Tundra drilling heating up: An Anchorage senator says the $616 million ConocoPhillips earned in Alaska during the first quarter of 2012 shows the state is a highly profitable place to produce oil. Sen. Bill Wielechowski says the figure equates to $7 million a day and “blows a hole” in the governor’s argument for lowering taxes on existing legacy field producers. ConocoPhillips Alaska spokeswoman Natalie Lowman says the $7 million figure is “far overshadowed” by the $13 million a day in taxes and royalties ConocoPhillips paid to the state during the quarter, and the profits are the result of significant past investments. Lowman says ConocoPhillips’ capital investment grew from $1.8 billion to $4.8 billion between 2010 and 2012 in the lower 48 states but stayed around $900 million in Alaska. The company plans to discuss the figures further in a legislative hearing today.
Singing a sad song: The owner of Armstrong’s Cricket Farm in West Monroe says a Monday night fire destroyed 3 million crickets at the business. Jack Armstrong estimates his loss of the building and the inventory at $500,000. Fire investigator Charlie Simmons tells The (Monroe) News-Star the fire was confined to only one of the multiple buildings where crickets are housed. Simmons believes the fire started from the malfunction of an electric fan motor. Armstrong says although 3 million crickets were killed in the fire, the building only housed a small portion of the business’s total crickets. He says some of the crickets lost in the fire were scheduled to be shipped out today to PetSmart locations across the country, and the rest were intended to be sold as fish bait in early May.
From the top: The Southern University Marching Band, or “Human Jukebox” as it’s often billed, has been named 2012’s Best HBCU Marching Band by the Center for HBCU Media Advocacy. Also, the SU Alumni Federation was named National Alumni Association of the Year. The SU Marching Band has performed around the world and made several TV appearances in addition to being featured in two of film director Spike Lee’s productions. Since 2010, the SU Alumni Federation has awarded more than 215 scholarships to SU students totaling more than $124,000. The Southern University System had nominees in eight of the 27 categories among the finalists for the second installment of the national award ceremony recognizing Historically Black College and University achievement. See the full list of all colleges, universities and students who won 2012 awards here.
Today’s poll question: Do you plan to head downtown this weekend to take part in the Louisiana Bicentennial celebration?
