Episode 28 - St. George Library, State Fair, Conflict on the Metrocouncil, Ed Orgeron returns

Dave and Drew tackle a packed news week, including:

• Baton Rouge Metro Council Complaint: Analyzing the conflict of interest allegations involving the new parish attorney, John McLindon, and Councilwoman Laurie Adams' husband.
• City of St. George Updates: Discussing the potential for St. George to separate from the East Baton Rouge Parish library system, plus a look at what is next following the St. George school vote.
• LSU Football Coaching Staff: The return of Ed Orgeron to LSU as part of Lane Kiffin's staff.
• Louisiana Policy & Infrastructure: Coverage of the new bill requiring 90-day refunds for utility overcharges, replacing Louisiana vehicle inspection stickers with $6 QR codes, and delays pushing the Picardy-Perkins connector project to 2029.
• EBR Community News: The Greater Baton Rouge State Fair potentially moving to Baker, the 2024 BREC fiscal audit revealing repeated financial issues, enhanced security at EBR high school graduations, and Central Mayor Wade Evans' recent car crash.
• State & Regional Headlines: The NAACP's call to boycott southern college sports over voting rights, and the investigation into the illegal killing of geese near the LSU lakes.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome back to your friendly family Sabakate podcast with Dave and Drew, episode number 28. Dave Ripolo is one of your hosts. He's a writer at the Savicate. My name is Drew Merle, St. George Councilman for the moment, and local attorney. So, Dave, we have no guests this week, which means we have to do all our own work.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

We can't rely on someone, a third person, to just talk a bunch.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

I think we can do it.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Completely shocked Wade Evans is not here.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Well, he I think he's recovering.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

That's why I thought he'd be here. Yeah. And talk to us about it.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

You know, I think his assistant probably could have wheeled him in here in his wheelchair and he could have done the show. All we need is a mic in front of his face. I'd I wonder. This is a handicap-friendly office, right?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

I was going to represent him as his personal injury attorney. I thought there could be some avenue. He did he did text me back. I text, make sure he's okay. Uh airbags burn. That's what he said.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

That's what he told me as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

They're not very pleasant experience. I'm glad he's okay and we can joke about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

We already joked about it. We had an article hit today about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Exactly. As long as he's okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

All right. So what do we got in local news? What's going on right now? Anything?

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Uh, there's not much going on, Drew. You know.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Maybe more.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Yeah, no, there's a few things going on. Um, let's see. Um, a complaint was filed against the Metro Council claiming a conflict of interest with their newly appointed parish attorney, uh John McClendon?

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Yeah, John McClendon.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Yeah, apparently uh the complaint claims that at the time of the vote, Mr. McClendon was the private defense attorney for Councilwoman Lori Adams' husband in an active criminal investigation. It also claims the other council members were aware of this. So that seems like a pretty conflict. That seems very conflicty.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Well, I'll tell you a couple of things about this. Uh one, I think it was a unanimous vote. I don't believe anyone voted against the case. Yes. Yes. So even if you disqualified her vote, I would argue it probably would not have changed the outcome. I would question why you have a criminal defense lawyer as the parish attorney. I'm not sure those skill sets go together.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

You've seen the past four, five, or six years of East Patonridge Parish.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Maybe he's the best guy for the gym. He does have fun hair, and I would give him bonus points for his hair.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Well, I didn't notice his hair.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Um I would also say my other complaint is why do we have a parish attorney's office? How many do we have in that office? I believe there's 79 employees, about 7 million annual budget.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

How many uh do we need?

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Uh one, two, so it's just a little off. And then we could give 75 or 76 attorneys office. I'll keep telling. We could give that money to a couple of places. The DA's office, if you like that kind of thing, you know, crime, law and order. Yeah. Or you could give that money to the public defender's office because without public defenders, we can't have trials.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Convict people and incarcerate them or punish them.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

You know, I hit six potholes on the way here. We could probably give that to DPW.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Ah, potholes. Who knew?

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

But no, no, parish attorney's office. 78, 79? What what do they 79? What do what do they do? What do they do over there? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Draw some pretty nice paychecks.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Nothing the DA's office can't do.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

I feel like now that uh the previous administration is gone, we probably don't need that many. Maybe they're cleaning up the mess that was left, but you can still sub that out.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

I mean, my argument was you'd have one parish attorney for the mayor's office. I think that's fair. Because right now the parish attorney does not represent the mayor. The parish attorney is the Metro Council's representative, and you have one for the Metro Council, and they farm out everything else, which would make more sense, and they already do that now. It's not like it's rocket science. They do it for any important case they've got, and then we can get rid of some of this dead weight and move this money where it needs to go, which is into other any other place than that.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

Did you apply to be a parish attorney and you're just upset because they didn't have to be able to do that? You're disgruntled. I've never that's probably a public record. I'm gonna look and see if you apply and they turn you down. To my knowledge, St. George guy, we can't we can't take him. So now you're just ticked off.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

You wouldn't be upset if you were one of the 79, would you?

SPEAKER_00 4:15

They didn't hire me because I went to Southern University Law Center. Maybe that's what there's something more to that. Go Jags.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

So yeah, um, and this this uh what's this investigation with Lori Adams' husband? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

There's a lot going on with that. Again, it's it's yeah, to my knowledge, um, no indictments. Um to my knowledge, uh there's nothing going on. I I don't know. So anyway, even if it is valid complaint, eliminating her from the voting process would not have affected the outcome. So I I you know, I'm not giving too much more thought than that. I was more important about saying I want to get rid of the parish attorney's office is really a bigger point.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

We'll look into that for another show. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 4:59

Maybe we should interview uh the parish attorney about it.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Which one? There's like 79.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Well, today there's John McClendon, the actual title of the So they're replacing all 79 of the other ones with this guy. Is that no no, they're keeping all the rest.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

They have one Oh, the main guy. Okay. Main guy. He's the coach. The rest of them are all just players.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

That's all right. That's a very good analogy.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

All right.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Break it down.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

Break it down to things. That's okay. Sid's listening, he can understand that. That's right. That's all right.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

It's like the drum major and the band. Depends on where you want to be at.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

Yeah. But I never see the drum major pick up a set of drumsticks. I can't figure that out. Anyway. Get the LSU drum major on the show to explain that.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

Why do you not drum?

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Uh uh I played the trumpet. Why do you not drum? You know, I know nothing about band, but I can immediately think of ten better titles for that guy.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Why is your rank major? Yeah. I mean. What about drum corporal? Drum lieutenant? Let me ask you a question. Drum general.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Is drum a class at LSU that he might be taking and that might be his his major?

SPEAKER_00 6:05

No, I don't think you went to school? I I don't I don't think so. I don't think I was in the Mass Com Department.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Next show, we're gonna have some drum major answers.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

I can get you a drum major stat. I got I got I got one. Good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

All right, moving right along. Uh Mr. Merle, it seems that St. George is considering breaking away from the East Baton Rouge Parish library system. Now, what in the world is going on with that?

