AGR - Louisiana Edition

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for November 3, 2026.

We’re broadcasting live from the Shreveport Convention Center at Speaker Mike Johnson’s election night watch party, with a note for our D.C. listeners that you’re hearing this Wednesday morning, after a show we recorded live on Tuesday night. We start by talking about what it means that one of the most powerful men in Washington calls Shreveport home, and what’s at stake tonight for the Trump agenda. We compare the possible fallout of a Democratic win to what followed the 2018 midterms. We also dig into pollster John McLaughlin’s claim that major polls are under-sampling Trump voters, and we make the case for why the polls may be off. Through it all, we remind you that God is still in control, win or lose.

In the Top 3 You Need to Know, the Department of Justice sends election monitors to Orleans, East Baton Rouge and Lafayette parishes, and Secretary of State Nancy Landry responds. DeSoto Parish finalizes its new redistricting map. And Louisiana could be in the running for a new military base that would house up to 25,000 troops. We follow that with the good news on Louisiana’s finances, including Fitch’s bond rating upgrade and Treasurer John Fleming’s call for a bigger homestead exemption and a gradual phase-out of the state income tax, which we look at through the lens of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

In Digging Deep, we look at how the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is going all in on space. The school is building a new space engineering program, meeting with NASA at Johnson Space Center, and positioning itself for the new SpaceX spaceport on the Gulf Coast. We ask whether it could do for Louisiana what UT did for Austin. Back at the watch party, we talk about why Speaker Johnson keeps telling voters not to believe the polls. We compare polling models to weather models, and we get into the Alaska and Michigan Senate races, where late shifts could happen. We also take a moment to remember that the voter who chose differently is our neighbor, not our enemy.

Then we play a game: which universities have produced the most American astronauts? We close with a preview of what’s ahead in the second hour, including what could happen in Washington if Democrats take control of Congress.

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 November 2, 2026.

Tomorrow is Election Day, and we start by asking Louisiana voters not to take the U.S. Senate race for granted. Julia Letlow is the widely assumed favorite, but we talk about why a political advantage isn’t the same as a victory. We look at Jamie Davis’s internal poll showing a tie, the shifting race ratings, the early voting numbers, and whether the primary divisions with Bill Cassidy’s and Dr. John Fleming’s supporters have healed. We also remind you that polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., and that if you’re in line at closing time, you can still vote.

In the Top 3, we cover a disqualified Louisiana judge who has been hired as a prosecutor in the same courthouse, a financially strapped Webster Parish town now under a state-appointed fiscal administrator, and the OMV closures for Election Day.

Next, Caddo Parish Commissioner John Atkins joins us in the new studio. He’s running for the Public Service Commission in District 5, a seat Foster Campbell has held for more than 20 years. We talk about what the PSC actually does, how it handles rate cases, what rising utility costs mean for residential customers, how data centers are changing the conversation, and how storm recovery charges and grid resilience fit in.

We then turn to the Supreme Court’s decision on the 20,000 disputed California ballots. We separate what the Justice Department alleges from what the courts have actually decided, and we go over what the administration was asking for and why we think it matters for election integrity. After that, we discuss a Pennsylvania woman arrested for blocking an Uber Eats delivery robot, and where the right to protest ends and someone else’s rights begin.

Then we ask why Chicago offers ballots in 12 languages, and whether the melting pot works if we don’t share one. After that, we play a game of guessing which cities have the best parks, according to two very different rankings. We wrap up with Spike Lee urging the NBA champion Knicks to skip their White House visit, and we ask why every championship has to become a political statement.

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 30, 2026.

We open with a campaign jingle mix-up that turns out to be from the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon race, not Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. Then we get into the senator’s speech to the Shreveport and Bossier chambers of commerce, where he made the case for governing by normal people. We talk about higher oil prices and inflation, the costs of the war with Iran, his pledge to protect Barksdale Air Force Base, and why a household budget is a good guide for Washington.

In the Top 3, East Baton Rouge Parish lands a share of the DOJ’s $300 million Model Cities crime-fighting initiative. Judges in St. Landry Parish sue over $77,000 in past-due bills. St. Tammany’s district attorney warns that a proposed 60 percent budget cut would gut his office, and we make the point that you can’t be tough on crime without writing the check.

Next, a frustrated Saints fan’s letter to the team leads us to the difference between demanding perfection and expecting excellence, and why high expectations are a form of respect.

In Digging Deep, we look at a Hayride piece on the Louisiana congressional race between Blake Miguez and Rick Edmonds that argues Edmonds is too old to be a freshman congressman. We ask whether wisdom has an expiration date, run the numbers on the ages of members of Congress, and talk about what qualities voters should actually look for.

