Larry Mendte talks about the issues at Newark international airport, the jury selection process in the trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, and Letitia James continuing to fight Donald Trump. John Nance discusses the issues at Newark Liberty International Airport; Johnny Oleksinski joins Larry to talk about the Tony Award nominations and his biggest snubs.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, thanks for being with us this morning and
the Big Three. We're learning now that at Newark Liberty
International Airport, the air traffic controllers screen you know, where
they see all the flights coming and going, that went
black for sixty to ninety seconds last week three forty three.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm going to move you here because I just got
told that to approach lost all the radars. Three of
the court radar screens went black and they have no
frequent twenty three forty three, whoever anyone else is on frequency.
I guess this is a serious issue because I have
one more arrival and now I have nobody else coming
in back.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
That is the most panicked I ever heard an air
traffic controller. Usually when even no matter what's happening, they
are calm, and you can get from his voice that
it'll be weeks, not days before flights can get back
on schedule. At Newark's Liberty International, jury selection continues today.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
If the P.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Diddy sexual assault and trafficking trial, and the defense has
already signaled their strategy.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
They're going to say and allege that these victims were
in a consensual sexual relationship and that these were not acts,
that they were not in agreement with.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
How about New York Attorney General Letitia James. So she's
already facing possible federal charges for mortgage fraud, and now
she is leading a lawsuit with other Democratic ages to
stop Donald Trump's doge cuts.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
The justices have said, including liberal justices like Justice Kagan,
that this is truly insane and this is just the
latest such lawsuit to retot try to limit what this
president can do.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
And Donald Trump is serious about reopening the world famous
San Francisco prison Alcatraz. So when could the famous or
the infamous prison reopen?
Speaker 6 (01:55):
I think pretty darn quick. He's already ordered the FBI,
the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Homeland Security to
get to work on this. Nice going to involve the
National Park Service, but I think Secretary Bergen, we'll be
ready to move out swiftly on this.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And another year and another successful Met Gallo, the world's
most watched fashion show, celebrated black fashion this year.
Speaker 7 (02:19):
Most importantly to me in a way is when I
look at the show, I see freedom, I see liberation,
I see hope, I see respect.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
And money you see money. The event raised thirty one
million dollars for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hey, before
we get to the topics I want to get, make
you a reminder go to the iHeartRadio app and leave
us a talkback. This is important because you could win
the very prestigious limited edition Mentee in the Morning T shirt,
(02:49):
which will be awarded each day to our favorite talkback
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So you call in and leave a talk back on
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judges that listen to all of them and decide who
wins this prestigious award. And while you're on the free
iHeartRadio app, be sure to set a preset for seven
(03:13):
to ten woor to make it that much easier to listen. Now,
let's talk about what is going on at Newark Airport.
It is insane that this is continuing. Yesterday again, long
delays Yesterday again, flights were canceled. Yesterday again, flights in
(03:36):
air were told to land somewhere else or turn around.
This isn't supposed to be this way, obviously, And why
is it just Newark? I mean this is the air
traffic controllers are in Philadelphia. They run the entire sector.
Why Is it just affecting this one airport. I don't
think anybody seems to have the answer to that. But
(04:00):
as you heard a moment ago, air traffic controllers are panicked.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
I just got told that the approach lost all the radars.
Three of the four radar screens went black, and they
have no frequency and they want you to be advising
they may not be able to raid our contact you
because of the radar issues, and they may lose you
on for certain times of when you're flying.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
So the air traffic controllers are blind and they're not
even able to contact. This was only sixty to ninety seconds,
but that's an eternity when you have a flight coming
in and you have to make sure everything's clear and
you need to be communicating with everyone. No wonder he
had panic in his voice. That could have been a tragedy.
(04:46):
And so people that are going to the Newer International
Airport right now are waiting there for hours to get
their flights, and sometimes they're told the flights aren't coming in.
United Airlines is so frustrated with the whole thing, they
have canceled thirty five flights in and out of Newark
International It right now Newark International through no fault of
(05:11):
its own. This isn't the people who run the airport
over there. This is the FAA and an outdated system
that's never been taken care of for forty years. Remember
all that money that the Biden administration passed in bills.
One was called an infrastructure bill, wasn't It wasn't that
(05:32):
a trillion dollars.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It was a joke. It was misnamed go through the bill.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It was filled with self interest and special interests. Sure,
they built wind turbines right off the Jersey Coast, right
off Long Island, right off Connecticut, up and down the
East coast, wind turbines, and now we have an outdated
air trap the control system that was ignored.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
They could have used that money for that.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
There certainly was money that was supposed to be earmarked
for infrastructure, and maybe maybe the most important part of
infrastructure after the roads and bridges, is air traffic control,
(06:28):
and that was ignored by the Biden administration. They had
the money, We know they had the money. They passed
one of the largest bills in history, a trillion dollar bill.
It is incredible the last four years, the incompetence, what
(06:49):
they did to this country should never be ignored, and
there needs to be investigation after investigation after investigation defined
out who was really running things and who was making
the calls, and who did this to our country and
who did this to the passengers at Newark International Airport
(07:10):
who just want to catch a flight.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Nobody knows what's next and if my flight's getting deleted.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
More Now, the passengers, I am encouraged by some of
the things they say because they seem to know completely
what is going on.
Speaker 8 (07:29):
They have the most critical job for our safety, and
so if they are understaffed and the people that are
covering are going to be overtired because they are doing
longer shifts. As a flyer, that's making me feel very nervous.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Actually, So when could this finally improve? Now we've been told,
we were told last week for a little bit that
it's going to be a few days. Don't worry about it.
