Higher pay: Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond is following in the footsteps of LSU, giving its faculty and staff merit raises for the first time since the 2009-2010 fiscal year. Southeastern President John L. Crain in a news release says approximately $3 million has been allocated in the current budget for the raises, which will be given to all full-time faculty and staff employed as of June 30. The total raise pool will be approximately 5.25% of the current salary base, but individual faculty and unclassified staff raises may be more or less than this amount. Southeastern has roughly 1,100 faculty and staff. LSU announced earlier this week that it was giving some faculty and staff raises as a way to retain and attract top talent.
Binge watch: Netflix is engaged in active discussions with Walt Disney Co. about keeping Marvel and Star Wars films after 2019, when new Disney and Pixar movies will stop appearing on the streaming service. Disney announced Tuesday, according to Reuters, that it’s yanking new releases from Netflix starting in 2019 and moving them to its own to-be-launched streaming service. But Bob Iger, Disney CEO, says the company has yet to decide where it would distribute films from Marvel Studios and movies from “Star Wars” producer Lucasfilm, which it owns. Iger says the Marvel and Lucasfilm movies could go to Netflix or another streaming service after 2019, or Disney might retain the rights for itself. Read more.
Shipped: As it looks to muscle its way into the $700 billion U.S. grocery business, Amazon is exploring a food technology first developed for the U.S. military to produce ready-to eat meals that do not need refrigeration. The online retailer, according to Reuters, is planning to sell prepared dishes that are easy to stockpile and ship as soon as next year. The meal delivery service would build on the company’s AmazonFresh service, which has been delivering groceries to customers’ homes for a decade. In the meantime, Amazon is exploring the use of food-prep tech known as microwave assisted thermal sterilization, which involves placing sealed packages of food in pressurized water and heating them with microwaves for several minutes. Read more.
