Lafayette has moved up 10 spots to rank 14th in the Milkin Institute’s newly-released report, “Best Performing Cities 2008: Where America’s jobs are created and sustained.” Lafayette again topped all other Louisiana cities in the annual rankings, which are weighted heavily for job and income growth, especially in the technology sector. The report’s best performing city was Provo, Utah, one of the few municipalities to have installed a citywide fiber-to-the-home network (which Lafayette is now building) and the home of Brigham Young University. On Lafayette, the Milken report states:
The biggest gainer in last year’s index, Lafayette, Louisiana, improved its position by another ten spots to claim 14th place this year. Last year’s dramatic climb was largely attributable to the population influx of hurricane evacuees. This sharp growth in population consequently led to increased demand in various service-driven industries. With the current housing crisis and slowdown in related sectors of the economy, growth in the metro has begun to subside. Interestingly, a shortage in health-care and education services has led to a dramatic increase in wages and salaries in those industries. Between 2005 and 2006, overall wages and salaries in the metro experienced the fastest increase in the nation, growing 8.0 percentage points above the U.S. average.
Elsewhere in Louisiana, Shreveport experienced one of the biggest climbs from last year, moving up from 131th to 67th. New Orleans moved up as well, from 186 to 151. Baton Rouge ranked 40th among large metros.
In rendering his ruling, District Judge John Trahan all but called the real estate developer a liar for inconsistencies in his accounts of what prompted him to punch a school teacher unconscious.
Frank’s Casing Crew, now doing business as Frank’s International, will make its final appearance on ABiz’s list of the Top 50 Privately Held Companies in Acadiana this year, and once again it will likely be at the top with more than $1 billion in annual revenues. The 75-year-old company specializing in tubular fabrication and installation services to the oil and gas industry plans to offer shares of its stock to the public for the first time.
The defeat, or rather highjacking of House Bill 420 in the final days of this year's Legislative Session, say Reps. Vincent Pierre and Terry Landry, is the result of the propaganda spread by one unidentified local media outlet and an unnamed former state Representative, but nothing to do with the original legislation's lack of checks, balances or details.
City-Parish Council Chairman Brandon Shelvin heaped steady doses of condescending ire on a Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Louisiana executive while failing to reveal his financial ties to a BC/BS rival.
Abbeville native David Primeaux was a popular professor until his death late last year, and while he was successful at camouflaging a dark past, he couldn’t outlive it.
Tehmi Chassion’s failure to recuse himself in the school board’s selection of a group health benefits provider raises ‘serious questions’ on whether he violated state ethics law.
He’s a singer. A songwriter. A piano man. A family man. He’s even got his own Wikipedia entry. He’s David Egan. And he knows ancient secrets about the monolithic stones of Stonehenge that he’s not willing to share.
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