Louisiana Lawmakers Vote Themselves a Raise

Get to the Gym, Get to Church, and Get Out of AI Chats — Dr. Abloh's Warning About AI

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for June 5, 2026. We open with Governor Jeff Landry's first veto of the legislative session — and it's a surprising one. A bill that passed both chambers of the Louisiana legislature unanimously, with zero opposition votes, would have increased compensation for wrongfully convicted and later exonerated citizens from $400,000 to $600,000 and extended the payout period from 10 to 15 years. The governor vetoed it, citing concerns about double recovery and the cost to taxpayers at a time when teacher raises went unfunded. We examine both sides — the legitimate conservative concern about safeguarding taxpayer dollars, and the equally legitimate conservative principle that it is better for a guilty person to go free than an innocent one to rot in prison. We also explain Louisiana's unusual veto override process, and ask whether the legislature will actually show up for a session to override it. In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, the governor vetoed the wrongful conviction compensation increase. Then DeSoto Parish Schools approved a 6.8% pay raise for all full-time employees — making northwest Louisiana suddenly the most interesting real estate market in the state for teachers looking for districts that want to keep them. And a bill sitting on the governor's desk would retroactively wipe out an ethics fine for Democratic state Representative Steven Jackson of Shreveport, who has racked up thousands of dollars in fines for repeatedly failing to file required financial disclosures on time. We suggest the governor decline to sign that one too.  We dig into the economic case for data centers in Louisiana — specifically Amazon Web Services building a data center just north of Benton in Bossier Parish that is expected to generate $12 million a year in water revenue alone, with Amazon also agreeing to help fund upgrades to the city's aging infrastructure. We make the case that data centers are the railroads of the 21st century — not because they're glamorous but because they generate enormous private investment in communities that might otherwise be waiting for government bonds and tax hikes. We also address the fear that data centers will take jobs and destroy the economy, and explain why every new technology in history, from the factory to the computer, created more jobs than it displaced. We sit down with Dr. Keith Abloh — author and AI expert — for one of the most important conversations we've had on this show. His central warning: AI is not just a productivity tool. It is gradually coaxing us to deposit ourselves into machines, to stop thinking for ourselves, to outsource our judgment, our direction, our creativity, and eventually our identity to systems that have no soul. He talks about the GPS problem — we don't navigate anymore and we've lost the capacity — and how AI is doing the same thing to our minds at a much larger scale. He says the first signs are already visible in younger people with shorter attention spans and less willingness to think critically. His prescription: get to the gym, get to church, get grounded in something real, because the alternative is evaporating into a chatbot. KeithAbloh.com. The Chicago Bears have voted to move forward with a stadium development project in Hammond, Indiana — just across the Illinois border — after the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois failed to offer meaningful incentives to keep them. Mayor Brandon Johnson says it's not a done deal, but we disagree. We also explain why this is not a football story — it's an economic story about what happens when you run a city in a way that makes businesses want to leave.  We also get into the World Cup arriving in the United States, Canada, and Mexico — the first time in history the tournament has been co-hosted by three countries simultaneously. We work through which professional soccer leagues have the most players in this year's cup — English Premier League at 165, Bundesliga at 90, France's Ligue 1 at 79, La Liga at 76, Serie A at 65, and MLS at 44 — and make the case that Major League Soccer has arrived as one of the top six leagues on the planet. The last time the U.S. hosted a World Cup, we didn't even have a professional league. And a freshman Democrat congresswoman from Arizona has called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked against President Trump — because in a video he appeared to have his eyes briefly closed while someone else was speaking at his desk. We ask whether she ever called for the 25th Amendment against Joe Biden. We already know the answer. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

The Debit Card Surcharge Bill, the Recall That Has No Case, and a Mom Who Took on TikTok

