Show Rewind 10-24-2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Jesus fly, hell ya sa America, and for reus, for
nation 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 1 (00:29):
We finally made it to Friday. Good morning. It is Friday,
October twenty fourth, fifteen minutes after six. It's our absolute
delight to will be with you this morning, and have
you joined us? Rolling out? Not as chilly as this
time yesterday morning? Oh boy, it felt cold in the
house this morning. I refuse to turn the heat on

(00:53):
until I absolutely have to, and we're nowhere near that
in my book right.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Now, I'm not even sure I've turned the AC off yet.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Right our right he has been sill of the same
temperature all summer long at our house. We haven't touched it.
I ain't gonna touch it now. We do have a
couple of Oh, Cedar Creek, the typical you know cold
spot run here is at forty five right now, So
it's it's not we were We had a couple of
spots that got in at the upper thirties yesterday morning. Again, well,
tempsill dip a little bit between now and about you know,

(01:21):
right around sunrise or so.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
But you were telling me we've got another news the weather.
You know, I've never heard these kind of predictions before. Melissa, Again,
this thing's not going to impact us at all. That's
the good news. The bad news is the places it
does impact. Uh, this is this is dreadful. It was

(01:49):
a couple of the guys, you know, we were talking
about Mitch West. We had him on the show before.
We like to follow Mitch. I also like to follow
Chris Justice. He's a meteorogi just up in the Upstate.
His last post about midnight, so last night. I mean,
just dire predictions, at least according to and not all
the models agree on the exact track of this storm,
but we do know it's just it's just going to

(02:10):
meander down there around to Jamaica, the island of Hispaniola
for days. It's still moving like a yeah. Seriously, when
they say a snail space, this is a snail space.
You know, this thing is matter of fact right now,
it's not moving at all. It's stationary. Last update for
the National Hurricane Center, still a tropical storm, but it's

(02:33):
going to be a hurricane now by tomorrow, a major
hurricane by some time over the weekend, probably Sunday, and
when we talk major, and we're talking major here, at
least according to some of the models. A Chris Justice
was saying on his video that there is a potential
that Melissa could get wind speeds of up to two

(03:00):
hundred miles an hour, okay, and could dump rain totals,
you know, in the neighborhood of forty inches, you know, Jamaica.
Nobody's equipped for that, Okay, nobody is. But again, the

(03:20):
track from the National Hurricane Center has this thing moving
south of Jamaica, but close enough to bring a lot
of problems. And then you know, making this turn this
hook and turning north and then you know, going right
by the eastern tip of Jamaica. But that's not going
to be until like, you know, next Tuesday, Wednesday. So

(03:43):
this thing has the potential just to be absolutely devastating
in terms of property and loss of life. I've never
heard a and again this is one of the models.
Another model actually has this going in between Jamaica and Hispaniola,
which is a better scenario certainly, but just crazy, crazy

(04:05):
predictions some of these models are showing right now. So
thoughts and prayers for the people in the Caribbean. This
thing could really wind up being very deadly and very historic. Wow,
all right, run down big stories, hot topics. What's going
on around here? Well, a judge ruling here in our

(04:25):
state that the University of South Carolina's going to have
to turn over at least some of these documents related
to their revenue sharing programs and agreements.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Do you think we'll learn anything into it? We go, wow, no, yeah,
I agree.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
Probably short answer, no, long answer, no.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Short and long no. Yeah. Yeah. This has been the
back and forth there, and one time the university said, well,
they didn't really have any documents like this, but apparently
they do.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
That's where the university has gotten itself in att out
of trouble because they've given two or three different answers
as to why they can't turn these documents over, and
each time they give a different answer, it makes them
look more suspicious, right exactly, Not that they necessarily I mean,
not nefarious suspicious, but just I mean they don't want
to turn that information over. No, university does no, but

(05:22):
stick to one reason.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Right. The more you change the reason, the well, yeah,
you're right, the more suspicious it looks.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
I mean, is it student athlete privacy? Okay, then stick
with that. Is it competitive advantage? Okay, stick with that.
I'd buy either one, but pick one right, and don't
then turn around and say, well, we don't have the information.
It's in private hands exactly.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
That's crazy. Meanwhile, speaking of the Universus South Carolina State
newspaper running this article yesterday, yeah, I think we mentioned
it at the time, didn't pay a whole lot of
attention to it. But Donna Arnett, the probost and executive
vice president for academic affairs, step down. She left the
university back in July, which was at the time a

(06:10):
big surprise to a lot of people. She had gotten
bonuses and raises and was doing a great job and yaddy,
yeah yeah, and then decided to go pursue other opportunities.
You know, that'll go pursue all the opportunities then, But
they rub here is according to the state paper and
what they have documents they've have obtained now, is that

(06:30):
even though she's been gone since July one, she's still
getting paid a salary of over three hundred thousand dollars
a year.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
Oh I want that job, right, Okay? Well, what's up
with d take a gander at it. We don't even
get to clean out our own desks around here, right right,
We're just we're just showing the door like escorted out
by a local security here and people are getting these
kind of golden parachute nice. He's pleaded not guilty, James

(07:01):
Gosnell Junior. That former well, I say, yeah, he's his
former now he wasn't he was suspended initially, he's formed yeah,
former magistrate. And the guy again who is alleged to
have just committed heinous acts when it comes to child pornography,
not just online either in person. Uh, waving his right

(07:23):
to a detention hearing yesterday, pleading not guilty, even though
at the time I remember he almost fessed up to
it when they rated his place sounded like like a month.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Or two backywh why did they pay this much money
for it? Rigeland District too, plomping down almost sixteen million
dollars on a piece of property on Spears Creek Church
WoT out in elgim This is uh excuse me? Oh,
I thought I had my mic off you did DoD
gone it? Will you please fix this mic switch over here?

