Show Rewind 11-12-2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Jesus Fly, Hell Yeah America and Jery Holland for.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Formation is wrong.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher
Thompson on one O three point five FM and five
sixty AM w VOC.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
It is sixteen minutes after six o'clock. Good morning, it
is Wednesday, November the twelfth. Good to have you here,
Gary David, Christopher Thompson the team check it in Columbia's
Morning News back on the radio. And not as cold
as yesterday morning. We were above freezing around most of
the Midlands.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
This morning looks like I challenge you to go outside
and say it doesn't feel as cold this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Well it does. I mean downtown right now, the timp's
thirty six, but the windshills twenty five. Yeah, I believe it.
So I had the unenviable task this morning. Oh, I
don't know what time was, about three five, I guess
to go out and get the leaves out of the
skimmer in the pool because it's just been it's like
a three four, five times a day. We got to
clear that sucker out. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
You had to do that this morning.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah, I did this morning. For why well, because if
you know, if the leaves pack into the skimmer basket.
It's you know, it's the pump can't work as well
as it should, so and we leave our pool open
all year around because no, we don't swim at it
this time of the year, but my wife loves to
look at it, so we don't cover it up.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Okay, yeah, that doesn't sound like something i'd want to
do at three forty five.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
And trust me, that water's cold, man, I bet it's cold.
But the warm up is underway, so that's the good
news right there. Yeah, let's yeah, Well, temperatures are much
better this morning, but we are doing that windshiels. Another
breezy day here before all that subsides, and another day
of delays at our nation's airports. And I just checked

(01:57):
Columbia Metro departing flights today only won delay and that
was a delta was supposed to take off last hour.
Looks like it hasn't taken off yet. But aside from that,
everything else is is scheduled, at least so far for
the day. By the way, I did not see this
when I went outside. I guess maybe I was an

(02:17):
hour too late. Apparently some folks around the Midlands you
might have been able to see the northern lights this morning. Yeah,
that window was like eleven o'clock last night to three
on this morning. I searched, and I searched, and I searched.
I figured it wouldn't be hard to miss if they
were out there, didn't see them. Don comment rundown big stories,
hot topics, and who would have thunk that? Well, not

(02:40):
that the reopening of Finley Park, which is this weekend,
by the way, isn't a big story, but who would
have thunked that the big story about the reopening of
Finley Park after a twenty five million dollar update.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
What's going to be this clear bag policy?

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Man? People are talking about this thing. The original policy
that really and everything it was clear bags for everything
was updated, as we talked about yesterday. You still know
you can't take a cooler, you know, picnic basket. Everything's
got to be clear except for the small little clutch

(03:15):
bags and crossbody purses and such. When they posted this,
they got more than six hundred comments, and most of
them were not happy with it. And now you've got
leaders of the City of Columbia that are not agreeing
with each other about the policy.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
To begin with, I don't know how you enforce it.
And you know, if you've got all this security out
there with the idea that you're going to keep people
safe and they're instead constantly inspecting people's bags. I know
they're looking for drugs and weapons to keep things safe,
but at the same time, I think that's going to
tie them up.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Yeah. Oh absolutely, And people are not happy with this.
So we'll have more of the details of who's saying
about this. Meanwhile, the state's High Court, as expected, really
rejected the latest death row appeal, which means that Stephen
Bryant will go to his death by firing squad this
Friday at six pm. Now this is assuming again the

(04:18):
governor does not intervene, and the governor has never intervened
in one of these cases, not expected to. Now, Okay,
here we go. Latest from Nancy Mace, now accusing the
TSA and the airport staff in Charleston of targeting her
looking for more whistleblowers. She says she's gotten alarming information
from Kurrent and former employees at the airport in Charleston,

(04:39):
suggesting she may have been singled out by security personnel
in the TSA.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Okay, singled out, I thought the point was that she
wanted to be single. She didn't get attention. Yeah, I
go figure, she didn't get security.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
The Post and Current editorial board with a blistering editorial
about Mace and her behavior this morning.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
You may share some of that with you. Well, you
can't go around calling yourself a conservative Republican and then
attacking law enforcement.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
Well it's not sitting well again with a lot of.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Folk, same issue that a lot of people had with
January sixth.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Well, yeah, a judge here in our state who originally
told rom Ready who is the guy behind doejesc remember
that all that started. He got upset with what he
called government overreach because you know, the guy owns a
very expensive home in the Isle of Palms, and he
built a sea wall and then was told he had
to take it down. He was breaking laws and this
and that, and it was fine nearly three hundred thousand

(05:36):
dollars for it. Well, that fine was tossed, and now
the judge who originally told him to tear down the
seawall has rescinded his order. What's going on with that?
Us marshalls have arrested the man who allegedly met up
with James B. Gosnell Junior, the former Charleston magistrate. This

(05:56):
guy John Thorpe booked into jail in Fort Laydale. He
allegedly was meeting up with Gosnell to view and exchange
child's sexual abuse material. And I don't care if we
ever have to I don't want to ever have to
again relay the charges and the things that the Feds
have said that Gosnell, the former Charleston County Magistrates, alleged

