Awaiting assistance: The City of Baton Rouge and school systems in Ascension, Central and East Baton Rouge collectively will receive $11.5 million in federal disaster grants to continue the recovery from last August’s flood. U.S. Sen. John Kennedy in a statement says the Federal Emergency Management Agency grants will partially reimburse the city and the school systems for flood recovery expenses. Baton Rouge has been awarded $1.7 million for efforts associated with replacing flood-damaged vehicles. The Ascension Parish School Board will receive $3.5 million for remediation activities at St. Amant High School. Central Community School System will get $2.8 million to repair Tanglewood Elementary, which flooded with roughly 24 inches of water. The East Baton Rouge School Board will receive roughly $3.4 million for remediation work at Park Forest Elementary and Park Forest Middle.
Gifted: Officials at Southeastern Louisiana University say the Hammond institution has received the largest single donation in its 92-year history: a $10 million bequest from a 1953 graduate. As The Associated Press reports, Southeastern says the donation is courtesy of Seth Ryan, a 1953 business graduate who died last month. Ryan left a significant portion of his estate to the Southeastern Foundation in the name of his wife, Thelma Ryan. The donation will become part of the Southeastern Louisiana University Foundation Scholarship Endowment. It bolsters one of Southeastern’s strategic initiatives: to increase the number of women enrolled in science, technology, engineering and math programs, says Wendy Lauderdale, Southeastern’s vice president for advancement.
Change of thinking: United Airlines is changing how it removes customers from overbooked flights in the wake of a video that showed the forcible removal of a Chicago passenger on Sunday. Bloomberg reports that United CEO Oscar Munoz told ABC News the airline would not use law enforcement officers to remove overbooked passengers. Munoz says the problem on the now viral flight resulted from a “system failure” that prevented employees from using “common sense” in the situation. Munoz also says he had no plans to resign over the incident that has drawn worldwide condemnation. The CEO profusely apologized to the passenger, his family, passengers, the airline’s customers. “This can never, will never happen again,” he said.