(07:52):
Unless it's called a cough thing for one, not a
sneeze bot, but a cop. I kept pressing it and
I thought it was off. Excuse me, less you that
is radio faux paw big time. It scared the heck
out of me too. Wow, good for you. I usually
sneeze twice. He got what that time? Where was I? Oh? Yeah,
the sixteen million dollars that Richland two is painted a

(08:15):
piece of property. Well two years ago it was sold
for about half of that. Huh okay, Richland County taxpayer,
you want to be ears for that one. Rom Ready
back in the news, the guy who's leading the DOJE
effortsur in South Carolina, and remember how this started. Rom

(08:37):
Ready was upset because the state has said he needed
to remove a sea wall outside his home in Isle
of Palms, and he just thought that was government intrusion
at his worst. Well, now he's a judge, says, yeah,
it's got to be removed. It was warranted the removal
of it. He's got to tear it out, but not

(09:00):
going to make him pay the fine that had been
two hundred and eighty nine thousand dollars. Little trauma in shape.
And now with the passing just last week of Al Kuhn,
the mayor who was up for reelection. As we mentioned yesterday,
his name will still be on the ballot. Now the
family of Kuhn is urging people to write in the
name of well, his vice or sure but anyways, his

(09:25):
next in charge. Who's the mayor pro Tam Greg White,
who is running for town council in Chapin. This is
getting some blowback from other people who are on the
ballot for that position. More issues with fiber optic companies
in Lexington County. Lumo's fiber building in the Laurel Meadows subdivision.

(09:49):
Like everywhere else, these fiber companies go, water lines get busted.
Sometimes it's worse than that. Now they've been forced to
pause work after repeated water line strikes. You've had fiber
optic in your neighborhood for a while, haven't you, mister Thompson. Yes,
y'all go through this. When they were installing those lines.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
I think a little bit, not to a great extent.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
I tell you what they matter of fact, they well,
I'll talk about that later on. I got a story
to tell about that. I'll get to it later. No, boys,
and we had to spend some time outside of your
sports casts. Mortan Thompson talk about this DUS yesterday with
the NBA, the mafia, the rig poker games. My goodness.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yeah, we mentioned that at the end of yesterday's show,
but we didn't realize how deeply it wins exactly.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
Yeah, you know, active players, an active head coach in
the NBA. Yeah, wow, wow, all right, shut down showdown. Well,
let's see here, we've got Democrats blocking a bill to
pay military and essential workers. They're in risk of not
getting their next paycheck. Meantime, Ron Johnson, the Republican blocking

(11:00):
Democrat bill that would pay all FEDS during the shutdown
the federal employees. Okay, we're back and forth on this one. Meantime,
at the airports, well, you had major airports yesterday delaying
flights Washington, Reagan, Newark, LaGuardia because of airport staffing crisises
or crises. I guess I should say this air traffic

(11:21):
controllers who are being told to work but not getting
paid essential personnel, and many of them are continued to
call in sick. They too, looks like we'll miss their
next paychecks next week. And saber rattling Wall Street Journal
reporting that the US has flown B one bombers near Venezuela.

(11:44):
This happened yesterday. These are the reports the White House
pushing back on that. All right, friends, that more coming
your way here on this It is the Friday morning
edition of Columbia's Morning News. Thank you for being with us.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
It's another tough test.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Still fourth ranked Tide come to town.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Get ready for game day with the best game Cock
coverage on 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 six four.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
It's Friday, October twenty fourth. It's good to have you
with us. Thank you so much. I'm Gary David. That
is Christopher Thompson right over there, and good to have
you wherever you are this morning. You remember that there
was a time and they don't do it so much anymore,
but I mean a number of years ago, there was
a time when, like, for example, TV meteorologists, we're being told,

(12:46):
i mean, really hype up a forecast. I mean just
you know, we got to get people to tune in,
just just kind of freak them out, you know, just
just you know, make it sound dire.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
You mean, put them on alert alert.

Speaker 1 (12:58):
I even I'm not going to names here, but I
I know a meteorologists who actually left the TV station
one time when for that very reason. It's like, I'm
not going to compromise my integrity here just to just
to get more viewers by you know, hyping up something
that I don't think is gonna actually happen. They don't

(13:19):
do that so much anymore. It's not so much doesn't see,
it's it's still done. So when you know, you you hear.
For example, like we were talking about last half hour,
some of these predictions from this uh what's what's right
now tropical store Melissa pretty dire. Yeah, But I have
in the last few minutes checked out a couple of

(13:39):
including uh, Mitch West and another meteor Dodgister two that
have online you know, very in depth forecasts and look
at all the models and such, and they're all freaking
out over this one. Again, this is not going to
impact us, uh, if you're if you're just rolling out
and joining us. So we talked about this quite a

(14:01):
bit to the last half hour. But this which is
soon to be Hurricane Melissa. Remember this thing just came
up out of nowhere, just brewed up in the Caribbean.
It's not one of those that came across the Atlantic
days and days and days and weeks. It just popped up.
And again there's I think it's the euro model. There

(14:23):
are a lot of models out there, but the euro model,
I think is the one that is predicting this thing
is just going to continue, and it is. It's not
moving at all right now. It's making like two miles
an hour yesterday, right not moving at all right now,
but it's going to just spend so much time down
there around Jamaica, around Hispaniola in that area and just

(14:44):
dumping ridiculous amounts of brain. And the track has it
moving south of Jamaica right now and then taking a
turn to the north. Depending on when it makes that turn,
it either goes to the east or the excuse me,
the west side of Jamaica, which puts the western portions

(15:05):
of that island on the eastern side of the storm,
which is not where you want to be, or it
could just track right over Jamaica. But the numbers that
throw it out there are really scary. It. They're talking
to Cat five, but not not the kind of Cat

