Sound Off Louisiana

Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns in an autonomous Waymo UBER ride approaching a round about in which a crash comes perilously close to transpiring.  Burns enjoyed the 15-minute ride, of which he filmed it all, on Saturday, January 10, 2026.

Today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature, we believe, is one which everyone will find enjoyable and entertaining but is also a feature whose goal is to convey a very serious message.

Shortly after delivering a “State of the University Address,” then-LSU Interim President Matt Lee appeared before the Baton Rouge Press Club (BRPC) on September 15, 2025.  In our minds, and we think those of anyone who either attended or watched Lee’s presentation, it was most certainly a cheerleading display that was a very thinly veiled attempt to be named the permanent President of LSU.

What Lee may or may not have known at the time (we suspect that he did not know) was that LSU Board of Supervisors Member Lee Mallet had other plans.  It was Mallet who put on the full court press for Gov. Jeff Landry to push the Board hard to ultimately name Wade Rousse as President (along with James Dalton as Chancellor after going a protracted time during which the two positions were consolidated into one).

On the linked BRPC feature of Lee above, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns broke from the typical cream puff questions being posed of Lee which enabled Lee to (in our opinion) advance his cause for becoming the permanent President of LSU.

Specifically, Burns asked Lee for his thoughts on the fact that many recent college graduates, including those from Ivy League schools, are referring to college as a “scam.”

We will cite numerous publications and TV features (especially CNBC’s morning broadcasts) which have stressed that the unemployment rate for recent college graduates exceeds that of the overall population; furthermore, to a significant extent, AI is being cited as a very meaningful contributing cause for that unemployment.

Many studies and surveys are indicating that employers are dramatically cutting back on their hirings of entry-level jobs for college graduates simply because AI can perform those tasks far more efficiently, in far less time, far more effectively, and at significantly less costs than students who’ve just graduated from college.

Before we cite some of those features, however, we want to demonstrate firsthand via video a fairly recent advancement in AI, which is to facilitate autonomous (driverless) rideshares being offered by Uber and Waymo, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet (formerly Google).

To do that, Burns made a trip to Austin, Texas which is one of two markets in which autonomous rides were introduced toward the latter part of 2025 (the other market being Atlanta, Georgia).  Here is a 15-minute ride taken by Burns on Saturday, January 10, 2026 in Austin, Texas during which a crash comes close to transpiring (and our viewers can assess for themselves who would have been at fault though we think the answer is pretty obvious):

1/10/26:  Burns takes a Waymo autonomous (driverless) 15-minute ride in Austin, Texas for which the fare was an astoundingly-low $13.12

As Burns mentions in the video above, UBER informs its customers that 27 percent of the fare Louisiana riders pay goes to cover a mandatory insurance policy.  From the preceding link (which encourages consumers to take action to bring down those costs):

At the root of the problem is personal-injury lawyers targeting the rideshare industry for unreasonably large payouts that benefit them, attracted by the arbitrarily high insurance requirements.

At Uber, safety is a top priority, and we feel strongly that every ride should be insured. 

Uber is leading advocacy efforts across the country to push for and pass commonsense legislative changes that keep all trips insured while bringing down costs, saving you more on rides.

The UBER page includes a quick signup mechanism to stay informed on efforts to bring down those insurance costs, and we obviously signed up, after which we were encouraged to “spread the word,” which we’re doing on this feature.  If anyone reading this feature would like to also sign up, just click on the previous link and do so.

As Burns makes clear in the commentary during the 15-minute ride, AI is going to advance forward at an astoundingly fast pace, and that advancement is both presently affecting the job market for college graduates, and it most certainly is going to do so at an ever accelerating pace going forward.

We have heard that President Trump plans to soon mandate to the U. S. Department of Education that AI be integrated into the learning experiences at universities in order to produce the most job-ready graduates possible.  We believe Trump is smart to do so.

As promised above, here are just a few recent publications which tout the present and expected future impacts of AI on current and future college graduates (as well as those on up through middle management):

5/30/25:  NY Times:  Job Market Apocalypse May Already Be Here for Recent College Graduates.  Quick Summation:  Companies are rapidly automating entry-level work with AI, viewing recent grads as “expensive and expendable.”  The article stresses that entry-level positions are being displaced by AI at higher rates, contributing to a crisis for new graduates entering industries phasing out junior roles in favor of AI tools.

6/8/25:  PSB News:  How AI may be robbing recent college grads of traditional entry-level jobs.

7/11/25:  CBS News:  AI is new obstacle facing recent college grads looking for jobs.  From the feature:

Experts say that because AI is currently best at the kind of rote, repetitive tasks that are a staple of entry-level work, the very nature of what such roles consist of is likely to change.

“The AI piece is becoming more integrated, which is requiring a redefinition of what an entry-level role looks like and the types of skills that might be be needed,” Christine Cruzvergara, chief education strategy officer at Handshake, told CBS MoneyWatch. “So it’s critical for new graduates to make sure they are exposing themselves to AI and learning how to use it.”

7/20/25:  Bloomberg – AI’s takeover of entry-level tasks is making college grads’ job hunt harder.  Quick Summation:  Job postings are plunging for young people, resulting in much higher unemployment among them, particularly in fields like tech and finance.

9/7/25:  CNBC:  AI is not just eliminating entry-level jobs.  It’s the end of a career ladder as we know it.  From that feature:

“The key will be in how new grads harness their capabilities to become experts so they are seen as desirable tech-savvy workers who are at the forefront of AI’s advances,” she said.

But she concedes that may not offer much comfort to the current crop of recent grads looking for jobs right now. “My heart goes out to the new grads of 2024, 2025, and 2026, as they are entering during a time of uncertainty,” Doshay said, describing it is a much more vulnerable group entering the workforce than ones further into the future.

