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 B and Ruth B Zigler Foundation and the Zigler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.

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

And the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.

The 2025 legislative session came to a close this week.

We'll talk to Doctor Steven Procopio from PA to see what passed and what failed.

And Louisiana has a high percentage of kids who grow up without a father, but a son of the Saint program is stepping up to bridge the gap.

Plus, Louisiana leaders have overhauled their plan to boost the state's economy.

We'll check out some of the major investments so far.

Plus, a Baton Rouge artist creates masterpieces in an unusual way.

We'll introduce you to the Toothpick Man.

Let's get started.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Dorothea Wilson, and I'm Victor Howell.

Steven will join us in just a minute to talk more about the session.

But first, Congress has backed President Trump's plan to strip already approved funding from several programs, including the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The CPB provides support for PBS and NPR, both of which the president and Republicans have criticized as politically biased.

Thursday's vote pulls back more than $1 billion in funding for the CPB, and more than 8 billion in foreign aid.

It initially appeared to fail, but reports say speaker Mike Johnson convinced several Republicans to switch their votes, leading to its passage.

The bill now heads to the Senate.

If it passes there, the funding cuts will have dire impacts on public broadcasting stations across the country, including LPB.

I'm sticking with politics now.

The 2025 legislative session is now in the books, having wrapped up on Thursday.

Joining us now is Doctor Stephen Procopio, the president of the Public Affairs Research Council, or Pas.

Now first up, this wasn't fiscal session.

So lots of things going on with the budget.

And you know, we have these topics that we definitely want to discuss here.

But there were things like infrastructure capital outlay and education is definitely something we want to dig into.

But talk to us about it.

Sure.

I mean, the budget is always one of the top issues every year because you got to fund the operations of government.

So there was a lot of time spent on that.

I will say is probably less contentious than in previous years.

Sometimes it's just, you know, a crazy battle to the end.

There were definitely some, some, issues that had to get worked out.

But it it went a little smoother toward the end because of, some work behind the scenes.

Okay.

You talked about some of the money with the, on the trust fund.

For instance, the Senate pulled $1.2 billion, for infrastructure, higher education facilities and economic development.

Right.

I say that because I want to ask you about some of the changes made on the ethics side.

Okay.

Maybe a little bit of a connection.

House Bill 693 made significant changes to the ethics laws.

It would allow politicians to spend campaign funds on expenses like private club memberships and gym fees, so the public might hear on the one side, over $1 billion pool for education and infrastructure.

Yet on the other side, now the politicians can ask for funds raised and can go join social clubs and country clubs.

Can you tell us a little bit about the balance of those two, and what people should expect when they hear that?

Sure.

Well, some of the the justification for doing that, and to be fair, is, well, sometimes you can use that as part of your campaign to either raise funds and work with donors.

So I think that's some of the argument that they're making that this is important what they're doing.

But up the core of what campaign finance laws are supposed to do is to stop, elected officials from enriching themselves.

So that's some of the concern with these.

And so if you're joining clubs and you're really using it for your own personal benefit, that's when it becomes a concern.

Yeah.

It seemed like a lot of self-service and some of that, and I should say it sounds like that even got stripped down.

My my understanding is there was even more in that bill that before it got to sign in and made it official, they actually took it out of there, right?

Yeah.

There was, a lot.

The bills, as they are now, they increase, the limit before you have to disclose things, which we have a problem with.

There's some, procedural things that they do to sort of stop investigations, or make it much more difficult to do investigations.

And so we have a problem with that.

However, I do have to say the bills are light years ahead of where they were.

They were, truly awful bills.

In terms of it would have been impossible to do an investigation.

It would have allowed, just countless, you know, legalized bribery in some ways.

And I think those, weren't intentional.

I think they were in terms of what they put in there.

But regardless, it was problematic.

And I want to say I'm glad that the authors listened and took out a lot of the worst part of these bills.

But there's still issues that remain.

Sure.

Absolutely.

One of the things that a lot of people were saying that they were happy about getting removed was the mortgage being able to pay their mortgages.

