At your service: Three Baton Rouge area residents will be among 10 people awarded for their work to help children at the 2017 Angel Awards Ceremony. Presented by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation of Louisiana, the ceremony will take place on Oct. 16 at the Renaissance Hotel. Each honoree will receive a $20,000 grant to the charity of their choice. This year’s honorees include Jonathan James—the president and CEO of Hope Charities—who works to support to people living with hemophilia and their families. Also being recognized is Clyde Johnson, who has spent the last 13 years working to close the achievement gap as a volunteer in public schools. Rotarian Anselmo Rodriguez has been selected as this year’s “Blue Angel” winner. Get more information.
Postponed: A meeting between Gov. John Bel Edwards and the north Louisiana legislative delegation about the contract holder for the region’s safety net hospitals has been postponed due to Hurricane Harvey, the USA Today Network of Louisiana reports. Edwards, who’s reportedly on the verge of terminating the state contract with BRF, was scheduled to meet with the legislators in Shreveport today, but cancelled his travel due to the weather. BRF—formerly Biomedical Research Foundation—runs the state charity hospitals in Monroe and Shreveport. The foundation filed an antitrust lawsuit against Willis Knighton, the largest hospital provider in northwest Louisiana. The lawsuit makes the state contract untenable, and Edwards is likely to file a termination notice. However, he won’t take action until meeting with the delegation. Read the full story from the USA Today Network of Louisiana.
Scraping by: Half of the jobs in America currently pay less than $18 an hour, The Washington Post reports, citing the latest data from the U.S. Labor Department. That’s about $37,000 a year for a full-time employee. Jobs are plentiful, the newspaper reports, but jobs with good wages aren’t—leaving many working long hours or multiple jobs but still barely scraping by. There’s also debate about what constitutes a “good-paying job,” but it’s notable that manufacturing jobs, which President Donald Trump campaigned on bringing back, pay over $20.50 an hour, on average. The Washington Post has the full story.