(15:26):
five that you know, we typically you know, wind speeds.
We think about the potential there could be wind gusts
in this hurricane approaching or maybe even exceeding two hundred
miles an hour. Woo geez, that's like a Pacific typhoon
kind of you know, wins. We don't get that in
these Atlantic storms. You imagine, as we mentioned last half hour,

(15:53):
I mean, nobody's nobody's equipped to deal with that, and
certainly not to you know, you know, Jamaica or Haiti
in particular. It looks like that's not going to be
the case for Haiti, not to that degree. But still
and rainfall totals, you remember, what do we get maybe
twenty inches or so back in twenty fifteen.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
During the flooding, Yeah, I think, yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
Talking about potential for forty plus inches of rain unbelievable.
So this is this has the potential to be catastrophic, absolutely, catastrophic, absolutely,
and again the timeframe we're talking about, Its impacts are

(16:37):
going to be felt soon in that part of the Caribbean,
and they're going to continue to get hammerd by this
thing all the way through probably the middle part of
next week. It's just crazy. So this is probably going

(16:57):
to be the story of the twenty twenty five hurricane
season easily. Wow. Okay, so we got that going on
a couple of the things we hit in the rundown,
I just even the things we didn't. You know, are

(17:19):
we getting ready to you know, start to you know,
dropping bombs on Venezuela? Yeah? I mean do we really
need the area?

Speaker 3 (17:28):
Do we really need that biggest show of force against Venezuela?

Speaker 1 (17:31):
It seems weird. We've got the government shutdown now day
twenty four. Congress Democrats keep you know, rebuffing Republican plans
and vice versa. You know, military is getting set to
miss a paycheck. We got air traffic control issues three

(17:52):
major US airports LaGuardia, Newark, and Reagan. I think it
was yesterday having massive delays because of staffing issues. Uh.
We've got the you know, the Middle East issue. You
got the Russia Ukraine tariffs. And the media is spending

(18:14):
in an ordinate amount of time and asking a lot
of asking a lot of questions about what the ballroom
the ballroom. Okay, now let me go on record. It's
saying I think it's a pretty tacky thing to hit
the truth, you know, I mean, I just do. I
also think it's you know, pretty tacky the way they've
you know, redone the Oval office and the and the

(18:34):
gold It looks like I'm looking at the Krimlin or something.
Quite honestly, I mean a visual That's what it's what
it looks like to me. But okay, so so they've
they've turned on the East Wing. Well, now, defenders of
all this and their argument, I think it's kind of
crazy too. They keep well, there have been a lot

(18:55):
of presidents who've done makos or the White House. Barack
Obama turned a tennis court into a basketball court. Okay,
kind of pales in comparison to this, but whatever. So
you know, I'm not necessarily a big fan of it.
I think it's gaudy. I think it's pretentious, overdone, you know.
But but then again, if they wanted to hold big

(19:16):
events on the White House, they had to put up
those you know, those those those cheap tent things you
know that you can see anywhere around here at a
big event, right, and that seems kind of you know, sophomoric. Yeah,
but I'm just I'm amazed at how much time is
being spent and how much angst is going on. I

(19:40):
mean it's almost at times on the left it's rising
to the level of their angst over you know, ice
and illegals bad. They're spending a lot of time on this. Hey,
as long as I'm not paying for it, and I'm
not and you aren't there private donations. It may take

(20:05):
a little while to get used to the new look
at the White House with his massive ballroom sitting over
there with you the East Wing used to be. But
you know what, we'll get used to it. I think
we have bigger fish to fry right now.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
Yeah, I think it is a distraction from bigger issues.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
Yeah, this is crazy. This is crazy. Any who just
wanted to get that off by chest this morning? And yeah,
and for the record, yeah, I don't like it, but
I'll get over it.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
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 and morn Telia.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
It's fourteen after seven. It's Friday, October twenty four. We
had a lot of really big stories. Well, what's new, right,
I mean it's a daily thing anymore, isn't it. But
yesterday morning, as we were getting ready to go off
the air, news first broke of Well, Terry Rogier.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Right, Terry Rogier who played for the Hornets at one point, Yes,
he did. Yeah, in fact, I think he was brought
into the courtroom and Hornets gear yesterday.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Okay, so he plays for the heat now and yeah.
Initially it was like, oh, yeah, okay, this is this
is one of these What the story was he had
had faced an injury.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Well, yeah, I mean there's video out there now and
the NBA had already investigated, so there was there was
smoke surrounding him already. But he had gone out of
a game, and according to the FBI, had told some betters,
you know, take the under because I'm not going to

(21:53):
score that many points tonight, and I'm going to go
out of the game early after.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
The first quarter. This proliferation of and it used to
be yeah you bet on a team, Well now you
can go online, totally legal. You can bet on players.
How many points will they score, how their yards will
they get? Yeah, they're statistics. You're not betting on the outcome.
You're betting on their statistics, on their stats, which is

(22:17):
the way they've.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Kind of gotten around gambling laws in different states.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
People always find a way, won't they. Yes, they will.
So that sounded well, yeah, okay, that's not good. But
that was a tip of the iceberg. Huh. Apparently, so
I've been kind of juggling. He talked about, you know, Vinnie,
I said, Vinnie, Well, here you go, Chauncey Billups, who

(22:47):
is a current coach.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
Yeah, now you're talking about all right, the coaches aren't underpaid.
The players are very very well paid. Oh yeah, so
you're talking about people who already make a nice living.
But yeah, Chauncey Billups is that's a different Yeah, there's
a different aspect to the FBI investigation, this one not

(23:10):
involving sports betting, but in gambling and apparently poker. Chauncey
Billups was finding you know it, he probably travels in
some pretty good circles right now, so he would find
some deep pockets bring them to what he called, you know,
this a great game poker, And here's a perfect setup