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for June 4, 2026. We open with a Louisiana bill sitting on Governor Landry's desk that sounds great on the surface and is actually terrible policy — Senator Beth Mizell's bill to ban retail surcharges on debit card transactions. We explain why this is not a conservative principle, why it will not save consumers a single dollar, and why all it will actually do is raise the price of everything for everyone, hurt the small businesses least able to absorb the cost, and prove once again that Milton Friedman was right — there is no free lunch, there is only a free lunch you can't see the bill for.  In our Top 3, Louisiana AG Liz Murrell announced the arrest and indictment of two women — including a state Department of Health employee — for a $156,000 Medicaid and SNAP fraud scheme involving reinstating benefits for someone who had been kicked off the program for lying about her income and marital status. The DOH employee is now a fugitive. Then St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith was arrested for second-degree battery and disturbing the peace after allegedly attacking a frequent critic at a steakhouse in Madisonville — and we say if the allegations are true, he should resign. And the deadline to register for Louisiana's upcoming Senate runoff elections is Saturday online only — so if you haven't registered, go to la.sos.gov or download the GoVote app right now. We also discuss another bill on the governor's desk — the Streets to Success Act — which criminalizes homelessness and allows someone sleeping on a park bench to be arrested and jailed for up to six months. We explain why we have serious problems with this bill, why designating public encampment zones is exactly the policy that turned Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco into disaster zones, why homelessness is fundamentally a mental illness and substance abuse crisis rather than a housing problem, and why a bill with no funding for the programs it creates is not a solution — it's a sentence. We dig into the Louisiana governor's recall petition — Louis was just interviewed about it by a local TV station — and we walk through each of the three stated grounds for the recall. Undermining fair representation? The governor was doing what the Supreme Court ordered him to do. Misaligned priorities? The legislature votes on the budget. Emphasis on punishment over root causes? Crime in Louisiana has gone down in every major city since Landry took office and focused on incarceration. We apply the principle that you don't recall a governor for doing what they were elected to do — you recall them for doing the opposite. We sit down with Sarah Standiford, author of Citizens Pray, whose son was killed when a semi truck driver watching TikTok live — going 68 miles per hour — slammed into the vehicle he was a passenger in. The truck burned for four hours. The driver was not convicted of distracted driving. Sarah took on the trucking company, the state of Arizona, and the legal system — and has written about all of it. We talk about why enforcement of distracted driving laws is nearly impossible, why she believes the accountability has to come from phone carriers and social media platforms themselves, and why a road in Arizona where 500 people died in six years still hasn't been fixed. That conversation leads us into a broader discussion about why no law can substitute for character — why the more people govern their own behavior, the less government they need, and why the inverse is also true. If you want government out of your life, you have to be the kind of person who can be trusted to run it. We also cover an illegal immigrant from Brazil who was driving the wrong way on a Massachusetts highway while allegedly intoxicated, crashed into a state trooper, and was back on the street in two days because of Massachusetts sanctuary state law. And a British Labour Party lawmaker is suing Elon Musk because someone used Grok to generate an AI image of her in a bikini — we discuss why the complaint, if legitimate, is against the person who created the image and not against the platform, and why Britain's hostility toward Musk has far more to do with his criticism of the British government's silence on a recent murder than it does with artificial intelligence. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

Performative Politics: When Government Stops Governing

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for June 3, 2026. We open with a local Caddo Parish controversy that reveals something much larger about modern American politics: the rise of performative government. After a parish commissioner vowed to keep reintroducing a resolution opposing Louisiana's congressional maps "until kingdom come," we examine the growing obsession with symbolic political gestures that accomplish nothing while real problems go unaddressed. From overcrowded jails and neglected infrastructure to endless political posturing, we explore the difference between governing and simply making statements. We also break down the latest legal challenge to Louisiana's congressional maps, a major federal investment in rare earth mineral extraction that could strengthen America's domestic supply chain, and the troubling financial situation in New Orleans as city leaders take on another massive loan while struggling to balance the budget. Then we turn to Louisiana's newly signed Safe Haven awareness law, requiring high schools to display information about legal alternatives available to mothers facing crisis pregnancies. We discuss why simply making people aware of options can save lives and why supporters see the measure as an important pro-life initiative. From there, we shift to a story that illustrates the power of civic pride and visible improvement. Shreveport's renovated water tower isn't just a fresh coat of paint — it's part of a broader conversation about maintenance, infrastructure, community standards, and what cities communicate about themselves through the condition of their public spaces. We also look at Victoria's Secret's dramatic financial turnaround after moving away from the activist-driven branding that alienated many of its traditional customers, sparking a larger discussion about what happens when companies lose sight of the audience they serve. Later, we examine claims surrounding conditions at the Delaney Hall ICE detention facility after a member of Congress toured the center and reported conditions that sharply contradict many of the narratives promoted by activists and political opponents. We discuss the importance of transparency, media scrutiny, and separating facts from political messaging. We also dive into the debate over presidential war powers as Congress considers efforts to limit President Trump's authority regarding Iran, explore how state corporate tax rates are driving business migration across the country, and examine Florida's effort to hold organizers of violent "teen takeovers" accountable alongside the participants themselves. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

