At the podium: Economist Loren Scott will be the keynote speaker at the Livingston Economic Development Council’s annual meeting, set for 11:30 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, at Forrest Grove Plantation, 8743 Stephenson Dr. in Denham Springs. Tickets to the event are $15 per person. Reservations are required no later than Friday, Jan. 20. To reserve a spot, call Kaylynn Wheat at 225-686-3982, or send an email to her here. Scott is president of Loren C. Scott & Associates Inc., a 30-year old economic consulting firm whose clients include such large national firms as BellSouth, Capital One Financial, Entergy, ExxonMobil, J.P. Morgan Chase, and a diversity of others.
Rusty but trusty: That clunker in America’s driveway has reached a record old age, but there are signs that people in increasing numbers may soon grow confident enough in the economy to get a whiff of that fresh new car scent. The average age of a car or truck in the United States hit a record 10.8 years in 2011, as job security and other economic worries kept many people from making big-ticket purchases such as a new car. That’s up from the old record of 10.6 years in 2010, and it continues a trend that dates to 1995, when the average age of a car was 8.4 years, according to a study of state vehicle registration data by the Southfield, Mich.-based Polk automotive research firm. The Associated Press has the full story here.
Cut! “I’m retiring,” legendary director George Lucas tells The New York Times. “I’m moving away from the business, from the company, from all this kind of stuff.” Lucas, of Star Wars and Indiana Jones fame, tells the newspapers of his frustrations with getting his latest movie, Red Tails, onto the big screen, and it sounds like it was the final straw for him—though he was careful to leave himself an out clause when it comes to a fifth Indiana Jones film. But otherwise, Lucas says, Red Tails will be the last blockbuster he makes. “Once this is finished, he’s done everything he’s ever wanted to do,” says Rick McCallum, who has been producing Lucas’s films for more than 20 years. “He will have completed his task as a man and a filmmaker.” Read the full story here.
