On the Ballot
10:01 am
Fri October 19, 2012

Parish Traffic Updates Could Improve Regional Traffic Flow

Ascension Parish residents will vote this election on a new sales tax to fund road improvements throughout the parish.

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The Jim Engster Show
3:16 pm
Thu October 18, 2012

Political Blogger Tom Aswell; Biographer Herbie Pilato

Tom Aswell, a top blogger of Louisiana politics, talks with Jim about Gov. Bobby Jindal and transparency in government.

Herbie Pilato drops by the studio to promote and discuss his new biography "Twitch Upon a Star" about famed Bewitched actress Elizabeth Montgomery.

Lauren Stuart, Executive Director & Program Coordinator of the Greater Baton Rouge Clean Cities Coalition, discusses the Louisiana Odyssey Day Event.


Ina Jaffe is a National desk correspondent based at NPR West, NPR's production center in Culver City, Calif.

Covering California and the West, Jaffe has reported on nearly all of the major news events, elections, and natural disasters in the region. Currently, she covers issues related to aging. She also reports on regional and national politics, contributing election coverage in 2008, 2010, and 2012.

In addition to captivating and informing listeners, Jaffe's reports have garnered critical acclaim. In 2012, her series on rising violence in California State Psychiatric Hospitals was honored with a Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media as well as awards from Investigative Reporters and Editors and the American Bar Association. Her three-part series on California's Three Strikes sentencing law won the ABA's Silver Gavel Award in 2010, as well as the Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists. For her coverage of California politics, Jaffe received two California Journalism Awards for reporting on minority political power in Los Angeles and the historic recall election that made Arnold Schwarzenegger governor.

Before moving to Los Angeles, Jaffe was the first editor of Weekend Edition Saturday with Scott Simon which made its debut in 1985. As Weekend Edition Saturday editor, Jaffe shared a 1988 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for the report "A State of Emergency" which covered racial conflict in Philadelphia.

Born in Chicago, Jaffe attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and DePaul University receiving Bachelor's and Master's degrees in philosophy, respectively.

Public Transit
10:16 am
Wed October 17, 2012

CATS Could Fall Short on Service Promises

Baton Rouge's bus system is expecting revenues to fall millions short of projections. That means it may not be able to fulfill all the promises for more express routes and shorter wait times made during the successful campaign for a transit tax last spring.

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The Jim Engster Show
3:43 pm
Tue October 16, 2012

Judge Bob Downing and Former Sen. Gary Hart Discuss Second Pres. Debate

Judge Bob Downing, one of the most colorful and outspoken judges to ever be on the Louisiana bench, and former U.S. Senator Gary Hart chat with Jim on matters of the court as well as the second of three presidential debates between President Obama and Gov. Romney.


Dustin Dwyer is a reporter for a new project at Michigan Radio that will look at improving economic opportunities for low-income children. Previously, he worked as an online journalist for Changing Gears, as a freelance reporter and as Michigan Radio's West Michigan Reporter. Before he joined Michigan Radio, Dustin interned at NPR's Talk of the Nation, wrote freelance stories for The Jackson Citizen-Patriot and completed a Reporting & Writing Fellowship at the Poynter Institute.

Dustin earned his bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida. He's also lived in Colorado, California, Oregon and Washington D.C. He's always happy to explain - with detached journalistic objectivity - why Michigan is a better place to live than any of the others. 

Education Overhaul
10:24 am
Tue October 16, 2012

BESE Adopts Accreditation as Proof of School Quality

The state's top school board Tuesday adopted revisions to its process for approving private and parochial schools. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will now accept accreditation from independent agencies as proof a school meets state standards.

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The Jim Engster Show
4:23 pm
Mon October 15, 2012

SU Law Prof. Angela Bell on Exonerated Inmates; LSU Band Leader Stops By

Southern University law professor Angela Bell joins Jim to discuss the issue of exonerated death row inmates and the thirty-five Louisiana cases so far where DNA testing has proved their innocence.

LSU Band Leader Roy King stops in to discuss updates with the LSU Tiger Band.

Former LSU basketball star Nikita Wilson and Nancy Jo Craig discuss how they teamed up to help advance the Capitol Area Corporate Recycling Council throughout Baton Rouge.


Credit Chris Hartlove
for NPR

Linda Holmes writes and edits NPR's entertainment and pop-culture blog, Monkey See. She has several elaborate theories involving pop culture and monkeys, all of which are available on request.

Holmes began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living-room space to DVD sets of The Wire and never looked back.

Holmes was a writer and editor at Television Without Pity, where she recapped several hundred hours of programming — including both High School Musical movies, for which she did not receive hazard pay. Since 2003, she has been a contributor to MSNBC.com, where she has written about books, movies, television and pop-culture miscellany.

Holmes' work has also appeared on Vulture (New York magazine's entertainment blog), in TV Guide and in many, many legal documents.

Tom Goldman is NPR's sports correspondent. His reports can be heard throughout NPR's news programming, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and NPR.org.

With a beat covering the entire world of professional sports, both in and outside of the United States, Goldman reporting covers the broad spectrum of athletics from the people to the business of athletics.

During his more than 20 years with NPR, Goldman has covered every major athletic competition including the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals, golf and tennis championships, and the Olympic Games.

His pieces are diverse and include both perspective and context. Goldman often explores people's motivations for doing what they do, whether it's solo sailing around the world or pursuing a gold medal. In his reporting, Goldman searches for the stories about the inspirational and relatable amateur and professional athletes.

Goldman contributed to NPR's 2009 Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and to a 2010 Murrow award for contribution to a series on high school football, "Friday Night Lives." Earlier in his career, Goldman's piece about Native American basketball players earned a 2004 Dick Schaap Excellence in Sports Journalism Award from the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University and a 2004 Unity Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association.

In January 1990, Goldman came to NPR to work as an associate producer for sports with Morning Edition. For the next seven years he reported, edited and produced stories and programs. In June 1997, he became NPR's first full time sports correspondent.

For five years before NPR, Goldman worked as a news reporter and then news director in local public radio. In 1984, he spent a year living on an Israeli kibbutz. Two years prior he took his first professional job in radio in Anchorage, Alaska, at the Alaska Public Radio Network.

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