AGR - Louisiana Edition

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for October 27, 2026. We start the show with the Caddo Parish district attorney’s race between incumbent James Stewart and State Senator Alan Seabaugh, both of whom we’ve interviewed in studio. We talk about what it would cost to add jury trial capacity while the parish jail is overcrowded with people awaiting trial. From there we look at New Orleans, where the sheriff, the district attorney, and the criminal court are all asking for millions in funding as the city tries to close a $100 million budget gap. We make the case that public safety should be government’s first priority, and that justice delayed is public safety deferred.In the Top 3 Things You Need to Know, the Mangham police chief and his former assistant chief are arrested for allegedly stealing donations meant for a slain officer’s family. Louisiana joins 20 states and the FTC in suing Dollar General over deceptive pricing. LSU New Orleans narrows its chancellor search to four finalists, who will visit campus November 3rd and 4th.After the break, we celebrate Shreveport’s first daily nonstop flight to Chicago O’Hare in 18 years and the turnaround at Shreveport Regional Airport. We also debate Chicago deep dish versus thin crust. Then we Dig Deep into Louisiana’s ongoing redistricting fight. A new lawsuit argues the state’s remaining majority-Black district, CD2, was also drawn primarily on race, and we look at the history behind it and why we think Iowa’s approach to drawing maps is worth a look.Next, we talk about the proposed independence arch and the new White House ballroom. In Say What, Barack Obama’s line comparing the ballroom to a Saddam Hussein-themed Cheesecake Factory sets off a defense of the restaurant from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. We also get into President Trump’s comments on a possible Democratic takeover of Congress, and what we expect from divided government.Then we play a game based on the Cato Institute’s new Freedom in the 50 States report. Can you guess the top 10 and bottom 10 states for personal and economic freedom? We close with a new poll showing a dramatic shift in Jewish voters toward Republicans, and what it could mean for the midterms.Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776. 

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for October 26, 2026.We start with Louisiana’s $100 billion SpaceX project and the lawsuit that could slow down the planned spaceport in Vermilion Parish. We talk about the open meetings claims, the “Project Osprey” code name, the roughly $24 billion tax exemption, the 3,000 promised jobs averaging $92,600 a year, and the $20 million up-front and $25 million annual payments in lieu of taxes. We also talk about the rumors of a Space Force Academy in New Orleans.In the Top 3 Things You Need to Know, we cover the Vermilion Parish suit and its challenge to the revived Industrial Development Board, Louisiana’s decision to take $350 million now from the Deepwater Horizon settlement, and Fitch’s upgrade of the state’s credit rating from AA- to AA.Then State Senator Alan Seabaugh joins us in studio to talk about his run for Caddo Parish District Attorney. We follow up on last week’s conversation with DA James Stewart and get into jury trial numbers, plea deals, the murder rate, and why inmates are sitting in the Caddo Correctional Center for years without a trial.We also look at Kim Jong-un’s surprise visit to China and why North Korea is looking for attention again. In Say What, we play former Labor Secretary Robert Reich’s call to nationalize SpaceX and Starlink and discuss why we think the idea would backfire. We take a look at Rep. Sarah McBride’s defense of Ilhan Omar and the federal search warrant, and ask what it means to call an allegation “disproven.”Then we play a game about which states have the most and least expensive gas, and the results line up along some clear lines. We close with the new federal charges against James Comey, the third case the DOJ has filed against him.Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776. 

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for October 23, 2026. We open in Baton Rouge, where deputies used pepper balls to break up unruly crowds after LSU’s homecoming game against Mississippi State. We ask what has happened to self-control, why every law ends up reflecting someone’s bad behavior, and whether we’ve confused having feelings with having the right to act on them.In the Top 3 Things You Need to know, the University of Louisiana System approves a land lease on Pelican Island that is subleased to SpaceX for $1 a year as part of its planned Gulf Coast launch facility. Dr. Richard Crawford is named acting president of Louisiana Tech University as the school searches for a permanent replacement. And the Louisiana Inspector General calls for tighter spending controls on nonprofits that receive taxpayer funds.Next, we get into Louisiana’s Constitutional Amendment 8 on the November 3rd ballot, which would bar foreign adversaries and the entities they control from using eminent domain to take private property. Then in Digging Deep, we go through the campaign finance reports for Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District. We look at who has raised money, who has loaned themselves money, and who still has cash on hand heading toward the December 12th runoff, and we make a prediction about who will get there.After the break, we talk about an unlicensed woman in New York posing as a cosmetologist who performed a fatal cosmetic procedure. That leads to a bigger conversation about how easy it is to manufacture credibility, and whether America wants to be a high-trust or a low-trust society. We play a clip of Hillary Clinton calling the Republican Party a cult and urging it to purge itself, and we give our response. We also look at the military’s Active Denial System, a heat ray that may be headed to the southern border. Then we play a guessing game on which states have seen the most and the least job growth since the 2020 lockdowns, and the results line up along red and blue lines.We close by looking at the questions surrounding Ilhan Omar’s name and family history, and at the difference between legally changing a name and using a false identity to deceive the government.Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776.

