Show Rewind 06-04-2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'licious fly Hell yeah, SAT America and Jery Fallin for
REU for Nation.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
This is wrong.

Speaker 3 (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 4 (00:33):
Good morning, I'm hitting the button over here. Nothing's happening. Good,
I'm here, I have good morning. Uh it's sixteen after
six o'clock. Good morning for Wednesday, June the fourth, had
the heck are you? I'm Gary Christopher Thompson, Good morning
to you, sir.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Holding down the ford on this side.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
All right, good, your button's working, they are. I've been
betting some WD forty over here. Maybe that's yeah, probably
not a good idea. Anyway, it's Wednesday, It's June the fourth.
Welcome to it. Get ready for some rain. Look, we
may get some pretty heavy rain at least parts of
the state, maybe more so the coastal area. Again, we

(01:14):
mentioned this yesterday morning, I think, didn't we that the
there's a potential tropical development off the coast of Florida
and it could move this here away again just a
small chance. Apparently we got something working in our favor here,
which is a cloud of Saharan dust. M Yeah, dust

(01:35):
from the Saharan desert is helping to keep things quiet
in the Atlantic this season.

Speaker 5 (01:43):
Huh, who knew? We're not.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
I don't think we're at any risk of having seeing the
dust here, but there are some parts of the of
the southeast that that could be impacted by these by
a bit of a Saharan dust storm.

Speaker 5 (01:57):
Why not?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
That doesn't sound good. It doesn't sound good, does it.
It's not anything we're used to around here.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
No, not really, but we are seeing increased range chances
now could see about an inch maybe up towards the
three inches over the course of the next number of days.
So there's that run down big stories, hot topics. What
are we looking at today, Well, you'll recall the bus
wreck up on I seventy seven that took the life

(02:24):
of a thirteen year old student the election and two
school bus Apparently now records have been analyzed and showed
that while it passed inspection inspections plural, that same bus
had three tire issues prior to that accident, contributing factor.

(02:47):
It looks like so questions are being asked about that.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
That means they're going to be tied up in litigation
for quite a while.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
Yeah, you bet your bottom dollar, right, and rightfully so.
Richland County adopting a hate crime ordinance. They did that
last night. It was a unanimous vote.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
That's something leon Lot's been after for a while.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
Yes, they also unanimously passed spending forty million dollars for
jail expansion and took a big step towards redeveloping Columbia
Place Mall into a county centralized service hub. We just
thought it been talked about for quite some time, certainly,

(03:30):
although this is at a point in time now where
you know, residents that area are voicing their concerns over
you know, violence and criminal activity at the Columbia Place Mall.
Just a recently head what the last week or so?
A dad and this what three week old? Victims of armed.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Robbers shooting not too terribly long, not long ago, about
a month or so back. Yeah, literally right down the
street from the Sheriff's department.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
Yeah, right, A couple of special elections wrapping up yesterday.
Mike Ward the newest council member over in the town
of Irmo. Now that election was held, and you recall
the story, he takes the seat of the former mayor
pro tim Eric Sickinger, who resigned from council back in March.
You remember he was arrested by sled for having sex

(04:18):
with a fifteen year old.

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:22):
Meantime, a House District fifty special election Keishawn Scott, Democrat
beating Republican William Odin. Not a big surprise there, taken
over the seat that was held by a representative, Will Wheelerd.
This makes Scott, a twenty four year old minister, the
youngest member over at the State House. So there's no

(04:43):
worthy right there. Alan Wilson announcing a nearly eight billion
dollar settlement against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family for
their role in our nation's opioid crisis. He's going to
be with us later on this morning. We'll ask him
about that. And also, well, I talked about, well, a
couple of things, a border visit and this big bust
down in lads And that we talked about yesterday. His

(05:04):
office was involved in that as well. The cartel after
party is one DHS official put in, if you live
out in the Blathwood area, you're gonna have to travel
a little bit further to go to the DMV next time.
They've announced plans to close that branch at least to customers,
and apparently it's because of reduced parking. Yeah, several buildings

(05:29):
near the branch have been sold recently and that's going
to limit the space for customers to park. So that's
kind of weird. You won't be able to visit that
one in person at least stay. Supreme Court hearing arguments
yesterday in a case that well could to change the
future of telehealth services here in our state. This goes
to a dispute a challenge to our twenty sixteen eye

(05:51):
care consumer protection law. It's the law that says you
can't use any sort of online or automated digital eye
exam to get prescriptions for eyeglasses or contact lenses.

Speaker 5 (06:03):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (06:04):
A Chicago company visibly is fighting to overturn that. Interestingly enough,
they say they're shutting down. We mentioned this story a
couple of weeks ago. Istv. Was one of the story
about Mountain Tow Marine Sunset Boulevard over in Lexington, complaining
that a road construction roadwork on three seventy eight had

(06:26):
done a lot of damage to a lot of their
boats that were parked out right near the road, but
on their property. Now they say they're fighting on closing
their doors due to the revenue loss.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Wow, what a hit. Yeah right, I mean they haven't
been opening that location all that long, no, huh huh.
And that roadwork continues, by the way.