(23:30):
and you'll love it, and this is great, and the
poker was rigged and sophisticatedly rigged. We're talking about you know,
shuffling machines that would read the cards. We're talking about
content contact lenses that could see through cards. Tables that
had X ray machines built into them.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (23:52):
Yeah, cameras that were put you know, on the table
themselves or on the chips themselves, so everybody could figure
out exactly what was happening behind the scenes and rigged
the games. And apparently this, according to the FBI, was
being orchestrated by the mob.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah, La Coosa and Nostra. So that's this is what
boggles my mind here. Okay, Chauncey Billops, good career in
the NBA. Now, I'm sure he didn't make the kind
of money these guys are making these days, but I
mean well paid as an NBA coach. It wasn't a

(24:30):
question that a dude need the money, but the whole
And this has been going on for a long, long,
long time now. But this this relationship between sports and gambling,
is it a competitive thing? I mean, and we're not
talking about you know, people like you and me if
we wanted to, you know, back in the day, play

(24:50):
a parlay card or you know, now bet on somebody's
stats or whatever online. But the actual athletes, uh and
and and the pension for gambling, it's been a weird I.

Speaker 3 (25:04):
Don't know that all of them have it. I mean
Michael Jordan was certainly famous for it, but he was
competitive in everything he did. Uh yeah, and that maybe
it may be the competitive nature that that drives some
of them to get involved. I don't know. But but
there's a difference. Billups want to get involved with a
mafia on something like this, and there's a difference between

(25:24):
you know, competing, you know, betting against someone and rigging
or passing around information that you know, will you know,
skew the results. And there's another story about you know,
Lebron James was injured, was going to miss a game.
Anthony Davis as well, Uh, a former player, knew this,

(25:45):
used that information even though it wasn't public information, you know,
and passed along to friends to make bets.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
Now help me out here. So the Chauncey Billups to
the mafia with the poker games. But I mean, there
there's is there any innu window that, for example, that
that that Rosier.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
I didn't think so either. Yeah, so there are two
different stories here, but I got wrapped up into one
big ball.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
Yesterday, correct, and uh yeah, thirty one defendants and thirty
one yeah, six defendants. Excuse me, thirty one in the poker,
six defendants in the betting case.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
And cash Mattel says, it's the tip of the iceberg.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
Yeah, and we probably don't know everything he knows.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
Uh, but then again, I mean the poker thing aside,
because that's it. That's a different thing. Okay, okay, but uh,
the rosier thing. You gotta wonder how often is that
sort of thing happen right now?

Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yeah, this's you know, the NBA and and the NFLS
has done this too, is you know they they they
are pushing hard against these sports betting companies.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
We need the ones that are spending so much money
advertising on their games.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
Yeah, yeah, those they're not they're not they're not saying
don't advertise with us. What they are saying is, if
you see anything questionable, you've got to let us know.
If you see hundreds of thousands of dollars come in
on a you know, obscure player to suddenly you know,
score through the roof or not score at all. You know,

(27:39):
let us know if you see anything out of the ordinary,
because that's the thing. Some of these prop bets are
out of the ordinary anyway. Sure, but if you see
some heavy action come in all of a sudden, you've
got to notify us. And to be honest with you,
the sports scambling books already set up that way anyway.
I mean, they they are, they're made, they're trained to
look for suspicious activity.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
Just like any good casino in Vegas would.

Speaker 3 (28:04):
Be, because they've got to shut it down if it,
you know, if it if it pops up and all
of a sudden, they stand to lose millions. So they're
just the NBA, like the NFL, is trying to work
with these companies to let us know if you see anything,
and and then they'll turn around and tell their players, Look,
if you try any of this, we're eventually going to
get you, so don't do it.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
But it's the ones that I'm surprised that, even apparently
the Terry Rosier story, he wasn't sharing this information with
thousands of people, right just to select few.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
But those few made some pretty heavy bets, okay, which
immediately got onto the radar.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
Yeah, it didn't look right what oh and out and
I always hurt, okay, but quite honestly, I mean any
of these guys could in any sport, could could play
the game. Just you know, take it easy, don't don't
don't don't do too many of these, and don't do
too many people, don't put too much money on it.
And it probably happens all the time.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
Probably you hope not, but I don't know. Based on
what we heard yesterday, Well, this will scare a few
more people, hopefully, Yeah, but yeah, it's But.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
Then, of course, the side story here is how you
know so many people now are involved in this sort
of thing just it's easy to do. Sure, on a website,
they'll give you fifty free.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
Dollars or whatever to play with, right, and then you
start looking for the NFL or the NBA online and
you see that these same companies are advertising advertising and
they're sponsoring.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
That and on radio stations like this one. Yeah, everywhere,
they're everywhere. Okay, Well it's it's not like this is
something new here. But now the Internet has made it
so simple to do now, so easy to get in,

(29:59):
and it's so wide. H you know, hey, you know, if.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Gambling is widespread not not not the illegal.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
Parts right now, no, no, but but we've had but
the more widespread the gambling becomes, the more the temptation
for people who can affect something.

Speaker 3 (30:16):
And we're starting to see that now. Well even before
it was legal. I mean, you know, we had the
the White Sox and you know you had point shaving
in college basketball. We've had stories like this over the years,
but this is this is the first real case we've
had now that sports and sports betting are so closely
tied together. Yeah, yeah, it is major money. Cautionary tale,

(30:37):
yes it is.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
It's another tough test. That's the fourth ranked Tide come
to town. Get ready for game day with the best
game Cock coverage on 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

(30:59):
three point five FM and five sixty AM WVOC, and.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
The quarterback Jeff Grant's joining us in the eight o'clock
hour here to take a look at that matchup with Alabama.
It is seven thirty nine morning. Good to have you along.
We appreciate you tuning in this morning. So day twenty
four where's my clock? Yeah, day twenty four of the
government shutdown. Now, what's getting ready to happen here? Well,

(31:29):
it looks like essential personnel getting ready to miss their
like military members getting ready to miss their first paycheck
here today today, Yeah, another week at least here in
South Carolina, some two hundred and sixty thousand households will

(31:50):
not be getting their snap benefits. Now, I know you're
hearing that. You're okay, well, yeah, all right, but you
know this military thing, another essential personnel who are having
to work, are right getting ready to miss a paycheck here?

