24 of 2024

[Música]

Bienvenidos a todo este episodio de Louisiana Uncultare.

Así que queremos transformar esto para este episodio. 2023. Es un buen día, un día muy bien, un día muy bien, un día muy bien. Bueno, ¿qué es el 2024 en nuestro trabajo? Eso es lo que vamos a explorar en este episodio de Louisiana Uncultare. [Música] Así que vamos a dejarlo. Vamos a atacar este episodio con nuestros amigos de nuestro trabajo. Tenemos Daniel, Katherine y Jordan. Nosotros tenemos un 2020, ¿qué tenemos?

Sí, Karen, nos hemos llegado a un gran listo de compilos de la parte de la historia de la 24. Y queremos empezar con el 24. Y es bienvenido a la Hallofame, la Louisiana Uncultare. Es un proyecto de conductos de la nueva clase. Hay tres grandes nombres que están en la ciudad. Y yo creo que Jordan es muy contento. Tenemos un grupo de brusos. Si no te lo sabes, los brusos que están en la ciudad. ¿Cuál es eso? Ok. No, no. Yo creo que es un gran listo.

Es tan incidible. Entonces Drew Breeze es going to be joining the Hall of Fame. Some of my gustos, who I'm very excited to see her name in there. And then Daniel Cormier, who is a mixed martial arts, USC fighter from Lafayette. So those are kind of three of the big names kind of joining the Hall of Fame. Yo me puedo cancelar con esto, pero no he sido una insaneza. Drew Breeze, me voy a hablar. Jordan, desde mi parte del estado, que no escuega tu non-fandom de la insaneza.

Kingdom, yo creo que te puedo llamar. Me en la insaneza, la team y la fanbase, han habido una relación complicada que me quedo en la semana. Pero, ya sabes, este es un gran clasio. Obviamente, se ha aumentado mucho la lucea en la espocia. Daniel Cormier, fue a la misma escuela que me ha ido. Entonces, lo que me he hecho era representar a la ciudad. Así que, ya sabes, es una gran experiencia para la primera vez en la persona. Yo era una starstruck.

Entonces, esto es una gran clasio y se ha cambiado mucho a la ciudad. ¿Y qué es el que se ha cambiado en la Hall of Fame? El gran clasio, el gran clasio, para un periodo extendido, creo que y todos los granos. Drew Breeze, no se ha cambiado mucho a la franchise que nunca había habido. Entonces, desde eso, si no se ha cambiado de nada, se ha cambiado en la Hall of Fame. Y, ya sabes, los gostos de la Fuerza, el final de la Fuerza, el lucea. ¿Qué es el lucea? El lucea es más visible en la map.

Sí, es como el mar de Herence, el lucea. Pero ya sabes, es que es muy grande. Cormier, a mucha gente no sabe que es como la segunda UFC fighter, que tiene como 2 UFC como edad y en 2 diferentes divisions. Se ha cambiado en la muy popular es como que se continuó a ver. Yo he estado en la forgotera de Drew Breeze que no sé que era, obviamente, era un superbolo. Pero él ha sabido cómo se ha cambiado.

Y no sé si Jordyn es no, obviamente, una fiesta de black and gold, que no sé que antes que él era más grande. Entonces, vamos a hablar de eso later. Pero... No, yo he hecho. No, curiosamente, yo creo que Jordyn te da un input a este. Pero él... Yo creo que él se ha cambiado recordado, se ha cambiado a Russian yards, se ha cambiado a Russian yards, se ha cambiado a lo que no. ¿No, es mi correcto?

Él ha cambiado recordado en ese tiempo cuando él era planeado, pero tenemos que lembrar que Tom Brady era como 40 años, entonces luego, él era eventualmente, que se ha cambiado de los records. Pero en el tiempo, cuando Breeze era activado, él se ha cambiado definitivamente. Sí. Y vamos a ver que el coste de la Ceremonía de la Ceremonía de la Junta, que es una acción, así que es un buen tiempo. Y eso te lleva a número 23. Es un tráco.

Así que, desde Katrina, no ha sido en sus servicios reales, por el coste de golf. Es una de las cosas que ha sido muy rebuiltadas. Y vamos a ver que se viene a la vida en 2024. Es una muy grande parte de Mississippi, Alabama, en New Orleans. Es una de las cosas que se viene a la vida en 2024. Y eso es que se viene a la vida en 2024, gracias a los granitos federales, y en Estados Unidos, y en la vida, para que se se veas en el mundo.

Y para los de ustedes que no están aware, este entrenamiento es que se va a ir de New Orleans a un modelo. ¿Correcto, Daniel? Pero ¿qué pasó en la Ruiz? Esa es una ruiz de baton. Pero a veces, a veces, muchas personas que se van a tener un tráco, o sea, es una ruiz de aca, a la ruiz de la ruiz de New Orleans. El camino que hemos estado aquí, desde que me ha sido un día. Es muy durado. Es muy durado. La gran parte de la ruiz de la baton, en New Orleans, es donde se va a poner este paso.

Hay muchas personas que se van a la vida en el mundo. Algunas que van a tener que ir más o menos a ese eson, blubon, que es una área de medallaje de la ruiz de la ruiz de la ruiz de la ciudad. Y luego tienes, a la otra parte de la argumenta que piensa que se va a ir en la Norte Bateria, a tener que ir a las personas que no se van a tener acceso a las cosas más fáciles. Así que hay una gran debate donde eso va. Hay un gran debate de dinero.

El debate va a ser continuado por un tiempo. Pero creo que las cosas expertas que están haciendo este paso, en el costo de la gente, en el genero de la turismo, por el que se va a poner de la gente de Alabama, en New Orleans, en vice versa, es como una cosa que tiene que tener que estar en la baton, en los Orleans, como la gente.

En este momento, sí, yo creo que si hay una otra opción para la transportación, que no se va a ir a la pura, es tiempo en mi camino memory demostración cada tiempo spoil en la trustees y ha3000 en tierra es algo a tiempo con unos 23. A lo intentativo,

... ISIS para tu всем beneficio Usted nos requirements de supervisar ese tema depadres tan mıcusos MUSIC crédical con Karen, mi favorito sobre este tema era el intamit y la personalidad de uno a uno, atención. Algunas necesidades de que le hicieron suave. Entonces si estás mirando por eso, se acuerdan con su gran gran gran y no hay más de un intamit, suerte de la Universidad Federal y la Unión de la Universidad, tienes.

Vamos a un pensante no es Flashback, pracando dentro del entorno, que la verdad una fazificación lo largo de lo normal lo malo es... Very tired so based. 那么 se Tuesday el ten patrons para 25 años se sayin, con memorized housing, gaat crecer enwach caso. La tercera instancia de la autonomy. Llego a Kid Rock y Jason Aldean, entre los dos artistas de headline. Y es un buen tiempo, por ejemplo, que hagan en cuenta a la ciudad de la ciudad, y es así que es un counter de música en la zona.

- Espera, yo voy a... - Ay, yo voy a... - Oh, cújate. - Cújate, cújate. Pues, yo quería decir, yo no me lo he visto que Kid Rock era un señor de la ciudad. Yo he visto que es un señor de la ciudad, ¿no? - Sí. Yo no sé, pero, hasta la sombra de la mano, de una little banner. - Sí. - Sí. Yo creo que él ha sido un país más grande, creo que es un poco de politics, pero... He sido muy grande que el país se ha sido. Yo era una vez que creo que era un gran chute en la González armada.

