Dollars and cents: Business First Bank Bancshares, the parent company of Baton Rouge-based Business First Bank, reported today first quarter net income of $3.1 million, or 29 cents per diluted share, up from $2 million or 27 cents for the same period in 2017. CEO Jude Melville calls Q1 was the most meaningful quarter in the bank’s history. The bank completed its acquisition of Minden Bancorp, saw growth in its loan and deposit portfolios and began trading on Nasdaq, trading under BFST. Read the full announcement.
STEM education: LSU’s College of Engineering and the Office of Continuing Education will this summer host an inaugural robotics camp for high school students. The week-long program—taking place June 18-22 in Patrick F. Taylor Hall—is designed to help high school students develop engineering skills and direct them toward a STEM-related education and career path. Students will learn to assemble robots from basic building blocks, write programs that allow robots to sense inputs and act independently, and create parts of robots for specific tasks. Tuition for the camp is $495. Register and get additional pricing information.
Under review: The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association is lauding the Trump administration for its decision to revise an offshore drilling safety rule in response to 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the well-control rule, completed in the final year of former President Barack Obama’s second term, governs everything from the use of blowout preventers like the device that failed in the Deepwater Horizon spill to the amount of pressure drillers must maintain to avoid accidents. The Trump administration will unveil proposed changes to the rule next week. LMOGA says the rule was written with minimal input from the oil and gas industry, which deemed the regulation burdensome. The Wall Street Journal has the full story.