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Well, thank you, Dave. Did you know anything about that? Thank you, Dave. Glad you asked. Um, so number one, uh, the city of St. George has proposed an ordinance to create its own library system. Now, there's a few a multitude of reasons for this, but number one, if the vote for the library millage fails on June 27th, there would not be funding for a library system. Okay. So in essence, this would be a backup plan to move us forward so we could create a library system in the meantime because we could get to a ballot before they could. And we could create a library system and fund it. Two, I think it's imperative at any level of government or as a citizen, I think we're required to question our government. And in this case, the library gets a continual free pass. Their budget last year was knocking $70 million. Wow. That feels like a bunch.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

And I know it's a bunch because it's do you have any idea how much money it takes to house the homeless?

SPEAKER_00 7:31

Well, how much they pay for the downtown library. So you've got a $70 million budget. Let's just be low about it and say it's $60 million. The city of Houston was $34 million. It's more than the city of Austin, Texas. It's more than the top four cities in Louisiana combined.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

But you wouldn't you think if they were overfunded, they'd have like a lot of money in the bank, Drew? I mean $160 million, $150 million is not really a lot of money.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

I mean, walking around money. You gotta have walking around money, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

And so this is second problem. We should be questioning why, in a time where we're desperately trying to fund the DA's office and the public defender's office, that we're not looking at every source of money going, hey, is this an avenue? Crime, I'm told, is important. Safety is important, and yet we keep giving out money everywhere else but that department. And that feels like we have a priority problem. Yeah. And I'm not and so that's one avenue. So one, it's a replacement system in case it fails. Two, I think we should question how much we're paying for it. So the third is in St. George, it's a 60 square mile city, 86,000 residents.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

And we should have a few libraries, correct?

SPEAKER_00 8:44

We have one brick and mortar library on Jones Creek. One.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Just that one.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

So we live in a book desert because books are not accessible to us unless we drive further distances than other people to go get them.

SPEAKER_02 8:56

So if you live over off of Old Perkins or Highland, right? The nicest, probably the nicest, most expensive real estate in the parish that's paying into the system very well, you have to go all the way to Jones Creek Road to check out a book.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

If you want to check it out in St. George, yeah. And so that's kind of an issue. And then you get to that and say, what I want to know from the library is if you tell me brick and mortar libraries are very important, and they must be telling me that they've built 16 of them.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

There's 16 in the parish, and St. George has one.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Yeah. Then why do we only have one in 60 square miles? So that'd be question one. And question two, if you're telling me they're not that important that we don't need another one in St. George, then why do you keep building them everywhere else? Why do we have to do this? And and then on top of that, I do know, and this is a fact, that in-person readership, checking out books from the library, the traditional library model, is down a significant percentage. Not only that, online readership is down by a significant percentage. And part of this is, and part of what I think the responsibility of a citizen is to government, is not only questioning these institutions, but question does it fit in where we are now? They have to evolve and change. How did you get here today? Did you did you ride a horse?

SPEAKER_02 10:15

Um no, I didn't actually. It was raining.

SPEAKER_00 10:18

Because at some point that became an outdated mode of transportation and you took something else. Did you sail across the Atlantic? No. You would have taken an airplane today. And so some of these things, and readership is one of those. Um I can get a book on my phone. I don't have to go to the library anymore. I don't have to check a book out through the online subscribership if I don't want to. I've got multitude of ways to get there. Kendall will give me several books for free.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

You know, I feel like with all the money the library has, they could probably dig up their pocket change and put another library in St. George, but they haven't.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

No, they have not.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

With all that cash, what does it take? Three, four million to build a brand new facility?

SPEAKER_00 11:01

According to uh what somebody who clearly knows more about operating libraries allegedly than I do says, about 3.2 million is what it costs to operate the Jones Creek Library. Yeah. Whereas my estimate was more about 4 million, 4.5 million to operate in the same library. Um just trying to pad the numbers to see how much I could make it. And let me tell you, those estimates include every digital service that the library currently offers, including books, salaries, bookmobile, uh digital online readership, the Libby program, Canopy. You know, they check out movies for free at the library through the Canopy program, and they pay Canopy when people check out those movies. Now, these are the same movies you can get for free on Roku, Tubi, Pluto, and that's the problem. The world and technology has caught up and made the library in your pocket, on your tablet, on your laptop. So we have to reimagine what we think the modern library needs to be, and that should be how do I get information to a citizen in their home, on their person? And that should be something different than 16 brick and mortar libraries and hiring a thousand employees. And and just because I want to question it and have that conversation, uh it and I know I must be on to something because instead of debating me with numbers, they call names and yell and they scream. And anytime somebody's yelling and screaming, they do not have the law or the facts. And that's what I'm getting. And I'm just asking questions, and I'm not getting answers. Why do we spend more on libraries than road maintenance in this parish? Doesn't that feel a little out of priority?

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Yeah, wow.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

What about drainage? We flooded not that long ago. In fact, that flood uh resulted in in a lot of business closures. Yeah. Why are we dead? We don't have nearly as much, it's not even close the amount of money budgeted for the library versus drainage maintenance in this parish.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

We should be able to make a loan from the library, some of that money.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Well, remember, we wanted the police to go to work for the library. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Book bookmobiles.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Maybe the library should be the public works department.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Because to your point, I mean, you have a better chance of botting me out in a pothole on the way to the library than actually wanting to go to the library. Yeah. And I get it. It's got some great resources, and this is the problem. I shouldn't apologize for challenging the library. No. I should never have to apologize. I can like reading and know how to read.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

And think it could be run better.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

And think it could be done differently. You know, I mean And this is where we've gotten.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

The simple fact that you can both of these things can be true. We have a great library system and we have an overfunded library system, right? Exactly right. Nobody's talking about cutting off the library at all. But people are talking about when a when a public service agency like the library is awash in hundreds of millions in cash, let's face it, they are good stewards, they're very responsible with their money, which means they're overfunded. It's very simple. Very simple. And if we could save the citizens of St. George a lot of tax money and provide the same service, no brainer.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Well, that's it. And I think that the part of me that they got upset about it was they agreed to 8.3 under Sid's Thrive program, and I get it. They're trying to compromise and find a way to get through that. I get it. But don't come back at 9.6 when you want money. I I mean, we have priorities and needs here, and everyone can see it. It's time for the library to be right-sized. And when I tell you, and if if my number is correct and it's four or four and a half million, we'll say five million dollars, the highest number possible to run the Jones Creek Library. And I mean I'm providing every single digital service the EBR Parish Library currently provides.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

You could probably put a coffee shop in there for that.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

I mean, you could. And that's part of that reinvention process, right? Reimagine what you can do. Why couldn't I have a private vendor put a coffee shop or cafe in a library? What a novel.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Discount subsidized.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Now it's helping us provide more revenue without taxpayer burden.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

Give more people a reason to come by.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

More people to visit.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

You've given them how about a state-of-the-art podcast studio? Do any libraries have those?