Now we're told it could be weeks, maybe months. Because
the entire system is a problem.
Speaker 9 (08:01):
I do anticipate a getting worse. There's quite a few
issues that are going on. There were some maintenance issues,
some things going on at the airport as well, So
it's not only about staffing. But the fact that it
is about staffing says a lot of things. One is
that the air traffic controllers have kind of had enough.
They're not going to work this overtime anymore. There's more
retiring going on right now than there has been before.
(08:22):
They're selecting where they want to work. It's a real
shift and Sean Duffy has his hands full trying to
keep this thing staffed the way that it needs to be.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, Sean Duffy was on Fox News last night to
talk about this. He is promising to fix it as
soon as possible. He's going to hold a news conference
later this week at Newark International.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Now we're plane is going to crash. Now they have
communication devices they can see other air traffic like GPS
in the airplanes. But it's a sign that we have
a frail system in place and it has to be fixed.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I'll say, I'll say it's a frail system, but we've
had a frail system for a long time and it
is ignored for forty years. This system we have in
place right now dates back to the nineties. They're using
floppy discs.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
So we've slowed the traffic down at Newark there's a
runway that's under construction, and our primary goal is to
make sure people are safe. And so when you have
an incident like this, both lines not work, Laura, But
when you have an incident like this, you want to
make sure that people are safe, and so you just
have less departures out of the airport until we feel
comfortable and safe that the system isn't going to go
down again.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
So, if you're wondering, why Newark when you have problems
across the country, you have a shortage of air traffic
controllers across the country, you have the same problems with
the system across the country, why Newark? Because on top
of all this, they have one runway sometimes two runways
(09:50):
down because of construction. Just seems like a bad time
for that. We'll talk more about that throughout the morning.
But how about the NFL draft right now? Is really
moving up in the world. The three day event has
announced it will soon take place at one of the
(10:12):
world's most iconic locations. We'll tell you where that is.
Plus tickets to see the Doobie Brothers, who are touring
again with Michael McDonald at a twenty five. Yeah, I know,
I know, it's confusing, what exactly is going on at
Newark Liberty International Airport and why aren't other airports in
(10:33):
the area having similar problems. For that, we go to
John Nance, the Great John Nance, ABC News World Aviation analysts,
the best in the business and author.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
John.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Thanks so much for joining us. We have so many questions,
and I know our listeners have so many questions about
what's going on at Newark right now. Maybe you can
just start by explaining what the problem seems to be.
Speaker 10 (10:58):
Well, it's about threefold problem, Larry. It's going to be
with you, by the way. But not of these circumstances,
at least nobody's crashed, But there's delays everywhere at Newark
because of these things. First of all, air traffic control.
The air traffic controllers that they lost their radar, lost
the ability to communicate with the airplanes. It's about a
(11:19):
week ago for about ninety seconds. That's an eternity if
you're looking to the blank screen and you've got dynamic
airplanes that go in all over the place. When they
got it back, a number of them took leaves to
just calm down after a while, and you can you
can appreciate this if you know the pressures of their job, well,
that meant they didn't have enough air traffic controllers to
bring the airplanes in and out, and so that put
(11:41):
delays in immediately. Second, the runway has been taken out
of service for maintenance, and then that's not going to
be back up for at least a month or so,
and that means that they've lost about a third of
their capacity for take offs and landings. And then when
you put that all together with the ripple effect, which
is the fact that you have all across the country
(12:04):
with things that are on planes that are coming in
and out of Newark, they get laid two, three, four
hours and the whole system begins to a stagger.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
So here's what I don't understand. I know that Philadelphia
is the hub for Newark and running some of the
things there, and I know that there's other airports all
across the country that has the same equipment and the
same outdated equipment.
Speaker 10 (12:30):
Why Newark, Well, I think New York is simply one
of the most busy airports. It is definitely one of
our most busy, busy istest word, I'm trying to find
airport by the same token. The fact is that when
you put as much pressure as they do on the
equipment in any particular place, you're going to have a
breakdown at some point in time. I'm not even sure
(12:52):
that anybody knows precisely what happened the other day, because
it actually was in the Philadelphia facility that handles the
the southern portion flights coming in and out of Newark.
But anyway you look across the country, our christ problem
is this, we're three thousand people short of what we
should have. We had about fourteen thousand air traffic controllers.
(13:13):
We need about three thousand more. And when you consider
how long it takes to bring somebody in and train them,
and the fact that if you hire one hundred people,
maybe you'll get twenty. They can go on through the course,
and that takes years. We've had this problem for a
long time, and this problem actually comes right back to
Congress's doorstep. They're the ones that have not appropriated the money,
(13:34):
and this has been going on for thirty years.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
You talked about the real concern, and I heard the
Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy talking about this last night
and he said, look, there's no chance of a crash
there's no chance of an accident. We have backups for that.
That would make me feel great if that was true.
Is that true?
Speaker 10 (13:59):
Well, that's a big glib, shall we say. Aviation safety
is a very delicately balanced situation, and it relies on
an awful lot of different things that have to be
paid attention to all the time. So when you talk
about you know, I guarantee if that's what he was saying,
that you're not going to have any safety issue out
(14:20):
of this, No, that's not entirely true. Now, what he's
trying to say is that we're backing off. They're backing
off on the number of flights in and out to
match the number of controllers that's where coming from, and
by doing so, they will not jeopardize the margins of safety.
