Show Rewind 04-09-2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Jesus he.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
America and for onation.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Is wrong.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher
Thompson on one O three point five FM and five
sixty AM w VOC.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Hey, good morning, tell you. This is Wednesday, the ninth
of April, and welcome to it. Welcome to a cooler
start of the day. You'll notice that first thing out
the door this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
It's a shocking feeling.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
It's not quite as chilly as we thought it might get,
but we still got a little room to go down
here before the sun rises and forty seven here now
at the at the radio range.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Some spot's a little bit cooler than that.

Speaker 4 (00:53):
But yeah, it's invigorating.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
It is invigorating. Good morning to you, mister Thompson. Morning,
it's him. I'm Gary David. It's good to have you
with us this morning. Let's see, it's like a nice forecast.
Matter of fact, hmm, there's a chance of some showers
on Friday.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yes. Aside from that, the master's forecast looks pretty nice.
Should be great. Not the wins that we've seen down
there the last couple of years, so I would think
scoring would be You may see it at a premium
at least today into tomorrow. No, well, it's the par
three today right Oh, sorry, yeah, I'm thinking tomorrow. Yeah,

(01:33):
all right, yeah, I think there'll be some low scores today.
You probably saw lots of twos and threes on the
board today. I'm already on Thursday. You know.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
I'm getting that way every week now, for whatever the reason.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Every how are these elus? By the way, you were
down there Monday? Beautiful? Nice. I didn't see much before
the rains came, but yeah, it's some. If you saw
the Women's Amateur last week, I mean it's it. That
course is just perfect right now? Beautiful all right, let's
get right to it. The rundown, the big stories, the
hot topics. So Thomas mentioned this. The fires are now

(02:06):
one contained, thankfully, the table Rock and Persimmon Ridge fires
up in the upstate. The table Rock State Park has reopened,
but the hiking routes yet not so much. But all told,
close to fourteen thousand acres and that table Rock fire
were burned, and the Persimmon Ridge fire just over two

(02:27):
thousand acres or so, but both now one. That doesn't
mean they're out.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
I didn't realize this until the recent La wildfires that
when they say contained just means that they've they've got
a line around. It's not going to spread any further. Okay,
so it's one hundred percent contained, but there are certainly
still hot spots that they are dealing with. Well, the
plot thickens. Eric Bowman, the Charleston entrepreneur who was labeled

(02:54):
in public on the floor of the House of Representatives
by Nancy Mace as being a sexual predator, found himself
at least briefly behind bars, turned himself into police on
Sullivan's Island yesterday, was booked early yesterday morning, accused of well,
among other things here, let's see, harassment and stalking. Is

(03:16):
in a case involving his estranged wife. She found an
air tag on her car. He's accused of placing a
tracking device on her cars on AirTag. That gets you, Well,
I guess there's more too than just this, Right, placing
an air tag on a strange spouse's car, I wouldn't
think we'd put you behind bars necessarily, but maybe it does.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
He's airing a lot of dirty laundry on social media too,
which I guess I don't blame him in a sense.
I mean he's being assailed on the floor of the house.
He's got an ex wife who's spouting off, and I
guess he feels like he needs to defend himself. And
I guess probably does, but I'm not sure. I'm not
sure smart to do it quite yet.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, of course Mace has taken a victory lap on
the news of this. She's all over social media talking
about it. Has nothing to do with her case, No,
absolutely nothing. I think is it in her mind it
gives her justification or it gives us justification. I thinks she's,
you know, telling the whole truth, not about true. I
don't know anyway. I hope we've been talking about the

(04:14):
bill over the state House that could open up the
doors to gambling expansion here in our state, to a
big casino over an Orangebury County.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
But it's not just that.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
You got lawmakers working on bills that would legalize other
sorts of gambling in South Carolina.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
As well, like would like horse racing, like horse racing. Okay, well,
they've been talking about that for years, that's true, that's
not a new topic. The Camden and Aching contingents would
desperately like that. They feel like that would help their industry,
right is it? Do they have enough support to get
it over the lot? I don't know. I mean I
was curious. You know, you mentioned the numbers that apparently