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Uh I don't know. EBR may. They got a bunch of money for it.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

Gordon McCarnon has one.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

That's right. The garage. And that's again, it's about taking a look at both budget and purpose and seeing if there's a better way to do it. And in St. George, we've had an opportunity because we get to do everything the first time to reimagine all these different items and things and go, hey, can it be done better? Can it be done more affordably? Uh is it right where it is? Uh what can we do? And let's reimagine it and look at what uh you know, take some examples, come up with some ideas, let's be creative and see if we can find solutions. And so far, you can debate whether you like the city of St. George, but go to that seeing off ramp and tell me if our homeless initiative's not working. Right. I know it is. EBR copied it already.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

And they're not in the library because there's no libraries.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

We didn't push them up into the library. That's right. Is there any truth to the rumor I saw today about you want this thing named the Andrew Moreau Library? Oh my god. That was that. I mean, that's false, right? No, I haven't. They were just trolling us with that, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Is that real? Because that would be funny. Uh I hope that's a Savagate uh meme can.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

They said the only reason is you would accept that if if uh it was unopposed. If no one else made any suggestions to name it, you would take the name.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Otherwise, you think you think there's a portion of the population that is regretting the fact that I was unopposed now. So we're gonna run someone against it again. Again, if you're super angry, just provide facts and information. I'm very easy. And you can find it online. You want to go to the library for it. St. George is paying over $17 million in a library system that I can't find more than $5 million on its best day ever being spent in the city of St. George. And we're not included to get another library, and we're not included to getting another renovation for at least 10 years on their own. That is their own improvement plan.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

So $170 million down the line, they'll go spend a million dollars in renovating that line.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Yay! And all I'm asking is let's discuss this, let's have a conversation about it. Um, nobody reached out to the city of St. George and they proposed to put that library millage back on the ballot. They don't they don't want to include us in those conversations because we might ask some questions and they don't want to answer those questions. How do I know? They yell and scream a bunch.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

I think the foolproof way to get this thing pushed through, and I'm gonna work on this.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Will you?

SPEAKER_02 17:58

Yes. And and this is a this is a guaranteed, as much as running unopposed for St. George Councilman. This is a guaranteed. The best. If we could get one Mr. Jeff Landry to come out in opposition of this library, put you in 95%. Yes, yeah, done deal. I could probably do an AI video of Jeff Landry opposing the library.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

If you vote no to the EBR Parish Library, if you vote no across the board on June 27th to all tax proposals, the Jones Creek Library will host Landry Recall effort.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Oh next level. Like a little barter in.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

Next level.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

Yeah, buddy. I'm gonna reach out to the governor and see if he can put a video out saying he is opposed to that library.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

That's right. I'm also getting Spencer Pratt to head up our campaign against the uh June 27th taxes. I believe he's perfectly situated to handle this in a way that we've never seen or imagined.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

He's a little tied up. Pressure spray in his uh logo on Dirty City Streets.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Exactly. I need that, I need that brilliant genius. That's so genius.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

I should try some Savagate logos in some dirty city streets in Baton Rouge. That's so great. The Sid would hate me for that. Let's move right along, though, since um we're past the library uh news.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

So it appears that the greater Baton Rouge State Fair, Andrew, could be moving to Baker, Louisiana next year.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

I wish them the best. I I don't know. So okay, I don't know. Other than the I knew it was not gonna be in St. George on the fairgrounds and airline. There's a project going there, which is why they're not gonna be able to be located there any longer. Yeah. Um I thought they had moved to Ascension for a while.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

Yeah, they I think they had it out at at um Lamar Dixon, right? Yeah, and I don't I don't know what this I didn't um do too much research. I just saw this headline and uh thought that was I didn't was Baker have any vent? I mean, what does Baker have out there?

SPEAKER_00 19:48

You know what they don't have?

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Barbershop.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

More barbershops. You know what they do have? Brand new car wash. That's right. Brand new car wash. That's right. So no, I don't know. I don't I I assume that means uh Howell Park? I I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Oh, that's true. Um, not Howell Park, um by the zoo, next door to the zoo that's the one by the zoo. Yeah, that I mean, honestly, look, good for Baker. That would be fantastic. They could use something like that. Maybe we get the mayor to come on and talk about that.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

Mayor Waits, would you like to come on and promote the uh fair? So I I've actually thought Lamar Dixon was probably a good fit.

SPEAKER_02 20:20

Yeah, well, Greater Baton Rouge State Fair and Ascension Parish.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Well, they say Greater Baton Rouge, the lie I was told for a long time was Greater Baton Rouge is the metro area of 11 parishes. Something ridiculous. A lot. That's true. Greater Baton Rouge. So I you know, yeah. I I thought that was a good fit. Hey, good on you, Baker.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

We'll definitely follow up on it.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Good on you, Baker. I think that's great. Um I've never I think I may have gone to that fair once in my lifetime of living in this area. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

Um moving right along. So uh Mr. Ed Orgeron is once again employed by uh LSU Athletics.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

So when you're praying to Savagate Jesus, was this on the list? Because it had to be pretty high up there.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

Yeah, I mean, you know, we may have we may have sent a hundred emails to LSU Athletics saying, Boy, if you guys would, you know, hire Orgeron back, that would be a whole swath of content for us.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

And I want to compliment the Savagate for actually making me spit out loud uh and take a spit take uh at the idea that he kept running into him. Uh was it you that posted he kept running into at Ogeron at a sorority house, so you had to hire him?

SPEAKER_02 21:30

Uh yeah, yeah. We uh had something to do with that. We we do a lot of content with uh Coach O and sorority houses.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Yes, uh so very well played. Uh the memes uh that everyone's coming up with uh for this area. They're pretty easy, yeah. Pretty solid.

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Easy content, easy content. So yeah, Coach O is back at LSU, probably as giddy as a uh schoolgirl. Um rumor has it him and Lane Kiffin cut out earlier to go to Tiger Land when Fred's is having two for one.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

Oh, there's the truth to that. No doubt if there's a crawfish boil at Fred's that those two gentlemen Will at least be there for a few minutes.

SPEAKER_02 22:01

Literally like a five-minute walk from the LSU Football Operations Building. So great. So, yeah, it should be a very fun season for LSU football and the Savagate.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

No kidding. Welcome back.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

No Tigers. Back in East Baton Rouge, Parish, enhanced high school graduation security in East Baton Rouge after fight and gun arrest at graduation ceremony. Bringing a gun to a graduation ceremony and fighting.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Nothing says legal adult like going to prison for life.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Yeah. Yeah. Congratulations on your graduation. You have the right to remain silent. I love it. I don't understand how I will tell you.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

I went to the very segregated Baton Ridge High's graduation, Baton Ridge Magnet High. They had to probably have to buy a ticket? I actually got it.

SPEAKER_02 22:47

Like a lottery? No, I got it. You have to get a ticket?

SPEAKER_00 22:51

No, you had to have a ticket. And they had a clear bag policy. I will tell you, lovely ceremony. When you when you just isolate top performers and don't include other kids. There were no fights? No. Was there any jigging? No. What? There was not. They had the symphony play and the a cappella choir did the national anthem. What? And people were very respectful. And um one guy got a naval academy commission. I thought that was cool. Uh the Salutatorian and Valedictorian are had are publishing papers and some engineering subject that was so complicated, I quit listening because I couldn't understand it.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

Felt kind of dumb sitting out in the crowd, huh?

SPEAKER_00 23:27

Very dumb at the Baton Ridge High graduation.

