Kevin Gordon in for Brian Thomas

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. The Kamala Catastrophe is coming
today at noon on fifty five KRC the Talk Station,
and now Kevin Golden filling in for Brian Thomas on
fifty five KOs the Talk Station. I'll right.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Five five in the morning. I hope your Monday morning
is going as well as mine is. Not only do
I get to sit in the chair today for Brian
and do the show, but it is an absolute gorgeous
morning out there. Nice Chris on the chili side but
not too bad. And the drive up here was fantastic.

(00:49):
I had a great weekend. I hope you did too.
We had some family come in unexpectedly for the weekend.
I was we were going to go up Now this
it's weird. I there is, you know, the fall festivals
and stuff all around the area. In the summertime, there's
a bunch of local festivals that we usually go to,
and those are more local, but when it comes to

(01:12):
the fall, there's these fall festivals that are in different
parts of the area and so on. Down in Augusta
they have the Turning of the Leaves festival and then
they have the Wolf Festival down in Falmouth, Kentucky and
Sauerkraut festival up in Waynesville, and there's a little farm
over in central Indiana. Take about two don't about two

(01:33):
hours to get there. It's if I can get this.
Steam Cliff Farms supposedly one of the oldest farms in Indiana.
And I had a fall festival and so on, and
it's great to go to these and it's always interesting,
and I looked at it from the standpoint of number one,
it's fun. But as I've talked about numerous times on
the air, is that when you're doing talk shows and

(01:55):
of course doing America's Truck and Network like I've been doing,
and maybe aware of that, but if you're not, I
am Tuesday through Friday twelve am to one am, and
so either you're on the air or you're doing show
prep and you're always looking around for something that's going

(02:16):
to give you an idea or something, you know, kind
of some sort of a trend that you're picking up
on when you go to a restaurant or something. All
kinds of show topics out there, just you got to
pay attention. And one of the things that I saw
as a result of going to some of these festivals
was kind of a getting an idea on the economy. Now,

(02:37):
this past weekend we were going to go up to Circleville,
Ohio to the Pumpkin Festival up there. Now this is
odd because I have not been to the Pumpkin Festival,
I want to say, in at least fifty years. So
almost every year I say, you know, we're gonna go,
We're gonna go, We're gonna go, but something happens. And

(02:57):
this year we said, all right, we're gonna go up
and this is what's going to happen. Well, we got
a phone call on Thursday and family was coming in
and said, okay, you know, all right, so we'll put
that off. But the weekend got kind of weird and
so not weird, but we just couldn't get up there.
But in going up to Waynesville and the Wolf Festival
and some of these other festivals, it's interesting talking to

(03:20):
the vendors and hearing what they have to say. And
in several instances in talking to these vendors, it was
this is probably one of the worst years I've ever
had at filling the Blank Festival. And I said, is
there a particular reason? Is there? What do you think,

(03:44):
and he goes, and he she whatever. Any of the
vendors would say, it's the economy. People just do not
have that extra money. And that extra money is what
they call discretionary income. You know, after you get your paycheck,
after you've paid your bills, after you've done all the
different obligations and so on, it's the money that's left

(04:06):
over that you have for recreational use. Now the economy,
since the pandemic, people were shut in, they were doing
a lot of home improvement. They were doing a lot
of stuff around the house, which, on the bright side,
if you want to look for a silver lining, I
think a lot of people have much more appreciation for
their homes. But they had to set aside a certain

(04:30):
area for them to work because they're working from home.
And then of course, having you know, you can't do
anything else. So I guess I'll go work on the yard,
I'll you know, build a deck, or I'll do something
along those lines. And we saw the home improvement business
and the big box stores and so on doing very well.
But because a lot of people either appliance wise or

(04:50):
took some of that stimulus money and said, oh well,
I've got an income interest rates are low. I not
only have an income, but I have this, I have
these stimulus checks. I'm going to upgrade a house and
move to a new house. And so when they did that,
of course you've got to buy new equipment. You've got
to buy new furniture fixtures, some new appliances, and so on.

(05:13):
So a lot of that has been front loaded into
that twenty twenty one ish, twenty twenty two and so on.
And then of course with the supply chain issues and
so on, people were having issues as far as some
of the things they wanted to buy. We saw what
happened to use car prices. Of course, in the trucking industry,
the truck used truck prices went out of sight because

(05:36):
of the factories being shut down and so on. And so,
once the plandemic ended and things started getting back to normal,
people said, all right, we're gonna start enjoying ourselves. We're
gonna get out. We're gonna go to restaurants, we're gonna bars,
we're gonna go to football games. We're gonna go to
baseball games. We're gonna go to plays, we're gonna go

(05:58):
to movies. We're gonna travel, We're going to do, you know,
all the fun stuff that we haven't been able to
do for the last couple of years. And so you've
seen throughout the economic numbers where people's spending habits have
kind of shifted more from the goods, the items, tangible items,

(06:19):
to more fun items, which in tangible eating out and
that type of thing. And in talking to these vendors,
they say that, you know, a lot of people are
maxed out, and we've seen this in the economy. We've
seen this in the numbers. People are maxed out as
far as their credit cards are concerned. Their interest rates
are higher if they've got credit card debt, then the

(06:41):
interest rate on that with the higher interest rates that
we've been experiencing record high, well at least the highest
interest rates in the last twenty years or so. And
then we're seeing inflation. Back in June of twenty twenty two,
we saw inflation hit nine point one percent and now
inflation is down around two percent, two point four to
two point five thereabouts. But what people forget or you know,

(07:06):
it's the well, when you hear the spoon fed regurgitators
in the mainstream media talk about it, it's like, oh, well,
inflation is down. Inflation, you know, from the inflation from
last month to this month is level. There was no inflation. Well,
that forgets the fact that when you have inflation one
month that goes up to four percent, the following month

(07:29):
goes up to five percent, when it goes up to
five percent, it didn't drop down to zero and then
hit five percent that month. It was four percent and
five percent on top of that. So when you have
the cumulative effect of those inflationary pressures over the last
three and a half years, all of a sudden, you're

(07:50):
looking at stuff like eggs at forty seven percent higher,
most grocery items at twenty one percent or more, and
depending upon what you buy. As far as GRoWES are concerned,
those are extremely high. When you look at the cost
of eating out up twenty five percent and in some
cases forty percent. And these numbers that we're seeing from

(08:10):
the federal government or when they do these issues in
terms of what the inflation rate is, where the inflation is,
and what certain items in that inflation have gone up, down,
or whatever, I'm not so sure that those are one
hundred percent accurate because when you go into the store
and if I don't know if you're like me, but

(08:32):
I being a numbers guy, recovering accountant and all I
pay attention to grocery items. I mentioned on this program
before that my father was a food broker, which was
a manufacturer's representative. He represented different companies and he'd go
to these buyers at Kroger IgA and you know, the
different wholesale distributors, and would pitch the products that he

(08:56):
was representing to get placement on their shelves. And he
always did the grocery shopping, and so on Saturday, he'd
go up to the Kroger store and just you know,
not only do the grocery shopping, but also kind of
pay attention to where his products were shelf placement or whatever,
so that he could then talk to the wholesale people

(09:16):
and see if he couldn't get either more facings or
more better placement on the shelves, maybe eye level or
something which is the best. And so I used to
go to the I used to go grocery shopping with him,
and we talk about things, and we'd talk about, you know,
how to look for lettuce and all those sort of things,
which you know helps me out now. But I love

(09:37):
grocery shopping. I think I'm one of the few guys
and few people that love grocery shopping. I love seeing
the stuff. And then of course I pay attention to
the prices. When we go to the grocery store. We're
always trying to find the deals that are on sale.
We'll try to you know, where we live. We can
hit we can hit Aldi, we can hit Meyer, we
can hit Walmart, we can hit Kroger, we can I

(10:00):
think I Remke and a couple of others. So we've
got a myriad of different places we can shop at.
And depending upon where we're heading, if we're heading north, south, east,
or west, we put together our list and okase, if
we're going to be down in that neighborhood, will stop
in the grocery store and pick up these four or
five items that are on sale. And then if we're
at another location, we'll do that. And so when I

(10:22):
look at what we save, and of course I pay
attention to the prices and stuff. I mean when you
look at just I'll just pull out an item Helman's mayonnaise.
Helman's mayonnaise. You used to be able to get that one.
It was on sale for two ninety nine now that
is on sale now it is three ninety nine, So

(10:42):
that's gone up at least twenty five percent. But when
you look at the normal retail price that used to
be around three forty nine threes and it's up to
six bucks for one of those things my coffee I
drink folder's black silk that used to be around at
nine dollars at one point, then it got up to

(11:03):
eleven ninety nine, and I'd wait till it go on
sale at six ninety nine and stock up. Now that
number instead of eleven ninety nine is up to thirteen
ninety nine the everyday price. And so those prices, and
depending upon what you're buying at the grocery store, may
have gone up. Instead of the twenty one percent overall

(11:23):
average that they're looking at, your prices, the items that
you buy on a regular basis maybe twenty five thirty
percent higher than what they are. And of course this
is what why this election is so important, and one
of the things that they talk about how do you
get inflation down? And one of the things that I've
been paying attention to on America's Truck and Network is

(11:45):
the fact of energy prices and we'll talk about that
coming up. Phone number seven four nine fifty five hundred one,
eight hundred eight two three Talk one eight hundred eight
two three eight two five five pound five point fifty
AT and T wireless phone. Kevin Gordon in for Brian
tom Mus fifty five KR. See the talk station who
voted five point twenty in the morning. Kevin Gordon in

(12:13):
for Brian Thomas fifty five KR. See the talk station.
Phone number is seven five one three, seven four nine
fifty five hundred one eight hundred eight two three talk
one eight hundred eight two three eight two five five
pound five point fifty on your AT and T wireless phone.
I was so excited about talking about the weekend and
what's been going on and getting into the show, I

(12:35):
neglected to tell you what we have on tap today,
you know, cart before the horse here. As you know,
every time I'm on I usually put on Facebook what
I'm gonna have in terms of guess wise and so on,
and today is no different. And uh, pretty much between
now and six twenty five, it's going to be you,
me and the phones. Uh what I like to refer

(12:57):
to as news and views, And you know, I may
offer an opinion or two depending upon the situation and
so on. And so at six point thirty, I've got
Phil Flynn. He is a senior market analyst with Price
Futures Group, author of the Energy Report, and contributor to
Fox Business Network. We'll discuss a wide range of political

(13:18):
and energy issues. This guy, I got to tell you
his Energy Report on a daily basis. I refer to
that on america'struck A Network. And it is amazing that
you know, when you read something and you realize that, hey,
this guy and I we think alike. And so I

(13:39):
just picked up the phone and called him. And he's
been a guest several times. But it's not just the
energy markets. It's just not commodities. It's his insight into
political things in terms of what's going on as far
as the energy sector, but of course what's going on
in the Middle East and so on. So we'll be
talking about that in the seven at seven to twelve,

(14:00):
we're gonna be having a Christopher Smitherman with the smither
Vent at eight twenty or eight h five. Rather, we're
gonna be talking with Attorney Stephen Doane. We're gonna be
he's an attorney and then also a Kentucky state representative.
We'll discuss the Kentucky's Constitutional Amendment too. Now, I understand

(14:20):
Brian talked about that with Jim Waters on Thursday of
last week, but I think Steve may have. And hopefully
we'll come up with a couple of things, because in
the people that I've talked to, there seems to be
people that I would have thought that would have been
for this. They're raising questions that I hadn't heard brought
up before, and I think Brian covered a lot of

(14:43):
those on Thursday. But there's a couple of things I
need to ask this attorney, and of course he's a
state representative, so he'd be aware of that. And then
of course at eight p forty we'll have somebody from
the Cincinnati VA. So we've got all that on tap
here now. In the previous segment I was talking about
I was talking about the inflation and so on, and

(15:04):
you know, you see these numbers and they see the
inflation rate and they tell you what the inflation rate is.
And that's done using on a monthly basis and at
the end of the month, and then the quarterly basis
and so on, and then they revise those numbers and
come up with the number, and of course the Federal
Reserve looks at that, and of course they not only

(15:25):
look at the consumer price index, but they also look
at the personal consumption expenditures, which is more in line
of the gauge that they look at to determine where
inflation is. And you have you know, you've heard these
terms before. You've heard a consumer price index, and you've
heard core consumer price index and generally just kind of

(15:46):
give you a brief idea there. The core is if
you pull out energy and food out of that inflation
number to come up with inflation. Because in terms of
the way accountants look at things, they want to see
things on an even keel. They want to have a
comparison from one month to another, one year to another,

(16:07):
one quarter to another, and anything that's volatile in between.
You have to explain that in your financial statements and reporting.
And so you want to keep all the extraordinary items
to a minimum, but if they happen, you report those
separately so that you can see a straight line or
a little bit of increase here and there. As far

(16:27):
as your income, your revenue, and then your expenses. You
don't want to see them get out of whack and
so on. So when you look at those and the
trend there, but because energy and gas prices are always
volatile that and food is volatile depending upon the season,
they pull those out and so you look at both
of those numbers to see what's going on. Generally, what

(16:50):
happens in the normal times, you will see the core
inflation number be down, and because you throw back in
energy and food, that pushes that inflation rate up. Now,
with energy kind of coming down and food prices leveling out,
the other items are up. And when you look at

(17:12):
the overall inflation number, when you strip out and get
to the core, that number actually comes and goes up
because of taking out the energy, because energy has been falling.
And so the personal consumption expenditures is what the FED
usually looks at, which kind of puts more in line

(17:32):
of what you spend your money on on a daily basis,
weekly basis, and so on. Because you don't always go
out and buy a refrigerator, you don't always go out
and buy a computer. You're generally buying food. You're generally
putting gas in your car or diesel in your truck,
or clothing and normal staples. So when they look at

(17:53):
what people are spending their money on, that's when they
look at those numbers and say, all right, based on
the personal consumption expend here's what that inflation number is.
And getting back to what I was talking about, as
far as the individuals at these stores at these festivals
are concerned, they're telling me that people just do not
have that kind of disposable income anymore. They were talking

(18:17):
about how you know, if you look at the food
vendors there, they were, I mean a lot of places
were selling out of the food that they had. People
were enjoying that. If you had certain of like a
honey booth, or you had small items and that type
of the little craft things, those were doing well. But
anything that would what you would consider what I would consider,