Speaker 4 (06:44):
And by the way, yes, I guess it was his fault.
Jamie Harrison talking in an interview with The Washington Post,
saying while he was the DNC chair, he says he
was pretty much just being a rubber stand for the party.
My voice was not always heard. I was taken for grantity.
Says that has to change, interestingly enough, and we'll talk
about this too this morning. Joe Walsh, no, no, no, no, no,

(07:08):
not the singer guitar player, but Joe Walsh, former Republican,
former Tea partier and the early supporter of Donald Trump,
now becoming a Democrat. He left the Republican Party a
while back. He's been an independent, but now he's joining
the Democrat Party. You don't hear that kind of story
every day?

Speaker 5 (07:27):
Right?

Speaker 4 (07:27):
Why I even bring this up here because apparently he's
moving to South Carolina and does he have political ambitions
here as a Democrat? Okay, Well, the attention ratcheting up
up on Capitol Hill. Now is Eli Eli Elon Musk
is a put out a fiery statement blasting the big
beautiful bill.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Oh boy, well, you can't blame the guys. Can't as
hard as he worked, and then all that work got
completely ignored when they put together this bill.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
Yeah, writing on his ex platform, massive outrageous, pork field,
disgusting abomination. A White House responds. Mike Johnson responds to
the House Speaker. We'll get into all of that, the
latest on the big beautiful bill, and now we're talking
of recisions, more spending cuts heading that way. Looks like

(08:17):
at tariffs on the imported steel and aluminum taking effect today,
fifty percent the UK is exempt from this. We struck
a deal with them. And here's maybe when we hadn't
heard of before. Agro terrorism. The FEDS arresting two two
Chinese nationals after they were accused of attempting to smuggle
a potential bio weapon into the country. They claimed they

(08:40):
wanted to use it to conduct research, but it was
some sort of a botulism thing. That's got the radar
up now for that sort of potential terrorist activity.

Speaker 5 (08:53):
So we'll get to that.

Speaker 4 (08:54):
More coming up here on this It is the Wednesday
morning edition at Columbia's Morning News.

Speaker 5 (08:57):
It's great to have you with us, keeping you connected.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
I check in throughout the day twenty four to seven.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
I just like being informed, know what's happening.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
One O three point five FM and five sixty am
w VOC. 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 4 (09:22):
I can want to tell you it's six forty two,
it's Wednesday, June fourth. Thanks for being with us. And
we didn't discuss this this week, but potential game changer
this Ukrainian attack on Russia several days back. This is
this drone attack that took out what was like a
third of Russia's bomber fleet.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Powerful.

Speaker 5 (09:43):
Wow, that that was big.

Speaker 4 (09:53):
A third of Russia's bomber fleet taken out by a
drone attack. This is the new face of war FA
something that wouldn't have been imagined. You know, probably even
ten years ago there's something like that was possible. The
Ukrainians have shown that it is. They've done it. Now

(10:15):
concerns here and all across the country. As a matter
of fact, a NATO is pushing their European members to
expand their ground based air defenses by about a factor
of five for a lot of reason Russia certainly, but again,
just the fallout from this incredibly successful drone attack is

(10:40):
changing a lot of people's minds when it comes to
defending their their their homeland.

Speaker 5 (10:44):
And here.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
Well concerns that you know this, this could happen here
as well, in particular in areas of the country where
Chinese Communist Party backed entities have been buying up commercial land.
You may recall we talked about it at the time
in North Dakota. They've been targeting land in the vicinity

(11:11):
of Grand Forks Air Force Base, around a number of
sensitive locations, and there have been those raised the flag
over this in the sound of the alarms, and well,
nothing's really been done that stops it yet. Matter of fact,
Arizona's governor just vetoed a bill and their legislature that

(11:32):
would have outlawed these Chinese Communist Party backed companies from
purchasing land. She outlawed it or vetoed it rather, saying
it could lead to other people.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Not being able to buy a land or some such nonsense.

Speaker 4 (11:48):
Well, there's a group called the food fing group. They
bought three hundred acres of farmland back in twenty twenty one.
This is what first raised the antenna of Congress about
these transactions, which, by the way, they do their best
to keep locals from knowing really who they are. Now

(12:13):
Rod DeSantis out in Florida didn't waste any time. He
banned them from the state. As a result, other states
have tried, like I just mentioned Arizona, but the governor
veto that. Of course, the concerns are again you've got
CCP backed entities purchasing land near sensitive US installations and

(12:39):
all it takes is a few drones. By the way,
whatever happened to the drone mystery in the Northeast, that
story just vanished, Hum, just just went away. So new

(13:00):
attention being paid to sensitive sides here in this country
and these massive land purchases by Chinese entities.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
And how does Putin react? I mean, you know, you've
had Trump in Putin's ear for what a couple of
weeks now saying he was more and more angry with
the Russian president every day. And now he gets attacked
from well Ukraine attacks. Then immediately folks like Lindsay Graham

(13:32):
go over to Ukraine and say, great job, let's do
it again. So who's Putin gonna blame?