SPEAKER_02 23:29

Yeah, no fights. Wow. Yeah, but apparently, um that man, I don't know if it was odd that there were just a bunch of people videoing fights.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

If you can't celebrate graduation of your child by shooting a gun in the air, then what are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 23:42

What was the four years worth? Exactly. Or five. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

What is the social promotion worth? I mean, just because your kid's 21, there's Baton Rouge is what taught me about social promotion, the concept that you can only be so old in a particular grade and they are forced to bump you up no matter what. There's literally a a segment of the Baton Rouge school population that could care that does not do homework, they don't do grades, they don't take tests, they barely show up, but they promote them every year to get them out of the system. Social promotion. Not because they're super fun and friendly. Right.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

And they're good at Facebook.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

Yeah, not that social. No.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

Wow. Wow. So yeah. Um so it looks like the NAACP is calling for SEC athletes, um, college sports athletes, to boycott um these southern colleges who are in states who are getting rid of these um illegal districts, congressional districts. So they've taken they've taken their complaint with politics, and now are trying to talk college sports athletes whose dream is to play at SEC football teams, let's face it, SEC our college sports, and their dream of potentially playing in the NFL because they are upset with the governor for following the Supreme Court's recommendation. I just can't figure that out.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Disingenuous political messaging that's gonna talk one of these poor kids into giving up his dream of hypothetically free education, if that's a goal. Scholarship. Some people care about that still. Right. Um money, because they're all getting paid to go to these schools, and the SEC is the highest payer. If you look at the schools on average, we got the highest payrolls, and furthering their dream of making millions of dollars down the road. So you're you're literally telling these kids for some I'll say semantic argument over gerrymandering that they should forego their future earnings and the short window these kids have to make that money to further their political statement.

SPEAKER_02 25:55

How about teaching these kids? Listen, we don't believe we don't believe this is the right thing. And you have, and listen, everyone's entitled to their opinion of this. We don't believe this is the right thing. We want you to help spread the message that we believe this is wrong, but we don't want you to interrupt being a successful athlete if that's your dream. You can do both. You just because you go to LSU doesn't mean you agree with every law that's right. It's in Louisiana. There's a bunch of laws people don't agree with, but you know what? They don't go, I'm going to Wisconsin, I'm going to Florida. Well, you could disagree with the laws here and still support.

SPEAKER_00 26:28

Would it help your message more if uh Joe Athlete went to LSU, became hugely popular and successful, made a bunch of money, perhaps, and then used that platform to say, hey, we can do this differently. Right. And became super successful. But instead, you're taking them off that road. Don't even go to the school.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

Don't even go to the school.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

It just seems like so uh my other question would be if the NAACP, are they willing to put their money where their political statement is, are you going to pay those kids their NIL money to not play at those schools?

SPEAKER_02 27:06

Are you going to meet them at the Lamborghini dealership in Houston and buy them a brand new Lamborghini for not going to the school? Exactly right. And I as far as I did a little research on this. Did you? As far as I could see, a not a single athlete came out and said, I appreciate, you know, that Alabama wanted to pick me up, uh, but I'm going to pass because of this. Not none. Which, you know.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

And a lot of the and a lot of these kids, we'll we'll we'll talk about the lower income background kids that are playing ball and they're getting paid through these NIL deals. A lot of times, more of these kids than you'd want to know are funneling that money back home to take care of their family. Folks, right. So you telling me that I need to make your political statement and my family is going to starve, be homeless. Because you believe that you're right. And you're not willing to fork the money over to make that.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

You know, may have gone a different direction with that.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

Right. But I'm just glad that we didn't it didn't cost us any good athletes. Uh exactly. We need we need a powerhouse team this year.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Now look, uh, if I'm in if you go to Alabama, I think you need to protest to sit the season out. Yeah. Because this is an important statement. Whatever it is is worth it for you not to play.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

Tell the coach, you're on a team, but you just want to sit this one out.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

I want to tell you, if you're a Florida player, that new coach of yours, John Sumerall, he absolutely gerrymanders. I would not play for him.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

Speaking of LSU, Andrew. No tigers. And investigations continuing in the illegal killing of geese near the coast. Is that the real thing? It's a real article. That wasn't us. That was a real article. What? They are in they are legit following leads. Invest they found a dead goose. And it's not like there's like 18 different types of wildlife in LSU right now that could kill a goose.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

I'm gonna tell you right now, they're gonna think they're gonna find some fraternity guys and some cruel prank, but you know what it's gonna be? Yeah, a raccoon. No, it's gonna be old white guy.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Why does he have to be white?

SPEAKER_00 29:06

I'm just assuming. Uh I'm stereotyping because old white guy hates geese. Geese poop on his yard and his deck, and he gets mad because he's trying to look at that garbage of a lake that's never gonna be finished. And he wants to see it and be peaceful in the morning, and there's they're making noise and they're pooping everywhere, and he's had it, and he's shaking his fist. He's like, I'm gonna and finally one day he snaps. He snaps.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

And probably walked out to get his paper, and the goose came after him, and he's claiming self-defense.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

He stepped in some poop while doing it, and he's like, ah, and he finally just ah kills that goose. Got your goose.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

He's the guy though, because it's illegal.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

Dead, dead goose.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

But these geese chase us daily. I walked around that lake before, and they ain't nice. They walk around like they pay taxes.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

So is that your you're going with self-defense?

SPEAKER_02 29:58

Well, actually, after hearing you talk about the state of the LSU lakes, I'm going with suicide. They have nothing but mud. They need the water. What have you done to me? I'm going with suicide. I liked it better when there were appliances in the middle of the lake. I wouldn't be surprised if they find the note close to the goose's uh nest saying that they couldn't take it anymore. There's no more water out here.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

The geese have become lemmings. They're just walking off the edge. Oh, so good.

SPEAKER_02 30:28

Yeah, so uh, so yeah, but they are. I wonder how much money they're they're spending to investigate this goose killing.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

Is this an LSU police operation? I hope so.

SPEAKER_02 30:37

You know, there's probably an LSU cop who's probably sitting at his desk right now pulling up security camera from neighbors neighbors' ring cameras.

SPEAKER_00 30:45

He's checking the license plate readers. Been waiting for this moment for 20 years. I'm gonna get him. Is that gonna be like a perp walk to go kill the goose? Yeah, so they're gonna shackle uh is Brian Kelly still in town, he's by the legs.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

Yeah, get him goose murder investigation. It could be a reality show.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

Um, Mr. Wade Evans was involved in a crash last weekend. Says he's fine, plans to get back to work by the end of the week. Okay. Well, whatever that is, getting back to work.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

I don't care. And I saw some some what I would consider tasteless comments about it. I don't care if you like a person or not. I don't want anybody to die. I don't. Well, that's very bullied. I mean, I I don't want anybody to get hurt. That's stupid. Even when watching sports, I don't want the other team's kids to get hurt. I just, you know, you can want the guy not to be the mayor or you can want him to be the mayor. Uh you can't wish bad at that kind of ill.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

One very, one very fine gentleman who doesn't live in Central, like when the WBRZ or WDFB posted that there was a wreck in Central. And like 10 minutes later, they came back and updated saying Central Mayor involved in an accident. They they had it as a pretty bad crash. I was a little concerned. But literally, as soon as that article hit, some guy posted the mayor was drunk when he was driving. And, you know, of course, that started a bunch of rumors, central rants and raves and whatever. So I believe that someone told the mayor about that. And when he got transported to the hospital, he took a voluntary breathalyzer. Smart zero in every regard, and and asked the central police chief to post it yesterday, which he did, you know, which cost everything. But of course, there's gonna be all kind of rumors like that whenever uh public issues involved.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

You know, it just let it just it it is what it is. Yeah. If you got a policy issue or you don't like the way he handles business, that that's you can have a debate.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

But you gotta draw the line at wishing the guy what don't lie and don't wish violence.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Right. And don't wish harm, and we're good.