I hope they're right. I certainly think they're on the
(14:40):
right track with that. But by the same token, when
you disrupt anything in commercial aviation, you want to risk
that you are lowering, just to some degree, the margins
of safety. That doesn't mean you're going to guarantee an accident,
but it does mean that you've got to be even
more more careful about everything you're doing. Certainly when it
into delays and people sitting out there on the runway.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It also sounded like the Transportation Secretary says he wanted
to fast track the process of getting new air traffic
controllers for some reason.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
That sounds like that's not a great idea.
Speaker 10 (15:17):
Well, first of all, it's a deceptive and I think
he's probably deceiving himself a little bit on that. I
know that's what everybody would like to do. But the
thing is just to say, if you hire a hundred
potential air traffic controllers, no matter how well you have
vetted those applicants, you're going to get maybe twenty maybe
twenty five of them out the other end. And that's
after maybe a year of investment of money and time
(15:38):
and everything else. The academy that they run there is
world class, but it takes about a year and a
half to get an air draffic controller to the point
of being able to see anything to an airplane anywhere
at any time, and then to get them up to
full capabilities to be trustworthy in a townwere like newer
for instance, or Chicago, o hair.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
That takes years, right, So how long is Nowhork going
to be dealing with this?
Speaker 10 (16:05):
Well? I'm afraid it's going to be probably another couple
of weeks before we begin to see a little relief
in terms of the number of controllers in the facilities there,
so that we're not holding up the system based on
the lack of controllers. By the same token, the runway
won't be ready I think until June. I'm not absolutely
positive about that. But you don't wonder, like anytime we
(16:29):
go down the road and you see a road torn
up and long lines of traffic, you wonder, why did
they have to do it now. I'm not sure there
is a better time to do it, but it certainly
does reduce the number of take office and landings that
they can do it in an hour at door.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Luckily, they have options here, so you would suggest LaGuardia
or JFK or Philadelphia.
Speaker 10 (16:51):
I couldn't tease you say, yeah, I get on Amtrak
and go to Philadelphia. But the thing is that JFK
is probably the best reliever for shorter term or you know,
short hops cross the country, not international ones. Lake WARDI,
of course, is tried and true, even though very pressed airport,
but the pressure is on all the Eastern airports right now,
(17:13):
even Dulles for that matter of seen increase traffic.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Oh, that's interesting. So you think we're going to see
these similar problems at other airports.
Speaker 10 (17:20):
I don't think so. Well, I'll put it this way,
unless we have another sequence like this one where all
of a sudden they're missing that many people in the
tower and in the air traffic control approach and departure facilities,
then no, it probably is sustainable. But you see the
sustainability that we've had so far, as with people working
six days a week and tremendous amounts of overtime. These
(17:43):
are human beings. They will burn out. We all will
do that after a while, and no matter how good
the money is, you've got to get people a rest.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Absolutely, John Nance always great ABC World News Aviation analysts
and authors. Thanks, thanks so much for your time.
Speaker 10 (18:00):
John very thanks, thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
John Now staff are one of your favorite segments. Johnny Oleaczinsky,
New York Post entertainment critic, and we were just talking
during the break, and I'm still taken by what the
New Yorker wrote about you. Can you talk about that?
That's that's wonderful, that's the that's one of the best
quotes you could get Yeah, I couldn't believe it. The
New Yorker, which you wouldn't think they would have anything
(18:23):
nice to say about a writer at the New York Post,
and and throughout the story they really don't with the others.
The story is called why I Can't Quit The New
York Post, and you know it's written by a very
liberal writer who says they hate our politics, but they
love how loud we are. And in the story, in
the story it says and on one page, entertainment critic
Johnny Oleksinski cracks me up.
Speaker 7 (18:45):
I crack him up. I crack him up with his
staccato phrasing and his uncareful way with celebrity regard. I wonderful,
And that is I've never been summed up so well.
If I were to put an epitaph on my tombstone,
that could be it. Yeah, that he was uncareful with
celebrity regard.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yes, congratulation, that's that's a that's a great comment from
The New Yorker too, which is really kind of shocking.
Speaker 7 (19:12):
Better than the pulletzer, which I'll never win no one
day for The New York Post hasn't won one in
one hundred years.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Is that right?
Speaker 7 (19:21):
You bet it.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Is' So you know you should have won it for
the Hunter Biden laptop.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
That's what you should have won it for.
Speaker 7 (19:27):
I don't disagree.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Let's talk about the Tony Award nominations. There were some
enormous snubs in this.
Speaker 7 (19:35):
Yeah, in a weird season where there's so many celebrities.
I think there's at least four Oscar winners on Broadway
this season, and most of them were just given the
brush quite unceremoniously. Karen Coulkin, who just won for a
Real Pain. He's in the Glengarry Glenn Ross right now
packing the houses. He did not make it into Best
Featured Actor. Denzel Washington and Othello, he was knocked off.
(19:59):
Jake Jill, Robert Downey Junior. Wow. Those are all names
that were not read when on nominations day.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Whether to applaud the Tonys and say that's so great
that you're not swayed by celebrity, or to say, what
are you thinking? You want to give it the big names,
You want to get that kind of status and ride
their coat tails.
Speaker 7 (20:21):
Well, I read in The New Yorker today that I
have an uncareful way with celebrity regard. So I'm going
to say I'm pleased that the Tony nominating committee had
such integrity and actually went and watched these performances and said,
this is not up to our standard of what is good. Yes,
they're making a lot of money, but people just see
(20:41):
Denzel Washington's name and they go, I would like to
sit ten feet away from him, and I'll spend nine
hundred dollars to do that, but he's not very good
in it.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So I take it you agree with the Tonys and
who they nominated, Oh yeah, big time. Really, every one
of them, Denzel Washington, Criton colch and Robert Downey Junior,
all of them.