Speaker 4 (13:38):
You see where Steve Bannon on a podcast said that
Lindsay Graham want to be thrown in jail for u Okay.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, I think sometimes people on the Trump side forget
Russia is the enemy.

Speaker 5 (13:48):
Russia is the enemy.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
But is this stirring it all up? And you know
who's Who's Russia gonna blame? Ultimately US or Ukraine or
NATO or a mixture of the three.

Speaker 4 (14:03):
All three, sure, everybody but themselves of course, you know,
as I mentioned, I mean in NATO, they're seeing the
results of this and they're freaking out.

Speaker 5 (14:13):
Man. This is all right there in their backyard.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
And if Ukraine can do this to Russia, Russia can
do this to your crane or anybody else for that matter.
Matter of fact, this may become the new through mode
of warfare for Vladimir put When you use a thirty
year bomber fleet in one fell swoop, he may have
to rely on drums. By the way, unrelated, but still,
when it comes to our nation security, Tom Holman in
an interview a day or two back, warning that a

(14:42):
nine to eleven or worse attack is imminent and blaming
this on the immigration and border policies of the previous administration.
When asked whether we're or not we're at risk of
a nine to eleven style attack, he told Sean Hannity,
it's coming.

Speaker 5 (15:01):
It's coming. He says.

Speaker 4 (15:02):
These two million known god Aways scares the hell out
of me. He said, some could be terrorists. Uh, you
have two million known godaways. Chance is pretty good. You've
got a couple of at least potential terrorists in that group.

(15:26):
Worse than nine to eleven, he says, And he says
it's imminent. I hope he's wrong. I hope he's just
saber rattling with that comment. But he's a pretty serious dude.
I don't think Tom Holman's wanted to be just making
uh uh, you know, if you want to call him
threats or whatever without some something substantial to back it up.

Speaker 5 (15:49):
Stay tuned.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
You're listening to Columbia's Morning News on one oh three
point five FM on five sixty am WVO to see
once again, here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson's.

Speaker 4 (16:03):
Fifteen minutes after seven o'clock in the morning and tell
you and good to have you with us. It's Wednesday,
June the fourth. By the way, a friend of the show.
If you're listening, you're a friend of the show. James
just forwarding me this warning from the Election and Police Department.
If you get one of these text messages saying you

(16:24):
own you owe a traffic ticket fine or whatever, and
it's purportedly from the South Carolina Department Motor Vehicles, it's
a scam.

Speaker 2 (16:33):
My wife got one of these yesterday. Apparently lots of
folks have.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
In the Election and Police Department got a lot of
calls from people yesterday.

Speaker 5 (16:43):
So, yeah, if.

Speaker 4 (16:44):
Any text messages that say they're DMV, they want you
to pay the Yeah, a lot of folks got those yesterday.
My wife included. Somehow I didn't get I got left
off the list. I feel slighted. Okay, So heads up
on that one. I don't think that's there's so many

(17:06):
of these things out there, it's it's hard to.

Speaker 5 (17:08):
Keep up with them all. Huh.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
Okay, Well, we knew where he stood. He made it
perfectly clear yesterday. Elon Musk issuing a statement ripping into
members of Congress who have voted for the one big,
beautiful bill, this massive, outrageous pork Field pork Field Congressional

(17:31):
Spinning Bill is a disgusting abomination. He wrote on his
ex platform. I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore.
Shame one of those who voted for it. You know
you did wrong, you know it.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
That's that's it's hard to h He's upset. He put
a lot of work into, you know, what was essentially
a temporary job, not like he didn't have other things
to do, and he got ignored. All his work got ignored.
At least it's so far, it has so far.

Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, Yeah, here's a dude that's spent all that time,
took all that heat. So his his his his tesla empire,
his stock value crumble. You can't blame the dude, right, No,

(18:24):
you can't blame him. But who cares? I mean, he
you know, it's one opinion at this point, and he
doesn't even work for the government anymore, and he certainly
doesn't have a vote in the upcoming you know, congressional round.
It's up to the Senate now, right, And if I
were the Trump side, I'd be much more worried about
what people like Rand Paul are saying and Johnson, etcetera.

(18:45):
I mean, there are plenty of senators who are not
happy with this bill either. You don't need to worry
about what Elon Musk has to say. You need to
worry about convincing senators that this is going to amount
to a reduction in the deficit. Well, with the new
word out now is recisions, and this is this is

(19:08):
what we've got now, the White House sending Congress a
nine point four billion dollar recisions package. A part of
this is to codify that work done by Doge. They
sent us over late yesterday.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Now, was that after Elon Musk started sounding off on x.

