On the docket: The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from a death row inmate in Louisiana who claims he should not be executed because he is mentally disabled. Kevan Brumfield was convicted in the shooting death of off-duty Baton Rouge police Cpl. Betty Smothers in 1993. A federal judge ruled that Brumfield was mentally disabled and thus protected from execution under a Supreme Court decision in 2002. But the federal appeals court in New Orleans reversed the judge’s ruling. The justices announced today they will review that ruling. The case will be argued in March.
On the way down: The state labor department says first-time claims for unemployment insurance in Louisiana for the week ending Nov. 29 decreased to 1,698 from the previous week’s total of 2,547, a drop attributed to a short work week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. For the comparable week a year earlier, there were 1,850 initial claims, officials announced today. The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, decreased to 2,244, from the previous week’s average of 2,364. Continued unemployment claims for the week ending Nov. 29 decreased to 19,558 compared to 19,764 the previous week. The four-week moving average for such claims increased to 19,410 from the previous week’s average of 19,318.
Four more: Houston-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. says the number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. rose by three this week to 1,920. In its weekly report, issued today, the firm counts 1,575 rigs exploring for oil and 344 for gas. One was listed as miscellaneous. A year ago there were 1,775 active rigs. Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, Kansas gained five rigs, Louisiana’s count increased by four, Alaska and Arkansas each gained two and California, and New Mexico and Ohio each gained one. Texas lost five rigs, Oklahoma lost three, Colorado lost two and Pennsylvania and Wyoming each lost one. The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.
