All along the injured coast: With money from Louisiana Sea Grant, the Baton Rouge-based Water Institute of the Gulf will launch a two-year synthesis project this spring with an aim of “building community resilience to a changing Louisiana coastline through restoration of key ecosystem components.” The synthesis project will make it possible to identify available best practices and develop management and education resources to assist community stakeholders, scientists, coastal managers and decision-makers in enhancing community resilience. The institute has more details on today’s announcement.
All together now: Louisiana’s community and technical colleges announced today a workforce development partnership with CB&I whereby the company will develop and tailor a welding curriculum that provides hands-on training for careers in high-demand, high-wage fields. Under the partnership, CB&I also will contribute a full-time welding instructor at both Baton Rouge Community College and SOWELA Technical Community College in Lake Charles, as well as a weld-operations manager to serve as a liaison between the company and colleges. The partnership is a part of the new Workforce and Innovation for a Stronger Economy Plan.
Musical chairs: Rep. John Fleming, R-Minden, tells Roll Call he’s “very interested” in running for Sen. David Vitter’s seat should Vitter win next year’s governor’s race. “I’m very interested in that possibility,” Fleming tells the publication. “Sen. Vitter is quite conservative, and I think we need to replace a good strong conservative with another conservative.” Should Vitter win the governor’s race next fall, he would need to step down from the Senate and an interim senator would fill his seat until an election would be held in 2016. Read the full story.