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for October 22, 2026. We open with Louisiana’s new voter ID law, authored by Senator Thomas Pressly of Shreveport and taking effect July 1, 2027. Critics called it an assault on democracy, yet Black voter turnout in this midterm’s early voting is the highest in recent history, up from 24% of early voters in 2022 to 32% today. We talk through what that tells us, what could be driving it, and why every voter ID proposal still gets labeled racist.Then it’s the Top 3 Things You Need to Know. The Louisiana Supreme Court has refused to give retired judge Lori White a state-funded defense attorney after her role in the effort to indict Attorney General Liz Murrill. Software company Copado is moving its global headquarters from Chicago to New Orleans, bringing 59 jobs. And new Orleans Parish Sheriff Michelle Woodford is asking for a $17 million budget increase while the city faces a projected shortfall of more than $100 million.Next, Caddo Parish District Attorney James Stewart and Assistant DA Ross Owen join us in studio ahead of the upcoming race. We ask them about the perception that crime is up and that the DA’s office is soft on crime, the number of trials they’ve held, the long waits some defendants face for trial, how they decide which cases get tried and which get pleaded out, and whether Caddo Parish needs more judges and courtrooms.After that, we talk about J.D. Vance checking on a woman who collapsed at a Nebraska rally and leading the crowd in the Lord’s Prayer. Then in Say What, we play Ilhan Omar’s interview with Chris Hayes and go through the questions around her marriage history and the federal investigation.We also cover Matthew McConaughey encouraging voters to consider independent candidates and Hillary Clinton’s response, and then play a game ranking the states with the highest and lowest foreign-born populations. We finish with a message for LeBron James about respecting the national anthem.Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776. 

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for October 21, 2026. We start close to home with the Shreveport mayoral race, the largest municipal election on the Louisiana ballot this November. Caddo Parish Sheriff Henry Whitehorn Sr. has endorsed Stormy Gage Watts, citing her commitment to public safety. We take a hard look at the endorsement, at the difference between making something a priority and having a plan, and at what crime numbers in Shreveport have done in the last four years. We also ask why candidates are so good at naming problems and so much less comfortable explaining how they’ll fix them.In the Top 3 Things You Need to Know, a Michigan man has been arrested for allegedly flying surveillance-style drones over Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City. A former New Orleans Safety and Permits employee is accused of a short-term rental permit fraud scheme that included permits in the French Quarter. And Shreveport has reached a deal with the New York owner of the Sanctuary apartment complex, who was $145,000 behind on his water bill. We also give credit where we think it’s due.We then dig into the Louisiana Board of Regents’ new Louisiana Opportunity Index. It asks whether our colleges are preparing students for jobs that actually exist, whether graduates get a good return on their investment and stay in Louisiana, and whether they get real-world experience and good career advice before taking on expensive degrees. In Digging Deep, we go through the campaign finance reports in Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District, on both the Democratic and Republican sides. We look at who has raised money, who has loaned their own campaign money, and who has cash left, and we talk about the effect of a Trump endorsement and why none of it matters unless people show up to vote.From there we head to Minnesota, where Michelle Tafoya is running for U.S. Senate against Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan after the Cook Political Report shifted the race to Leans Democrat. We talk about why the race matters and about the fraud scandals that have hit the state. Then we ask whether the war in Ukraine could be nearing a turning point after Zelensky’s comments on Fox News about freezing the lines where they are, and after the Kremlin said Putin has agreed to resume U.S.-mediated talks.In our Moment of Whoa, a Richmond, Virginia, man is charged after allegedly duct-taping his wife to a chair so he could watch football in peace. We also play a round of the deadliest wars in European history, and we close with Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s claim that the Second Amendment comes with an expiration date, plus why we think that argument doesn’t work for any other right in the Constitution.Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776.