More to offer: The landlord of El Tio Taqueria, a Mexican restaurant on Burbank Drive, is seeking to rezone the restaurant so staff can serve alcohol to customers. The restaurant, which sits adjacent to El Tio Supermarket at 9656 Burbank Drive, has been in business for about a year but does not have a liquor license, and some customers have pined for alcohol and wine with their meals, landlord Abu Sarwar says. The restaurant hopes to be rezoned to C-AB-1, which is restaurant commercial alcoholic beverage. The Planning Commission will take up this request along with others at its March 21 meeting.
Record high: Stored commercial oil numbers have set a U.S. record, with more than 500 million barrels in inventory, The Daily Advertiser reports. James Preciado, an analyst for the federal Energy Information Administration, says 502,712,000 barrels of crude were in storage in the U.S. on Jan. 29. That count includes oil at storage sites, in pipelines, at refineries and in storage ships offshore. The record storage provides at least a partial explanation for why commodity prices for oil are so low; they have hovered just above or just below $30 a barrel for weeks, down from more than $100 a barrel in July 2014. Read the full story.
Jumping in: Caroline Fayard, a Denham Springs lawyer and small businesswoman, launched a bid today for Louisiana’s wide-open U.S. Senate race. Current U.S. Sen. David Vitter, who lost the state gubernatorial race to Gov. John Bel Edwards last year, has declined to seek re-election. In a news release sent from her campaign, Fayard is described as a pro-life, pro-business conservative Democrat. “I’m running because it’s time we got our eye back on the ball about the true purpose of government—namely the prosperity, safety and security of this country and its citizens,” she says in the release. Fayard, who ran for lieutenant governor in 2010, will travel the state in coming weeks to discuss her ideas to create and keep jobs in Louisiana, secure its borders and protect the state’s energy economy. She is the lone Democrat in the race at this point. Others vying for the seat are U.S. Reps. John Fleming and Charles Boustany Jr., state Treasurer John Kennedy and retired Col. Rob Maness, all Republicans.