Speaker 7 (20:59):
I wouldn't have nominated any of those people this seasons.
It's not the greatest of seasons, and there will be
names that people don't recognize. But the thing about the
Tony Awards is they usually get an audience like six
million people. And while that's nothing compared to the Oscars
and Golden Globes, which are also struggling. Those are trying
to sell movies that cost two hundred million dollars or
(21:20):
more all over the world, whereas all Broadway wants is
to fill forty thousand seat theaters, and when you have
an audience of six million potential ticket buyers, because that's
who watches the Tonies. If you don't care about Broadway,
why would you watch it? You're watching football or you
know whatever that is. So I think you know they
made a prudent choice there, and.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
No matter what the ratings are, the networks are never
going to stop airing the Tonyes.
Speaker 7 (21:44):
CBS and ever since Les Moonvez, CBS has a pretty
diligent relationship with them, and they're very devoted.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Let's talk about the other Tony Awards. I guess the
top award is Best Musical.
Speaker 7 (21:55):
Yeah, so that's going to go. I almost guarantee to
Maybe Happy End, which is a robot romance.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
You talked about this before you and the.
Speaker 7 (22:05):
Best sell I could think of with that is it's
like you're watching a Pixar movie live. That's sort of
the vibe of it. It's very heartwarming, you know how
you watch Wally and you go, how is this vacuum
cleaner gonna make me cry? And then he does, and
that's sort of what Maybe Happy Ending is. It has
Darren Chris in it, but that got ten nominations. Three
musicals got ten nominations, and those are Maybe Happy Ending
(22:26):
Dead Outlaw, which is about a corpse that was treked
across America. This really happened and then Death becomes Her
based on the Roberts theme Mechas Movie. All of those
got ten nominations each.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Oh, now I want to see that that sounds that
sounds adorable with the robot love story.
Speaker 7 (22:41):
It is and it's one of the I wouldn't bring
little kids, but there is a I think families would
like it. It's really funny, clever, not vulgar, beautifully designed,
really well acted.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Let's talk about the MET Gala. I've never liked the
Met Gala.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
It seems like a prom for the elite that want
to keep the peons out.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
I remember last year the theme of the Met Gala
was this poem about these rich people that live in
a castle and are trying to protect themselves from the
peasants and went, how how more on the nose can
you get? Anna Wintour. Yeah, I've always called it Anna
Wintour's Day of Judgment. And you know, because she she
so carefully checks every single outfit. Oh, I Anna must
(23:23):
approve every single outfit. You're stareing everybody up and down.
Oh that's what she does. Oh when I actually, when
I saw the George Clooney play, I was sitting right
behind her, And you just can't believe when you see
that hair, you could recognize her across a football field.
She just looks like Anna Wintour.
Speaker 6 (23:42):
All I know is if I was walking by her
with my old navy sweater, i'd get a bad glare.
Speaker 7 (23:48):
Oh I know. And I don't even think I had
a shirt with buttons on when I went to see
good Night and good Luck hurt your eyes, an your eyes.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
She was born judgmental. You can see it in her.
Speaker 7 (23:57):
But that's that's the thing about them is it seems
so unenjoyable. Everyone walks that red carpet stone faced. And
when it first started, the outfits used to be really
big and funny and gigantic. How could they possibly walk
in it? Now it's just a bunch of a listers
and pretty dresses, seizing more of the spotlight, forcing us
(24:18):
to care. Do we care?
Speaker 10 (24:20):
No?
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Hey, you like thunderbolts?
Speaker 7 (24:23):
Why why you sound so incredulous?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
No, it got mixed reviews. I haven't seen it, but
it did get mixed reviews.
Speaker 7 (24:30):
If you call an eighty eight percent on Rotten Tomatoes mixed.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Eighty eight percent of the critics or eighty eight percent
of the audience.
Speaker 7 (24:36):
The audience review is ninety four percent on there.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Really really I need to get better critics.
Speaker 7 (24:43):
Well, oh, here's one. I know me and Numeyer disagree
quite often, but yeah, I thought it was pretty good.
Good action sequences, Florence Pughgue is a great actress. It's funny.
But the nice thing about it is so many of
these Marvel movies, because that whole universe has become so
bloated and confusing. Whenever you see one, you feel like
(25:05):
you had to do your homework to understand it. And
this even though all of these characters appeared in different
Marvel movies, anybody could go watch it and have a
good time because it's just a group of misfits trying
to save New York.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I will tell you what Joe Numeier said. He said,
the first half of the movie was just all these
fight sequences, and it didn't seem that good. The second
half of the movie was quite good, but what happens
after the credits was better than the first half of
the movie.
Speaker 7 (25:31):
I never stay for that. I like to go home.
So the moment it says directed by I'm out of there.
So I'm glad that he enjoyed that. We're actually flipped.
I preferred. I thought the last ten minutes was a
little wobbly, but I liked it. I gave it three stars.
That's pretty good. Maybe I'll go see it.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I love these Marvel movies, but I think the whole
thing is dying right now, all of the Marvel movies.
Speaker 7 (25:52):
This is the thirty six the Marvel movie.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Wow.
Speaker 7 (25:54):
Yeah, so I guess since twenty eleven.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
I yeah, not quite dead yet.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Jody Zitski, entertainment critic for the New York Times New
York Post.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I always promote you every time.
Speaker 7 (26:06):
With the end, my salary went up for a second there.
I was nice.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Sorry to disappoint you. You know, if he thinks that's
a promotion either.