(06:20):
to have done. It is sickening, like you would not believe.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
And then he's doing it with somebody else. Oh yeah,
watching this stuff in the same room with somebody else. Yeah,
that's yeah, all right.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
The House takes it up today a vote to uh
well shut down the shutdown. The longest shutdown has lasted
forty two days so far. We're in the day forty
three now. The House will vote on reopening sometime today
after a funding bill survived a key hurdle. So this

(06:57):
shutdown could be ending today potentially, But are we at
risk of another one because well, the way this one
is coming about, you know, we may be facing this
again at the end of January. And Senate Democrats insisting
that all this was definitely worth it. Even though they
surrendered to the Republicans on this, what does that tell you? Meanwhile,

(07:23):
at the center of all this extensions of the subsidies
for the Affordable Care Act, the Obamacare insurance latest here
is Hakim Jeffreys and the Dems in the House can
offer up a three year extension of these subsidies. Remember
Schumer was looking for a one year extension. Now why
three years, hakem Well, where does that put us.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Presidential election?

Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah? Right, The Republicans have their own plans. They're very
similar or the same as was Trump's plan for this.
And we'll explain what they're talking about doing right now.
And even if they shut down ends today, it's going
to be a while before ever flight schedules return to normal.
What do you mean if ever, Well, you know, let's

(08:05):
thinking hire a lot more controllers. We already had issues
to begin with before all this started with not enough
controllers to keep an eye on the skies across this country.
But well, this four percent now delay, which could be
ten percent by Friday, in just two days if they
don't get things reopened. Here Sean Duffy warning, this is

(08:27):
going to impact Thanksgiving the airlines are warning that as well.
That is going to take a while to get things
back to normal. Apparently Delta is the airline that's been
hit most by this, So brace yourselves for all that
stocks well, with the exception of the NASDAC new records

(08:49):
set on the Dow, all on the impending news of
the shutdown ending the Dow jones. You know, if this continues,
we'll we're gonna be looking at Dow fifty here in
short order. Who would have thought? And with the House
back in session now to take on the shutdown vote, well,
that's going to bring up the spectrum of something else

(09:09):
we haven't talked about in a long time, and a
lot of folks don't care if we ever talk about
it again. And that is the fight over. Yeah, the
Epstein files. All right, friends, we got that. We got
more head on your way here on this. It is
so Wednesday Morning edition of Columbia's Morning News. Fabulous to
have you.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
With us, keeping you connected. I check in throughout the
day twenty four to seven.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
I just like being informed, know what's happening.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
One on three point five FM and five sixty AM
w VOC. This is Columbia's Morning News. With Gary David
and Christopher Thompson on one on three point five FM
and five sixty AM w VOC.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
It is six forty one. I remember back in the
old days that I remember the the ads for for
memor cks, you know, like cassette tapes and such. Sure,
is it live or is it memory x R? Well
that's so yesterday, so last century? Is it live or
is it artificial intelligence? Now, I admit I don't listen

(10:11):
to country music like I used to, and I don't
think our friends down the hall at ninety seventy five
WCS are playing this song. But a song called Walk
My Walk by Breaking Rust has topped the Billboard charts,
the Billboard Country music charts. Now that doesn't really mean

(10:32):
a whole lot these days, you know, when it comes
to radio and whether or not they're playing a song.
But still, far as anybody can tell, this breaking Rust
doesn't exist. It's artificial intelligence. Now the case of that,
we had a case of a month or two back
about a song that was like number one on one
of the streaming platforms, and they admitted they were all

(10:55):
artificial This song was artificially intelligence generated. Now there's no
whoever's behind this is is not admitting to it not
being real, but you can't tell. Uh wow, it's getting

(11:19):
kind of scary now, friends, people don't know how to
handle all this. I don't.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
It's you know what, we got conflicting memos from our
company this week. You know, it's warning us about you know,
using A and I or AI too much. You know,
don't don't use it on air and that. At the
same time they're talking about, you know, AI is a
great tool, a great resource. They just just not for air. Yeah,
they just well, but it sounds like some people are

(11:47):
using it just that way. Oh sure, you think that's scary.
Way do you get a load of this.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
There's a company in Palo Alto, California, used to be
called Eternos dot Life. Now it's I say it. You
are E, you are I guess you are dot ai.
They have announced yesterday they'd raised more than ten million
dollars in seed funding to accelerate what they're calling the

(12:18):
development of individual ais. So you got AI, which is
just generating something out of nothing, right, this is different.
These individual ais. They claim they're on the road to
developing here are digital counterparts. They claim that harness a

(12:38):
person's memories, stories, expertise, and voice to mirror how you think,
speak and make decisions. What's the purpose in that? Uh?

(12:59):
The CEO of the company says that the industry as
it is is chasing the wrong goal. Everybody's racing towards AGI,
which I guess is artificially generated intelligence, which he says
is one super intelligent system for everybody. But the real transformation,
he says, happens at the individual level. We're building intelligence

(13:20):
as unique as a fingerprint. Your AI acts as your
second brain. That's what we all need. Where's this thing going?

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Man?

