MONDAY: Tobacco Tax, Author Steve Fiffer, and the Public Affairs Research Council

HOUR ONE: 

State Government Relations Director at the American Heart Association Stasha Rhodes join the show to discuss the tobacco tax.  "I think that if we're going to increase our tobacco tax we need to make sure it has a public health impact for the positive."  Louisiana has had the third lowest cigarette tax since 2002.  3 out of 10 people in Louisiana smokes.  Rhodes cites the website as the authority on how much money raising the tobacco tax would bring to the state in terms of raising revenue and lowering healthcare costs.  

223 million would be made in the first year if the tobacco tax was raised back to the $1.18 tax.  

30 states have the tobacco tax at a dollar or higher. 

15 states have the tobacco tax at two dollars or higher. 

When a tobacco tax is increased a dollar, 43,000 smokers in Louisiana would quit.  

Author Steve Fiffer shares his book.  He shares the experiences that lead to the violence of Bloody Sunday and racial tensions in the 1960s during the fight for racial equality.  Fiffer also asserts that these marches pushed for the voting rights legislation to be passed.  

The Patriots have been fined 1 million dollars and a first round pick.  Tom Brady will be suspended for the first four games.  

HOUR TWO: 

President of the Public Affairs Research Council Robert Travis Scott comments on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots punishments for deflategate as well as state legislative issues.  

They discuss why the tobacco tax did not go higher.  "I think part of what they want to do is stay on level with neighboring states." 

Scott comments on Governor Jindal's new book coming out in October.  

Assistant News Director at Louisiana Radio Network Michelle Southern discuss the punishment for Quarterback Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.  

"I do think it's a sad day because Tom Brady is one of the most likable players in the NFL." 

"He ALLEGEDLY cheated," Michelle says, "I think four games is just way overboard." 

Southern thinks that Brady will appeal his suspension.  "I think they're just picking on him." 

"You don't boo your team," Southern says, "You never ever ever boo." 

FRIDAY: Visit Baton Rouge, The Tom Brady Deflated Football Scandal, NAACP, and Crowd Management at Jazz Fest

HOUR ONE: 

Paul Arrigo, President and CEO of Visit Baton Rouge, joins the show today to discuss the Miss USA pageant and Bayou Country Superfest.  He has been in Baton Rouge for 18 years.  He was a native to New Orleans.  

The telecast for Miss USA reaches 70 countries.  It will be held at the River Center July 12th.  

"New Orleans has a love affair with itself... it's a world class city..."

"Baton Rouge has great pride in itself," he says.  

They also comment on the Louisiana International Film Festival.  

"In 2014, we had about 4 million visitors to Baton Rouge."

"Travel is ____ Tweet for Tourism" to win Taylor Swift tickets to one of her concerts on her 1989 World Tour.  

  "This state has become Hollywood South as a result of the film credits.  You would have to assume that if that goes away, so would the business." 

Former LSU quarterback Alan Risher comments on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots deflated football scandal.  

"He's probably mentally in a tough spot... worried about his reputation for sure." 

"I'm sure he'll get a 2-4 game suspension at the start of this season." 

"Maybe I should have deflated a few balls back in my day," Risher says.  

"For the most part Americans are forgiving people if you come out with the truth." 

He also comments on La'el Collins.  

HOUR TWO: 

Musheer Robinson from the NAACP joins the show to discuss the riots in Baltimore.  Robinson is a graduate of Brown University and a Rhodes Scholar.    

He also comments on Ferguson and South Carolina.  He suggests that now racial upset it coming into mind for everyone.  "How are we going to reevaluate our relations to make that convivial society?" 

"The economic division is absolutely gigantic," he says of race relations in Louisiana.  

Robinson laments that Governor Jindal had not done more for racial relations with his heritage.  

"We need elected officials to start thinking strategically about how to build communities... and create opportunities for everybody." 

"There's a vibrancy in the culture and the music," Robinson says, "but in human actualization, there's so much segregation." 

"He has had more threats on his life than all of the other presidents in the past century combined," Robinson says of President Obama.   

Security Expert Paul Wertheimer, founder of Crowd Management Strategies in Los Angeles comments on Jazz Fest 2015.  

This year's Jazz Fest held the largest amount of people ever at 460,000 people.  

He has spent a large part of his life studying disasters.  "Communities don't recover from it.  Families don't recover." 

"It <Jazz Fest> should make as much money as it can without compromising public safety." 

Wertheimer says that those in charge of Jazz Fest are "taking a gamble with people's lives." 

THURSDAY: Author Sarah Bird, Obama Mama and the Louisiana International Film Festival, House Bill 701, Governor's Race, and the Tom Brady Scandal

HOUR ONE: 

Author Sarah Bird shares her novel Above the East China Sea.  She describes the challenge and fascination she felt in her research for Okinawa.  "They're very welcoming people... very very open."