Speaker 4 (19:29):
Or Well, Trump's been talking about doing this for a
couple of days anyway, Okay, even even prior to that.
So these are the cuts that Trump has said as
a result of the work Doge did, he wants to
he wants these put into law, recisions they are called now.
The House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said about a week

(19:50):
ago that he's ready and eager to act on the measure,
that when the White House sends its recisions package over
to the House, they'll act quickly to asks legislation to
codify these cuts, so he has all intention of doing them.
Among them a one point one billion dollar funding cut

(20:11):
to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This is what helps
fund National Public Radio and PBS. Eight point three billion
dollar reduction in funding for foreign aid like USAID. Uh
so all told nine point four it sounds like, well,

(20:32):
those two right there make up a nine point four
billion dollars, don't they.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, and he's gonna have plenty of support from rand
Paul on that who what did he call it yesterday?
Foreign welfare? That's what he called foreign aid, foreign for welfare.

Speaker 4 (20:46):
Well, you know, it's just hard to argue that, isn't
it for as much grief as this country takes from
the rest of the world. I don't know why we're
still propping everybody in their brother up man, but we are.

Speaker 5 (21:04):
So here come.

Speaker 4 (21:04):
The decisions again. The House Speaker says, we'll move quickly
on these. They got to deal it with in forty
five days, he says, they won't take near now long.
And yeah, in meantime, regardless of what Elon Musk says
or things or feels about all this, it is up
to you know, a couple of Republicans over on the
Senate side, and right now where it stands, Uh, there's

(21:27):
there's enough. There are enough GOP holdouts to keep this
thing from passing. You just need three, right, three holdouts
and you're done. What's what's the margin over what is.

Speaker 5 (21:37):
The It's fifty three seven? Right?

Speaker 4 (21:41):
Yeah, well I guess four, okay, because jd Vance would
get the the.

Speaker 5 (21:47):
Tie breaking vote. Right.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
Well, you want this, you want this to pass. You
want you want to send a message back to the
House saying, Okay, we did our part and now we're unified,
get together and get it done.

Speaker 5 (22:00):
Well.

Speaker 4 (22:00):
Word is this morning that John Thune, the Senate majority leader,
is is pushing to get this done as quickly as possible.
Trump had a meeting with him earlier this week. Uh.

Speaker 5 (22:11):
Trump's been very active in Thisn's not the issue. Yeah, No,
Thune is not the issue. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (22:17):
These the guy who's got to try to, you know, uh,
whip whip some of his folks in line right for
for for lack of a better term, here and we
keep here in July fourth, is the kind of the
hope for have it on the passion of this desk
for signature deadline. But but apparently Trump wants it done
quicker than this. He wants it before the fourth of July.

(22:41):
So there's a lot of uh, a lot of arm
twisting and and again this what'll be interesting to see
here is how much the Senate changes this if they
get it through. What sort of concessions we'll well, we'll
thon make to some of the holdouts. What will that
one big, beautiful bill look like when they're done with

(23:03):
it and they send it back over to the House,
And then the pressure is back on Mike Johnson.

Speaker 5 (23:10):
Again.

Speaker 4 (23:11):
That thing only got out of the House by one vote, man,
one vote. When he gets back what happens then, Well,
July fourth only a month away.

Speaker 5 (23:21):
Don't look now, when bringing a.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
New family member into your home starts with some basic
commands ALEXA sit, I don't know that.

Speaker 5 (23:29):
Ask it to play one.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
O three point five FM w VOC.

Speaker 5 (23:32):
Now I'm informed.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
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 5 (23:46):
It is seven thirty nine.

Speaker 4 (23:48):
Well, uh, let's see, just just told our phone lines
are not functioning right now.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
The best laid plans of mice and men. Yeah, somebody
just told me. So they're working on it now.

Speaker 4 (23:59):
Okay, well, so apologies, we had told you we would
have the Attorney General on Uh well if they if they,
if they are able to get back up anytime in
the next few minutes, maybe we can still still get
them with us. But okay, but I we'll reschedule. Okay, great,
thank you. Well, we had a lot to talk about
with the ag you know this, uh, that that big

(24:24):
bust over in lads And over the weekend. His office
was one of a mini agencies involved in that one.
One hundred and sixteen arrests, six more than sixty six
were of illegals. One missing trafficked child was found. We

(24:44):
didn't have that information yesterday.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
A missing child who had been trafficked was was right
there and I don't know.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
We did mention that was a thirteen year old that
was in that unauthorized nightclub that in Ladston over the
weekend and maybe that was uh, I don't know if
that was the traffic the traffic child or not. I'm
just guessing. As we mentioned, two cartel leaders arrested and
one Hondurian murder suspect was ound. Ten children were in

(25:18):
that unauthorized club at what one DHS agent called a
cartel after party.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
I think the word after continues to catch people's attention.
After what or what yeaheah, yeah, what were they doing
up to that point? What were they part? What were
they celebrating?

