Show Rewind 10-31-2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Elesus fly hell, same America for one nation, and this
is wrong.

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

Speaker 3 (00:29):
You know there's at least one person on this program
that is all into Halloween and it ain't me anymore.
Good morning, and then welcome ed. It is sixteen minutes
after six o'clock. I'll wait, I'm gonna stuck. I need
to talk like this now. There you go, something like that.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Right, yeah, freak us out a little bit. It's Friday,
October thirty, first Halloween.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
Okay, good morning. You get the candy ready? I think
it's ready. Okay, And came home with some Reese's cups yesterday.
Oh the little ones, Oh got the big ones? The
little ones? Yeah, I said, you know we're gonna have
to wind up eating all those.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
You don't think you're gonna have any kids tonight?

Speaker 3 (01:15):
We don't, aren't there. You know, we're we're a maturing neighborhood.
Yeah you've said that more than once. That's code. Yeah,
we're an old neighborhood, a bunch of old folks. Man,
ain't many kids in our neighborhood, and the neighborhood next
to ours is a lot bigger. So I'm going to
guess if they if they're if they're going to to
score the goodies or going to the neighborhood next door

(01:35):
not to ours.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
But uh, hey, here we go.

Speaker 1 (01:38):
I don't know. It's it's not like it used to be.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
All the trunk retreats going on and such, and I
mean that's that's where all the kids you go on
these days. Anyway, So well, welcome to it. Good to
have you along. My name is Gary David. That there
is Christopher Thompson, the Halloween guy. I'm not really a
Halloween guy. I just I like the music in the movies.
I know, I mean I used to. I think any
kid likes the Oh sure, the holiday though. We're going

(02:03):
through a bunch of old photos and slides. Grab my
dad's old slide projector out. Oh. A couple of weeks ago,
trying to look for some old slides to the family
and such, and came across some pictures that I hadn't
seen it probably fifty years You dress up, Yeah, okay,
I was a pirate long before being a pirate was popular.

(02:26):
So yeah, And I used to set up with the
fog machine out in the front door and such. You know,
even as an adult, I did that. But I don't know,
I just got old. I guess just got old. Well,
welcome in anyway, whether you're enjoying the Halloween festivities tonight
or not, it's good to have you with us. We
appreciate that we have news to talk about here on
a Friday, Halloween or not.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
And some of it is scary. Yeah, let's get right
to it.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
The rundown, the big stories of hot topics, the government
shut down rolling on, and the snap benefits ending as
of midnight tonight. So here we are, day thirty one
of this shutdown, and they left town, and they left town.
They're not going to be back in DC until Monday.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Right they got so any hopes of this about candy
and such, any hopes of this is getting done before
Saturday gone?

Speaker 4 (03:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
I guess my my theory that the Democrats would cave
today before the midnight deadline for the snap benefits is
was inaccurate. So uh, maybe next week will be the time.
Who knows. But we've got debates going on across the
country and across our state I don't know.

Speaker 4 (03:34):
What to do.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
And you know, if you've got you've got Republicans that
we got to do something about this.

Speaker 4 (03:39):
We can't let this happen.

Speaker 3 (03:43):
And as as our state is concerned, a bunch of
a bunch of folks, some two hundred and sixty thousand households,
we'll go without those benefits after midnight tonight. You've got
what was we talked about yesterday? This this this fund
set up, and I think Duke Energy has donated a
bunch of money to it.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
They've dropped a big ton in there.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
It's going to be the corporate folks who try to
pick up the you know, the load of this here.
But will it be enough? Well, we're getting ready to
find out, aren't we now.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
Again.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
Part of this whole debate over the government shutdown has
to do with the subsidies for Obamacare, and Obamacare open
enrollment starts tomorrow and where it is according to Kaiser
Family Foundation and their studies of this, almost six hundred

(04:39):
and thirty two thousand South Carolinians you start looking at
shopping for next year may see their health insurance premiums
more than double.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
And that's putting aside the subsidies debate. Yeah, everything's going
up anyway.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
M h. Everything is.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
It's going up period, and we'll get into some of
those numbers later on, but it's pretty scary. So, I mean,
what better day to talk about that than this one
right here? Halloween?

Speaker 4 (05:06):
Right? More money earned?

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Curtis loft Is our state's treasurer yesterday, and yes, Curtis
loft Is is still our statege treasurer, even though some
tried to boot him out. One point seven billion dollars
in earning from our state's investments. Ain't bad that announcement
coming out of the Treasurer's office yesterday, saying that that
money provided to funding for schools, for roads, for public safety,

(05:32):
and for local governments across the state of South Carolina.
One point seven billion in earnings. Nicely none meantime, the
gubernatorial race just one mention of today, Josh Kimbrel.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
Yeah, he's still running for governor.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
I'm not where he finds the time to do it,
but fits News writing an article that Kimberle, in his
position as a state senator now, is using his position
as state senator to try to push back on a
lawyer that represents well his rival business partner, and I

(06:08):
don't know, this might be a little shady here. We'll
have to have to get into some of that the
way he's going about doing that using his office as
a state senator, Charleston, Tell if you're much more familiar
with the low country than I am. But there's a
tree I think it's on James Island called the Widow Maker. Yep, yeah, okay,
Well apparently it's been the scene of a lot of