(18:38):
because you know, anything over one hundred bucks to me
is kind of a luxury item if you're you know,
buying an accessory or you're buying like an artwork thing
at one of these festivals. I'm not talking about overall
art work, but something at one of these festivals. Any
time you spend more than one hundred bucks, to me,
that is a luxury item. And so a lot of

(18:59):
the item that will quote luxury items that I will
stop off their booth. Their sales were horrendous, So that
kind of gives you a microcosm what's going on in
this in the economy right now, and what is going
on and why this election is so important, and of
course we'll talk about that coming up. Phone number seven
four five one three seven four nine fifty five hundred one,

(19:20):
eight hundred eighty two three talk one eight hundred eighty
two three eight two five five pound, five point fifty
AT and T wireless phone. Kevin Gordon in for Brian Thomas,
fifty five k see the Talk station. Five point thirty

(19:42):
one in the morning. Kevin Gordon in for Brian Thomas,
fifty five carosee the talk station. Let's look at some
of the local headlines that we're following for you this morning.
Since Hey. Police responded to a Walnut Hills High School
Sunday evening following reports of shots fired during a pee
wee football game. Are you serious? According to police on scene,

(20:03):
two adult men got into an argument after the children's
football game had ended. Police said that the two men
began to fight before one man pulled out a gun
and started shooting. Police said that two adults were shot.
One victim is in serious condition, while the other suffered
a non life threatening injury. No children were harmed as
a result of the shooting. Police are still searching for

(20:25):
a suspect at this time. Well, I guess this guy
won't be invited back. And what are we going to do?
Install metal detectors at pee wee football games? Now for
crying out loud, let's see. Water main break collapse is
part of s spring Grove Avenue. That's not gonna that's
gonna leave a mark. Water main break on spring Grove
Avenue in Camp Washington caused part of the roadway to

(20:47):
collapse in on itself. According to the Police Department. The
water main break happened around two am in the twenty
four hundred block of Spring Grove Avenue at the intersection
of Draper Street. The water main break collapse part of
the street and partially shut down traffic to the Western
Hills Viaduct. As of Sunday afternoon, Cruise was still out
working on the water main break. Traffic had been slowed

(21:08):
to one lane in each direction on Spring Grove Avenue.
So hopefully they'll get that fixed pretty soon, and of
course they've been following this. Over the weekend, there was
Indiana State Police shot and killed of somebody at the
Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg. One man was shot and killed
by a police officer early Saturday morning in the Hollywood

(21:31):
Casino in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Indiana State Police said Lawrenceburg Police
Department responded to the casino around one am for reports
of a man threatening and chasing another person with a
knife on the fourth floor of the casino hotel. I
thought P. Diddy was in jail. I didn't think he
got work release or anything. Three let's see. The three

(21:54):
officers then learned that the man had begun firing a
gun on the fourth floor, and they located the man
in the hallway in the na State Police said the
officer told the man to drop the handgun, but the
suspect began shooting instead. Officers returned fire and the suspect
was struck at least once. The suspect died at the scene.
His identity has not been revealed yet. One person the

(22:15):
suspect confronted with a knife sustained minor injuries before the
officers arrived. All three officers involved in the shooting have
been placed on administrative leave per Lawrenceburg Police protocol. ISP
said the identities of the officers are being withheld at
this time. ISP said its investigation is ongoing. ISP has
been assisted by the Lawrenceburg Fire Department or Police Department,

(22:38):
Dearborn and Ohio County Prosecutor's Office, Dearborn County Corners Office,
and Hollywood Casino Hotel and staff. Yeah, okay, yeah, I'm
sure that a lot of these items, well, the shootings especially,
I would guess that the Hollywood Casino, there are probably

(22:59):
some little bit of alcohol involved there. So anyway, coming up,
we're going to be talking a little bit more about
this inflation number and what's going on as far as
the economy. Your phone calls take those as well. Eric
Eric code five one three, seven four nine fifty five
hundred one, eight hundred eighty two three talk one eight
hundred eighty two three eight two five five pound, five

(23:20):
point fifty AT and T wireless phone. Kevin Gordon in
for Brian Thomas, fifty five KR see the talk station.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Cybersecurity Awareness Month is still good.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
Five thirty nine in the morning, Kevin Gordon in for
Brian Thomas, fifty five KR. See the talk station phone
number is five one three seven four nine fifty five
hundred one eight hundred eight two three talk one eight
hundred eight two three eight two five five pound five
point fifty AT and T wireless phone. You know, we're
talking a little bit about inflation and so on, what's
causing that? And you know, if you watch the debates,

(23:56):
if you watch the vice presidential debates, and if you
watch the presidential debate, or if you listen to any
of the word salad interviews that Kamala Harris has had,
one of the questions is is you know, what are
you going to do about inflation? What are you going
to do about this? And all we hear about is
price gouging, or price gauging as she calls it, which

(24:18):
is BS because you may recall years ago when the
Biden administration came into office and gas prices started going up,
oil prices started going up, and they started talking about, oh, well,
the oil companies last year made record profits and so on,
and we're going to do a congressional investigation into that,
because I'm sure that there is price fixing and gouging

(24:41):
and so on every time the US government does that.
Every time a governmental agency looks at that, well, I'd
say mostly ninety percent of the time or more. There
is no price gouging. It's just a headline grabber to
make the people think that you've got their back and
that you're looking into something. And what came out immediately
the oil companies fired back and said, hey, you know, yeah,

(25:04):
we made record profits last year because of the rise
in oil prices, but did you look at our bottom
line the previous two years when we lost that billions
and billions of dollars and that when you look at
that over a three year period of time, we're actually
up only, like you know, less than ten percent in
terms of not up ten percent, but our profit is

(25:27):
ten percent of what our sales are. And when you
look at a company and you think of the investor
investing in that, Okay, let's say you've got a pile
of money and you can do whatever you want with that,
and you think, oh, I think I'll go start a business.
If you're going to go out and start a business,

(25:47):
would you start a business with all the headaches, all
the brick and mortar, the employee expenditures, the cost of
the inventory, or whatever the business is, and get a
seven percent bottom line, a seven percent profit. You could
take that money and put it in the stock market
or a mutual fund, or buy real estate or do

(26:10):
something that is less of a headache if you're only
going to get a seven percent return on your investment.
And so what you generally do if you're going to
start a business, you're looking for something that is going
to bring you a fairly decent return on your investment,
and most people are looking for something in the minimum
of ten percent. A lot of people go in in

(26:33):
these high risk certain things and go for maybe a
fifteen to twenty five percent investment, but then a lot
of times they'll lose money as well. But to go
through all the headaches, when you look at the grocery stores,
their bottom line is one point two to one point
six percent margin that they're working on. Who's going to

(26:53):
go into a business like that. Now, granted, you make
up a lot of that in volume and stuff, because
one point six percent profit on this particular item or thereabouts.
When somebody goes in there and buys ten, fifteen, twenty items,
those numbers add up. But it's all based on a
volume basis. Type of situation and not an individual item.
And so this price gauging that the Kama keeps talking

(27:16):
about is nuts. Where you need to do is start
looking at the oil prices and the energy prices. And
I'll tell you what. Let's go to the phones here
real quick, and let's talk to Dirk. Dirk fifty five.
K see Dick. I'm sorry, Dick. How are you this morning?

Speaker 3 (27:31):
Morning?

Speaker 4 (27:31):
Kevin?

Speaker 2 (27:32):
It's you. I did not oh Dick from date and
I didn't have the I guess I should put my
glasses on so I can read the fine print here. Okay,
how the heck are you this morning?

Speaker 4 (27:42):
Okay, how are you? I'm good After that Bengals victory.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
Huh yeah, I'm about that. You know, go out and
buy your Super Bowl tickets.

Speaker 4 (27:51):
Yeah, they've they've done pretty good the last couple games.
But boy, it's gonna be a big test Sunday for him.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
Thought, Oh, yeah, for sure, absolutely, I'm sure.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
Yeah. I've just been going to school, taking some classes
and play a little music, you know. You know, I've
been retired three years and.

Speaker 5 (28:11):
Yeah, a nice you know, you earned it.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Well, you know, the interesting thing that you're doing is
that you're doing stuff that's fun stuff that you've wanted
to do, I'm sure for a number of years. And
when you have the flexibility to be able to do
that and the wherewithal to do that, that's that's pretty cool.
Now are you are you these classes you're taking are
they do you have to? Are you paying tuition for that?

(28:36):
Or you just auditing?

Speaker 4 (28:38):
It's I go, I audit the classes. It's a credit
for lifelong running. They're very interesting classes. Yeah, this one
class I'm taking his accounting. Now it's kind of hard,
but I like the terms he gives, you know, you know,
like he was talking and I've been in that program
and I get to go free. So it's kind of

(28:58):
neat to build up.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
Your edge, you know, absolutely, And you know this should
be kind of a model, if you will, for other people.
You know, I hear so many people that talk about,
oh gosh, I don't know if I could retire, I'd
be bored. I don't know what I'd do with my
time and all this sort of stuff. But you're kind
of proving what you need to do or kind of

(29:20):
an example what needs to be do. Expand your horizon
as you're doing your concentrating on your music. You're going
and getting auditing classes and getting education credits and so on,
and learning different things. I mean, for crying out loud,
go to a park, read a book for crying out loud.
Don't be anybody. I'll tell you what. Anybody that says

(29:41):
they're going to be bored in retirement is probably a
boring person to begin with, because so many people that
I know of have retired and they tell me after
a couple of months or so on, to go. I
don't know how I was able to work with all
the stuff that I've been doing now and all this
stuff I'm doing, I couldn't have. I couldn't work because

(30:01):
I'm too busy, which.

Speaker 4 (30:02):
Is cool A pleasure, all right, Dick.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
You take care, be safe out there. Phone numbers five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifty, five hundred one, eight hundred eight two
three talk one eight hundred eight two three eight two
five five pound, five point fifty AT and T wireless phone.
Kevin Gordon in for Brian Thomas, fifty five kr SE
DE talk station.

Speaker 6 (30:22):
What's the best place to reach new customer?

Speaker 2 (30:24):
Hey nine First warning weather forecast UH during the morning
rush hour, look for clear skies, patchy fog is possible
and a low of forty six.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Let's see this morning going into later on in the afternoon,
we're gonna have a sunshine bit warmer, high of seventy six. Tonight,
we're gonna have clear skies, cool in a lower forty
eight Tuesday, mostly sunny. It's mostly clear. I'm gonna be
warm again. High of seventy seven and lovel fifty five
right now forty five degrees fifty five krs de talk

(30:52):
station Chuck has our traffic.

Speaker 7 (30:55):
Probably you see f Triumphings Center. When it comes to stroke,
every second counts. That's why you you see comprehensive stroke centers,
your clear choice for rapid by saving treatment.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
Learn more.

Speaker 8 (31:05):
Ed.

Speaker 7 (31:05):
You see how dot Com highways are doing fine early
on this Monday morning. No recks to deal with, No
overnight work crews in your way. South Bend seventy five
under twenty minutes from above Union Center through downtown Chuck
Ingram and fifty five kre See the talk.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
Station five fifty in the morning. Kevin Gordon in for
Brian Thomas, fifty five care see the talk station. Phone
numbers five one, three, seven, four nine, fifty five hundred

(31:40):
one eight hundred eight two three talk one eight hundred
eighty two three eight two five five pound five point
fifty on that at and T wireless phone. Now, well,
we're talking about inflation, and when we're talking about that,
I talked about going to these UH fall festivals and
talking to some of the merchants, some of the people
that run the boosts and UH items in these boosts

(32:00):
that would go for say one hundred dollars or so,
those were suffering. Anybody was selling what I would consider
high end stuff. Now, one of the things I was
looking at is I love, you know, you see these pens,
these wooden pens that people will make. They'll do all
these exotic woods and make them into a pan. My
particular pen I've got I bought years ago at the

(32:22):
Appalachian Festival was actually two cartridges too, bullet casings that
they made into a pen. And the unique materials that
they're using for pens. Now, so I'm always attracted to
those booths. One I saw at let me see, we
were over in Indiana at one of the festivals over there,
and this one vendor had a pen and it had

(32:45):
kind of a you know, I like a wider pan
or a thicker pin type of thing. I'd give you
an idea pretty much along the side of one of
those pen sharpies, kind of like that thickness. And they
had these pens that actually had a cigar band around it.
So they take this cigar band and put it around

(33:06):
the thing to make it look like, you know, basically
well the cigar band. And I was checking to see
if they had one of the brands of cigars that
I smoke, and they didn't, so I gave them my
card and information and so on. But you know, I
love these kinds of pens. I love these unique pens.
And that's one of the vendors I talked to. In
these pens, they will some of them will retell or

(33:27):
they'll sell them for you know, in the seventy five
to ninety dollars, but if you want something interesting like that,
it can be as high as one hundred and sixty.
And that always makes me pause for a moment and say, gosh,
how bad do I really want that? And a lot
of times it's like, Okay, walk away, go look at
some other things, Go eat a funnel cake, or go

(33:47):
eat especially if you're the sauerkrawd festival, eat one of
their what they call them ruben rolls or something like
that up there. So you go, have you know, some food,
and walk around a little bit and make determination where
you're gonna. I didn't go back and buy it. I
did give him my card and I said, I'll probably
check with him sometime around Christmas if I think But anyway,
it's one of those things where I always think twice

(34:10):
about whether I'm going to buy something. And when we
look at inflation, and when you're talking about how to
cut inflation, the first place you have to start is
with energy. You don't come into office like the Biden
administration did and stop the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline,
which threw up to ten thousand people or more out
of work on that pipeline, many of those blue collar

(34:33):
and union members constructing that pipeline. You don't cut off
selling or drilling for oil in an war the Alaska
National Wildlife Refuge. You don't stop drilling on federal lands.
You don't start You don't stop selling leases, which is
by law which you're supposed to do, and you don't

(34:55):
stop drilling in the golf. Now, since that time, yes,
we are drilling more oil, and we are a pumping
record amount of oil, but we're also importing a lot
more oil to the point where we are not technically
energy independent. We were energy independent in twenty twenty for
the first time since nineteen forty nine under the Trump administration,

(35:18):
the first time since nineteen forty nine. A barrel of
oil at that time was at fifty dollars a barrel
or lower, and today, as of Friday, what that business closed,
then oil was selling for around seventy dollars West Texas Intermediate,
which is one of the gauges, and Brent we're selling
at seventy dollars and seventy seventy four dollars, respectively. When

(35:41):
you have a twenty five percent increase like that, when
you have the raw materials that go into these refineries
and then they pump out the gasoline. Although national average
for gasoline as of Monday was three dollars and twenty cents,
back in twenty twenty, gasoline was at two dollars and
twenty four cents, so that is forty percent higher. So

(36:04):
if you want to know where inflation starts, it starts
with energy. Because energy goes across all sectors. We use
energy here at the station, the electric for the lights,
the power for everything around, and so if our energy
prices are up, it's going to cost more. We'll pick
this up. We'll talk about some other things at the
top of the hour. I'm Kevin Gordon, seven hundred seven

(36:28):
fifty five KRC, the talk station.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
Your campaign pitstock on the road to November.