So that's something that we're definitely happy to see.

Well, those that were concerned about it, right, are happy to see.

But one other thing, a big topic here, auto insurance.

And I could personally say I was very interested to see how competitive we can get and what that would turn out to be.

Can you tell us about that?

Sure.

And that was one of the big fault lines in the session.

Was insurance, particularly auto insurance.

At least that's what it seemed like, though it moved into other areas of insurance later.

It's so it's this battle between people that, wanted to sort of rein in and in attempts to lower costs and premiums where people are concerned that you were taking away consumers rights.

So there were several bills that probably, both sides can claim a win on.

There were bills, not to get too much into the details in terms of the presumption of when someone's injured on, bad faith.

There was, you know, another bill in terms of compare to fault, all these things, were things that the reformers push for, although one of them did get vetoed.

And people are, you know, people that that, that we're pushing this are particularly angry about that veto.

We have about 45 seconds left.

Let me just ask you this because we talked about some of the specifics, and there were some things you said you were happy that were removed.

The overall sense, at least initially, seemed like people were happy with what was done.

Your overall feeling for the overall session coming out of this?

The overall session?

I mean, I guess it could have been worse.

But there were a lot of bad bills that got stripped down and they did some good, in terms of what they did.

And I think their, the budget ended up, you know, I have very few complaints about the budget other than the many pet projects that they put in there.

But they basically didn't go too crazy.

I think they were actually very prudent in some of the things they did and not expanding spending or gift tax cuts that we may not be able to afford, particularly given the state of the economy.

Well, as we were talking about earlier, before we came on the air, we know you're always going to be busy.

You're coming to this state.

We know you've got job security.

It's always going to keep you on your toes.

Yes, sir.

And thank you so much, Stephen.

Your your expertise is just unmatched.

And we always appreciate you coming here and explaining things down to us so that we can definitely understand it benefits us and our viewers.

Thank you so much.

No thank y'all.

I really appreciate the opportunity.

All right.

We'll be talking to you soon.

I enjoyed having you.

Thanks so much for your insight.

Let's turn now to Louisiana Speaks for this week, where we get a sneak peek at the new Economic Innovation Center.

It's a branch of Louisiana Economic development aimed at luring new business to the state.

Carolyn Bloss sat down with Secretary Susan Bourgeois to talk about Louisiana's $62 billion boom in 2025.

2025 is turning out to be a banner year for economic development in Louisiana.

So far, $61 billion in business investment and counting.

Joining me now is secretary of Louisiana Economic Development Susan Bourgeois to talk about all of these projects and what the future holds.

First of all, thank you for joining me.

We are here in the new Innovation Center, which is under construction, which is the future home of Louisa Anna Innovation, which is a new arm of Louisiana Economic Development.

Let's start with that.

Great.

Well, thank you for having me.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about this.

And we love that we're in the building to start the conversation.

we attract businesses, we grow businesses, and now we have a new heightened focused on building businesses here, particularly through innovation and technology.

And that's the point of the effort at the department.

And it's also the point of using this building as a showcase and a showpiece to do that.

So this focus on innovation and tech focused companies, is that part of an overall new strategic plan that's been implemented?

Tell me about that.

Our department had not had a strategic plan done for economic development, not just for our department, but really for Louisiana, in over 16 years.

So we got about very quickly the intentionality of creating a new plan that was adopted about, six weeks ago now.

so really taking that innovation overlay onto all of the sectors, instead of identifying it and calling it out as a single sector is what the plan has put in place.

But the plan identifies the the seven sectors.

Louisiana really has an expertise in.

what are the seven focus areas.

The first sector in these words matter is called energy and process industries.

And, you know, 20 years ago we would have called that Petracca, right?

That's what we knew is the oil and gas industry and the chemical processing industry.

And it's not just about refining.

It's not just about producing.

Ironically, it can also be about generating, right?

And it can be about Louisiana potentially becoming an exporter of great energy.

Right.

Not to mention liquefied natural gas.

And, you know, traditional Petro, kinds of processes.