Speaker 1 (13:31):
And at what point do do the computers have no
need for us anymore? This is really scary stuff. Okay,
youre dot Ai, that's that company. Now again, they've seen
funding of ten million dollars. I would have anticipated would

(13:52):
take a whole lot more than that to come up
with what they're working on. And let's make sure they
never reach that goal, right, all right? Not on the
same page at the White House, over this fifty year
mortgage idea, this proposal now well, CBS is reporting that
sources of the White House are saying was not fully

(14:14):
vetted by Trump administration officials and wasn't ready to be
made public. So what happened well over the weekend this
past weekend. Bill Poulty. If that name sounds familiar, it should.
He is the son of the man who started Poulty

(14:36):
the Home, the big homebuilder. So it was Bill Paulty
who floated the idea. He's the top federal housing official
in the Trump administration, so he mentioned this to Trump.
Trump then approved this idea on a social media post.

(14:57):
But you've got some officials in the White House saying
they were frustrated with this one thing, that the President
was luke warm about the suggestion but announced it to
get polsty to shut up about it. Another source telling
CBS that the they disputed the characterization of Trump as

(15:19):
being tepid about the proposal. So that both forty and
fifty year mortgage ideas have been discussed with the Howard Ludnick,
who's the Commerce Secretary, and Kevin Hassett the National Economic Council.
We get the idea. The idea is to promote, you know,
home affordability for more and more Americans. Now, the average

(15:41):
age of the first time home buy in this country
is forty years old. How old are you you about
your first house, mister Thompson over thirty, over third, I'm
trying to ree I was too, actually, but I got
married late, yeah, so did I. So yeah, I was
thirty when I got married day, so yeah, I was

(16:02):
a little bit. But at that time, you know, back
in those days, you know people were back in that
is well you too, man, yeah, way back in those days.
I don't know what the average age of the first
time home buyer was, but it was younger than that.
I'm sure. I would think it was probably late twenties.

(16:23):
Actually when when I met she actually owned a condo
and she was I won't say she's much younger than me,
but I got about four years on her, so so
she was probably in her mid twenties. That was not
unusual back then, forty while. But this idea, I'm not
sure again how much bidding went into crunching the numbers
on it, because ye know, you again you see that

(16:48):
once again, all the the analysts grabbing the calculators and
talking about how much interest you'd pay over the life
of a loan, if if you actually outlived the life
of the loan fifty years. Particular, if you're forty before
you fight your first home good luck with that. Here
in South Carolina. I saw this this morning. We are

(17:10):
the time it takes for an individual to save enough
for a ten percent down payment on a house. We
are like the fifteenth longest in the country. A California
tops the list because house prices there's ridiculous. But we're
at the top fifteen of how long it takes for
someone to save up enough for just a ten percent

(17:32):
down payment, which of course means you're not getting to
that twenty percent which you want to to avoid the
mortgage insurance, the PMI on that thing. So people are
kicking about, you know that, would that be helpful here
in South Carolina or not? So there's just mixed opinions
on all this. But well looks like even those inside
the administration have mixed opinions about it as well.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
You're listening to Columbia's Morning Use on one oh three
point five FM and five sixty am WVOC. Once again,
here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
It's excellent to have you with us. Good morning at
seventeen check that sixteen after seven o'clock. I am Gary David,
a's just mentioned. He is Christopher Thompson, A little chili,
but okay, yeah, but not like yesterday chili.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
Come on, I don't think you can tell that much
of a difference except for the wind maybe.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
Well let's see here the wind right now, the wind chill,
Yeah yeah, I mean here at the radio ranch that
while the air attempts forty, the wind chill is twenty eight. Okay,
all right, I will, I'll give in. It's cold, but again,
we had some places in the teens yesterday was what
it felt like. Bithay've felt like fourteen at one point
yesterday morning, so it's better than that, all right. The

(18:49):
big chill, the big thaw up on Capitol Hill early
this morning is Fox just mentioned early this morning. The
House got by a key hurdle, so expect to vote
probably tonight in the House of Representatives to reopen the
government again. You gotta accept the Senate changes to this.

(19:12):
But whether or not it advances tonight or not, we'll see.
But there's expected to be a vote sometime tonight. But
it passed through early this morning the House Rules Committee,
which is a step that's gotta gotta gotta gotta make,
and it did, but the the hearing to advance lasted
them more than six hours. They started it last night

(19:35):
and they wrap it up at one o'clock this morning.
On their behalf, the Democrats tried to force vote on
amendments that dealt with the of course, the Obamacare subsidies.
They all failed. Now came Jeffries, the House Minority leader,

(19:56):
showed up. He's got an amendment out. Now here's his idea,
and he proposed this yesterday, a three year extension of
these subsidies for Obamacare. Now, Chuck Schumer had proposed a
one year extension. Again, these are set to expire at

(20:16):
the end of the year. Well, Schumer's idea of a
one year extension on these, which was shot down in
the Senate, but that would have put this fight again,
these subsidies expiring at the end of the midterm election
year next year. But do the math. What did akeem

(20:38):
Jeffries just put up.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
He put up taking us right to the presidential election,
forget the midterms. Yeah, we want the White House, Yeah,
we want the White House. Baby.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
So that's what that's all about. Now, there's none of
Snowball's chance that Republicans go along with that, of course, no,
not a snowballs chance.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
And there's not really a snowball's chance that Democrats are
going to any longer listen to Chuck Schumer. So I
guess Jefferies at least has their ear.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
I guess he's the de facto leader in Congress on
the congression level for Democrats right now. But so this
is not going to happen. Republicans would not agree to this.
I mean, it's pretty transparent, so that Jeff's is trying
to do here.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
Okay, So how much does this slow down the process
of getting this shut down ended?