(32:11):
This is uh you know, you know, I mean, honestly
in my life to this point. They said no impact,
but there's a lot of people around here who can't
say that. A lot of folks. Yep.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
So, uh, well, I mean all of us technically because
we're all protected by the military. Well well yeah, then
there's that, Yes, but you mean directly, I guess directly.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
Yeah, yesterday, another chance to uh move on past all this,
get the get the money flowing again. But again it
didn't happen. Democrats in the Senate yesterday blocked a Republican
bill that would not in the shutdown. But we pay

(33:00):
active duty members of the military and other essential federal employees,
folks who've been required to work during the shutdown. Because
this wasn't okay, let's reopen the government. This was, hey,
let's pay these people who were telling have to go
to work. The Shutdown Fairness Act of twenty twenty five

(33:20):
is what this bill was called. Ron Johnson put it
up the Wisconsin Senator again needed sixty votes to advance.
It got fifty four, mostly down party lines. Interesting to
note here on this one, of course, John Fetterman voted

(33:40):
I'm going to cross the island and voted in favor
of it. But interesting to note that the two senators
from Georgia also voted for this. Assoff and warnock okay,
John Thune said this would have included did this legislation

(34:04):
among the military certainly and others, but more than three
hundred congressional employees, including the Capitol police who, by the way,
the Capitol Police had to work without getting paid all
night Tuesday into Wednesday morning because Jeff Murkley, the Oregon
Democrat senator, wanted a grandstand and held the floor for

(34:29):
about twenty two and a half hours to protest Trump.
I'm betting. I could be wrong here, I'm betting Jeff
Murkley is taking his paycheck. Remember, members of Congress are
still getting paid. Now some of them, they'll turn it down.
But yeah, i'd have to look and see if I know.

(34:50):
When we first talked about this, Joe Wilson text me, right,
I said, I'm not taking my check. Yeah, I would
have to look and see our contingent here who is
taking a check and who's not. But their staffers aren't
getting paid. Okay. So again, this was not a piece

(35:12):
of legislation that would have reopened the government. This was
just let's pay the people who we've deemed essential and
Democrats with the exception of of of those couple. So yeah, no. Now,
in the midst of all this, Ron Johnson, who put
that bell up, objected to a request by Chris van Holland,

(35:34):
the Maryland Democrat. Okay, I'm confused. Now rejected a request
by Van Holland for the Senate to immediately consider impass
a bill to pay all federal workers, members of military,
and federal contractors.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
What oh, yeah, they were putting up peeing bills, So get.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
What kind of game is this? That was Van Hollins
the True Shutdown Fairness Act. So this is how ridiculous
this is. We've got Democrats on one side in the
Senate putting up a bill to do the exact same
thing that the Republicans on the other side of the

(36:15):
aisle are proposing. Can y'all stop playing games for a second,
You're dealing with people's lives here. Van Holland requested this
just before the Senate was really to take a vote

(36:37):
on Johnson's bill. John was like, no, steal my thunder
here the games these folks play.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
So one of the pop problems that Republicans had with
Van Hollinds bill was that it also limited Donald Trump's
ability to make any changes in the government during the shutdown?

Speaker 1 (37:01):
Right right, how about a clean bill here that just
that there is there's no, there's very little fairness in
all of this. Certainly, I mean, just because you're you're
you're not an essential worker and you're staying home, you're

(37:23):
still not getting a check. The boy for those who
are told, hey, get your butt to work, but no,
you're not going to get a check, there's no fairness
in that. Now, what about the House, because remember Mike Johnson,
the House Speaker that he's he's kept his folks at
home during all this again not a good look. Yesterday

(37:46):
saying he will not bring the House back to vote
to pay these essential employees or air traffic controllers as well.
We'll get to that in a second, saying that, well,
the measure would be to the Senate anyway, and oh, besides,
it take the pressure off of Schumer to get his
job done. Open the government again. He made these comments

(38:09):
at a press conference with Sean Duffy, the Transportation Secretary.
These air traffic controllers who up until this point have
been collecting a paycheck, but they're not going to get
a check next Tuesday.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
That's when there's okay, it goes away.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
And we've already seen slow downs and airports as a
result of all this. I mean just yesterday, massive delays
at LaGuardia, massive delays at Newark, massive delays at Reagan
National because of staffing issues. Well, they're getting ready to
not get a check come next Tuesday. You think we

(38:54):
got massive delays now, he ain't seen nothing, and yet
it's kind of getting to the point, I think for
a lot of folks. All right, let's just end this madness.
All right, let's just end it. And the thing the

(39:15):
Republicans have to be concerned about now, and we talked
about this yesterday. There's another new poll out I got
somewhere in this stack of stuff, I don't know where
it is, as Ryner somewhere again that shows that you know,
a majority of voters, you know, want these Obamacare subsidies
kept in place. Again, as we talked about yesterday, you

(39:44):
you can't make the assumption here that just because that
was a Democrat bill that only saw the latter day
thanks to John McCain, the Lady John McCain, that it's
only Democrats who are Obamacare. Nothing could be further from
the truth. You know, if if you work as an