Es decir, no solo a las personas que están en González, se ha sido un gran chute en la ciudad de Álvaro, por favor. Es decir, cuando hay Martí, no hay solo en New Orleans. - El hotel se ha estado en un momento. - Sí. Aquí, a veces, las personas están a la abuela, a diferentes partes de la ascensión. A veces, están a la abuela, a la abuela, a la abuela, a la abuela. Si no están a la abuela, esto es un gran del.

Es un gran del de la abuela. No se ha llegado a la abuela. No se ha llegado a New Orleans. He llegado a la abuela de la abuela. La Martí se ha llegado a la abuela. sino que es un gran lugar que rouge este tipo de diagnos, es una de las cosillas que podamos creer una hacienda dirección en una por conta Presentador por zalada. Sindas y últimas confusingas y laszą defatismo hangue same. Ch El galifica craneig m&í se mantiene sangat corta ytail de sharpener— menos, Papá, y el género.

Ok. So Jordan won't be there, pero ticats are on sale. If you want to go ahead and get him tickets, we can. We'll gift him to you, Jordan. Not a saint. No, I know, not a country music can. I think Jordan will be excited about number 21, though.

Yes, I think everybody's going to be excited about that. And I'll even, I'll even tease you with this I think majority of us did our Christmas shopping through that. Oh, that's quite the tease. What is it? It's the convenience. Yeah, the Amazon fulfillment center is finally going to be open at the Old Cortana Mall site. This has been really a long time coming. Demolition started in 2021. This thing was supposed to be opened in 2023.

They were kind of crippled by all the construction delays that so many people are familiar with and supply chain delays and issues there. So they're finally going to be opening in 2024. And it's a huge facility. If you haven't driven by there, it's just massive. It's $200 million. It's going to be $3.4 million square foot. And this thing is so cool. They have some videos on YouTube, on Amazon's YouTube site. You can kind of see how these fulfillment centers work.

And it's crazy how these little robots and drones can kind of bring your packages based on QR codes and all that. So it's not going to all be robots. There's going to be a lot of jobs that are going to be coming as well, close to 1,000 full-time jobs to the bad and Nigeria, which is definitely never a bad thing to hear. I do have to say, I'm excited for the economic development. But I am going to miss that delards at Cortana Mall that has like 80% off of everything.

But I do think this is going to be great for the Baton Rouge area to add more jobs. And so people can get their products a bit quicker now. You miss dealers. I miss Mesa on Blanche and Service Merchant Difer. Are you talking about? It's a very large surprise. All right, P to the Cortana. I remember for a while, they only had like bath and body works open. I used to go in there after Christmas gets on in holiday sense. I was fired. You could order them on Amazon.

I was going to add that I know it like when we've gone to Dallas, the very first time it happened, you order something on Amazon and you're hoping, okay, well, before we leave, it'll get here and it says it'll be there in two hours. And I was like, wait, what? Hold on, wait, what? It's really going to be here in two hours. Like, I felt like a little kid about to get a gift. That's probably going to be happening here too. We will be getting things that are available within two hours.

And I think that's about to change a lot. Yeah, I've lived in Atlanta and Charlotte where you could do kind of like the same day, two hour deliveries. And it's super convenient when you're in a pinch or can't get out. I've missed that. Right now, we're kind of relying on packages from other places. Lafayette has the first Amazon fulfillment center in the state. Tree portal will be opening up behind Baton Rouge. So Amazon's footprint in Louisiana is definitely expanding.

So it will be a game changer for sure. And speaking of game change, we have at number 20, we have a new top jag on the bluff. The Southern Jags are going to be welcoming their new head coach for the upcoming football season. And Jordan, he's already kind of started with a big win for the Jags. Yeah, Terence Graves was named a new head coach. His first order of business was to go coach him in the value class. You know, the most popular game for Southern of the year. And they were victorious.

You know, coach Dooly, coach Eric Dooly, he, the university party weighs with them after his second season. They just, he was over 500 with the 12 and 10 record, but they just didn't live up to the expectations of the university and the fan base. I mean, you go on a Saturday on social media. The Southern fans was letting him have it.

And it was weird considering that he won more games than he lost, but you know, people have certain standards for things and they felt like, you know, Coach Dooly didn't live up to it, but Coach Graves steps in, fresh voice, you know, fresh perspective, looking to lead the Jags into more success. Next season. And the only head coach to win the Bay of Classic with both Grandmoline and Southern, which is, which is interesting.

I wonder how that goes with him for the fans, like for the Grandmoline fans, like how do they feel that he, I guess, quote unquote, joke ship. They might have some animosity there. Yeah, and I think, look, I think he's going to be great for the Jags for a few different reasons. He's, you know, has that special team's background that, you know, I think it's going to help elevate the Jags, especially in that swag play that's going to be brutal coming up in the next season. Absolutely.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Southern can do. I mean, anytime you get rid of a coach, you're expecting new things. So I anticipate them, yeah, hoping to make progress, but it all depends on, you know, the players, you get the players who stay and not jump into the transfer portal and stuff like that. And those things change every week, every couple of months.

So we won't know exactly what Southern all have until maybe our next August, because I mean, some kids show up in a spring and then they transfer. So he's going to have his hands full, but I think he'll be able to have some success with team. It'll be fun to watch on the bluff. And then at number 19, we'll also see if Kim Mulkikin do back-to-back championships, national championships with her with her Tigers. Yeah, the season started off rough.

They're all related people, not the way people anticipated. You lose the first game in Vegas. Then you come out the top-rank team, and then you lose the first game. You have some issues with your star player, another player who was pivotal in the championship run. It's just not on the team anymore. We don't know why. So that was like a couple of weeks of strife, but I think one of the biggest bright spots for the team has been freshman,

Michaela Williams. She's been sensational. The freshman from Parkway, I saw her in the state championship game. The last two years dropped 30 plus the first her dream year they lost, her dream year they won. And I didn't think she would translate this fast to the college game, but she dropped 42. I think it was earlier this season. She's starting. She's producing at a high level, one of the leading scores on the team. She's been in like a revelation.

Obviously they had a Hamie Van Lith. She transferred in running point. Flaujay still there. Anisha Moral, another transfer. She's ball in double, double monster. And now Angel Reese, after that brief hiatus or whatever you want to call it, she's stepped back in and she's doing what she does. And when they're clicking, they're definitely the most talented team in my opinion in the country, but I mean, you still have South Carolina with Dawn Staley. They punish your people right now.

So I think it's a collision court and you got Caitlin Clark, who LSUB, and the national championship last year, she's still there ball. And so it's I'm interested to see man. I'm excited about, you know, women's college basketball. And I need to go to a couple of games before the season ends. Yeah, I love. I'm hoping that this off court drama is kind of behind the team. Because you're absolutely right.

They're better when they're driving and and Karen, how great that some of these are like, you know, household names that Jordan was mentioning and that women's basketball and Baton Rouge is like one of the top sports. It's so great to see. It really is. I mean, to me, I think Jordan, I've had this conversation. The best part is the little girls who just, it's amazing to watch them want to go to these games because these girls are these women, young women should I say,

serve as role models. And they are so excited to go to the games and then add to that.

It can melt these attire that alone has just become, I mean, something of a conversation, I guess, that you almost look forward to when she's going to wear. What's she going to be wearing? And that's your go ahead. I'm sorry. No, that's just one of the things about women's college basketball. Like in men's college basketball, after a year, some of the best players they're gone. And then, you know, we have to look for some more.

But a lot of times the women's basketball, they stay three years, four years. So we get to have that experience. They get to have that college experience. And I know it's easier not to make millions of NIL deals and stuff like that. But just getting to stay and, you know, coach Mokie being here, I think is one of the biggest reasons for a lot of these players. One to come and play for her and her style of play.