Political Entitlement, Inspection Stickers, and Biden's Legacy

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for June 2, 2026. We open with a local controversy that reveals a much larger problem in American politics: what happens when elected officials stop seeing themselves as public servants and start seeing themselves as gatekeepers. A Caddo Parish commissioner publicly complained that Speaker Mike Johnson failed to consult him before handing out Spirit of Louisiana Awards honoring citizens who serve their communities. We explore the growing culture of political entitlement, why some officials believe recognition must flow through them, and how public meetings increasingly become stages for personal grievances instead of places where actual governing gets done. We also break down the biggest developments from Louisiana’s recently concluded legislative session. From the elimination of traditional inspection stickers in favor of QR codes, to Governor Jeff Landry’s search for money to fund teacher pay raises, we examine what lawmakers accomplished, what they failed to accomplish, and whether taxpayers got meaningful results for months of legislative debate. Along the way, we discuss school consolidation, underutilized facilities, insurance reforms, economic development incentives, and why some of the state's most pressing problems remain unresolved. Later, we turn to national politics and the ongoing effort by Democrats to rewrite recent history. Jill Biden insists Joe Biden could have defeated Donald Trump had he remained in the 2024 race, while simultaneously admitting she cannot say whether he would have been capable of serving another term. We examine what that contradiction reveals about the years-long effort to shield the public from concerns about Biden’s condition. We also dive into a controversy surrounding a Democratic Senate candidate whose past includes a Nazi tattoo and other troubling allegations. The discussion leads to a broader question: what happens when political victory becomes more important than moral consistency? We explore the dangerous temptation of believing that the ends justify the means and why abandoning standards for the sake of power ultimately undermines the very principles politicians claim to defend. Plus, rising energy costs around the country, surprising state-by-state electricity price increases, Louisiana’s role in a federal marijuana lawsuit, and whether President Trump’s public optimism about negotiations with Iran is strategic leadership, political salesmanship, or something in between. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

Government, Garbage, and Good Citizens

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for June 1, 2026. We open with a deceptively simple question that turns into something much bigger: why do so many communities tolerate visible decline? A mayoral campaign in Shreveport built around picking up litter sparks a broader conversation about the line between government responsibility and personal responsibility. We examine whether cities should be expected to continuously clean up after chronic littering, why taxpayers eventually resent subsidizing irresponsible behavior, and how the health of a community ultimately reflects the habits of the people who live there. If everyone stopped throwing trash on the ground tomorrow, the problem would disappear without a single new government program.  In our Top 3 Things You Need to Know, the Louisiana Legislature wraps up its regular session after a busy and often contentious year. We break down last-minute budget changes that eliminated a $43 million expansion of the state's school choice program, the end of traditional vehicle inspection stickers in favor of a QR-code system, and a new law shielding public disclosure of NIL compensation paid to college athletes. We also discuss a Louisiana Supreme Court ruling affirming the legislature's authority to eliminate Orleans Parish's separate criminal clerk of court office and Governor Jeff Landry's signing of the Caleb Wilson Hazing Prevention Act following the tragic death of a Southern University student during an off-campus fraternity hazing ritual. We also dive into Louisiana's new balloon-release ban and the larger debate it raises about laws that are difficult to enforce. Are balloon releases simply another form of littering, given the environmental damage, wildlife risks, and power outages they can cause? Or are lawmakers creating rules that exist largely as statements of public values rather than practical tools for enforcement? The discussion becomes a fascinating examination of the difference between changing behavior and policing behavior. Then we revisit our recent interview with Senate candidate and Congresswoman Julia Letlow. We take a closer look at her answers on carbon capture subsidies, whether federal taxpayers should continue funding carbon sequestration projects, and why some voters remain frustrated by politicians who promise more study after already casting votes on major legislation. We also examine the controversy surrounding questions about lobbying, family connections, and where the public should draw the line between legitimate scrutiny and personal attacks during a political campaign. We turn our attention to a growing number of "Pride Houses" being established for international visitors attending the FIFA World Cup in the United States. Supporters say they're intended as welcoming spaces for LGBTQ travelers, but we explore the larger question of how America is perceived abroad and whether the image being presented by some activists bears any resemblance to the reality of life in a country where major corporations, sports leagues, universities, and entertainment companies openly celebrate LGBTQ causes year after year. In Say What?!, we examine the candidacy of a Maine Democrat facing scrutiny over a past Nazi-related tattoo while simultaneously advocating a wealth tax aimed at redistributing private wealth. The conversation quickly expands into a larger debate over economics, government spending, wealth creation, and whether politicians who view private capital as "hoarded" wealth fundamentally misunderstand how investment, business growth, and job creation actually work. We also discuss how the artificial intelligence boom may soon affect something almost every American buys: cars. As technology giants race to build massive AI data centers, automakers are increasingly competing with trillion-dollar tech companies for the same advanced computer chips that power modern vehicles. We explain why that competition could drive up vehicle prices, how the chip shortages during the COVID era offer a preview of what could happen next, and why efforts to expand domestic chip manufacturing may become increasingly important.  And we close with a revealing look at corporate migration across America. New data shows corporate headquarters continuing to leave major blue-state cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, and Chicago while relocating to places such as Dallas, Austin, Nashville, Phoenix, and Houston. We explore what these moves tell us about taxes, regulation, business climate, and the growing competition among states to attract jobs, investment, and economic growth. Plus, we return to a theme that runs through the entire episode: whether it's a neighborhood, a city, or even the nation's capital, people tend to care more about places that look cared for. From littered streets to neglected monuments to the restoration of Washington, D.C.'s public spaces, we examine why visible signs of pride and stewardship matter more than many people realize—and what they communicate about the health and confidence of a society. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!