December 29, 2023 • 49 mins
In this episode of "The Middle with Jeremy Hobson," we're recapping an eventful year in news and asking you: "what was the biggest story in your community in 2023?" Jeremy is joined by a roundtable of journalists from across the country with some of their most impactful stories of 2023. Nashville Public Radio's Khalil Ekulona in Tennessee tells us how the Covenant School Shooting had major political implications - both locally and nationwide. Gemma Gaudette from Boise State Public Radio in Idaho brings us the latest on the University of Idaho murders which garnered national notoriety. And from Kansas City, Missouri, KCUR's Brian Ellison details how the superstar romance between popstar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs Tight End Travis Kelce turned into one of the year's biggest stories. The Middle's house DJ Tolliver joins as well, plus callers from around the country.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to the Middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson. As always, Tolliver
is here.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Tolliver. We are days away from the new year.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Do you have any resolutions planned I should do.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I'm going to finally start going to the gym. I'm
not going to go in or stand those outside selling supplements.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
You know.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
After our conversation last week about what made people happy,
and we heard a lot about how social media doesn't
make them happy, I'm going to, yet again try to
use a lot less social media.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Last year I put.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
A twenty minute limit on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Used per day, wow, which actually cut my usage down
a lot.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I realized how useless it is the doom scroll for hours. Anyway,
it has been a very busy year in the news.
We've covered a lot of it right here on the Middle.
The wars in Ukraine and Israel, and Gaza, inflation, opioids.
There's been no shortage of important national and international news.
But what about in your community? What was the biggest
(00:56):
story where you live? That's what we're asking this You
can reach out to us and listen to the Middle
dot com. Before I introduce our guests. Last week, we
asked what made you happy in twenty twenty three. What
a fun show that was. We got so many heartening
calls and plenty of voicemails too after the show.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Take a listen.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah, my name is Jeff Rader. I'm calling from Atleana, Georgia.
Speaker 5 (01:19):
My name is Nadine. I live just outside of Toledo, Ohio.
Speaker 6 (01:24):
Hi, Jeremy. This is Jerry Kerris in Mount Juliett, Tennessee.
Speaker 7 (01:28):
Hi, Jeremy. My name is Dina Jonak and I am
calling from Kate Coral, Florida. My two golden Doodle puppies
made my year so happy.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
I'm a social worker. I changed to a job where
I was doing more direct practice from administration. This isn't
the best decision I think I've ever made in my life.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
The thing that made me happiest this year was the
birth of my very first grandchild. I am sixty seven
years old, so I have been waiting quite a long time.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
I'm happy that I survived broken back and then calling cancer.
I stopped asking why me, and I started asking why
not me? And it gave me a renewed faith and
a belief in the beauty of life and love.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Thanks to everyone who called in so this hour again,
we want to know what was the most important story
in your community this year, whether it's local politics or
a major crime story, what made the biggest impact where
you live. Joining us from Nashville Public Radio, Khalil Ekulona.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Host of This is Nashville. Khalil, Welcome to the middle. Jeremy.
Speaker 8 (02:36):
It's nice to be with you again. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
It's great to have you. From Boise State Public Radio
in Idaho. Jemma Goddebt, host of Idaho Matters, is with us.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Gemma, welcome to you.
Speaker 9 (02:46):
Well, thank you so much. Good to be here with you.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And from Casey you are in Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Brian Ellison, Hi, Brian, Hey.
Speaker 10 (02:54):
Jeremy, it's always a pleasure to be with you well.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
And we are going to get to each of you
throughout this show and ask you about what the most
or one of the most important stories was this year
where you are. I'm going to start with Khalil in Nashville. Khalil,
what would you say was the most important story in
your area this year?
Speaker 8 (03:14):
There were quite a few.
Speaker 11 (03:16):
A lot of Nashvillians would argue and say that the
New Titan Stadium.
Speaker 8 (03:21):
Deal was a big issue.
Speaker 11 (03:22):
They were overwhelming disapproval for that, I'd say from most Nashvillians. However,
I have to point to the tragic school shooting that
took place on March twenty seventh at the Covenant School,
where six people lost their lives, three adults and three students.
