The lights are much brighter there: The Louisiana Budget Project office, currently on Goodwood Boulevard, will be moving into newly renovated office space on Third and Main streets downtown. “We are pleased to partner in this move with Springboard, a nonprofit campus located in the historic Kress Building and formed to host a collaborative partnership between charitable and business entities with the specific mission of ‘stimulating, nurturing and growing creativity in our next generation of entrepreneurs,’ ” LBP says in a news release. The LBP office is closed today, while the move takes place, and will reopen Monday at 447 Third St., on the second floor.
Pushing weight: Nothing on the agenda for New Orleans City Council’s Thursday’s meeting showed that the governing body intended to vote on plans to build a Costco store on South Carrollton Avenue. But as The Times-Picayune reports, after Mayor Mitch Landrieu made an unscheduled and unusual appearance before the City Council to ask it to speed up the approval process, council members unanimously endorsed the plans. It will be the first Costco in Louisiana, and officials say it will be typical of other Costco stores, selling general merchandise and food, and featuring a pharmacy, tire center and gas station. Read the full story here.
Shelter from the storm: The board governing Louisiana’s property insurer of last resort agreed Thursday to drop rates by 10% across a dozen south Louisiana parishes retroactive to June 7, when the reduction was signed into law. The $16 million annual rate cut is for customers of the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which provides coverage those who have trouble finding it in the private market. Citizens customers in Calcasieu, Cameron, Vermilion, Iberia, St. Tammany, Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, St. Mary, Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes won’t likely see a change on their bills until November. Read the full story here.
Today’s poll question: Are you going to use any vacation or personal days around Independence Day to extend the midweek holiday?
