DOLLAR SENSE

Real-world tips for our growing economic troubles

Gov. Bobby Jindal left for Philadelphia this afternoon to meet with President-elect Barack Obama, hope in hand of loosening federal spending for hurricane recovery projects in Louisiana.

"There are literally billions of dollars that can be pushed through the pipeline that have already been allocated by Congress that have yet to come to our communities, that have yet to come to our state," Jindal said before flying out of Louis Armstrong International Airport.

While the nation, mired in the worst economic downturn in decades, continued to lose jobs at a torrid pace, the New Orleans metro area added 5,800 jobs in October.

DAVID GRUNFELD/THE TIMES-PICAYUNEHigh-rise buildings dominate the city's existing medical district, but LSU and the VA plan to shift their hospitals to a medical campus just west of it, namely an area occupying 70 acres between Tulane Avenue, Canal Street, Claiborne Avenue and South Rocheblave Street.

Louisiana State University and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will announce plans today for a new medical campus in downtown New Orleans that is expected to generate thousands of jobs and secure the future of graduate medical education in this region.

Now that New Orleans has secured both men's and women's Final Four tournaments in the next few years, Crescent City officials are coveting America's premier sporting event: the Super Bowl.

The red ink that flows over investment statements practically burns the eyes these days. But it's a crueler sting for older retired individuals since they have less time to benefit from a market rebound.

Jessica Leigh / The Associated PressWorkers cheer as the first completed Hummer H3 heads off the assembly line at the Shreveport GM plant in April 2005. On Tuesday, workers held a rally at the plant in support of GM's efforts to seek emergency federal loans.

WASHINGTON -- Representatives of the Big Three U.S. automakers made their pleas for government aid Tuesday on Capitol Hill, cheered on by rallies at the Shreveport GM plant and outside the Senate office buildings where its fate likely will be decided.

Ted Jackson / The Times-PicayuneMotorists fill their tank Thursday with gas selling at $1.89 a gallon at one station, as prices continue to drop.

Mark Mobajni is a serious, straight-up businessman, but some of the regulars at his Harvey gas station can't resist asking him whether he's pulling their legs.

Those customers, who paid as much as $4.19 for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline during the summer, are telling him they just can't believe the current price for the same amount of fuel: $1.83, a 56 percent tumble from the warm-weather high.