New Orleans Business News

The latest business news from New Orleans and south Louisiana

The 29th annual International WorkBoat Show kicks off Wednesday at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center New Orleans.

IberiaBank Corp. is poised to gain $90 million from the Treasury Department as part of the government's bailout of the financial system, making it the second Louisiana bank to qualify for federal funds.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Dow Jones climbed 270 points today as investors returned cautiously to the stock market after Monday's losses.

Bayou Bend President and CEO Clint Coldren has resigned effective immediately to pursue other endeavors.

Bayou Bend CEO Clint Coldren is stepping down.

LHC Group, a Lafayette home nursing company, has acquired Whispering Pines Health Services, Inc. of Oklahoma for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition expands LHC's geographic footprint to 16 states.

The average local price of unleaded gasoline stands at $1.727 a gallon this morning, down from $1.729 a gallon on Monday, according to AAA. One month ago, the average local price stood at $2.375 a gallon.

Although Christmas trees were among the thousands of trees damaged during the hurricanes that hit Louisiana this year, this shouldn't affect the current holiday season, according to Don Reed, LSU AgCenter wildlife and forestry specialist.

New Orleans tourism officials unveiled Monday an ad campaign they hope will convince visitors to travel to the city even as they grip tighter to their wallets this holiday season.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which racked up $17.4 million in debt in the National Flood Insurance Program after the 2005 hurricanes, doesn't set prices to adequately reflect the cost of the risk in the properties that it insures, leaving taxpayers at risk for picking up the tab, according to a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged nearly 700 points today on another round of downbeat economic news.

The average price of unleaded gasoline in the metro New Orleans area stood at $1.729 a gallon today, unchanged from Sunday's price, according to AAA. One month ago, the average local price stood at $2.405 a gallon.

An airport controlled by the Greater Lafourche Port Commission has been awarded $4.8 million in funding to construct the first phase of a full-length parallel taxiway.

North Carolina lawmakers were thrifty when they were in New Orleans earlier this year for a gathering of the National Conference of State Legislators.

The U.S. Supreme Court signaled interest in a case that would affect how much leverage oil companies have to change their leases with tens of thousands of independent service station owners.

Rusty Costanza / The Times-PicayuneLocal employers continue to add jobs despite the economic downturn that has hit other major cities in force. Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in Avondale has an acute need for skilled workers such as pipefitters and electricians.

In the first months after Hurricane Katrina, one of the most striking indications of how drastically the labor landscape had changed was the $6,000 bonus offered by Burger King to would-be full-time employees.

Ted Jackson / The Times-PicayuneDespite a huge surplus in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, a cache created by Congress to pay for work on federal waterways, important dredging projects around the state remain unfinished.

Giant oil tankers headed for refineries at the Port of Lake Charles have had to go a little lighter in recent months, as silt stirred up by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike has made the Calcasieu River too shallow for many fully loaded ships.

Bracing for the prospect that Americans will grip their wallets more tightly and cut back on travel, the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation plans to dip into its reserve next year to finance tourism promotion and marketing efforts.

By 4:20 a.m. Friday, Gramercy resident Lenora Davis had nabbed the leather jacket that was on her list at J.C. Penney at Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie, and she and her sister were heading to Macy's for its 5 a.m. opening to buy some jeans listed on sale.

"We're not spending as much," said her sister, Connie Jackson of LaPlace. "Definitely only things that are on sale."

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold may increase production cuts and take a "significant" writedown on its $26 billion acquisition of Phelps Dodge Corp. because of slumping copper prices, Dahlman Rose & Co. said Friday.

On Monday, private insurers will take over responsibility for another 13,343 policies from Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., a move that will reduce the size of the state-sponsored insurer of last resort to what it was when Hurricane Katrina hit.

BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana revenue officials say a new program that lets people pay state and local sales taxes from their computers has already collected more than $50 million in its first two months of operation.

While some airports around the country are dealing with huge crowds, officials at Louis Armstrong International Airport reported no unusual delays for travelers heading out for a Thanksgiving vacation.

Louisiana's biggest bank is one step closer to gaining hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government's bailout of the financial system.

As consumers sit down to the national holiday best celebrated around the dining table, number crunchers are touting the low-cost nature of the affair.

The Louisiana State University AgCenter tells us that $41 will feed 10 people, just $5 more than the cost of last year's meal, making Thanksgiving a welcome thrifty holiday in these lean economic times. But that's just a start.