"I wanted to tell the story of a contemporary military kid... It's hard growing up that way... moving constantly."  She talks about the difficulty in military families now because moms are not necessarily staying at home and the growing number of single parents.  

She lived in Okinawa  as a child for three years while her family was stationed there.  "I learned to scuba dive there.  At the time it was one of the great barrier reefs of the world." 

Filmmaker Vivian Norris joins us today to promote her film, Obama Mama, which will play this weekend at the Louisiana International Film Festival.  The film depicts the life of President Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham.  

Norris calls her a "pioneer in micro-finance for women." 

She managed to get a PhD as a single mother.  "The fact that she died fighting with insurance companies to pay bills... That's something that stuck with the president." 

They also comment on Ted Cruz and the debate surrounding the acceptable birthplaces of presidents.  

Part of the National Asian American Pacific Forum, Lawyer Shivana Jorawar comments on House Bill 701 which was passed on Wednesday.  Jorawar is a Queer Indo-Caribbean lawyer and policy advocate with a focus in gender equity, immigrant rights and racial justice.  House Bill 701 bans sex elected abortions in Louisiana.  

"It's a strategic ruse that is meant to confuse people into passing something that is negative for women." 

"The strategy is here is to open the door for more and more abortion bans to question a woman's motives." 

Jorawar says HB 701 is founded on "myths to propagate dangerous abortion restrictions." 

HOUR TWO: 

C. B. Forgotston comments on the governor's race and the louisiana legislative session.  Today, the House passed 11 bills which raise $670 million in revenue.  

Forgotston is not impressed.  "That was blowhard and rhetoric.  There's not one solution in it."  He continues, "Most of the taxes end in 18 months."  

"There's still going to be cuts to higher ed.  They admitted they didn't pass enough."  

Tax measures require 2/3 approval in the house and the senate.  

"Jay Dardenne has no path to make the runoff besides trying to run down Senator Vitter." 

Sports Writer Mark Kram Jr. gives his opinion on the New England Patriot's deflated football scandal and how this affects the team and Tom Brady.  

Kram calls the language in the report very circumstantial.  "It's called cheating.  It's not something that's unusual."

"I do think Brady is disingenuous when he says he had no knowledge of it.  He's the quarterback..."

Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie comes to the defense of Tom Brady.  Christies says, "I think it's way way overblown." 

WEDNESDAY: Astronaut Mark Kelly, Actress Sally Kirkland, Caddo Parish New DA Dale Cox, and the Pelican Institute of Public Policy

HOUR ONE: 

Astronaut Mark Kelly joins the show to discuss his new book Astrotwins.  He wants to ignite interest in math and science in young people outside of the classroom.  Both he and his twin brother, Scott Kelly, followed similar career paths and were both selected to be shuttle pilots by NASA in 1996.  "I was the better student," Mark says of he and his twin brother, "Even identical twins are not created exactly the same."

"It is the greatest thing ever. I cannot think of anything to compare it to... it's hard to do well," he says of his experience in space.  

In 2015, his brother was selected to be the Commander of the International Space Station.  

He also comments on his wife, Gabby Giffords, and her recovery from her shooting.  He shares his views on gun control and gun rights.  He expresses his support of the second amendment while stating the ways gun control can be improved.  

Jim comments on the NFL investigation released Wednesday which concluded that the New England Patriots employees and quarterback Tom Brady were "at least generally aware" of the violation in deflated footballs. 

Actress Sally Kirkland shares her experiences throughout her year.  Her first studio film was in 1954 in front of Andy Warhol's cameras.  "He set up a stationary camera and said don't move." 

She has made 150 films.  She will be at Perkins Rowe on Sunday at 12:30 for the Louisiana International Film Festival.  

Kirkland was in several films with Robert Redford.  She discusses those experiences.  Kirkland worked in Days of Our Lives and General Hospital.  

HOUR TWO: 

Newly appointed District Attorney of Caddo Parish Dale Cox joins the show.  He was recently appointed after the passing of former Caddo Parish District Attorney Charles Scott.  

He discusses the death penalty.  "The number of homicides and the savagery of homicides have grown exponentially from when I first started as a prosecutor." 

"I think we need it <death penalty> more than ever now."

"It is not uncommon for their to be 5, 10, 15, 25 years between the death sentence and actual death penalty," he says, "I think it's lost its effect." 

"I would not be in favor of any tax.  I'm a fiscal conservative." 

Dale Cox has been a prosecutor for 40 years and has had 4 death penalty convictions.  

"You should use it in those cases that are so horrendous they're really hard to describe they're so bad." 

President of the Pelican Institute of Public Policy Kevin Kane comments on the amount of people in jail.  Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration in the country.  

Louisiana has about 400,000 inmates.  Kane offers his opinion of the challenges this poses to the state.  

"All this does is create a task force... that we recognize this is a problem that merits some study," he says, emphasizing the lack of controversy surrounding this proposition.  