SPEAKER_02 32:48

If something happens to Wade, what happens to the Surf Lake?

SPEAKER_00 32:51

We can't lose the Surf Lake.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

Can't lose the Surf Lake. We've got to keep Wade. That should be his entire campaign slogan. Keep Wade, we need the Surf Lake.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

Surfing for the future. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:01

And uh worth mentioning, he got hit by an Ultima who ran a red light.

SPEAKER_00 33:05

Hey, Wade, call me.

SPEAKER_02 33:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:08

Just saying, I'm not promising you hit the red.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

The um central police posted a um doorbell cam of the Ultima hitting him with the light red. And uh, as I as I understand it, the person allegedly driving the Ultima, who allegedly ran the red light, got in on some of the back and forth on Central Ransomwave and said, Don't believe that AI video the police deposit I'm suing looking at.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Oh, that is the best.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

Is that the is that the new it wasn't me?

SPEAKER_00 33:41

It was AI. It was AI. 100%. Everything is now AI.

SPEAKER_02 33:45

Fake video. Good stuff, man. That's so good. I'm glad Wade's okay. We'll have him on the show uh pretty soon to talk about the aftermath.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

Hopefully, he wears his neck brace when he gets here.

SPEAKER_02 33:53

Yeah, he better. He's in public. Look legit. Yeah. 2024 fiscal audit reveals eight repeated financial problems within not cats, Breck.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

Breck. Oh, another EBR parish government agency. Yay.

SPEAKER_02 34:10

Look, I eight repeated financial dating back into the teens, as I recall.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

I you know, I know they're they're they're really trying hard. I know. Kudos to them for trying to kudos for trying hard. Can we please deconsolidate all these agencies so we can handle our smaller agencies ourselves and prioritize our own needs and wants and hopefully uh prevent. I mean, this isn't one time. This is every time.

SPEAKER_02 34:46

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 34:47

I mean, are you tired of it yet?

SPEAKER_02 34:49

I feel like I feel like, unlike the library, Breck will be happy to unload a couple of parks onto municipalities such as Central Linzakary and St. George.

SPEAKER_00 34:58

Just give us our tax dollars and we will run our own park systems.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

Yeah. But you know, whenever that comes up, St. George wants their own park system. I want my parks. I have great parks. They're gonna come after you for, you know, all that big. That doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 35:14

All these sacred cows.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

Back to the library issue for one brief question. Did the entire parish vote on that? Yes. So it's an entire parish vote. Yep. Okay. Someone asked me about that earlier. I told them I'd ask. Louisiana customers overcharged by utilities would get refunds within 90 days under new bill. Why does it take so long? Why can't they go and instantly credit your bill?

SPEAKER_00 35:39

I mean, that that is the right question. Why do we have to have a bill to address this issue? Because they're not doing it.

SPEAKER_02 35:46

Millions of dollars sitting in an energy or Demco account for 90 days is uh advantageous to them.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Absolutely. Right. They're there, and that's why there's a bill. Yeah. There's a there's a there's a negative motivation to hold money as long as possible. Yeah. And they're incentivized to do it. I, you know, what I would, and I have not read the bill, so I can't say I'm educated educated on it. And of course, as people are uh have accused me, I don't go to the library, so I can't read. Um I would argue that they should be able to keep interest on any amounts not paid by 90 days. Yeah. I'll give you a grace period, but after you get past that number, you should owe some kind of penalty.

SPEAKER_02 36:24

Absolutely. But aside from that, you know, if you're over if I'm overcharged by 45 bucks, yeah, just credit my next bill 45 bucks. Don't don't mail me a check. Credit my next bill for their $45 credit.

SPEAKER_00 36:39

People who are fixed incomes, yeah, this stuff becomes a really big deal. It does. And and if they're being having to wait, and some of these people are on fixed incomes and will say elderly and infirmed or have limited ability, it's hard for them to go pursue these amounts in the first place.

SPEAKER_02 36:57

And I think I think the utility companies count on that.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

They just go, it's only 26 bucks. It won't come after us for it.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

I was at lunch back in my previous vocation on the radio. I took an insurance company to lunch one day, and it was the insurance company for my dental coverage at the time. And I said, Why is it that you deny me, deny my my dentist bill when it comes in and he's got to resubmit it a few times before you pay it? And she said without skipping a beat, because we know usually the person will pay it, it's not a huge amount, they'll pay it instead of dealing with it. And we will make money doing that.

SPEAKER_02 37:37

100% true.

SPEAKER_00 37:38

Apparently, there's more money in doing that than doing it right. It's true.

unknown 37:41

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 37:41

I think about it all the time when I when I see an uh there's some kind of billing error in ATT. ATT must have what, I don't know, 150 million customers. A dollar advantage to them a month is 150 million dollars. How many people would dispute a dollar, 80 cents, whatever? It's a cash cap.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

That's right. The skimming is where they get away with it. Not the big crime. The big crime gets caught. It's the pennies that they get away with.

SPEAKER_02 38:04

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, we got Breck in the news. We got utility companies in the news. Officials give, okay, let's move on to something. Officials give update on Picardy Perkins Connector Project. You familiar with this?

SPEAKER_00 38:16

I am committed I am familiar.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

This project started in 2021, and the project completion date is estimated to be 2029. Now we are talking about maybe a mile with two bridges. The two bridges look beautiful. Um now there's a uh there's a railroad underpass, admittedly, that throws a little loop into it. But we are five years into it, and we have two bridges at this point. And to throw a wrench in the system that was probably already screwed up enough, the railroad company changed hands. So the agreement that DPW had with the previous rail company um may not may not uh be the same agreement the new company wants. They gotta go under how do we keep going? How do we tunnel in Baton Rouge? It's six foot sea level.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

You didn't hear New Orleans is trying to put it in the middle of the room.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

So this is as someone who travels blue bonnet frequently in Perkins, Blue Bonnet and Perkins is an absolute nightmare, period. Okay. This would allow people on the east side of Perkins Row to turn, shoot straight across to the mall, and straight to the interstate or Blue Bonnet or to the Mall. God forbid.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

It's providing essentially a surface street, the connector between Blue Bonnet and Perkins.

