To Absolutely No One's Suprise, The Louisiana Clean Hydogen Task Force Wants More Taxpayer Dollars

You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for November 25, 2025. Louisiana lawmakers have quietly signed off on one of the biggest financial decisions in state history — a one-year extension of six massive Medicaid managed-care contracts totaling an eye-popping $17 billion. And yes, this happened while the legislature wasn’t even in session. We break down how these unprecedented deals were approved, why they matter, and what they reveal about the deeper problems in America’s health-care system.Plus, we cover the Top 3 Things You Need to Know.State Surgeon General, Ralph Abraham has been named Principal Deputy Director for the Center for Disease Control in Washington D.C.Several Public Defenders offices across the state of Louisiana have been deficit spending.Shreveport's bond rating was downgraded this week by Moodys, one of the three biggest bond rating companies.Get Prodovite Plus from Victory Nutrition International for 20% off. Go to vni.life/agr and use the promo code AGR20.We're getting straight to one of the most uncomfortable truths in American public policy: the War on Poverty — 60 years and $25 trillion later — has failed. We dive into why the poverty rate today is almost exactly what it was in 1965, why “poverty” in America no longer resembles global poverty, and how federal programs have unintentionally created generational dependency rather than upward mobility. But this conversation goes deeper than dollars. We dig into the social side of poverty — the collapse of the family structure — and the hard data showing that single-parent households are the strongest predictor of long-term poverty, poor educational outcomes, criminal justice involvement, and cycles that repeat across generations. With Louisiana now spending $17 billion a year on Medicaid alone, we examine how well-intended Great Society programs ended up incentivizing brokenness, trapping families in dependency, and discouraging the very upward mobility they were supposed to promote. And we ask the big question almost no one in politics will touch: If the system itself is producing generational poverty, do we need to rebuild it from the ground up? Latino voters are often treated as a political monolith, but new polling reveals a far more complicated landscape—one shaped by family ties, immigration enforcement, and shifting expectations about what border policy should look like. We break down fresh Pew Research data showing a sharp rise in Latino disapproval of President Trump’s record, including his handling of immigration and the economy. But the headline numbers don’t tell the whole story. We examine why different polls paint conflicting pictures—some showing disapproval, others showing strong backing for strict border enforcement—and how media framing amplifies certain narratives while obscuring others.Louisiana has a hydrogen task force—yes, apparently that’s a thing—and after a year of “study,” it has returned with a shocker: the hydrogen task force believes the hydrogen task force should become permanent, be given staff, authority, and taxpayer dollars, and be placed inside yet another state bureaucracy. Funny how that works. We unpack how a Republican-created “clean hydrogen” panel ended up recommending more government, more spending, and more power for itself—while wrapping it all in the language of innovation and emerging markets. We dig into the industry jargon of “clean,” “blue,” “green,” and “pink” hydrogen (spoiler: hydrogen has no color), and expose how these labels serve as marketing terms to justify massive carbon-capture subsidies. We break down what hydrogen is actually used for, why real markets don’t need taxpayer “leverage,” and how carbon capture—yet again—sits at the center of this push. Is this about energy innovation, or just another government-led boondoggle dressed up as economic development?Get TrimROX from Victory Nutrition International for 20% off. Go to vni.life/agr and use the promo code AGR20.When the New Orleans Saints released kicker Blake Grupe this week, the story could’ve ended like so many others in professional sports—with bitterness, finger-pointing, or a cryptic social-media post. Instead, Grupe walked out with something far rarer: gratitude.We look at the short but telling message he left for the city of New Orleans—thanking the organization for taking a chance on him, owning his performance without excuses, and closing with scripture: “Give thanks in all circumstances.” It was humble, grounded, and disarming in a league where ego often shouts louder than effort.It’s Thanksgiving week and putting America’s holiday habits to the test. A new YouGov poll reveals the most common dishes on Thanksgiving tables, and we try to guess the top ten… with plenty of good-natured trash-talk in between. Turkey? Obviously. Mashed potatoes? Of course. But what about rolls, cranberry sauce, green beans, or the highly controversial pecan pie? And is macaroni and cheese really cracking the national top ten while ham gets pushed to number twelve? We break down the list, debate the essentials, and detour into Italian Thanksgiving lasagna, pie betrayals, and the universal truth that you “can’t eat love” — even if it would pair well with stuffing.We dig into a headline out of Dillard University, where the new president says she wants to “re-imagine” the New Orleans HBCU. And look—she may be wonderful, but when leaders start talking about “re-imagining,” that’s usually a tell they don’t actually have a plan. We break down why real leadership sounds like build, improve, expand, not floating-classroom fantasyland powered by clean hydrogen. Less imagination. More execution.