In the bank: Houston-based RES, a land bank with offices in Baton Rouge, has been selected by Cheniere Energy to provide more than 800 acres of wetlands for mitigation associated with Cheniere’s Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas export facility that’s under development in Cameron Parish. Along with selling Cheniere the wetlands, RES also assisted the company with acquiring the necessary permits for the project from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and numerous other federal and state regulatory agencies. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. RES has more details.
Law and order: As a campaign to raise the minimum wage as high as $15 has achieved victories in such places as Seattle, Los Angeles and New York, it has bumped up against a harsh reality: Plenty of scofflaw businesses don’t pay the legal minimum now and probably won’t pay the new, higher wages either. The Associated Press reports that some economists, labor activists and regulators predict that without stronger enforcement, the number of workers getting cheated out of a legal wage is bound to increase in places where wages rise. Estimates on the size of the problem vary, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that in 2014, roughly 1.7 million U.S. workers were illegally paid less than the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour. Read the full story.
The big deal: Warren Buffett is making the biggest bet of his long investment career yet: a $32.36 billion buyout of Precision Castparts in a deal that will continue to reshape his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate. The Associated Press reports the acquisition of the aerospace and industrial company would top Buffett’s $26.7 billion deal for BNSF railroad in 2010. It also follows several huge deals outside of the core insurance companies Buffett built his investment empire on that included manufacturing, railroads, utilities and food companies. Buffett announced this morning that Berkshire will pay $235 per share in cash for Precision Castparts’ outstanding stock. The deal is valued at about $37.2 billion, including debt. Read the full story.