SPEAKER_02 39:31

And that neighborhood that's right there where the school is has the exit as well to it.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 39:36

Okay, straight from uh the Dunham School. So this is a huge deal for that area. For anyone who's ever traveled Perkins and Blue Bonnet, you would absolutely want to hang a right on this and go straight to the interstate at the mall. Like one light. It has been five years, and all they have all they have done is built two bridges, and not a single piece of road has been laid for this. And they're predicting three more years.

SPEAKER_00 40:00

We should create like a Savagate bingo card and put a bunch of parachy things that are unlikely to ever happen on there. So you got new new bridge, Picardy Perkins Connector Road. Yeah. Uh we gotta have some other things on there that are proposed. Oh, there's plenty of. I'm gonna put Husha 2 Road upgrade. Yeah. Uh, because I now know as of today that's never happening. Um what else could we put on there? I mean, it'd be a bunch of roadroghts. That's probably gonna happen eventually.

SPEAKER_02 40:37

Um LSU winning a national championship.

SPEAKER_00 40:40

That is actually the most likely thing on the bingo card.

SPEAKER_02 40:43

Okay, well then let's have some easy, easy uh spaces on there, you know.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

Men's basketball national championship.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

They're hiring all these fired coaches now. I don't I'm sure Brian Kelly's waiting by the phone.

SPEAKER_00 40:54

It just, you know. I guess the apathy sets in at some point, and you just why? What are you doing? I we got some smart people in this area. I know we do. I've talked to some of them. And you go, why? You're telling me you took on this project and you knew it would be maybe difficult, a couple of bri whatever, I don't know, what the hurdles you thought you might encounter. But you would have known a lot of these in the beginning.

SPEAKER_02 41:23

Right.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

And you have decided that now it's gonna take eight years to do this project.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

At least. I know.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

At least. But I mean, don't you want to see a project finished in your own lifetime? I mean, what's the point of having a uh a project if you don't get to enjoy it at some point?

SPEAKER_02 41:44

So it's been it's been um five years, and it's gonna be another three years. So be it will be eight years to build this one mile of road with two bridges, and you would think it would be the opposite. Hey, we got the road paved, but these bridges are taking okay, a couple more years, whatever, five years. The bridges got built, no road, no road at all. It's not a if you look on the map, it's not a lot of concrete for the road, Andrew.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

I mean, Lightning McQueen paved an entire city, Radiator Springs, in like less than a week.

SPEAKER_02 42:15

Okay, and I would like to also add that the Poncha Train Causeway 24 miles.

SPEAKER_00 42:23

This is where we're about to start. Okay, go ahead, 44 miles from the North Shore. We did this before.

SPEAKER_02 42:28

We battery. I'm going to bring this up every time there's any construction. Love it so much. The entire Poncha Train Causeway, start to finish, traffic moving, 14 months long. 24 miles. And listen, a lot of people asked me about and they heard that on the show, and said, was that just laying? No, sir. That was sinking the columns into the Poncha Train and laying the road over the top. Now, full disclosure, it was only two lanes initially, but so is the Picardi Bridge.

SPEAKER_00 43:01

We're talking about a mile.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

Twenty four uh twenty-four miles, fourteen months start to finish.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

So I would argue, I believe the Brooklyn Bridge would be less time than the the Golden Gate Bridge would have taken less time.

SPEAKER_02 43:18

The Francis Scott Key Bridge Baltimore. That's right. That thing was that's how we got started last time. Two years ago, almost to the muff, that thing was hit by barge and collapsed. They are working on it now. Fifty years ago, they're talking about the Mississippi Bridge. We don't even have a location yet.

SPEAKER_00 43:37

We gotta look it up. Uh, what was the there's was the church they've never finished they could be working on since the 1500s? That feels like every Baton Rouge project.

SPEAKER_02 43:47

That could be a DOTD project. That's right. But I mean, we're not even what what is the deal? I mean, you got you gotta laugh about it, right? But you gotta if you stop and think about it, you go, what nine years to build a mile? With two bridges and a railroad underpass? Give me a track hoe and I'll dig the hole under the underpass.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

So think about it this way. We could go back to school, get engineering degrees, civil engineering degrees, get some practical experience and learn how to do the project, and then complete the project in less time. Faster, faster than that.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

And they're already engineers and whatever.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

I like the air quotes you're going with there. Because at this point we have to have air quotes around engineers.

SPEAKER_02 44:31

But this, like this Picardy Perkins connector, is literally the kind of crap that keeps a Savagate so popular. I mean, there's literally not a reason in the world fathomable that anyone could think about where this is not complete.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

You know what the Savagate is? It's a Los Angeles NGO, non-governmental organization that's designed to prevent homelessness by enabling homelessness. Because if you ever solve all these problems, you'll be out of business.

SPEAKER_02 45:00

Very true. And I also must interject uh if we get kickback side payments from actual government officials to not write about them, does that make us an NGO or a GO? If we're taking money from politicians to stay off the Savagate, I feel like we're govern, we're a government agency at that time.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

We're opening some. Not that we do, not that we do. Wouldn't do that.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

If I would get like a brand new Ford F-150 show up in my driveway.

SPEAKER_00 45:24

Wouldn't do that. I would never do that. That's Dave Rapolo. Not me.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

It would have to be a four-wheel drive for me to even consider it.

SPEAKER_00 45:31

That's right. Not even not even getting out of bed.

SPEAKER_02 45:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:34

Okay, what else we got? Because this may be the stupidest thing last.

SPEAKER_02 45:37

It looked like the Louisiana inspection stickers are finally going to be gone. It looks like this is going through. I think the governor just has to sign it at this point. Collective, yay! Wait a second.

SPEAKER_00 45:46

Yeah. Not so fast.

SPEAKER_02 45:47

But I feel like at this point with the Landry recall, probably approaching four or five hundred signatures, I feel like Landry could hold this over their heads.

SPEAKER_00 45:56

Now, but they're not.

SPEAKER_02 45:58

I'm not gonna sign this inspection sticker thing until I see how this recall comes out.

SPEAKER_00 46:02

Getting rid of one thing, but they are replacing it with a QR code. QR code.

SPEAKER_02 46:07

Which I've already printed six or seven for my car.

SPEAKER_00 46:09

I I do think I would say law enforcement, uh, if you pull over a car and you scan the QR code and you get perhaps rolled a savagant meme or two that you should immediately chuckle and high-five the driver and say, Have a good day, sir. Have a good day well played. Right. Yeah. Because that's kind of where I feel like it's going.

SPEAKER_02 46:31

Yeah. So um, but yeah, the dream of inspection stickers finally going by the way. So you'll still need a admission sticker, I think, in East Paton Region, two or three other parishes.

SPEAKER_00 46:40

So in this point, I mean, I can I, you know, it happened the year I actually got the inspection sticker on time. Every other year I would wait, see how the bill would do, and if it failed, then I'd go get the inspection sticker. But this year I went early, inspection sticker now gone. The I'll tell you now, the only reason they put this QR code in place for $6 is to fill the funding gap at the loss of inspection stickers is covering.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

I mentioned on the last show we talked about this. When I register my car, if you just include an $18 fee in there for state police, public safety, yeah, I'm fine with that. Yep. $18 is minuscule just to support the state police and law enforcement.

