Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages and respond quicker when you do need us, because together we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you, it's been a full week of the special legislative session, from congressional redistricting to a push to end Louisiana's open primary system.

We'll bring you the details.

Plus, Louisiana was frozen this week from road and school closures and more.

We'll tell you how the state was coping with the cold.

All this and more coming up on Louisiana State Fair in.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Karen LeBlanc.

Kerosene cheer is out this evening.

Governor Jeff Landry makes a major announcement.

We traveled to Lake Charles, where he revealed news of a new bridge.

The governor announced plans for a new I-10 Calcasieu River Bridge on his first visit to southwest Louisiana as the official head of the state.

He attended a Chamber of Commerce banquet held at the Golden Nugget Casino Resort in Lake Charles, accompanied by the new head of Louisiana's Department of Transportation and Development and members of the Southwest Louisiana legislative delegation.

The governor says the bridge has a seven year build out timeline and promises to lower tolls.

We're going to get the same bridge and a little five miles, a new interstate and some roads, but the cost is going to be 25% less.

The towns across the board have been dramatically reduced and not being able to reduce by some 26%.

Governor Landry says he's also negotiated a 15% equity position for the area so that when the bridge has a dollar a profit, the region gets $0.15 on that dollar.

With less than two weeks under his belt, Governor Jeff Landry is beginning his term with an ambitious special session.

The 57th governor of Louisiana intends to tackle the redistricting controversy before the clock runs out on January 30th, as well as reform Louisiana's party voting system.

LP is Crossing.

Cyr gives you the rundown on the special session taking place this week at the Capitol.

Ladies and gentlemen, the governor of Louisiana, the Honorable Jeff Landry.

As one of his first acts as governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry called a special session aimed at redrawing congressional districts.

A task lawmakers have labored over for more than a year and a half.

We are here today because the federal courts have ordered us to perform our job, our job, which is not finished, our job that our own laws direct us to complete and our job that our individual oath promise we would perform.

To that end, I ask you to join me in adopting the redistricting maps that I propose.

Disagreements over the congressional redistricting began back in 2022, when lawmakers drafted a congressional map with only one majority black district of six total.

John Bel Edwards vetoed the map, calling it an unfair representation of Louisiana's population, which is 33% black.

While I'm disappointed, I can only tell you I would be very much more disappointed had I been complicit in in having a map that I think is so unfair and unjust enacted into law after a veto override session, a failed special session, and a Supreme Court precedent.

Lawmakers have until January 30th to draw the map in accordance with the Voting Rights Act, which means providing a second majority black district.

Plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against the current map are optimistic that a map with the additional district will pass without conflict.

So either they're going to do the right thing or not.

But we're going to be here in good faith to be able to fight for what we know is right.

And much like the governor said, to do the work that they get to do, this is their last chance to have their voices to actually draw this map on behalf of the constituents of the state of Louisiana.

If the map isn't redrawn properly by the deadline, the case will go to trial February 6th and be redrawn by District Judge.

This is about being on the right side of history and that it doesn't matter what party you're in.

You know, the math is the math.

You know, a third of the state is African-American.

We have six congressional districts.

So there should be two.

Senate will come to order.

A new map has already advanced to the House, this time creating a second black majority district that includes a large portion of Baton Rouge through Tividale.

The proposed map changes Congressman Garret Graves district, almost doubling the black population from 23% to 54%.

Graves himself opposes the change, which could effectively push him out of office.

Yet Louisiana State Senate easily passed it without objection.

Redistricting was the primary reason for the special session, but it's hardly the only high profile item on the agenda.

Landrieu has proposed changing Louisiana's campaign finance laws, and he wants to alter the way the state selects Supreme Court justices.

Supreme Court districts have been redistrict by this legislature only one time in 103 years.

The result is that districts are grossly unbalanced, with two districts twice as large as another one.

Last year, I negotiated a scheduling order with the plaintiffs in one of those cases, allowing the legislature, allowing you all a chance to willingly handle our own affairs.

But perhaps the second biggest item on the agenda is the shift of the so-called jungle primary.

If you look around there, there's probably no perfect way of doing it.

So many states have so many different ways of doing elections.

We have been in what's called a jungle primary for most of the last 50 years.

And basically and we're kind of unique compared to the rest of the country.

Louisiana's jungle primary was established in 1970 under Governor Edwin Edwards administration.

It opens primary elections to all voters regardless of political orientation.

Whichever candidate wins the primary won't need to advance to a runoff to take office.

Landrieu is proposing a closed primary, which means voters can only vote within their party before the runoff in the general election.

I think the argument a lot of voters would make is the system that we have now works pretty well.

I can vote for anybody I want to, whether I'm a Republican, Democrat or no party.

