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Guinness Booked

One day I’ll be in this book,” an 8-year-old Michael Smith told himself skimming through the amazing feats in Guinness World Records. “It only took me 40 years.” This year, the White Castle native shattered the world toothpick sculpture record by completing Alley, a solid, life-size, 325-pound alligator sculpture. He pieced together the beast’s 3 million toothpicks using a combination of ordinary carpenter’s wood glue and a specialty adhesive taxidermists use to mount fish.

A carpenter and handyman by trade, painting and sculpture are Smith’s true passions. He spent three years, sometimes 18 hours a day, perfecting Alley. He now tours Baton Rouge area schools and exhibits with his creation and even went to Hong Kong where he taught 42 student work shops on toothpick sculpting. So, what’s next? “I’m working on a toothpick boat,” Smith says smiling. “One that I can take across the Mississippi.” A new world record has got to be in there somewhere.

—JEFF ROEDEL

Chinese takeout

If there are any doubts that you and I and everyone we know are inextricably plugged into the global economy, just take a look at where your stuff comes from. All your stuff.

Clothes, food, electronics, appliances, sporting goods—you will quickly find that almost all of it bears a friendly label: “Made in China.” In 2005, the year the U.S. trade deficit with China reached $201.6 billion, local writer Sara Bongiorni decided her family would boycott products from the country for one whole year. What started out as a New Year’s resolution ended up the tell-all family chronicle, A Year Without “Made in China,” available July 7.

The book, published by Wiley Corp. and available nationwide, is Bongiorni’s first. (She’s a former staff writer for 225’s sister publication, Business Report).

This strict regimen meant not replacing the broken coffeemaker, and boiling water on the stove instead. The Bongiornis had to find alternatives to common flip-flops, mousetraps, power tools, ink cartridges, affordable sunglasses and just about every toy their two young children at the time craved. The point, Bongiorni says, was to test the “huge, fuzzy concept” of the global economy and, knowing the Chinese depend on American consumers, to determine if Americans really need China, too.

“My [then 5-year-old] son didn’t quite understand our experiment,” Bongiorni says. “He said he thought it was because China had bad customer service.”

—J.R.

UPDATE: FBI takes LIFT for a ride

The FBI and IRS are conducting a grand jury investigation into the state’s lucrative film tax incentive program and a New Orleans company that may have benefited illegally.

Federal agents raided Louisiana Institute of Film and Technology, making front-page news around the state in May. Back in April, 225 reported the FBI inquiry of the film tax credit program amid complaints from some in Hollywood of the state playing favorites.

The federal probe mirrors allegations in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by the former chair of the Louisiana Music Commission, Bernie Cyrus, against LIFT.

He claims LIFT bribed the state’s former film chief, Mark Smith, in exchange for favorable treatment and tax incentives. Cyrus cited as his source LIFT co-founder John Anderson, who is no longer with the company.

Neither are many of LIFT’s other employees. Once the daily newspapers picked up the story in May, CEO Malcolm Petal took a leave of absence, and many full-time employees were laid off. Construction on LIFT’s Film Factory studio was halted, and its assets and pending tax credits frozen.

Even after 225’s cover story, LIFT sought—and received—favorable treatment, LED’s Sherri McConnell disclosed recently. She said LIFT officials pressured the department to grant its tax credits early, and before a required audit.

Still, the film office will continue to process tax credits for other production companies. Only time will tell if the LIFT controversy will have a negative affect on the industry as a whole in the state. At a recent Baton Rouge Press Club lunch Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said an ongoing controversy could cool the sector’s growth, and hopes the investigation is wrapped up soon.

—J.R.

Giving to charity your way

Julie Scott said she almost dropped the phone when she got the call. Her nonprofit, Career Compass of Louisiana, was one of 10 finalists in Burger King’s Campaign for Your Cause initiative, worth $100,000.

“I couldn’t believe it,” says Scott, who, with fellow former teacher Kacy Edwards, works to connect high school students to educational and career opportunities after graduation. “And then they told me that we could invite up to 10 people to the press conference, and I was like, well, it’s just the two of us. We don’t really have eight other people to invite.”

Burger King will donate $100,000 in the Baton Rouge area and the same amount in the New Orleans area, but its corporate largesse comes with a twist: the public chooses who gets the cash by casting votes for their favorite (vote once a day through July 13 at campaignforyourcause.com).

The other finalists are Baton Rouge General Foundation, Capital Area Animal Welfare Society, Boy Scouts of America Istrouma Council, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center, Muscular Dystrophy Association of Baton Rouge, St. George Catholic School, Volunteers of America Greater Baton Rouge, Woman’s Hospital Foundation and YMCA of Greater Baton Rouge.

All 10 finalists will receive cash; the top vote getter will receive $50,000, second place gets $25,000, third place gets $11,000, and fourth through tenth place gets $2,000 each.

— SARAH YOUNG