(06:30):
cars running off the road and hitting this tree and
people dying over the years.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
And there are I mean, there are I think I
can think of two or three that are like this
around the state, and a lot of them are in
rural areas. But what's the deal with it. It's not
like a curve there on the road. Yeah, it's just
I mean, it's one of those where and especially in
the dark, you know, it can be you can be
on the road and then off the road and it
just so happens there's this tree. There's historic tree that's

(06:56):
right in the path if you veer off the road.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Well, the lawsuit's now been filed by the family of
a couple of brothers who were killed in a crash
into that tree. Back in twenty twenty three. But the
thing here is that the woman who was driving the car,
this was after a night out celebrating at a bar, okay, apparently,
was going as fast as ninety five miles an hour.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
That's not as stretch. I would wouldn't do that on you.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
And before hitting the brakes as she approached the area
they called dead Man's Curve, well, she smashed into that tree.
Apparently she survived it, but I think four others in
the car died as a result.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Remember that stretch on I twenty six in between here
and Charleston, and there were all kinds of trees back
in the old days, and so many people ran into
those trees, ran off the highway that they raised the trees.

Speaker 4 (07:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
Well, but when you're going ninety five, I'm not sure
how she's The family of these two brothers is suing
the Department of Transportation and Charleston for this.

Speaker 4 (07:59):
It's interesting.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
If you're going to go off routing, there's only so
much that the Department of Transportation can do to protect.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
You at ninety five miles an hour.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
Yeah, uh keing Jefferies dig again his heels. Even as
now we've got major airlines along with unions and others
calling for an end to the shutdown, but dims again
not given in yet and as mister Thompson mentioned, they've
left town. You've got major industry CEOs now calling on
Congress to end the madness. Here the Hill with the

(08:27):
headline that the Democrats the Republicans looking for an off
ramp to maybe end this shutdown next week in the
President now urging the Republicans to end this by going
nuclear and ditching the filibuster on this. They've got enough
votes if it weren't for the filibuster to reopen the government.
Trump also urged Democrats to tackle these Affordable Care Act,

(08:48):
these Obamacare premiums. As we mentioned, they are going up
and in some cases bigly. Right, all right, we'll get
to that. We got more to talk about as a
lot to cover here this morning. On this the Halloween Friday,
October thirty, first edition of Columbia's Morning News.

Speaker 4 (09:05):
Good to have you with us.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
Hear about it, we go wake up for the country,
talk about it.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
This is this is here Evil.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
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 3 (09:29):
It is six forty one on Friday morning, October thirty. First,
it is Halloween. Welcome to it tomorrow, the first day
of November. Again, as we talked about earlier, we well
talked about more of the scary stuff, you know, the shutdown,
the snap benefits going away, f'll government workers still not
getting paid, YadA, YadA, YadA. But with the new calendar month,

(09:51):
we inch closer to the big day. And again this year,
retailers aren't waiting targets to big three day sale starting Sunday,
Black Friday deals starting November the second, just three days, okay,

(10:12):
but they'll be putting out new deals and bringing them
all the way through Christmas Eve. I think Walmart's doing
the same thing. We're all jumping in this is This
has been the case now for a little while, hasn't it.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
I mean Black Friday has gone farther and farther back
on the calendar. It's like Black two months now. It's yeah,
I mean, how do you add it up? At this point?
It used to be the holiday retail season and you
knew exactly when you were talking about now, retail season
is going back to November.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
November.

Speaker 3 (10:43):
Oh yeah, And of course not that I get out
and the brick or mortar stores had much anymore. But
the time or two I have been in the last
few weeks, the Christmas store has been not for a while.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
I oh yeah, right, yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
Yeah, okay, all right, onto Operation Arctic Frost, which, by
the way, I was totally unaware of this, but Arctic
Frost is actually the name of a type of orange.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
Did you know that, mister Thompson, I did not a
type of orange.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
What does that have to do with this case?

Speaker 4 (11:16):
Well? Who is targeted in Operation Artic Frost?

Speaker 1 (11:18):
Ah? Donald Trump? Orange band?

Speaker 4 (11:21):
Bad?

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Gotcha?

Speaker 4 (11:24):
Just a coincidence this name?

Speaker 3 (11:26):
Or does it tell you a little more about Obviously,
this whole thing was targeted toward Trump to begin with,
which we already knew. But or was this just kind
of some FBI sense of humor working here Artic Frost.
This is what Chuck Grassley has been uncovering and laying

(11:46):
out this week what some.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
All told.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
I think the number of escapes me right out of
the exact number, but something were in the neighborhood of
four hundred and forty Republicans and Republican entities that were
targeted by the FBI and the DOJ in this operation.
This was all about the you know, the the vote
thing and all that from dating back to twenty twenty

(12:13):
and then we'd heard previously that I mean, phones were
being tapped, emails were being looked at between the major
Republican figures, Lindsey Graham being one of them. But now
with Grassley's revelations, I should say this week, we found
out it was bigger than we thought, pretty much targeting

(12:33):
the entire Republican apparatus, weaponization of the DOJ, weaponization of
the FBI, not by the Republican Party, by the Democrat Party.
So now we've learned that the two major phone carriers