(40:09):
independent contract or as a freelancer, if you're own your
own business, small business, this is your insurance. And if
you're a small business owner, this is the this is
the insurance sure you're probably getting for your employees. A
lot of conservatives out there who were who were on

(40:32):
the Obamacare is around here. It's blue cross, blue shield, right,
It's just the way it's administered. So uh yeah, there
are a lot of people who vote Republican election, and
an election out that are taking advantage of and enjoying
those subsidies.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
But those again, those those those are you're you're just
again this is this is a robbing from Peter to
pay Paul scenario.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
Yeah, I mean if if, if you can't pay for it,
and that goes to the larger problem of insurance these
days anyway. I mean, we we're all uninsured, it seems.
I mean, unless you've got some kind of gold standard policy,
you know, you're deductible's pretty high before you even start
getting insurance to kick in, and they're going up. So

(41:20):
it just I mean this for these claims that, oh, yeah,
well you know, we've got these great insurance plans and
it's until you have to use it. Yeah, until you
have to use it. And how much are you out
before it even starts to work for you?

Speaker 1 (41:35):
Yeah? So uh, but you're right, and and that is
a whole nother conversation right there. But still the optic
is is that these subsidies, which is said to be
the taking part for Democrats, No, we don't want to
give healthcare to illegals, well they are, but we get

(42:00):
to the point now where it doesn't matter how you
vote or how you think ideologically. People are getting by
the day more and more fed up with the chicanery here,
this nonsense coming out of Capitol Hill.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
And that's the problem. I mean, even if you're doing
the right thing, you might wind up being on the
wrong side of the of the people's perspective.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Right exactly, So, where are the adults in the room.
Somebody's got to figure this thing out here.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
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 1 (42:41):
It is fifteen after eight o'clock. It is Friday, October
the twenty fourth, and good morning to you. You know,
we talked last last hour about this, uh, this gambling
in sports and this huge story yesterday of the NBA
with a player and a coach active both and a

(43:04):
bunch of other folks who've gotten arrested.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
And we don't know, we may hear more names who know,
we may well, Yeah, they haven't completely finished the investigation yet.
They haven't tipped their hands on exactly who else they
might have in their sights.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
If I was gonna put money on this, I would
say there's a probably a number of folks right now
that are looking over their shoulder.

Speaker 3 (43:28):
Probably. I mean, i'd like, I'd like to think this
is an isolated case that not everyone in the league
is involved in. I mean, I mean, it's one thing
to gamble on your own sport, which we know they
shouldn't do, but does happen from time to time. It's
another thing to intentionally throw the results of a game

(43:52):
or in your case, of performance in order to sway gambling.
And it's another thing altogether to lure people in, people
who are supposedly friends, just to fleece them at the
poker table.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
Yeah. So yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
Mean it's when people here gambling, they think, oh gosh,
gambling is terrible. Well, not in itself, but it's only
terrible if you lose. These cases involve some major corruption, yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
And and and mafia ties and in relation to these
poker games, and that a that a a current NBA
head coach was involved in, according to the allegations. Yeah,
But the bigger picture is that the money in sports,
and the money in college sports now is I'm old school, Okay,

(44:38):
I'm never gonna like this idea. I'm never gonna like
the Yeah, I get it. I mean these college athletes,
uh for for since it's it's existed, these schools have
been making tons and tons of money off these kids.
I get it. But you know what, these kids were
getting a free education, They're getting you know, free accommodation,

(45:01):
they're getting free grub and the good stuff too. Man.
It wasn't like they weren't getting anything out of it.
And they were allegedly getting an education in the process, right,
and an opportunity to show what they had and maybe
get to the next level and make some serious money.

Speaker 3 (45:17):
But that all changed, of course, you know, the pendulum
has swung way too far the other way down.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
Yeah, so you know part of this story here now
here locally is the University of South Carolina and this
lawsuit that was filed by a guy who was an
open records advocate who wanted to know, all right, I

(45:43):
want to see the records, show me the money, show
me the money, right, and where it's going. And this
was I guess this was specifically with the football team, right,
not not with all sports. But he went, okay, who's
getting what? And the university has had a series of
reasons why they couldn't produce such information.

Speaker 3 (46:03):
That's the biggest problem with their defense. I mean, they
could have gone with a couple of things and been okay.
Instead they've gone with everything. They've thrown the kitchen sink
at Judge Daniel Coble and just said, you know, pick one,
pick the one that you think works best for us. Here,
help us out here, Bruh and Daniel Coboles has said,
you know, they don't all work together. These defenses that

(46:25):
you're using, they don't all make sense if you use
them all at the same time. You can't say we
don't have the records. They're all in private hands, meaning
you know sponsors and you know nil donors, et cetera. Yeah,
you can't say you don't have the records and then say, well,
we do have the records, but we're protecting them because
it's you know, student confidentiality. You can't use both those defenses,

(46:48):
which is what the university was doing. Or you could say,
you know, it's it's competitive this is competitive confidential information,
and that would work, but you can't you can't use
that with the other two as well. They've they've thrown
out every possible defense, including some competing defenses, and now
Daniel Coble's saying, you know, I mean it sounds like

(47:10):
he's leaning toward asking for more.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
Yeah. So the ruling as it stands right now from
Coble is that the school must turn over some of
the documents related to this revenue sharing. Now this is
not again, remember, this is not the money that well,
you know, advertiser or business X wanted to pay you know,

(47:34):
athlete why a certain amount of money to be put
on a billboard or whatever. Okay, this is this is
that revenue share. This is that money that was you know,
the school of twenty and a half million dollars. I
guess it was. So yeah, you got I mean, you've
got kids over there, and I think you probably know
who they are who are making a lot of money
by you know, getting sponsorship money to have their name,

(47:57):
image and likeness used. Then there's this other pot of
twenty and a half million dollars is being spread around
as well. That's what this is all about. Who's getting
one out of that?