We then ask why President Trump has shifted to tele-rallies, whether it’s war planning or something more serious, and we cover the arrest of a 21-year-old in Daytona Beach over alleged threats against him. On Say What, we look at the video Rep. Ilhan Omar posted after the raid on her home, set to a Somali song, and at the Washington Free Beacon’s translation of the lyrics.

Our game this hour is naming the most popular Halloween costumes of 2026, based on Mental Floss’s ranking. We finish with the story of Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger restoring voting rights to a long-dead dog named Biscuit and to deceased felons, and we ask who is going to explain it.

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. Avalone and Stephen Parr.

We open with good news out of Baton Rouge: Fitch Ratings has upgraded Louisiana’s credit rating from AA-minus to AA with a stable outlook. We explain what that means for your wallet and for the interest the state and local governments pay when they borrow. Then we take up Treasurer John Fleming’s call for more tax relief and debate which should come first, raising the homestead exemption or phasing out the personal income tax, and how to do either without hurting the state’s new rating.

In the Top 3, Louisiana residents file suit in Orleans Parish against DraftKings, FanDuel and two casinos, alleging their apps target the people most vulnerable to gambling addiction. Meta awards LSU a $2 million grant for AI research that could help spot signs of distress in infants who have had a tracheotomy. Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux asks the legislature for street lighting money after fatal crashes on North Market and Hearn Avenue.

We also fact-check President Trump’s claim that Meta cut $10,000 checks to everyone in the Richland Parish area. Teachers there are due big bonuses, and the data center is bringing in real jobs and tax revenue.

In Digging Deep, we look at a WAFB story on Councilman Cleve Dunn’s call for a study on separating the governments of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish. We ask whether deconsolidation would serve taxpayers, how St. George factors in, and how consolidated government works in Orleans, Terrebonne and Lafayette.

Next, we respond to Kathy Griffin’s claim that fascism is costing her beauty sleep, and we talk about what actually makes a country fascist. Then Senator John Kennedy joins us to talk about his travels on the campaign trail, whether Republicans can buck the historical midterm trend, the December 11 government shutdown deadline, the price of oil and Iran, and his plans for 2028.

We also take on Colorado Congressman Jason Crow’s answer on whether a democratic socialist could win the presidency in 2028. In our retirement game, based on the MoneyLion report, we guess which states require the most and least annual income to retire. Our closing story is the Commerce Department’s report that the economy grew at a 3.4 percent annual rate in the third quarter, beating expectations. We talk about why so many voters aren’t feeling it yet.

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. Avalone and Stephen Parr. We start with Louisiana’s November 3rd election and the early vote numbers, and we caution against confusing who voted first with who will win. Democrats lead early voting by about three points, 42% to 39% over Republicans, a far smaller edge than in past elections. We talk through why that gap isn’t the whole story. Republicans have historically shown up on Election Day, many registered Democrats in Louisiana vote Republican down the ballot, and a voter who moves up the date of their vote doesn’t add a single vote to total turnout.

In our Top 3 Things You Need To Know, early voting wraps up in Louisiana with more than 520,000 ballots cast, a majority of them from women. The state drops two of the five corruption charges against East Baton Rouge school superintendent Lamont Cole. And the betting site Kalshi sues Louisiana over its online gambling laws, a fight that could end up at the Supreme Court.

Next, we head to the small town of Boyce in Rapides Parish, where a $3.6 billion AI data center developer has written a $4 million check, more than the town brought in all last year. We look at what that kind of private investment could mean for water, sewer, and public safety, and at the trade-offs, including the power plant that has to be built to feed the data center.

In Digging Deep, we look at Congressman Clay Higgins’s new re-election ad. Its message about communism is not what’s drawing the attention. The graphic archival footage of real atrocities is, and it runs with no content warning. Did he go too far, and is there a right way to make the point?

We also take on Michael Douglas’s BBC interview, in which he hopes for a political “massacre” of Republicans in the midterms. We revisit the Hollywood celebrities and pundits who were certain in 2016 that Donald Trump would never be president. In Say What, we listen to podcaster Jennifer Welch and former CNN reporter Jim Acosta talk about wanting investigations and trials for Trump family members after the midterms, including 20-year-old Barron Trump. We ask where the evidence is and whether this is about justice or revenge.

Then we turn to Israel, where Benjamin Netanyahu’s bloc looks poised to finish first but still falls short of the 61 seats needed to form a government. After that, we play a game: which states had the most illegal immigrants detained and deported in July, according to Newsweek? The answers include Texas at No. 1, Florida at No. 2, and a few surprises, plus a look at why states like California and New York rank lower than their size would suggest. We close with the vandalism of the 9/11 Memorial and the damage to the Iwo Jima Memorial, and ask what it says about respect for the people and sacrifices these places honor.

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 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.