(12:55):
took a different to paths when it came to the
subpoenaed phone records. This is from Jack Smith's team. UH
Fox News Digital has seen some redacted subpoenas and letters.
They show that Verizon complied and apparently complied fully with

(13:22):
these subpoenas from Jack Smith's team. AT and T, on
the other hand, resisted, m We'll go for them. How

(13:42):
many people are actually even aware of this again, just
just to just to just to stop for a second
think about it. I mean, this is one political party,
basically TI targeting another political party in its entire with
subpoenas for phone records and text messages, emails. I mean,

(14:07):
you name it, and not just one or two people. Again,
basically the entire Republican apparatus in Washington, d C. Targeted
by the Democrat Party through the DOJ and the FBI.
It's a pretty big story in a country that prides
itself on its democracy. It's the kind of thing you

(14:29):
think you'd be hearing out of, you know, Venezuela or something,
or some banana republic in some third world country. But
this is the United States of America. It ought to
be a story that just enrages every American citizen, no
matter who you vote for. I'm gonna be honest with you.
If this was the shoe, we're on the other foot here,

(14:52):
and this was the Republican Party weaponizing the Department of
Justice and the FBI and going after records from pretty
much every Democrat in DC. Well be outraged at that too,
and so should you. But how many people are even
aware of this story?

Speaker 4 (15:12):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (15:12):
It was just a couple of days ago that Grassley
laid out, and he laid out plenty. But are you
hearing this in the mainstream media? Are you seeing it
on TV? Are you reading it online? In print?

Speaker 4 (15:29):
Yeah? Not not much.

Speaker 3 (15:35):
The New York Times, for instance, has been concerned in
recent weeks about personnel changes at DOJ and Trump's alleged
use of the federal government's vast intelligence gathering and law
enforcement authority to cast the specter of criminality on mister

(15:57):
Trump's enemies. That's what New York Times has been writing.
Have they addressed this vast intelligence gathering operation by the left? No,
not at all. They have totally ignored this story, also

(16:19):
largely ignored by The Washington Post. CBS News, maybe not
for long. CBS News is turning over a new leaf.
Gail King is on the way out on the Morning
show on CBS. How about that?

Speaker 1 (16:32):
Yeah, but the rumor is Hoda Cottby's going to replace her?
Oh really, that's one of the rumors flying around. Okay,
but yeah, that wouldn't hurt. No, it wouldn't hurt. Mum's
the word from ABC. They're basically if they're if they're
writing anything, it's just a little quick blurb.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
Basically, this is I mean, this ought to be a.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
Massive headline story in every publication, leading every newscast. Now
over at MSNBC and NBC they're talking about Jack Smith
as they're talking about, well, he's a victim here, he's

(17:16):
a victim. Now he's on Trump's enemies list. And they're
even going as far as trying to say this Operation
Arctic Frost was an a political investigation and that Republican
concerns are unhinged. That's what you're getting from. Oh, let's
like MSNBC and NBC news. Really, okay, a political It

(17:36):
can't be a political when one party targets basically the
entire other party. There's nothing a political about that. So yeah, no,
the vast majority of Americans have no idea this has happened,
no idea at all.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
You're listening to Columbia's Morning News on one oh three
point five FM and five sixty WVOC. Once again, here's
Gary David and Christopher Thompson.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
You can have Halloween without the Halloween theme right still?
The classic Oh.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
Yeah, who wrote this to you know, not the movie,
the music, the music. Yeah, there's like three guys in
Hollywood and write all the sound.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
John Williams would be the first guest, but yeah, I
don't think he wrote that.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
I don't know. I'd have to look it up. Good morning,
and welcome to it. It's Friday, October thirty one. It's Halloween,
and they are scary times upon us, my friends.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
I'm Gary David. That is Christopher Thompson.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
John Carpenter who directed it actually, oh wrote that, yeah,
and composed it.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
Really, how about that? Met of many talents. Yeah, I
was not aware of that. It's sixteen after the hour,
seven o'clock. Again, scary times for a number of reasons.
As we've been talking ad nauseum about the government shut
down and the impending deadline for Snap benefits. That's tonight,

(19:03):
and and DC's left town, left you holding the bag. Yeah,
nothing else is Snap benefit. Nothing happened every day.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
There won't be a Hail Mary on Saturday morning.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
No, no, no, They're gone until Monday. So in the meantime,
deal with it. Open enrollment for Obamacare starts tomorrow. Tomorrow's Sundays.
I think it's tomorrow. We mentioned yesterday they released the

(19:36):
rape plans and that was scary for a lot of people. Okay,
subsidies aside for a second, we're looking at you know,
races that are going up for everybody, the Republicans Trump,
They've all been saying this for a while. Now, it's
it's broken. It's a flawed system.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
I think at this point you could probably stretch that
to the entire healthcare system.