Speaker 3 (48:07):
So now and how much of that is going to
you know, the schools are refusing to say exactly what
they are spending on football versus other sports. We have
a pretty good idea you know, Clemson said it was
going to maximize what it spent on football.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
So I want to rethink that the way the season is.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
Gone South Carolina with a little different perspective, given how
high profile the women's basketball program is, and who knows,
once once these numbers come out, if they ever officially
come out, you may have you know, some Title nine
challenges as a result.

Speaker 1 (48:47):
I bet you will. So this new order doesn't require
the Carolina release revenue sharing agreements, but it does require
the school to release is the state paper points out
confidential A confidential affid David, they submitted to the court.

(49:07):
So we're going to learn something out of this. And
I asked you earlier when we brought this up briefly, Uh,
do you expect anything to come out of this that
we go WHOA look at that? And I think you said, no,
no bombshells. You don't, mister Thompson doesn't think. I mean,

(49:29):
I don't. What do I know?

Speaker 3 (49:31):
I mean they're going to do everything they can to
fight that knowledge ever getting out. Yeah, because I mean,
before you even worry about what the public might think,
it's going to kill your locker room.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
That's the that's really the issue, isn't it, And you
don't you you know, you've seen this in the workplace.
You know. We don't want you to know what you're
you know, your fellow workers making here because it might
really tick you off. Yeah, you don't want guys in
the locker room pay you know, comparing paychecks if you're

(50:04):
in the NFL or proposed sports. Okay, everybody knows, but
not at the college level, at least not right now. Now.
Another quick note here, since we're on the University of
South Carolina, my alma mana news here. Back in July,
we mentioned this at the Times. Didn't make a big
deal out of it, but we mentioned that Donna Arnett,

(50:27):
provost and executive vice president for academic Affairs, left the
school abruptly and had surprised everybody over there. Apparently she
was well liked, she'd gotten consistently positive performance evaluations, had
consistently gotten her paychecks increased, and she well left to

(50:51):
you know, pursue other opportunities. When she was hired in
twenty twenty two, her salary was one hundred and sixty
five thousand dollars. By the way, if you if you
want to know what people over there are making in
these administrative roles, you know, the state. You can go

(51:14):
to the state website. Anybody making over fifty thousand dollars
they're naming their salary is going to pop up over there.
So she was making four hundred and sixty five thousand
back in twenty twenty two. She continued to get raises,
but she left in July, and now the State newspaper
has obtained documents the show she's still getting a salary

(51:44):
of three hundred and three thousand, eight hundred and eighty
eight dollar rows. Apparently when she left, she would don't
you wish you'd get this at your workplace? Right? Yeah,
I'd like to take a sabbatical, you know, I just
want to go away for a year. She wasn't eligible

(52:05):
for a sabbatical, but was released from her teaching in
service duties and given the title of Educational Foundation Distinguished
Professor and also given fifty thousand dollars in professional development
funding to restart her research. This is this is why

(52:25):
it's so expensive to go to the Institution of Higher Learning,
because you get this kind of stuff going on all
the time. So, yeah, she doesn't work there anymore, hadn't
since July and she's still knocking down three hundred grand plus.
I want that job.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
The latest news, traffic and weather is minutes. But as
you will learn next, that is what's happening from one
O 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 A. I'm WVOC once again.

(53:02):
Here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
Sad time for final thoughts. Here for a Friday morning time.
I was eight thirty eight. Let's started home where we
got a few things to talk about. Two years ago,
somebody whoever, somebody was bought a piece of land over
in Elgin on Spears Creek Church Road for about eight

(53:29):
million dollars give or take, actually seven million dollars or
the LLC okay an Investor Investment Group. So twenty twenty
three September twenty twenty three, seven million dollars for this
parcel of land. It just got sold again and that

(53:55):
was a pretty smart investment on their part. They turned
their seven million dollars into fifteen point nine million dollars. Well,
they pocketed at eight point nine million dollars off of sale.
Not bad, huh. Not quite as good as that lawsuit
we talked about earlier, the woman who fell on the
Target parking lot and Florida and got eleven point three

(54:18):
million dollars. But turn clothes.

Speaker 3 (54:22):
Are you suggesting they might have had inside information on
how valuable that land might be someday?

Speaker 1 (54:30):
Well, they got a heck of a deal apparently, because
the buyer, the purchaser of that parcel of land, and
it's a big piece of land. That paid fifteen point
nine million dollars. Richland School District too, But they say
they got a good deal too. Everybody's making money, everybody's happy,

(54:52):
except for the taxpayers. Yeah right, Wow.

Speaker 3 (54:56):
We've seen that happen in several school disc especially these
these districts that tend to balance between I mean they've
got they've got rural areas that they serve as well,
because those areas are prime and you can almost look
at maps and say, all right, this is where future

(55:18):
subdivisions are going, this is where future traffic's going. This
is a likely prime piece of property for you know,
the school that's going to have to be built ten
years down the road. And if you can afford to
sit on it that long, you're staring at a gold mine.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
And they need they need to build new schools. I mean,
Pontiac Elementary is at one hundred and twenty one percent
capacitor right now. So it's not that they don't need
the new schools. But my goodness, you've paid more than
double what somebody paid for two years ago, and it's
taxpayer money you're You know, I'm a proud graduate of

(55:55):
Spring Valley High School. When I went to Spring Valley
High School, though, I thought, my goodness, what in the
world do they build this thing way out here in
the boonies for I mean, it was a thirty minute
drive to get out to that place, right and there
was nothing anywhere near it except for Frank's hotdog stand.
That was it. I was out there Tuesday we buried

(56:22):
my mom with my dad for Jackson National Cemetery, and uh,
right out in that same area Percival Sparkleberry Clemson Road.
If you hadn't been out there, and if you would
have graduated from Spring Valley when I did, you went
up there, now, you'd be what in the world happened.

