Looking to make a comeback: McAlister’s Deli is seeking to re-enter the Baton Rouge market. The fast casual restaurant chain announced today that it’s seeking new partnerships to open restaurants in and around the Baton Rouge area. The McAlister’s Deli location at 7242 Perkins Road closed in December, and the building has since been purchased by local investors for $1.4 million. McAlister’s Deli has 15 Louisiana locations. The company says 2015 was a successful year in franchise growth with $548 million in sales system wide and 27 new restaurants throughout the United States. Read the full announcement.
In hospice care: Mike VI, LSU’s live tiger mascot, has transitioned to hospice care less than a week after the animal’s caretakers announced that he has one to two months left to live. In a post on a Mike VI’s Facebook page, the university announced the tiger will no longer be out in his yard, though it’s unclear if that’s just for the time being or indefinitely. Mike VI was diagnosed in May with a rare, incurable cancer called spindle cell sarcoma, a malignant tumor derived from the fibrous connective tissues of the bone. The tumor is in Mike’s face. Despite radiation treatments, the cancer has since spread to the base of his neck, his lungs and to his right leg. Dr. David Baker said during a press conference last week that Mike VI would be euthanized when the time comes, to prevent the animal from suffering. Baker has begun searching for a Mike VII.
Lasting impact: Harvard University professor Oliver Hart and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Bengt Holmstrom were announced as winners of the Nobel Economics Prize this morning for their work on contract theory. Reuters reports their work addresses an array of questions from how best to reward executives to whether schools and prisons should be privately owned. Their findings have implications in areas ranging from corporate governance to bankruptcy legislation. Hart’s work focuses in part on understanding how companies should merge and when institutions such as prisons, schools and hospitals should be privately or publicly owned. Read the full story.