Speaker 4 (20:05):
You could do that.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah, but yeah, this in particular doesn't work.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
According to the analysis and the review from the Kaiser
Family Foundation, when open enrollment begins tomorrow here in South Carolina,
nearly six hundred and thirty two thousand of us might
see health insurance premiums more than double. For example, again,

(20:39):
subsidies aside the marketplace premiums are going up. In states
like South Carolina, premiums are up thirty percent on average,
according to the Kaiser Family Foundation analysis. Now, expiring subsidies yeah, now,

(21:00):
now you're talking, and there's no guarantee those will or
won't expire. Yeah, that's part of this whole, this whole package.
But it doesn't look like the Republicans have any reason
now to give into the Democrats on this, at least
not on the topic of getting it done in order
to get the vote to reopen the government. All along

(21:23):
the Republicans have said, let's get the budget passed or
the continuing resolution, not a budget, not the same thing.
We don't do budgets anymore in this country. We do
continuing resolutions, and then we can talk about these subsidies.
Now I've made this point before. You know, all politics
aside on this. If you aren't covered under an employer

(21:49):
health plan, then you're on Obamacare, right, I mean, well,
I guess I remember asking the Jeff Halliwot Health Markets
this question one time. I think, and I hope I'm
not saying this wrong, but I think he did say that, yeah,
you can go out and get a health plan and
not be on Obamacare. But it's uh, it's it's gonna

(22:13):
cost you.

Speaker 4 (22:14):
A whole lot more.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
And old then the whole The one thing Obamacare does
do is again it doesn't preclude you from getting health
insurance based on your prior health issues, of course, right, yeah,
it's one of the big selling points all those years ago.
Now you do have you don't hear them advertise that
much anymore.

Speaker 4 (22:36):
For a while.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
You heard them all the time, these plans, and I
can't think of the exact term you call them. But
these basically health sharing plans, right, They're very popular with
some folks, and I've heard mixed reviews on how well
they work.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Sharing.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
Yeah, you pay a certain and it's it's a lot
less expensive than having health insurance. But everybody's kind of
paying into a pot and then when you need some
you go in there and grab some out of the pot. Oh,
these these health share plans not a lot of people.
I mean, there are very popular with certain individuals, but

(23:13):
it's not a dominant force in the industry. So again,
if you're not working for an employer who is covering
your health insurance for you, or if you're working for
a small business owner getting insurance to them, it's probably
again Obamacare, and these are around here. I mean there's
a number of carriers, but I mean blue Cross Blue Shield,
it's the same thing you have if you've got Blue

(23:34):
Cross Blue Shield to an employer. Now it's the same
thing through Obamacare, all right. So the point is this
that there are a lot of people out there. There
are a lot of entrepreneurs, freelancers, get economy workers of
folks who politically may be conservative, but they're on Obamacare
because it's the only choice. So this is gonna this

(23:55):
is going to cut across both parties supporters here. Again,
the smart thing to do a while ago would have
been trying to come up with a way to figure
out how do we fix this problem to begin with?
And I think it hasn't been fixed because I don't
think there are any good answers. I don't think anybody

(24:17):
really knows. But instead we use the under the guise
of the pandemic, these subsidies, and now we've gotten used
to it. And as they always say, what government gives,
it's hard for government to take away. If these enhanced

(24:37):
subsidies go away, households that are earning four hundred percent
more than the federal poverty level will no longer receive
any credits at all. South kell Indians who are earning
between one percent and four percent more than the poverty
level will get smaller subsidies. And I've seeing some scary

(25:02):
numbers here. Over ninety five percent of South Carolinians on
these plans, to state paper reports, are using these premium subsidies.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
There was an.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
Example I'm not being finding because I had it in
front of you here just a minute ago. It was
if you were in a situation where you were making
I think it's more than sixty two five hundred dollars
a year, you could see premiums now that would exceed
your mortgage pimentof okay, you could see premiums that are

(25:39):
as much as twelve hundred to thirteen hundred dollars a month.

Speaker 4 (25:49):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
Here's one of the examples I use here, and this
is when the Kaiser Family Foundations study. A sixty year
old couple making eighty five thousand dollars here in this
area in the Midlands could pay against this for the
couple could pay two four hundred and twenty two dollars

(26:12):
a month.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yep, that's more than my mortgage.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
Right yeah, oh yeah, And that's the silver plan. Okay,
that's that mid tier plan. Right now, with these enhanced subsidies,
that same sixty year old couple making eighty five thousand
a year, which is by the way, is not a
lot of money, is paying six hundred.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
And two dollars a month.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
That's a big jump.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
Yeah, from six hundred two dollars a month to more
than twenty four hundred.

Speaker 4 (26:41):
Dollars a month.

Speaker 1 (26:43):
And that doesn't cover all your doctor's care or your
lab tests at hospitalization, et cetera. That just gets you
in the door. That just allows you to go to
the front test everything else. Yeah, and say yeah, here's
my insurance plan. Oh you're covered. Okay, we'll come on in,
we'll treat you.

Speaker 3 (27:00):
Households that are making more than one hundred and twenty
eight thousand, six hundred a year would no longer be
eligible for any subsidies at all. So we can have
the argument all day long about you know, is it
fairsh that we had done it to begin with. But
the bottom line is there's a lot.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
Of people.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
And if you want to put the public local label
on it, liberals and conservatives alike, they're going to see
extreme sticker shock if these are are if these do
go away, so to speak politically about it again, if
that happens, a lot of people gonna hold somebody responsible.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
Give yourself an edge every morning with the info you
can count them. On Columbia's Morning You I gotta know
what's happening on one oh three point five FM on
five sixty AM dou 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 VOCs

(27:55):
seven forty.

