Naming names: Public Service Commissioner Foster Campbell is expected to officially endorse state Rep. John Bel Edwards for governor during a Tuesday morning press conference in Shreveport. Campbell, a Democrat like Edwards, is a usual suspect in recent races for governor, but he has sat this one out and appears to have a candidate he likes. A state senator for 27 years and the former agriculture chair, Campbell was elected to the PSC in 2002 in a district that covers nearly 1 million people in 24 parishes across practically all of north Louisiana. He won re-election last year with 61% of the vote. Campbell will also be helping Edwards raise money. The commissioner has planned a fundraiser for Tuesday evening in downtown Shreveport for $500 per couple.
Something’s brewing: Baton Rouge-based Community Coffee Company has further expanded its footprint into the Oklahoma market with a new sales and warehouse facility in Oklahoma City. Community has sold its products in Oklahoma for more than two decades, the company says, but the new facility is its first in the state. The 5,700-square-foot facility will serve as a sales and distribution center for the Oklahoma metro regions of Oklahoma City, Lawton, Tulsa and Ardmore, as well as parts of northern Texas, and will also serve all local grocery stores, convenience stores, office accounts and restaurants. Eight sales team members will work from the location.
Pink slips: Houston-based oilfield services firm Baker Hughes has laid off 28 employees from its Shreveport location, according to a notice the company sent to the Louisiana Workforce Commission. In a letter to LWC, Baker Hughes cites the layoffs to reduced exploration due to the plummeting prices in the oil and gas markets. The company says the layoffs in Shreveport are expected to be permanent, adding employees will be paid their salaries for two months and will receive benefits for three months following the layoffs, which it says occurred Sunday. FuelFix.com reported in April that job cuts at Baker Hughes had reached 10,500 workers—or about 17% of its workforce—as it works through a slump in North American drilling.
