At the starting line: There’s no better place to start a business in America than Shreveport, according to a new ranking of the largest 150 U.S. cities by financial news website WalletHub.com. Baton Rouge, meanwhile, is ranked No. 31 and New Orleans is No. 14. The website says it compiled the rankings by analyzing the relative startup opportunities in each city based on 13 metrics, ranging from five-year survival rate and the affordability of office space to the educational attainment of the local labor force. Rounding out the top five cities after Shreveport are Tulsa; Springfield, Missouri; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Jackson, Mississippi. See the full rankings.
All abuzz: A U.S. Department of Agriculture report on honey shows production is up 19% year over year—a good sign after lengthy periods of decline in honeybee colonies. The Town Talk reports the number of managed colonies has been slashed in half since a peak in the 1940s, according to the USDA, thanks to predatory pests and diseases that have ravaged the non-native insects. Producing colonies have decreased about 4% in Louisiana, March data shows, but colonies were up in number about 22% from 2013. The state of bees in Louisiana remains favorable, says Thomas Rinderer, head researcher at the USDA’s Baton Rouge Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Research Laboratory. Read the full story.
On the road: The average Louisianan is paying about 33% more than the national average for auto insurance premiums, according to a new report from InsuranceQuotes.com, making the state home to the nation’s fifth-highest rate overall. Michigan has the nation’s most expensive auto insurance and North Carolina has the cheapest, according to the report. Michigan drivers pay more than double the national average—about 136% percent more—while North Carolina drivers pay 41% less than the national average. In East Baton Rouge Parish, the report shows insurance is about 4% higher than the stage average. See an interactive map with the full report results.