Speaker 10 (26:13):
So
Good morning, thanks for being with us this morning and
the Big Three. We're learning now that at Newark Liberty
International Airport, the air traffic controllers screen you know, where
they see all the flights coming and going, that went
black for sixty to ninety seconds last week three forty three.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm going to move you here because I just got
told that to approach lost all the radars. Three of
the court radar screens went black and they have no
frequent twenty three forty three, whoever anyone else is on frequency.
I guess this is a serious issue because I have
one more arrival and now I have nobody else coming
in back.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
That is the most panicked I ever heard an air
traffic controller. Usually when even no matter what's happening, they
are calm, and you can get from his voice that
it'll be weeks, not days before flights can get back
on schedule. At Newark's Liberty International, jury selection continues today.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
If the P.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Diddy sexual assault and trafficking trial, and the defense has
already signaled their strategy.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
They're going to say and allege that these victims were
in a consensual sexual relationship and that these were not acts,
that they were not in agreement with.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
How about New York Attorney General Letitia James. So she's
already facing possible federal charges for mortgage fraud, and now
she is leading a lawsuit with other Democratic ages to
stop Donald Trump's doge cuts.
Speaker 5 (01:29):
The justices have said, including liberal justices like Justice Kagan,
that this is truly insane and this is just the
latest such lawsuit to retot try to limit what this
president can do.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
And Donald Trump is serious about reopening the world famous
San Francisco prison Alcatraz. So when could the famous or
the infamous prison reopen?
Speaker 6 (01:55):
I think pretty darn quick. He's already ordered the FBI,
the Bureau of Prisons, the Department of Homeland Security to
get to work on this. Nice going to involve the
National Park Service, but I think Secretary Bergen, we'll be
ready to move out swiftly on this.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And another year and another successful Met Gallo, the world's
most watched fashion show, celebrated black fashion this year.
Speaker 7 (02:19):
Most importantly to me in a way is when I
look at the show, I see freedom, I see liberation,
I see hope, I see respect.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
And money you see money. The event raised thirty one
million dollars for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hey, before
we get to the topics I want to get, make
you a reminder go to the iHeartRadio app and leave
us a talkback. This is important because you could win
the very prestigious limited edition Mentee in the Morning T shirt,
(02:49):
which will be awarded each day to our favorite talkback
of the morning. We decide at the end of the show,
So you call in and leave a talk back on
the iHeartRadio App, and then we have a panel of
judges that listen to all of them and decide who
wins this prestigious award. And while you're on the free
iHeartRadio app, be sure to set a preset for seven
(03:13):
to ten woor to make it that much easier to listen. Now,
let's talk about what is going on at Newark Airport.
It is insane that this is continuing. Yesterday again, long
delays Yesterday again, flights were canceled. Yesterday again, flights in
(03:36):
air were told to land somewhere else or turn around.
This isn't supposed to be this way, obviously, And why
is it just Newark? I mean this is the air
traffic controllers are in Philadelphia. They run the entire sector.
Why Is it just affecting this one airport. I don't
think anybody seems to have the answer to that. But
(04:00):
as you heard a moment ago, air traffic controllers are panicked.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
I just got told that the approach lost all the radars.
Three of the four radar screens went black, and they
have no frequency and they want you to be advising
they may not be able to raid our contact you
because of the radar issues, and they may lose you
on for certain times of when you're flying.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
So the air traffic controllers are blind and they're not
even able to contact. This was only sixty to ninety seconds,
but that's an eternity when you have a flight coming
in and you have to make sure everything's clear and
you need to be communicating with everyone. No wonder he
had panic in his voice. That could have been a tragedy.
(04:46):
And so people that are going to the Newer International
Airport right now are waiting there for hours to get
their flights, and sometimes they're told the flights aren't coming in.
United Airlines is so frustrated with the whole thing, they
have canceled thirty five flights in and out of Newark
International It right now Newark International through no fault of
(05:11):
its own. This isn't the people who run the airport
over there. This is the FAA and an outdated system
that's never been taken care of for forty years. Remember
all that money that the Biden administration passed in bills.
One was called an infrastructure bill, wasn't It wasn't that
(05:32):
a trillion dollars.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It was a joke. It was misnamed go through the bill.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It was filled with self interest and special interests. Sure,
they built wind turbines right off the Jersey Coast, right
off Long Island, right off Connecticut, up and down the
East coast, wind turbines, and now we have an outdated
air trap the control system that was ignored.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
They could have used that money for that.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
There certainly was money that was supposed to be earmarked
for infrastructure, and maybe maybe the most important part of
infrastructure after the roads and bridges, is air traffic control,
(06:28):
and that was ignored by the Biden administration. They had
the money, We know they had the money. They passed
one of the largest bills in history, a trillion dollar bill.
It is incredible the last four years, the incompetence, what
(06:49):
they did to this country should never be ignored, and
there needs to be investigation after investigation after investigation defined
out who was really running things and who was making
the calls, and who did this to our country and
who did this to the passengers at Newark International Airport
(07:10):
who just want to catch a flight.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Nobody knows what's next and if my flight's getting deleted.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
More Now, the passengers, I am encouraged by some of
the things they say because they seem to know completely
what is going on.
Speaker 8 (07:29):
They have the most critical job for our safety, and
so if they are understaffed and the people that are
covering are going to be overtired because they are doing
longer shifts. As a flyer, that's making me feel very nervous.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Actually, So when could this finally improve? Now we've been told,
we were told last week for a little bit that
it's going to be a few days. Don't worry about it.