So I think that this is going to be one of those things where yes, Angel will be leaving soon and other Haley Van Litha soon. I think she's going to be gone as well. But Mikaela will still be here and she'll continue to get more talk. Because more and more people want to come to Ben Rouge. They're hearing about this experience and they want to play for coach Mokie. Who's eligible? In 2023, we had two parades in two championships, come to Ben Rouge. Can the LSU baseball team do it again?

There's going to be another thing to kind of watch in 2024. They're going to have a long season ahead of them coming up here shortly. Yeah, losing Dylan Cruz and Paul Schienz, the two top picks in the MLM drive. That's kind of tough. And you lose some other contributing guys as well. But one thing about LSU baseball and athletics in general, they get talent in there. So I wouldn't be surprised if come February. They're ranked in the top 15 in the country top 25 for sure.

At number 18, we were waiting for a decision to be made on the new Mississippi River Bridge. I should say the new Mississippi River Bridge is going to be the bridge built down in Eberville, Parish. We have a year or down to three sites. 2024 is going to be pretty pivotal year. They need to narrow down from three to one for that site. So that will be expected to come down in around August of 24.

And the other thing we're waiting for is the kind of the impact that there's a lot of studies still to be doing to be done. The environmental studies, one that's expected to be wrapped up by 2024. So it should be a big year for that new bridge. And what a lot of people have been waiting for a long time to be built. A lot of times. Yes. And I guess let me explain this a little bit.

I remember when I was at my previous employer, it was just you get people, especially in West Bat Ridge, which rightfully so. If I think we've all been stuck on the bridge or trying to get back to Bat Ridge in that rush hour traffic, at least once in our lives, we've been stuck there. You are sitting, y'all. It's going to take you forever. You're coming home from Lafía, you're coming home from Houston, wherever.

So it got to a point where West Bat Ridge was almost begging DOTD that do something, do something. So we started digging into it and all the environmental studies and every other study, it is required. It's not a simple, okay, we're going to put this bridge right here and we're going to start building it today. Every study is required as far as how much the environment is going to be impacted. And how much other impacts will one building, one bridge cause.

And after those studies are cleared, that's when you can finally start moving forward. And it looks like that's where we're at. Yeah, and even once we get those studies, we're still going to have a long wait.

I think even if things stay on the current track, it's going to be like 20, 30 or 20, 31 before you're able to drive over that bridge. So we still have a long ways to go to see in that bridge come to fruition. Well, and these studies are very comprehensive with the environmental quality standards. It's not just like pollution or impact on the soil or whatever. You have to look at noise, you have to look at the amount of traffic, the increase in population.

So, you know, if they have to do multiple locations with these studies, yes, that's going to take a significant amount of time. One, because it's multiple locations and two, they're kind of being a little theoretical with these studies, because they don't exactly know what the impact is going to be. Yep. I mean, the note is seriously, go ahead. No, you can. I was just going to say that the joke has become we're going to do a study about a study that that's how long it feels.

It's been decades for some people. People will tell you spend their lifetime. They've been hearing another bridge is coming, another bridge is coming, but I promise. This one, it is coming. And, you know, speaking to, I guess soon to be former Iberville parish president Mitch Orso, he just kind of talked about, you know, they had been one bridge. And, you know, they were happy that all three sites, potential sites are in Iberville parish, however.

You know, another factor is a new administration coming in. A new governor coming in that may change some things so that could push the timeline back even further. And I think that's one of the things that kind of aids into how long it actually takes to do things like that. Different people come in with different ideas, different location, recl... You know, suggestions and stuff like that. So we can see this possibly, you know, depending on how things go pushing back even further.

And like he mentioned, from the day that the first slab of cement or whatever they use to start building, it takes about at least seven years. That's if the weather is perfect every day. And we know that it's not possible in Louisiana. So we're looking at a long road to a new bridge, but it's a step in the direction that people want to go. I mean, I promised it's coming, but I did not say it would be here in a certain time. Now, by 2009, I promise it'll be here. Well, don't make promises.

Yeah, don't make promises. You can't keep Karen.

Karen, one thing you won't have to wait for in 2024 is the newest school in Ascension Paras. This has been something that's been needed for a really long time. The Ascension Paras kind of deals with overcrowding in their schools. We're finally going to have a new school, perabil high school, the hurricanes. They're going to be welcoming students for the 24/25 school year. Come August. That's a big one.

I mean, in fact, we were all talking just together as a staff that how much growth there has been in Livingston and Ascension Parishes and the fallout from that. But one of the elements in that is schools. And the overcrowding that happens, which takes an impact on the education standards that are applied to the kids. So this is, this is huge for Ascension Parish. And the hurricanes are going to be having a huge class.

We finally have the finalized school zone plans that were kind of unveiled in the late 20th of February. So that's going to be, you know, everyone kind of knows where they're going to school. And I know you have a lot of students who are going to be joining the new perabil high school that are kind of anxious to see. It's coming up fast. Like you can, it's really cool to kind of drive by there and see, you know, just the progress on construction. It's going to be a beautiful campus.

So I know it's going to be a really welcome addition to, let's see, you have the Spartans, you have the Griffin, you have the Tigers and the Gators. Now you're going to have the hurricane. So it's going to be a big deal for Ascension Parish. And number 16, we have some kind of legal decisions.

You know, one of the, one of them is a band on the gender affirming health care house bill 648. It kind of banned that for all transgender youth in the state is set to become law in 2024. Obviously between now and when the new law kind of set to take place in the summer is a lot of kind of legal wrangling that are going to be playing out. There's a lot of legal challenges to this. But, you know, that's kind of one of them.

This was one of the bills that during the veto session that the legislature was able to kind of overturn a governor John Bell Edwards and veto on this. So legal challenges took a block the bill from becoming law, but that's definitely going to be one to kind of watch in the new year cap. Well, we hope this does not happen to you. But in the case that you are arrested, another chance bail bonds is your go to 24/7.

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Yes, so this has been a growing trend and more conservative legislatures and government throughout the United States. But I think we've uniformly seen with the courts that this is just an overreach by the legislative bodies into your privacy rights, which involves health care. You should have your own autonomy when it comes to your health care decisions, especially when it comes to your children as well. For parents, you know, that is a huge concern is, well, this is my child.

If we decide that this is okay, then we should be able to do that. So it's really interesting just with the Supreme Court leaning super right. I would even argue alt-right at this point. So what happens if these decisions go all the way up to the Supreme Court and this opens up the question of constitutional rights and whatnot? And, you know, I honestly can't anticipate what that decision would be.

You have balancing privacy rights, equal protection rights, but I don't know with this Supreme Court, it could be murky waters. And it does look like it's going to be heading to as a inquiry because you have other laws that have been kind of blocked in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, and I believe in the end as well. So this has been, like you said, happening in other states. Some of the bills that, you know, we're not able to get through the legislature in 23 will almost likely be back up in 24.

We have a new Republican governor who is really pushing for these legislative reforms. He's going to have a lot of power in his honeymoon session that's going to be coming up. So you have to imagine that some of the bills that even weren't passed, especially dealing with like transgender sports and some of the other hot topics are going to be back up in the legislature this year for the new session.

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, to be honest, just when I was learning about the three branches of government, the judicial branch was supposed to be the A political branch, it was supposed to just make decisions based on what the law and the doctrine is, but I can say we have not seen that in a few years.

They are completely tied to politics at this point. And, you know, when when Trump appointed all of those federal judges, that really did sway, I think judges appearance as being a political and it became political at that point. We saw it at the district court level, the court of appeals level and even the Supreme Court level. So who knows what's going to happen coming up, but it's just going to be interesting to watch.