And that's just fine with most people, I imagine.

The other argument is, is that it's a party primary and the parties should be the ones to choose their nominees or their candidates to go on to the general election.

So you can kind of argue it either way.

Lawmakers have a short amount of time, just eight days to assess all of these major proposals and make decisions that will have lasting impacts on Louisiana.

Louisiana Congressman Garret Graves, a Republican representing the sixth District of Louisiana, has become a flashpoint in the debate over how to draw Louisiana's congressional map.

Governor Jeff Landry is backing a congressional map that would turn Graves District into a black majority seat, effectively pushing the congressman out of office.

I talked with Congressman Graves about his political future as he weighs in on what's at stake with congressional redistricting.

How do you feel about Governor Jeff Landry's backed proposed congressional redistricting map that essentially eliminates your your district as you know it?

Yeah.

Well, hey, thanks for the opportunity to join you and I appreciate the question.

Look, so I think what's most important is that congressional maps and districts shouldn't be about an individual person or incumbent protection.

Look, if if things don't work out for me, I'll be fine and I'll let off my feet.

One of the fundamental flaws with the map that has been put out is that it takes the capital region and it splits it up into four different congressional districts.

And what that does, it basically wow, we're going to have four people representing us.

But what it does is it actually dilutes the role of the capital region and it dilutes some of the priorities of the capital region.

Do you support the creation of a second black majority voter congressional district?

So I think what you need to do in a case like this is, you know, and I've heard people say, well, look, nearly one third of the population of the state is black.

Therefore, at least one third of the seats need to be black.

What you've got to do is you have to apply the criteria that's in the law and you're exactly right.

One of the criteria is race.

That's one of the factors you're not allowed to to split or dilute race.

And so there's no question that that the New Orleans area has a has a high concentration of minorities as though some areas of the Baton Rouge region.

And so, look, I'm not a I'm not a demographer.

I think what they need to do is just take an honest approach in applying the principles of compactness of communities, of interest and of racial considerations.

And if that results in a minority majority minority districts, then that's what it is.

But I think where you get into trouble is you start coming in and gerrymandering.

It just remind you, in the nineties, the Supreme Court of the United States stepped in not once but twice and threw out districts that were racially gerrymandered.

Do you believe that this proposed congressional map that the governor is backing, the one that changes your congressional district, do you believe that's gerrymandering?

I don't think that it passes the laugh test, much less any true jurisprudence or legal principles for redistricting.

And, you know, I know that some folks can say that it eliminates our district.

I would actually argue that it actually eliminates all the districts.

I mean, it makes changes all over, then it certainly doesn't meet the criteria, the legal criteria for redrawing maps.

I think that the map that that we ran under in 2022, I like that district a lot.

I think it it follows the mapping principles that the redistricting principles.

And, you know, one of the things that are really proud of in regard to performance of our team is that nearly 81% of the voters in that district voted for us, which was the highest in the Louisiana delegation, showing that we're actually delivering on priorities for the folks that live in those 12 parishes, which I couldn't be more proud of being able to have that kind of support, despite the fact that there were Republicans, Democrats and independents and others who were all on the ballot at the same time.

Do you believe the legislature is best suited to redraw the congressional map, or should that be left up to the courts?

I think that the legislature should and just quickly tell you why.

There is one place in the Constitution of the United States where it reserved specifically for state legislatures a responsibility or authority.

And it is this.

And I don't like the idea of courts stepping in and drawing maps, but there's not a mandate that Louisiana draw a new map today, which unfortunately is a misnomer that's been repeated in the press a good bit.

But I want to be clear.

I don't think there is any scenario where that map that passed the Senate gets through the court.

I don't think it even begins to comply with any of the three criteria that are required by law.

We are in the midst of a special session dealing with redistricting, but the governor has also pushed some other initiatives, one of which is the proposed elimination of our open primaries system as we know it.

How do you feel about that?

I am absolutely opposed.

I think it is an awful idea, and I'll explain why.

Look, one of the greatest things Louisiana does have a unique system with our open or sometimes there is a jungle primary.

But one of the greatest things about it is that when we run for office, we get to go out and try and attract the votes of every single person in the district, everyone.

And it doesn't matter if these people are very liberal or very conservative.

These are the people.

At the end of the day, if we win, we are representing them.

So why would you spend half of your election time ostracizing half of the voters and only trying to be attractive to the other half?

And I think it's un-American.

I think it's contrary to freedom and liberty, and I think it is an awful idea.

Congressman Graves, I want to wrap up our interview by asking you if there's any news that you'd like to share with our viewers and your constituents.

Yeah, look, I just want to highlight what I mentioned before.

We're at a place now in Louisiana's delegation to where for the first time in any state in American history, we have the speaker of the House, we have the majority leader.