So energy and process industries, number one, sector, number two, again, not surprising in Louisiana is agriculture and agribusiness, right.

All the things that come from our fertile land and how we monetize that and how that has an economic impact, not just for the state, but frankly, the world.

Number three is logistics.

Think distribution, think ports, think, think the fact that, you know, we have the mouth of the Mississippi River and the Mississippi River touches 32 states and two provinces.

Right.

There's no denying Louisiana's position as it relates to distribution and logistics.

Number four, is aerospace and defense.

we're making ports for space.

You know, that's a real thing that's happening in Louisiana.

And the opportunity in that space and then the opportunity in future defense work, particularly unmanned kind of defense work, Louisiana has got tremendous opportunity there because of our history and expertise.

Number five is this surprises a lot of people.

But professional services, right.

And that's not lawyers and insurance agents, although we love our lawyers and insurance agents.

Right.

It's about engineers and it's about the fact that, Baton Rouge, interestingly enough, is home to seven of the ten largest industrial contracting firms in the country.

Number six is technology.

You know, many years ago we instituted, a tax incentive that actually really promoted digital media and promoted, coding and that kind of work happening here.

again those were in no particular order.

Is life sciences and not just the innovation and the research that is done in that space, We started our interview mentioning that today, $61 billion in economic development projects, business investment in the state of Louisiana.

Can you hit the highlights of what we've got here coming to the state?

Yeah.

So of that 61, almost 62 billion.

You know, I like to round up, 62 billion is is represented by three really large ones.

The first one we announced was matter and the fact that meta is going to build their largest AI data center in the world in North Louisiana.

So just the elements of what that represents, meta, the global presence credit ability, knowledge and impact of a company like meta selecting Louisiana for their largest investment.

And then our second really big one from a new industry perspective, is what Hyundai is bringing here to south Louisiana along the river in Ascension Parish, making steel but making steel in a way that it's not done anywhere else in this country.

It is a very clean technology.

two of our other big ones were both in the liquefied natural gas space.

Right?

It was venture global doing an $18 billion expansion at their existing facility in Plaquemines Parish.

And then just on the heels of that, about six weeks later, Woodside Energy, an Australian based company, announced an almost $18 billion investment in Lake Charles, the largest foreign direct investment in Louisiana ever.

The largest greenfield, which means from the ground up project in Louisiana ever in Lake Charles.

Susan Boucher Secretary, Louisiana Economic Development, thank you for joining us and sharing with the state, a progress report.

I will say a thank you for all the projects and more to come.

Thank you.

time now to take a look at what's trending this week.

And on top of the list are what the LSU Tigers, they're getting ready to take on Arkansas for the first round of the College World Series.

Lots of excitement.

Fans gathered outside of the box Wednesday to cheer on the team as they boarded their plane and their busses to Omaha.

The first game Saturday night at six against the only other SEC team in Omaha, which, as you mentioned, is Arkansas.

Well, Thursday at their opening press conferences, players from both teams talked about how playing in the SEC and already facing each other has prepped them for a run at the title.

You got to go out there, day in and day out and give it your all.

You're going to get tested every day by each and every team.

There's not really a bad team in the SEC.

Everybody has really talented players, and they're all coached really well.

And it's just a good preparation and good training ground for Omaha.

And and now that we're here, we just got to stick to kind of what's made a successful all year.

I feel like we were going to face LSU at some point in this, this next week and a half or so.

So why not just make it the first game and get it out of the way?

Tigers won their 10th super regional sweeping West Virginia in two games, and they have earned their 20th trip to the College World Series.

Woo-Hoo!

I'm loving it and this year is the year of the Tiger.

And they will be joined by a uniquely Louisiana tradition to Omaha for the College World Series.

A larger than life Mike the Tiger, known as Mardi Gras Mike.

It's a 30ft slow created by Kern Studios.

It was unveiled at Alex Walk Stadium just before the Tigers left for Omaha.

Now the float will be at various locations throughout the city during the Tigers stay at the series.

Now, from tigers to zebras, this is the story of the week.

