Next step: East Baton Rouge Parish Assistant Library Director Mary Stein says the 8,750 square feet available in the Kress Building at 447 Third St. has to undergo minor renovations before the downtown library can move there temporarily. Those renovations should take between four to six weeks, Stein says. Once renovations are complete, the Quality Group Inc. will begin moving some of the library’s items to the temporary location, while some will be taken to storage and others will be taken to the Outreach Collection Services at 3434 North Blvd. The Metro Council approved the lease agreement and moving contract at Wednesday’s meeting, four weeks after deferring the item over concerns about the rent amount. Stein says the library system is working with the city-parish to adjust the timeline for demolishing the current River Center branch and building a new one.
Rolling in cash: Louisiana Lottery Corp. generated more than $115 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2016, and roughly $40.2 million of that was transferred to the state treasury. The transfer to state coffers is about $1 million more than what was transferred in the second quarter of 2015 and about 6.6% better than what was budget for the period, according to a Louisiana Lottery news release issued today about the corporation’s second quarter revenues. By law, Louisiana Lottery must transfer at least 35% of its proceeds to the state treasury and to K-12 public education. In December, Louisiana Lottery transferred $25.9 million to the Lottery Proceeds Fund which is dedicated for public education. Approximately $79 million has been transferred so far this fiscal year.
Final arguments: Jurors saw images of the flaming, badly damaged Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig and the resulting oil-fouled coast as closing arguments began in the criminal trial of former BP engineer Robert Kaluza, The Associated Press reports. Kaluza is charged with violating the federal Clean Water Act in connection with the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Jury deliberations on the single count were likely to begin this evening evening after final arguments by prosecutors and the defense. The blast at the Deepwater Horizon site killed 11 workers and sent millions of gallons of oil spewing from the Gulf floor for weeks. Prosecutors say Kaluza was negligent in his reading of a critical pressure test. His negligence, they say, was one cause of the rig explosion.