(04:50):
we would lean in the direction of voting yes.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
At least going to one pole. Yeah, yeah, conservatives, even
church going members. What according to that one pole we
cited yesterday? Sumter County schools pushing for a grading floor.
They're thinking about re establishing a grading floor. It was
last year that district voted to stop doing this. This

(05:16):
was a grading floor that would prevent a student from
getting a quarterly average grade below fifty percent.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
They get away with it.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Now a newly installed school board is pushing to bring
it back and make it policy. You're not helping these
kids at all by doing that.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
So if you make a zero, if you do absolutely
no work whatsoever, you still get a grade.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
I guess don't even show up. You'll still get a
fifty right, okay. Richmond County Sheriff's Deputy's releasing video from
another scary moment in Blythewood people running for their lives
a weekend shooting. This was near the waffle House on
Blythewood Road. Large group of teens had gathered. Well, shots

(05:57):
were fired, and cops are hoping that maybe you sing
this video can help somebody figure out what went on
and track some of these folks down.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Well, it was a wild and crazy day yesterday on
the markets, wasn't it. Now.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Stocks were soaring on news that so many countries wanted
to negotiate tariffs with US. I mean, at one point
that the Dow was up what almost fifteen hundred points,
and then Trump started talking about tariffs again and jacking
up a tariff on China to an effective one hundred

(06:31):
and four percent. Well, the Dow wound up losing three
hundred and twenty in just the last couple hours of
trading on that news. Yeah, it was a topsy turvy
kind of day. Now you've got some Republicans in Congress
that are starting to push back a bit. Chuck Grassly

(06:54):
co sponsoring bipartisan legislation to limit Trump's trade authority, said
yesterday he thinks that Congress has delegated too much authority
to the president when it comes to that. And there
are others members of the Grand Old Party who are
starting to question again, we're we're what a weekend, Okay,
let's see the Supreme Court signing with the White House

(07:17):
against orders to reinstate thousands of probationary federal workers. Oh
and waitfully we tell you about the amount of money
that the Fed spent on furniture for workplaces while most
everybody was working at home.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
It was they decided to redo their offices while everybody was.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
I guess, just to be ready at home in case
someday decided to bring them back.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
And uh, i'm'm wanna go ahead and top off a
tank here. The Keystone Old pipeline shut down after a
rupture at North Dakota. This puts a halt to millions
of gallons of crude flowing from Canada finders in the US,
and we could see GUS prices rising in the next

(08:06):
couple of days. Question is by how much? And a
new report suggesting lethal force being considered against cartels in Mexico.
That more coming up here on this the Wednesday morning
edition of Columbia's Morning News.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Thanks so much for joining us.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Anywhere anytime, take your info to go.

Speaker 4 (08:29):
I listened to you on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Hoowered by one on three point five FM and five
sixty AM W VOC. This is Columbia's Morning News with
Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one on three point
five FM and five sixty AM w VOC.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
And so great to have you with us. Good morning,
six forty two. It's Wednesday, April the ninth. We'd all
like to think that, you know, division, splits, acrimony only happens, well,
I say, we all that is, if you're a conservative
like me, only happens on the other side. It's only
the Democrat Party. We know that's not true. Of course.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
I know.

Speaker 3 (09:15):
There's a lot of talk about that right now, and
it has been with the squad and the.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
Very left leaning liberal wing of the party.

Speaker 3 (09:24):
But let's face it, there's been a lot of talk
on the other side too, with the Republicans at the
national level, at the state level, at the local level.
Case in point, this state newspaper headline two years ago,
lection and County GOP split. The controlling faction just split again.

(09:45):
It's so you know, this all started with the Mega
movement a couple of years back, and the more conservative
movement in the election and County GOP one out and
then they didn't agree over how the party was run.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
That you had the.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
County party chairwoman booted out and that was very acrimonious.
And now they've they've split again. Okay, you had the
challenge to the current party chairman by the guy who
was a third vice chairman of the party, and well
now there's a lot of a lot of words being

(10:26):
tossed around back and forth over all that. So yeah,
they did. We see it at all levels. Let's face it,
it's not just you know, power graph between one party and another.
It's so much between inner party as well, and that
often gets a lot uglier than it does when it's
you know, Republicans fighting Democrats for example.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
Yeah, I'm just looking at some of the Facebook posts
in the last twenty four hours and it's the ugliness continues.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
M M. And how about the news out of Texas
last night that Ken Paxton, who is the Attorney General,
is going to primary John Cornyn. That's a pretty big
deal right there, Paxton saying that it's crystal clear it's

