It Figures

$12.1 Million

Cumulative amount of bonuses to be paid to several top executives at AIG, after U.S. pay czar Kenneth Feinberg signed off on the deal. The payments were promised in 2008 to get key employees to stay with AIG after its bailout by the federal government.

138,200

Louisiana’s construction industry employed 138,200 people in September, up 2,800 jobs or 2.1 percent, over the previous September. Louisiana was the only state in which more people were working in the construction industry in September 2009 than in September 2008, according to a state-by state analysis by the Associated General Contractors of America. The group says that 41 states saw double-digit percentage decreases in construction employment, led by Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky. AP

$440,000

The total worth of stolen farm and construction equipment recovered in Louisiana in October. The Louisiana State Police reports that Region 1 detectives recovered additional equipment after further investigation into a case in which two suspects had already been charged with the theft of $250,000 worth of heavy equipment. The discovery of additional items brought the total value of recovered equipment to $440,000. The LSP reported previously that a multiagency investigation involving the Mississippi Agricultural Theft Bureau (MATB), Albany Police Department, Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office, National Insurance Crime Bureau, and Louisiana State Police Region 1 detectives had resulted in the arrest of the two suspects. The stolen equipment included John Deere tractors, zero-turn mowers, trucks, and trailers taken from several John Deere dealerships.

4

Four minor earthquakes occurred in Central Arkansas within the span of two days in mid-October, prompting the state’s emergency-management agency to deploy a pair of seismic monitors in the region. The U.S. Geological Survey said a quake with a magnitude of 2.8 and struck about 7:20 a.m. on Oct. 16, near Higden, about 52 miles north of Little Rock. Two small earthquakes rattled central Arkansas the previous night and a third shook the area the previous afternoon.