Speaker 4 (27:56):
Good morning and good to have you along.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
You know we've mentioned at the Rundown the six o'clock
hour this morning, this story coming from the posting Courrier
about a tree that is at the center of a
lawsuit that has been filed this This tree is known
as a widow maker. And until I ask you about this,
because you're very familiar, you got family down in that area,

(28:17):
you know which this this is.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Yeah, I mean the tree is literally about a foot
maybe not even a foot off the road. I mean
the road curves to the left and that tree. I'm
surprised the roots haven't impacted that that road over the years.
It is a historic tree. It's huge, it's old. But
you swing your car, you know, eight inches to the right,

(28:43):
you're going to hit that tree as you're coming as
you're approaching a curve at night. Distracted. I mean, it's
it's it's a dangerous place to be.

Speaker 4 (28:56):
And it's well known to anybody that lives in James Island.

Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yeah, there are people who posted signs on it.

Speaker 4 (29:03):
You know, it's calling it the window maker.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yeah. I think there's one of those orange hazard signs.

Speaker 4 (29:09):
In the area.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
Yeah, there was an accident there back in twenty twenty three,
just about two years ago and November twenty twenty three
that killed four people, not the driver though apparently that accident.

(29:32):
In the decade leading up to it, crashes at that site,
thirty five vehicles hit trees in this area, not necessarily
this tree, but trees in a one point two mile
stretch of roadway. Those crashes left at least twenty people

(29:52):
injured and one dad. That was before this one that
killed four people. Well, now again the driver survived, and
there is a criminal case against the driver because the
driver was doing ninety five miles an hour on that roadway.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
That's not anything I would tackle, Okay, on any roadway
actually other than Darlington or yeah, Charlotte Motters people, Well
maybe a straightaway. Yeah, I feel more comfortable on a straightaway.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
They've been out celebrating a birthday at a local bar
and the driver again going down that road at ninety
five miles an hour, and according to Action Reconstruction, had
briefly pumped the brakes as she approached what the locals
called dead Man's Curve. Well, the car hit the tree

(30:52):
point of the story is now the family of two
of the brothers who were killed in that wreck are
suing the Department of Transportation and the City of Charleston
over this.

Speaker 1 (31:03):
I just sent you a picture of the tree by
the way, and I don't know if you can access
your email from where you are, but you've got so
many computers in so many studios.

Speaker 4 (31:12):
Yeah, oh yeah, it's right, there, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Wow, I don't know that. I mean, I understand, and
I certainly I share the grief for the family, but
as do I. Yeah, this happens all too many times,
and usually Dot just jumps right in and says, okay,
we'll take down the tree. You can't always blame the
tree when something like this happens. It's in a terrible place.

(31:38):
I agree, it's in a dangerous spot. But in this
particular instance, ninety five Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
I mean, if this person was fun in the speed limit, okay,
maybe so. But when that driver is driving ninety five
miles Again, this is not the family of the driver.

Speaker 4 (31:50):
This is the family of two of the dead brothers
that were in that car. Right.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
You know, if you want to civilly hold somebody responsible,
I would say the driver and I guess they have.
I've sued the driver in a civil suit. But adding
on the Department Transportation of the city to the list
when that driver is going ninety five miles an hour,
I don't know how you can well anyway, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (32:14):
Okay, Josh Kimberl.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
We only talk about Josh Camberell when it comes to,
you know, litigious things. Nobody's talking about his campaign for governor,
not even Josh apparently. I'm not aware of any events
he's held. You have to expect their worst. But still,
but remember he's still a state senator. So here it

(32:37):
comes this story Fitznews reporting that he's pushing back at
an attorney for his former business partner, and he's pushing
back using his official position as a stage senator. How's
he doing that, well, Walt Wilkins is it used to

(33:00):
be the thirteenth Thircond solicitor up in the Upstate. He
resigned that position back on June one of this year,
went back into private practice, and one of his first
cases that he took on was to represent Frank George Rogers,

(33:20):
the Upstate businessman, in a lawsuit that Rogers was filing
against Josh Kimberl. Okay, Well, now Kimberrell, as state senator,
has announced his intentions that he's pre filing legislation that
would bar a solicitor for two years after leaving office

(33:46):
from representing a client for a fee or appearing in
a court in the district from which he was elected. Now,
I don't know if he'll be successful in getting this
legislation across the finish line.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
That's similar to the laws we've passed about lobbyists before. Right, Hey,
when you leave, you can't just start capitalizing and monetizing
your ties right off the bat. You get to wait
a couple of years.

Speaker 3 (34:11):
Yeah, But so far, I guess this has not been
an issue for anybody, And the question is, well, this
has been an issue for Josh Kimberrill, had not been
for this particular case, and that he's getting sued by
somebody who's being represented by somebody who just did this,
who just left that office. So I mean, it's obvious

(34:32):
what the intention is here and why is it an
abuse of the office in this particular case for getting
involved in a legal action that includes himself here or
it's all fair and love war politics in the courts.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
Well, if he feels that strongly about it, but doesn't
want to appear as if he's doing it just for himself.
Why doesn't he grandfather in you know cases that already
book are already in the books. I mean, if he
if he thinks that should be a law and doesn't
want to stand in the way with his own position,

(35:11):
then say, okay, well you know anything that's already laid out,
we'll let that pass. But after that, I feel so
strongly about this law that it should go into endo
the books that it will pass it. Well, you want
to see that happen.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
Well, of course, the bigger story here is is that
Josh Kimball spending all his time doing this sort of
thing and you're not running for governor, all right, And
then there's that.