And within a year, if I play cards right and if if ultimately these maps reflect some degree of sanity, I could be chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which is not just roads, bridges, traffic, airports, transit, things like that.

But it's it's things like FEMA and disasters and things like the Corps of Engineers and Coastal restoration, hurricane protection, flood control.

It's pipelines, it's economic development, it's Coast Guard rivers and ports.

So really, really excited about the opportunities that are on the horizon for our delegation and really helping to address some of Louisiana's long standing problems like coastal restoration, the resiliency of our communities, addressing some of the worst traffic jams in America and in Baton Rouge and in New Orleans, getting of a new bridge and I-10 in Lake Charles.

A lot of these things that really have been problems for decades.

So excited about that and excited about the progress we've been able to make over the past few years.

But I appreciate the opportunity to join you today.

All right.

Congressman Garret Graves, thank you so much.

And I guess it's back to work for you.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Icy roads and frozen pipes were a reality for much of the Deep South as an arctic blast pushed Frigidaire over the majority of the country.

Though Arctic blast aren't exactly rare weather occurrences.

Experts say we could see these weather patterns more often as the climate continues to change.

Kerry's chair wrapped up Louisiana's brief encounter with the severe cold and talks with experts about the frequency of these weather events.

A national cold snap hit the United States, crossing state lines from Maine to Louisiana.

A record breaking Arctic cold snap sweeping across much of the country.

The dangerous cold affecting tens of millions of you from the northwest to the southern plains.

Snow, ice and brutal temperatures stretch stretching across the middle of the country.

Here in the Deep South, Louisiana handled her brisk encounter with the cold.

Using a bit of humor and sarcasm.

Social media was buzzing with content from all over the state as residents wondered how much longer they could brave the cold.

I'm from Louisiana, of course.

When it snows, they're going to shut down the roads.

He can't even drive when the National you know, I live in Louisiana, not Alaska, but in some parts of the state.

The severe weather was no laughing matter in the northern region around Shreveport.

Temperatures dropped to 16 degrees Tuesday night, narrowly beating out a previous record low of 17 degrees from 1972.

Baton Rouge in New Orleans fared slightly better with lows of 19 and 24 degrees.

But streets were still iced and slick, prompting several closures of roads and bridges.

Rodney Mallett with D.O.T.

says the agency anticipated these incidents when they started preparing for the blast last week.

What makes Louisiana unique is we have the third most bridge deck space in the country.

What that means is we have a lot of long, wide bridges.

And you have seen a sign that says bridges will ice before the road.

And that's exactly what happens when we have the right temperatures and right precipitation.

Monday night also saw multiple wrecks.

State police investigated a string of accidents along I-10 with a major crash reported near the Atchafalaya Basin.

Even though the weather is showing signs of warming, Mallett says D.O.T.

wants to be sure it's safe before opening the roads back up.

There's a lot of factors that go into it.

You know, people will say it's 34 degrees, which I don't think it is 34 up there.

I'm not real sure.

How come you're not opening it that well, A bridge is oftentimes going to be colder than the regular air temperature because it's elevated and doesn't have anything underneath it.

That's over water.

Then it's going to be it's going to be colder longer.

So we can't make that gas.

There's too much that goes into it.

The temperatures are expected to evened out as the week progresses, but weather experts say it's possible that we could see a smaller cold snap as we move into the weekend.

The forecasts are showing, you know, kind of warms up a little bit here and then we get another another pulse over the weekend.

Andrew Pershing is the vice president for science at Climate Central.

He says that sometimes arctic blast can cause wave patterns to lock in place, seemingly repeating the cold temperatures even in the south.

But on a broader scale, Pershing says, it's likely we could start seeing these patterns emerge in southern states more often.

There does seem to be some evidence that we are getting more of these kind of cold air outbreaks, especially these persistent ones that come into the into the country.

And there's some speculation that that may actually be due to global warming, warming up conditions in the Arctic.

But this is still very, very new science at the moment.

Can you explain how global warming could contribute to it getting colder, especially in southern areas?

The hypothesis is that essentially, as you warm, if you're warming up the Arctic faster than the rest of the places further south, you decrease the temperature difference across that band and it allows the jetstream to wander more and allows it to become a little bit unhinged.

And so that's the hypothesis.

And there's you know, there's certainly evidence in the data that we're seeing those those sorts of things.

But it's it's certainly a new mechanism that, you know, that the atmospheric scientists are trying to really run down.

Like Pershing said, we'll see a slight dip in temperatures toward the weekend.

And after that, the weather patterns will stabilize to temperatures.

We recognize.

From hashtags to social media memes.

Here's what's trending around the state.

Okay, kudos to Louisiana State University dance team, The Tiger Girls.

