Still lower: Even though gas prices at the pump have jumped by 9 cents over the past two weeks, Baton Rouge still has the lowest prices in the nation. The Associated Press reports the average price of regular gasoline in Baton Rouge was $1.92 per gallon as of Sunday. San Francisco reportedly had the highest price of $2.83 per gallon for regular gasoline. Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said Sunday that the hike is mostly due to crude oil prices edging up. The price at the pump has risen 50 cents over the past 12 weeks. The average price of gasoline has jumped to $2.27 a gallon for regular grade. The U.S. average for diesel is $2.28 per gallon, up 8 cents from two weeks ago.
Almost there: BREC has been named a finalist for the 2016 National Gold Medal Awards for Excellence in Park and Recreation Management. According to a news release, the awards honor communities that have demonstrated excellence in parks and recreation through long-term planning, volunteerism, resource management, environmental stewardship and other categories. BREC is a finalist in the Class 1 category, which is the largest category and includes agencies service communities with populations over 400,000. Previous winners include the Maryland-National Capital Park (2015) and Chicago Park District (2014). Other 2016 Class 1 finalists are Cleveland Metroparks, Cleveland, Ohio; Johnson County Park and Recreation District, Shawnee Mission, Kansas; and Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Digging in: North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory sued the U.S. Justice Department to preserve the state’s new law restricting the use of public bathrooms by transgender people, The Associated Press reports. “This is not a North Carolina issue. It is now a national issue,” says McCrory, a Republican. At issue is a fiercely disputed North Carolina law that says transgender people must use the restroom corresponding to the gender on their birth certificate. The law also excludes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from state anti-discrimination protection and bars local governments from adopting their own anti-bias measures. The Justice Department last week said the law violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Read the full story.