Speaker 4 (25:41):
This was like three o'clock in the morning, one o'clock,
three o'clock in the morning, something like that. Hmm, yeah,
what what were they celebrating? Right, the family of the
Egyptian national who overstated his visa and then well carried

(26:03):
out something you've been planning for for quite some time,
attempting to murder people supporting the Jews that are still
being held captive in Hamas. His family now has been
taken into ice custody. Now whether or not they were

(26:31):
involved or were aware, remains to be seen, but they
were all taken into ice custody and will be processed
under expedited removal.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Probably the safest thing for them at this point.

Speaker 4 (26:48):
Well, you know, probably, so, you're exactly right, yeah, I mean,
this was again an attack that Solomon himself told investigators
had been in the works for more than a year,
and that he'd even taken a concealed carry class to
learn how to shoot again. He wanted to use a gun,

(27:09):
but because of his immigration status, he was not able
to buy by a firearm.

Speaker 5 (27:20):
Just again.

Speaker 4 (27:20):
The latest inces series of attacks on Israelis and on
Jews in this country, the murder on the streets of Washington,
d C. A couple of weeks ago, of those two
Israeli diplomats who were a young man, young woman who
are set to be married, gunned down in cold blood

(27:44):
by a man from Chicago who was not here illegally.
Don't forget the attempts to kill Joshapiro, the Jewish governor
of the Keystone state of Pennsylvania, who is Jewish, an
attempt really to kill the whole family, right, trying to

(28:07):
burn down the governor's mansion, and it's actually had taken
up until.

Speaker 5 (28:17):
Well.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
I don't know why this was a tipping point, but
this Boulder attack, as we talked about yesterday, for some
members of the squad to finally come out and.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
Say something, not do something, just say say something, yes, well.

Speaker 5 (28:35):
At least saying something as a start. I suppose other
news here quickly.

Speaker 4 (28:43):
We've been expecting this, and now where the DOJ is
launching an investigation into the former president Joe Biden's use
of pardon power during the final days of his presidency.
Reuters was the first to report this that the investigation
will examine whether or not the former president was competent

(29:06):
and whether or not others were taking advantage of him.
And I would add this country through the use of
the auto pin or other means. We've been hearing for
weeks at Ed Martin, who's now the new DOJ pardon attorney,
was going to be looking into this. Trump on Friday

(29:33):
saying I think the autopin is going to become one
of the greatest scandals of all time. And yeah, depending
on whether this investigation finds it could well be. I mean,
could you think of anything bigger? I mean really, Okay,
we had Watergate, We've had scandals, yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
And you've had presidents who had their health issues covered up.

Speaker 5 (29:53):
Sure. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
This is kind of a combination all of the abuses.
This is a roll over in one big package here,
isn't it. I don't know if you saw it. Peter
Doocey came to the press conference yesterday with props no
holding up various pardons and said So what does the
White House consider an official pardon? Is it a pardon
only that is signed by the president physically signed, which

(30:21):
that's a good constitutional question.

Speaker 4 (30:24):
Yeah, the auto it's not like the autopin has never
been used before, right, but it's supposed to be used
by the president exactly, not by some AID.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
It's supposed to make things easier for.

Speaker 4 (30:33):
You, right, Yeah, I mean, seriously, can you think of
a bigger scandal Trump's right, Can you think of a
bigger scandal white House scandal than if you had AIDS
or whomever, the first lady, whomever it was, using the
auto pen posing up posing themselves off as being president

(30:59):
for well, I don't care what the reason is what
they're signing. But in this case, pardons for the Biden
family and for others, pretty imptoport.

Speaker 5 (31:05):
Remember that, Remember what was the I mean on inauguration day?

Speaker 4 (31:11):
You know, right about the time that Joe Biden was
showing up at Trump's inauguration, you know, we're getting news
that Yeah, another more pardons have been issued. Oh gosh,
when did he do that? Did he sign them in
the motor cade on the way over. Yeah, this this
would be the biggest presidential scandal of all time.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
I mean, you had, you know, obviously the reports that
Edith Wilson was covering for Woodrow Wilson's stroke and she
was running the show. But I don't think I'm trying
to remember my history. I don't think she was making decisions,
but I don't think they were necessarily decisions that benefited
her family. It was just to keep the fact that
her president was that her husband was incapacitated secret.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
Well, and if in fact it's found out that these
whoever these people were, were posing as the president using
this auto pin okay pardons one thing, but what else
did they sign off on?

Speaker 5 (32:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (32:10):
What else did they benefit from?

Speaker 6 (32:14):
Remember this?

Speaker 5 (32:14):
Remember the tale? And I think it was who it was?

Speaker 4 (32:17):
The House Speaker, Yeah, the House Speaker Mike Johnson told
the story months ago about meeting with the President while
he was still in office and thanking him for some
piece of energy legislation he had signed that benefited to
Johnson's home state of Louisiana, And then Biden looked at
him said, oh, I'll.

Speaker 5 (32:34):
Remember signing that.

Speaker 4 (32:35):
We all thought, well yet, because you know he's slipping
mentally or was it that, Yeah, he didn't sign it.
Somebody else did unbeknownst to him. That's a good question.
What else might have been signed without his knowledge?