They won a national dance championship for their hip hop routine and it went viral.

Just really fun.

And also, you know that that championship also garnered an animal deal for the Tigers girl dance captain.

So check it out.

You can find that video online, a bunch of places that was at the 2024 Universal Dance Association National Championship held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando.

Okay.

Louisiana was frozen this week, as we said, and boy, did it spark a bunch of social means.

But there was a video that went viral.

And this is the Olympic gold medal winner, Oksana, by all who posted the video, ice skating in her backyard in Shreveport with her daughter.

Now, you might remember Oksana.

She beat out Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding.

This went viral.

People like how, my gosh, there is an Olympian ice skater living in good ol Louisiana.

She was thrilled, obviously, to have that ice in her backyard.

Also, a bunch of other means, including frozen crawfish and a ice truck carrying Kincaid Sugar today surrounds the New Orleans Jazz Fest, announce its musical lineup for the 2024 festival.

Now, we knew that the Rolling Stones were headlining, but there is an impressive lineup of musical acts, including Chris Stapleton.

Go to the website to check it out.

The Build a Museum is emblematic of the New Orleans French Quarter and a crown jewel in Louisiana State Museum Collection.

It's one of the state's most photographed buildings where New Orleans, past and present converge.

I'm taking you on a tour of the museum to discover why the building attracts international dignitaries from presidents to royalty.

As an ambassador for Louisiana's art, culture and history.

Musicians and tourists mingle on a typical day in front of the Building museum.

A popular attraction and gathering spot in the French Quarter's Jackson Square.

It's one of the most photographed buildings in Louisiana, where New Orleans past and present converge.

It's really one of the greatest objects, if not the greatest objects in our collection.

This is such an important edifice, not only in New Orleans history, but for the whole region.

Stephen MC Lansky is our tour guide as we walk these hallowed halls.

Retracing the footsteps of famous people and pivotal moments in history, this is one of the most, well, the most significant historic rooms in one of the most historic and significant buildings in the city.

In 1803, this was a place where some of the transfer papers that sort of executed the Louisiana Purchase took place right here, right in this space.

And similarly, this was also once the home from Louisiana's Supreme Court.

And in this very space is where the Plessy versus Ferguson case was as adjudicated right here.

Over the years, the building was hosted, many dignitaries and royals.

In recent history, French President Emmanuel Macron and the king and queen of Spain right out these windows.

For example, President Harrison, when he visited New Orleans, gave his hello to the adoring crowds below.

And similarly, General Lafayette, the Marquis de Lafayette, one of the great heroes of the American Revolution, when he returned to the city on his grand tour in 1825, he also addressed and welcomed the crowds from those very doors.

The building gets its name from the Spanish word for counsel and dates back to 1795.

Built under Spanish rule, the Capitol Dome served as the center of New Orleans government before burning to the ground in 1788.

It was rebuilt and in 1908 became a Louisiana State Museum.

The Capitol dome caught fire again in 1988, closing for renovations until 1994.

Today, the building features three floors of exhibits.

This second floor focuses on Louisiana's history, including the battle of New Orleans.

The ground floor is in homage to New Orleans with memorabilia tied to Crescent City nostalgia and the third floor showcases limited run exhibits such as this retrospective by artist Hunt Slonim.

He's known for his signature bunny rabbit paintings.

I often say that the museum is a place where history and legacy intersect.

We're looking back, but we're also thinking about our future.

And one of the ways to do that is to analyze our present.

And since Hunt Slonim is such an important contemporary artist.

Those three parts fit together quite well.

So he's famous for his bunnies and his butterflies.

And though featured in this exhibition are some extraordinary landscapes that he's done of New Orleans and of Louisiana.

The Bill Doe attaches to another historic structure called the Arsenal, which host changing exhibits.

And on the day we visited, there are works on display by New Orleans photographer George Monet and self-taught Louisiana folklore painter Clementine Hunter.

We have an interesting little highlight to the show as well, because not only is the room filled with the authentic works of Clementine Hunter, but there's an interesting story to be told about some elaborate forgeries which were made about her work, but uncovered by the FBI.

More than two centuries later, the Capitol dome attracts a crowd for its Spanish colonial architecture and French Quarter energy.

Standing next to its architectural twin, the Presbyter.

And alongside Saint Louis Cathedral, together, they are a trio of national historic landmarks and enduring symbols of Louisiana.

That's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything, be any time, wherever you are with our APB app.

You can catch LBB News and Public Affairs shows, as well as other Louisiana programs you've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook X and Instagram for everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

I'm Karen Lichtblau.

Until next time.

That's the state we're in.

Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, produce outages and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together, we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana.

And by visit Baton Rouge and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.