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Well, that's that's that's the question. I mean this again,
while the House doesn't have the all the parliamentary rules
that the Senate does, there still will be bumps in
the road. And remember on the House side, there's no
need for filibusters or supermajorities. It's a simple majority vote boom. Okay,

(21:48):
So expected to move a lot quicker through the House,
and it did the Senate.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
And is this is Hemp still a part of this deal?
And you know the whole Rand Paul argument.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
Well, the Senate ditch that they defeated that effort as
they passed their version of this bill. So I no,
I don't think so, Okay, now, okay, so what are
the Republican plans when it comes to healthcare. Well, we
mentioned this yesterday because Trumpet flowed this idea, and apparently

(22:20):
this is the idea that Republican's going to go with. Here.
They got to go they got to come up with something. Right,
You can't just should have already come up they should
have already done it. Yeah, but again, the idea here
is that and the House is on the verge of
potentially well certainly of approving the Senate pasted spending package.
But when it comes to the healthcare part of it,

(22:43):
the idea Republicans say is to come up with an alternative.
They are working on this. They say that redirects these
subsidies that are the heart of all this away from
insurance companies who Republicans say have profited sssively since Obamacare
came onto the scene. Instead direct these subsidies direct to

(23:09):
consumers that are buying health coverage. Now, I assume that
would be the only way you get is this is
not hey, We're just going to cut you at check
and do with it what you want. We want you
to spend on healthcare, but you know, sure check. Now,
this would be tied directly to healthcare benefits, and I
believe it also would eliminate that penalty, remember the penalty

(23:30):
if you don't have health insurance at all. That they
came on the scene with Obamacare, so.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
We become the middlemen in between the government and the
insurance company.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
Yeah, yeah, basically, okay, yeah, you know, I got if
you can make that work, I'm all about that. But
you know, at the end of the day, as far
as how much tax payer money is being spent to
subsidize healthcare, is it any different. It's just a difference

(24:06):
in the way the money's routed. Now, I don't pretend
to know everything about this plan here, and I'm sure
we'll be finding more and more out about this. But
John Thune in the Senate has promised by mid December
an up or down vote in the Senate on extending
these subsidies. Remember, of Speaker Johnson has made no such guarantees.

(24:29):
He's been saying that I'll, you know, check check the
room temperature. Its caucused to see whether or not they'll
even be a vote in the House to extend these subsidies.
I've got.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
This is just a guess, just a guess.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
But it wouldn't surprise me if they come to some
sort of compromise here. And maybe it's a year, maybe
it's six months, who knows what. But the Republicans might
be at a point because again they have not developed
their own plan yet at and having got it out there,
and maybe this is just a trial balloon right here.
But because they don't have a plan in place, they

(25:09):
don't want to go into the midterms to be and
be blamed with you know, everybody's soaring healthcare insurance costs,
those on Obamacare. So maybe they agreed to some sort
of an extension. I don't know what length of time,
certainly not ha KM Jeffrey's three year extension, maybe a
year extension, what have you, or just enough time to
work out a plan that they want to float out
there and try to institute so they don't get blamed

(25:31):
for all this. I don't know. I don't know. Oh
and by the way, remember this vote in the House,
this only extends the continuing Resolution until the end of January,
all right, I mean we could be right back here
again in just a matter of you know, two months time,

(25:54):
two and a half months time.

Speaker 2 (25:55):
So we've got that to look forward. So yeah, how
about a happy New Year for you too.

Speaker 1 (26:00):
Just as you tackle those Christmas bills, just as you
do all right, well again, House vote is expected sometime
probably to night, and the way Congress works, probably sometime
up late tonight, and we'll be here to cover it
all Tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
Morning Carolina tangles with third ranked Texas A and M
on ESPN. Game Days starts 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

(26:37):
five FM and five sixty AM w VOC.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
And thanks for starting off your Wednesday with us. We
appreciate that this is one of these stories that and
I would rather not have to even bring up again.
And I would forewarn you that if you have you know,
young ears in a vehicle with you right now, as
much as I hate to ask you to do this,
but just to turn the volume down for for a

(27:03):
couple of minutes and then it'll be a safe listening
once again. But this is okay, you're ready, Okay. This
goes back to the story about James B. Gosnell Jr.
A former Charleston County magistrate who's former, for a very
good reason, alleged to have and when we talk about,

(27:29):
you know, child pornography, that doesn't go far enough, you know,
viewing or exchanging child pornography to what this guy's alleged
to have done and wanted to do. Well. News yesterday
that the FEDS have arrested another guy, John Thorpe, down

(27:50):
in Florida. This is, they say, a co conspirator of
God's Now. According to the FEDS, these two started communicating
online in December of twenty three, allegedly discussed their sexual

(28:13):
preferences for miners, exchanged visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct
involving pre pubescent children, infants and toddlers, and that the
materials contained sexually explicit depictions of rape and torture. Now

(28:41):
may also allege that these two had plans to rape
and torture a prepubescent miner, a child believed to have
been the infant son of Thorpe's nephew.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Because the next question was how did these sickos get
access to a child?

