By KELLY P. KISSEL | State news editor The Baton Rouge jobs market is back to where it was before the pandemic. The Capitol region had nearly 409,000 jobs in December 2022, that's more than the number of jobs in the region in March 2020. The pandemic turned the global economy upside down. Business Writer Robert Stewart breaks down the numbers. There are nine Mardi Gras parades in the Baton Rouge area this weekend. Note that the nighttime parades this weekend could be a little chilly. Artemis rolls at 7 p.m. Friday in downtown Baton Rouge, and Orion follows the same route Saturday night. Mid City Gras has its parade down North Boulevard on Sunday. With talk of a Darlington dam fading, attention is turning toward what to do with thousands of low-lying houses in the Amite River Basin. The U.S. Corps of Engineers is looking at a program that would lift homes out of the water's way. And a team from the National Weather Service plans to hit Tangipahoa Parish to look for tornado damage. Local emergency officials say a twister hit as storms rolled through Wednesday night. | 