Covering new ground: A north Louisiana advertising agency has expanded to Baton Rouge, opening a new downtown office on North 4th Street, across from Matherne’s Supermarket. The Shreveport-based Romph & Pou Agency opened in the Capital City this week. The office is currently being supported by the agency’s Shreveport database and media teams and is in the process of hiring six to eight people. Romph & Pou has more than 100 employees in Louisiana and Tyler, Texas. The agency, which began operating in 1981, represents clients in the automotive, gaming, health care and retail industries.
And the show goes on: The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence ceremony will take place as planned this evening despite icy conditions bringing much of Baton Rouge to a halt, according to a Baton Rouge Area Foundation release. Doors open for the ceremony at 6 p.m. at the Manship Theatre in the Shaw Center for the Arts downtown. Gaines, a revered Louisiana author, will read from his new book, The Tragedy of Brady Sims, and Gaines award winner Ladee Hubbard will read from her novel, The Talented Ribkins. In its 11th year, the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literacy Excellence recognizes emerging African-American fiction writers.
Sweet crude: A $9.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy and several energy companies will help researchers at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and four other institutions study the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale. The grant will fund the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale Laboratory, which will study ways to enable cost-efficient and environmentally-sound recovery of the shale play. About 7 billion barrels of light, sweet crude is estimated to reside there. The formation covers 28 parishes in central and south Louisiana and in southwestern Mississippi. The consortium also includes Los Alamos National Lab, New Mexico; Missouri University of Science and Technology; the University of Oklahoma, Norman; and the University of Southern Mississippi at Hattiesburg. Read more.