Universities are turning their schools into AI training grounds, with several institutions striking major deals with companies like Anthropic and OpenAI.

12/19/25:  Rest of World:  “Everyone is so panicked”: Entry-level tech workers describe the AI-fueled jobpocalypse.

So, as frustrated as then-Interim LSP President Lee appeared to be at Burns’ question, there was a reason he posed the question, and that reason is authoritatively outlined above.  Being blunt, given Lee’s bury-your-head-in-the-sand answer, if we were to grade him on his performance, a curve would be necessitated for him to earn a grade of “D-.”

Let’s hope that Rousse and Dalton can earn a better grade during their LSU tenures entailing AI integration into the learning experience and that LSU can continue its reputation for turning out quality, job-ready graduates.  Otherwise, both Rousse and Dalton just may be faced with some really angry graduating seniors and their parents who may join in the current chorus that so many recent college graduates are exclaiming on Tik Tok videos that college is, “nothing short of a scam.”

At the January 5, 2026 Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) meeting, Chairman Jennifer Cobb Reed prepares to introduce a non-agenda item to begin requiring full-blown licensure for hair braiding in Louisiana with said license requiring 600 hours (it’s presently 500) to expand Federal funding for braiding instruction.

Today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature focuses on three (3) key topics from the last meeting of the LSBC of Monday, January 5, 2026:

#1:

Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns remains to this day fuming mad at the “demonstrably false” statements made during the 2025 Regular Legislative Session regarding the financial standing of the LSBC.

Accordingly, Burns has made it crystal clear that, going forward, the Members of the Board and anybody affiliated with the Board (Executive Director, attorney, etc.) better have their acts together and be knowledgeable about that subject matter.  Doing so should avoid a repeat of this May 14, 2025 Senate Commerce Committee debacle wherein LSBC folk could not even respond to the most basic questions about the Board’s financial condition.

Therefore, when Burns addressed the Board at that January 5, 2026 meeting, he wanted to ensure there is no excuse for having a repeat of that May 14, 2025 debacle nor the subsequent Legislative testimony in which “demonstrably false” testimony was given by multiple then-on-staff representatives of the LSBC.  Here’s video of him driving that point home:

1/5/26:  Burns drives home the point that any Board Member or anyone in any way associated with the LSBC will be held accountable for the kind of “demonstrably false” statements made about the LSBC’s financial position should a repeat of any such false statements be made at future Legislative testimony.

In the video above, Burns made it clear that, at the point of every meeting going forward, the financial statements of the Board will be made public via publication on this blog.  We are doing so via a table on which we will continue to make entries for each future meeting.  Here is that table, which will routinely be published going forward:

#2:

Burns next made clear the fact that, not surprisingly,  after Vietnamese manicurists got so frustrated with the Board that they filed a Writ of Mandamus against the individual Board Members, suddenly Attorney General Liz Murrill stated to the LSBC that she would not be issuing an opinion on the Board’s authority to issue a Declaratory Order of the nature the manicurists seek.

The fact that Murrill would not be issuing any such opinion was something that Burns made clear he’d stated numerous times both on this blog and stating so publicly to the Board during public comment at previous meetings.

Being blunt, we believe that Murrill and the Board were in collusion to simply drag the matter out by seeking the opinion in the first place!

Let us not forget that on January 6, 2025, Board Attorney Sheri Morris indicated the Opinion would be forthcoming by the next meeting.

In our opinion, the fact that statement was even uttered and is now proven to also obviously be “demonstrably false,” combined with the fact that common sense dictates that someone in the AG Office told Morris that, provides compelling evidence to us that the Board and the AG Office were in cahoots to simply drag this matter out as long as possible.

The proverbial “gig was up” once the Plaintiffs got so frustrated that they ended up needing to file a Writ of Mandamus to force the LSBC to adhere to its legal (and we believe moral) obligation to have done back in September of 2024 when the Declaratory Order was first sought by the manicurists.

Here’s video of Burns stressing those points along with subsequent discussion of the Declaratory Order matter:

1/5/26:   Burns expresses his sentiments about the LSBC dragging out for 16 months a Declaratory Order sought by Vietnamese manicurists along with subsequent discussion of the matter by the LSBC.

#3:

Last, but certainly not least, the LSBC Chairman Jennifer Cobb Reed introduced yet another non-agenda item (she’s making a habit of that practice just as she deployed the same inappropriate mechanism for the hiring of Erin Marceaux not long back) which would call for requiring 600 hours for what would be a future license for hair braiding rather than the existing 500 hours for an “alternative hair permit.”  The discussion makes it crystal clear that the purpose of the planned change is to facilitate Federal funding for hair braiding instruction:

1/5/26:  LSBC discusses expanding the number of hours to obtain the authority to perform hair braiding activities in Louisiana from 500 to 600 and to transition from an “alternative hair permit” to full-blown hair braiding licensure.

We are going to wrap this feature up by providing this link for the January 5, 2026 meeting of the LSBC in its entirety and emphasizing that relatively new Executive Director Erin Marceaux elaborates upon a number of changes with LSBC inspectors.

Since the time of that last meeting, we have been made aware of an entire plethora of alleged illegalities transpiring throughout the LSBC’s operations.

In fairness to Marceaux, however, and also especially since there is an ongoing Legislative Auditor Office Performance Audit which may well expose those alleged illegalities, we are intentionally refraining from making any reference to those allegations on this feature, nor will we make public comment on them at the upcoming February 2, 2026 meeting.

Nevertheless, we’ve been informed that Marceaux is keenly aware of those allegations, and we want to afford her the opportunity to initiate corrective action prior to us beginning our diligent investigative process which may ultimately result in us making such allegations of illegal acts very public.