The shooter, the assailant. The alleged assailant also lost their
(03:43):
life and was killed. Then that was the biggest story
to really hit this state because there was a lot
of fallout to come right from that.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Made national news.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I mean, it became a political story as well. We
remember they called them the Tennessee Three came out of that, right.
Speaker 11 (04:00):
Yes, Representatives Justin Jones from Nashville, Justin J. Pearson from Memphis,
and Gloria Johnson from Knoxville were three State House representative
members who protested, I mean after the shooting.
Speaker 8 (04:12):
It was such a shock to the entire community.
Speaker 11 (04:15):
I host a daily show here in Nashville called This
is Nashville, and we heard the news just before and
we were trying to decide do we stop the show
that we had planned to cover this.
Speaker 8 (04:25):
We did come to it later on in the weekend.
Speaker 11 (04:27):
Subsequently, in the weeks after, we discussed it, but it
really shocked the city, shook the city to its core,
and thousands of students and people came to the state
capitol they were finishing up the legislative session to protest
for the state representatives and lawmakers to finally do something
about gun safety. That is where representatives Johnson, Pearson, and
(04:51):
Jones got went along with the protesters, grabbed the bullhorns,
were screaming from the House floor. They were repudiated and
reprimanded by their colleagues. Eventually, within the next within one week,
there was a vote to expel the members. Justin Jones
and Justin Pearson both happened to be young, Both happened
(05:14):
to be African American males were expelled from the House.
Gloria Johnson, an older white woman, was she spared. She
was spared expulsion by one vote. Let's say, why do
you think that was?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
By the way that she was spared expulsion?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
But they were. I mean, you say both happened to
be African American.
Speaker 8 (05:30):
Is that why we can look at that?
Speaker 11 (05:33):
You know, we can speculate and look at that and
potentially say that that's why who knows? You know, I
know that both Justin Johnson and Justin Pearson were basically
freshmen in the state House, and Gloria Johnson had been
there for some time, so she may have had relationships
with some of her colleagues, and one of them.
Speaker 8 (05:49):
Let's let's all put this under context.
Speaker 11 (05:51):
It's a super majority, a super supermajority in the state legislature,
so heavily Republican, heavily conservative as opposed to not that
many Democrats in there.
Speaker 8 (06:00):
She may have had a relationship.
Speaker 11 (06:01):
There may have been one person and a secret vote
ballot to say, hey, I don't want to expel her.
But it made them international stars. I saw them on
the BBC talking about this.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah, now you know you're in Tennessee. We say it's
a super Republican majority. Our other guests, Brian and Jemma,
are both also in very red states, right, Missouri and Idaho.
Speaker 10 (06:23):
Yeah, that is definitely the case, and every significant incident
of violence or of intense conflict does result in that
kind of playing out on the legislative front. In Kansas City.
One of the big topics this year and for the
last several years, Jeremy has been the state's control of
the police board. It's the only American city where the
(06:45):
city does not control its own board of police commissioners.
It's actually a state board appointed by the governor that
dates back, I don't know, seventy five years or something.
But local efforts to change that have continued to fail,
and these We've had a number of incidents as well
where the police conduct has been questioned, and of course
(07:07):
the result is that again and again people say, we
in the local community can't do anything about that because
it's under state a state appointed boards control, and of
course that raises those partisan issues you raised as well, Jeremy,
that Kent City is a bluer city in a very
red state.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
You know, this was just one of many mass shootings
this year, as happens every year.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
We had the terrible.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Shooting in Lewiston, Maine, the shooting in Monterey Park, California,
and many others. But in Tennessee, after this, with all
the national news that was made about the Tennessee three khalil,
there weren't any big gun control measures passed.
Speaker 11 (07:47):
No, no, there weren't much to the I think disappointment
and dismay to a lot of Tennesseeans. I'm not just
going to say Nasvillians or Democrats. I'm gonna say Tennesseans,
because you know, under a lot of pressure, Governor Bill
Lee called for a special legislative session.
Speaker 8 (08:03):
They had that.
