Former Governor Kathleen Blanco will lie in state at the state Capitol on Thursday. The state’s only elected female governor died Sunday at 76 after a battle with cancer. In her final public appearances, the former governor said she had made peace with her future and the devout Catholic said she had an extraordinarily full life. Blanco’s former communications director Bob Mann says her final weeks were inspiring…
Cut 9 (10) “…around her”
Additional public services for Blanco will take place Friday in Lafayette and a funeral mass is scheduled for Saturday in her hometown.

Popular charter fisherman Theophile (Toe-fill) Bourgeois died Sunday when his plane crashed off the coast of St. Bernard Parish. Two others were on the seaplane. The condition of the other two victims is not known.

And funeral services for New Orleans TV anchor Nancy Parker are Friday. She was one of two people who died in a small plane crash in New Orleans East.

The Louisiana Workforce Commission says the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for July is down almost a full percentage point from this time last year. L-W-C Secretary Ava Dejoie says the number of people looking for work has declined by 14-thousand over the last year…
Cut 4 (09) “…month of July.”
But the Republican Governor’s Association says the nonfarm seasonally adjusted numbers show, Louisiana lost 1,000 jobs over the last year.

Fortune Business Insights predicts hot sauce sales will jump from two-point-three billion dollars to three-point-seven billion dollars by 2026, because of the growing international demand of the hot stuff. Chef Kevin Belton says Tobasco, which is made at Avery Island, broke open the worldwide hot sauce market…
cut 11 (09) “…countries”
The other big Bayou State hot sauce is Crystal and Louisiana.