congress reaches agreement on a $700 billion bailout of the financial industry; Louisiana’s highly capitalized community banks refuse the bailout, while the state’s publicly traded banks say they will consider the capital

October

Pennington Biomedical Research Center celebrates its 20th anniversary

Updated property assessments hit mailboxes, with some residents reporting increases of 25% to 150% depending on the parish

4 - Mayor Kip Holden is re-elected with 71% of the vote

9 - Economist Loren Scott predicts “a relatively shallow national recession lasting about one year” in his 2009-10 economic forecast

22 - Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker and founder of the Center for Health Transformation, brings his plan for health care reform to Baton Rouge

November

1 - Hurricane Gustav’s costly cleanup continues after two months; delays are blamed on federal red tape and the enormity of the job

4 - Democratic candidate Barack Obama wins the presidential election over Republican John McCain to become the nation’s first black president

4 - Voters reject the $989 million capital improvement package, and return only two incumbents to the Metro Council

11 - Shares of General Growth Properties Inc. plummet after the mall owner warns it faces solvency trouble and could file for bankruptcy; the company’s holdings include the Mall of Louisiana

December

10 - Dow Chemical Co. announces it will close two of 28 production units at its Plaquemine plant as part of a global cost-cutting effort

11 - Three inches of snow blanket Baton Rouge, the earliest measurable snowfall in the city’s history

15 - The state’s Revenue Estimating Conference forecasts a $341 million budget deficit for 2009

16 - ExxonMobil Refining & Supply plans to expand its Baton Rouge plant to increase production of cleaner-burning diesel