The final cut: After more than half a century in operation, the LSU Student Union Barbershop has closed, student newspaper The Daily Reveille reports. The shop, along with the Union, first opened in 1964. The closure came after Lawrence Cutrone, the barbershop’s manager, decided “he was going in a different direction with his life,” says Communications Coordinator for Auxiliary Services Heather Gulino. “At that point, [Cutrone] decided to close the shop down and possibly make it [a] space that can fit more than just the male demographic.” No decisions have been made concerning what to do with the vacated space, but Gulino says many LSU faculty and staff members expressed an interest in a hair salon for both men and women. Read the full story.
A bridge too far: BP settlement funds meant for ecological restoration won’t be diverted to finish a $350 million project to elevate a highway to connect the mainland with a key oil and gas port at the edge of the Gulf of Mexico—something environmental groups and even gubernatorial candidates railed against. The Associated Press reports the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, a panel which oversees coastal matters in south Louisiana, voted today instead to look at using another source of money for the bridge and leave the BP PLC settlement funds alone. The compromise entails allowing up to 10% of funds Louisiana is due to receive in 2017 from offshore revenues—that now go to the federal government—to be spent on infrastructure projects such as elevating the bridge.
Further on down the road: A court hearing about who will control University Health hospitals in Shreveport and Monroe has been moved to November, The News-Star reports. It’s the first hearing in a lawsuit filed in 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge by LSU asking that Biomedical Research Foundation of Northwest Louisiana be removed as the former charity hospitals’ operator. The hearing had been set for Tuesday and Wednesday, but it was moved to Nov. 4-5. LSU formally served a breach of contract notice to BRF last month, demanding the foundation withdraw as the operator of University Health. LSU formed a new nonprofit Sept. 23—Academic Health of North Louisiana Hospital Management Co. Inc.—to take over. Read the full story.