SPEAKER_00 47:22

Just make it easy, straightforward, and let's have an honest transaction.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

I don't need a guy saying left blanker, right blanker. Just here's my 18 bucks, man. Here's my 18 bucks.

SPEAKER_00 47:31

What is on the QR code?

SPEAKER_02 47:33

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 47:33

What is gonna be on that?

SPEAKER_02 47:34

I know what's gonna be on mine.

SPEAKER_00 47:36

I hope yours are gonna be fabulous.

SPEAKER_02 47:37

I would imagine um since you still have to get the emissions, I imagine when you go get your emissions test, it's gonna upload it and and they print the QR code. That's a link directly to your emissions test for your VIN number. And when they sc if when they scan it to check to see if it's up to date, it'll come back either up to date or not.

SPEAKER_00 47:54

So the police department's gonna start looking like uh self-checkout lines. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:01

Scanning your VIN number, scan your driver's license, scanning your that's right. But I am willing to bet that whenever the LPR in the vehicle, uh the state police vehicle, pulls your plate up, they don't need to scan the inspection, that your emissions are gonna come up there, which is fine.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

Yeah, well, that's what I would say.

SPEAKER_02 48:18

Why not put it for a vehicle that's older than 10 years, right? Why are you getting a requirement admissions test on a 2026 Toyota camera? What I'm pretty sure it's as efficient as it gets being a 2026, you know?

SPEAKER_00 48:32

Well, the thing is, they weren't stopping the 1972 Plymouth either.

unknown 48:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

So if unless you were doing one, it really doesn't matter about the other. Uh it seems like we if you want to put a QR code on my license plate to your point where it reads it automatically. Well, it reads them. That makes a police sense to me. Sticking it where the inspection sticker was is kind of silly. Yeah. Um, calling it a replacement.

SPEAKER_02 48:55

Uh I could find again, I find that I because I have a feeling it's gonna be linked to your registration, but you know, we are in Louisiana, so who knows?

SPEAKER_00 49:02

Conspiracy theory, it's gonna have all kinds of biographical information about us stalking us. Who are we?

SPEAKER_02 49:08

We could probably make people feel better if they say, listen, the first QR code readers are gonna be on the new Mississippi River Bridge.

SPEAKER_00 49:13

The new new. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 49:14

The new new. So I might be like, we got only 25 years before we have to deal with that crap.

SPEAKER_00 49:19

That's how we direct traffic in the future is through QR codes. That's great. All right, so that's it for our news. If you want to get a hold of the show, how do you reach us if you want to text us, Dave?

SPEAKER_02 49:28

Uh you could text us at 225-255-2480. Hell or uh you could email us at podcast at the savicate.com. Uh, you could uh send us praise, you can send us tips, you can send us news articles, um, you can send us reviews or questions, and we read your questions on the air like we're about to do now. We got a few questions.

SPEAKER_00 49:46

Nope. There you go. What do we got?

SPEAKER_02 49:48

Yeah. Uh our first it was a text. It says, Hey, why y'all always talking about Baker barbershops? Did I miss something in the shows? Which show did you miss? I wonder if this was sent from a barber in Baker. He might be concerned.

SPEAKER_00 50:02

And what we feel like might be some broad government overreach.

SPEAKER_02 50:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:07

The the Hamlet of Baker is banning uh new barbershops. And we feel like that is uh perhaps. I mean, I could go freedom of the press. I consider the barbershop to be like maybe press related.

SPEAKER_02 50:22

How many business deals have been made in barbershops?

SPEAKER_00 50:24

How much can you learn from being at the barbershop? Now, to be fair.

SPEAKER_02 50:29

Have you ever seen come into America?

SPEAKER_00 50:31

I Rocky Marciano, greatest fighter of all time.

SPEAKER_02 50:34

Crazy. But yeah, so so uh that stems from the city of Baker, like Drew said, putting a moratorium on new barbershops.

SPEAKER_00 50:41

I think the absurdity is we've heard about a lot of different moratoriums and a lot of different subject matters. I this is the first one I've ever heard. Right. About and I and I look for these.

SPEAKER_02 50:49

Yeah, strip clubs, uh, vape shops, you know.

SPEAKER_00 50:55

This is the first one I can tell you about that's a barbershop.

SPEAKER_02 50:58

Yeah, it's not like a public nuisance. And how many people have ever called 911 Baker and said, they're cutting hair at that barbershop again? I just can't take this anymore.

SPEAKER_00 51:06

He's getting a legal haircut at three in the morning. And unfortunately, we want Mayor Waits to come on the show so we can talk about it. And he has decided, well, he's not responding.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

I think we need to go there and apply for a barbershop license.

SPEAKER_00 51:19

We should do the show in front of Baker City Hall. Do they have one of those? We should go do the show from the Baker City Hall.

SPEAKER_02 51:24

Yeah. Or one of the barbershops.

SPEAKER_00 51:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:27

That'd be a fun show.

SPEAKER_00 51:27

Yeah, it would be a fun show. They'd wonder why you were in there.

SPEAKER_02 51:30

That'd be a fun show.

SPEAKER_00 51:31

Okay, what else we got?

SPEAKER_02 51:34

What's next for St. George now that y'all didn't get the school vote?

SPEAKER_00 51:38

Well, um, we continue doing good government and making our point that we could do it uh like we thought, more efficiently, better services. Uh, we're currently running uh a 16 to 17 million dollar surplus over expenses, and we're continuing to pave roads, restripe roadways, uh clean ditches out, and do all the things we told you we were gonna do. Yeah. So we keep doing that and be a good example. Then when we ask you for things or tell you what we're gonna do in the future, you'll believe us.

SPEAKER_02 52:09

Very good. I've noticed the Segan Lane jokes don't come anymore. Did something happen?

SPEAKER_00 52:13

Are we making Seegan less fun again? No doubt.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

Who's coming on the show, by the way? Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:24

Okay, so I'll tell you, my thought on Segan Lane is we're absolutely sucking the fun out of Seagan Lane on purpose. Uh the panhandling initiative that we teamed up with Keep Tigertown Beautiful, the Grove Recovery, and the Sheriff's Office has been, I'll say, wildly successful at preventing the aggressive panhandling, but it's also been successful in putting some of those guys in rehab and uh getting them off the streets and getting them into recovery. Some of those guys now work for St. George doing public works projects. Um and you're seeing a lot less of it. Jennifer was on the show with us last week. Jennifer Richardson, what'd she say? What used to be buckets of needles being picked up is now way fewer and far between. Uh, it's part of our effort to kind of make Segan Lane family friendly again so you can spend money and time there. And this is part of our process. We're restriping the roadways there. Uh, pretty soon there's gonna be a lot of exciting things in Segan Lane. So, yeah, it's not not a joke anymore. No people, I'm sure people still get beat up at red lights, but we're working on it.

SPEAKER_02 53:25

We still we left you guys some uh abandoned hotels and trashy hotels just so you know, get the whole Seagan Lane vibe, but those uh days might be numbered as well. Sorry. We'll leave the Waffle House though, for maybe an occasional fight.

SPEAKER_00 53:38

Gotta have at least an occasional fight night at the Waffle House.