(11:20):
time for a change, and his statement released sighted a poll,
not sure what it was that said that Paxton had
a twenty five point lead above Cornon. Now, who's taking
a poll on a race that hasn't even been announced yet.
I don't know quite how that works. But Paxton, citing

(11:45):
the DC establishment, I want to take a sledgehammer to it. Now.
Corny's been in the Senate for more than twenty years.
Paxton argues that his time and time again turned him
turned his back on Trump and Trump's America First agenda. Hmm, okay,

(12:12):
well this will be interesting. The fun continues. Huh, this
book speaking of infighting.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Uh, and and and.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
Again now that uh, I guess enough time has passed,
an up water's gone to the bridge, that Democrats are
finally coming out and talking a lot about Joe Biden
and how he was unfit to run the country, and
and and now we've got this book Fight Inside the

(12:54):
Wildest Battle for the White House. They write that Kamala
Harris now thinks that Joe Biden is to blame for
her loss. Okay, Joe was to blame if he hadn't run.

(13:18):
If he just decided initially not to run, it would
have cleared the way for Kamala Harris to mount a
winning campaign for president. Could anything be farther from the truth.
I suppose it would have been interesting to see had
Biden not decided to run number one. Would Harris have

(13:41):
even won a primary? Could she never won one in
her life? Not at that level. Could she have even
won a primary as the sitting vice president. And had
she would we have seen the same behavior that we
got from her, the same avoidance of anything and everything.

(14:04):
It would have just given the American public that much
more time to realize this is a shallow human being
who has no thoughts of her own and no plan
for America.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Well, the other thing all these reports are exposing is
the fact that, you know, the big split between Biden
and Obama and the fact that Obama didn't want this
handed to Harris, right, that's the really the big story
at of all. He was working behind the scenes to
see some sort of you know, primary challenge so that
everything wouldn't He wasn't sure that Harris could win number one,

(14:40):
and he didn't think it should happen the way it happened,
with Biden just saying, Okay, you're the candidate now right.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
You're the anointed one. It's not a way we do
things around here. This whole idea though, that if the
if she had been in the campaign earlier, she would
have won this thing. One of her friends, apparently quoted
is telling the authors, well, yeah, election day were October first,
she might have somehow pulled it off. But this case,
shorter was actually better, not longer again, because the longer

(15:07):
it went, the more she'd have been exposed, and she
was exposed enough in what was what one hundred and
seven day campaign something like that.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah. Now the question is is where does Kamala Harris
go from here? Will it be? She's already there, Governor,
she's already there, She's at home, she's there. You go
after a nice long vacation in Hawaii.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
You're listening to Columbia's morning news on one oh three
point five FM on five sixty AM WVOC. Once again,
here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson's.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
Fifteen after seven o'clock in the morning. It is Wednesday,
April the ninth. Appreciate you being here. And another warning
to the wives this morning. Don't even check your four
o one K. What's the point you don't do this
in time like these. I'm not saying burier your head
in the sand, but yeah, barrier head in the sand,

(16:05):
at least for the short term, at least because it's
not pretty.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
When we were on the air yesterday morning. At this
time we thought it was settling out.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
And it was, and the and the markets were soaring yesterday.
At one point the S and P five hundred, which
your four to one k is basically tied to if
you're the if you're most people, was up over four percent,
which would have been its its its best mark and
the best day at least in years. And then it

(16:37):
all turned just like that. That gain of four point
one percent earlier in the day then wound up as
a loss of three percent. That's a wild swing. Wound
up the day down one point six percent. The Dow
lost three hundred and twenty after it was up as
many as fourteen almost fifteen hundred points earlier the day,

(16:58):
and looking at the at the timeline yesterday, it was
up until like late afternoon, in the final hour or
so of trading that suddenly things went south. Well what happened? Okay, Well,
initially at least traders were feeling pretty good. You had

(17:20):
Scott Bessen, the Treasury Secretary of the South Carolinian, come
out and say, we get somewhere around seventy countries right
now that are we're going to come to the table
and negotiate these tariffs traders like that, and then okay,
put all that aside for a second, because what's really
driving things right now, and what really is the big

(17:44):
deal is the trade war between the US and China.
The announcement yesterday that it affects tariffs on Chinese products
one hundred and four percent. Now that'll go in to
effect today four percent. This just breaking this morning. China

(18:04):
now slapping retaliatory retaliatory tariffs of eighty four percent on
US goads.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
So this is going to quickly stuck all the auction
out of the room, in the air, out of the markets.

