Mad dash: Today marks the start of the Carnival season, and Baton Rouge-area bakeries are hard at work preparing king cakes, WAFB-TV reports. However, global supply chain issues leave no industry untouched and have made it more challenging for bakers to get the seasonal staple together. Watch a feature here.
Boosted: An unemployment compromise will deliver an 11% maximum increase in unemployment benefits for out-of-work Louisianans, starting this week, The Center Square reports. Gov. John Bel Edwards agreed to end federal unemployment benefits tied to COVID-19 relief funding five weeks early last year in exchange for the GOP-controlled Legislature’s commitment to permanently increase benefits at the state level. The result was Act 276 and the first jobless benefit increase in more than a decade. Read the full story.
Slowdown: Growth in the U.S. service industry, where most Americans work, pulled back in December after expanding at a record pace the previous two months. The Institute for Supply Management reported this morning that its monthly survey of service industries declined to a reading of 62 last month, from an all-time high of 69.1 in November. Any reading above 50 indicates growth. See the full story.
