MONDAY: Jim Donelon and Jim Nickel

HOUR ONE: 

Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon gives his assessment of Obamacare nearly 5 years after the Affordable Care Act.

Donelon shares that his staff will have to be reduced from 250 (formerly 275) to 210 by July 1 because of the budget crisis.  He deems the budget crisis to have been caused by, "unreasonable bloating and unreasonable tax cutting measures to fund other priorities... that are not as worthy."  

53% of rebate money goes unclaimed.  The penalty for lacking health insurance is 1% of the household income.  184,532 Louisianians are enrolled in government healthcare.  A listener questions the government funded healthcare regarding the closing of a Baton Rouge Emergency Room.  

"We have seen significant improvements in higher education," Donelon says.  "LSU is struggling to keep the best and brightest of its faculty members because of the budget cuts."  

HOUR TWO: 

Lobbyist Jim Nickel weighs in on the influence of lobbyists at the State Capitol.  He also discusses the candidates for governor and the comments by John Bel Edwards from Friday's show.  

David Vitter has more money in his campaign than all of his components combined.  "I think we have four really good candidates for governor," Nickel says, commenting on the industrious nature of each man and their knowledge of Louisiana.  "The governor has made it crystal clear that he will veto any tax/fee increase," Nickel says as to the lack of tax proposals by the legislature.

Nickel continues, discussing the budget crisis and how it will affect higher education and what solutions can be implemented to ease the problem.  He also speculates on who will be the 2016 presidential candidates.   

"There's no partisanship in Mardi Gras," Nickel says.  He also answers a question about Common Core.  "Common Core was the result of a group of governors working with business leaders to come up with a set of standards to keep in competition with the rest of the world." 

They comment on last night's Oscar performance by Lady Gaga in her tribute to Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music.  

"I'm so fond of him I can't say enough," Nickel says of Henson Moore.  

FRIDAY: John Wirt, David Diamond, John Bel Edwards

HOUR ONE: 

Film writer from the Advocate John Wirt comments on the nominees for the Academy Awards on Sunday night.  Wirt feels that Selma was not presented to enough film critics to gain the proper traction for a nomination.  He says the Imitation Game was the best film of the year.  Though he thinks Michael Keaton will win best actor, Wirt says it should got to Benedict Cumberbatch.  Wirt says, "Alan Turing was a hero in his own right."  

"I think Brian Williams got kind of carried away with his own celebrity," Wirt says of the recent misrepresentation scandal.

Reverend David Diamond and Investigative Journalist John Camp discuss the Jimmy Swaggart scandal on its 27th anniversary.  The tape of Jimmy Swaggart's confession to the world about his sex scandal is played.  

"I think he <Swaggart> was somewhat surprised with how kind I was to him," Camp says.

"I was there in the back rooms with him... you'd be surprised what goes on in some of those back rooms," Diamond says.  

They each comment on the wide reach Swaggart's ministry reaches through direct television.  

HOUR TWO: 

Representative John Bel Edwards shares his plan for Louisiana should he be elected governor.  He also comments on the campaign finance report.  

Edwards begins, calling the Louisiana budget a "hot mess."  He says, "Cutting higher education... we would be a generation trying to overcome the damage that would do to this state."  He comments on the recent comments that Governor Jindal should abstain from a salary.  

He comments on Medicaid and the amount of money hospitals need to be reimbursed.  

Louisiana has the lowest cigarette taxes in the region and the third lowest in the country.  Edwards says, "I would support a reasonable increase in cigarette taxes... such as the Texas average."  

Edwards did vote for the pay raise in 2008.  

"We really need to figure if TOPS Is a program we can continue to have," Edwards says.  "The one thing that everyone should understand... every year unless we do something different the deficit is anticipated for $1 billion." 

The representative calls David Vitter, "Jindal on steroids," and he calls Scott Angelle, "Jindal Incarnate." 

"I'm going to have the resources I need to wage a very good and competitive campaign," Edwards continues, "I'm running because dammit it's time we had a governor that put Louisiana first... Do we want a third Jindal term?"  

Representative Edwards graduated from West Point.  "When you jump out of airplanes at 2 in the morning for a living, it prepares you for things in life." 

THURSDAY: Jessica Jain, Faye Williams, Clay Young, Dietmar Rietschier, and David Melville

HOUR ONE: 

Actress and singer Jessica Jain joins the show to promote her upcoming performance at the Swine Palace.  She is a 2013 graduate of LSU.  Jain describes her first time driving onto LSU campus.  She said, "The trees spoke to me... does that make me sound crazy?"  She performs a song from an upcoming show.    

Dr. Faye Williams and Political Consultant Clay Young discuss the upcoming controversial visit of Reverend Jeremiah Wright to Southern University.  "It doesn't matter who the speaker is... Education should teach you how to think not what to think," Faye says.  "I personally don't think that any racially incendiary comments are helpful to anyone," Young says.

"It always seems to come down to a racial or poor people thing," Faye says of social security debates.  

HOUR TWO: 

Dietmar Rietschier joins us to recollect the Dresden bombings at the end of World War II.  He was two years old during the bombing, and his mother carried him away to safety.  He describes a fence his family had to climb over to escape the area being bombed.  "The intensity was such inside the city that the air was basically sucked in... like a hurricane."  

He remembers his mother fondly and the "little stories" she would tell him over the years.  

United Methodist Minister David Melville describes his experience running against John Fleming.  He remarks that retrospect has shown what little chance he had because of amount of money he did not have.  "Sometimes pastors are too naive, too passive," he says.  

John Fleming and Bill Cassidy announced his official support for David Vitter today.

David Melville is the director of Christ in the City.  

He feels that Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright goes "overboard."  

