Going out west: Gov. Bobby Jindal heads to Texas this weekend to deliver a speech at The ProFamily Legislators Conference in Dallas. The conference “provides an opportunity for conservative pro-family state legislators from across the United States to come together for an insightful briefing session with leading experts in a variety of fields that touch many of the most crucial areas of public service,” according to the event’s website. Others slated to speak at the conference are Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, former congressman and current executive director of the conservative Council for National Policy Bob McEwen and Fox News commentator Todd Starnes.
Doing the two step: The bull run in Microsoft’s stock this past year has helped the tech giant surpass ExxonMobil and seize the rank of the second most valuable company, behind Apple Inc. The Associated Press reports Microsoft’s total market value surged above $410 billion today. That leapfrogged Exxon’s value of $404 billion, which has been dinged by the drop in oil prices. Apple is currently the world’s most valuable company, with a market capitalization of more than $668 billion. That’s more than the $616 billion that Microsoft was worth when it was No. 1 in December 1999. Read the full story.
Rising up: Natural gas inventories rose by 40 billion cubic feet last week, extending a long run of higher-than-average storage injections, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says. FuelFix.com reports natural gas storage levels have been struggling to recover from a frigid winter in 2014 that left inventories well below five-year average levels. Since then, producers have been directing large amounts of gas to storage in preparation for winter drawdowns. In total, inventories remain about 6.2% below five-year average levels. Read the full story.
