Ring them bells: In advance of Wednesday’s reopening of Istrouma High School, Principal Reginald Douglas and East Baton Rouge Parish Schools Superintendent Warren Drake will mark the occasion by mimicking the ringing of the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Drake and Douglas will ring a bell at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts on Plank Road at 3 p.m. today in honor of the reopening of the high school. After the opening bell ceremony, Douglas and Drake will join alumni, faculty and band members at Istrouma to beat a giant bass drum. The nearly 100-year old school was closed in 2014 by the Louisiana Department of Education and has since undergone $24 million in improvements.
Sign of the times: Baton Rouge-based Lamar Advertising Company reports net revenues of $397.1 million for the second quarter, up from $387.5 million during the same quarter last year, a 2.5% increase, while operating income rose $11.1 million to $128.2 million. Net income for the quarter reached $92.4 million on the quarter, up from $81.9 million for same period in 2016. Net income per diluted share increased 11.9% to $0.94 from $0.84 for the three months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was $181.9, an increase of 3.1%. The quarterly results came in “largely as expected,” says CEO Sean Reilly in a prepared statement, adding: “However, due to what we now see as a sluggish ad environment for the rest of the year, we are reducing our full year 2017 AFFO per share guidance accordingly.” Get more details.
Dimming of the day: The total solar eclipse on Aug. 21 will reduce the sunlight needed to create electricity at nearly 1,900 utility-scale solar arrays around the U.S., FuelFix.com reports. However, the U.S. Department of Energy does not expect the eclipse to harm grid reliability. But solar panels in the eclipse’s so-called path of totality—where the sun will be totally eclipsed by the moon—will be impacted the most, with direct sunlight disappearing for three minutes. The path of the total eclipse stretches from coast to coast, and will start in Oregon and move east to South Carolina. There are only 17 utility-scale solar arrays in the total solar eclipse, most of them in Oregon. Sunlight shining on solar panels in North Carolina and Georgia will be about 90% obscured. Read more.