Now we're told it could be weeks, maybe months. Because
the entire system is a problem.
Speaker 9 (08:01):
I do anticipate a getting worse. There's quite a few
issues that are going on. There were some maintenance issues,
some things going on at the airport as well, So
it's not only about staffing. But the fact that it
is about staffing says a lot of things. One is
that the air traffic controllers have kind of had enough.
They're not going to work this overtime anymore. There's more
retiring going on right now than there has been before.
(08:22):
They're selecting where they want to work. It's a real
shift and Sean Duffy has his hands full trying to
keep this thing staffed the way that it needs to be.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, Sean Duffy was on Fox News last night to
talk about this. He is promising to fix it as
soon as possible. He's going to hold a news conference
later this week at Newark International.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
Now we're plane is going to crash. Now they have
communication devices they can see other air traffic like GPS
in the airplanes. But it's a sign that we have
a frail system in place and it has to be fixed.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I'll say, I'll say it's a frail system, but we've
had a frail system for a long time and it
is ignored for forty years. This system we have in
place right now dates back to the nineties. They're using
floppy discs.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
So we've slowed the traffic down at Newark there's a
runway that's under construction, and our primary goal is to
make sure people are safe. And so when you have
an incident like this, both lines not work, Laura, But
when you have an incident like this, you want to
make sure that people are safe, and so you just
have less departures out of the airport until we feel
comfortable and safe that the system isn't going to go
down again.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
So, if you're wondering, why Newark when you have problems
across the country, you have a shortage of air traffic
controllers across the country, you have the same problems with
the system across the country, why Newark? Because on top
of all this, they have one runway sometimes two runways
(09:50):
down because of construction. Just seems like a bad time
for that. We'll talk more about that throughout the morning.
But how about the NFL draft right now? Is really
moving up in the world. The three day event has
announced it will soon take place at one of the
(10:12):
world's most iconic locations. We'll tell you where that is.
Plus tickets to see the Doobie Brothers, who are touring
again with Michael McDonald at a twenty five. Yeah, I know,
I know, it's confusing, what exactly is going on at
Newark Liberty International Airport and why aren't other airports in
(10:33):
the area having similar problems. For that, we go to
John Nance, the Great John Nance, ABC News World Aviation analysts,
the best in the business and author.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
John.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Thanks so much for joining us. We have so many questions,
and I know our listeners have so many questions about
what's going on at Newark right now. Maybe you can
just start by explaining what the problem seems to be.
Speaker 10 (10:58):
Well, it's about threefold problem, Larry. It's going to be
with you, by the way. But not of these circumstances,
at least nobody's crashed, But there's delays everywhere at Newark
because of these things. First of all, air traffic control.
The air traffic controllers that they lost their radar, lost
the ability to communicate with the airplanes. It's about a
(11:19):
week ago for about ninety seconds. That's an eternity if
you're looking to the blank screen and you've got dynamic
airplanes that go in all over the place. When they
got it back, a number of them took leaves to
just calm down after a while, and you can you
can appreciate this if you know the pressures of their job, well,
that meant they didn't have enough air traffic controllers to
bring the airplanes in and out, and so that put
(11:41):
delays in immediately. Second, the runway has been taken out
of service for maintenance, and then that's not going to
be back up for at least a month or so,
and that means that they've lost about a third of
their capacity for take offs and landings. And then when
you put that all together with the ripple effect, which
is the fact that you have all across the country
(12:04):
with things that are on planes that are coming in
and out of Newark, they get laid two, three, four
hours and the whole system begins to a stagger.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
So here's what I don't understand. I know that Philadelphia
is the hub for Newark and running some of the
things there, and I know that there's other airports all
across the country that has the same equipment and the
same outdated equipment.
Speaker 10 (12:30):
Why Newark, Well, I think New York is simply one
of the most busy airports. It is definitely one of
our most busy, busy istest word, I'm trying to find
airport by the same token. The fact is that when
you put as much pressure as they do on the
equipment in any particular place, you're going to have a
breakdown at some point in time. I'm not even sure
(12:52):
that anybody knows precisely what happened the other day, because
it actually was in the Philadelphia facility that handles the
the southern portion flights coming in and out of Newark.
But anyway you look across the country, our christ problem
is this, we're three thousand people short of what we
should have. We had about fourteen thousand air traffic controllers.
(13:13):
We need about three thousand more. And when you consider
how long it takes to bring somebody in and train them,
and the fact that if you hire one hundred people,
maybe you'll get twenty. They can go on through the course,
and that takes years. We've had this problem for a
long time, and this problem actually comes right back to
Congress's doorstep. They're the ones that have not appropriated the money,
(13:34):
and this has been going on for thirty years.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
You talked about the real concern, and I heard the
Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy talking about this last night
and he said, look, there's no chance of a crash
there's no chance of an accident. We have backups for that.
That would make me feel great if that was true.
Is that true?
Speaker 10 (13:59):
Well, that's a big glib, shall we say. Aviation safety
is a very delicately balanced situation, and it relies on
an awful lot of different things that have to be
paid attention to all the time. So when you talk
about you know, I guarantee if that's what he was saying,
that you're not going to have any safety issue out
(14:20):
of this, No, that's not entirely true. Now, what he's
trying to say is that we're backing off. They're backing
off on the number of flights in and out to
match the number of controllers that's where coming from, and
by doing so, they will not jeopardize the margins of safety.