Speaker 6 (36:35):
It's a circus.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
There's always something new happening in fifty five krs the
talk station.

Speaker 8 (36:41):
Are you receiving letters from I'm.

Speaker 2 (36:44):
Right five minutes after six o'clock. Hope your Monday morning
is going as well as mine? No, trap well, actually
right now, there's no traffic accident. So according to Chuck
Ingram's see if we can keep it that way, See

(37:05):
if we can go accident free all morning. What do
you think is that a goal for the day. Beautiful
weather out there, nice, crisp and cool, forty five degrees
not too cold, not too hot, so on and so forth.
So looking forward to that, and of course behind the microphone,
it doesn't get any better for me if you went
to my Facebook page. As you know, generally, not generally,

(37:26):
every time I come in and I fill in, I
always post on the Internet or post on my Facebook
page who we have as guests, and today is no
different from that. Coming up in six started, we're going
to be talking to Phil Flynn. Here's a senior market
analyst prices for the Price Futures Group, author of the
Energy Report and contributed to Fox News Network. We will

(37:49):
be discussing a wide range of political and energy issues.
Coming up at seven twenty, we'll be talking to Christopher
Smitherman in the smither Event. Eight to five, we'll be
talking Attorney Steve Don't and Kentucky. He's also a Kentucky
state representative. We'll discuss Kentucky Constitutional Amendment too. Now you
may recall on Thursday Brian talked to Jim Waters from

(38:10):
the Bluegrass Institute about that and a lot of good
topics were brought up in a lot of good information,
But in talking to a lot of people that I know,
people that I thought or was a shoe in in
terms of voting for this, have given me some information
or objections to this that I really didn't expect. And

(38:33):
quite honestly, I think a little bit of misinterpretation of
what this all is going to do or what is
going to happen as a result of this constitutional amendment.
So we'll try to clear up some of that as well.
And then at eight forty we're going to be talking
to the Cincinnati VA. So all that coming up for
your listening pleasure now when we're talking about inflation and

(38:56):
we're talking about the stakes of this election and so on.
I've mentioned in the past that energy goes across all
sectors of the economy. I don't care if you work
in a factory, if you drive a truck, are a
salesman out on the road and driving from customer to customer,
you're an attorney, whatever you are. Energy goes across every

(39:20):
segment of our economy. It affects your house, It affects
everything that you do. And if your energy prices are up,
you just look at your gas and electric bill on
what that's done. If you're like me and you try
to kind of pay attention to what is going on
from what you spent one month to another, or just

(39:40):
go back on your bank statements if you can, and
look at what you were paying Duke Energy or whomever
going back in twenty twenty versus what you're paying today.
Look at your sanitation bill, look at your water bill,
look at all this stuff. You see what the prices
are in the grocery store, and you know that there's
inflation in the when you are paying forty right now, okay,

(40:04):
right now, we are paying about something like ninety six
cents more for a gallon of gasoline than we were
back in twenty twenty. That's a forty two percent increase
now that compared to even a year ago, we were
paying three sixty. So gas has come down forty forty

(40:26):
cents a gallon, and it's still ninety six cents higher
than what it was in twenty twenty, when, by the way,
we were energy independent for the first time since nineteen
forty nine under the Trump administration. Diesel prices a year
ago were four forty six. Yeah, they're now down to

(40:46):
three sixty a gallon, but they are still fifty two
percent higher than what they were back in twenty twenty.
And let's not forget back in June of June. As
a matter of fact, June the fourteenth of twenty twenty two,
regular unleaded gas hit a record high of national average

(41:08):
of five dollars and two cents a gallon. Diesel hit
a record on June the sixteenth of twenty twenty two,
of five dollars and eighty two cents a gallon. And
when you start pulling those numbers, and every day, every
time you fill up your gas your car or your truck,

(41:31):
and you're using diesel or using gas, ninety six cents
more per gallon on your car. Now, if you're like me,
if you have a car that can go, it has
eighteen gallons whatever you fill up. For every gallon that
you're putting in that, if it's ten dollars, you're spending

(41:52):
nine dollars and sixty more cents than you did four
years ago. And when you go into the grocery store.
And like I said, as a recovering accountant, I pay
attention to things. And one of the things I've done
over the years, when my wife and I first got
together and we started doing Thanksgiving at our home, I

(42:12):
started looking at, okay, all the stuff that we were doing,
as far as what we were buying and so on,
and I kept the receipts and I said, okay, you know,
the price of the turkey, the price of the cranberries,
the price of the sugar, all on down the road.
The jello, all the stuff for the stuffing, and it
is stuffing. It's not dressing, because we definitely put it

(42:35):
in the bird. It tastes better, trust me. So I
look at the spices, the ingredients and all the other stuff,
and so I started doing a list in terms of
what we went into that meal, and then I'd write
down what the prices of that were that year. And
when you do that over the year and see how
things have increased, it is phenomenal in terms of when

(42:57):
you look at just the difference in the last four
years what those prices have been. Now. Granted, around Thanksgiving,
those prices come down. A lot of stuff goes on sale,
and if you hit things at the right price, you
can save a lot of money. But if you need
that particular item right now, right here, right now, and

(43:18):
that's not available or you can't wait for it, you
have to have it. And if that item is not
on sale, you're going to pay significantly more for that
than you did before. In the past. I would pride
ourselves on just the two of us basically compared to
how I eat and what I eat. We are basically

(43:39):
about a family of three and a half. Because I
have a big appetite and I eat a lot. So
when you consider where we are and what we spend
money on as far as our groceries are concerned, I
always wanted to try to keep it to where we
are saving about one hundred dollars a month in terms
of our groceries and during the year I look at that.

(44:02):
You know, obviously in the month of September, you want
to be able to save about nine hundred dollars or thereabouts.
The way we have been shopping and the way that
we make sure that we buy our groceries when things
are on sale. So far this year, I'm proud to
say that we have saved over sixteen hundred dollars in
groceries simply by hitting things when they're on sale now.

(44:26):
In the past, if you know what we're seeing in
the marketplace now, if somebody is used to buying hinds
and that prices are, you know, for Ketchup or French
As or whatever name brand you are are looking for.
If those prices are fairly high, sometimes you go to
a lesser brand, or you go to the store brand.

(44:48):
And in past, just to kind of compare and whatever
I have purchased store brand stuff which quite honestly in
some instances is actually has less crappy ingredients in it,
artificial colors and that type of thing, or food dyes
and so on. So sometimes the store brands, if you
look at the label, are actually better than the main

(45:11):
products sold and the taste is darned near good or
even better. In fact, we prefer Kroger brand peanut butter
just as an example to any of the other ones
out there. And so, but you can cut that way.
But even if you're buying the name brand items and
you wait till they go on sale and you buy
those we, like I said, we've managed to save almost

(45:34):
well over sixteen hundred dollars just and we're not even
through the end of October. So you can do these things,
and you have to scale back. You see where people
are trying to pinch pennies and they're doing certain things
that may be downgrading where they're going to dinner at
night or and used to be that you could, you know,

(45:55):
if you're on a budget or you're trying to you know,
you know, if you go out to eat a number
of times during the week and instead of maybe going
to an Applebee's or a Longhorn Steakhouse or something along
those line, or Charlie's or something, and you say, well,
you know, we'll kind of scale back and maybe go
to a Fish's or if we you know, if we're
going to fishes a lot of times, maybe we'll kind

(46:17):
of augment that and go to maybe McDonald's or something
once during the week or something along those lines. But
even that has become extremely expensive. You can't get out
of their cheap anymore either, and so it's been a
struggle and you look at where you're you know, the
old saying that my paycheck is is shorter than the month,

(46:37):
which means that you know, obviously there's more bills and
more things to pay for by the end of the
month because your dollar's not stretching as much. And so
when you look at the economic numbers and you look
at the way this economy is going and the fact
that it was changed, it was changed by this administration
because of their energy policy. And then when you take

(47:00):
into consideration some of the other things that they've been
trying to push as far as ev mandates and some
of these other government regulations that when you have government regulations,
those boost up the cost of certain items because companies
have to comply with that. It is time for a change,
and yes, we need to turn the page. We need
to turn the page back to an administration that knows

(47:23):
what the hell they're doing. Phone numbers seven five, one, three,
seven four nine, fifty, five hundred one, eight hundred eight
two three talk one eight hundred eight two three eight
two five five pound five point fifty AT and T
wireless phone. Kevin Gordon in for Brian Thomas, fifty five
KRC the talk station only six twenty one in the morning.

(47:53):
Kevin Gordon in for Brian Thomas, fifty five K see
the talk stations. Phone numbers five one, three, seven four, nine, fifty,
five hundred one, eight hundred eighty two three talk one
eight hundred eight two three eight two five five pound
five point fifty on that AT and T wireless phone.
I've been telling you a lot about, you know, inflation
and stuff and what I've been experiencing and talking to

(48:14):
vendors at these various UH Fall festivals that we've been
going to. And remember, this is the administration that kept
telling us that inflation was transitory, which meant that it
was just a blip on the screen. And that it
was going to come down, which it didn't. And we
see that on an ongoing basis, we had the Federal Reserve,
which had been talking about that, oh well, we're going

(48:37):
to raise interest rates, and they raised interest rates eleven
times from what was it, March of twenty two until
July of twenty twenty three, eleven times. Now, when you
raise interest rates or lower interest rates, I always thought
that it would take oh maybe four or five six

(48:57):
months before it would wind its way through the economy
and that you'd really see the effect of that. But
over the last couple of years, as this has happened,
I've been reading a lot more about that, and a
lot of economists will tell you that it takes up
to two years for an interest rate increase or an
interest rate cut to find its way through the economy.

(49:20):
And so when we are seeing the bankruptcies that we've
been seeing this year in twenty twenty four, when we
start seeing you know, when you see these strikes and
you see companies laying people off, and you see the
unemployment rate kind of creeping up a little bit here
and there, and when you see, well, go back to

(49:42):
the individual bankruptcies, the number of companies, the number of
people that are underwater, and so on. This is two
years now after the first interest rate increase, and we
still have several more over that period of time, from
March of twenty two, twenty two until July of twenty

(50:03):
twenty three when those were stopped, and all during this
period of time, we've heard the FED tell us that, well,
we're battling inflation. We've got to get inflation down. Inflation
until inflation gets down to two percent, we're not going
to be comfortable with that. And so when you had
inflation up to nine point one percent in June of

(50:26):
twenty twenty two and then it came down to six
percent four percent, they kept calling, you know, doing victory
laps and saying, oh, you know, our economy is working
and so on. And then at the first of the year.
I remember back in December they were talking about at
their last FED meeting that we could possibly do four
rate cuts during the year, and I said at the time,

(50:49):
I don't think it's going to happen. I don't think
if you'd listen to what the Fed has to say.
The fact that they want interest rates, they want inflation
down around two percent and they need a cup of
steady and definitive sustained growth down heading down to that
two percent range, and it wasn't happening. They needed a

(51:12):
couple of months worth of data. Well in December, you're
not gonna if you're a couple of months worth of
data ain't gonna get you to March. When everybody was saying, oh,
interest rates are going to be cut in March, I
said in March, before March, it ain't gonna happen in March.
And I said it ain't going to happen in June,
and in fact, by August, I was saying, I don't
think it's going to happen at all this year. And
then lo and behold, we get this number from the

(51:35):
Labor Department, where we knew this number. I talked about
this several times, where they had overinflated the jobs numbers
from last year to the tune of about eight hundred
thousand jobs. And then they finally released the report in August,
and the crap hit the fan. The market took a downturn,
and they were saying, oh, the Federal Reserve needs to
have an emergency meeting and cut interest rates immediately, because oh,

(51:59):
the economy's going and a hell in a handbasket. And
then after about oh five six days the dust settled
on that. But when the Federal Reserve went in September
and met, there was no reason based on their criteria
of lower lower inflation rate down to two percent, it's
still up around two point four. Then they shifted and

(52:20):
said we want a strong Our two missions is lower
interest or lower inflation rate, but also a strong job market.
And they were talking about the strong job market, that
the market had seen a little bit of softening, and
when they made that cut of a half a percentage point,
I said at the time, and I still believe this,

(52:41):
this was political a month before, two months before an election,
because nothing had changed from what had been the prior month,
the month before that, the month before that. If they
thought that the job market was soft back then, then
they should have made that cut. But this close to
an election was political, and it was nothing to do

(53:02):
with finance. It was a It was just absolutely political.
And one of the things that I've seen is that
this interest rate cut hasn't quite done what they expected
it to do. Coming up to the bottom of the hour,
we were talking to Phil Flynn, He is a senior
account executive and author of the Energy Report with Price
Futures Group. I'm Kevin Gordon in for Brian Thomas fifty

(53:23):
five krs the Talk station. I have a hard time recognizing.
I want to welcome back to the program. Phil Flynn.
He is a senior market analyst with Price Futures Group,
author of the Energy Report, and contributed to Fox Business Network.
He is one of the world's leading energy market analysts
and a guy with a tremendous amount of common sense

(53:43):
in terms of what the heck is going on in
the Middle East and in our political climate right now. Phil,
welcome back to the program.

Speaker 5 (53:53):
Good morning, Kevin. It's great to be back on with
you again. You know, but I don't know it's so
great for your gasoline price, says I'm afraid they're creeping
up as we speak.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
Yes they are, Yes they are. Well. Of course, the
oil prices have been fluctuating tremendously depending upon what week
it is or what day it is, with what's going
on in the Middle East, whether or not there's going
to be an oil flow problem, If the Red Sea
there's going to be more shifts attacked and sunk and

(54:24):
of course, whether they're going to Ran, is going to
start attacking other oil fields in the region.