Speaker 11 (08:05):
I think that was reported that the House and the
Senate took different approaches. The House was going to take
up twenty eight bills and measures to address gun safety.
The Senate decided to only take up four. There was
infighting within the chambers, each individual chamber themselves as far
as what they would work and push to get done,
but not much happened.
Speaker 8 (08:25):
At the end of the day. They only passed four things.
Speaker 11 (08:27):
A bill to strengthen Tennessee Bureau of Investigation background checks
before storring guns. They offered gun owners an incentive for
the safe storage of guns, either for gunlocks or gun safes,
because another issue as far as gun safety that's been
happening out here in Tennessee, particularly in Nashville, is that
a lot of guns are being stolen from cars.
Speaker 8 (08:47):
People leave their guns in.
Speaker 11 (08:48):
Their glove compartment or under their seat, or sometimes on
their seat or their dashboard, and those guns are taken
and stolen. They approved fifty million dollars for mental health facilities.
Study on human rights violations and thirty million dollars for
Tennessee colleges and.
Speaker 8 (09:04):
Universities for security up trades.
Speaker 11 (09:06):
That was all this is in the face of mind
you again, thousands is not hyperbole. Thousands of young people,
school aged kids came out to protest, and a lot
of family members, a lot of people, their constituents, people
who know them.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
There's some comments coming in online from listeners Tolliver.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
What are we hearing?
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, John and South Bend, Indiana Rights. The most important
event in twenty twenty three for me is climate change.
It was the hottest year on record. That will only
get worse going forward. We were making very little or
no progress on planet Earth. Climate change will cause more
wars as we try to survive.
Speaker 6 (09:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
We had another comment come in before the show about
climate change and somebody was very happy that their community
had put out a declaration about climate change. Jemma, you're
in the state of Idaho. Is that an issue you
think that people in your state are worried about and
would call the most important issue of the year.
Speaker 12 (10:02):
You know, I don't know if ever Adahan would say
it is the most important issue. However, similar I think
to Nashville. Boise is a big blue dot in a
very red state, and in the city of Boise, our
mayor put a declaration in place that we will be
carbon neutral by twenty fifty and it's happening. I mean,
(10:22):
there is a lot of progress, at least within what
we call the Treasure Valley, so it's Boise, Napa, Meridi,
and all of the you know, major cities, which has
the largest population in the state. And it is something
that I think if you look within the Treasure Valley,
so southern Idaho, it is something that that's important. I
(10:44):
think that you know, let's let's go out to the
remainder of the state.
Speaker 9 (10:49):
I think in.
Speaker 12 (10:49):
Some ways there are other issues top of mind for people,
and I think there is still, you know, that argument
that people want to make even around climate change and
climate change is real. That is a hard pill to
swallow for some people in Idaho. But in Boise, in
the Treasure Valley, highly important.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
There's another comment, Tolliver coming in from Clarksville, Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah, Tim says, our big story was the tornado of
December ninth, twenty twenty three, two years from the date
of another devastating tornado that flattened nearby Mayfield, Kentucky. This
event demonstrated that some things still bring a community together
in empathy, and not only immediately, but with a long
tail commitment. I was actually in Tennessee for that, Khalil.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I mean, this is somebody saying the top story in
Tennessee was a tornado.
Speaker 11 (11:36):
That's another huge story that happened here as well. I
was in town when it occurred, and we did a
show on it the next day. And there's a wonderful
group of people out here, volunteers. They go by NAT
they call themselves Nashville Weather's Service, not the Nashville Nashville
Severe Weather, and they're volunteers. They get on YouTube, they
(11:56):
formerly Twitter, now X they have a channel that's the
first you go when you hear potential weather. He referred
to that two year anniversary of the tornado in Kentucky
and he said, we can just get used to a
due to climate change, tornado seasons from December through April.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Well, I want to ask our guests to stand by.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
We've got calls coming up as we ask you what
is the most important story in your area this year?
And of course, Taliver, we also want to ask our
listeners on the podcast to please rate the podcast.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Of course, a five star rating is appreciated.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
The highest stars you can get, the highest stars you
can give.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
We'll be right back after this break.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
This is the Middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson. If you're just tuning,
In the Middle is a national call in show. We're
focused on elevating voices from the middle geographically, politically, and philosophically,
or maybe you just want to meet in the middle.
