Spreading their wings: Youngsville-based RedHawk Holdings has announced that it’s expanding its medical device warehousing and administrative offices at LSU Innovation Park. The company says it hopes to complete the expansion by March 31 to address an expected increased domestic and international demand for its medical devices. RedHawk Chairman G. Darcy Klug says in a statement that the expansion will allow the company to consolidate its medical device administration, development, testing, warehousing, quality control, manufacturing, assembly and distribution capabilities. It also will allow RedHawk to work closer on new product development with the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, the LSU Health Science Center, the Pennington BioTech Initiative, the LSU Emerging Technology Center as well as other companies and research institutions at the LSU Innovation Park.
Coming soon: The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is moving ahead with plans to offer an online master’s of business administration degree that could be available as early as this fall. The Advertiser reports College of Business Administration Associate Dean P. Robert Viguerie Jr. says the program still needs “internal approvals” from campus leadership as well as approval at the University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors level. Business school leaders have been considering the online option for about a year, he says. The UL System Board of Supervisors finance committee is expected to take up “special pricing for the online Master’s of Business Administration degree program” at its Thursday meeting. The business administration college does not currently list an online MBA, although the college offers a part-time EMBA program in the afternoon and evenings. Read the full story.
Getting it growing: Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain issued an emergency rule on Friday temporarily lowering germination standards for 120 days to allow for more seed rice to be made available to Louisiana farmers to plant for the 2017 season. Strain says he issued the emergency rule because LDAF analysts found that the seed rice available to producers for this year’s planting season does not meet the current minimum certified germination standard due to flooding last year. “Had we not discovered this, it could have resulted in a significant shortage of rice for the 2017 planting season and a more than $100 million loss for our rice farmers,” Strain says in a prepared statement. Lowering the standards will allow Louisiana farmers to adjust their planting rates to produce enough rice to sell and get through the 2017 season. Read the full statement.