During the session, this past legislative session, it was a hefty debate on this topic. The people who were just allowing it were contending that this doesn't affect a lot of kids, not a lot of kids actually go through and get the procedures and things of that nature, which was the biggest thing. The people against it would say, they don't know what they want. This is just a movement across the country that kids are following and whatnot.

It's something that's going to come dial to a new governor and a new legislation and we'll see what happens. But I thought it was interesting that this is something that doesn't really affect a lot of people yet it's brought so much.

I think it's a big attention to the procedures are usually reversible. So if a child decides to do something such as taking out their breasts or whatever it is, you can go get breast implants later in life or I don't know exactly the technicalities of other procedures. From what I've heard and legislative sessions with committee meetings, medical professionals have said that. To the extent that's true, I don't know what a lot of the fuss is.

It's affecting a very small population of people. Why do we need to make such a big fuss about it? Because I think it's related to a lot of the other bills that were that was offered the beta as well. Those pertaining to sexuality to a certain extent and orientation. All of those, it was like three bills, I believe, there were all kind of loved them together that was trying to get passed by a certain section of legislation, legislator.

Number 15, something else we're going to be watching and I'm just going to admit it seems like a really boring topic but it's super important. It dealing when you go vote every year or every few years when you go vote, the voting machines that you use. That's going to be a big part of contention in 24. The new secretary of state is going to have her hands full with overseeing this process which has really turned into a political debate.

To walk everyone through what this means is the legislator basically said that Louisiana needs a paper trail, if you will. Even if you're going to use these computer machines, there needs to be some kind of paper trail to kind of ensure that votes are counted correctly and there's an audit of the votes. The current machines which are really starting to get old, I think they day back to 2006. We got 10,000 of them that have to be replaced.

It's a very daunting task and there is opinions on both sides of the political spectrum on what these machines should look like. Should Louisiana go to what a lot of states have or the paper ballots. Should we go forward with other computerized ballots that give you that print out. That's going to be a big debate heading into 2024. We got the elections coming up this year as well. It might be a boring topic but it is a very vital topic.

I think, like you said, there are arguments from both sides. It depends on who the losing side is and then you hear more of an upward from it. That's a tough situation to navigate through. You don't know what's the best. Do you have a system that puts more work on the people who actually volunteer to work at the polls? How do you go about doing that? Those machines are easy to use regardless of some of them work like they should or not. I think that's something else.

You have the clerk or courts or the people who have to check on these machines on election day. If all of them start going out or whatever process being used is malfunctioning at the time of the day. However, they choose to roll this out. It can go either way with it or something new. All of us. Which is going to be so jarring. I think they need to be careful with what they choose to do.

When they held hearings on this, you had 2020 election deniers. My pillow guy being one of them. Basically claiming fraud and all this despite independent auditors that come in and looked at our election system and says, no, there's nothing faulty with them.

We just want that that added protection, if you will. It was a big reason that Carl Ardwan or former secretaries, they were all going secretaries. They chose not to run. He said that these pervasive lies and he took a beating during these hearings. It was a big reason he decided not to run for reelection. You can definitely expect that to be heated.

Yes, locally there was a situation with the voting machine allegedly like in the Livingston Parish area for people who were sending vote for a specific candidate at that time. So you know, it's not just a presidential election. People have problems with or like a statewide. It's even down to the little precinct by church that people may have issues with these machines.

I think with the history of voting just in the south and disenfranchisement, people kind of get suspicious when things change or you know, you can't vote for a specific candidate. So what does this actually mean? So sometimes those suspicions are warranted, but other times it might just be a system failure or a need for a new way of doing things.

Switching gears to number 14, we are going to have another total solar eclipse coming up in April. So this is really exciting. We had our last one was in 2016. And this one is going to be kind of crossing the country from from the west from Mexico, kind of going up the middle of the country. And Louisiana specifically is going to have, you know, close to 90, 95% coverage. So we're going to have a big coverage. This is going to be different than that eclipse we had in 23.

That was the annular eclipse. That went kind of just dulled everything down. This one's going to be a complete block into the sun. So things are going to be dark. If you remember the last one we had a few years ago, you had, you know, the crickets chirping in the middle of the day and it was really kind of cool to see. So you're going to have to get those solar glasses ready because this one's going to be a big one.

Yeah, order the solar glasses. And if anybody by any chance is looking for me on April the 8th, I will be in Dallas because in Dallas, you get a 100% view of this. Yeah, in a shrew port, it'll be I think about 95 95% and then here in Baton Rouge will have about 90%. So you're still going to get an amazing view here.

But I still remember in 2016, in fact, Donna Britt and I walked outside and we had made little cutouts and we held those up in the design on the ground. It was just it was beautiful. It was a memory and same thing. It's all about making another memory for this company. You must be taking the camper because there's no hotels to be had in Dallas. So you must be taking the camper with you. Sure.

If you want to sit on the side of the interstate station, I'm going. I've heard about these things. I love it. I think it's so cool. Guys, it's crazy from like South Texas all the way to like Cleveland Buffalo. Is it kind of makes that path? There was like no hotels available. They've been booked for for years now.

And it's really kind of incredible to see the people that are are going because you're going to have up to four minutes of darkness and kind of the middle of the day and these areas of totality, if you will. So it's going to be it's going to be pretty exciting. And proof I'm not the only nerd out there. So that's up for debate.

Number 13 Jordan. This is going to hit close to home. The speed cameras are finally going to be going up on the chaflaya basin. They've been planned for a few years now. But they're finally going to be up in operation. So you're going to have to watch that. But I'm a little more closely my friend. But Jordan, you're a lot of fighting citizens. So that's not a problem for you. Correct. That's correct for every law enforcement.

However, you know in 2022 when this was proposed and when it was passed, I was nervous. And then they were like, okay, it's going to be. I just no reason. You know, I have family that lives in the Latvia and the Latvia area that I visit often. And so you know, I passed on that. I used that path to get to Latvia often. And when it didn't go up in October 2022, I was like, okay, I'm out of dodge.

You know, because it's it's a weird. It's a weird mechanic. Like, you know, they're going to time to see how long you pass on the entire bridge. So if it's 18 minutes or less, you're going to get a ticket. That's wild to me. So like, if you're going 18 minutes, that's fast. So it's a 17. So it's a 17 mile bridge. So you go a mile a minute at 60 miles an hour. I would think that that's 17 minutes though.

So you know, the speed limit is 60. I get you right. Everybody's everybody's not going 60 obviously, but I'm just worried about this because the fines are hefty. Like a thousand up to a thousand dollars from $1,000. Yeah. Yeah. And you can speed in a school zone and get like 250. So like this is going to be much more than that. So I have to watch it. You know, sometimes maybe a couple times I got off the bridge of 15 minutes, but I can't do that anymore once there's more things going.

Yeah, I'm going to have to chill. I'm going to just start taking 190 or something and speed there. So about 190. They're on to you. Yeah. The volume of all your poor bearity. They posted waiting. This is what you can use right here. They are. But the whole reason behind this is, you know, they kind of looked at the crashes over the years because we all know that one crash can shut down the basin and then you're just you're screwed essentially.

So a lot of these crashes were kind of speed induced kind of crashes. They may change over the years to kind of keep the big trucks and in one lane, they kind of alleviate that and nothing's really work. So I guess I'll be interested to see if this does cut down some of the crashes.

Well, I know that. Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. I don't know. I was going to say I know that speed cameras aren't very popular in the legal context because you can't confront the person who is saying that you committed a crime.