SPEAKER_02 53:41

Um, how do we apply to be on the podcast? Do we take do we have an application process? We we could we could uh send you an application if you'd like to be on the podcast. We'd love to have you on the podcast, actually. Um you could if you email us at podcast at the savag.com and request to come sit in with us, we'd love to have you.

SPEAKER_00 53:56

Yeah, look, if you got something funny to say, yeah, we might be able to work with that. You might get your way on the show. Keep leaving us funny messages.

SPEAKER_02 54:03

We'd love to have you. We'd love to. Yeah. Uh did Jennifer clean up the office on that last show, LOL. That must, I bet that was I bet I know who that was.

SPEAKER_00 54:12

So she did say it was cleaner outside than the last time. There was a positive there. Uh, she did not clean up anything in the office, but the little studio area we sit in is I think I've done a good pretty clean.

SPEAKER_02 54:24

I think Erica Campbell sent that.

unknown 54:26

Shh.

SPEAKER_02 54:28

She wants the office cleaned up. She sent that in.

SPEAKER_00 54:30

Let me tell you.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

Maybe she sent it in and she says, I'm not coming back to work unless Jennifer did. She's waiting for the answer to this.

SPEAKER_00 54:35

Well, she thinks she's got a really cheap boss who doesn't want to spring for like office cleaning, and she would be correct. She's probably right.

SPEAKER_02 54:41

She's probably right. No, Jennifer did come in and tidy up a bit, but she did say it was in much better shape than the first time. She was not in any ditches when Drew and I arrived. So that means that uh she got that. That was a positive.

SPEAKER_00 54:52

Yeah, it was positive.

SPEAKER_02 54:52

There were some abandoned shopping carts down the road, but we're not sure if those are uh from this zone or some other zone.

SPEAKER_00 54:57

I'm not sure those are even abandoned. I think they're active shopping carts.

SPEAKER_02 55:00

Are they active?

SPEAKER_00 55:01

I think uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:01

Yeah, I didn't see I didn't see an inspector sticker on them.

SPEAKER_00 55:04

There's no can we get QR codes for the shopping carts because we identify the homeless person it goes to.

SPEAKER_02 55:11

Oh Lord. How much credit are the other candidates giving y'all for Cassidy losing? We do uh have done some pretty good Cassidy articles.

SPEAKER_00 55:20

You get credit for that?

SPEAKER_02 55:21

Um we do, yes. We got we got a lot of uh love emails for the but the Cassidy is like easy, low-hanging fruit, easy.

SPEAKER_00 55:28

I mean the thing with this advocate is, and I think this is correct, you go where funny is, right?

SPEAKER_02 55:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 55:32

And if it's funny, yeah, we're there. You're there, and then sometimes funny is you know, not necessarily somebody who thought it was that funny.

SPEAKER_02 55:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um we probably don't get any credit for Cassidy losing. I would give all that credit to Cassidy. Um, but we do give him credit for providing um plenty of content, unfortunately, that has come to an end.

SPEAKER_00 55:53

Oh there'll be another Cassidy card. Do you have a choice on which candidate would be funnier moving forward? Do you think do you think about that now? Like sometimes you're like, I really like this person, but if this person wins, that would be funnier.

SPEAKER_02 56:05

You know, the consensus around the Savagate is that as long as we have Jeff Landry in office, we're good. We could have like a slew of good candidates that provide no content. And as long as we have the king in office, we're good for a while. Spoke to his um chief of staff last night, very nice lady who said the entire staff loves the Jeff Landry banter on the page, so we're gonna keep it up, you know, including Jeff Landry.

SPEAKER_00 56:30

So you're you your district's not getting uh compromised at this time.

SPEAKER_02 56:34

But we're watching all the rest of the candidates very closely.

SPEAKER_00 56:36

Um Governor Landry would like to come on the show. I mean, yeah, there's so many things we could talk about.

SPEAKER_02 56:43

Yeah, we're we are actively trying to make that happen. Um uh so we'll see. Did the central mayor crash on purpose to expedite his next appearance on the show?

SPEAKER_00 56:54

No comment.

SPEAKER_02 56:55

Was that Wade? Is that is that the Wade text of the week?

SPEAKER_00 56:58

Wade.

SPEAKER_02 56:58

I think he did. Yes, yes, I don't know if I'd pull out in front of Ultima. No, I had a grand light. Just to get on the Savagate part.

SPEAKER_00 57:06

There is no possibility that he crashed a vehicle. Now, if you told me he put some special lights on City Hall for that purpose, or you know, he he played a shirt, a banjo shirtless, all these things would be desperate attempts to get back on the Savagate. I don't think the car wreck is now.

SPEAKER_02 57:23

If he would have crashed on purpose, I don't think he would have taken a uh Ultima to the driver's door at 60 miles an hour, he probably would have backed into another city vehicle.

SPEAKER_00 57:31

Better chance of Ultima guy crashing on purpose to get on the Savagate show.

SPEAKER_02 57:36

That's right. If anyone knows the stereotypical Ultima driver, Texas tags, mismatched uh colored body parts, at least one donut spare. Who would like to come on the show, please, please let them know. Tell them up, please, to uh put their weed out before they enter the office to eat.

SPEAKER_00 57:52

So angry at the Ultima owners.

SPEAKER_02 57:54

I'm not the ultima owners are angry at everybody else on the road. It's the product of the Ultima population. Um, so yeah, um, we do have one last text, but we covered it. Ask your boy what this I guess you're my boy. Ask your boy what this library stuff was about in the news. I think it must have just come in, but uh, we've covered the uh library tobacco stuff.

SPEAKER_00 58:14

Yep, love the library. Um love the possibilities. All right, well, that's that's good. So if you want to reach the show one more time, how do you text us?

SPEAKER_02 58:22

Uh you could text us at 225-255-2480 or email us at podcast at the sadvocate.com.

SPEAKER_00 58:30

Now, great things you can do to help us along the way is like, review, and subscribe to the Savvocate Podcast so more people can find us, more people can participate, which makes the show better and funnier and ultimately gets us better guests. And uh that's how we do it. And if you want to find our show, Apple, Spotify, Savigate.com is easy to get to, and you can do the Savicate Podcast group on Facebook as well. All places to find us, but like, review, and subscribe really, really helps us out.

SPEAKER_02 58:58

And share. Share the show.

SPEAKER_00 58:59

Oh, absolutely. And uh, if you want to find us online, where can you find us?

SPEAKER_02 59:03

Uh you could go to Savicate.com slash podcast or thesavicate.com and just click podcast, or like you mentioned, the Savicate Facebook group.

SPEAKER_00 59:11

So many places to find us. Hard to avoid us.

SPEAKER_02 59:13

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Please share. We're looking to get at least 10 listeners by the end of the summer when we're we're on track to have that. If we could get 10 listeners, we could probably get a sponsor.

SPEAKER_00 59:25

Maybe one of the 10.

SPEAKER_02 59:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 59:27

That'd be outstanding. A show could dream. Lofty goals. We're like a Joe Rogan waiting to happen. All right, thank you so much. That is Savagin episode uh number 28. We are Dave and Drew.