Speaker 5 (54:30):
Correct, That's absolutely correct.

Speaker 8 (54:33):
You know.

Speaker 5 (54:33):
In fact, over the weekend, the odds that Israel will
attack Iranian oil fields just went back up in a
big way. You know, oil prices it pulled back last week,
you know, because of reports that President Biden begged Israel,
don't attack the oil fields, will send you some missile systems,
will do this then and the other thing. But then

(54:56):
a report over the weekend that the Unit Its States
is investigating an unauthorized release of classified documents that basically
talks about Israel's plans to attack Iran. So these plans
have been leaked by someone, and that's terrible, and that

(55:16):
means from Israel's point of view, they're going to have
to go back to the drawing board to plan the
attack all over again, because their plans have been out
there and Iran knows what they are. So now, you know,
I think, you know, the gloves are coming off, you know,
especially after they attacked Prime Minister Benjamin nennan Yahoo's home

(55:39):
over the weekend.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
Yeah, and it's interesting because you know, I kind of
wonder though, if you know because net Yahoo and Israel
is not stupid. And they were being told by the
Biden administration number one not to go into Ramala, which
was obviously they didn't follow that advice and it paid

(56:00):
off for them. But I wonder if when Biden administration
was saying don't attack the oil fields, and we got
those reports last week that Israel was not going to
attack the oil fields or the nuclear structure or their
infrastructure that and then whatever battle plans they had, I
wonder if they gave them the right battle plans just

(56:23):
to test them to see if they were going to
be leaked.

Speaker 5 (56:26):
That would be double secret spy stuff. I mean, that
would be very interesting.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
It wouldn't surprise me because true, you know.

Speaker 5 (56:33):
I would hope so, because I mean, this is a
big embarrassment to the United States. Yeah, right, if this
was leaked from the Biden administration, I mean, it's almost
treating us, right, I mean the way yeah, and if
you look at the way that you know, Israel has
executed this war professionally intelligently, you know, the way that

(56:56):
they've handled Hamas and hansme Law. You know, it's really
been almost like reading a novel about a way to
carry out a war. And on the flip side, if
we have the United States leaking the battle plans of
our allies to its enemies, I mean, that's a sad
day for American history.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
Yeah, that is a sad day because again, when you
look at just what is going on over there, the
fact that the well, when we start seeing these casualty
numbers and they start talking about well, according to Hamas
and according to the Palestinian authority in the Gaza, that
there's been forty six thousand civilians killed, which is interesting

(57:43):
because we don't know that's true. We don't know if
those numbers have been verified. We don't know, there's no
independent source for that, and that could just be a
lot of an awful lot of propaganda.

Speaker 5 (57:59):
It could be you know, and listen, I know Israel,
you know, does not want to kill civilian populations. The
problem is is that when you get into Gaza, the
leadership wants to use the civilian population as human shields, right,
because they're cowards. Right, That's what cowards do, right, you know,

(58:21):
put your you know, your old people and your children
to protect you. You know. So you know, it's hard
to know what is true, you know, But I mean,
when you look at the situation here, you know, as
Benjamin Nettiyahu said yesterday, all you have to do is
lay down your arms, release the hostages, and this war
could be over tomorrow. But you know, the leadership of

(58:45):
hamas you know, refuses to do that well.

Speaker 2 (58:48):
And we've seen in the past every time that there's
been something put on the table, all of a sudden,
the Palestinians say no. And whether or not whatever is
put in front of them, no matter how good it
is for them and good for the region, they turn
it down. So we know where that's going taking up.

(59:08):
I'm going taking a different tact here going into this election.
You have been very upfront talking about how this administration
has absolutely raped and depleted that Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and
I don't think people understand just exactly how dangerous that

(59:28):
is given what's going on in the Middle East. If
we do experience any type of disruption in terms of
oil flow and whatever, can you kind of shed some
light on that for us?

Speaker 5 (59:40):
Sure, you know, when you look at what's happened, Kevin,
and you've been We've been talking about this for a
long time. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is like a you know,
a fire alarm, Right, you're supposed to tap it in
case of emergency.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
Right.

Speaker 5 (59:55):
President Biden decided to tap this strategic petroleum reserve to
influence the outcome of an election. He did it to
try to send Saudi Arabia message. And you know, while
he says, oh, we had to tap the reserve because
of the war in Ukraine, the truth is he tapped
it ahead of time. So President Biden, who has been

(01:00:17):
the most anti fossil fuel president in the history of
the country, try to cover up for his bad policies.
It caused prices to go higher by trying to tap
the reserve to keep prices lower, so that would mask
the fact that his policies are going to create longer
term shortages in the United States. And in the plan,

(01:00:40):
you know, you and I Kevin know, they want to
force everybody off of, you know, the internal combustion engine,
and they want to take away or stole because they
don't want a natural gas to you know, and this
is radical thing in this energy transition, and it's all
smoke and mirrors because everything that they're doing has not

(01:01:01):
done anything to add to greenhouse gas emissions. In fact,
if you look at to build an electric car takes
three times the amount of greenhouse gas emissions and it
does to produce another car. We're using more coal in
this country than ever before and around the world, you know,
So this is really just more about trying to control

(01:01:22):
people than it is about saving the environment exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
It's more like climbingism as we've talked about in the past.
I'll tell you what can we can we keep you
for another segment if you got time, you bet, because
I want to. I want to. I want to delve
into more of this green news steel and what that
is trying to cause and what they are trying to
force down our throats. Because you bring up a very

(01:01:46):
good point, because it's not as we've talked about before.
It's not about saving the planet. It's about control. And
so we'll pick this up. My guest is Phil Flynn,
Price Futures Group, author of the Energy Report. You gotta
go online. You got to read this every day because
there is such insights in there. It's fantastic. Coming up,

(01:02:06):
we'll keep our conversation with Phil Flynn. Continuing our conversation
with Phil Flynn fifty five care see the talk station
My guest again is Phil Flynn. He is as an
account executive, author of the Energy Report, and a frequent
contributor to Fox Business News. Is one of the world's
leading energy market analysts and just an all around great

(01:02:28):
guy and a tremendous amount of common sense. Phil, thank
you so much for hanging with us through the break.
Certainly appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (01:02:35):
Oh gosh, now my head's getting too big.

Speaker 2 (01:02:40):
Well, you know, the truth is the truth, my friend.
We we were talking about the Green News, steel and
everything that's going on, and you brought up a very
great point about the fact that how much energy we
are consuming, how much more electricity, and how we're using
more coal. Well, what people don't realize, and you've pointed

(01:03:02):
this out in your Energy reports several times that number one,
the green energy electric cars, solar and wind are not
ready for prime time. And with the amount of money
or the amount of energy that's being soaked up by
this artificial intelligence and these information collection areas is just

(01:03:25):
a major consumption of energy.

Speaker 5 (01:03:29):
It is, and people have to realize. You know, the
economy is continuing to evolve, and what we're seeing is
that the future is in these data centers and artificial intelligence,
and in the country that controls the ability to power
you know power, the power, power of the electric carried,
you know, empower. The economy of the future is going

(01:03:51):
to be the economy that creates jobs in the future
for your children and your grandchildren. And we've taken a
huge step back under the Biden administration, you know, by
spending billions of dollars on trying to build car chargers,
for example, for cars that nobody wants to buy. And
by the way, I think they've built three of them.

(01:04:12):
So with all those billions, you know, and trying to
pick winners and losers, you know, based on your green aspirations,
it's like, okay, you're a green energy company, We're going
to give you billions of dollars, you know, to to
to take a gamble. In the meantime, the rest of
the world's getting prepared for what's coming here, you know.

(01:04:33):
I thought it was interesting that companies like Google and Amazon,
you know, they're already moving towards nuclear little nuclear power
stations to try to power you know, their economy because
they see what's coming.

Speaker 3 (01:04:46):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:04:46):
The problem is here in the United States, we don't,
so we really have to change, you know, course right away,
otherwise our economy is going to fall, you know, back
to second place around other companies that get.

Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
It, and so Flynn that is, that is one of
the technologies that I think is so cool, these many
little nuclear reactors that can be used for electrical generation
as opposed to these big you know, what we're used
to seeing is in terms of like you know, three

(01:05:19):
Mile Island and the nuclear facilities and stuff. But these
nuclear little reactors seem to be that and I think,
what is it hydrogen power or something like that for
cars and stuff. Seems to be areas that are being overlooked,
which tells me that somebody, some lobbyists and whatever are

(01:05:43):
pushing this green news steel and making a boatload of
money at that and not trying to solve a problem.

Speaker 5 (01:05:51):
That's exactly correct, right, if they wanted to solve the problem,
you know, the Paris Climate Core twenty years ago would
have been talking about uh building nuclear power plants all
over the globe because, as you know, Kevin, uh, nuclear
power is the only non greenhouse gas emitting way to

(01:06:15):
provide power. You know, you say, well what about wind
and solar, Well, it takes a lot of energy to uh,
you know build those wind turbines, and it takes a
lot of energy right to to build you know, these
solar panels and a lot of you know electric you know,

(01:06:36):
rare earth minerals that you have to mind for and
things like that. The key and the key number and
key problem because when they're done, you got to throw
them away.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
Yeah, and the key phraser is rare earth minerals, right,
I don't you don't hear rare oil or rare fossil fuel.
You know, they keep you pointed this out in your
energy reports several times that what how many times are
we what since uh what nineteen forty or something like

(01:07:04):
that we have hit peak or we're supposed to hit
peak energy? How many times since there? Which means that
you've used the most oil that you're going to be
using at that point and that from that point on
it it drops off. How many times we hit supposedly
going to hit peak oil?

Speaker 5 (01:07:21):
You know, many many times over the last couple of years,
and they keep pushing the date out further and further
and further. You know, in fact, you know, we're seeing
a big retreat you know from you know, car companies
that we're going to go all electric like Volkswagen. You know,
we're seeing a big pushback from other governments saying, you
know what, you know, there's no way we can meet

(01:07:42):
these targets, you know, with renewable energy. So you know,
on paper it's it might sound good, but people think
these things out, really have to know, so you have
to wonder, you know, the question becomes, you know, are
the you know, are these global elites that are pushing
this agenda. Are they just not smart and they don't
think these things out? Or is there something more sinister

(01:08:06):
behind it? And that's a question I'll leave up to
the listeners.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
Right right, Well, you know my opinion on that is,
you know you talked about before, it's all about control.
You know, where you work, how you work, where you work,
where you live, how you live, how you eat your home,
what you eat, when you eat, how you cook your food,
and so on. And as I mentioned before, that has
more to do with communism than it does environmentalism. And
of course I mashed the two together, as we've talked

(01:08:30):
about before, I just call it climmunism. And you brought
up a great point about how in terms of this
this energy cycle and where this is going when you
look at what you brought up, the Paris Accord, Okay,
And I had to laugh my butt off during the

(01:08:50):
Olympics that here you have the Paris Accords and the
par you know, you know, oh, you know everything, Paris, Paris, Paris.
And then we come to find out that for the
last hundred years you're not allowed to swim in the
same river. And they had to go through all billions
of dollars to try to clean that up, and they
still didn't do it. And a number of our athletes

(01:09:13):
or a number of the athletes around the world got
sick swimming in that. And here you have the Paris
of course, and they can't even clean up their own mess.

Speaker 5 (01:09:23):
Yeah, but they're going to change the climate for ye't
worry about that. Rivers are one thing, But changing the
climate of the Earth that has been changing for billions
of years. I mean, they could do that. It's just
those rivers are really tough.

Speaker 2 (01:09:37):
I'm just so silly fell that I apologize. I can't
help myself, but you know, and then what we're seeing
is that everything we're doing here in the United States
to cut back on carbon emissions and whatever is more
than offset what's going on in China and India and
these other so called developing countries. I mean, how do

(01:09:58):
you have China that's a super power with a nuke
still being a developing country.

Speaker 5 (01:10:05):
Yeah, I mean it's just ludicrous. In the whole premise
of what they're trying to accomplish is ludicrous. And even
if you look at their own data, you know, the
amount they're supposedly going to try to change the temperature
by is minuscule. Okay, so you know it's not based

(01:10:26):
in reality. It's based in help and there's better ways
to do it, you know. I'll tell you this. The
United States has become the cleanest energy producer in the world,
and it has been in a large part by the
private enterprise. It hasn't been the government, you know, putting
a gun to their head picking winners and losers.

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
Fantastic, Phil. I can't thank you enough for spending time
with us. And it's like I said, I recommend highly
people check out your energy report on a how people
get in touch with you or how do people check
in on your energy report?