I hope they're right. I certainly think they're on the
(14:40):
right track with that. But by the same token, when
you disrupt anything in commercial aviation, you want to risk
that you are lowering, just to some degree, the margins
of safety. That doesn't mean you're going to guarantee an accident,
but it does mean that you've got to be even
more more careful about everything you're doing. Certainly when it
into delays and people sitting out there on the runway.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
It also sounded like the Transportation Secretary says he wanted
to fast track the process of getting new air traffic
controllers for some reason.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
That sounds like that's not a great idea.
Speaker 10 (15:17):
Well, first of all, it's a deceptive and I think
he's probably deceiving himself a little bit on that. I
know that's what everybody would like to do. But the
thing is just to say, if you hire a hundred
potential air traffic controllers, no matter how well you have
vetted those applicants, you're going to get maybe twenty maybe
twenty five of them out the other end. And that's
after maybe a year of investment of money and time
(15:38):
and everything else. The academy that they run there is
world class, but it takes about a year and a
half to get an air draffic controller to the point
of being able to see anything to an airplane anywhere
at any time, and then to get them up to
full capabilities to be trustworthy in a townwere like newer
for instance, or Chicago, o hair.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
That takes years, right, So how long is Nowhork going
to be dealing with this?
Speaker 10 (16:05):
Well? I'm afraid it's going to be probably another couple
of weeks before we begin to see a little relief
in terms of the number of controllers in the facilities there,
so that we're not holding up the system based on
the lack of controllers. By the same token, the runway
won't be ready I think until June. I'm not absolutely
positive about that. But you don't wonder, like anytime we
(16:29):
go down the road and you see a road torn
up and long lines of traffic, you wonder, why did
they have to do it now. I'm not sure there
is a better time to do it, but it certainly
does reduce the number of take office and landings that
they can do it in an hour at door.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Luckily, they have options here, so you would suggest LaGuardia
or JFK or Philadelphia.
Speaker 10 (16:51):
I couldn't tease you say, yeah, I get on Amtrak
and go to Philadelphia. But the thing is that JFK
is probably the best reliever for shorter term or you know,
short hops cross the country, not international ones. Lake WARDI,
of course, is tried and true, even though very pressed airport,
but the pressure is on all the Eastern airports right now,
(17:13):
even Dulles for that matter of seen increase traffic.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Oh, that's interesting. So you think we're going to see
these similar problems at other airports.
Speaker 10 (17:20):
I don't think so. Well, I'll put it this way,
unless we have another sequence like this one where all
of a sudden they're missing that many people in the
tower and in the air traffic control approach and departure facilities,
then no, it probably is sustainable. But you see the
sustainability that we've had so far, as with people working
six days a week and tremendous amounts of overtime. These
(17:43):
are human beings. They will burn out. We all will
do that after a while, and no matter how good
the money is, you've got to get people a rest.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Absolutely, John Nance always great ABC World News Aviation analysts
and authors. Thanks, thanks so much for your time.
Speaker 10 (18:00):
John very thanks, thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
John Now staff are one of your favorite segments. Johnny Oleaczinsky,
New York Post entertainment critic, and we were just talking
during the break, and I'm still taken by what the
New Yorker wrote about you. Can you talk about that?
That's that's wonderful, that's the that's one of the best
quotes you could get Yeah, I couldn't believe it. The
New Yorker, which you wouldn't think they would have anything
(18:23):
nice to say about a writer at the New York Post,
and and throughout the story they really don't with the others.
The story is called why I Can't Quit The New
York Post, and you know it's written by a very
liberal writer who says they hate our politics, but they
love how loud we are. And in the story, in
the story it says and on one page, entertainment critic
Johnny Oleksinski cracks me up.
Speaker 7 (18:45):
I crack him up. I crack him up with his
staccato phrasing and his uncareful way with celebrity regard. I wonderful,
And that is I've never been summed up so well.
If I were to put an epitaph on my tombstone,
that could be it. Yeah, that he was uncareful with
celebrity regard.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Yes, congratulation, that's that's a that's a great comment from
The New Yorker too, which is really kind of shocking.
Speaker 7 (19:12):
Better than the pulletzer, which I'll never win no one
day for The New York Post hasn't won one in
one hundred years.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Is that right?
Speaker 7 (19:21):
You bet it.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Is' So you know you should have won it for
the Hunter Biden laptop.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
That's what you should have won it for.
Speaker 7 (19:27):
I don't disagree.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Let's talk about the Tony Award nominations. There were some
enormous snubs in this.
Speaker 7 (19:35):
Yeah, in a weird season where there's so many celebrities.
I think there's at least four Oscar winners on Broadway
this season, and most of them were just given the
brush quite unceremoniously. Karen Coulkin, who just won for a
Real Pain. He's in the Glengarry Glenn Ross right now
packing the houses. He did not make it into Best
Featured Actor. Denzel Washington and Othello, he was knocked off.
(19:59):
Jake Jill, Robert Downey Junior. Wow. Those are all names
that were not read when on nominations day.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Whether to applaud the Tonys and say that's so great
that you're not swayed by celebrity, or to say, what
are you thinking? You want to give it the big names,
You want to get that kind of status and ride
their coat tails.
Speaker 7 (20:21):
Well, I read in The New Yorker today that I
have an uncareful way with celebrity regard. So I'm going
to say I'm pleased that the Tony nominating committee had
such integrity and actually went and watched these performances and said,
this is not up to our standard of what is good. Yes,
they're making a lot of money, but people just see
(20:41):
Denzel Washington's name and they go, I would like to
sit ten feet away from him, and I'll spend nine
hundred dollars to do that, but he's not very good
in it.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So I take it you agree with the Tonys and
who they nominated, Oh yeah, big time. Really, every one
of them, Denzel Washington, Criton colch and Robert Downey Junior,
all of them.