It's all over social media a pet zebra a pet zebra, first of all.

Oh my goodness.

Named Ed escaped from a home in central Tennessee and was on the run for nearly a week.

As you can imagine, he caused all sorts of chaos running through neighborhoods, shutting down traffic on an interstate before his run finally came to an end.

The local sheriff's office dropped a net over at the zebra and then airlifted him back to captivity.

Now, rightfully, Victor, the internet is going wild as one user posted a video of him being airlifted to the song defying gravity from wicked.

But that makes him Elphaba the zebra and the zip, right?

Hey, look, everything calmed down and he's safe.

That's why we're glad he's safe.

Now on to some good news.

The New Orleans based son of a same program is changing lives.

One young man at a time, founded to support boys growing up without fathers.

The nonprofit has expanded its reach, offering guidance, education and hope to hundreds of young men.

Take a look.

I think overall, when we look at the stats and we look at boys who are growing up without their fathers, overwhelmingly they have a lot of challenges, right?

Almost 45% of children in Louisiana grow up without a father in their home.

Exceeding the national average by ten percentage points.

Research shows a significant link between father absence and adverse outcomes for young men, both in Louisiana and across the country.

And you look at the incarceration rate, I mean, over 70% of our boys, IT lost their fathers to violence, about 20% multiple across the region.

Hearing those stats was heartbreaking for son of a Saints CEO, Sonny Lee, but that compelled him to take action.

the idea really came about, back in 2000 and of 2010, I was really based off of my own upbringing.

My father, as an almost two years old, I had a lot of amazing experiences growing up, a lot of mentors, a lot of folks that poured into me and in my 20s had a lot of great work experiences.

And so, I had a global sort of view of, of, of things from a lot of my travel.

And I went everywhere from wanting to experience that year.

And that's really where it sparked.

I just I wanted to mentor young men who were growing up in similar situations as I was In 2011, Sonny established son of a Saint to address the increasing concern of fatherless boys in the New Orleans area.

The organization is dedicated to transforming the lives of young men by providing mentorship and emotional support, developing life skills, offering positive experiences, and fostering meaningful, lasting peer relationships.

really like.

Yeah.

You know, I get that change from you know, you Since its inception, son of a saint has experienced remarkable growth.

Now boasting over 40 mentors and full time staff, along with more than 300 young men actively participating in the program.

but you can bring it back here.

We're Among the first mentees to participate, Myles Stewart joined us to reminisce and discuss the profound impact son of a Saint has had on his life, including traveling out of the country for the very first time.

we went to Montreal And performance in Montreal.

We took a first class for a few months, so putting in the work to go on the trip, they showed me that, you know, if you can do hard things and hard work, you can achieve things and even community service.

We're habitat for humanity will wake up on a Saturday morning and get to build a house and seeing a house finished or finished product from start to finish was very rewarding.

So different scenarios that we were in and we got rewarded by just seeing the fruits of our labor.

That was a good natural.

You One of his most memorable trips with the son of a saint was Costa Rica, and not just because of the adventures.

Baby.

We got some zip line.

We got to explore the rainforests, and we saw a lot of animals and things that you never seen before.

But because it helped him to see the world through a different lens, and to be more grateful for the little things.

just because interacting with some of the boys in Costa Rica, that we're in similar situations with us and in the city and seeing how they live compared to us and getting to count our blessings.

Yeah, we're very blessed that we got a part of this organization.

And to be from a country or even a city like new one is with diversity and a lot of opportunities that may not be afforded.

I mean, some of the kids in Costa Rica didn't actually.

So just count our blessings in Costa Rica and being able to give back.

And Miles isn't the only grateful participant of son of a Saint Henry is the group's 2024 mentor of the year.

I'm.

After three years with the program, the Houston native says his family often questions when he'll be back, but his commitment to his mentees is what keeps him in this city.

I've seen growth.

Me and my team had the they have the greatest.

And I say the first because these is kind of just a kid who's just wants to do whatever he wants.

But having a couple of conversations and having a couple of moments where, you know, you know, those moments, he started to understand, like, I'm not going anywhere.