Speaker 5 (01:11:00):
It's really easy. You can call me at eight eight
eight two six four five six sixty five, or you
can just email me at p Flynn at pricegroup dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:11:14):
Phil, thank you so much for being with us. I
certainly appreciate it. You have a great day, you too,
have a great take O give them. Yeah, you bet.
Coming up on six minutes after seven o'clock. I hope
your morning is going as well as mine. I'm behind
the microphone. It doesn't get any better than that for me. Plus,

(01:11:37):
we've got a lot of stuff to talk about. And
of course, if you have looked at my Facebook page,
because I always put on Facebook, what guests I have
Coming up seven twenty and a few minutes, we're going
to be talking to Christopher Smitherman, the smither vent And
then eight o'clock or eight oh five, we're going to
be talking to an attorney in state Kentucky State Representative

(01:11:57):
Steve Don Steven Don't when we talking about the Kentucky
Constitutional Amendment number two. And again I know Brian had
Jim Waters from Bluegrass Institute on Thursday and a lot
of great information in that. If you haven't heard that,
you might want to check that podcast out. But there
were some unanswered questions, or at least some of the
people that I've talked to. They've raised some concerns about this,

(01:12:19):
which I was surprised that they brought up. But we'll
try to cover some of those in an eight forty
were when we're talking with folks from the Cincinntia v A.
I saw this story the other day. Usually when I
go into a convenience store here locally, and once in
a while, when the jackpot gets up there and you know,
start my my dream weaving and type of thing as

(01:12:40):
far as lottery winnings and so on, I'll go and
buy a lottery ticket or something. When the jackpot gets
up there pretty high. And this convenience store down the
street from where we live, and right as you walk
in the door, you got the Cincinni Inquirer there, And yeah,
my goodness, I you know, I hadn't seen a you know,
I've done the online version and been able to get

(01:13:02):
that over the last few years and so on. But boy,
I'll tell you what I never I did not. I mean,
the last time I think I bought it since an Inquirer,
it got up to like seventy five cents a copy
three forty nine or thereabouts for the newspaper. Now are
they insane. But anyway, there's generally a stack of newspapers

(01:13:25):
earon when I walk in. I'll look over and glance
at the headlines to see if there's anything going on,
because I still I still enjoy reading a newspaper. I'm
not going to pay that much for it, but I
would much prefer to have and get my fingers dirty,
because if you're going through a newspaper, there are so

(01:13:45):
many other stories. As a matter of fact, I used
to start off with the Inquirer or the Post when
it was around, and sometimes start from the back and
work my way forward because sometimes some of the key
stories are buried on you know, the the page fifteen
or something like that, where it's more impactful than what
they're throwing on the front page. But anyway, I looked

(01:14:07):
over at the headlines and they were talking about lawsuit
demands more study at brent spnz Bridge, and I'm thinking,
dear God, I mean, anybody is listening to this program
and know what I'm on. In the past, I've talked
a lot about being part of the group. Back in
twenty twelve when they were talking about that this no

(01:14:29):
I'm sorry it was it twenty thirteen. I think it
was twenty thirty. Anyway, it was one of the legislative sessions,
which was their short session because they do the anyway
in the state of Kentucky. They were pushing this public
private partnership and the Chamber of Commerce and all these
people were saying, this has got to be done now,
We've got to do this here, the Brnce Benz Bridge.
It can't wait another day. It is so important that

(01:14:51):
we build this bridge, and we got to do it
right here, right now. You know, it's too expense, you know,
we got to do it. It's an emergency. And so on. Well,
as soon as they started talking about tolling and a
group of us got together, we were not going, you know,
tolls or taxes in our opinion, and as you know,
I was part of the group that we got that stopped.
Well with this infrastructure bill, there was a lot of

(01:15:14):
money that was put aside and grant was passed or
was applied for and honored, and that the brent S
Benz Bridge or the companion to the brent S Benz
Bridge was going to be built, maybe a little downsized
from what it was done. As a result of our
efforts with this group anyway. I won't go into the
whole history of that, but we were told that, you know,

(01:15:38):
it had to be done right here, right now. And
when that infrastructure bill was passed, they said that the
that the construction phase could start by that November. That
November came and went. Last November came and went, and
we are going into another November that is going to

(01:15:59):
come and go and not a shovel turn because the
City of Cincinnati, just like they did years ago, can't
figure out where the footprint's going to be over there,
where they're going to do their entrance ramp. Can they
reconfigure this so we developed we've got more vacant space
over there for development so that they can build more
buildings and gouge and get more property taxes and so on,

(01:16:24):
and so that's being held up. And then all of
a sudden, these environmental groups and all these people are saying, well,
we want to take a look at this, and we
want to study this and whatever. Well, there was an
environmental impact study done back in twenty twelve. And let
me tell you, you know, the game, the fish, the
air quality and all that sort of thing. I would

(01:16:46):
be willing to guess that if the birds and the
fish and the animals living down there could tolerate what
was going on back in twenty twelve, they sure as
hell can tolerate that. Now they're down there trying to
find some exotic bird or insect that is an endangered
species so that they can stop this project. But where

(01:17:09):
are the people, Where is the chamber of commerce? Where
is this intensity? Quite honestly, I thought that the Brent
Spnce Bridge, if you again reconfigure some things. If one
of the things, you know, the fact that that bridge
is only congested at rush hour in the morning and
the afternoon, if you do certain things in terms of

(01:17:32):
maybe forcing trucks off of that and onto the outer belt,
that would alleviate things. But according to their study, if
you take trucks off, that's only one vehicle. And how
stupid is that anybody that's ever been on the road
when you are we see trucks in traffic, and you
see the gap because they it takes them a while

(01:17:54):
to start or to speed up, and a time to stop,
and so there's generally four or five car links between
them and the next the car. The length of the
truck at itself is about four to five vehicles. And
the estimates are that for every truck you take off
a highway, it's the equivalent of taking anywhere from seven

(01:18:15):
to ten cars off the freeway. So these studies where
they say, well, you know, would only take you know,
a thousand, one thousand vehicles off the Brent Spence Bridge
every every day, Well, no, that's more like the equivalent
of ten thousand vehicles off of that because of the
size of the truck and the impact and how far

(01:18:37):
the distance between the starting and stopping is. But of course,
you know, don't let facts get in the way. But
now all of a sudden, there's this group that are
now suing to force another environmental impact. You know, is
is this ever going to get built down there? Is
there ever going to be this emergency that they were
talking about. And the things that I learned as a

(01:18:59):
result of digging into the numbers, digging into the traffic counts,
how they came up with them and their forecast what
you know, because when they first came out with their
forecasters saying, you know, one hundred and seventy six thousand
vehicles come across that bridge every day and by the
year what twenty twenty five or whatever, there was going
to be two hundred and thirty some thousand going across

(01:19:20):
that bridge. Well we're still at about one hundred and
sixty six thousand vehicles going across that bridge on a
daily basis. So the traffic counts that they came up
with are false and didn't come true. But this business
of a city of Cincinnati and this coalition is that
the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for Transit and Sustainable Development, backed

(01:19:42):
by the Davoo Good Project, Cincinnati Civic, Cincinnati Ride and
coming to Queen City bike groups and all this sort
of stuff. For crying out loud, either this project or
is important for this area or not. Quite Honestly, I
would have preferred for them to do. What we talked
about back then was the since Eastern Bypass, which was

(01:20:04):
another bypass out and around taking traffic off of the
brin Spence Bridge. But amazing that you know, even you
know I talked about this before that back in the day.
If any of you are old enough to remember Jim Bunning,
Jim Bunning was a professional baseball player, Hall of Famer
and so on. He became a congressman and then became

(01:20:26):
a Senator from the state of Kentucky when he was
a congressman back in the early nineties or so before
he went to the Senate, when they had ear marks.
He got an ear mark for the construction of a
new bridge down there next to the Brinspenz Bridge or
a replacement for the Brn Spence Bridge. Cincinnati could not

(01:20:47):
get their act together in terms of where the landfall
of that where the footprint of that bridge was going
to come over into Cincinnati because they were concerned about
they had plans for the banks, so they had plans
for Paul Brown Stadium or a stadium or riverfront stand.
They couldn't figure out where that footprint was going to be,
and those ear marks were going to be running out

(01:21:08):
that bridge that we were supposed to get, and the
money for this region was taken then down to Aberdeen
and down to not Augusta, whatever the city is down
there where they built a new bridge down there, And
so what we were supposed to get here is now
further down the road in Maysville, Kentucky, a brand new

(01:21:31):
bridge there, a smaller version, but still the money that
was earmarked for Cincinnati was bypassed. Then now we are
three years or what two and a half years into
this this infrastructure bill, and we still have not turned
a shovel bird of a bit of dirt. Unbelievable, this
thing that was so so important immediately had to build

(01:21:55):
our new bridge now and now all of a sudden,
it's like delayed, delayed, delayed, del Phone numbers five one, three, seven,
four nine, fifty eight hundred eight two three talk one
eight hundred day two three eight two fivey five. Coming up,
We've got Chris Smitherman, Christopher Smitherman with the uh smither Event.
I'm Kevin Gordon in for Brian Thomas, fifty five KR.
See the talk station.

Speaker 6 (01:22:17):
What's the best place to reach new.

Speaker 2 (01:22:25):
Seven twenty one in the morning. Kevin Gordon in for
Brian Thomas, fifty five KR. See the talk station. When
I talked to our friend Christopher Smitherman, former Cincinnati Vice mayor. Hey,
welcome to the program. Glad to talk to you again,
my friend.

Speaker 3 (01:22:39):
Oh, thank you, my friend, Thanks for having me on
this morning. I still appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:22:43):
Oh are you doing?

Speaker 2 (01:22:44):
It's my public behind the microphone. It doesn't get any
better than this for me, you know, it's just I'm
telling you, but yeah, so, yeah, everything's going fine with me.
It can't complain a bit. How about you? Everything going well?

Speaker 3 (01:22:59):
Yeah, everything is going great. You know, I saw something
and i'll you know, I'll talk about you know during
my screen bent. Here this showmanship from President former president
Donald Trump at the McDonald's. Now I talk about politics.
I talk about politics like people talk about sports. And

(01:23:22):
if people that's right, if people miss the fastball about
what really happened, right, they'll not understand what he did.
So on the surface, he was highlighting the fact that
Vice President Kamala Harris had said, Hey, I worked out
of McDonald's in my life, and I'm connected to the
working people. McDonald's has not confirmed that she ever worked

(01:23:45):
at a McDonald's. She hasn't been able to show any
pictures or images that she worked at a McDonald's. And
so what President former president Donald Trump has done here,
he says, Listen, I'm gonna go I'm going to work
the friars. I'm going to spend fifteen minutes more than
she's here, and I'm going to force her to say
whether she was telling the truth about that. Now, that's
that's on the surface. But the other side of this

(01:24:07):
is right, The millions and millions of employees right right
that have been connected to that to what McDonald's in
their lifetime, meaning you as a kid who worked at
the McDonald's, or somebody who's still working at McDonald's like
my son, my oldest son in Wisconsin, Milwaukee, he works
for corporate McDonald's. My point is that there are lots

(01:24:29):
of people that are connected to this brand and it's
made them who they are. They're they're independents who owned locations.
Corporate owns locations. They're one of the biggest land owners
in the United States of America as far as owner.
So he was touching on so many different points, the
brand of McDonald's, whether the vice president had been telling
the truth, the working class man or woman who might

(01:24:53):
have to work two or three jobs at McDonald's is
one of those jobs that they have to work on
and she's saying I worked here, but she really didn't
work there. I'm sharing with you. He hit on so
many different points as a showman that if people just
look at it, like oh man, he showed up and
made some pride, they're really missing what happened yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:25:10):
Oh they're missing the they're missing the total story there.
And you know, there's been so many stories about Donald
Trump what they call the blue collar billionaire, because he
connects so well with people. I mean, even when he
was being prosecuted in New York and every day he
would go to a bodega, or he'd go out to
a construction site and talk to the construction workers. He

(01:25:34):
seems to feel as comfort well, he's one of those guys.
And I kind of pride myself on this too. I
feel like I could be plopped down in any environment
and connect with just about anybody. And either you have
that ability or not. If you're not comfortable in your
own skin, if you think that certain people are below
you or above you, or intimidated and all this sort

(01:25:54):
of stuff, then you're not going to fit in. But
if you go in there and you are a person
of the people, if you talk to people and ask
them what their concerns are and get to know the people,
that is where you can fit into almost any environment.
And I think Donald Trump does that tremendously.

Speaker 3 (01:26:12):
And what I'm saying to you, Kevin, is there's so
many people out here right now, because of inflation, are
having to work two jobs and pick up even a
third job. They're thinking about, Oh, man, I've got to
work somewhere for the holidays in order for me to
make my rent, or for me to make Christmas like
it was three or four years ago, or to pay
for my Thanksgiving, my Thanksgiving dinner. We do not understand

(01:26:36):
right oftentimes. And that's what you see former President Trump
doing right here. He's saying I understand you, like you're saying, Kevin,
I'm connected to you. I understand your plight. And if
there's somebody out there mocking you, if there's somebody out
there playing like, hey, I understand you. But they really
didn't do this, They really didn't work at a McDonald's.

(01:26:58):
They really aren't. I'm the middle class. It's a major blow.
And I'm looking to see if the vice president's campaign
respond to this, because all of those videos have gone viral.
It'll be out on social media. They're everywhere. And I
just want to highlight that for the public that it's
not just that he went there and did those frides.
It's the message he was sending about the economy, the corporation,

(01:27:21):
the working class person, and whether Kamala Harris herself had
been telling the truth all.

Speaker 2 (01:27:26):
Right, we'll pick this up on the other side of
the break. But you know what's interesting. I was listening
to Donald Trump Junior talking and he was talking about
the economy. He goes, When Donald Trump Junior thinks twice
about spending the amount of money it takes to take
my three kids to a McDonald's, you know, the economy
is bad. So I thought that was great. We'll pick

(01:27:49):
this up Christopher Smitherman on the other side of the break,
former vice mayor, and we'll be talking to the Smithers
the smither Event coming up. I'm Kevin Gordon in for
Brian Thomas fifty five care see the talk station.

Speaker 6 (01:28:01):
A Minute of Hope is brought to you by the
Linder Center of Hope. Linders Center of.

Speaker 2 (01:28:12):
Coming up on seven thirty one in the morning. Kevin
Gordon in for Brian Thomas fifty five KRC the Talk station.
Continue our conversation with former Vice mayor Christopher Smitherman in
the smither Event. Welcome and thank you so much for
being with us this morning.

Speaker 1 (01:28:27):
Christopher, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (01:28:30):
Look, Kevin, well, before you get started, I've gotta cut
you off. Gotta cut you off. I'm sorry I did
do a little bit of homework. Heireen. I gotta say
right off the bat, thank you to your son for
his service to our country. And number two, congratulations, I'm
becoming a grandfather, so.

Speaker 3 (01:28:45):
Oh thank you. I appreciate that on both of those points.
Let me say that what's happening in North Carolina, Florida
and Georgia, particularly North Carolina hard hit by the hurricane.
They're still over thirty people. I think the number might
be thirty nine people that are still missing. And what

(01:29:07):
is amazing about North Carolina for me as a person
who follows politics is their desire to vote. Meaning the
lines this weekend were long. People were climbing. I'm going
to like over mud coming from the hills of North
Carolina to cast their votes. Now, if they can get

(01:29:27):
out and vote. If they can get out and vote,
my question is why can't other areas in our country
do the same with that kind of vigor and so
my hearts go out like yours, Kevin, to those people
who lost everything, their house, some of them lost their
family members, they lost their pets. They don't know how
they're going to rebuild. Some of them don't even have power.