Speaker 3 (32:50):
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 Thompson is eight fifteen.

Speaker 4 (33:02):
Appreciate you being along for the ride. On Wednesday, June fourth,
I am Gary David. Guy over there is Christopher Thompson.
This guy right here, Yeah, you can tell a difference.
He's got the white headphones on. I have the black
headphones on, so they're ever confused as who's who.

Speaker 6 (33:15):
That's how we're differentiat okay, uh hey, friend of the show,
Mark weighs in. Now, I don't know where where you live,
if you're seeing this or not, but he lives in Lexington.
As to both me and mister Thompson, what's up with
gas prices?

Speaker 4 (33:32):
He asks? What is up with gas prices? Says last week? Well,
a particular station, he mentions, on Wednesday it was like
two forty something. I remember that, and then that afternoon
it was two seventy yesterday back down to two forty,
and then this morning gets like two eighty nine. From

(33:53):
one station went from two forty six yesterday to eighty
nine this morning.

Speaker 5 (33:57):
What is that? This has been going on for a
couple of weeks now.

Speaker 4 (34:02):
If you've noticed, and I don't know about where you live,
if this is just a Lexington thing, that's that's this craziness. Man.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Well anyway, Yes, you got to hit them the right days. Huh.
I guess you know, we haven't had any real indication
as to why they would be bouncing around like that.

Speaker 4 (34:22):
You know, I get, you know, a couple cents, maybe
even a dime, but I mean thirty and forty cents
in a day, over overnight.

Speaker 5 (34:28):
I mean, and this happened, this has been happening for
a while now.

Speaker 4 (34:31):
I don't know. Well, you know, it's like playing the lottery.
I guess right, you got to hit them the right day.
Man again, So good luck, We wish you well.

Speaker 5 (34:42):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (34:42):
The news coming out now in multiple publications reporting this
that that school bus that was involved in that crash
on I seventy seven back in April that took the
life of a thirteen year old student, that despite passing
its annual inspections, it had three prior tire issues and

(35:14):
over the course of a year and a half of repairs.
A year and a half of repairs on this one
bus that the district paid at least eighty one thousand
dollars for the work. Okay, the bus originally cost one
hundred and sixteen thousand dollars over the course of a
year and a half repairs done on that same bus, Well,

(35:39):
it costs more than two thirds of what the bus
cost originally.

Speaker 2 (35:41):
How many times have you run into that in your
own household saying okay.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
Yeah, we keep fixing it. Yeah I want to buy
a new one. I'll just keep fixing it.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yeah, I know, and you wind up spending way more
than you should have.

Speaker 4 (35:56):
This series of repairs dates back to June of twenty twenty,
so we're talking about a span of less than two years.
But when they first started making repairs on this bus
until it flipped over on I seventy seven and killed
a thirteen year old.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
Student, they'd had a previous tire blowout involving a football
team on that bus.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
Yeah, it was the prior last June the Brook and
Casey High School football team had any an event blew
a tire long twenty six hit a median nobody was injured,
and that one fortunately nobody was killed. But again the
investigation ongoing. Higher Patrol saying they cannot confirm reports that

(36:41):
this bus flipped after a front passenger tire blew out,
but it had had at least three prior tire issues.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
So who's ultimately liable Those who passed the bus through inspection,
those who made the repairs, the school districts. They're a
whole lot of people facing litigation probably in the next
few years.

Speaker 5 (37:04):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (37:12):
Under state law, any state and district owned school bus
has to follow state or federal inspection programs. The Department
Education responsible for providing the technicians with the training that is,
and the certification to perform them. But the Department Education
does not have the authority to audit or investigate any
district's operational or administrative processes. Well that's a problem, DOE spokesperson,

(37:41):
saying districts are responsible for the records and inspections of
district own buses.

Speaker 5 (37:45):
Well they should be, okay.

Speaker 4 (37:53):
By the way, we mentioned three tire incidents, and assuming
this last one was that, well, we talked about the
one with the football team last year, two weeks before
this accident, that killed a thirteen year old just two
weeks before, there was another tire rat show that very

(38:13):
same bus that was returning middle school students back from
a field trip up in Charlotte. I'd have to I
didn't really have to ask the question here.

Speaker 5 (38:27):
You got to.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
Blown out tires, a blown out tire, and you would
think that any worked on the bus itself may not affect.
I don't know, I'm no mechanic, and maybe maybe something's
wrong with some sort of a steering system or a strug.
I don't know, but you would you would think, at
the very least that did any bus that seemed to
be just hit with that much bad luck over such

(38:53):
a short amount of time, that that's not the bus
you want to use to go on a field trip,
you know, some ninety miles away. Oh yeah, there's gonna
be a lot of litigation over this, or you can
bet your bottom dollar. Huh And rightfully so. So they
knew there was a problem, and I guess, after spending

(39:14):
what eighty some odd thousand dollars on repairs in less
than two years.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Buy a new bus, my gosh.