Speaker 3 (18:17):
Down futures this morning when we first came on the air,
we're down three hundred and some odd points. They've been
down as much as seven hundred plus now down six
ninety three. So uh I do I'm not I canna
say it's gonna be on the topsy turvy day, just
no topsy, just turvy based on that news right there.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
And it can't help that two of the president's principal
advisors were at the same time, Muscat and to Borrow
going head to head in the media. Yeah, I know
that it's been written off as boys will be boys.
But that can't help. But I mean, when you see,
you know, two people who are giving the president advice
about these hers, when you see two people, you know,

(19:04):
one calling the other a dumber than.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
What the stack of bricks or something like something like that.
Complete more on Musk's assessment of Peter Navarro. Well, this
all started with Navarro down playing Musk's role as a
as an automotive manufacturer or something or another built out
of you know, come on, guys, come on.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
And did I see the Navarro ripping the BMW plant
in the Upstate, which has been a huge boon to
this state, but saying essentially that they're just they're using
us for the land and the factory and then they
ship everything else in.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
Well, this is a this is a concern around here
because we have a lot of foreign manufacturing in this.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
Day, which spends a lot of money and employs a
lot of people.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
Yeah, BMW, Michelin, Volvo, Volvo, I mean, the list goes on.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
According to Navarro, that's a big problem. Well, it accounts
for a lot of jobs.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
There's uncertainty on the markets and uncertainly within the Republican Party.
You had Chuck Grassley, co sponsoring bipartisan legislation to limit
Trump's trade authority, said yesterday that he thinks Congress has
given too much authority to the president. You've got optimism

(20:32):
amongst Republicans upon Capitol Hill well fading because of what
we're seeing right now. But I again reiterate, we're one
week into this now a b We all knew it

(20:54):
was coming, including Chuck Grassley, other Republicans on the Hill.
Of course, the Democrats is going to go after this
because it's Trump, so they got to. But these people
are smarter than to think that this would not have
an effect on markets, in the economy and in the
short term. And the question is how long is the

(21:15):
short term. But the short term is not a week
if you're gonna level tariffs. And again this was when
Trump announced this weeks ago. He told us today would
be April the second reciprocal tariffs to level the playing
field against nations that are charging US tariffs. Well, I

(21:39):
guess maybe with the exception that one island where only
pinguas and seals live.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
The ping was not happy about this.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
By the way, Herd Island and McDonald Island, the most
remote places on the planet have had ten percent teriffs
living against them. Now, okay, before you go get this
is just nuts, and.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
It kind of is.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
But well, one of the reasons given by a White
House staffer.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Was that.

Speaker 3 (22:18):
What they're trying to is close a loophole where you
might have some countries ship things to these places and
then reship them to get around the tariffs. Although these
are two islands that are completely uninhabited, so I don't
know unless they're putting penguins to work and the seals anyhow.

(22:40):
But as far as the Democrat reaction to this, Caroline
Levitt yesterday she brought the receipts to the presser and well,
Democrats echoing the same concerns Trump is talking about now
when it comes to trade policy. Even quoted Nancy Pelosi
from June of nineteen ninety six, I know it was

(23:01):
a long time ago, even in Nancy Pelosi years, when
the former House Speaker told her colleagues that we must
fight against the status quo trade policies that contributed to
our trade deficit with China. Similar remarks from Chuck Schumer
and Sheard Brown from well more recent times two thousand

(23:24):
and seven, twenty twelve, when they both sounded the alarm
on our trade deficit costing American workers millions of jobs.
So these are the words of Democrats, as she pointed
out yesterday.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
That's been the problem is. I mean, they've all been
on the record for a long times saying these were
smart moves, but they just don't want to see Trump
doing it right. They wanted to see Kamala Harris do it.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
Right. Okay, So yeah, the wild day on Wall Street
expected today, and you know, there's there's certainly looking ahead.
And I know we had tariffs on it everybody right now,
most of those will get resolved and probably sooner rather
than later.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
You know, how good would it be?

