[StBernard] More New Jobs

[Westley Annis]

Dear Friends,


This past week I traveled to Monroe to announce that CenturyLink, which will
become our state's third Fortune 500 company, will not only keep their
corporate headquarters in Louisiana through at least 2019, but that they
will create 350 new jobs right here in Louisiana. CenturyLink, created by
the merger of CenturyTel and EMBARQ, is now the fourth largest local
exchange telephone company in the country.

As reported by the Monroe News-Star
<http://click.bsftransmit1.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c992%7c9390&digest
=H9TdJ%2b3rLsbyh8QeKyyPiw> , "CenturyLink's new direct jobs will create
another 520 indirect jobs" as well. We have worked hand-in-hand with
CenturyLink over the past year to ensure their continued presence here in
Louisiana, and those efforts have paid off. This announcement has capped an
historic year for job creation in our state, and in Northeast Louisiana in
particular where in the past year we have announced economic development
wins that will create more than 10,000 jobs.

We continued our efforts to increase transparency in state government this
past week as well, as LaTRAC, the state's online spending database, has now
added a section containing all contracts entered into by the state. As the
New Orleans Times-Picayune
<http://click.bsftransmit1.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c993%7c9390&digest
=u8h0omDBKLBaWl8VNJdB3A>  reported, "Louisiana is one of four states to make
all state contracts available online," showing once again that we are fully
committed to ensuring transparency and openness at all levels of government.

As I approach almost two years of serving the people of Louisiana as
Governor, I can ensure you that we will continue to take steps to add jobs,
increase transparency, and make a brighter future for our state. As the
Opelousas Daily World
<http://click.bsftransmit1.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c994%7c9390&digest
=ceVd4Q9Mhok4TNYZ60tZBA>  wrote, we have "analyzed Louisiana's shortcomings,
identified the common links among them and coordinated efforts to fix them,"
and will continue to do so.

I also visited Pineville last week to welcome home nearly 120 of our
national guardsmen from Iraq. The 225th Engineer Brigade spent the past nine
months coordinating the route clearance efforts of ten different Brigade
Combat Teams, in addition to providing general construction and demolition
services for infrastructure, and we were certainly glad to welcome them home
to Louisiana. As I said in the Alexandria Town Talk
<http://click.bsftransmit1.com/ClickThru.aspx?pubids=393%7c905%7c9390&digest
=HKnxUfLH%2fiEAGI72thUBLw> , "We're forever grateful for their service and
their courageous actions will never be forgotten."

I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, and I hope everyone has a safe
and enjoyable weekend spending time with family and friends. 

Sincerely,
Governor Bobby Jindal