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A unique study released last week by the LSU/Tulane Early Childhood Policy and Data Center uses maps to show where certain risk factors that could impede early childhood development are most prevalent across the state.

LSU Public Policy Research Lab Director Kirby Goidel and Epidemiologist Lina Brou said their study found that 55 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes have at least one high-risk factor that could impede childhood development such as high unemployment, high teen birth rate and high percentage of uninsured children. The nature of that risk was also found to differ from parish-to-parish.

Goidel said the initial step to addressing the needs of the children across Louisiana is to first understand the nature of the risk in each parish.

Georgia higher education officials have a goal: by 2020, they want 60 percent of young adults in the state to earn some kind of college credential.

They’ve got a long way to go. In 2011, just over 36 percent of 24 to 34-year-olds in that state had earned an Associates Degree or better, about another 6 percent have a certificate.

Jim talks with political analyst Roy Fletcher about various current issues as well as former President Richard Nixon on what would be his 100th birthday.

WAFB Channel 9's Johnny Ahysen about his side-line as a CATS bus driver.

Music historian Clinton Heylin stops by to discuss his book about Bruce Springsteen.

Jim talks with talk show host, publisher, writer, former Secretary of State and former Insurance Commissioner Jim Brown.

Senator David Vitter made his opinion of Senator Harry Reid clear this morning via twitter. "Sadly," Vitter wrote, "Harry Reid has again revealed himself to be an idiot, this time gravely insulting Gulf Coast residents."

The Deepwater Horizon rig exploded off Louisiana’s coast in 2010, unleashing an unmatched oil spill from BP’s Macondo well.

About eight months later, the Justice Department filed suit to recover damages.

BP entered into a $4.5 billion settlement of criminal claims in November.

The owner of the rig, Transocean, has just agreed to plead guilty and pay $1.4 billion in criminal and civil penalties for violating the Clean Water Act. A federal judge is likely to sign off on the agreement at a hearing set for Feb. 14.

Carrie Johnson, NPR’s Justice Correspondent, has been following this case from the beginning.

It's not soil or fertilizer that sustains plants, it's sunlight.

Gov. Bobby Jindal has called for a state officials to look at safety measures at Louisiana public and private schools, from pre-K through college.

The governor issued the executive order Friday in the wake of the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school last month.

On the day of that shooting, State Police Col. Mike Edmonson, said his department immediately started talking about making sure they would be able to respond if something similar happened here.

Jim talks with Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret about business developments in the state in 2012 and the outlook for 2013.

Author Fred Kaplan discusses his book, "The Insurgents," about how General Davis Petraeus and others sought to change the U.S. military.

WRKF News Director Amy Jeffries talks with NPR Justice Correspondent Carrie Johnson about the federal government's settlement with Transocean in the Deepwater Horizon case.

A report released Thursday by the LSU/Tulane Early Childhood Policy and Data Center reveals 35 percent of children under  five in Louisiana live in parishes with moderate-to-high risk of factors that could impede their development.