Speaker 4 (39:21):
And now a thirteen year old's dead. Okay, well this
we have not heard the end of that story. You
can bet your bottom dot on that.

Speaker 5 (39:29):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
By the way, DMV users in Blythwood, you're gonna have
to find a new place to go.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
You're talking about the growing area of Blythwood. Where the
burgeoning area of Blythwood. Yeah, the DMV there announcing plans
yesterday to close one of their branches to customers. Apparently
it'll still operate, but just not as a place you
can go in and get the DMV services, and it

(39:58):
will close pretty quickly after the first week at July,
it will shut it down. This is the Wilson Boulevard location.
But the reason they're having to shut it down is
well novel because of reduced parking near the location. Apparently
several buildings.

Speaker 4 (40:17):
Near that Wilson Boulevard, the big camp they got a
big spread over there, have reasonly been sold and this
is limiting the space that people have to park. So
they're shutting that puppy down. July third, the last day
you can actually use that one.

Speaker 5 (40:35):
So now you got to go.

Speaker 2 (40:36):
I don't know where your closest dm V is going
to be, but I'm looking at the DMV map right
now and it's it's a long way.

Speaker 4 (40:43):
I'm guessing it probably is right. Don't tell me Shop
Road is going to be the closest one. No, I mean,
I guess O'Neill Court near the mall.

Speaker 5 (40:55):
Yeah, that'd be the closest.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
I guess that would be m quite a hall. It's
a little inconvenient, right, especially for an area where we
are expecting a lot of new people who will need
new driver's licenses for the state.

Speaker 4 (41:09):
Uh yeah, yeah, a bunch of I'm coming to work
for Scout one of these days, so heads up on
that one.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
Your world happens here, But let me be clear and
updated accordingly.

Speaker 5 (41:20):
I have no doubt. Buncle your seat.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
Bills one on three point five FM and five sixty
am w VOC 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 4 (41:39):
Don de clareddeck friends, final thoughts for a Wednesday morning,
June fourth.

Speaker 5 (41:42):
A lot of them peer at home too.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
By the way, a couple of special elections of some
note yesterday here in the Midlands, Herbo Mike Ward becomes
their newest council member there. Now this is again interesting
story because of well, the seat he was running four.
That was the seat that was vacated by the former
mayor pro tim and councilman Eric Sickinger.

Speaker 5 (42:02):
Remember that name.

Speaker 4 (42:03):
Remember that story back in March arrested by sled for
having sex with a fifteen year old boy.

Speaker 5 (42:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
It doesn't do one years for your political career.

Speaker 4 (42:17):
Not no, not not around here. It doesn't know. I
don't know you boy buying parts of California where well anyway,
House District fifty special election, that one goes to Keishawn Scott,
the Democrat.

Speaker 5 (42:31):
Notable.

Speaker 4 (42:32):
It made Scott the youngest member at the State House
of Representatives. How old twenty four years old?

Speaker 5 (42:38):
Wow?

Speaker 4 (42:39):
Yeah, already a minister, current Bishopville City councilman. And now
I remember the State House at the age of twenty four.
A lot of accomplishments. Early two's put on a roll back. Yeah,
how about that. The State Supreme Court yesterday hearing arguments
about a case that could could change our tele health

(43:00):
services here in the state. It's focusing on a law
passed back in twenty sixteen, the Eye Care Consumer Protection Law.
This bans the use of you being able to go
online or use any sort of an automated digital exam
in order to get a prescription for eyeglasses or contact lenses.
And a company based in Chicago is pursuing to overturn

(43:21):
that law, saying it bans or that that ban violates
the US Constitution, that it unfairly restricts telehealth services and
limits patients access to care. So let's follow this one
and see where it heads. They've actually been. This company's
been like working on trying to get this thing overturned

(43:41):
since about when it was passed back in twenty sixteen.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
It's been a while. I'm yeah, I'm surprised that with
all the telehealth services we have now, and our company
offers a lot of them, I'm surprised somebody hasn't had
an issue and something missed or somebody was, you know,
sick and they didn't realize it. Just it just seems

(44:08):
to leave these telehealth organizations open. Yeah, you know, I
would again, I'd rather see somebody face to face. Yeah,
you know, But but I guess that's the other side
of the coin is you're you're assuming some of that
risk yourself. You're saying, Okay, I'm you know, I'm either
unable or you know, not willing to go face to

(44:29):
face to see a doctor or to sit in a
doctor's office. So I'm going to see somebody online. But
you know, I realize that it's not the ideal care.

Speaker 4 (44:39):
Of course, you know what the problem is depending on
what sort of specialists you're trying to see.

Speaker 5 (44:44):
It can take forever to get an appointment these.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Days, and for something easy to diagnose, or for something
where you just need a quick prescription and they just
need to look at you quickly. You know this is
this is great, but not so great for other things.

Speaker 4 (44:58):
Don't look now, but get right here somewhere Tony Tony Blair,
former UK Prime Sure what was he said?

Speaker 5 (45:05):
Oh? Here, this right here?