So I don't know exactly what legal challenges might come from these speed cameras on the bridge. If there's an emergency. Yeah, nothing made me more angry than we used to have when we used to have those speed vans that would just be put like just on the side of the road people used to over like start banging on those things. I hated those. I hate those things. But I think, you know, part of the I know they do a lot of studies on these things, but I feel like the lack of a shoulder on the bridge.

I kind of need a lot of these crashes, like sometimes when people have issues with their vehicles, they have to kind of get out of their car and in from there, they get hit like are like a vehicle sticking out because they can't get all the way on the show. Like some parts don't have a shoulder at all. I don't know what you do to fix that, but I think that's also part of it. And then like in other states, people have speed limits that are like 75 and stuff like that on the end.

The accident's aren't the same. I think it's a problem with, you know, drivers, people who drive it. I'll say it through more than just the speed aspect of it. I guess we in fact are in speed with lack of a shoulder. You get more accident. Aren't they expanding the chaffelaya base in bridge to to be three lanes on each side? Are they still doing that? I haven't heard anything. I think that's what you're thinking, Kat. Let's do one bridge at a time.

2,100 will talk another bridge. I mean, we won't, but... At number 12 and guys, I'm not going to lie, this could have been number one on my list because I'm super excited about it. The Savannah bananas are coming to Batmuruch. If you've got sucked down the TikTok hole, like I have, you've seen these guys. I like to say they're kind of like the Harlem gold trotters of baseball. They do all the fancy dance moves and tricks and all these cool things.

They're going to be coming to LSU in 2024. The ESPN called these guys the greatest show on sports, which I think is pretty telling. It's just a wild entertainment kind of ride. They're going to be here for a few days. If you haven't signed up for the lottery, you're probably out of luck for tickets. We find out soon if we'll get those tickets. I have my fingers and toes and everything else crossed to kind of see them. I think it'll be a good time.

Did you have to go through ticket master? No, thank God. I saw clips of them, but I never knew what it was. And then reading the story and then going, "Look at it. It is basically the Harlem gold trotters of baseball." I'm going to send that some of the former MLB stars that they had to join. I remember Barry and Joe. Yeah, Barry Zito playing for the AIDS. His curve was filthy. I'm not in the raffle, so I'm not getting any tickets. If I were to know him this at the time, I would try to get some.

If you're nice, I'll share tickets with you, Jordan. Oh, you share with me too. Oh, Jesus. March. We should all go. No, we should all go. Karen, you should work your contact so we can all get to go. So if you're listening or watching our entire crew would like tickets March 14 through the 16. There are a lot of families that are out there trying to get tickets. I know some of the traveling baseball teams, like everyone kind of put for the maximum number of tickets you can kind of put up for.

I know there's going to be a lot of people kind of hoping for those tickets. It will be one of the hot tickets of 2024 for sure. And number 11, we have another legal showdown, the pay parental leave. This was something that Governor John Bell, Edwards did in his last few months was offering pay parental leave six weeks of pay parental leave to the 70,000 state workers.

It's been met with a mixed bag of a political angst, if you will, you have some who are a lot really forward. You have many who are against it. You have an incoming governor who is basically saying he hasn't made up his mind essentially on which way he's kind of leaning on this. So it's going to be kind of interesting to see, but that started January 1st. And we'll see how long it lasts, I guess.

Yeah, I always have mixed feelings about the pay parental leave, but I'm usually typically for it. And the basis for that is I have a lot of friends in other countries. And the amount of friends who have at least six months paid parental leave after having a child or adopting a child or something of that nature is it's incredible.

My friend in South America, we talk about this all the time when she had her newborn twins. She didn't work for almost a year because of the paid parental leave that they have. And I think her husband was also afforded paid parental leave as well. And I think it just kind of is going into this larger conversation that people are having about work like balance in general.

And it's interesting to see how state workers are going to be able to utilize parental leave and how that might trickle down to the private sector. I think it's important to note too, there are a lot of private companies that offer six, eight, 12 weeks of paid leave, some offering much longer. I know some private companies that offer six months of parental leave.

So you already hit the private sector in a lot of ways. Right now state workers, most state workers are entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid time off. So a lot of people since PTO is kind of banked for state employees, they bank it and they can kind of use that to kind of get them through. But this will definitely be a game changer for a lot of people. And like I said, it will be interesting to see you governor Landry, you know, how he tackles this and if there's going to be any changes to it.

Yeah, it feels weird. I know they get 12 weeks of unpaid. That's like three months. At that point, like for the people who don't have it banked, I mean, it's like a deterrent to not have children like are, as that will we're trying to do people are dissuaded from wanting to bring kids to this world. Obviously, that's another debate for, you know, wanting to do that with all the stuff that's going on.

But I think that that's definitely something that should happen. I know we're not progressive enough to get to the point where a father should be able to have that as well. And then we can focus on allowing the women's day workers to have that first and then hopefully that stays. And then maybe we could talk about another progressive action in the future. And number 10. No, no, no, no, fine. I'll pick back up.

And then we have another story that's going to be impacting people's safety. It's the new national weather service radar. It's filing it to be operational in the hammond. This was a big move. It moved from slide out to hammond. This is going to be kind of a game changer when it comes to baton-rood weather. Not to get all scientific, but right now, based on the location and the direction of the beans and all these crazy things that your mind cannot comprehend if you're like me.

It kind of misses a lot of storms for the baton-rood area, but this is going to bring that radar lower. So we're going to be able to pick up on tornadoes and other severe weather events a lot easier. This has been a move that's been a long time coming. They turned off the radar at the end of 2023. So it's been kind of a hold your breath to make sure there's no severe weather.

They obviously planned it at a time where severe weather is not as prominent, but it's still been interesting to kind of see that radar shift and move. And it's a big deal for the national weather service. At number nine, the Taylor Swift Louisiana era begins. I know not everyone is as swifty on here, but whether you're as swifty or not, you have that heard about the air history.

Before it was the top selling tour of 23, one of the largest selling tours, if not the largest selling tour of all time, Taylor Swift really kind of dominate headlines. She was times person of the year. And it's finally coming to Louisiana. If you had tickets to it, you got them late 23. So you've been having a long way to kind of go there and guys with the tickets to this, if you don't have them, the resell tickets are just crazy.

Like nosebleed behind the stage or like three grand the ticket right now and some of the sell it. So it's just absolutely crazy. The fandom behind this. You know, and I'm not as swifty, but I respect a hardcore strong headed woman. And that's what Taylor Swift is to me.

Like when I read this article, I will say a part of me was like, whoa, I want to go. And then I realized, wait, you're talking about Taylor Swift. Do you even realize you need to buy a ticket now for anything in like 2030? So yeah, that's not going to happen. I'm not a I'm not a Swiftie either. And the last songs I remember her making was like the album when she was like 21 with Shake it off. 22. 22. My apologies. Yeah, that's 22. Filling 22. All right. Well, there you go. That was the last.

That was the last time I remember any of her songs, but yeah, she's very popular. And you know, she started being on my TV a lot. Of who she's dating. But you know, which that's a whole other subject. The amount of people who are so upset right now that football has turned into Taylor Swift.

I mean, I'll just say at the beginning, it was awesome. Like just to get one or two shots of her. But now every single game, it's like let her enjoy her time too. Like she is a human being at the end of the day. And that's what they're waiting for. They're watching football to see her. So it's been a ratings boost for the NFL. You can like it or not, but it has been you know, there's proof that it might be. They might be sending her thank you cards from the NFL.