Speaker 3 (24:07):
Two c Is Musk envisioned and dreamed of a trade
free zone between America and the European Union. That would
be fantastic. But this US China thing, this could go on.
So don't be onner stuff from team anytime soon. Actually,
don't know our stuff from Temo period regardless.

Speaker 4 (24:28):
Celebrities who know not a darn thing other than you know,
singing and dancing on stage.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton one on three point five
FM and five sixty AM w VOC you're listening to
Columbia's morning news on one oh three point five FM
and five sixty AM w VOC. Once again, here's Gary
David and Christopher Thompson.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
Seven forty three. Now, good morning and welcome into a Wednesday.
It's the ninth of April, and we appreciate you being
with us. I'll be perfectly clear before we start this
discussion here, the topic and the real life consequences of
domestic violence are our serious business.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Now.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
The story out of Charleston. Eric Bowman, low country entrepreneur
and friends with Nancy Mace's ex fiance, one of the
four men that Mace alleged in her house a floor
speech several months back. She accused him of taking parts

(25:41):
and in sexual assaults and voyeurism. He was arrested yesterday
morning on multiple charges, not dealing with the Nancy Mace
allegations at all. Bowman was arrested to charge with harassment
and star in a case involving his estranged wife, a

(26:02):
woman that he has claimed he hadn't even spoken with
since well November of twenty twenty three, so a year
and a half ago. But this stems from an incident
report last summer when his estranged wife said she found
a tracking device.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
On her car. Well, just the timeline itself is getting confusing.
You're going all the way back to last summer. Yeah,
and yet charges were just filed.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
That's that's the curious part about this, right you asked
the question, okay, number one, would if you know, an
air tag or whatever was placed on the vehicle, as
she alleges, and this was, I mean, gosh, you know,
I mean nearly a year ago, nine months.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
Ago, whatever, But what has happened since?

Speaker 3 (26:57):
What has happened since then? And if it weren't for
what has happen and since then? Would this be happening now?

Speaker 2 (27:03):
You know?

Speaker 3 (27:03):
It begs the question certainly now putting an air tag
on a car, you could say, gosh that should that
result in an arrest? Well, apparently there's there's there's more
to the story. Again coming from the past. There were
calls some time back about a domestic violence incident between

(27:29):
the two. There was no arrest made then At that time.
The estranged wife said that the bowman told her, it's
funny you call the police, don't you think it takes
six seconds for the police to respond to this address

(27:49):
from a nine one one call, I can do whatever
I want to you in six seconds.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
Those are her allegations. Now that.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
Again, this is this is not what the charge is about.
The charge is harassment and stalking by tracking her car allegedly.
But you're right, you're right that this is last July
and it's now April, and why so long and is

(28:19):
actually an arrest and being put behind bars at least
for a brief amount of time for putting an air
tag on somebody's vehicle.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
I don't know. Well, needless to say, you have to
assume he's done something since then. You have to. Although
apparently it made her feel even more threatened than the
air tag did. Well.

Speaker 3 (28:42):
She she was in that that that that hearing yesterday
and said that she and her family fear for their lives.
That he's a danger to them and to the community,
she says.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
And he knew it was coming because he he actually
posted on x before he turned himself in.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
The weaponization of of you know, the weaponization uh allegations
from him of a law. But needless to say, Mace
Mace took immediately to social media. I guess she feels
like this gives her some credibility in her allegations, and
many people will look at this as though it does

(29:17):
We don't know, we don't know. But you had to
be very careful, I think. Give you're Nancy Mace, because again,
you don't want to be seen as taking political advantage
of a potential domestic final of situation for pure political reasoning. Now,
to be fair, Mace has been very outspoken for a
long time about such things. But I think it's a

(29:43):
fine line between you know, again, supporting a woman a
situation like this, making these allegations and being seen as
trying to take political advantage by weighing in on the conversation.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
And let's not forget another one of those four men
is suing her. Yes, be interested to see how that
turns out.

