THURSDAY: Hemp, Coastal Erosion, University Tuition, and Insurance Commissioner

HOUR ONE: 

Chris Boucher joins us from California to discuss his hemp company, Cannavest.  "The word cannabis means canvas."  Boucher sent Jim a small container of hemp oil.  "Hemp oil is legal in all fifty states."  He comments on marijuana, "I think it's a states' rights issue at this point."  Boucher also says that the legalization of marijuana will decrease the amount of prisoners and therefore income for prisons.  

Spokesperson for the Coalition of Coastal Erosion Restoration for Louisiana Jimmy Frederick comments on what's being done to save the Louisiana coastline.  "We work to reconnect the Mississippi River to its wetlands."  Frederick says, "Just last year we planted 265,000 plants."  16 miles are lost each year to coastal erosion.  

Representative Franklin Foil discusses the recent Reveille story about a university's ability to change tuition prices.  "What I'm trying to do is give colleges the ability to raise fees in courses as they see fit," Foil says, "to give the university some flexibility as opposed to coming to the legislature for permission."   

Representative Foil comments on TOPS and says that he likes the TOPS program, but he thinks the GPA requirement should be higher. 

He thinks that the BESE Board should be the ones addressing any Common Core issues.  

Foil did not sign the Grover Norquist tax pledge.

"If there is any raising of a cigarette tax, we're going to have to make sure that money goes to higher education or healthcare."

Foil shares his new bill called the Able Act.  

HOUR TWO: 

Former Insurance Commissioner and Secretary of State Jim Brown shares his career in political life and his views on current events.  

"I was on a plane once with Edwin Edwards flying the plane dedicating a new hospital, and the door actually flew open."  

"<Mike Foster> He was very involved compared to Governor Jindal quite frankly."  

"If you're an American citizen, you're child ought to be conceived here," Jim Brown says.  He comments further on illegal aliens.  

Brown gives his opinion on the controversy surrounding higher education and the budget.  He calls Jindal "irresponsible" in his handling of the budget.  

"They all should do it," Brown says enthusiastically as he discusses the private email scandal with Hillary Clinton.  "Every major republican out there has done the same thing." 

He comments on the new change Facebook made, which allows users of the messenger app to send money from their debit cards to each other.  

WEDNESDAY: Meditation, Foreign Policy, Sale of Louisiana Lottery, Budget, The Gridiron Show

HOUR ONE: 

Author Christina Crook shares her book The Joy of Missing Out: Finding Balance in a Wired World.  She discusses the nostalgia of hand written letters and comments on the strange and inappropriate places people are on their phones, such as funerals.  

Washington Journalist and Blogger Jim Lobe comments on his recent post about Senator Cotton.  "I do see him as being very consciously promoted by the neo-conservative movement," Lobe says of Cotton, "Cotton is clearly taking as much advantage as he can of the spotlight... he's very ambitious, and quite smart also."  One of Tom Cotton's professors at Harvard was Elizabeth Warren.  

State Treasurer John Kennedy comments on the reports that Governor Jindal will sell the Louisiana Lottery to balance the state budget.  Kennedy says, "The whole treasury is under a lot of pressure.  I wouldn't dangle 400, 500, or 700 million dollars in front of them right now."  He continues, "It'll take more than one legislative session to get out of this mess.  It took us seven years to get into it."  The treasurer confirms that there is irrefutable evidence that talks about selling the Louisiana Lottery are currently in the works.  

HOUR TWO: 

Executive Director of the Louisiana Democratic Party Stephen Handwerk discusses the GOP candidates and their strategic distancing from Governor Jindal.  "This governor seems to be conducting his own personal fire auction, and I wish I could say that it's surprising," Handwerk continues, "All he's doing is pailing water out of a sinking ship."  He also comments on Common Core.  He calls Senator David Vitter and Governor Bobby Jindal political "weathervanes."  He adds, "I don't know how anyone can swear an oath to office and then pledge to something like Grover Norquist."  Handwerk says, "Taxes are not popular, but you know what else is not popular?  Potholes!"  There is a report that Louisiana is 3rd in the country for unemployment.  Handwerk calls the three Republican candidates running for governor "minions." 