Yeah, they they totally are, you know, and look, Swifties are they're a crazy group. I mean, they she leaves these like Easter egg clues and music videos and. I mean, they're watching her at football games is he she's dropping the includes about her next album. So you know, she she she knows what she's doing definitely and I know a lot of people are excited for her.

The finally coming to New Orleans, she didn't come on the first leg of her US tour. So she's coming now. This is going to be a mammoth of a tour. She's going to be in Europe for most of the year before finally coming back back over the pond. And she's got Miami and New Orleans and Toronto among the. This place is she's going to be going on a second leg for tour.

At number eight, we have another legal fight that's going to be taking places going to be a few legal things we're going to be watching cap. This one's going to be redistricting. This one is already being watched Louisiana one of a handful of states that was basically told that they have to draw new congressional maps after court ruling in last year.

They basically said the political boundaries to loot the voices of the state black voters and there kind of been left out of having like a black majority district. And this is a fight taking shape in a lot of different states. There was a Supreme Court ruling for Alabama that really impacted this Louisiana ruling cat.

I know that this is going to be the first thing that Governor Landry is going to be tackling with these special sessions because there are some deadlines that the state kind of has to meet in order to kind of hold up their end of this court ruling. Yeah, so just going into the history of the Voting Rights Act, there's this thing called pre clearance. And that's where the federal court gets involved to review the maps that are drawn by the state legislatures or even in the congressional level.

I think there's some sort of checks and balances with respect to drawing up district maps. So they have to follow certain standards of population to make sure there's no gerrymandering, there's no disenfranchisement and things of that nature.

So, you know, it's just interesting to see that the back and forth between the legislature and the courts in having to figure out how are we going to make sure that people aren't being disenfranchised and particularly black voters are not being disenfranchised.

Yeah, and this is all political bickering. You know, at its finest right here, you had a Republican drawing congressional maps, you had a Democratic governor who basically vetoed the boundaries, but they were able to they've overrobed two vetoes for him. One was the gender affirming care and the first one was this, you know, previously and basically they overrobed his veto and this has been tied up in the court system.

So it's going to be interesting to see. I know there's some vetted maps that are kind of out there that they're going to be choosing from. So when legislators do meet on this, they're not going to be starting totally from scratch, but it's going to be interesting to see kind of how this plays out. You know, five of the six Louisiana congressional districts are majority white, even though the black populations one third state.

So there's going to be some mathematics at work here as long along with the political boundaries of it all.

Number seven, we may be waiting for 2030 for a new Mississippi River bridge, but we won't have to wait that long for the college drive flyover. It's finally opening and if you've driven through the 1012 split, you know how big of a headache this has been. It feels like construction of an item has been going on for years now.

This is going to be a major opening to kind of connect college drive with the interstates and while still kind of keeping the interstates flowing and that's going to be open this year. And I know this is going to hopefully if the OT right alleviate a lot of traffic headaches in Baton Rouge. Much needed and I'll go back to saying that I remember as a little girl, our drives to Houston and every time we get to Baton Rouge, we would just sit there.

And I mean, I'm talking when I was 10 years old. So I mean, technically it's only 11 years ago, but still. You wish. No, I mean literally it's been decked. It just feels like the construction in Baton Rouge is never ending that this is going to be huge. It keeps moving and Baton Rouge is just as standstill and is the most infuriating thing ever.

And I'm going to see a huge red wave at the state capitals when we haven't seen in a long time. Every major state elected office is going to be Republican led, including Republican governor Jeff Landry, who won outright during Louisiana's jungle primary in 2023, which is a big deal.

And Republicans have already said Landry and some of the other elected officials have already said that their first mission is to kind of overturn or change some of the laws that John Beledward's kind of put in the place. So it will totally be a new direction for the state in 2024 for the next four years.

You don't know what to expect. You kind of have an idea obviously when people run for a certain office, you know some of the things that they want to stand on some of the things they believe in. So that's going to be a complete opposite of what we just had in the outgoing governor there were. So it'll be a lot of legislative fights, but with a Congress, I mean, I legislate sure that is mostly Republican as well may not be as much, but you know, it's going to be bickering on both sides of it.

That's how it is in politics in general. But yeah, we're going to see a lot of conservative ideas pushed. Some will get through some may not, but I'm interested to see how these things are going to affect, you know, that everyday person because a lot of these things will whether that's a different site for the bridge and every real parents are whether that's hopefully we get rid of those ski carers, you know, but you know, it'll be different things.

We'll see what I'm interested to see a little nervous, but interested to see what happens. Well, I know. Oh, go ahead. And look, I've had that, I've worked had that Democrat behind his name, but he was really moderate and he really went against other Democratic governors and even the president and a lot of instances with kind of some of the Democratic agenda.

He's been pretty moderate. So, and I think people lose sight of that sometimes because of some of the things that he's been very vocal against, but when it comes down to the like what I call the meat potatoes of Louisiana laws, he was he was a really moderate governor and we're really changing the trajectory of that in 24.

Yeah, and I wanted to also just kind of echo on Jordan when I was giving counsel to public entities. One question we constantly got from the governing board was, can you can a new legislative body overturn previous enactments by a previous body? And the answer is yes, absolutely they can. That is the entire role of the legislative body is to try new things.

The Supreme Court has called the legislative body kind of like a scientist. They get to run all of the experiments for the state that they are in. So, you know, you may like the previous laws, you may not like the previous laws, but with this new legislative body, we're going to see more quote unquote experiments, if you will.

Yeah, some of the laws we were talking about earlier that didn't pass or did pass in the revieto by Edwards. Those are almost certain to become laws. So, it's going to be interesting to see what gets passed first and exactly what the political agenda is going to be for this new legislative body.

I think it's definitely going to be interesting to see how, especially this first year pans out, it's going to be incoming governor and Jeff Landry's first year in office and you always have a hundred day plan. So, the first not only year, the first few months even his first 100 days alone are going to be extremely interesting.

So, in the last five we have the presidential primary coming Louisiana that's going to be happening in March 23rd. So, it's right around the corner. It's going to be interesting to see kind of how this shapes out. Trump is the large foregone conclusion to kind of win the state.

We have other primaries and caucuses before them to kind of shape up and kind of see if that could change. You have Nikki Haley who's basically saying after Iowa, you have New Hampshire and South Carolina and she believes it's going to be a Trump Nikki Haley kind of battle for the nomination, which if that does turn out to be the case. Louisiana is going to have a big say in who the Republican or could have a big say in who the Republican nominee for president is going to be.

Yeah, I think it's going to be an interesting year, especially we have certain states that are removing Trump from the ballot to even begin with. So, it's just kind of like it's going to be a really heated campaign season. I just anticipate especially for the states that are going to keep Trump on the ballot. And, you know, there are questions about Biden being on the ballot for the Democrats. So, it's just going to be a host of a mess if you will.

And voter turnout is going to be interesting. This is something that we talked about a lot during the 23 primary here for the state elected offices and even the general election. A few weeks later, for turnout was dismal. It was not existent. I think it was 36% and it dropped to like 22 and a half in November. So, for the general.

And, you know, experts are worried that the kind of the state's voter apathy may be even lower for a presidential election, especially with Trump's popularity booming here in Louisiana. He's just a huge figure here, has a lot of support in Louisiana. So, there's a lot of voter apathy. Do I even need to go out and vote? Especially if it is a two person race and neither candidate has the nomination sealed and Louisiana does play a factor into it.

It's going to be as you see whether voter turnout is higher. We do know it typically is higher for a presidential election, but we just had a governor election which normally has a higher voter turnout. It was like half of what it typically is or a little less than half than what typically is. So, it will be kind of interesting how that kind of shapes out as well.

