Investigation: State Rep. C. Denise Marcelle is calling for the East Baton Rouge Public Defender’s Office to be investigated, saying that since Chief Public Defender Lisa Parker came in less than a year ago things have taken a turn for the worse, WAFB-TV reports. In a letter Marcelle sent to the public defender board, she says 30 people have left the office since Parker took over, with some of those employees filing lawsuits that taxpayers will be on the hook for. Read the full story.
February rise: An inflation gauge that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve jumped 6.4% in February compared with a year ago, with sharply higher prices for food, gasoline and other necessities squeezing Americans’ finances. The figure reported this morning by the Commerce Department was the largest year-over-year rise since January 1982. Excluding volatile prices for food and energy, so-called core inflation increased 5.4% in February from 12 months earlier. Read more.
Modest increase: OPEC and allied oil producers including Russia decided today to stick to a modest increase in the amount of crude they pump to the world, a step that supports higher prices even as the Biden administration plans to try to lower them by releasing oil from strategic reserves. The group, known as OPEC+, says it will add 432,000 barrels per day in May, as it works to gradually restore production cuts made during the depths of the coronavirus pandemic. That’s slightly up from 400,000 barrels in previous months. Read more.
