You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for August 25, 2026.

We kick things off pushing back on Louisiana pessimism, pointing to the wave of billion-dollar investment pouring into the state under Governor Jeff Landry, from a steel mill in Ascension Parish to data centers in northwest Louisiana, and now the headline announcement: SpaceX's $100 billion Starbase Louisiana, set to become the largest spaceport in the world near Pecan Island in Vermilion Parish.

In our Top 3, we cover the SpaceX Starbase Louisiana announcement in detail, a Iberville Parish jury awarding Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Jeff Hughes $300,000 in a defamation suit against The Advocate, and the Caddo Parish Commission's push for a $70 million sports complex headed to the November ballot.

In Digging Deep, we get into the messy Louisiana GOP endorsement fight in CD6 between Blake Miguez and Rick Edmonds, the tension between Governor Landry and Miguez, and how Landry's relationships with President Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, and Steve Scalise helped land the Starbase deal along with the new legislative incentives that made it possible.

We debate President Trump's floated idea of renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America" amid the trade standoff with Canada, and whether that's consistent with his renaming of the Gulf of America.

Our Say What segment honors Dolly Parton, who passed away this week at 80, with a look back at some of her most memorable quotes on resilience, identity, and staying true to yourself.

We also revisit the fight between New York City's government-run grocery stores and immigrant-owned bodegas, play a quick trivia round on which U.S. cities have the most (and fastest-growing) tech job markets, and close with concerns over reports of Canadian officials allegedly coordinating with congressional Democrats to undermine the administration's trade negotiations.