Yeah, and voter turnout overall was low, but didn't even just compare to similar elections. It was lower this in 2023, then in 2019 and 2015 or whatever. But like you said, people typically come out more for presidential election, which is not funny, but it's kind of when you think about the fact that we have an electoral college system and when it boils down to an our vote means less than a presidential election than it does for governor and for the state local opposite.

And those people have more of a direct impact on our everyday lives than a president. So, those things are troubling, but with Trump, like you said, he's popular. And I think Biden's performance over the last three years has heightened that popularity to a wider group of other people as well.

So, you know, he will definitely have the support here, but like Kat said, a couple of states are leaving him off the ballot right now. Over the last eight years when it comes to presidential elections, that's pretty much what it's been. I think that's going to continue whether it's cheating accusations or something that happens at the Capitol when they're trying to certify the election.

There's all those type of things. So, I don't see that settling down with an opportunity for someone else to get on. Well, and kind of going to the electoral college conversation. I think that goes to Daniel's point about voter apathy. You know, the more we're uncovering the layers of what the electoral college is and what it does, it really makes people not want to vote.

I mean, unless you're in a state where they actually do divide the electoral college votes by what this precinct voted, what this precinct voted, and what this precinct voted. It almost makes you feel like why should I even go to the ballot when they're all going to go to whatever the majority of the votes are going towards. And it doesn't even matter if New Orleans votes this way, Baton Rouge votes this way or Shreveport votes this way, you know.

It's a state of the whole, yeah, which is very red. Yeah, I think and I just think of for a lot of people individually, I think they just feel like like kind of like you said, their vote does account. But when you actually think about like presidential know, but when you think about certain things like, man, some of these races locally with such a low turnout, they were, they were decided by like a hundred votes in some cases and some of the.

Some less than that. Yeah, some of their council races list and that those things have come down to like 10 votes like if 10 people and I'm not here to say a lot involved, but I'm just saying that like those things actually matter. Contra to what people think they do. Well, Jordan may not be saying go vote. I was about to say.

I mean, I don't think people realize that like Jordan, I've had these conversations that sadly the younger generation is just getting away from voting and I feel like they're starting to be like whatever doesn't matter, but it does matter. And I mean, we're going to keep discussing voting sadly for a little bit for a minute, but you don't understand how vital it is to make sure your voice is heard.

If you sit there, we as reporters, our entire crew, the amount of tips we get in this person to this wrong, this person to this wrong, what, what not. When it comes to voting, go vote. Make a difference. Don't complain after the fact. And like it doesn't, to me, I don't really care who you vote for is just you can go and actually make a difference in the way that you want it to be made. You can control something for your best interests.

Like I may want something and I'll go and vote now they lose, they lose, but there's always that possibility. It's kind of like sports. Like you have your favorite team and you're going to show your support the Saints. You're going to show your support by going to games, by buying them or be like, but you don't know that they're going to win at the end. You don't know if they're going to go to the Super Bowl, but you're still throwing in that support anyway.

You're showing up, you're showing out. That's how voting should be for people in my opinion. It should be the same thing. The Saints have about 60 years of not making it to the Super Bowl, so I can pretty much guess they're making it. Jordan, you just, hey, I want to bring in my motivational speech. You really did. You brought back those last 10 seconds of Minnesota and that pain all back. And it just brings me back. I just want to go back to this really quick.

A couple months ago there was the first preseason game where the Saints look great. I remember ever talking about it. We're going to go to the Super Bowl. And here we are. People wanted their car out of there and they just lost on Thursday night. They might lose the division to the books, but let's continue on this topic.

Go vote. Go vote. We're going to move on. Yes, and we're going to get to number four. Jordan, I mean, well, Jordan too. Jordan, I have heavily covered the schools in Livingston Parish as well as Eastbound Ridge. This poor guy has sat through hours and hours and hours of meetings, but both of their contracts for superintendents are coming to a close at the end of the 2024 school year.

Yeah, both the leaders of the school districts have people who support and then obviously those against for different reasons. You know, in Livingston Parish, the whole race thing for teachers that attacks the tax for the reasons for teachers that was a whole contentious issue. And then not just that, but what happened after that, which was not any solutions being brought to the table.

I think was kind of the strutted broke the camel's back for Joe Murray, which, you know, technically he was retiring, I guess. But people want to retire in 31 years with the with the district in total. And you're right, Jordan. You know, that sales tack really put a sour taste in a lot of people's mouth, including employees who. A lot of them who liked Murphy didn't like his leadership and how he handled not only the vote, but the failing of the vote.

And, you know, you talk to a lot of teachers and I have a family that are teachers and you just talk to them and morale is just so low with the district. So Murphy is retiring, but, you know, there's a lot to be said with him also, you know, stepping aside for kind of a new direction for the parish. We have test scores that are not up to what we call the comparison parish standards who are traditionally one of the stronger, you know, districts in our area in the state, you know, with that.

So it's going to be interesting to see what direction the parish does go. I know we talked about this before. You have a lot of people who want to go internally and there's a strong candidate internally. And you have a lot of people who say, and we need some fresh blood and, you know, some new energy and some new vision for the parish. So it'll be kind of interesting to see which way the school board goes without. Yeah, he did some things. Go ahead, George.

Yeah, he did some things, but I think another part of it was that people wanted him to not take the race, even though he said he would donate to charity. It was just the idea that they felt like you shouldn't get this and he didn't change that language, I guess. And so that that was just another reason for, you know, people wanting him out of there. And like you were about to say, you know, that kind of summarized the whole Livingston issue.

But when you move on to East Bend Rouge with Dr. Narciso, Narciso, same thing. Money is an issue. Super, but for a different reason, obviously, superintendant was going to be, was negotiating a renewal that involved a hefty race. I think that went up to 255. Yeah, even the highest paid in the state. Yeah, one of the hardest. So that was a contentious issue. And a lot of people didn't feel like there was enough being done for certain schools.

Obviously, there was another segment of a minority school, such as capital and other school, Glenn Olds, where schools and people who supported those schools who supported him.

It felt like he was doing a great job and other, you know, community advocates and other council members are in support of him because a lot of people feel this is a board issue, not necessarily all the issues that are happening with the money and with some of these other things are the school boards inability to run it properly.

And, you know, the bus issues don't particularly fall on the superintendent. So there's those people who, obviously, like we know, they hailed the rally in December for him showing support. And, you know, he has a lot of support, but obviously it wasn't enough because the board voted not to renew his culture. Is it possible for the board to kind of change their mind on this?

I mean, that's kind of the push right now, right? It's to kind of save his contract. It may be not at the race that they were proposing, but, you know, either a steady rate or just a minor race. So there's still a possibility that he can kind of, you know, stay on as superintendent. I just wonder though for the people who were against him, I don't know if it was really about the money.

Like that was something that they mentioned in passing, but more so it was just they didn't feel like he was doing a good job. And however amount of money you make, if you're not doing a good job, I don't think that that's going to change some people's opinions. I think it really all boils down to trust. And at the end of the day, trust be it the superintendents and taking us even to number three. The people we consider and talk about voting in some cases, people make their voices heard.

And let's start with number three, Daniel, we have three new faces coming in an Iberville parish, Livingston parish, and in West Baton Rouge parish. Yeah, it's kind of a big deal for all three parishes is new leadership after long time parish presidents, either lost election or chose not to run for election. You have Randy Delad and Livingston who won by an overwhelming majority in the parish.

You had a very tight sheriff race, but the parish president's race was really Randy's from the beginning. It was kind of his night, if you will. He's been already running a transition team. It's new day Livingston. His whole kind of philosophy is to give voice back to people in the parish. He feels that hasn't always been the case.

