On air: The city-parish has announced that it will provide a daily televised debris removal update on Metro Channel 21 beginning on Thursday. The updates will be filmed Monday through Friday at 11 a.m. in the Metro Council chambers on the ninth floor of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St., and will feature Department of Environmental Services Director Karen Khonsari and debris collection contractors. Each briefing will feature information about where debris is being collected that day, as well as information for residents pertaining to debris removal. Residents will also be able to view the daily video segments on the city-parish’s website and Facebook page.
On file: Some solar panel customers in Louisiana are suing the state, claiming their constitutional rights were violated when the state imposed a cap on refundable solar tax credits last year. WWL-TV reports that five homeowners say their property rights were violated when the refundable solar tax credits—which they thought were guaranteed to them—were transformed, retroactively, into a first-come-first-served free-for-all. The Louisiana Legislature voted last June to phase out the refundable tax credits over the next three years and cap them at a total of $25 million, the lawsuit says. New Orleans lawyer Larry Centola filed the suit in Baton Rouge on Friday on behalf of the homeowners and is seeking a class-action status to represent 2,000 homeowners believed to be impacted by the cap. Read the full story.
It’s a deal: German-based Bayer has won over U.S. seeds firm Monsanto with an improved takeover offer of roughly $66 billion, ending months of wrangling after increasing its bid for a third time, Reuters reports. The $128 per share deal is the biggest of the year so far and the largest cash bid on record. The deal will create a company commanding more than a quarter of the combined world market for seeds and pesticides in the fast-consolidating farm supplies industry. The transaction includes a break-fee of $2 billion that Bayer will pay to Monsanto should it fail to get regulatory clearance. Bayer expects the deal to close by the end of 2017. Competition authorities are likely to scrutinize the tie-up closely, and some of Bayer’s own shareholders have been highly critical of a takeover plan which they say risks overpaying and neglecting the company’s pharmaceutical business. Read the full story.