Speaker 7 (20:59):
I wouldn't have nominated any of those people this seasons.
It's not the greatest of seasons, and there will be
names that people don't recognize. But the thing about the
Tony Awards is they usually get an audience like six
million people. And while that's nothing compared to the Oscars
and Golden Globes, which are also struggling. Those are trying
to sell movies that cost two hundred million dollars or
(21:20):
more all over the world, whereas all Broadway wants is
to fill forty thousand seat theaters, and when you have
an audience of six million potential ticket buyers, because that's
who watches the Tonies. If you don't care about Broadway,
why would you watch it? You're watching football or you
know whatever that is. So I think you know they
made a prudent choice there, and.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
No matter what the ratings are, the networks are never
going to stop airing the Tonyes.
Speaker 7 (21:44):
CBS and ever since Les Moonvez, CBS has a pretty
diligent relationship with them, and they're very devoted.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Let's talk about the other Tony Awards. I guess the
top award is Best Musical.
Speaker 7 (21:55):
Yeah, so that's going to go. I almost guarantee to
Maybe Happy End, which is a robot romance.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
You talked about this before you and the.
Speaker 7 (22:05):
Best sell I could think of with that is it's
like you're watching a Pixar movie live. That's sort of
the vibe of it. It's very heartwarming, you know how
you watch Wally and you go, how is this vacuum
cleaner gonna make me cry? And then he does, and
that's sort of what Maybe Happy Ending is. It has
Darren Chris in it, but that got ten nominations. Three
musicals got ten nominations, and those are Maybe Happy Ending
(22:26):
Dead Outlaw, which is about a corpse that was treked
across America. This really happened and then Death becomes Her
based on the Roberts theme Mechas Movie. All of those
got ten nominations each.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Oh, now I want to see that that sounds that
sounds adorable with the robot love story.
Speaker 7 (22:41):
It is and it's one of the I wouldn't bring
little kids, but there is a I think families would
like it. It's really funny, clever, not vulgar, beautifully designed,
really well acted.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Let's talk about the MET Gala. I've never liked the
Met Gala.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
It seems like a prom for the elite that want
to keep the peons out.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (23:00):
I remember last year the theme of the Met Gala
was this poem about these rich people that live in
a castle and are trying to protect themselves from the
peasants and went, how how more on the nose can
you get? Anna Wintour. Yeah, I've always called it Anna
Wintour's Day of Judgment. And you know, because she she
so carefully checks every single outfit. Oh, I Anna must
(23:23):
approve every single outfit. You're stareing everybody up and down.
Oh that's what she does. Oh when I actually, when
I saw the George Clooney play, I was sitting right
behind her, And you just can't believe when you see
that hair, you could recognize her across a football field.
She just looks like Anna Wintour.
Speaker 6 (23:42):
All I know is if I was walking by her
with my old navy sweater, i'd get a bad glare.
Speaker 7 (23:48):
Oh I know. And I don't even think I had
a shirt with buttons on when I went to see
good Night and good Luck hurt your eyes, an your eyes.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
She was born judgmental. You can see it in her.
Speaker 7 (23:57):
But that's that's the thing about them is it seems
so unenjoyable. Everyone walks that red carpet stone faced. And
when it first started, the outfits used to be really
big and funny and gigantic. How could they possibly walk
in it? Now it's just a bunch of a listers
and pretty dresses, seizing more of the spotlight, forcing us
(24:18):
to care. Do we care?
Speaker 10 (24:20):
No?
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Hey, you like thunderbolts?
Speaker 7 (24:23):
Why why you sound so incredulous?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
No, it got mixed reviews. I haven't seen it, but
it did get mixed reviews.
Speaker 7 (24:30):
If you call an eighty eight percent on Rotten Tomatoes mixed.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Eighty eight percent of the critics or eighty eight percent
of the audience.
Speaker 7 (24:36):
The audience review is ninety four percent on there.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Really really I need to get better critics.
Speaker 7 (24:43):
Well, oh, here's one. I know me and Numeyer disagree
quite often, but yeah, I thought it was pretty good.
Good action sequences, Florence Pughgue is a great actress. It's funny.
But the nice thing about it is so many of
these Marvel movies, because that whole universe has become so
bloated and confusing. Whenever you see one, you feel like
(25:05):
you had to do your homework to understand it. And
this even though all of these characters appeared in different
Marvel movies, anybody could go watch it and have a
good time because it's just a group of misfits trying
to save New York.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I will tell you what Joe Numeier said. He said,
the first half of the movie was just all these
fight sequences, and it didn't seem that good. The second
half of the movie was quite good, but what happens
after the credits was better than the first half of
the movie.
Speaker 7 (25:31):
I never stay for that. I like to go home.
So the moment it says directed by I'm out of there.
So I'm glad that he enjoyed that. We're actually flipped.
I preferred. I thought the last ten minutes was a
little wobbly, but I liked it. I gave it three stars.
That's pretty good. Maybe I'll go see it.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I love these Marvel movies, but I think the whole
thing is dying right now, all of the Marvel movies.
Speaker 7 (25:52):
This is the thirty six the Marvel movie.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Wow.
Speaker 7 (25:54):
Yeah, so I guess since twenty eleven.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
I yeah, not quite dead yet.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Jody Zitski, entertainment critic for the New York Times New
York Post.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I always promote you every time.
Speaker 7 (26:06):
With the end, my salary went up for a second there.
I was nice.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Sorry to disappoint you. You know, if he thinks that's
a promotion either.
Speaker 10 (26:13):
So
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