Speaker 1 (29:02):
There you go, they had tentatively encounter scheduled that to
happen sometime later this month. They apparently, at least on
one occasion, got together in a room and watched this stuff.

(29:28):
I mean, this is this is this is nauseating. I mean,
it doesn't get any worse than this. And to think
that for what decades Cosnell was the Charleston County magistrate.
You just never know. Wow, Okay, so uh now is

(29:54):
this go any further than this or others others involved?
I don't know, but but we knew at a time
when god Now was arrested and charged that he was
doing this in connection with someone else. And this is
that someone else that fed say okay, back to the
safe harbor now. Finley Park reopens this weekend after a

(30:19):
twenty five million dollar investment to reopen what was once
the crown jewel of the city of Columbia that over
the decades became a place where nobody wanted to go
unless you didn't have a place to go. I don't
have any any issue necessarily. I mean, twenty five million

(30:40):
dollars a lot of money, you know, and a lot
of money for a city who just recently when the
judge said you got to you got to pay this
six million dollar judgment to the former owner of the
constant car wash, and it was like, Okay, where are
we going to find that money? So twenty five million
dollars is a lot of money for this of Columbia.

(31:00):
But you know, over the years this been put into
reopening this park, and you know, going into it, they
wanted to make sure that people were assured it was
going to be a safe place to be. Otherwise you've
spent twenty five million dollars and we're.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Right back to square one.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
Right. This is not a case of you build it
and they will come. You build it, They're not gonna come.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
Parents will be afraid to bring their children, families will
not want to come. Yeah, been there, done that.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Yeah, right, So you know, I get it that we
talked about and we don't know the cost of this,
But what were the numbers we had yesterday, mister Thompson,
the uh there were going to be five park rangers
between six am and nine thirty pm every day, every
day of the week, not just when an event was

(31:50):
going on, but every day of the week, five park rangers,
two City of Columbia police officers, and then some five
or so grounds personnel that would be at that park
every hour of the day and then a smaller contingent
in the overnight hours. So it's a lot of manpower
and woman power, and so that's a lot of money,
plus security cameras, plus security cameras inside. Yes, Okay, so

(32:14):
they're doing everything they can to convince you it's safe
to come back to Finley Park.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
And so maybe that's why they've announced such a clamp
down early, that they're trying to dissuade people from you know,
bringing everything but the kitchen sink, so they can kind
of gradually ease everyone into being at the park and
then maybe they'll relax a little bit.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
You know, and I think that may be the case. Well,
they rolled out this clear bag policy and that ticked
off a bunch of people. They got like six hundreds
of comments on their Facebook page over this. People were outraged.
One of the things you want to do if you
go to Finlay Park is maybe have a picnic with
the family.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Right.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Sorry, Unless you can put in a clear bag in
some way, shape or form, it ain't gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
It's just not what you're used to hearing from a
space that isn't enclosed, a big open space like a park.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Right.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
No, but apparently this isn't a park anymore. I mean,
they're saying, because we've spent all this money on this location,
it is now an event venue and there will be
events going on all the time. And that's why they're
saying they're going to have to enforce these rules all
the time. But there won't be events going on all

(33:27):
the time. That's not what they're telling us. Every day
of the week, every week of the month, every month
of the year.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
Okay, well, so they got the clear bag policy.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
They got a lot of blowback. They admitted it to
a degree.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
There will be small bags and purses and wristlets and such,
but you're not gonna be able to take a fanny
pack or a toe bag, or a backpack or a
cooler of any sort. It's all got to be clear.
But who is responsible for this? And the Post and
Curry reporting that the leaders are to odds over this

(34:04):
clearbag policy, and it's gotten pushedback not just from residents,
but at least from one city council member, Addi Busseles,
who's running for reelection now I got to run off
election coming up. The mayor said that the original policy
before they slightly admitted it, in his words, did not

(34:25):
portray the spirit of what the city was thinking. Said,
we need common sense on how these rules were enforced.
It's a work in progress, and he wants folks to
have some patience. He said, let's see how it works.
If we do a just down the road, we will
and I think that's exactly what will happen.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
But I worry. I mean, the rules are still so
restrictive that all of these well, I mean, you're talking
about five You said five. I think I mean.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
It's five park rangers, two clothed in uniform City Columbia officers.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Yeah, and thousands of people roaming through the park at
one or another, and they're going to be tied up
constantly in checking bags and you know, making sure you're
I mean, we're used to it when we walk into
an arena. We've gotten used to it when we walk
into football stadiums, but those are enclosed, open spaces. I

(35:17):
don't know that I've ever encountered a park unless there
was a concert going on where you have to always
have a clear bag.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Well, you know, I mean, for example, there are concerts
and events all the time at the Icehouse, Amphitheater and
Lexington go to a lot of those. There's no policy
for that there. I'm afraid though, what this is doing,
at least now in the short term and the you know,
the reopening this park, what this is doing is reinforcing
to the general public that this is not a safe
place to be, that they're having to have all the security,

