No timeline: The city-parish Public Works Department on Wednesday closed the Lovett Road bridge because of deficiencies in the recently completed structure. During the closure, for which no timeline was specified, drivers’ alternate route is via Joor, Hooper and Sullivan roads. Telephone inquiries regarding the closure and alternate route should be directed to the department’s Engineering Division at 389-3186.
Defends ‘alternative plan’: Commissioner of Higher Education Jim Purcell released the following statement Wednesday in response to media reports that the U.S. Department of Commerce has rejected Louisiana’s request to appeal the loss of an $80 million broadband grant. “While we have not received the courtesy of a formal response or any communication from the Commerce Department concerning our request for an appeal of the BTOP grant decision, if media reports are true that it has been denied we are disappointed with the lack of flexibility and cooperativeness being shown to Louisiana,” Purcell writes. “We delivered an alternative plan that was more effective in its approach, saved money, met the deadlines and accomplished all of the goals of the grant. If reports in the media are true, it is disheartening that an appeal is not available to our state and that our citizens will not benefit from the expansion of broadband services to schools, universities, libraries and other locations within the underserved areas of the Delta Region.” Read one of those media reports Purcell refers to from The Times-Picayune here.
Another bite: Adobe Systems is pulling its Flash software for Web video and games from the browsers of mobile devices, though Flash will still work on mobile apps and on the Web browsers of regular computers. The move is a win for Apple, which has famously banned Flash from working on the iPhone and the iPad. Adobe, however, says the about-face is about giving people what they want. “I wouldn’t say we lost to Apple. I’d say we listened to customers,” Adobe’s chief financial officer, Mark Garrett, said in an interview at the company’s meeting with analysts in New York. Read the full story from The Associated Press here.