Lawyer and former Journalist Julie Baxter talks about the upcoming WAFB Gridiron Show.  It is a week from Friday and Saturday at the American Legions Hall.  The tickets are 25$.  The tables are for tables of ten.  "It's all in good humor," Baxter says, "though we have had some people get testy."  

"I think Mike and Alice Foster enjoyed it the most," she says.  

TUESDAY: Healthy Eating, WBRZ Program, Catholic Church, and Mike the Tiger

HOUR ONE: 

Author Alice Randall shares her book Soul Food Love: Healthy Eating Inspired By 100 Years of Cooking in a Black Family.  She studied under Julia Child and currently lives in Nashville writing country songs.  "I'm proud to say I live to eat, but I also want to eat to live."  She continues, "I'm grateful to my husband... no matter how big I got, he seemed to think I was pretty and beautiful."  

She also comments on her editorial in The New York Times, Black Women and Fat.  Randall says that reducing body weight by 5% reduces the risk for cancer.  Reducing the body weight by 10% reduces the risk for diabetes.

Randall comments, "How many white girls prayed for big thighs?" 

"I love our red bean and brown rice creole salad," Randall says, "These are accessible ingredients that we turn into wonderful food." 

She worked with Glen Campbell on country music.

Whitney Vann joins us from WBRZ to discuss her career and her new Sunday program.  "My dream job was to design my own television show."  

"Baton Rouge was the trailblazer for every bus boycott before Rosa Parks," Vann says.  That was in 1953.  

"I've had four co-anchors, but Leo Honeycutt was my first," Vann says.  

"I got to hold a hummingbird in the palm of my hand," she says, "can you imagine?" 

Vann comments on the recent Brian Williams scandal and asserts that she feels the network behaved appropriately.  

HOUR TWO: 

Author Dr. Garry Wills shares his book The Future of the Catholic Church with Pope Francis.  He was a Jesuit seminarian.  "The order was oppressed one time by the pope and when they came back they became super conservative in their training methods," Wills continues, "That was a lesson to me that the church often gets stuck at a certain point."  

"It <the Catholic Church> changes constantly," Will asserts.

"It's like being an American, there are great historical sins in our past... but we still love America... the same thing is true for the church."  

"The only original thing America has done is the separation of church and state," Wills says.  He recalls an interview with the Dalai Lama in which this was discussed.  

Paul Marks Jr. discusses his article in The Advocate about Mike the Tiger's reluctance to get into the cage to travel to games.  He was the caretaker of Mike the III from 1963 to 1965.  

He shares a story from when he was caretaker in which he took Mike the III from his habitat in the travel cage to his own home in the garage to save Mike from Ole Miss fans determined to harass the tiger the night prior to a game.  

"Nobody's trash talked about Mike that's for sure," Marks comments.  Tiger stadium is one of the only stadiums to be named not for a donor but for the mascot.  

MONDAY: Heather McDonald, Cody Worsham, Cary Deaton, Kira Schuette, Valencia Richardson, Jim Richardson

HOUR ONE: 

Attorney Heather McDonald shares her opposition to President Obama's immigration push.  McDonald comments on the quick discrediting of Michael Brown which sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.   "I think we've been having the discussion about police racism for the last twenty years when we should be talking about black crime."  She continues, "If we could bring the black crime problem down, we wouldn't find ourselves talking about policing."  McDonald asserts that solving this problem is "reconstituting the family" because there is a 75% out of wed lock birth rate.   

Attorney Cary Deaton of Metarie finished third in the governor's election four years ago.  He announces his candidacy for the governor's election today.  "I have easily $50,000 that I'm going to put towards this time... some people have likened me toward former Gubernatorial candidate Buddy Roemer."  

HOUR TWO: 

LSU economist Jim Richardson comments on the budget.  He also discusses the Grover Norquist pledge and those who signed the pledge and how it has impacted Louisiana.  Richardson also comments on the cigarette tax.  He condemns the year by year approach that legislators are taking to fix the budget.    

