Roundup: Jobless claims / Washington Mardi Gras / Five years after flood

Unemployment: The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell for a third straight week, the latest sign that employers are laying off fewer people as they struggle to fill a record number of open jobs and meet a surge in consumer demand. This morning’s report from the Labor Department showed jobless claims fell to 375,000 from 387,000 the previous week. Read the full story. 

Richard Lipsey: Mystick Krewe of Louisianians and 2022 Washington Mardi Gras chairman U.S. Rep. Garret Graves today announced that Baton Rouge’s Richard Lipsey and Madison Smith of LaPlace will serve as the krewe’s king and queen for the upcoming Washington Mardi Gras. Washington Mardi Gras has brought Louisiana’s pageantry to Washington, D.C., for 70 years. 

Remembering: It’s been five years since that once-in-a-millennium storm swamped much of south Louisiana in August 2016. The heavy rains and floods, which began Aug. 12, killed 13 people, displaced tens of thousands, destroyed some 60,000 houses and caused an estimated $8.7 billion in damages across 20 parishes. Read a Business Report cover package from 2017 looking at how area businesses recovered. 

On the Delta front … 

• Nineteen Louisiana House Republicans want the school mask mandate rescinded. (Louisiana Illuminator) 

• Ochsner Health, the state’s largest hospital system, has declined 175 requests to receive patients who needed advanced care not available at other hospitals because they are inundated with COVID-19 patients, officials said in an online media briefing Wednesday. (The Daily Advertiser) 

• Federal regulators are expected to amend the emergency use authorizations for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to allow for a third shot of coronavirus vaccine as soon as today for some immunocompromised people. (USA Today) 

• The CDC urged pregnant women to get vaccinated, pointing to data that indicated no safety concerns. (The New York Times)