Speaker 4 (35:31):
Then there's that.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
You're listening to Columbia's morning news on one oh three
point five FM and five sixty am WVOC. Once again,
here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson's.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Fifteen minutes after eight o'clock? Is this a song to
do anything? I was just gonna do that. There it
is haunting piano, It is very haunting. Yeah, it's gonna
be our government's theme song.

Speaker 4 (35:59):
This is the shutdown.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
The You never know what's coming around the court, never know.
Sixteen after a good morning to you, thanks for being here.
Halloween twenty twenty five. Oh, by the way, don't forget.
Early voting for the municipal elections ends today. Okay, early voting,
turning back the clocks. Learning about the clocks this weekend
a lot to remember. A big upset in Oxford, Mississippi.

(36:24):
Will we be talking about that on Monday? Okay, that'd
be kind of nice. Would I put money on it?

Speaker 4 (36:30):
You know? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (36:32):
Early voting ends today. Municipal elections Tuesday. Maybe that's how
way it works. You know, at Monday, the day before
the election itself, there is no early voting, So you got,
you know, Columbia mayor, you got to Paris and Sundry
council races. Man, if you love were I doing elections,
you'd think it was a presidential election. Al most without
the presidential election signs. They're everywhere, man, everywhere.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
Come down as quickly as they went up, that's always
the question. All right.

Speaker 3 (37:06):
Then the shutdown continues Day thirty one. Now Coman's been
shut down all month long. Now you've got major airlines,
Delta Airlines, calling on Congress to immediately pass a clean
continuing resolution and reopen the government to ensure that air
traffic controllers, the TSA agents and others are in the

(37:29):
federal workforce are getting their paychecks. So Delta airlines on
the car. You know, here's something it didn't even occur
to me until yesterday. Bad enough that you've got so
many air traffic controllers, who are you know, calling out
sick that we've got you know, major ground stops at
major airports across the country. Which again, this happened last

(37:51):
time we had a government shut down. We knew it
happened this time, and show enough it did. But consider this,
I mean, these are again individuals are being told to
go to work to not get paid. Consider this problem.
Now you've got people in control towers, which is an incredibly,

(38:14):
incredibly high stressful job. You got a lot of people's
lives in your hands, man, And now you've got folks
in these control towers, the ones that are showing up
to work who may be a little off fair game
because they're stressed out and worried about more things than
just what planes are controlling. Right, how are they going

(38:38):
to make the mortgage payment? Or maybe they're they picked
up a side gig in their war out.

Speaker 4 (38:44):
You know.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
Now you've got that issue on your hands on top
of the fact of well just the fact that some
of these towers just don't have enough people to operate.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
Yeah, these aren't the folks that you can afford to.
And they're also dedicated. It's not like they would just
sit there and intentionally slack off. No no, no, doze on
the radar screen. But yeah, you're right, they've got other concerns.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
Now, they've got distractions. Yeah, you don't want the heart
surgeon doing open heart surgery on you when when that
that that that that that doctor has got other things
on their mind, right, you know you don't am focusing
on the on the job number one here, So there's
that problem. Well, uh, Delta Airlines, now, uh that again

(39:27):
the biggest federal government employees union, various and sundry other organizations.

Speaker 4 (39:37):
Matter.

Speaker 3 (39:37):
We had both Teamster's president, Sean O'Brien, oh and the
United Airlines also their CEO calling for the shutdown to end,
and uh, well it didn't happen yesterday and guess what
it won't happen today.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
Why is that mister.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
Thompson, because everybody's left town. Well, the Senate's left town.

Speaker 4 (39:57):
Senates left town house has been left town for a
while now.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
So it won't happen before tonight, before the snap benefits
run out. Will it happen soon? Will it be next week? Potentially?
The Hill reporting that both sides in the Senate trying
to hammer out a proposal to end this as soon
as next week, saying that some centrist Democrats behind the

(40:30):
scenes are arguing that their party is successfully highlighted rising
healthcare costs. Yeah, we all know it, and it's time
to end the stalemate and move on. Remember again, as
we talked about earlier, Affordable Care Act, Open Marketplace, Obamacare
open Rollman stars tomorrow, and it's going to be a

(40:50):
shocking and scary time for some well everybody. You know,
these rates are going up, even regardless of whether or
not theidies will be back in or not, just the
basic rates going up. Trump weighing in meantime that he's
back in the country and uh, you know asking uh

(41:11):
Senate Republicans and leadership there too, well drop the Trump
card here, and that is the nuclear option. Seemingly we've
done that for less important things. Trump wants Republicans to
end this filibuster. Okay, will they do it? I get this.

(41:35):
This this to the average person, even somebody who's not
directly impacted by this, it just smacks of political gamesmanship.
You know, neither side wants to give in, and and
quite I'm surprised that John Thune has not dropped the
nuclear option on this yet, allowing just a straight, you know,
majority vote to reopen the government.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
I really am. I think he.