Speaker 4 (45:06):
Look at this, Tony Blair saying that the UK should
embrace a future of AI doctors, nurses and even teachers
or risk being left behind what he called the biggest
up peoples since the Industrial Revolution. Well, I would agree
with the last part of that, and it is certainly
the biggest ut people since the Industrial Revolution. But uh,
should should the UK be embracing AI doctors and nurses?

(45:28):
That's okay. I might do the telehealth thing, but I'm
not ready to do the AI thing. For a doc yet. Yeah,
I don't think I ever will be. But anyway, they
say they're shutting down. We told you about this a
couple of weeks ago. Mountain Top Marine. It's a boat
dealership over in Lexington on three seventy eight Sunset Boulevard
and their their property goes right up to the road there. Yes,

(45:52):
and they have always you know, docked their mainly their
pontoons right against the fence by the road. Well, then
we do a lot of road construction over there. In
a few weeks back, they complained to a local TV station,
got some coverage about how well that road work and
the stuff coming off the ass fought anything else.

Speaker 5 (46:09):
Tar whatever flying off.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
Had gotten into the upholstery of these brand new boats
and they couldn't get the stuff out, and it made
these brand new boats basically impossible to sell his new boats. Well,
now they say that they're gonna have to shut down.
The losses they've incurred as a result of this is

(46:32):
just leaving them in a situation where they cannot continue.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
Who's ultimately responsible for that repaving job? Is it the state?
I assume it's the state and not the town. I'm
not even sure that's in the town limits or is
it the sub the contractor, well, who hired the contractor?

Speaker 5 (46:50):
No, the state?

Speaker 4 (46:51):
Okay, yeah, so I'm sure all of them are going
to get some sort of litigation notices here for long. Yeah,
and already.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
But it's going to be too little, too late. If
this is a family owned business that's going under, Yeah,
they say it. It impacted ninety percent of their inventory.

Speaker 5 (47:09):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
Yeah, wow, Well a ninety percent of the net that
inventory is not parked that close to the road.

Speaker 4 (47:16):
Well maybe maybe someone in the second row got it too.
I don't know that's their claim. Jamie Harrison is this,
well it was my fault kind of thing. Jamie Harrison,
who was beaten badly by Lindsey Graham a couple of
years ago in that Senate race and for his efforts
got handed the chair of the Democratic National Committee and

(47:38):
was chair of that during the disasters twenty twenty four election,
now saying telling the Washington Post that he thought that
he was being dismissed by top brass and warned the
officials the DNC can't just be nice ornaments. He says,
So I feel like his chair my voice was not
always heard, that I was taken for granted, I was,

(48:00):
you know, somebody just a rubber stamp and not actually
have a seat of the table to influence certain things.

Speaker 5 (48:04):
So it ain't my fault, I guess.

Speaker 4 (48:06):
Well.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
That and the fact that he also threw in a
little bit of a racial mentions too, Then there was that. Yes, yeah,
the fact that he was a black man being ignored
by top national Democrats.

Speaker 4 (48:20):
Then there's that. Here's the interesting story. Here's one you've
probably not heard before, especially in these days and times.
A former Republican switching to the Democrat Party. Not only
just any former Republican, but a former Tea Party Republican
who is now a Democrat. Joe Walsh, former congressman who

(48:43):
is one of the early supporters of Donald Trump, is
joined the Democrat Party. Now, now why do we care
around here? Well, the word is is that Walsh is
moving to South Carolina.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
Why why is he moving here? Well, I mean, is
this like Lynn Wood? Does he just see an opportunity
and he's going to swoop in?

Speaker 4 (49:06):
Word? Is he? I think he's moving to the aChn area.
I think it was what I had heard, Okay, planning
to move there?

Speaker 2 (49:12):
I mean, is he moving for politics, or is he
does he have a job here or is he retiring here?
Is there a purpose?

Speaker 4 (49:19):
One of the thought is that he may he may
run against Annie andrews Uh the Democrat primary for the
seat held by Lindsay Graham. We'll see, that's just a speculation.

Speaker 5 (49:30):
Now.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
I you know, a lot of people are put off
by Trump. I understand how a Republican may not necessarily
want to stick with the party knowing what Trump is about.
But if you were a Tea Party member and you're
instead now embracing the Democrats, there's no rationale explanation for
there's no rational explanation for that. You can't say, well, yeah,

(49:54):
I used to be fiscally responsible, but now you know,
I just want to tax everybody to the max. Kind
of crazy, and I want to spend as much as
your money as I can. It doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 5 (50:10):
And then there's this.

Speaker 4 (50:12):
The Army has hit its annual recruiting goal of sixty
one thousand new active duty soldiers four months ahead of
They hit it four months ahead of fiscal twenty five.

Speaker 5 (50:25):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
At the end of Toscal tournament. How about that A.

Speaker 4 (50:28):
Branch like all of them who under the Biden administration
were struggling to meet quota as they couldn't meet quotas.
Now they surpassed their goal four months early.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Yep, we're seeing to change, my friends,