They comment on the retributions against simple marijuana possession which can be life in prison.  

Our imprisonment rate increased since 2013, whereas the nation's rate decreased.  

TUESDAY: LED Secretary to LSU, Frankenstein, and House Bill 418.

Hour One

Secretary of the Louisiana Economic Development (LED) Stephen Moret joins Jim in studio today as the lone guest for Hour One of today's show. Come Monday, Moret's stepping down as LED Secretary and will take over as the new President & CEO of the LSU Foundation.

Louisiana Economic Development Secretary, Stephen Moret. On Monday, Moret will take over as the new President and CEO of the LSU Foundation. Credit: americanpress.com

Stephen talks with Jim about the state of Louisiana's economy, current economic legislation at the Capitol, and what the future has in store for the LED. Looking back over his seven years as LED Secretary, Moret says  he's proud of his contributions in helping to bring to Louisiana such businesses as EA Sports, Bell Helicopter, and IBM. However, Moret says his best memories were made in helping Louisiana residents find careers and the "best possible job opportunity" that they could in Louisiana. Moret wraps up the hour by revealing to Jim some of the upcoming plans and ideas he has for his new role as President & CEO of the LSU Foundation.

Hour Two

Director Bernard Rose. He'll be in Baton Rouge May 9th for the American Premiere of his new film Fankenstein, at the Louisiana International Film Festival. Credit: bernardrosedirector.com.

Film Director Bernard Rose is the first guest in the second hour of today's show, and he joins us over the phone from Southern California to chat with Jim about his upcoming film release. Rose is coming to Baton Rouge this week for the American premiere of his new film Frankenstein at the Louisiana International Film Festival. Frankenstein premiere's Saturday May 9th at 9:30pm CST at the Cinemark Theaters at Perkins Rowe. Visit lifilmfest.org for more information.

Louisiana Federation of Teachers President, Steve Monaghan addressing the press outside the State Capitol. Credit: deseretnews.com.

Steve Monaghan, President of the Louisiana Federation of Teachers (LFT), is the second guest in Hour Two of today's show and he joins Jim in studio to passionately discuss House Bill 418. The bill would terminate the practice of automatic deductions from teacher and public employee paychecks to cover union or association dues. HB 418 passed the House Labor Committee Thursday, and Steve gives Jim about his opinion and view of the bill from the perspective of the LFT. He tells Jim what he thinks the bill will mean in the long run for not only the teachers of Louisiana, but for the firefighters, the state police and the other public employees who'll be affected if the bill becomes law.

MONDAY: Baltimore, La'el Collins, Milk Health Detriments, Louisiana Legislative Session, Americans and Muslims

HOUR ONE: 

Investigative Journalist Steven Janis speaks on the riots in Baltimore and the case involving the police officers and Freddie Gray.  He says there's still tension out in the streets, but with the National Guard's presence and the lifted curfew, things are starting to move to normalcy.    

Reporter Glenn Guilbeau, Editor of Tiger Rag Cody Worsham, and Sports and News Director Jeff Palermo comment on the investigation of the murder of La'el Collins' ex-girlfriend.  Palermo says that Collins seemed relieved when the interview was over.  "We know that he's not a suspect, but that's really all we know... As far as the NFL aspect, if he's cleared and never considered a suspect, he'll get lots of offers."  Collins did not get drafted.

Guilbeau says it is possible they will interview La'el again. "They haven't done a paternity test, but people close to the victim think Collins is the father." 

"I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a team sign him this week," says Jeff Palermo.  As a free agent, Collins would look forward to an earlier more lucrative option since he would only have to sign a two year contract as a free agent.  

Author Dr. Alissa Hamilton shares her book Got Milked.  "It is simply not an essential.  Plenty of bodies survive and thrive without milk."  

"Most adults can't digest the lactose in milk," she says.  

She says that milk should be eliminated as a requirement not as an option.  

"3 ounces of sardines contain more calcium than a glass of milk," she says.  "It's simply irresponsible at this point having the dairy food group telling us we have to have three servings of milk."

HOUR TWO: 

Tom Aswell of LA Voice discusses the Louisiana Legislative Session.  

John Kennedy State Treasurer endorsed David Vitter for governor.  Aswell says, "I'm baffled.  I really didn't expect that from Kennedy.  In my heart of hearts, I thought he would endorse Jay Dardenne." 

They discuss the governor's upcoming election and each of the four candidates.  

Executive Director of the Louisiana Housing Corporation has resigned after allegedly sending suggestive emails to his female employees.  

Conservative Activist David Horowitz comments on why Americans are fearful of Muslims.  He also comments on the shootings in Texas.  

His new book is the Black Book of the American Left.  

His parents were Marxists.  He was a Black Panther at one point in his life.  

He believes that the United States should have never left Iraq.  "Iraq borders Iran and Syria.  What better place to have a military base?" 

He criticizes President Obama's lack of use of the military.