Speaker 3 (41:59):
I think Republicans feel like they got the Democrats dangling
in the in the wind on this thing, and they
want to let them dangle a little while longer. Harry
Inton over at CNN, they're they're polling specialist talking about well,
who's getting the blame here, and he was explaining some
of the results of some some new polls that are out, well,
one from from ap one from Quinnipiac, and in his viewpoint, well,

(42:24):
what he's singing in these polls says that the Republicans have,
in his words, little to no reason to give in
in this battle, that this is in fact, the worst
position Democrats have been in on a generic battle at
this point in a midterm where there was a Republican president.
In the last twenty years, since the shutdown started, Congressional

(42:47):
Republicans have increased They're they're polling by by five points
since the shutdown started. In general, Republican brand has gained
two points. It looks like, and it depends again on

(43:07):
what poll you'll look at, because there are some I
saw one this morning, some poll that you know said
more people or blame me Republicans and Democrats, So you
get all, it's all over the road out there. But
this is a guy who makes his money by studying
these polls, and he thinks that Democrats are in a
considerably worse position heading into the twenty twenty six midterms,
and that their favorability is going down as was alder

(43:28):
to shut down. Well, the Republicans favorability is going up.
Maybe that's why Thune hasn't employed the nuclear option, you know,
maybe this whole filibuster.

Speaker 4 (43:42):
Thing, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (43:45):
That's that's again, it's one of those things that the
average American who doesn't pay attention to politics, isn't even
aware of what it is, right, isn't even aware you
need a you know, you need a sixty vote result
in order to move on from something like that. I
don't know, has it has that whole thing just seen
as better days anyway? I mean, should we just be

(44:07):
going you know, majority vote is there for a reason.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
I mean there are there are a lot of traditions
and you know ways that they that Congress has operated
in the past that kept things from I mean, they
kept govern a divided government working. Yeah, and I'm not
sure that works anymore.

Speaker 4 (44:28):
I don't know that it does. I get it.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
You don't want to totally penalize the party that's not
in power by bringing roughshot over them.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
Right, It's a two party system. It's designed to be
that way. You've got you know, you're always going to
have a majority and a minority.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
But it's is a lled to just total stalemate. It
seems like, yeah, total gridlock inside the Beltway. I don't
know if it's maybe maybe a time is coming on
the world.

Speaker 2 (44:51):
Is calling Mexico, Ukraine, Russia, the United States, and we'll
take you there at.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
A critical time in our world's history.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
One WELL three point five FM and.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
W VOC.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
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 (45:15):
There's a simple solution to these Democrats using the philibuster
to block the government reopening. I learned in high school
that when a senator philipbusters, he gets up there and
he talks and talks and talks. Make them get up
there and actually philibuster. Make them get up there and
figure out how they're going to talk about something for
thirty one days with non stop. Make them actually philibuster

(45:39):
and this will stop.

Speaker 3 (45:41):
Frank Weighann on the talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 4 (45:44):
Thank you, Frank.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
Yeah, remember those strong Thurmon days many.

Speaker 4 (45:49):
Philip buster you.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
Well, they don't know if you want to give him
that chance. Cory Booker has done it.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
Yeah, Booker's done it. I guess you could keep cycling
through there.

Speaker 4 (45:59):
Yeah. I suppose.

Speaker 1 (46:01):
Well, they had to yield their time. But who else
somebody else did it recently?

Speaker 4 (46:05):
Didn't Yeah? Who was that?

Speaker 1 (46:08):
Trying to remember? It wasn't as big a name as
Corey Booker, But yeah, I don't recall either. And that's
the unfortunate part about Democrat politicians. If anything, they can talk.

Speaker 4 (46:17):
Oh yeah, and when they fill a bush.

Speaker 3 (46:18):
They just used all the time to talk about Trump,
not about how to you know, fix some get an
email I often hear from a listener, Herb, who always
shares valid.

Speaker 4 (46:31):
Points with us.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
He wrote me this morning, so far as I've been
listening to this shutdown business and the fact that subsidies
of the issue, how many people actually use their healthcare
throughout the year shortly the occasional doctor's visit. Well that's true,
of course, when you need it, you need it, But
how many are seniors medicare not part of this whole
Obamacare debacle? And the real question at that point is

(46:55):
why are the rates going up on Obamacare when it
was deemed and named and touted as the affordable care Well,
if you missed the rashtal a few minutes ago, you heard, yeah,
maybe the whole point of this is to get us
to single payer universal health care, which is what the
Dems wanted all along, right, exactly. But he goes on
to say this, I squarely blamed the Republicans for the
debacle we're experiencing. They came into power of absolutely no

(47:19):
resolution or plan to address the issue at all.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
Hm. That's that's a valid point. How many times have
we heard and Mike Johnson just said it yesterday. But
how many times have we heard Donald Trump say, oh,
we've got great plans for the hell, wait till you
see our healthcare plan and it's never been rolled out. Now,
so what are we supposed to do in the meantime?

(47:44):
And you know, at the very least, it would give
Democrats something to argue against, and it would give Americans,
the American people, something to consider. Okay, Well, at least
there's an alternative if I don't like what the Democrats
are proposing, or what if the Democrats haven't posed since
Obamacare came online. But so far we've got nothing other

(48:06):
than these vague Yeah we've got a plan.

Speaker 3 (48:08):
Yeah, everybody's got a plan. Yeah, but nobody ever rolls
it out.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
Get rid of this stupid obamac here and then wait
till you see our plan. And we've heard that for years.