Political Science students from LSU Kira Schuette and Valencia Richardson talk about the forum for students to give their opinion on budget issues.  Wednesday night there will be a forum at the Louisiana Manship School of Mass Communications about the budget cuts.  Richardson says, "We are trying to make this less about who to blame and more about how to move forward."  Schuette adds, "If we keep pointing fingers, we're not going to be able to actually discuss real solutions." 

"What is dangerous about these budget cuts is that people in high school don't understand what this means," Schuette says.  Richardson adds, "It's really easy to be exploited when you don't understand what's going on." 

Cody Worsham of Tiger Rag comments on LSU making it to the NCAA tournament.  

FRIDAY: Rita Eichenstein, Maxine Crump, Denise Marcelle, Christmas Abbott, Marcus Losack, Garret Graves

Hour 1

Dr. Rita Eichenstein discusses her book Not What I Expected, and her 20 year clinical experience in Neuropsychological assessment and clinical psychology, she offers in depth assessments of children, teens, and young adults. More information about her book can be found on www.notwhatiexpected.info 

Maxine Crump and Councilwoman Denise Marcelle discuss race relations in Louisiana. Denise asked that Cats CEO Mirabito resign, based on his comment made during interview with Clay Young. Both Maxine and Denise discuss crime in Louisiana and America overall.

Hour 2

Body builder Christmas Abbott talks about her pass growing up, and what changed her life, she also discussed her book, "Bad Ass Body Diet", and her seminars, The Body Review, where she teaches peoples how to eat, and change their lifestyle, instead of dieting. She also gives a great tip for women wanting to workout.

Marcus Losack, an Irish priest and writer, discusses St. Patrick's day and the myth behind St. Patrick.

6th District Congressman Garret Graves discusses issues in his district, his visit to Louisiana, Capital Hill, and former Governor Edwin Edwards.

THURSDAY: John White, Renee Chatelain, Gary Stewart, Steve Vockrodt, Mike Wolf

Hour one:

First guest today is State Superintendent of Education John White.

Common Core PARCC tests start Monday, White says, "This is a basic description of what a kid should be able to do at the end of each grade level."

"We've got a lot of kids who have memorized everything, but can't tell you why. That's why we struggle in math."

"We've got to start teaching our kids 'Why?'"

"We need to focus on those who have legitimate concerns about their kids education and not those who prey on those concerns."

"Very few people like to take tests. But they are necessary and part of life. That's why they are required by the state."

"I think it should be up to parents to decide what to do with their kid's education. We also hold accountability for taxpayers."

"There is a correlation between wealth and educational success, but the question is what do you do with that information? We've got kids with things rough at home, but if things are also rough at school then we've really got a problem."

White says he has no plans to leave the Department of Education, in fact, "I'm more invigorated than I ever have been before."

Renee Chatelain, creator and director of The Fading Line: A Commemoration of the 1953 Baton Rouge Bus Boycott; March 17-18 at the Manship Theatre at 7:30 p.m.

Hour Two

Gary L Stewart, author of "The Most Dangerous Animal of All: Searching for my Father ... and Finding the Zodiac Killer."

Has new information on the case and evidence that further proves his father is the Zodiac Killer.

The book will soon be in paperback.

Next we look at today's Advocate article which talks about an article written by  Steve Vockrodt in The Pitch. Sexual harassment allegations have surfaced against Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden. Vockrodt talks about the suit and where it came from.

Lt Governor hopeful Kip Holden is involved in a sex scandal as a four-year-old lawsuit has surfaced claiming the Baton Rouge mayor repeatedly sexually harassed a woman who was in Louisiana on business. The lawsuit does not name Holden as a defendant and it's actually targeted at her former employer.

In a statement, Holden denies the accusations that are made in the 2011 lawsuit, which was filed in Kansas City. Holden ended the statement by saying both he and his wife know the truth on this one.

A poll was released this week showing Holden in good position to make the run-off in the lieutenant governor's race. 

Baton Rouge lawyer Mike Wolf is in studio and defends Mayor Holden. Wolf says at most Holden solicited a friendship with a woman if anything. And this is none of our business. A private matter.