(01:29:49):
It's my understanding that the former president is going to
be visiting North Carolina today again trying to show support
and connect with the people of North Carolina. But I
have just be amazed by watching how they are enthusiastic
and making sure and FEMA, no matter what they say
about misinformation, failed North Carolina, failed Georgia, and failed Florida. Kevin,

(01:30:14):
that FEMA wasn't there. They weren't the ones leading the
charge organizing the relief. And if you're listening to my
voice right now, right and you think that I'm exaggerating, right,
you weren't there. You don't understand maybe what it feels
like to have your house washed away and all your belongings,
or you lose your grandparents or your child, or your wife,

(01:30:36):
or your spouse or your pet. I'm telling you you
don't have a heart. FEMA should have been the one
leading it. And in the background, we're giving millions and
hundreds of millions of dollars away to other countries. And
so the backdrop I think of what you're going to
see in that voting, Kevin, is that people are going
to come out and send a very strong message in

(01:30:57):
North Carolina and in Georgia and in Florida. Thing that
the poles are not going to pick up of people
being frustrated with how the White House treated them when
they needed them the most, while they were sending hundreds
of millions of dollars overseas.

Speaker 2 (01:31:12):
I sure as hell hope so. And you know, all
you have to do is drive around the city of Cincinnati,
northern Kentucky and so on. And every time we get
in the car and we're driving along on these roads
and stuff, my wife the first thing from her is
with our it's like riding on the wagon train, all
the ruts and the potholes and uneven pavement and stuff,

(01:31:36):
and it's like, we are living like this, and yet
we're sending billions and trillions of dollars overseas.

Speaker 3 (01:31:44):
Are you nuts that that is what Americans are thinking.
I think out there that are saying, it's time to
put our country first. It's time to put the people first.
And what the hurricane has done, it has emphasized, or
it has highlighted for the public and the world that

(01:32:06):
FEMA wasn't ready, The government wasn't ready, not only financially,
but they also were not ready to mobilize and help
their own people. How can you help the people in
Ukraine or help the people in Lebanon, And you can't
help the people in the United States of America North Carolina,

(01:32:27):
Georgia or Florida.

Speaker 2 (01:32:28):
Now, And how can you give all this money and
a lot of this stuff, Christopher Smitherman to all of
these these cities and the illegal aliens that are in
this illegal immigrants that are in this country. And you
know this is not anti immigrant, this is coming into
the You want people to come into your country legally

(01:32:48):
and according to the law, not break the law, and
accommodate them and assimilate into the population as opposed to
this invasion that we've been seeing that okay, the borders
secure for the last three and a half years, when
we know it hasn't been.

Speaker 3 (01:33:05):
Look, first, I agree with you, and again that underscores Kevin,
what the country is saying as they get out and vote.
We're in the middle of an election, so people are
early voting all over the place. They're listening to you
and I talk, and they're trying to decide what candidates,
not just national candidates, but what local candidates they're going

(01:33:25):
to support. And so when they feel like, oh my goodness,
we all knew the hurricane was coming, but they couldn't
even mobilize the National Guard, or they could not mobilize
federal assets, helicopters, whatever they needed to get supplies into
the hills of North Carolina. As one of many examples,
they're going to say, why would I promote you to

(01:33:47):
the next level? These are just basic things that Americans
are talking about. I want to pivot because I know
I don't have a lot of time, and I want
to talk about the Catholic vote. Let me be clear,
I am Catholic, my family Catholic.

Speaker 2 (01:34:00):
Hey, can we put.

Speaker 1 (01:34:01):
The Catholic Christopher?

Speaker 2 (01:34:03):
Can we pick this up on the other side of
the break. We'll do that and atle pivot to that.
My guest is Christopher Smitherman and the smither Vent And
of course you're also talking to a person that spent
two years in the seminary, so we've got a little
bit of common there. We'll pick this up on the
other side of the break. I'm Kevin Gordon in for
Brian Thomas fifty five KR see the talk station.

Speaker 6 (01:34:24):
What's the best place to reach new customers for your business?

Speaker 2 (01:34:29):
Seven in the morning. Kevin Gordon in for Brian Thomas
fifty five k R see the talk station. Continue our
conversation with former Vice Mayor Christopher Smitherman and the smither event. Well,
when you took a break, we talked about the being
a Catholic and a Roman Catholic and how I want
to talk to the Catholics out there, And of course

(01:34:50):
I mentioned that I spent two years in seminary, so
I know exactly what you're talking about. And I've got
seventeen years of Catholic education, So yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:35:02):
And I just think that when you the Al Smith
event this past weekend in New York, they raised nine
million dollars for Catholic charity. You know, historically presidential candidates
went there. It was the time to kind of cool
the engines, have some fun, laid back. I thought it

(01:35:22):
was a mistake for the Harris campaign not to show up.

Speaker 2 (01:35:26):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:35:27):
But but when you layer on what happened with the
with Governor Whitmer in in uh in Michigan, with the
Dorrito and the ladies kneeling down like she was taking
her first communion. When you layer those things on, you
layer these two young men in in Wisconsin this weekend.
So We're not talking about twenty years ago. Just this

(01:35:48):
past weekend, who said Jesus is more and the vice president,
Kamala Harris said, hey, you're at the wrong place. You
need to go somewhere else. This is you know, when
they're when they're when they're literally shouting out the name
of Jesus these and then when they did that, Kevin,
the audience turned on those two young men, push them out,

(01:36:09):
put their hands on them. I thought that was an
assault on them. But my point is that there just
seems to be this drum beat about Catholics, and I
think it is a major mistake for this campaign alienating
Catholic voters. Now they're going to be Catholic voters, as
you know, Kevin, who are going to vote for vote

(01:36:31):
for Democrats, they're going to vote for Independents, they're going
to vote for Republicans. I'm just saying they're giving a
reason for Catholics, meaning my family were Catholic, to say
no to them based on how they're showing respect or
no respect for the Catholic faith.

Speaker 2 (01:36:46):
Well they have. I mean, you can go back years
ago where they had what somebody was doing some sort
of fake sexual act and pew during one of the
services at Saint Patrick Church. You've had disruptions, services and
so on. You would never ever, ever, ever see any

(01:37:09):
of these so called brave souls do anything to desecrate
the Quran or to say anything against the Muslim or religion.
But it seems like the Jewish faith and the Catholic faith,
it's open season no matter what time of day it is,
what time of the year it is, and that should
give some pause to people in both religions to say,
just exactly who do we support and why do we

(01:37:31):
support them?

Speaker 3 (01:37:33):
That is well said, absolutely well said. And I know
we don't have a lot of time. I just want
to say we have an election. As obvious, early voting
is happening here in most states across the United States
of America. I want the public to know that Melissa
Powers is at the top of my radar. She's the

(01:37:54):
Hamilton County prosecutor. I'm supporting Sheriff Jim Neil Adam Koehler
who's running for county commissioner. These are just some examples.
Orlando's Fonza is in a tough race. There are some
really big races out there. Is my point that I
think people should really hone in on. And one of
the mistakes that people make, Kevin, is they go in

(01:38:16):
and they vote for the president only and then walk
out they vote down the entire ticket. And so I
bring this up saying, there are a lot of good
people that are out here running for office. Please don't
make the mistake of going in and just voting for
the national ticket whoever you're supporting, and then not voting
down the rest of the great Americans who are running

(01:38:38):
for office in your area. Because bottom line, Kevin, as
you know, politics are local. Don't miss those big elections.
They affect your life on a daily basis.

Speaker 2 (01:38:48):
Yeah, exactly. You make a great point there. They're the
ones that affect your life every day. Now, you got
the people in Washington and so on the control it
on a national basis, but everything is local. And as
I've said before, is that as these people show up
to your house or you go to and and I
suggest that everybody go to as many of these campaign

(01:39:09):
rallies or or talk to as many candidates as possible.
They are doing a one to one interview. They are
coming to you and asking you for one of the
most precious things that you have and that's your vote.
And what you should do is go in with the
idea of Okay, here is what's important to me. Here
are the top two or three or four issues. And

(01:39:31):
when you talk to that candidate, you ask them where
do you stand on this issue? Where do you stand
on this issue? And where do you stand on this issue?
And it depending upon those answers. That is who you
give your vote to, not necessarily the party, but the
person that is going to stand up for you with
the values that you have.

Speaker 3 (01:39:52):
Absolutely. You know, when I go out and I talk
to voters, and I'm doing that now on an active
basis of you know, restaurant, sometimes door to door, sometimes neighbors.
There's a lot of energy out there for people who
are wanting to participate. But when you vote early, what happens, Kevin.
You know this. You bank your vote and it allows

(01:40:14):
the campaign that you're interested in winning to focus on
those unlikely voters. So you get yourself out of the
way so that they already know you voted, they can
go knock on those doors and get those people out
that haven't voting. The voting early is just a part
of the game now, I meaning people are saying, man,
I'm a traditionalist. I'm only going to vote on election day.
Look the game and the rules that change, you've got

(01:40:36):
to change with it. And by voting early, it allows
those campaigns to go to those houses where people have
not shown up and spend their money on getting those
voters out and not you because you've already banked your vote.

Speaker 2 (01:40:50):
Yeah. I've never been a big fan of early voting,
but I have kind of changed since last election, and
I'm kind of seeing more of the benefits of it,
just as you just mentioned in terms of banking your
vote so they can spend their resources on the people
that they need to target in those particular and then again,
you never know what the heck happens. You never know
what's going to happen on election day, and you want

(01:41:12):
to make sure that you don't leave anything the chance.

Speaker 3 (01:41:15):
That is so that is so true, Kevin. Thank you
so much for having me on. And you know, I
always love coming on on Mondays and and and talking
about the I think pertinent issues that people should be
focusing on as they go through this week. And I
just encourage people to not fall into the trap that
my vote doesn't count exactly your vote does count. You

(01:41:37):
matter in this country. And my ex account or Twitter account,
whatever people call it, is at vote Smitherman and that's
where people can follow me until next time on Monday.

Speaker 2 (01:41:49):
All right, Former Vice Mayor Christopher Smitherman, thank you so
much for spending time with us.

Speaker 1 (01:41:54):
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:41:55):
You take care, have a great week. So many pertinent
points there. And you know we are not in a situation.
I mean, you know when he talked about the people
in North Carolina, you know, crawling through mud in order
to do this. You know your vote is the most
important thing. And don't get well, it's too late to
register now, but a lot of people say they don't

(01:42:18):
register or they don't vote because they don't want to
get on the radar screen for jury duty. If you've
got a driver's license, if you pay property taxes, if
you pay income taxes, if you have any connection with
any type of governmental agency anyway, you are on that
list as far as potential jurors. So uh, don't let
your don't let the idea of voting stand in your

(01:42:38):
way of expressing your opinion. And this is your government,
this is what you want, and it's up to you
to express that phone numbers five one, three, seven, four nine,
fifty five, hundred one, eight hundred eighty two three talk
one eight hundred eight two three eight two five five pound,
five fifty AT and T wireless phone. Kevin Gordon in
for Brian Thomas, fifty five five K. See the talk

(01:43:01):
station Man B nine. First warning weather forecast Today in
the morning rush hour, we're gonna see clear sky's patche
fog is possible in a lower forty six. Later on
today we're gonna have sunshine bit warmer high seventy six
lower forty eight, clear skys throughout most of the day.
Tomorrow we're gonna have mostly sunny skies and clear sky's

(01:43:22):
highest seventy seven low of fifty five Right now fifty
five degrees fifty five kr. See the talk station Chuck Ingram.
How is that traffic from.

Speaker 7 (01:43:31):
The US to Tramphigue Center. When it comes to stroke,
every second counts. That's why you see comprehensive stroke Center.
It's a clear choice for rapid life saving treatment. Learn
more at uc help dot com. Loading up on the highways,
he spent two seventy five are wrecked at Montgomery. It
is on the right hand side now west too. Seventy five.
There's an accident near Montgomery inbound seventy four backs up

(01:43:53):
above Montana.

Speaker 1 (01:43:54):
The latest is with injuries.

Speaker 7 (01:43:56):
That's on Red Bank ed Eary Chuck Ingram on fifty
five KR see the station.

Speaker 2 (01:44:07):
Seven fifty two in the morning. Kevin Gordon in for
Brian Thomas, fifty five krc DE talk station. Coming up
to the top of the hour, We're going to be
talking to Stephen Doane. He is a attorney and also
Kentucky State representative. We're going to be talking about Constitutional
Issue Amendment number two over there in the state of Kentucky.
And I know Brian talked to Jim Waters about that

(01:44:30):
on Thursday. But there's a couple of other things questions
that I have and some of the things that people
have been bringing up to me. So we'll be talking
about that one thing. A quick story here about some
things that I'm seeing. I talked about the economy earlier
where people are kind of pulling back and so on. Well,
this story last week saw, you know, when it doesn't

(01:44:51):
absolutely positively have to get there tomorrow. More people are
switching to slower delivery options to save money and profits.
At FedEx Corp. And ups are starting to get squeezed
as a result of that, because you know, people instead
of getting this next day delivery where you're paying extra
money for that, people are backing off of that and saying,

(01:45:14):
you know, I really don't need it tomorrow. I don't
need it. You know, we'll just do whatever the normal
process is. And what I've noticed is that, especially online
shopping and stuff, sometimes if you just go the regular way,
it gets there just as fast as if you ordered
it overnight. And so a way of economizing people pulling back.

(01:45:36):
These are kind of some of the extras that people
when they start squeezing their own bottom line when they
look at their paycheck, when they see that their paycheck
isn't lasting as long as the month is, this is
where those some of those areas where you economize. We've
talked about how other things, and that would be whoo
of you to kind of take a look at where
you're spending your money. You know, is this really all

(01:45:56):
that necessary? Do I really need that defensive cup of coffee?
Why don't I try something, you know, a regular brew
or something that you like that looks interesting at home?
The cost of brewing your own coffee at home is
a heck of a lot cheaper than going to one
of these overpriced stores. And you know who I'm talking about.

(01:46:20):
And when you start looking at that in terms of
where you can spend your money and how you can
squeeze a dollar here and there, goes a long way
to extend that paycheck of yours. So just a little
bit of stuff there, it's kind of I found that interesting.
People actually starting to save Gosh, do I really need
this tomorrow? Maybe not coming up again. We've got Stephen

(01:46:40):
Dunnan when we talk about Constitutional Amendment number two. I'm
Kevin Gordon in for Brian Thomas. Fifty five KRC, the
talk station.

Speaker 1 (01:46:48):
Your campaign fitstop on the roads in November helps me
make an informed choice this November. I will call it
fifty five KRC the talk Station.

Speaker 2 (01:46:58):
This report is paid for eight oh five in the morning.
Kevin Gordon in for Brian Thomas, fifty five k R
see the talk station. Joining me as attorney Stephen Doane.