Speaker 4 (48:17):
There's plenty of blahing to go around here.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
Yeah, there is.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
Okay, So that's the big part of the argument. In
the meantime, again, the snap benefits go away tonight. At
least one police department in California is increasing patrols around
grocery stores.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
All right, Yeah, there's been a number of threats online
from people who say, you know, if you don't give
me what's mine, I'm going to take it.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
Yeah, and there will be places where that does happen, certainly.
As far as going back to Obamacare for a second again,
Trump talking last night about Obamacare and demanding that Democrats
do something ahead of this imminent spike in these premiums.

(49:02):
As I've said for years, he says Obamacare is a disaster.
Do something, Democrats. But again, it's going to take both
parties getting together to do something. And reference mister Thompson's
point a moment or two ago. We always hear it.
I'll wait till you see our plan. But where is it.

Speaker 4 (49:21):
Again?

Speaker 3 (49:21):
We shared some of these numbers earlier with you, but
to reiterate, if you're a sixty year older an income
of sixty five thousand dollars a year, you can wind
up paying nine hundred and twenty dollars more a month
than you are this year monthly premiums for a sixty

(49:44):
year old or older annual income sixty five thousand, which
really in this economy means you're.

Speaker 4 (49:51):
Just keeping up.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
Hopefully, maybe your monthly premiums one three hundred and eighty dollars.
If the subseeds expire and go up as they're going
to do anyway, that's a broke system, right there, friends.

Speaker 4 (50:07):
Busted.

Speaker 3 (50:10):
Oh by the way, Trump also the White House saying
they planned to claw back over a billion dollars in
federal Medicaid dollars that they say are being spent by
Blue states on healthcare for guests who illegal immigrants, some
with violent criminal records. This was the result of a

(50:30):
preliminary audit by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
over the last few years, specifically last year. In this year, California,
d C, Illinois, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon improperly spent a
combined one point three five to one billion dollars in

(50:52):
federal Medicaid funds to pay for health care free legals.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
That's but we're not doing that. They say, that's a
pretty healthy amount.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Now, is that those who are being treated in emergency
rooms when they don't have insurance, does that cover that
cost too? Or is that where that cost comes from?

Speaker 3 (51:14):
I thought, yeah, I don't know where it's coming from,
but quite quite possible. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (51:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
Municipal elections coming up. We mentioned last day at early
vote here in our state is today as those elections
are Tuesday. No early voting on Monday. Well, New York City,
all eyes on the Big Apple and this mayoral race
there where zo Ran Mondami continues to lead the poles,
not like he was, but continues to lead the polls. Well,
it was an interesting poll that was done by an

(51:42):
outfit called Jo Partners. They like everybody else, has found
Mondami to be in the lead, a fifteen point lead
over Andrew Cuomo. But they also founded this poll that
many people who live in New York City believe that
city is going to spiral into US dystopian nightmare of
crime and islands, boarded up storefronts and anti Semiticate if

(52:03):
Bondami becomes mayor. Yeah, certainly those who don't support him
are convinced he'll destroy the city. They remember the nineteen
eighties in New York City with things weren't good at all,
that they'll quickly return to that and potentially send shockwaves
across the rest of the country. Even among his supporters,

(52:28):
even a majority of his supporters believe that he'll make
anti Semitism in New York City worse and not better.
But they're going to vote for him anyway. Okay, because
free stuff, free stuff, baby, free stuff. Okay, this one,
I'm gonna need some explanation on how this happens. The
senior head of a naval office that helps organize critical

(52:52):
research and funding for the Navy has been replaced by
a thirty three year old former DOZE employee. Okay, this
just sounds like trouble from the start. The ahead of
that office was a rear admiral and it's an office
that has typically been headed up by admirals. And now

(53:17):
you're going to put a thirty three year old former
DOZE employee in charge?

Speaker 1 (53:21):
And who made the decision? And I mean, is this
does this come directly from you know, the war chief?
Is this a Hexit deal?

Speaker 4 (53:31):
Or don't know? They say?

Speaker 3 (53:35):
Thirty three year old female Rhodes scholar. Okay, great, but
what do you know about the navy and are you
there to do what that? Okay, that doesn't sound good.
In case you're curious and you don't watch, like I
don't watch, but I just happened to come across this.
Last night's episode of the Kardashians revealed that Kim Kardashian

(53:59):
doesn't believe the moonland I think in nineteen sixty nine
actually happened. Uh yeah, okay, Yeah, here's what I can't believe,
because I do believe it happened. Yes, how we were
able to put men on the moon in the late

(54:19):
sixties early seventies with computer technology that well wasn't even
what you've probably got on your wrist in your pocket
right now. And now all the years later, all this technology,
and we still can't seem to do it. We're still
it's it's it's a it's a question of intestinal fortitude
at this point, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
I Mean, come on, we had to do it back
then to beat Russia because.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
JFK said we would. Yep, And this is this is
really my favorite story of the morning right here. Cracker
Barrel join again on the whole controversy here posting a
meme or replying to a meme yesterday that the meme
joke that the White House was going to get a
cracker barrel. Makeo the reply from the official cracker Barrel account.

(55:03):
You probably don't want us anywhere near a remodel.

Speaker 4 (55:08):
Good stuff, beautiful