On board: A March 28 election date has been set by Gov. Bobby Jindal to fill a vacant seat on the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.The governor on Monday named a temporary BESE member: Mary Johnson Harris, of Shreveport, principal of South Highlands Elementary Magnet School and a former Caddo Parish teacher of the year. The seat on the 11-member education board was open after member Walter Lee resigned last month in a plea deal that ended a felony theft case against him. BESE sets education policy for 69 public school districts and more than 700,000 students. Lee represented the 4th District, covering 10 parishes in northwest Louisiana. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in the March election, a May 2 runoff will be held.
Party time: The countdown to Mardi Gras is underway in New Orleans. The Associated Press reports Mayor Mitch Landrieu planned to note the beginning of the Carnival season with a news conference today at a riverside warehouse where many of the huge, colorful floats for Carnival parades are on display. And a group of masked revelers known as the Phorty Phunny Phellows scheduled their annual streetcar ride through town this evening—a decades-old tradition marking the 12th night after Christmas and the official start of the season. Mardi Gras falls on Feb. 17 this year.
Tapping into it: Chevron Corp. says it has discovered oil in its Gulf of Mexico Anchor well and will begin appraisal drilling in the coming months. As The Wall Street Journal reports, the discovery is the second in the Gulf for the company in less than a year, amid tumbling oil prices worldwide. Jay Johnson, Chevron senior vice president, says the Anchor discovery, along with last year’s discovery at the Guadalupe well, are “significant finds” and that the company reported more than 30 discoveries worldwide in 2014. Chevron currently has five deepwater drillships in the Gulf; two of those are focused on exploring potential sources of new oil.