(01:47:18):
He is a also a Kentucky state representative. We're gonna
be talking about this Constitution of Kentucky Constitutional Amendment too.
And I'm well, Steven, where do we stand with this?
And should we talk about the actual the wording of
the amendment first, or what it purports to do or

(01:47:39):
what where do you want to go here?

Speaker 8 (01:47:42):
You know, I think we can probably talk about the
language on on the ballot measure. And so, you know
what the ballot What the ballot measure essentially says is
there's a question, and it says, are you in favor
of allowing, you know, tax dollars public tax dollars to
flow outside of the system of common schools? And so

(01:48:03):
what we're looking at here, what we're trying to accomplish
here is to have a conversation down in Frankfurt to
see if we can get some of these educational choice
opportunities throughout our commonwealth.

Speaker 2 (01:48:17):
Now, as far as the language of the bill, it
says to give parents choice and educational opportunities for their children.
Are you in favor of enabling the General Assembly to
provide financial support for the education costs of students in
kindergarten through twelfth grade who are outside the system of
common in Princess public schools by amending the Constitution of Kentucky.

(01:48:39):
As Stata below, it is proposed that the new section
be added to the Constitution General Assembly may provide financial support
for the education of students outside the system of common schools.
General Assembly may exercise this authority by law, and then
they indicate the individual sections of the Constitution that have
to be changed by that. So basically it says that

(01:49:01):
you know, I guess more than anything else, it's an
opportunity of school choice. Now I have heard some people
selling this as well. Originally this is for people who
are of a lower means as an opportunity for them
to get their kids into public schools. There's really no

(01:49:22):
plan right now, or there's no format for this as
to how the money or how this is going to
be done or implemented. At this point. It's just giving
the state legislature and the ability to put something into place. Correct,
So there's.

Speaker 8 (01:49:40):
No trigger law in place, so you know, once this
ballot measure passes, nothing's going to happen, nothing's going to change.
What is going to change is the ability for the
state legislature to come in and to open up the
door to some of these programs. So, you know, one
of the things on the other side, the opposite is

(01:50:00):
saying that you know, it's going to be a voucher system.
Or it's going to be something. Honestly, we don't know yet.
We have to have a further conversation among the you know,
folks in rural Kentucky where they have a lot of
power and say over this issue. What you can do, though,
is you can look at the past. You can look
at some of the things we've done in the past
and how we got here. There were educational opportunity accounts,

(01:50:24):
which were basically just tax credits that you could use
sending your child to a private institution or just any
institution outside of the common schools, and you would just
get money back on your taxes. You get your tax
dollars back to go towards your child's education. And what
happened was the Supreme Court found that to be unconstitutional

(01:50:45):
based on some of those sections that are mentioned there
and that ballot proposal. And so what we've got to
do now is if we want to have these types
of programs in Kentucky, which you know, forty eight states
have these types of programs, It's not like it's a
novel thing. We've got to have this constitutional amendment now.

Speaker 2 (01:51:04):
Stephen Done, state Representative's my guest, I'm looking at some
of the literatures, and the other side is talking about
that it's defunding our public schools, where ninety percent of
our kids attend. Many of our public schools are already underfunded,
forcing public schools to close, failing to address a teacher

(01:51:26):
shortage or improve our public schools. I think those, quite honestly,
are probably some scare tactics, because this does nothing at
this point other than opening the door to allow some
sort of format of school choice.

Speaker 8 (01:51:42):
Sure, so you know, I'm also a family law attorney,
and one of the things that happens in a divorce
or in a custody battle is, you know, people got
to decide where their kids go to school. And in
northern Kentucky, a lot of folks send their kids to
private school, and so I know what the private school's
up your charge? Some of them are, you know, six
thousand a semester or you know, six thousand a year

(01:52:06):
in some cases, and then they offer scholarships as well
to some of these folks. When you look at on
average public school funding in Kentucky, we spend about eighteen
thousand dollars per student, and so you're seeing you're seeing
outcomes in the private sector that you're not seeing in
the public sector much better outcomes in the private sector

(01:52:28):
than the public And you know, the scare tactics of
not having money in our schools is kind of and
it's exactly what it is, the scare tactic. The private
schools are outperforming the public schools and they have far
less money.

Speaker 2 (01:52:42):
Let's pause here, let's pause here for a moment. Let
something sink in. You mentioned the cost per student, or
the money spent in the state of Kentucky per student.

Speaker 8 (01:52:53):
Is eighteen thousand dollars on average.

Speaker 2 (01:52:58):
You know, it wasn't within the last day. It was
not more than a decade ago that eighteen thousand dollars
a year was about the price of some of these
colleges and universities around And now we're talking about this
just for k through twelve and so on. The expensive

(01:53:21):
have gotten so out of whack. And what is interesting is,
and I've read some things where not only in the
state of Ohio, but in the state of Kentucky that
the amount of administrators versus teachers did. I read that

(01:53:42):
the increase in the number of money spent towards administrators, principles,
et cetera in these schools has jumped by ninety three
percent in the last few years, and yet the amount
of teachers and so on has only increased by like
forty I don't know if that number is accurate or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:54:04):
But.

Speaker 8 (01:54:06):
Well, I don't know the exact numbers on that. It
doesn't sound too far off from reality. But our superintendents
here in northern Kentucky, the public school superintendents gave a
press conference, and during the press conference, they decided that
if the General Assembly did a Florida type voucher system,
which again was not necessarily what we're going to do.

(01:54:28):
We don't know what we're going to do yet, it
would cost the public schools one point one nine billion
dollars and as a result, they said they would have
to cut nine thousand, eight hundred and sixty nine jobs.
When you do the math, that's one hundred and twenty
thousand dollars per job. They're not talking about teachers, frontline

(01:54:51):
teachers that they're going to have to cut. They're talking
about those high price school administrators that they're going to
have to cut.

Speaker 1 (01:54:56):
Would National wear all the money.

Speaker 8 (01:54:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's where all the bloat is. The
money's not necessarily going directly to the students. It's going
to go fund systems. And that's what one of the
catch phrases you'll hear is, we're trying to fund students,
not systems.

Speaker 2 (01:55:11):
Yeah, and I can remember, you know, the point where
my grandkids are now in grades well they're out of
grade school now, but going to the parent the grandparents'
day and this sort of thing, and going into the
schools and seeing that, Okay, the desks look like they've
been there for forty years, the ceiling tiles look like

(01:55:33):
they haven't been replaced in twenty twenty five years, the fixtures,
and you're looking at the books and so on that
haven't been updated. And you realize that the number of
students in that classroom at twenty twenty two or whatever
time is the amount of money per student. You're like,
where in the hell is this money going to. It's

(01:55:55):
certainly not going to the infrastructure. It's not going to
the obviously the teachers. It's going someplace. And then going
to the books and so on, you got to figure
it's going to the administrators and so on, and it's appalling,
especially when you look at the test scores and proficiency
and so on. It's just a mind boggling.

Speaker 8 (01:56:18):
Absolutely. And one of the things, you know, and I
do want to get to this point on the money side,
forty eight percent of our state budget in Kentucky goes
to public education, and so we're already spending you know,
money hand over fist in order to fund these these
systems and these schools. And we also already allow public

(01:56:39):
money to go to private institutions. So you know, if
you're a high school student and you attend class and
you make good grades, you'll get Keys money. We have
Keys money, and you can take that Keys money to
any Kentucky university and we'll literally pay you to go
to school, and you can take that money to private university.

(01:57:00):
So it's not like it's a novel thing that we're
doing or allowing folks to take money out of their
system to go to, you know, a more efficient school
school district.

Speaker 2 (01:57:11):
And Stephen Doane, I guess we when I'm looking at
some of the things that they're talking about, and this
would almost I've read something where they were going to
possibly if there was going to be something funded by this,
that it would be funded by private institutions or by

(01:57:34):
what was the thing in terms of that it would
be a separate set of funds set up, that it
wouldn't take money directly out of the current education system,
that this would be a separate pot of money. Is
that accurate.

Speaker 8 (01:57:50):
I'm school funding is very difficult to understand, and it
takes you know, I'm on the Education committee and it
took me a while to figure out how it works.
We've got what's called the Sikh formula. And so what
the Sikh formula does is it allocates essentially how much
state money can come in and how much local money

(01:58:11):
comes in, and then you do a balancing based on
income and based on you know, property tax rates and
based on home values within a district. And it's a
complicated formula, and you know, you spit out a number.
And basically we had raised to seek formula in the
last legislative session, and I think it's about forty two
hundred dollars per student that the state kicks in. The

(01:58:34):
rest of that money I mentioned that eighteen thousand dollars
number earlier. The rest of that is your local property
tax money coming in and funding the school districts. And
so one of the proposals that's out there is to
just allow that seek money to follow the student. So
we're talking about forty two hundred dollars, which would leave
there about you know, fourteen fifteen thousand dollars in those

(01:58:56):
public schools with no student mind you, you know that
money would flow out and so you could actually do
things like pay teachers more, or you know, fit to
the broken tiles you were talking about, or you know,
update the desks with that extra money.

Speaker 2 (01:59:10):
And I think the important component of this is competition.
If the public schools are so great, if they're so
wonderful and they do such a great job, they wouldn't
have to worry about the competition from other schools siphoning
that money off. And so when you are if you
don't think that you're providing the best system possible, then

(01:59:34):
of course you're going to want to protect that against
anything that would try to improve that. And that almost
seems like where the opposition to this is coming from.

Speaker 8 (01:59:45):
Yeah, and you never saw greater competition than when we
went through the COVID lockdowns with respective public schools. A
number of parents were fed up with the way that
they were doing things, and you saw significant decree is
an enrollment in public schools and folks just went out
and amazing decided that, yeah, that they were going to

(02:00:06):
homeschool their kids or take them out of that system,
put them somewhere else where they could actually get an
education that wasn't on a computer.

Speaker 2 (02:00:13):
All this does is all this Mment two does is
allow the basis for to come up with a funding
program or how to implement this. There is nothing set
in stone currently, whether it's not encouraging vouchers, although that
could be part of it, but nothing is set at
this time, just to allow to have the conversation.

Speaker 8 (02:00:34):
Basically, that's absolutely right, and we had just the makeup
of Kentucky, there's a you know, everybody thinks it's Republican
versus Democrat. One of the biggest fights is actually urban
versus rural in Kentucky. And so the rural folks are
really pro school. You know, they've got probably the biggest

(02:00:55):
employer most of the counties of the public school district.
And so if you even look at how some of
the gout down their vote, they vote against an amendment
like this, despite them being some of the more conservative members.
And so that fight is still yet to be had.
You know, we've got to make sure that we are
still protecting our public schools and making sure that they
run efficiently and do good, but at the same time

(02:01:16):
allow people an opportunity that want to get out of
that system and can't otherwise get out because they just
don't have the finances for it, to take their tax
dollars somewhere else and go get that education they want
for their children.

Speaker 2 (02:01:28):
Fantastic. Well, this is something that people need to read
up on. They need to know where they stand on this,
and in my opinion, I think a yes on Amendment
too is necessary. Attorney Stephen Doane and Kentucky also a
state representative, thank you so much for spending time with
us and adding some clarity to this. We'll hope for
the best on November the fifth.

Speaker 8 (02:01:49):
Not a problem, my friend.

Speaker 2 (02:01:50):
Thank you so much. All right, Stephen, thank you so much.
Certainly appreciate it. Phone numbers five one, three, seven, four, nine, fifty,
five hundred one, eight hundred eight two three talk one
eight hundred eighty two three eighteen five pound, five point
fifty AT and T wireless phone. Kevin Gordon in for
Brian Thomas fifty five KR see the talk station Hey
You eight twenty four In the morning, Kevin Gordon in

(02:02:14):
for Brian Thomas fifty five KR or see the talk station.
I appreciate Stephen done. He's an attorney, a family law
attorney in northern Kentucky and also a state representative giving
us some clarity and some talking about this constitutional amendment.
You know, a lot of the stuff that is being
said about this is not You got to do your
own homework. You've got to do a little bit of investigation.

(02:02:36):
You've got to look at some of the pros and
cons and make your own determination. I got to tell
you in the Gordon household, initially, when it comes to
school choice and what I see as far as the
education system, I'm all for school choice and letting parents
decide where they want to send their children, and I
believe that the money should follow the children. My wife,

(02:02:59):
on the other hand, said, well, I don't know about this.
I'm not sure that I like that because it's going
to be pulling money away from the public schools and
could create problems there. Well, you know, basically, if you
look at the public schools right now, for any parent
that is sending their kids to a private school, they
are basically I mean, let's face it, if you're paying

(02:03:21):
property taxes and you're not using the system, the system
is kind of freeloading off of you, and for you
to be able to take some of that money and
send your kids where you want to send them to
get the best possible education. I see this more as
a competition type of thing more than anything else. And
if the public schools are so great and so wonderful,

(02:03:42):
and again this is not a knock against the teachers,
I think the teachers are kind of up against it
in terms of the administrators and some of the curriculum
that these school boards allow. And so when you are
handcuffed that way, I'm not so sure that they have
as much flexibility and freedom, because you know, it's kind
of like one of those things where you talk about

(02:04:04):
your state representative. They say, well, why, you know, overall
Congress is hated and Congress isn't liked and all this
sort of stuff, But everybody seems to like their own congressman.
And so I think teachers overall get a bad rap. Now,
obviously there are good teachers, there are great teachers, and
then there are really bad teachers. But overall, teachers are

(02:04:25):
an important component of the education system. And I think
a healthy competition there. As far as the education and
what's available to the parents is great. Now in terms
of pulling money away from the public schools and stuff
like that, that is yet to be determined. They don't
know about this, And I think more than anything else,

(02:04:45):
the thing that I would hang my hat on and
the most is the fact that this allows a certain
amount of competition, and competition is always good. So anyway,
I've got to do your own homework on this and
kind of come up with your own decision. Coming up, Well,
we'll do some headlines to the bottom of the AAR.
I'm Kevin Gordon in for Brian Thomas, fifty five krs

(02:05:07):
the Talk station.

Speaker 7 (02:05:08):
What if you could get the best healthcare without waiting
for an appointment?

