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Louisiana is home to a significant portion of the North American pulp and paper industry, both mills and suppliers. When I think back to the business I have done over the decades in Louisiana, the volume is staggering (I received my first project in Louisiana in 1979 in Bogalusa). Right now several of our clients call Louisiana home as well as do many of our friends.

Georgia-Pacific announced Friday that it has contributed $50,000 to the Baton Rouge Area Foundation Flood Relief Fund for southeast Louisiana flood recovery efforts.

Resolute Forest Products will contribute $3.5 million to host pilot plant, while the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation adds $4.5 million.

"I did not relate this story to the council, but I wanted to share it with you readers of Mr. Jim's column. It happened in a place where I lived and it is a bit complicated, for I do not understand all the things the Big Things do. Apparently, from the best I can gather, the Big Things make paper products for something called money. They hand other Big Things products they make and these Big Things give them this money in return. Why, I don't understand, but that is the way things seem to work..." Fos the Pulp Rat continues his tale.

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Despite the continuing reduction in demand for communications grades of paper, world demand for bleached kraft pulp seems to keep growing, but we are still seeing contraction rather than expansion in North American mills.

Maine's congressional delegation asks for help devising a plan to encourage economic growth, but Gov. LePage opts out.

Domtar Corporation announced that it had agreed to purchase the privately-held Home Delivery Incontinent Supplies Co., a leading, national direct-to-consumer provider of adult incontinence and related products for a total cash consideration of $45 million with a possible earn-out payment of up to $10 million.

More than a year after announcing plans to build a $2 billion, 850-acre paper mill along the James River in eastern Chesterfield, Tranlin has yet to acquire the biggest piece of property needed for the project.

Appvion Inc. has introduced additional sheeted versions of its Triumph treated and coated high-speed inkjet papers.

Catalyst Paper Corporation announced that its four largest shareholders holding or controlling approximately 79% of its outstanding common shares, including accounts or funds managed by Mudrick Capital Management, L.P., Cyrus Capital Partners, LP, Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. and Stonehill Capital Management LLC, have amended the previously announced support agreement with Kejriwal Group International ("KGI") and accordingly filed amended Schedule 13Ds with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

Boise Cascade will be taking up to seven days of maintenance downtime the week of September 4 at the company's plywood mill in Elgin, Oregon. The company's mill in Medford, Oregon, will take up to five days of maintenance downtime, also during the week of September 4.

We all flew down to Guatemala City and then motored onward another 60 miles to the town of Panajachel, in Guatemala's southern highlands. Our group's mission was to help build a small house for a family of poor--very poor--people of Mayan Indian descent.

Weyerhaeuser Co. has declined to appeal a decision from a federal judge that found the company discriminated against a top union official for his labor organizing.

Each July, the University Of Maine Pulp and Paper Foundation sponsors a camp for high school students who've completed their junior year and demonstrate interest and aptitude in the field of engineering. This year, there were almost 180 applicants for the 102 spots.

A fire that started at one of the papermaking machines at Twin Rivers Paper Co. on Sunday afternoon spread into the ductwork, making it difficult to extinguish, according to the local fire chief.

Columbus, Ohio firefighters battled a four-alarm fire at a WestRock recycling center on the South Side into Friday night. Officials advised nearby residents to stay indoors and avoid breathing in the smoke.

About 45 employees were evacuated from Georgia-Pacific in Bradford Township, Pennsylvania for about an hour Wednesday afternoon after a bailer overheated and caught fire at the facility.

Catalyst says it's still investigating exactly what happened, but is confirming a mechanical failure at the Crofton mill sent a spray of residual liquor into the air for half an hour...

Oregon State Police say they arrested four people in connection with a campfire that spread out of control, igniting several logging slash piles on Weyerhaeuser property northwest of Portland.

The Nippon Paper Industries USA plant and the company's newly built biomass cogeneration plant west of downtown Port Angeles are being marketed for sale by PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance LLC in southwest British Columbia.

Cascades Inc. announced that it has taken a majority position in Longhorn Paper Converting, a tissue converting plant in Grand Prairie, Texas.

The managers of the Kawerau pulp and paper mill are warning the cost of electricity transmission could drive the plant out of business.