Speaker 3 (30:04):
Remember she gave that speech on the house floor under
the you know you're protected from many slanderous allegations. You
can say whatever you want to on the house floor
and nobody can touch you. But it wasn't that. It
was well what she continued to say after she left
the house floor that has gotten her suit. And it
seemed to me like that the plaintiff is a pretty

(30:26):
good case. As it comes to that, we're gonna find
out at some point.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
Sorry.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher
Thompson on one O three point five FM and five
sixty AM w VOC.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
Sixteen past eight, Wednesday, April ninth, Morning till ya is
South Carolina on the cusp of becoming another Las Vegas
or Atlantic city bling a front and center at the
state House on a couple of fronts right now, all right,

(31:04):
we've talked about this idea Wallace Chiefs, who has already
bought the property. I had a former mall site in
Santee in Orangeburg County along ninety five.

Speaker 1 (31:20):
It's a it was a big outlet mall right there
on ninety five where there's not a whole lot else
going on. No, there's not.

Speaker 3 (31:30):
And this idea of a billion dollar project, a billion dollars.
A guy who's asking for no incentives from the state,
no tax breaks, no money.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
He thinks if you give him the chance, he can
make his own money.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
Yeah, a casino, a hotel, maybe a convention center. I mean,
the list goes on and on and on here. The
only problem here is is that it's not legal to
do that in our state unless you're on a Native
American Reservation.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
And there's a reason for that. We've you know, always
in the Bible belts. As conservative a state as we've been,
there was never support for gambling here in South Carolina. No.
I mean, look look at how long it took us
just for the blue laws to change. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:19):
Right, Well, the times seemly have changed now. We referenced
a new survey yesterday that has just come out that
that indicated that a majority of people, and even when
we talk about Republicans in this state, support this idea,

(32:45):
and that even a majority of individuals who identified as
being church going supported this idea. I think it was
like fifty three fifty four percent. So the times changed
that much, well, certainly. And you know, again it's this

(33:06):
is not like it's in somebody's backyard. You know, nobody
wants their uh, their backyard to bult up against the casino,
right nobody. But it's in an area, like Tove mentioned,
he has a long ninety five. It used to be
a big outlet male and there's really nothing going on
there right now.

Speaker 1 (33:23):
So you know, there's a bit, but it's a popular area.
I mean, it's a popular get the lake and fishing
and golf and everything else.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yeah, yeah, but this would be could you know, certainly
would be the potential to be an economic boon for
that area. I'm sure what lots of jobs, lots of
money coming in, but are we drawing the right people?
That's always been the question, right. So now again, the
difference this time around is Wallace Cheeves is a guy

(33:49):
with a lot of money, and uh does he have
a lot of sway at the State House and on
he's a he's a big Republican donor. Is this is
this one that's gonna change the course of South Carolina?
Now again, the law that has been put forth is
pretty specific, and this would allow not just this but

(34:13):
other casinos to operate here, but they'd have to be
along interstates and in areas that have lower per capita
incomes and higher unemployment rates. So that pretty much limits
it to the ninety five corner pretty much. So they
wouldn't be popping up in downtown Columbia, downtown Charleston, or
Myrtle Beach places like that. But this is also now

(34:38):
this discussion is brought back another idea that pops up
pretty much on an annual basis over the State House
and that is a paramutual betting.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
That's the one I thought if any would have gotten
a foothold in the state by now, it would have
been that one, because, yeah, I mean this, that's a
big industry in this state, and you talk about a
powerful lobby with some big, big money pockets. I'm that
that would be the one I would have bet on.
Mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
And and and you think about, Okay, we're talking about
betting on horse racing. The tracks are already established, they're there,
the horse racing is going on, right, okays building and.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
The betting is going on, and the betting is going on. Yeah,
just the state's not getting any money.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
Which is also curious as to why they haven't allowed
that to this point. But you're not talking about building
a casino in somebody's neighborhood here and bringing in maybe
people you don't want around. It's already happening, so it
is it is curious. Well, so that's that's back up

(35:48):
in front of the state House too. That's on the
Senate side the things, and well, the it's in a committee,
a subcommittee finding a subcommittee. Now the casino bill has
not gotten his first hearing yet. That's on the House side.

(36:09):
But then there's a there's a roadblock here, and that
is the governor who has been staunchly against gambling in
our state.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
Oh, he won't be the only one, no o. No.
My guess is the Freedom Caucus will stand firm against
this more than likely. And we haven't heard from Republican leadership.
I don't know where they stand. I mean, do we
know what Merle Smith thinks the Speaker of the House.
We haven't heard from Merle Smith to my knowledge.

