Daily Report

Capital One Bank's Baton Rouge Market President Steve Lousteau and Scott Ridley, group executive for business banking in Louisiana, were both notified today that their positions will be eliminated as of May 1, spokesman Steven Thorpe confirms to Daily Report. The position cuts are part of a larger restructuring effort by the bank that will lead to the elimination of about 30 positions across the country, Thorpe says. In total, six Capital One employees are losing their jobs in Louisiana, he says. Aside from Lousteau and Ridley, one other "support associate" position is being eliminated locally, Thorpe says. "We're making some changes in our retail and small business organization, and unfortunately that decision involves some role eliminations," Thorpe says. "This is a difficult decision and one our banking leaders do not take lightly, but Baton Rouge remains an incredibly attractive market for us." —Steve Sanoski

Louisiana Republicans reacted strongly—and, not surprisingly, negatively— to President Barack Obama's speech on energy Thursday, in which the president accused the GOP of trying to exploit rising gasoline prices to push for more drilling and continuation of tax breaks for oil companies. "Higher energy prices belong to him and his failed energy policies," The Times-Picayune quotes Rep. Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia, as saying in response. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, also took exception to the president's comments, saying, "Pulling the rug out from underneath the domestic oil and gas industry was not the answer 10 years ago, five years ago, and it is not the answer today." Obama acknowledged Americans are struggling with higher gas prices and said his administration is looking at every possible solution. But, he added, there are no "silver bullets" to a price surge caused largely by unrest in the Middle East and Iran's threat to shut down a major oil and gas transport route. Read the complete story on the Louisiana delegation's reaction—including views from Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson—here. Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association, is also critical of Obama's energy proposals in his response to the president's budget proposal. "It is clear that his plan diminishes a thriving oil and gas industry, and he clearly does not desire to see America become truly energy independent," Briggs concludes an editorial, which you can read here.

Slightly more than one in five Louisianans was spending at least 50% of their paycheck on a housing payment or rent in 2010, according to a report released today by the Center for Housing Policy, a research affiliate of the National Housing Conference. The study says 21% of working households in Louisiana—with a "working household" defined as one in which someone is working at least 20 hours a week but not earning more than 120% of the median income in the area—spent at least half their income on housing alone. Such a situation is defined as "severe housing cost burden" in the center's Housing Landscape 2012 report. Louisiana's rate of severe housing cost burden was slightly lower than the national rate of 23.6% in 2010, but the report says its still a "significant increase" from 2008, when the rate was 18%. The situation is even worse in the New Orleans metro area, where 28% of the population faces a severe housing cost burden, up from 22% in 2008. The study does not provide statistics for the Baton Rouge metro area. See the full 12-page report for complete state rankings and more details here.

Today's poll question: What percentage of your income do you spend on housing?

Mayor Kip Holden says East Baton Rouge Parish is "thriving." Mike Walker, a term-limited councilman and Holden's most serious and well-financed challenger, says it's time to bring "our parish back from the edge of the cliff." Holden says the local economy is creating jobs, building wealth—especially in the digital media and movie industries—and ranks as one of the nation's top performers during the global recession. Walker says we're losing thousands of jobs and our focus should be on jobs in the oil, natural gas and petrochemical sectors. Holden says we're winning job-creating, economic development battles against foreign cities and countries. Walker says we need a "jobs policy, not a foreign policy." Holden says investments in downtown Baton Rouge will continue. Walker says there's already been too much investing in downtown. Holden says his door is always open. Walker says that door is always closed. Two men, two views, one Baton Rouge. So, how is it that Holden and Walker see almost every issue from 180 degrees of separation? Get Business Report Executive Editor JR Ball's take on it by reading his latest column here. Send your comments to editors@businessreport.com.

At a special meeting Thursday evening, members of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Federal Credit Union overwhelmingly approved a merger with Campus Federal, with 95% voting in favor. "Today marks a significant enhancement to an already strong relationship with Our Lady of the Lake. Now, building a partnership with everyone in the OLOL community will be our charge," Campus Federal CEO John Milazzo says in a prepared release. Ron Moreau, Campus Federal vice president of business development and community relations, says the plan is to have the lone OLOL credit union branch at the hospital's Baton Rouge campus re-branded and open as a Campus Federal branch by April 1. With the merger, Campus Federal now has eight branches in the state, five of which are in Baton Rouge. Moreau says approximately 26% of OLOL credit union members voted on the merger, first announced in early January.

The battle for the iPad trademark has hit American shores. The Chinese company claiming to own the trademark—Proview Electronics Co., a unit of Proview International Holdings—has filed a lawsuit against Apple's use of the trademark in mainland China at the Santa Clara (Calif.) Superior Court, Proview spokeswoman Alice Wang says. An attempt by Proview to win an injunction to stop Apple from selling iPads in Shanghai was foiled this week when a court there rejected the case pending the resolution of a similar lawsuit in a higher court in China. Apple had no immediate comment on the California lawsuit. The companies are feuding over whether Proview sold the mainland Chinese rights to the iPad trademark to Apple in a 2009 deal. Proview claims the sale of the iPad China trademark to a company representing Apple by its Taiwan affiliate in 2009 was invalid. Proview has not challenged the sale of other worldwide rights to the iPad trademark to Apple in another $55,000 deal. Apple contends that Proview included the mainland Chinese trademark in the sale and violated that contract by failing to transfer the trademark rights to Apple. Check out the full story here.

The Louisiana Culinary Institute continues its annual Race to Cannes cooking competition, in which top students compete for a spot to cook for movie stars, crew, visitors and more at the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival in France this May. The second round, which took place last Friday, Feb. 17 pitted four of LCI's top students against one another in a Top Chef–style competition. The contenders had to make use of three ingredients: squash, cassava flour and pork loin. One of the winning dishes was a pork loin on cassava waffle, with a side of grilled squash and bacon. The competition concludes March 23. You can find more information and photos of the competition on the institute's Facebook page here, and read the rest of this week's 225 Dine e-newsletter here.

Signed, sealed, delivered: Darrell Jackson, Ronald Matthews and Kelton Roberson—all Baton Rouge natives who work for UPS in Port Allen—are among 15 delivery drivers in Louisiana who are being recognized by UPS for 25 or more years of accident-free driving. A total of 1,235 UPS drivers worldwide are being inducted into the company's Circle of Honor this year. Of 941 drivers in Louisiana, UPS says William Sanders of Bossier City is the safest. He's got 35 years of deliveries under his belt without a single accident. See the full list of Louisiana's safest UPS drivers here.

Hours and powers: Secretary of State Tom Schedler is asking lawmakers to shorten voting hours on election day, a proposal that has been killed repeatedly over the years. Currently, poll hours run from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Schedler told a House committee on Thursday that he will ask for polls to open at 7 a.m. to shorten workdays for temporary election workers. Supporters say the long day makes it difficult to attract poll workers and that the state offers enough early voting days for people to access the polls despite their work schedules. Opponents say the change could limit voting opportunities for people. Lawmakers will consider the idea in the regular session that starts March 12.

Blue grass beckons: You've got until March 16 to register to be a part of the delegation of Baton Rouge business and community leaders who are visiting Louisville March 25-27 to take part in the 2012 Baton Rouge Area Canvas Workshop. Highlighted topics this year will be education and talent development. Cost is $2,200, which includes hotels and a charter flight. Get the full details and register online here.

Editor's note: John Maginnis is on vacation, but his column will return to Daily Report on Tuesday.