So that's kind of what he's going. He's already kind of done that in his first kind of public statements, if you will, on the carbon emissions hearings that took place on the Lake Marpa. He really wants voters to have a say in that and have a vote in that whether they come out to the polls and votes can be, you know, another topic.

But that's kind of what he's running for, you know, and he wants to make some small subtle changes is kind of the way he appears to be kind of tackling it, especially when it comes to development, which is probably the number one topic. What's debated in Livingston right now is how they handle all these developments that are wanting to come in and the overcrowding of the parish.

And you have school districts who are, you know, schools bursting at the seams. They have nowhere to put, you know, students, much less ad building right now. So like, how do you tackle that? And a lot of that starts with these developments are going to be coming up. So that's kind of, you know, his big thing. And then you kind of go over to Irvigil Parish. And this was kind of the big election night story.

You know, we have a brand new parish president, Irvigil, Chris Dagle, that, you know, he almost didn't even run for this right Jordan and he ended up getting the whole thing. Yeah, he qualified on the last day, which he said was a strategic move on the last day. He took out Mitch Orso, who had been there for over, I think, 20 over 20 years or something like that. So that was a big win for him. He has some things.

You know, he served as a council member. He served on the school board. So he has all of that information that he's bringing into office. And we talked about that Mississippi River Bridge. I mean, it was, you know, Orso kind of, you know, started the marathon. And Dagle is going to be really picking up that baton and carrying it for a while, especially with some of these big decisions that are looming for the project.

And a lot of what you said for Livingston Parish, you could honestly resay all that for West Baton Ridge Parish because sadly the crime in Baton Ridge has just gotten so bad that people are starting to move out to other parishes. You are often here Livingston and Ascension, West Baton Ridge, Iberville's West Side of the River. They're also getting those crowded, the neighborhoods, the schools and whatnot. And same over in West Baton Ridge Parish, Riley Bertolot.

A lot of people know, new MSP, we've burnt a lot. He's no longer the parish president. There's a new parish president over there. Jason Manola. Back here, Manola was on the school board similar to Dagle and Iberville Parish. So it's something to be said about school board members. A lot of people think that, you know, they're some of the most important elected officials in a parish or in an area.

And, you know, that's something to be said about two pairs of president is kind of coming up from the ranks of former school board members, which I think is interesting. He was school board president for 17 years, I believe, so really long time. And he is going to be kind of taking a pair of like you alluded to that's, you know, dealing with, you know, developments and overcrowding in kind of which direction to kind of go.

West Baton Ridge has made a lot of inroads last few years with bringing tourism into the area with, you know, expanding Barnagrol Parades and really kind of building up the port all inside of the Mississippi River. So he's got a lot of work to kind of continue that that legacy because if you haven't been to West Baton Ridge in a while, there's some really, you know, kind of hidden gems in the area. And it's a beautiful area to kind of visit.

Yeah, they're working on a bunch of things out there. Obviously two big projects for them are the intercoastal bridge, which is going to be finished in 2024, hopefully, I guess fingers crossed for a lot of people. But and then also the four 15 connector, that's been like a huge project and they got some good news recently, you know, like in late December about a potential timetable for it.

But I mean, obviously those things are very tentative, but it's just knowing that they're moving in the right direction with a grant that they received to be able to start the project. Yes, they have some good things going on with Ben Rouge. Jason takes over obviously plenty of years of experience working under P.W. and his administration. So he's looking to that transition should be smooth. Obviously they have a good relationship. So they're working through that.

But yeah, I think West Baton Rouge is heading the right direction with those projects that going on with Jason and Cluj. And at number two, we have the the long awaited decision of a new police chief in Baton Rouge. We finally know who that's going to be Thomas Morris Jr. He has 20 years of experience with the Baton Rouge Police Department. He's going to be kind of taking a department.

You know, we talked about this in other areas where morale is low and there's a big crime problem in Baton Rouge. So he's going to have his hands really, you know, full as he takes office and it takes command of the department. And this is a big one. I think I said this in the past. It's kind of like the house of cards that the very first house, I mean the very first top card once that falls, everything falls.

And sadly, he needs to become that very top card once again. It's no surprise. The morale at the police department is probably at its worst right now. The officers just don't feel appreciated. They're overworked. There's a shortage of officers, not that that's the outgoing police chiefs fault.

The shortage of police officers, the shortage of people wanting to be police officers, that's a national problem. That's every department is having deal with that. But then you've got what four or five officers working one shift and with four to five officers trying to respond to the entire what eight hours, 10 hours, whatever their shifts are.

That's not even possible. So he's got a lot and then add the internal problems of BRPD to the crime problems. And we're not talking just murders. We're talking the number of just people shooting those have skyrocketed there. You don't see those stats come out. You might see K last year you had 120 murders. That's not the right number. But I'm just giving you an example.

What you don't know is that the number of shootings, non fatal and it's also not factored. The fentanyl overdoses, you know, I mean we don't talk about that nearly enough. But that's also a problem that not only is his problem. It's a it's an area problem. But it you know his officers are tied up kind of dealing with those as well. So it just kind of adds to the burden that the department and you know has overall in general.

Okay, drumroll. I think the number one pick was a no brainer. It's another election. But it's will mayor, broom mayor president Sharon Western broom get a third term in office.

She's going to be on the ballot and making that announcement. It was kind of expected. But she's going to be on the ballot. I think the question is Karen, you know, who's going to be running against her? Will there be any you know, formidable opponents? She's a very polarizing mayor president. She has a lot of support.

But then there are a lot of people who think that we need to go in different direction. So it's going to be like really interesting to kind of see how this shapes up and and shakes out. You know, especially with the president also on the ballot when she is. So it will be a big expected to be a big voter turnout. And I guess this is where I have to say where people complain. I think mayor Sharon Western broom came in with very, very, very high hopes.

I remember covering Voting White's election that year. And we were waiting on one precinct to come in. And I think everybody suspected that came, Voting's got it. Voting's got it. And they were telling us to be prepared. We're coming to you for live shots, whatnot. And it twisted at the last second. Sharon Western broom won. I think there was excitement. Oh, okay. Well, she is a historic mayor. This is going to be great. But I think there's been a lot of let down from a lot of people.

And now when we get so many people to complain to us, this is what when Jordan was saying, I'm not going to say go vote and Kat and I said, we will say she's got to go vote. If you want her, that's great. Go vote for her. But if you want somebody else, whoever that might be, I mean, qualifying doesn't happen. What till June, July.

Yeah, it's late. Yeah. We got some time to figure out. We'll see. There's already some rumors out there. Some people were run. So it would be interesting to see if those rumors kind of come their fruition. Some say never. Yeah. Never say never. That sounds like some type of teens. What? You know, there are a lot of rumors out there. Who knows? There are a lot of rumors out there. Might be I might be qualifying myself. I think you don't like the things I don't think you have a chance.

That's the problem with our politics here. That's the third. We bleed black and gold purple and gold blue and gold. I think his expertise on LSU kind of like tilts the scale. No, no, no, no. I do like some other politicians if I decided to run I have a saint's hat on I have a Saint Jersey. I'll be doing all this stuff. Well, guys, that pretty much wraps up our unfelter with Kieran's breakdown of the top 24 for 2024.

Obviously, there's going to be so much happening. We plan to hopefully be there and cover every single thing for you. Again, we thank you all for your support and continuing to support us and watch us listen to us on all our platforms. But we hope you enjoy this episode and we are going to wrap this one up for you and see you next week. On behalf of our entire Louisiana unfiltered team, I'm Kieran Cháula. [Music]