WEDNESDAY: Miranda July, Jim Hawthorne, Loren Scott, Nick BeJeaux and Kaci Yoder

HOUR ONE: 

Author Miranda July discusses her book The First Bad Man.  July describes the naivety of her main character which "allows magical things to happen that couldn't happen with a knowing character."  

"Voice of the Tigers" Jim Hawthorne shares his plans for retirement.  He describes his experiences throughout his announcing of LSU sports.  "I was extremely fortunate to start basketball with Dale Brown," Hawthorne says, "It was a great time."  His 91 year old father is a veteran of WWII.  "I just found out today I have a great grandson on the way."

He will be stepping down to spend more time with his father and his grandchildren.  

HOUR TWO: 

LSU economist Dr. Loren Scott analyzes the impact of the declining price of oil and gas on the state budget.  Scott comments on the Republican following of the Grover Norquist pledge not to raise taxes.  He also analyzes the ways in which health care and higher education could be mended.  

DIG magazine editor Kaci Yoder and city editor Nick BeJeaux comment on the recent controversial cover featuring an interracial homosexual couple.  Yoder says, "We were looking for something fresh and different," when they happened upon Louisiana Loves.  "The heart of Louisiana Loves is about the humanity."  Yoder reminisces on the environment of conservative Christian schools and how some things are just "not natural." 

"For every person who has a pride flag," Yoder says, "there is a Republican who still believes it's wrong."  She continues, "What's normal has really expanded."  

TUESDAY: Philip K. Howard, Alex V. Cook, Andie Mitchell, Andrew Maraniss, Tyler Bridges, and Mike Shepard

HOUR ONE: 

Author Philip K. Howard starts the show to discuss his book The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Broken Government.    "Change <in politics> almost never comes from the inside." 

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Author and LSU Student Media Adviser Alex Cook comments on the Mardi Gras festivities and the growing progressive culture of Baton Rouge.  Jim asks Cook about the impact of the interracial homosexual couple on the cover of a Baton Rouge publication.  He also promotes his band, The Rakers.  

Author and food blogger Andie Mitchell shares her story in her book It Was Me All Along about her 135 lb weight loss.  In response to how she did it, Mitchell says, "It was good old fashioned moving more and eating less... I had to change my whole relationship with eating."  She continues, "So much of what led to me gaining that weight was emotional."  Mitchell describes her surprising resentment in her weight loss process.  She says, "It's hard not to notice in some ways you're more accepted... you come across as a more worthy human being to a lot of people just because you're thinner."  

HOUR TWO: 

Author Andrew Maraniss discusses his book Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South.   Steve Martin was the first African-American baseball player in the SEC at Tulane in 1965.  Maraniss says that his book is not about scores of games, but about the experience of Perry Wallace and the civil rights movement. 

Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Tyler Bridges shares his opinion on the challenges Governor Jindal will face in his final eleven months in office.  Bridges comments on the controversy surrounding the refusal of the state for the building of another Planned Parenthood on Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans.  His story in the Huffington Post is here.  Bridges comments on his recent story on Bobby Jindal in Politico, "Bobby Jindal's Troubles at Home: What he's not talking about on the campaign trail." 

Executive Director Mike Shepard joins us from the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.  Elvis Presley is a member.  He breaks the announcement for a new showcase at Baton Rouge Metro Airport; a double sided 13 foot wall 4 inches thick with forty-four gold records and brass plaques dedicated to the members of the Louisiana Hall of Fame.  The showcase will be finished on March 15, 2015.  

MONDAY: Charlie Melancon and Bob Mann

HOUR ONE: 

Former congressman Charlie Melancon shares his experience working on a campaign for Edwin Edwards.  He was elected for the first time to state office in 1987 just after his father passed away.  He comments on the upcoming governor election.  "I like John Bel tremendously, as a matter of fact, I will support John Bel <Edwards>."  

"We were caught between being fiscal conservatives and leaning to the left socially," Melancon says, "That used to be the trait of Southern Democrats.  We were the ones who got things done."  

Charlie Melancon owned several Baskin Robins.  "When... both parties get up... and they're not mad or totally happy, you've got a good deal," Melancon says of private sector experiences.  "When you have a bad deal in politics, the pubic suffers."

"Our children and our grandchildren are going to suffer because they are going to foot the bill," Melancon says. 

"I believe that balance is best," Melancon says, "no one party is right."  He asserts that there is not one way to fix the debt crisis in our state.  "I believe that balance is best," Melancon says, "no one party is right." 

Lesley Gore dies at 68.  She was 16 when her first hit topped the charts, "It's My Party."   

HOUR TWO: 

Professor of Mass Communications at LSU Bob Mann joins the show to discuss the U.S. Presidents he has written about in celebration of President's Day.  He comments on the upcoming governor's race and the prospects of new candidates 8 months and 8 days away from the election.

"No one wants to be associated with Bobby Jindal in this governor's race," Mann says.  "I think Vitter will be attacked on that <prostitution scandal>, but I don't think it will be by any specific candidate." 

"Jindal has no shot to be President of the United States this time around," Mann says.  He thinks the smart move for Governor Jindal's political future would be to officially say he is not running and work on issues in Louisiana.  

"I would not want to be the person that recruits for LSU right now," Mann says.  He comments on the budget cuts to higher education and what this means for the legacy of Governor Jindal.  

Mann responds to the hypothetical of Bobby Jindal's actions to Hurricane Katrina had he been governor at the time instead of former Governor Blanco.  He asserts that Katrina was overwhelming for everyone involved, state and national level.  

Sashika Baunchand shares her experiences in promoting condom awareness on the LSU campus in free speech alley.  

Mann discussed his opinion on Governor Jindal's recent prayer rally.  "It seems to me if Governor Jindal really wanted to pray for the state... why did he have to get one of the most loathsome groups to sponsor that rally."