Going up: Construction is underway on The Martin-Brower Company’s $16 million food distribution facility in Walker. Company officials led a groundbreaking ceremony today at the Livingston Industrial Park on U.S. 190, where Martin Brower will build a 142,000-square-foot logistics facility for state-of-the-art distribution to quick-service restaurants in a three-state region. The state is providing Martin Brower a competitive incentive package that includes a performance-based $1.2 million grant to offset the costs of a new road and related infrastructure improvements at the Livingston Industrial Park. Louisiana Economic Development has more details.
Going down: The beleaguered Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, the only nuclear power plant in Massachusetts, will close by June 2019 because it’s becoming too expensive to run, Entergy Corp. announced today. The Associated Press reports the decision by the New Orleans-based firm comes about a month after federal inspectors downgraded the plant’s safety rating to the lowest level and said they would increase oversight in the wake of a shutdown during a winter storm. Entergy had maintained that the plant in Plymouth remained safe, although it needed millions of dollars in upgrades. Entergy cited “poor market conditions, reduced revenues and increased operational costs” in today’s announcement. Read the full story.
Not going away: Gov. Bobby Jindal’s presidential campaign is panning the debate criteria that will whittle down the candidate list for the next Republican debate. As The Associated Press reports, the Republican Louisiana governor’s campaign says the criteria ignore the importance of early voting states Iowa and New Hampshire. Without a change, Jindal appears again headed for the undercard debate, rather than the main stage, for the CNBC event Oct. 28. The governor’s campaign wants the network and the Republican National Committee to use polling data from Iowa—where Jindal’s numbers have been increasing—and New Hampshire to determine which GOP contenders reach the prime time debate, rather than national polling.