Speaker 3 (36:39):
But this, if this thing were to get out of
the State House and get to the Governor's desk, it'd
more than likely be vetoed. And then you've got to
get two thirds, of course, as you know, of both
the Sin and the House to override that veto. That's
where I think it's got a chance to get out
of a state House. But a gubernatorial veto of this,

(37:03):
I don't I don't see any way, shape or form
you can get two thirds of both chambers to override
that veto. Interesting to watch though, And again we've got
about a month left in the session, so I think
the point is probably moved for twenty twenty four and
twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Five, I'm gonna have the last year.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
Again that that do a lot of work to have
and a lot of arm twisting and everything else to
have to happen in just you know, four weeks or
so to try to get it done in this particular session.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
This is this this the first year of the session
or the second. This is the first in I think so. Yeah,
But if you're a developer, how long can you just
sit around around and wait?

Speaker 3 (37:45):
Well, I guess when you got the kind of money
like he's got. You know, he's already bought the place,
he's got the property, so he could probably sit on
it for a little while at least. But yeah, it's
at some point in time if this thing languishes, he'll
just say the heck with it and then be done
with it.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
It's the stuff that Trump beachuck people are talking about and.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Called them out like a bad evan like you doing right.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Now one on three point five FM and five sixty
am w VOC. You're listening to Columbia's morning news on
one oh three point five FM on five sixty am
w VOC. Once again, here's Gary David and Christopher Thomson.

Speaker 1 (38:23):
The final thoughts here on a Wednesday, it's eight forty one.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
Thomas been keeping us up to date this morning, and
the good news open the upstate is that the table
Rock and the Persimmon Ridge fires have been declared one
hundred percent contained.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
After they got quite a bit of rainfall on Monday
up there. They needed that they did.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
Indeed, the table Rock fire and the park's reopened now,
by the way, but the hiking trails not close to
fourteen thousand acres burned in that the Persimmon Ridge fire
a little over two thousand. Folks that live in the

(39:04):
area still encouraged to stay alert, and you bet they
will be for sure. Sumterra County Schools, Well, last year
the district voted to ditch a practice that had been
in place that prevented a student from getting a quarterly
average grade lower than fifty percent. Well, now they got

(39:28):
a new school.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
Board that felt like COVID all over again. Was that
a COVID policy or had they been doing that even
before COVID. Oh that's a good question.

Speaker 3 (39:35):
I'm not sure when they first started with that, But
the school board last year thought, well, that's nonsense, let's
ditch this thing. Well this year they've got some new
blood on the school board and they want to bring
it back at a first reading last month, had passed
a second reading two nights ago did not pass. So

(39:58):
maybe they won't bring it back, but at least they
wanted to. So yeah, I mean, you just I don't
know if you even have to show up to get
a fifty or not. I mean, you could get zeros
on every test, every homework assignment, every everything for the
entire quarter and still have a final grade of fifty
in a class for the quarter.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
What's the point? Especially if if you're already getting that,
it wouldn't be that much more work to bring it
up ten points to a sixty six and then you pass.
Is that passing now? It is? Wasn't when I was
a kid, Wow, sixty is passing? Okay?

Speaker 3 (40:39):
I mean, if you've got a kid who just doesn't care,
and that starts at home, by the way, they just
don't flat don't care, why do you want to root
And what kind of a reward is it to say, oh,
you got a fifty, you still failed. I guess unless
now fifty is a passing grade in Sumper County, I
don't think. I wouldn't think. Uh, I'm just done that

(41:02):
sixties are passing grade these days?

Speaker 1 (41:04):
And why fifty? And what does it? What point does it?
What does it do? What does it do for anybody?
What does it do for the kid?

Speaker 3 (41:13):
Most of all, you're not incentivizing these kids to try
to do well.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
You're just saying, is it fifty that much better than
a zero? Well, that's my question.

Speaker 3 (41:21):
I don't see where it is or does it make
the overall scores in the district look a little better?

Speaker 1 (41:28):
Is that what this is all about? There? Is that too? Okay?

