Ashley Westerman

Starting this fall high school football teams in Louisiana will compete in separate playoff divisions: one for select admission schools – such as private and parochial schools – and another for non-select public schools.

On Tuesday, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman approved an adjusted route for the Keystone XL Pipeline that avoids that state’s fragile Sand Hills. Soon after, 53 senators – including both from Louisiana – wrote a letter to President Obama supporting the project.

The issue as to whether public and private high schools should compete in separate playoffs is a major topic at the annual Louisiana High School Athletic Association conference in Baton Rouge this week.

Stephanie Powell Watts will be accepting this year’s Ernest Gains Award for Literary Excellence from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation.

Watts is being recognized for her collection of 10 stories, “We Are Taking Only What We Need," chronicling the lives of African Americans in rural North Carolina.

Watts writes from experience. 

A unique study released last week by the LSU/Tulane Early Childhood Policy and Data Center uses maps to show where certain risk factors that could impede early childhood development are most prevalent across the state.

LSU Public Policy Research Lab Director Kirby Goidel and Epidemiologist Lina Brou said their study found that 55 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes have at least one high-risk factor that could impede childhood development such as high unemployment, high teen birth rate and high percentage of uninsured children. The nature of that risk was also found to differ from parish-to-parish.

Goidel said the initial step to addressing the needs of the children across Louisiana is to first understand the nature of the risk in each parish.

A report released Thursday by the LSU/Tulane Early Childhood Policy and Data Center reveals 35 percent of children under  five in Louisiana live in parishes with moderate-to-high risk of factors that could impede their development.

Ads by Fight Not Fear, the campaign to consolidate law enforcement in Baton Rouge, were on heavy rotation during the weeks leading up to the November election for mayor-president and metro council members.

Surface coating and specialty products giant PPG Industries declared a force majeure Thursday for vinyl chloride monomer made at its Lake Charles facility.

Scientists at LSU, Columbia and Iowa State University have teamed up to develop a more environmentally-friendly oil dispersant.

Shareholders of the construction and engineering company The Shaw Group voted Friday to sell the company to Netherlands-based infrastructure giant CB&I.

Baton Rouge’s only Fortune 500 Company said in a statement that 99-percent of its shareholders voted in favor of the deal worth a little over $3-billion-dollars.

Baton Rouge Area Chamber CEO Adam Knapp said CB&I sees Baton Rouge as a center for engineering talent.