At your fingertips: Baton Rouge Mayor Melvin “Kip” Holden this morning announced the launch of Red Stick 311, a web platform and smartphone app for Apple and Android. Red Stick 311 enables citizens to request government services and report service-related issues in real time, according to a new release. Users can log requests for service, upload images that provide visual references to the nature of their request and create online accounts to track the status of their requests.
Take two: Cleco Corp. and its prospective foreign buyers want the Louisiana Public Service Commission to reconsider its decision rejecting the sale of the Pineville-based company, The Town Talk reports. Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, John Hancock Financial and other infrastructure investors wanted to purchase Cleco for $4.9 billion. However, the public service commission voted 3-2 last month to reject the transaction, saying it was not in the best interests of customers. Now Cleco and its prospective buyers want a new hearing “to fully present the transaction’s benefits for Cleco Power customers, employees and communities Cleco serves, and to correct a number of inaccurate claims made during the Feb. 24, meeting,” according to a release. Read the full story.
More money: Often singled out for paying a low minimum wage, Wal-mart Stores, Inc. has announced it will up the pay of more than 1.2 million Walmart and Sam’s Club associates, including more than 33,000 in Louisiana. The raise will take effect in paychecks issued March 10. The retail giant says the wage hike is part of the company’s two-year, $2.7 billion investment in higher compensation, training and educational opportunities. According to the company, the March 10 pay hike means that all associates hired before Jan. 1 will earn at least $10 an hour. New entry-level associates hired after Jan. 1 will start at $9 an hour and move to at least $10 per hour after completing training, Wal-Mart Stores says. Annual pay for associates earning more than $10 an hour will rise starting this month; anyone earning below the new minimum will automatically move up to the new minimum. The company is calling the pay hike the “largest single-day, private-sector pay increase.” Read the full announcement.
