House hunting: Baton Rouge-area home sales were 7.4% lower in August than the year before as real estate activity dropped across the board. There were 970 homes sold in metro Baton Rouge during August, compared to 1,047 homes in August 2017 according to the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors. That compares with 1,047 Multiple Listing Service sales in the nine-parish region during August 2017. Total home sales this year so far are down by 5.0% to 7,416 from 7,806. Read the full report.
Sing out: The annual Rhythm Of Gospel Music Awards, hosted by The National & Independent Gospel Music Association will held in Baton Rouge in June 2019, the association announced today. The televised awards show features choir competitions, pageants and homeless shelter contribution drives, and brings in about 4,500 people. The event is slated to bring an estimated $1.2 million dollars of revenue to Baton Rouge, according to the event announcement.
Antitrust: BRF and Vantage Health Plan will move ahead with their antitrust lawsuit against Willis-Knighton Health System despite BRF exiting the hospital business this week, The Shreveport Times reports. The lawsuit, filed in 2015, alleges Willis-Knighton conspired with LSU through its Shreveport medical school to destroy BRF and what was then University Health Hospital Shreveport by siphoning off its commercially-insured patients. Vantage, a statewide insurer headquartered in Monroe that covers more than 50,000 people, claims Willis-Knighton locked it out of the Shreveport market. Read the full story.