Speaker 3 (56:39):
There's not a square inch that hasn't been.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
Developed, right By the way, I don't mean to get
off on a tangent here, but since I brought it
up and reminded me, the staff, who you know, it's
they're feral workers. There's some they're working not getting paid
at the Fort Jackson National Cemetery. Unbelievable. What an amazing

(57:09):
job they do out there. And you know that Reads
Across America is coming up December thirteenth, I think it
is where they place wreaths on every single one of
those those markers, and there are I think it's like
six thousand now something like that.

Speaker 3 (57:27):
That's just at Fort Jackson.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
That's just at Fort Jackson. Yeah. And by the way,
my wife had a conversation with Frank out there yesterday
and they would love to have volunteers to help out
for the Reads Across America December thirteenth and that Memorial
Day they do, you know, something similar. So if you'd
like to, you know, take a couple hours and go

(57:51):
out there and help lay wreaths on December thirteenth, you
have to even, right, you just show up, just show up.
They'll put you over it. Okay. Another water Apparently a
bunch of them water line breaks thanks to fiber optic
companies doing digging. Why this is? How does this continue

(58:13):
to happen? This time it's Lumo's Fiber who. I think
they've had issues in the past, as I recall the
Laurel Metals Laurel Meadows Subdivision, Lexington County, they've had to
hit the pause button down because they keep breaking water lines.

Speaker 3 (58:35):
It's pretty simple. You either having marked them or you're
not paying attention to the markings. One of the two.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
I'm sorry. The simple idea that you don't speak English
doesn't mean you can't see where the water line is.
I have another story to tell on that a ripple
fiber came into our neighborhood and not only they bust
water lines, they bust at a gas line. Matter of fact,
the neighborhood next to ours, where the mayor of Lexton lives,
they messed up. It was a gas line at the

(59:02):
front the only interest of that neighborhood. I had to
shut it down for the better part of a day
and that got the mayor's attention. That's when they hit
the pause button over there. Back earlier this year, I
guess it was they came by and wanted me to
sign up and I said, yeah, I've seen your work.
No thanks. Actually I considered it for a minute because

(59:22):
it was going to be, you know, free for a
month or whatever to try it out. And I said
at the time, I said, I'll tell you what if
you can can hook me up without destroying my yard.
Then I had second thoughts later on I said, no,
I just forget the whole thing, do you know? And
that was probably three four months ago. Do you know
that earlier this week a group showed up at my

(59:44):
house and started digging around of the pine straw in
my front yard. They were getting ready to get started,
and Anne went out there and said, what are you doing?
And do you know that the individual she was speaking
to didn't understand a word of what she said? Well,

(01:00:05):
I think just an observation.

Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
I think a lot of people get confused, you know
when they come in and you know there's easements and the.

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
Right of way, get that right away to do certain things.

Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
Yes, people see them come into what they considered their
yard and start digging and say, wait just a minute,
I didn't agree to this.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
Well yeah you did, Yeah you did. Unfortunately this wasn't
that though. Yeah, but anyway, rom ready the guy behind
the dough jes See efforts. And remember he got he
started all this because not because necessarily I don't think
he was interested in, you know, cutting back on government overspend.
But he was just unhappy with government intrusion. He thought

(01:00:42):
when they told him that his home at Isle of Palms,
that seawall he built, had to be torn down. The
lawsuit ensued, and well a judge yesterday one that yeah,
that that seawall is built illegally, you got to take
it down Ram. But the judge did vacate the fine
that was most to three hundred thousand dollars. James Gonznell,

(01:01:05):
the former magistrate down in the Low Country, pleading not
guilty yesterday to that nine count federal indictment over I mean,
really really horrible allegations of child porn and not just
viewing it. Okay, there's that we talked about Melissa earlier

(01:01:28):
at some length of tropical still tropical storm. But it
is moving now at one mile an hour one mile
an hour, and it's not going to move a whole
lot in the next almost week really, and they're talking
some of the models suggesting, and I've seen a number
of meteorologists and other weather folks talk about this this
morning online. Some of the models of the euro Model

(01:01:50):
I think it is says you could actually see down
around Jamaica by sometime early next week, maybe Tuesday, wind
gusts of up to two hundred miles an hour and
total rainfall amounts for places like Jamaica and some spots
could reach up to forty inches. This is a deadly,

(01:02:13):
deadly storm if it pans out the way they're saying
is going.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
To we got crazy deadly by comparison, about twenty five
twenty six inches in the worst spots and here in
the Midlands. Yeah, you saw what a back in twenty fifteen.

Speaker 1 (01:02:29):
You may not be vacationing in Jamaica anytime soon if
this holds up, and it will be massive loss of life.
If I thought, if what some of these bossy just
happens has happened. Meantime, first world problems that Amazon Web
services outedge a couple of days ago apparently affected some
people who have plumped out a bunch of money to
buy a particular bed. Eight sleep mattresses that are smart mattresses.

(01:02:51):
Oh yeah, they heat up, they cool, they adjust to
your your needes as you're sleeping, and people were hop
and mad. Oh and by the way, you got to
pay a monthly fee in order to have it do that.
So when that went down, then you had people complaining
about my bed got too hot, or it put me up,
it sandwiched me like a pretzel. Hey, you know, there's

(01:03:12):
a thing called a couch. Try it out next time.
These are mattresses that go from between twenty five hundred
and seven thousand dollars. That's the mattress. And then you
got to pay every month in order to keep the
right first world problems there. And chimpanzees in Michigan are
not people. The State Court of Appeals just ruled they're

(01:03:35):
not people with human rights. Man, I thought the humans
would lose that case. Thank goodness we didn't.