Speaker 2 (02:05:12):
Eight thirty one in the morning, Kevin Gordon in for
Brian Thomas, fifty five krs the Talk station. So local
headlines were covering for you this morning, said out of Carrollton, Kentucky,
a fourth victim was recovered from a house fire in Carrollton.
The police call a multiple fatality event. This was reported
yesterday and was just so sad. Detective Dave Roberts of

(02:05:35):
the Carrollton Police Department said Saturday afternoon that recovery efforts
had finished in the fourth and believed to be the
final victim, has been recovered from the residence remnants. Police
have not identified any of the four victims pulled out
of the home later identified to the Kentucky Medical Examiner's Office.
They did say that a three year old child standing
near the homes back door was rescued and was in

(02:05:57):
the hospital and recovering. Yeah two people are hospitalized after
an overnight bar shooting. Newport Police say that the shooting
took place at the bar Sunday morning. It happened approximately
one seven am in the area the West eighth Street
and Isabella Street. Police say to the group of individuals

(02:06:19):
leaving a bar near the intersection were involved in an
altercation which led to a suspect firing a gun and
hitting two people. The business that the incident is alleged
to have taken place at was not named by the police. However,
the only commercial business of any located in the immediate
vicinity is Sena's Cafe, which advertises itself as a bar

(02:06:40):
online and it's listing on Google Maps. Now, you know
this is interesting because a lot of times the liquor
license is determined by this, and sometimes when an altercation
or something happens near a bar or near a facility,
that is the location that is tagged with this. Whether
or not those patrons were or those people were at

(02:07:02):
the bar to begin with, it'll be interesting. But they
do say in here that people were leaving the bar,
so again you can imagine that probably alcohol was involved.
Injuries sustained by the two victims are reported, but again
this is not a reflection sometimes the bar itself. It's
just more of a reflection again the individual responsibility of

(02:07:24):
the people involved and that would actually get involved here.
The injury sustained by the two victims are reported by
police being non life threatening. Police said the suspect fled
the scene prior to officers arrival and remains at large.
Police department says the incident is believed to be an
isolated case and that further danger is not believed to
remain imminent to the community by the suspect. Those with

(02:07:46):
information about the shooting are encouraged to call Newport Police
at eight five nine two six ' one eight four
seven seven. Police department said that those seeking to remain
anonymous are permitted to do so, and that is certainly good.
And you know, when you and I can't emphasize enough
that when you have an incident at a particular location,

(02:08:08):
because there have been times when I know that in
Newport where a fight will start one place and then
the people are go down the road, down the street
about you know, maybe a block or so, and then
get into a bigger altercation in front of another business,
and then that business gets tagged with that incident happening

(02:08:32):
at their premises, whereas the incident actually happened up the
street at another location. And so to make sure or
to be fair to these bars and restaurants that they
don't get tagged with a bad reputation, they need to
make clarity as to what is involved in who these
people were, where they were patronizing, and whether or not

(02:08:54):
this occurred inside the building and just spilled out into
the street. So that's just my two cents worth of it.
Coming up, we're going to be talking to VA and
talking about some of the stuff that they've got going on.
I'm Kevin Gordon in for Brian. My guess will be
Carrie Hagen from a Fisher House I'm Kevin Gordon in
for Brian Thomas, fifty five krs, the talk station, the

(02:09:17):
Socialists who want to move Height thirty nine in the morning.
Kevin Gordon in for Brian Thomas, fifty five krs the
Talk Station. It's my pleasure to introduced since a VA
Fisher House manager Carrie Hagen. Welcome to the program.

Speaker 9 (02:09:36):
Carrie, thank you so much, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (02:09:39):
My pleasure. What is Fisher House?

Speaker 9 (02:09:44):
The Fisher House program was established in nineteen ninety by
Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher in response to the recognized need
for housing from military families while the loved ones were hospitalized.
In nineteen ninety one, the first Fisher House what was
inaugurated at the National Naval Medical Center now Walter Reed
in Bethesda, Maryland, with the presence of President George Bush

(02:10:09):
Senior during a dedication ceremony. The Fishers entered into a
public private partnership with the government, allowing Fisher House to
construct these homes on government owned land. Subsequently, these homes
were gifted to the military or the VA to operate.
Their aim is to provide families with a home away
from home, enabling to be part of the healing process.

(02:10:30):
While their loved ones admitted. The Cincinnati Via Fisher House
opened up in two thousand and one and is located
on the VIA premises. The house is beautifully decorated. It
has sixteen private suites, completely a common kitchen, laundry facilities,
spacious dining room, and living room area for families to
gather and offer each other support and friendship while their

(02:10:52):
loved ones are receiving treatment at the Cincinnati BA Medical Center.
It's a wonderful place.

Speaker 2 (02:10:56):
Well, that sounds wonderful, a fantastic idea, of course, can't
do enough for our veterans and their families. So who
can stay at Fisher House?

Speaker 5 (02:11:05):
Well?

Speaker 9 (02:11:06):
The Cincinnati Via Fisher House welcomes guests to one have
a loved one receiving care at the Cincinnati VIA Medical
Center or receiving care at a local hospital that is
authorized by the v A Health Administration. They must live
at least forty to fifty miles or more away from
the medical center or the treating facilities that they're going to,
able to stay in a non medical, unsupervised setting, and

(02:11:31):
they have to follow all the rules of the house.
You know, in respect of our other fellow guests that
are in the house and the veterans may stay as
long as they have a caregiver that can accompany them
at all times. While at the Fisher House.

Speaker 2 (02:11:45):
Now this, uh, now, when when I'm thinking house, I'm
thinking house. This is probably what is this? Is it
a house or is it a building that has different
suites like an a kind of like an apartment complex
type of thing, or.

Speaker 9 (02:12:01):
Well, yeah, yeah, it's eleven thousand square foot facility that
actually looks like a house, and inside it has the
sixteen suites. There's a common living room, dining room, and
everything for people to join in, but they have their
little private area, their private room which has the bathroom,
and their bed facilities. Everything else is located on the
first floor as a common facility.

Speaker 2 (02:12:23):
That is cool. That really sounds fantastic. Yeah. Is there
a cost to stay there?

Speaker 9 (02:12:29):
No, absolutely not. There's no cost at all for any
of the family members to stay here while their loved
ones admitted.

Speaker 2 (02:12:36):
Is there a time limit or anything along those lines.

Speaker 9 (02:12:40):
We know, we don't have a time limit. There's no
minimum amount of stay. It could be one day or
it could be up to two weeks, and you know,
depending on the patient's care, what they're receiving at the
VA and what kind of how long term nurse day is.
That's what we go by as the manager.

Speaker 2 (02:12:56):
Yeah, and as I said before, there's two. There is
nothing that we can't do more. I mean we can do.
We can't do enough for our veterans and veterans, and
this is one of those things that would is great,
especially for the families. I do know that you know,

(02:13:17):
there are senior care facilities where somebody is in a
especially in your rural areas, where somebody is at a
particular hospital. And then of course, as you said, some
of these people live forty to fifty miles away and
it's very difficult for them to be there and to
be with their loved one who's in the medical facility.
And so an opportunity like this, especially with our veterans,

(02:13:40):
to be able to either have their family nearby, because
again I think one of the big points is is
that if you know your loved ones are there and
they are there as a support to you, that can't hurt.
I mean, that has to help tremendously the healing process.

Speaker 9 (02:13:56):
Absolutely, You're absolutely correct. It does help the healing process.
And you know, and the families they take pictures of
the house to take them over to the loved one
to show them where they're staying at. So then they
admitted veteran feels more at ease, more comfortable with receiving
the care, and known their loved one is going to
be their next room during their entire time of their mission.

Speaker 2 (02:14:17):
Now, I'm going to go out on a limb here,
and I'm going to assume that most of these people
that are veterans that they are probably a kind of
take charge person and a protector person. So as they're
in the hospital, as they're receiving care, part of their
concern is how's my family doing. Are they being taken

(02:14:37):
care of? Are they okay? Which should be probably the
last thing on their mind. But because of how they
are built, how they are constructed, and the type of
personality they have, they are concerned about their family members
and to be able to have this facility for their
families should be a big sign of comfort for them.

Speaker 9 (02:14:59):
Oh yeah, I see it daily. Absolutely, you are correct.
With the veterans, they're very you know, in their ways
and want to make sure their loved one is taken
care of, even above their own needs. So when they
realize that you know, they're going to be staying their
family members is going to be staying at the Cincinnati
Via Fisher House, and they see the comforts and they

(02:15:20):
see everything. They you know, meet us as the staffing here.
They are very comfortable and that's when they can go
over and you know, enjoy take care of their healing
process to make them get better and well to go home.
Absolutely very good.

Speaker 2 (02:15:35):
Can you hang with us through the break? We got
to take a quick break here and we'll come back
and pick this up because there's a lot more things
I want to find out about this for our listeners
and for the people certainly appreciate it. My guest is
since Ava Fisher House Manager Kerrie Hagen. I'm Kevin Gordon
in for Brian Thomas fifty five CARE see the talk station.

Speaker 1 (02:15:55):
Cybersecurity Awareness a month they're still going straight.

Speaker 2 (02:16:02):
Eight forty nine in the morning. Kevin Gordon in for
Brian Thomas fifty five KR see the talk station. Continue
our conversation with Cincinnati VA Fisher House Manager Kerrie Hagen.
And during the break, I pulled up this website and
that is one attractive house that is really attractive, a
nice layout and looks like a very comfortable facility.

Speaker 9 (02:16:25):
Yes, it is. It's very beautiful, you know, and each
year we go through and update make sure it all
has all the comforts of home for the families that
are here in the veterans.

Speaker 2 (02:16:37):
That is fantastic. Now, in terms of this, how do
veterans and how do they make arrangements for this or
are the what's the process there?

Speaker 9 (02:16:46):
These are the families that they're needing Fisher House lodging.
They're usually referred vi a consult by a member of
their their husband, their sorry, their caregivers, healthcare team meaning physician, nurse,
social worker, and then it's kind of the results come
over to me, and it's kind of based on eligibility

(02:17:07):
and room availability. They're often assigned on you know, first
come first or basis, so that there's no there's no guarantee,
but we strive to accommodate all requests for lodging. We
have the sixteen room, so each family is allowed one
private guest suite to share with a maximum occupancy of
three people.

Speaker 2 (02:17:28):
And again going back to the type of people that
are involved in the military, that their loved ones are
in the hospital and so on, I would say that
these people are as a whole somewhat rugged individualists and
kind of would is there some people will think, oh gosh,

(02:17:51):
you know, we don't take charity and we're just you know,
we're not that way. This is something that you've earned.
This is something that your family member have earned by
putting their life on the line for this country, and
it's the least we can do and to provide this.
So don't feel as though that you're taking something that
would you know, push somebody else out. This is to

(02:18:14):
make sure that your loved one gets the best care
possible and that you can provide the support for them.
Is that a thing that has to be overcome or
do you see that at all?

Speaker 9 (02:18:25):
Or I see that quite frequently here. There'll be a
lot of them that don't feel that they deserve, you know,
to even be lodging because it might be a simple
procedure or something. You know, maybe maybe someone else needs
it more than they do. That's not how we work here.
You know, if you if you are that one hundred

(02:18:46):
and fifty miles away and you need to be here
early at six am for a surgery, we're going to
help you. You know, We're going to get you in
this house. And you know, not only that because of donations,
I'm able to if I'm fool here, I'm able to
lodge at a local hotel. So we we've got them covered,
you know, as long as they meet the eligibility and

(02:19:08):
we take care of them completely so that they're here
one hundred percent for their loved ones.

Speaker 2 (02:19:13):
Fantastic. Now, how much what kind of statistics do.

Speaker 1 (02:19:15):
You have or well?

Speaker 9 (02:19:17):
Currently, right now, there's ninety eight houses in operation in
the United States. Those are on vas and DODS military installation.
As of todate, there's over five hundred thousand families that
have been served, six hundred and ten millions in savings
for the families, and over twelve million days of lodging
provided to families. So those are amazing.

Speaker 2 (02:19:40):
Those are astounding statistics. Yes, yes, oh my goodness. And
if because our listeners and because the American public are
so generous with their for people of groups that they support,
how can somebody help or work or how can they
help out or where can they donate?

Speaker 9 (02:19:58):
Oh definitely the SINS and I've a medical center, Fisherhouse.
We operate on donated funds and rely on support from individuals.
And groups to provide the ongoing daily needs of the
Fisher House and also enhance the stay of the Fisher
House and expand our program and those things such as
fresh flowers, daily newspaper magazines, food in the house, things

(02:20:19):
like that. We have a wish list that we can provide.
Or to find out how you can support the military
and veterans families of the Cincinnai Fisherhouse, you can call
us at five one three four seven five six five
seven one and we'll be happy to help you.

Speaker 2 (02:20:35):
Yeah, that's fantastic. Now, with the economy being as it is,
how is how are your donations doing? Is there a critic? Well,
I'm sure there's always the need, but in compared to
other years and.

Speaker 9 (02:20:49):
So on, Uh, there's always a need, but it's surprisingly good.
There is still a lot of you know, outreach as
far as what is a Fisher House. There's quite a
few people that don't know what a Fisher House is
and theonomi I think it's a builder, but these.

Speaker 2 (02:21:05):
Are exactly locally here.

Speaker 9 (02:21:07):
Getting this out is wonderful, you know, to bring awareness
and even bring in more donations and more activity here
at the house for the families.

Speaker 2 (02:21:15):
That's fantastic. I mean, it looks like an amazing facility
and I can just imagine the good that is done.
And as for the patient that's in the VA facility,
how much of a comfort that gives to them and
then of course to their families. So hats off to
here and all the best and appreciation coming on the program.
Certainly appreciate.

Speaker 9 (02:21:36):
Thank you so much for having me on here to
discuss the house. That's when the families are served.

Speaker 2 (02:21:41):
Thank you. We're there and we're here for you. If
you need something to make sure, you give us a
call and we'll get the word out. I think, thanks Carrie,
I certainly appreciate it. VA since a VA Fisher House
Manager Carrie Hagen, Well, folks, we're up against the clock here.
Time for me to get out of here has been
a I can't believe we've gone through four hours already,

(02:22:02):
but I could do another four if you want. Have
a great day. Kevin Gordon in for Brian Thomas. Fifty
five KRC the Talk Station.

Speaker 1 (02:22:12):
You are twenty twenty four election headquarters.

Speaker 5 (02:22:15):
Every voter should be asking whether America can survive four
more years of.

Speaker 1 (02:22:19):
Fifty five KRC the Talk Station.

Speaker 6 (02:22:22):
This report is sponsored by Pere