(35:49):
having to have all these policies. Do we really what
is this really a place we want to go? Well,
do you feel safer with the new policy? Well, that's
the idea, and I wonder if it maybe has the
opposite effect on some folks.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
Going back to your comparison of the ice House Amphitheater though,
but there's no playground there, there's no fountain, there's no
I mean, there's nothing to do unless there's a concert
going on. You're just into space. The park has a
lot to offer, but I don't know if you want
to restrict people that much as to what they can
bring in, because otherwise they may find someplace else to go.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Well. Bussell says that this policy was not set by
city council, who said it city Manager Teresa Wilson.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
She says, okay, Well, she's running the show and she's
spent the money.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
She's the all powerful oz behind the curtain, has been
for a long time now.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
That's that's the way we run council in that's ways
the whole city government.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
Yeah. Bussell's saying that she couldn't speak for other members
of city Council, but there was no presentation that talked
about a clear bag policy to us a council.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
I wonder what Chief Holbrook thinks about it. I don't know,
I mean, does it create a bigger headache for his
officers who are stationed out there.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
Well, I'm he's got a commit at least to having
two out there, you know, every day.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
Of the week, and now they're going to be checking
bags all the time instead of patrolling.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
Well, I guess the idea is, you don't yeah, you yeah,
I don't know. Is there going to be a table
set up like when you go to the CLA and
you got to walk by and I'm metal detecting and
everything else we'll see.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
Defeats the whole point of an open park.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
But didn't expect this controversy, this controversy here to become
the defining story of this park reopening this weekend. But
there it is.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
Anyway, 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.

Speaker 2 (37:51):
It's fifteen after eight o'clock.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
It's good to have you here. The Wednesday morning, November
twelfth edition of Columbia's Morning Newsday forty three of the
government checkdown give or take Yeah, Yeah, Day forty three
and potentially the final day of the government shut down.

(38:13):
So the House is back in session and some of
the lawmakers decided to you know, do things like carpool
or ride their Harley's to get there rather than try
to you know, get on an airplane. Get to that
in a second. But so there was a vote early
this morning after the House Rules Committee House Rules Committee.

(38:36):
After about five or six hours of debate, they finally
got around of voting and got it through that committee
at one am this morning. So that clears the way
for a full House floor vote expected to take place tonight. Again.
Some of the interesting particulars here is that, well, the

(38:57):
Democrats are not going to go down without at least
making a look good. I guess as good as they can.
Hikeem Jefferies floating the idea he's put up an amendment
that says, let's extend the Obamacare subsidies for three years,
which of course would put them expiring at the end
of twenty twenty eight. And something else happens in twenty

(39:19):
twenty eight. In November of that year, we elect a
president that's a no go. Yeah, that ain't flying, but
good triocheme. So I don't know, I don't have a
good I think there's going to be a lot of
gnashing of teeth and probably insults hurled and everything else
all day long today on the House floor, and then

(39:40):
a vote will probably be late tonight, and I suspect
the House will remember it's you don't need a supermajority,
so there's no need for you know, filibuster rules and
all that. It's just a simple majority is all you
need to get it done. And it sounds like Mike Johnson,
the House Speaker, thinks he's got the votes to get
it done. So what else is revolving around this? Well,

(40:05):
the Supreme Court saying that okay, now, now let's put
on hold these you know, full snap payout benefits, thinking
of course that the House is going to get the
job done at night and reopen the government. So there's
no need for all that. But what about air travel.
Truth of the matter is this. They can take a

(40:26):
vote right now and then this shutdown, and that doesn't
mean that by tomorrow everything is back to whatever normal
was before the shutdown. These flight disruptions are going to persist.
The airlines say, you just don't flip the switch and
make everything, you know, run as it did before. Not

(40:49):
that we didn't have problems before, we did. Control towers
have been short staffed for a while and they're shorter
staff now. Yeah, we've had a number of sick call
ins and all, but we've also had a number of
these air traffic controllers retire fifteen to twenty a day,
Sean Duffy said over the weekend, retiring, leaving the leaving

(41:11):
the control tower all together, that's going to be a
problem Yesterday, Duffy says, if the House doesn't pass this bill,
what we saw this past weekend and this this past Monday,
and his words, Tiddley winks we're going to have massive,
massive issues.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
And he's already said he'll shut it down completely before
he allows, you know, flights to take off, the are
at risk.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
All it takes is for one of these you know,
aviation incidents, and it's the fault of not being enough
man power and woman power in a control tower. The
airlines are suffering, and now you've got people who that
somebody did a pull. And most travelers think that if

(41:58):
they have been you know, delay ad or canceled, have
their flight slayer canceled all this, they think that the
airlines should have to you know, pay them back for it. Well,
the airlines are losing money hand over fist right now
and all this hardest it's been Delta. But the bottom
line is is again you could reopen the government tonight,

(42:21):
and the airlines are saying, well, the major trade association
that represents the major airlines that it's gonna be a
number of days before things get back to normal. They
can't bounce back to full capacity right away.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
So who gets the blame for that?