Speaker 3 (41:31):
So all right, you got some kids that well, let's
you know, you take a bunch of kids, you start
averaging grades, and if you got a bunch of zeros, whoa.
But if it's fifty, it doesn't bring it down as much.
That's the only rational explanation I would have for this,
because it sure ain't help with the kid.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
By the way, while we're on the topic of education, yes,
Wesley weighing in on Facebook and hurt you guys talking
about gambling earlier and staying saying that the state doesn't
have any gambling. We do. Indeed, we have the South
Carolina Education Lottery right right? Yeah? Did we not? And
we didn't bring that up, did we? And then Wesley.
I'm not sure if this is correct or not, but
Wesley says you have a better chance in casino than

(42:12):
you do in winning the lottery. I guess that would
be true. I would think that would true. Yeah, oh yeah,
absolutely yeah.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
And that took a while here to get the lottery
in the state true, and it was sold as the
education don't say lottery. I still think this is a
this is a bridge too far for most South Carold.
I know what you told us yesterday about the poll
notes that was one poll, But you know, a government
run lottery that's devoted to education versus you know, a

(42:44):
private owned casino, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
Well, to further complicate the issue, you know, we know
that lottery revenues are going down, as is historically the
case when states institute lotteries. Then there may be somewhere
in the state House who's actually the ones who want
to remember the Senate, who wants to use lottery proceeds
to fund private school vouchers. Where is that all set

(43:09):
right now? Four weeks left in the session. Where does
that Where does that number one priority at the back
in January?

Speaker 1 (43:17):
Set?

Speaker 3 (43:17):
Uh? But anyway, if you're gonna take money away from
the lottery to go to the Santee and gamble the casino,
but so much money to go around, right anyway, you
may have less not for the tariffs this time around,

(43:37):
but well, gas prices could be shooting up here. The
Keystone Old pipeline was shut down yesterday morning after a
rupture in North Dakota.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
That butt a got heard a clanking sound and realized, oh,
something's going wrong. That ain't good.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
Nope, so they shut that thing down. That was millions
of gallons of crewed from Canada. Yes, we're still there
are tariffs on that anyway, So we could see not immediately,
but over the course of the next few days, we
could see prices of the pump jump. At least we'd
have a reason for it this time.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
Is it just me?

Speaker 3 (44:17):
Does it seem like over the last couple of months,
I mean, we get twenty cent.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Swings in a day for no apparently good reason.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
The State Department terminating performance evaluations based on DEI and
accessibility that according to Doze yesterday, those reporting that they
discovered about twenty percent one out of every five Foreign
service officers. Evaluations were based on DEI under the Biden

(44:49):
White House, one out of five based on DEI, their
their evaluations.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
Not merit, not merit DEI.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
And somehow that's supposed to We're talking about foreign service
officers here, Okay, all right, And yesterday a House Oversight
Subcommittees hearing was taking a look at how to reduce
the amount of taxpayer funds going towards the federal real

(45:22):
estate portfolio. One of the things that well, they found
the GEO, the Government Accountability Office, found that well, spending
it gone on again federal real estate from one hundred
and seventy billion to three hundred and seventy billion between
twenty seventeen and twenty twenty four. Department of State spent

(45:45):
almost one and a half million dollars for artwork at embassies.
And they also found that well, they are eye popping
sums of money spent on furniture for federal office buildings.

Speaker 1 (46:00):
With nobody to use it during a time when we
were remote working.

Speaker 3 (46:04):
Yeah, repairs that could have been done were not, but
brand new French was put in into office spaces where
there was really nobody there.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
Yeah, that's I mean, if you want to talk government efficiency,
we should not be growing real estate spending. We should
be decreasing it. Uh huh. And yeah, y'all see the
French we got around this place. Yeah yeah, Elon Musk
come over here, take a lesson from us, and then
take it back to the state.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
This is the way they should be doing it. Yeah,
like we do it here at the Radio Ranch. And
then finally, this Disney's remake of Snow White. Of course,
all sorts of problems for all sorts of reasons. But
it turns out now too that it produced more carbon
emissions than even the most recent Fast and Furious film.
If you're not familiar with Fast and Furious, there's a
bunch of cars going fast, right and furious and admitting

(46:56):
a bunch of carbon emissions, but Snow White beat them out.