Sign in Subscribe

JR Ball

JR Ball

Baton Rouge

JR spent nearly three decades shaping business and political coverage in Baton Rouge. He was executive editor of Baton Rouge Business Report, spent 4 years with The Times-Picayune/NOLA.com, managing the statewide digital news initiative.

Won't ya' hep me?

Won't ya' hep me?

We know we should put the phone down. We may need a little help: More than half of U.S. adults—53%—say they spend too much time on their smartphones. That’s according to a Pew Research Center survey of 9,750 adults conducted from May 26 to June

Choose the human line

Choose the human line

Call me old-fashioned, but I hate self-checkout at the grocery store. I get why profit-loving businesses love them, but for me it's a tedious pain. Which explains why my grocery runs are timed to when an actual human is standing sentry at the register. On

LSU's quiet decade-long tech bet

LSU's quiet decade-long tech bet

Growing older, but not up

Growing older, but not up

Moving out is not the same as moving off the family payroll: U.S. parents gave $26.6 billion to adult children living outside their homes in 2024. That’s quite the parental payroll, with the U.S. Census Bureau reporting that the money flowed from 2.6 million parents

LSU's bill comes due

LSU's bill comes due

Tiger Athletics was once profitable but is now losing money—a lot of it. What happened, and what can be done about it?

Library's checkbook beats credit card

Library's checkbook beats credit card

Is BR really this mad?

Is BR really this mad?

What Baton Rouge says online or at a public meeting may not be what Baton Rouge actually thinks.