Food for thought: After successfully lobbying Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to raise wages, labor activists have a new demand: Give employees a discount on food. As Bloomberg reports, that could cost the world’s largest retailer more than $400 million. Wal-Mart currently offers workers a 10% discount on all merchandise except the vast majority of food. Fruits, vegetables and some snacks are the only food items included in the promotion, unless they’re on sale. “It is ridiculous,” Janet Sparks, a Wal-Mart employee in Baker who’s been active in labor groups pushing for higher wages, tells Bloomberg. “You can get a 10% discount on cat food, but if I buy tuna or chicken, I get no discount.” Read the full story.
On the list: Southern University is ranked No. 43 on a new listing of the best online criminal justice programs in the country. The ranking by Value Colleges, an online guide to the best value undergraduate and graduate programs in the country, is based on cost per credit hour, as well as information available through U.S. News & World Report rankings and PayScale’s 2015 College ROI Report. Referring to Southern as “a land-grant university with a mission to provide affordable, accessible education across Louisiana,” Value Colleges says Southern “has developed their online degree programs along those lines, building a diverse, practical education strategy that includes a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice degree.” See the complete rankings.
Building it up: The Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation has created a new revolving fund program with hopes of saving endangered historic buildings across the state. About 60 preservation organizations across the country operate similar programs, by which they use revolving funds to acquire historic buildings through donations, purchases or other arrangements. The distressed properties are then stabilized, marketed and sold with protective covenants to ensure their historic character is maintained. The new owners then rehab the buildings. Brian Davis will manage the LTHP’s new revolving fund program. The agency is actively working to secure property donations, money and other resources to get the new program off the ground.
