Baton Rouge Business Report

No one knows how Tuesday’s presidential election will turn out, but the Federal Reserve’s move two days later is much easier to predict: With inflation continuing to cool, the Fed is set to cut interest rates for a second time this year. The presidential contest might still be unresolved when the Fed ends its two-day meeting Thursday afternoon, yet that uncertainty would have no effect on its decision to further reduce its benchmark rate. The...

Situated a mere stone’s throw from the Gulf of Mexico, Port Fourchon has always been intimately tied to Louisiana’s offshore oil and gas industry—servicing more than 95% of all Gulf deepwater activities. But these days, the port is intentionally pursuing a more diversified agenda with a focus on all things energy. Check out our exclusive original video, Port Fourchon: Louisiana’s Power Outlet.

After more than 10 years of planning, work has started on the Livingston Parish Executive Airport.  In the latest episode of Business Report's Bottom Line, we dive into some of the lesser-known barriers the Livingston Parish Airport District traversed to make the project a reality. Besides acquiring the land and getting environmental impact statements, federal legislation was revised, allowing the project to be greenlit.   

Baton Rouge's Amazon Fulfillment Center, BTR 1, officially opened its doors where Cortana Mall once stood. The facility has been in operation for months.  BTR 1 is a “first of its kind” Amazon robotics facility with robots like the Hercules and Pegasus working alongside humans.  We take viewers on a tour of Amazon's newest facility and a full walk-through of the life of a package.  Watch The Life of an Amazon Package.

Walk into a breeding room at Fluker Farms in Port Allen and no surprise, it’s crickets. Thousands of screened boxes in this 90-degree warehouse hold live crickets waiting to be shipped across the U.S. to pet stores, educational institutions, zoos and direct to consumers for feeding their pet reptiles. Founded in 1956 by Richard Fluker, the company spent many years as a cricket supplier to south Louisiana bait shops. A lot has changed since then. 

There hasn't been a hockey team in Baton Rouge in 20 years, not since the Kingfish left in 2003. Now, the Zydeco hockey team is here. In this episode of Bottom Line, we talked to the officials behind the new team's agreement with the Raising Cane's River Center. They walked us through their three-year lease agreement and what that entails. Watch the full episode for stats on their ticket sales and attendance along with a...

In this episode of Bottom Line, we take a closer look at the Comite River Diversion, an ambitious effort to mitigate flooding risks from the Amite and Comite rivers. This 12-mile canal project aims to redirect the river away from residential areas, reducing the threat of flooding. Completion on the full project is slated for the latter half of 2025.

While some believe crime in the Capital Region is at an all-time high, a security camera program may offer hope. The Page/Rice Public Safety Initiative supplies schools and businesses with security cameras. Some can even zero in on firearms and alert authorities. In this episode of Bottom Line, we talked to the company behind those cameras, Zero Eyes.

In the latest episode of Bottom Line, Business Report traveled to one of the sources of Louisiana’s beloved crawfish: Four Oaks Farms in Morganza. The farm sits on over 1,500 acres of land. There, they harvest sugarcane, soybeans and crawfish. 

In the latest episode of Business Report’s The Bottom Line, Oscar Tickle talks with Mark Goodson of CSRS, which is overseeing the University Lakes Project to get an update on how things are going.

As the heat in Louisiana continues its record-breaking onslaught, workers whose jobs require them to brave the outside inferno are being forced to acclimate.