I'm not going anywhere.

You could tell me to go find another mentee.

I can tell you, whatever the case is, I'm going to be at your school.

I'm going to show up for you when I don't want to do things for you.

I'm still going to do them because this is my personality.

And they start to put their trust in that bond.

And that's kind of what helps their relationship grow.

And that's all they need right now in their lives.

Henry says the overwhelming sense of purpose he gets from impacting a young life is more than worth it for him.

Now the goal is to continue to expand.

Son of a Saint across the region to other states and beyond.

In the meantime, they'll continue the work of the saints and change the world.

One son at a time.

From tiny toothpicks to massive masterpieces, Baton Rouge artist Michael Smith turns small stakes into jaw dropping sculptures.

Michael Smith, known as the Toothpick Man.

He's earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records and used his craft to mentor students.

That's right.

And Karen Long has a story.

Michael Smith glues toothpicks by hand, one at a time.

Layering and layering to create art objects.

From jewelry to sculptures.

He spent three years working on this piece.

This is something I've thought about for a long time.

This is my version of a lady.

This gravy.

She's lost so much in her life.

It's been so shattered until, I wanted to bring it out to express to the people.

You know, sometimes we feel their grief.

And she's not finished yet.

But this is one of her best pieces, I think, of created.

That says a lot because you've been creating toothpick art for some 50 years.

Yes.

Bill and I taught school for a long time, and a lot of students that are older now that probably got grandkids.

They remember me.

The self-taught folk artist is known as the Toothpick Man, with a claim to fame in the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the world's largest toothpick sculpture, an alligator made of 3 million toothpicks and weighing 320 pounds.

When you started this project, did you set out to achieve a world record in the Guinness Book?

Yes, I did, I went to a career day at Galvez Middle School, and a little kid came up and said, are you in the Guinness Book?

I said, no, not yet.

He said, you ought to start right now.

So I started this on the table at Galvez Middle School.

I went back for a career day and also went back for the official getting into the Guinness Book.

Michael accepted his Guinness Book Challenge at Galvez Middle School in Prairie Ville, where he taught students to take art for years as a way to help them focus and calm the mind.

Maybe that's why I stuck with it.

It's a form of therapy for me.

Even with kids, I thought some were had the ADHD, you know?

And they loved it.

Hey, they would discipline my heart.

Michael's world record Toothpick Gator could encounter a rival in the creations of his son, who also makes toothpick art.

We'll call him Toothpick man.

Junior.

I wouldn't say this is the one to make that attempt, but, you lose control with this.

I guess, is a therapy toothpick and has been, part of me, since about four years old.

He's been teaching me and, since then, I guess I've been running with.

This is in the bloodline.

Is something that was that was passed on.

I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child.

So, this is, again, like putting a puzzle together.

I love it.

Together, father and son, promote and teach the transformative potential of the humble toothpick in art and life.

Are you a proud dad?

Very much so.

You know, sometimes I feel like I better get rolling again because he's getting ahead of me.

He's doing well with his work, and I'm very proud of.

Someday, we.

We've been talking about this for a long day, but someday, provided we have space and, the right resources, we're going to build a boat to crossed Mississippi River.

Had a toothpick?

I've been thinking about it for a long, long time, and he always put it back on my mind.

Hey, let's do the boat list.

Or boat.

So.

Oh, yeah.

Person for the boat is is is is something that, I love to do it.

I think it'd be a great a great opportunity.

It definitely turns me Michael's toothpick.

Art has taken him around the world to teach in China and Hong Kong.

An exhibit at Disney World.

For 50 years, a toothpick man has been inspiring others to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Here I hold still doing it.

And you made it your life's work.

Yes, yes.

And I've touched our lives with more.

Well, that's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything LPB anytime, wherever you are with our LPB app.

You can catch LPB 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, on X and on Instagram.

And for everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

I'm Dorothea Wilson.

And I'm Victor Hall.

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, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together we power life.

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

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and by Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center.

Visit Baton Rouge and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.