Speaker 1 (42:35):
Oh yeah, right, I don't know, because we have to
assign blame knowing.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Yeah, I mean that's the big debate right now. Okay,
we know Chuck Schumer was the biggest loser, but who
else loses from this shutdown?

Speaker 1 (42:47):
They all lose Now that it's over right. They all lose,
some more than others, I guess, but they all lose.
And by the way, Duffy warned that, yeah, if you
don't get a sing realp and listen, we're tomorrow is
two weeks from Thanksgiving and there will be starting next week,
you know, an increase in people wanting to travel for

(43:11):
Thanksgiving holiday. It will be a total disaster. And this
interesting side note, Treasure Secretary Scott Bessont threw this out, says,
one of the things I didn't want to do was
to alarm Americans, but I got a panic notice the

(43:31):
other night that said food inspectors were not getting paid
and they weren't going to work, so we could actually
have food shortages. Okay, house, get the job done, Get
it done to night. Now, speaking of the airports, we

(43:52):
should probably mention here Nancy Mace, she's doubled down, triple down,
quadrupled down, quintet up down as many doubts as you
can here. Yesterday said she might have been the target
of inappropriate surveillance at Charleston International Airport, not just in

(44:12):
this latest incident, but for a long time. She claims
she's received information from current and former employees at the
airport that she has been singled out by security personnel
and the TSA, according to her office. Whistleblowers claimed that
she was allegedly placed under mandatory surveillance each time she

(44:37):
was at the airport, and that TSA officials discussed revoking
her travel credentials or blocking her from using security checkpoints
as her members of Congress. She also claims that that
are reports that airline employees who raised security concerns were

(44:58):
punished or retaliated against. Okay, why why would they be
singling her out? Why would they be inappropriately surveiling her
unless this was all part of, you know, the security
that they.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
Wanted to give. I don't know. I really think Mace's
reading this wrong. She's reading the room wrong here. I
think she's been reading the room wrong since she launched
her campaign. But that's another story.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yeah. But the but the more the more accusations she makes,
the more she's turning people off, posting Courier the editorial
staff releasing this yesterday, Charleston airport mix up doesn't justify
Nancy Mace's tirade. Yeah, if it's a question of security, fine,

(45:56):
But she says, you know, most people, They've say, most
people do to apologize that was such an embarrassing but
not her, And they say that's not leadership. That's someone
who's either unable to control her rage or else has
made a calculated decision not to control it. Yelling obscenities
that people who have less power than you isn't leadership,

(46:23):
and went on to write when miss Mace's efforts to
deflect attention from her behavior didn't seem to be working,
another Republicans started criticizing her for it, she turned to
the classic liberal maneuver, pulled out the gender card when
she accused Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham of attacking a woman,
and you may recall actually wrote Lindsey Graham of all

(46:45):
suddenly wants to talk about women. Oh there goes that again. Yeah,
she's she's read this room wrong. I believe, I really do.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
It's the stuff people are talking about and called them
out like a bad evan like you doing right now
one on three point five FM and five sixty am
w VOC. This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David
and Christopher Thompson on one on three point five FM

(47:15):
and five sixty am w VOC and.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
Our final thoughts here for a Wednesday morning. It is
eight forty good morning, and good to have you with us.
First up, we got some reaction on the talk back
line for some folks who are talking about the reopening
of Fenley Park this weekend after the twenty five million
dollar refresh all the security and the what's become a
controversial clear bag policy.

Speaker 4 (47:38):
Hey guys, perhaps the clear bag policy at Finley Park
is an attempt to keep the homeless people out, because
the homeless people carry all their stuff in all kinds
of bags and they don't have clear bags, so that
might be part of the strategy. Just saying, love you guys,
keep up the good work.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
That's Renee, and thank you. Nay, I'm sure she's absolutely right.
You can't say that though, because the lu would sue
you immediately. This is why you can't have no shopping
car policy, right, I'm sure that's sorry. I'm sure that's
a big part of what it is. But are you

(48:14):
are you too restrictive? But it's almost like, you know,
we readed all our park benches back in the day.
No longer could you, you know, relax on a park
bench because they all had bars in the middle of them,
to make sure people didn't take naps on them or
sleep on them at night.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
You can do it. You just can't say it, are you?

Speaker 2 (48:31):
But are you making things too uncomfortable for the people
that this is designed for in the process. Yeah, I
don't know. It's just I'm not quite like sure what that?
And John had a thought as well, what is the
bag policy at the fair grounds?

Speaker 1 (48:47):
Is that not also a clear back policy for an
open area?

Speaker 2 (48:51):
Just to thought this morning? Yeah, you know I'm better
the fair in years. Well and I said, yeah, you're John,
I said it was because you know, the park is
a big open area. I don't know, the park feels
different than a stadium, an arena or even the fair
grounds where you're in and out and you know, it's
it's a big enclosed space. The park just feels more

(49:15):
expansive than that, and where you wouldn't really want to have,
you know, I should be able to bring toys and
you know, for the kids to play with at a
picnic and a blanket and you know everything else. It's
I don't know, Well.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
This is this has become a controversy and none of
us knew was coming. When it comes to the opening
of that part and thank you, thanks both Nan and
John for your talkback feedback. And you can of course
do that at anytime. All it takes is the free iHeartRadio app.
And after you set us as the number one preset,
which is not a requirement to use a talkback.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
App, I know, but I want to make it sound
like it is.

