LWCC

Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Corporation (LWCC) has announced the hiring of Bernie Hewitt as business unit manager for the small accounts team.

Hewitt joins LWCC from the Montana State Fund, where he was the operation business manager of the large premium segment. Hewitt earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration from Carroll College in Helena, Montana, and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Montana. He has earned the Associate in Commercial Underwriting and Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter designations.

LWCC (www.lwcc.com) is a private, nonprofit mutual insurance company.  It is the largest writer of workers’ compensation insurance in Louisiana, covering about 22,000 policyholders. The company carries an “A” (Excellent) rating from A.M. Best and, for the fifth year in a row, was named one of the top 50 property and casualty insurance companies in the nation by Ward Group, the leading authority on insurance industry benchmarking.

Louisiana Movies
Factory Girl, produced by LIFT and distributed by The Weinstein Company, is now in theaters in New Orleans and across the country.  In NOLA it’s playing at the AMC Westbank Palace 16 on 1151 Manhattan Blvd. in Harvey.  Call 504-734-2020 for show times.  Factory Girl stars Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, Hayden Christensen, Jimmy Fallon, and Mena Suvari.

LIFT also has several other movies about to be released, including Pride, starring Terrence Howard, Bernie Mac, Kimberly Elise, and Evan Ross, which was shot in New Orleans last year.  Pride, which is distributed by LIONSGATE, will be released in theaters nationwide on March 23^rd.  Check out the website, www.pridefilm.com, to see the trailer and find out more about the movie. 

McIlhenny Company and Gilsbar

McIlhenny Company, the manufacturer of the internationally known TABASCO® brand products, has selected Gilsbar, Inc. to administer its self-funded medical and dental plans for its benefit plan participants.  Gilsbar's medical management company, MedCom Care Management, will provide Utilization Review and Large Case Management services for the group.

According to Cecil Hymel, Vice President of Administration at the McIlhenny Company, "We were looking for a partner to provide innovative techniques -- reporting capabilities, medical management programs, and web-based tools -- for health and dental plan participants.  Gilsbar's integrated solutions are going to help us offer an attractive benefits package for our employees, while effectively managing costs."

Road Home

In an effort to expedite appointments for homeowners, The Road Home is opening mobile housing assistance centers in Houma and Erath, La. The centers will open simultaneously on Feb. 26 and will operate for 10 days, closing on Mar. 7.

The mobile center is intended to accommodate appointments from the Vermillion and Terrebonne centers, which currently have appointments scheduled into March. Homeowners with appointments at these centers are being contacted with the option to reschedule their appointments at the mobile centers.

Housing advisors for the centers are part of mobile centers specifically dedicated to staffing this and future mobile centers. When no mobile centers are deployed, these advisors act as supplemental staff for permanent Housing Assistance Centers across the state.

Program officials are currently analyzing data and working with Road Home community outreach teams to plan for future mobile centers, both in-state and out-of-state, to reach affected Louisiana residents who may be eligible for the program.

"We are making every effort to ensure that families move through the system as quickly as possible," said Michael Taylor, director of the Disaster Recovery Unit, Office of Community Development. "These mobile centers will allow homeowners with appointments scheduled into late March to be seen sooner and will ultimately result in quicker awards."

Homeowners who have applied to the program, but have not yet scheduled their appointments may do so by calling 1-888-ROAD-2-LA and choosing prompt #4.

U.S. Army Corps Contract

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, awarded a contract today for work in Jefferson Parish on the West Esplanade Bridge over the Elmwood Canal.

Shavers-Whittle Construction, Inc., of Covington, La., received the $13,075,332 contract to replace the existing bridge with a new pile founded, four-lane concrete bridge. The contractor will also complete associated canal improvements including two box culverts to divert water from Canal No. 2 to the Elmwood Canal and slope paving to tie into the existing Elmwood Canal.

The League of Women Voters of New Orleans has posted the LWVNO Internet Candidates' Guide for the March New Orleans Elections.  We have bios and answers to questions from all the candidates for the State Representative, District 94 seat, March 10th.  We have the bios and answers to questions from all the candidates for the Judge, Civil District Court, Div. A race, March 31st.  www.lwvno.org

WWNO
WWNO invites you to join us Saturday morning, March 3rd to help clean up New Orleans City Park. Volunteers are needed for a short work session between 9:00 a.m. and Noon. We'll be cleaning up green debris (yard work) along Harrison Avenue between Marconi Drive east bound towards Wisner. Depending upon the amount of volunteers, we may work along Diagonal Drive and the shore line of Scout Island. The volunteer work site(s) depend upon how many are willing to join us. We’ll begin to gather around 8:30 a.m. at shelter 7 on the north side of Harrison Avenue a few blocks east of Marconi Drive. If you’re coming from Wisner Blvd, go west on Harrison and through the traffic circle at Diagonal Drive then across the second bridge.

Thanks to our generous co-sponsor's, Pot-O-Gold Rentals will supply facilities, the Laurel Street Bakery will offer breakfast treats, and PJ's River Ridge offers our volunteers hot coffee to help us get the day of to a great start. Volunteers are asked to bring work gloves, a sturdy pair of boots, bottled water or soft drinks, yard tools and spade shovels (if you have them), and be prepared to work in drizzle conditions if necessary. City Park will have plenty of tools for us to use.

City Park is a treasure that everyone can enjoy and our co-sponsors agree. Please consider joining us on March 3rd. Bring friends, family, and co-workers to help WWNO give a little something back to our community. Register by sending a note to info@wwno.org with your name, contact information, company information (if you would like) and the number of volunteers you are bringing. We hope for a minimum of 150 pubic radio fans that are willing to make a difference. We’re looking forward to seeing you at City Park.

Charter School
On Tuesday, February 27 at 11:30 a.m. in front of Wilson Elementary School, 3617 General Pershing St., Broadmoor Improvement Association (BIA) will discuss the opening of the first public charter school in the Broadmoor neighborhood, which will be done in partnership with Edison Schools, a nationally recognized leader in charter schools. Representatives from both organizations will discuss the implementation of the Broadmoor Educational Plan and any potential obstacles to the plan moving forward.

Later that day, LaToya Cantrell, president of BIA; David Graff, executive vice president of Edison Schools; Terry Stecz, chief executive officer of Edison Schools; Hal Roark, executive director of the Broadmoor Development Corporation, and members of the Broadmoor library and public school subcommittees, will update plans for establishing quality education at an open public forum: Educational Summit II at St. Matthias Church, 4230 South Broad St. starting at 7 p.m.

Cantrell is quick to point out that her neighborhood doesn’t see this partnership as the end to BIA’s commitment to bringing public education back to Broadmoor.

“New Orleans is quickly becoming America’s proving ground in regards to the charter school movement, Cantrell says. “The only way that these schools can work is through a tremendous amount of community input and participation. Broadmoor has demonstrated time and again that it has that kind of dedication.”

Edison Schools, which will serve more than 285,000 public schools this year in 19 states, the District of Columbia, and the United Kingdom is excited to announce that this will be their first school in New Orleans and in the state of Louisiana. David Graff, executive vice president for Edison Schools, is impressed with the Broadmoor community and hopes the partnership will result in a much improved public school system in Broadmoor and New Orleans.

“Edison Schools makes a commitment to our partner the Broadmoor Improvement Association and to New Orleans,” Graff says. “We will create a learning environment built on Edison Schools’ core values and work together with our partner to create a culture of achievement.”