New morning: MD Technologies Inc., a Baton Rouge-based health-care technology firm, has been acquired by MD ON-Line Inc., which is headquartered in New Jersey. MD On-Line Inc. President and CEO Bill Bartzak says in a news release that the acquisition will boost the company’s technology offerings to clients, allowing them “an incredibly effective, stress-free way to embrace all the technological changes accompanying healthcare reform today.” Bill Ellison, president and CEO of MD Technologies Inc., says the acquisition will have no effect on the local company’s employees or services, except that he hopes it will help the firm grow in each area. Its offices are located downtown at 620 Florida St., suite 200. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
On loan: A $325 million borrowing plan to fund repairs and improvements of rural roads across 63 of 64 parishes in Louisiana has won backing from the House committee that oversees tax and bond issues. The Department of Transportation and Development would be allowed to borrow dollars by selling bonds to investors for upfront cash. The money would pay for work on rural roads not eligible for federal matching dollars. The debt would be paid off with interest over 20 years with a pot of money from registration, license fees, and taxes on commercial trucks and trailers. The proposal—sponsored by Rep. Jim Fannin of Jonesboro and supported by Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration—received support today from the House Ways and Means Committee without objection. See the nine-page House Bill 783 in its entirety here.
Another day: An Orleans Parish prosecutor says his office hasn’t decided whether to charge an Alabama fan accused of simulating a sex act over the head of an apparently unconscious LSU fan after the Jan. 9 BCS championship football game in New Orleans. At today’s hearing to decide whether there is probable cause to charge 32-year-old Brian Downing of Smiths Station, Ala., Assistant District Attorney Taylor Anthony said only “premature.” Criminal Court Magistrate Gerard Hanson did not immediately set a date for another hearing. Police booked Downing with obscenity and with sexual battery against a man at a Bourbon Street fast-food restaurant. Downing surrendered after a video of the incident went viral on the Internet.