Speaker 1 (49:47):
Okay, so let us as number one preset, and then
they just scroll down a little bit and you'll see
that talk back button. You can press it and let
us know your thoughts on whatever. By the way, we
were talking about this earlier too. Aditi Bustles, who's that
runoff election, claimed it was the city manager, Teresa Wilson,
who was responsible for that policy, that the city council

(50:09):
was never briefed or present of the ideas. It was
all the city manager's idea. Well, Bustles is now claiming
that her opponent Sam Johnson in that runoff Tuesday is
not addressing what she's calling a hateful messages sent to
her by his supporters, called them vicious attacks online, claiming

(50:33):
that Johnson is allowing his top supporters to weaponize racism
and misinformation. Johnson's campaign denies it calls it basels. But
all right, that's gotten all the way down to the
city council level. Well, let me go back one more
time to Teresa Wilson. I would much rather her be,
you know, come out on the side of too restrictive

(50:54):
and too secure rather than immediately make this park immediately
after we've spent you know, twenty plus million dollars on it,
you know, once again a haven for the homeless and violence. Right,
so we're airing on the right side if we have
to make an error. Well, and as we talked about
the mayor, Daniel Rickman addressed this and he said, what
we kind of thought that it's gonna probably start off

(51:16):
this way and it will relax over time. Yeah, so, yeah,
reclaimed the park and it may take a little while
to do that. Well, it won't take a long time
do that security to make sure that happens right away,
but the need for continue to do that will probably
get less and less over time. Less hope. So State
Supreme Court says they will not stop the execution of

(51:38):
Stephen Bryant, who will die by firing squad on Friday.
The last ditch appeal from his defense attorneys said he
in his original trial that the court never heard how
badly this guy was brain damaged from his mother's alcohol
and drug abuse while president, and his difficult childhood and
the abuse he suffered, and so on and so on.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
But Supreme Court says, yeah, no.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
We've heard these arguments before.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
There are a lot of people who have difficult upbringings
who don't commit murder.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Right, the only avenue left now is going to be
the governor who won't say no to this. Of course,
interesting here, rom Ready, the guy behind dojes cme. He
got to that point because he was fed up with
what he thought was government overreach. This is a guy
that's got a lot of money and got a really

(52:29):
nice house in Isle of Palms and built the seawall
to protect it, and the state came in and said,
now you can't do that. You got to tear it
down and also find him close to three hundred thousand dollars. Well,
they tossed the fine. But now the judge who originally
told him he had to tear it down has rescinded

(52:51):
that order says it can stay at least for now.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
Huh.

Speaker 1 (53:00):
Anyway, this is coming after Ready and a couple of
other outlets filed motions asking the judge to reconsider. So
this reversal at least gives given more time to review
the three motions and we'll see if they go back
there again. Interesting, now that the House is back in session,

(53:21):
first order business is going to be to you trying
to get the government reopened, and that vote expected to
probably some time tonight. But now that they're back, you
had the swearing in of an Arizona Democrat while the
House was not in session. Mike Johnson said he wouldn't
do any House business that included swearing in this democrat.

(53:42):
Why do we care well with the swearing in of
Adelita Grujalva, If I'm saying that.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
Properly, I don't know. I don't know either was does
anybody know? I just know she's the Epstein woman?

Speaker 1 (53:55):
Yes, exactly. And this means that there'll be the votes
there to bring to the floor the release of all
the Epstein files. So we'll get to revisit all that again.
Here that's coming up, the DOJ investigating UC Berkeley. Now,
after this turning point protest that got violent here, should
we have been surprised? I mean, CPUSA at cal Berkeley

(54:19):
that was a recipe for disaster, and it ended up
that way. Air Force families at Tended Air Force Base
in Florida told to take their Christmas decorations.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Down because it's tacky before Thanksgiving. That was exactly the
reason why.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
Yeah, so that there was some all holiday decorations should
be reflective in their respective months and not any sooner
than thirty days before the given holiday. I've seen more
and more Christmas decorations going up. I even saw some
pre Halloween. Once Halloween came and went, I saw him
popping up all over the place earlier this year.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
Well, I think the I think military bases rules there
probably should be a little bit different than they are
for the rest of us. Why. I mean, that's that's
the ultimate h OA, isn't it. The federal government? I
guess so? Yeah, Uncle Sam, Well, I mean not only
that they employ you as well.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
Yeah, I mean, I don't know your average Trust me
as someone who grew up on military housing bases, base housing,
and it wasn't good then, it's probably not much better now.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
I don't know, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
Uh. The former housekeeper for the Murdoch families got a
book coming out. Wow, this is kind of late, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
Anyway? Which housekeeper was this, because there was one that
passed pasta.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
This is Blanco Simpson.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
Oh oh, okay, she was.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
Her name popped up a few times in that trial.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
Yeah she was a witness.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Yeah, yes she was. And Kim Kardashian you may have heard,
filled the bar exam shocker, yeah right, blamed her study
time with chat GPT, and apparently blamed for psychics, who
she says told her she'd passed the barring Sam, do
you want to be represented by this woman?