Party time: To celebrate its 75th anniversary, Calandro’s Supermarket is throwing a block party on Government Street, spanning the entire parking lot from Edison Street to Glenmore Avenue. The celebration will take place from 4-8 p.m. on Sunday at Calandro’s, 4142 Government St. in Mid City. As part of the event, Calandro’s is hosting “Restock the Food Bank,” a campaign to support the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. The food bank’s warehouses took in roughly four feet of water during the August flood.
Going up: First-time claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana for the week ending Oct. 15 increased from the previous week’s total, The Associated Press reports. State labor department figures released today show the initial claims rose to 2,674 from the previous week’s total of 2,558. For the comparable week a year earlier, there were 2,338. The four-week moving average, which is a less volatile measure of claims, increased to 2,514 from the previous week’s average of 2,446. Continued unemployment claims claimed for the week ending Oct. 15 increased to 24,285 compared to 23,751 the previous week. The four-week moving average for such claims decreased to 24,712 from the previous week’s average of 25,439.
Another loss: Louisiana’s total number of rigs actively exploring for oil and gas dropped by two this week from 48 to 46. According to the weekly tally released by Baker Hughes, a Houston-based oilfield services company, both of the rigs lost were in south Louisiana. Around this time one year ago, Louisiana had 73 active oil and gas rigs. Nationally, the number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas increased by 14 to 553. One year ago, 787 rigs were active. The Associated Press reports that depressed energy prices have sharply curtailed oil and gas exploration. Among major oil- and gas-producing states, Texas gained 10 rigs, Wyoming increased by three, New Mexico was up two and Alaska and Utah added one apiece. Colorado was off by one. Arkansas, California, Kansas, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and West Virginia were unchanged. The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed out in May at 404.