This hour, we're asking you what was the biggest story
in your community this year. I'm joined by Khalil Ikulona
at Nashville Public Radio, Jemma Gaudette at Boise State Public Radio,
(12:55):
and Brian Ellison at case you are in Kansas City, Tolliver.
We're fourteen shows in. I was going to ask if
you've memorized our number. We have a special number for
listeners to call for this New Year's Eve ish episode.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I don't know either one. You can call us at
two one seven five to three one two zero one nine.
That's two one seven five three one two zero one nine.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And as we wait for your calls, let's go to
Gemma Goddebt in Boise. Your story of the year, Gemma,
is also one that made national headlines the murder of
those four college students in Idaho, which happened just about
a year ago right now, but the suspect has yet
to go on trial.
Speaker 9 (13:33):
Right so, Jeremy.
Speaker 12 (13:35):
It was in the early morning hours of November thirteenth
of twenty twenty two where the four college students were
killed in an off campus house. And then on December
thirtieth of last year, Brian Coberger was arrested at his parents'
home in Pennsylvania. He was at the time he had
just finished up his first semester of a PhD program
at Washington State University that's in Pullman, Washington. Pullman and
(13:58):
Moscow are eight miles apart, so very very close together.
He was extradited back to Idaho, and as you said, no,
he has not gone to trial yet. However, in the
last couple of days, prosecutors went to the judge in
Leyta County, Moscow's up in North Idaho, asking for a
trial date to be set in the summer, after the
(14:19):
University of Idaho is out for the year, but also
the Moscow High School is out for the summer because
the high school is adjacent to the courthouse. It's a
small town. There's already parking issues, so they're hoping for
a summer trial date. It will be six weeks they're
asking for. With that said, one of the big issues
(14:39):
that have come that has come up in this is
that the home where this happened, it today started being
demolished my day like today today, today, today, December twenty
eighth today, much to the upset of two of the
families who are whose children were killed, uh Kaylae Gonsalivus
(15:02):
and Xanta Cronodle's family. In fact, they came out with
a statement today really asking why, and their argument and
their attorney's arguments has been you are destroying evidence by
allowing the demolition of this home to move forward. Uh.
The FBI in October did was at the home quite
(15:25):
quite a bit.
Speaker 9 (15:26):
They took evidence. But you know, when you think of
a trial.
Speaker 12 (15:30):
Right, sometimes in murder cases in particular, sometimes juries go
to that location, they do a walk through.
Speaker 9 (15:38):
That is not happening.
Speaker 12 (15:39):
The University of Idaho in response says, you know, this
is this is too difficult. This, this is so difficult
for our students, for our community, we need to tear
this down so we can start.
Speaker 9 (15:54):
To move forward.
Speaker 12 (15:55):
And Jeremy, what people I think need to understand about this.
It's not just the shock of it. It's not I mean,
you know, there are so many podcasts, there as so
many people that do so much around this.
Speaker 9 (16:08):
Right. Idaho is small.
Speaker 12 (16:12):
Everyone somehow has some type of connection to this, right,
whether they went to the University of Idaho, whether they
have kids at the University of Idaho, whether they knew
any of these students at the University of Idaho. There
are such ripple effects, I mean my.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Own That's why a year later now, people this is
still a story that you would say is the biggest
story of the year in Idaho.
Speaker 9 (16:37):
Absolutely.
Speaker 12 (16:38):
I mean to the point my own husband studied in
that house all of the time during law school because
one of his good friends lived in that house during
law school. And that was more than twenty some years ago.
There are just there are so many connections, and it
is it is difficult, I think, to live here and
(16:59):
to honest we give it as much attention as a
lot of these national outlets are giving, if that makes sense,
because it is so personal and especially as we sit
here all waiting when will.
Speaker 9 (17:13):
A trial happen? Will you know what what's next?
Speaker 12 (17:17):
And I think there's a feeling of a lot of
victimization because it's taking so long. But with that said,
Brian Coberger, he gave up his right to his speedy
trial back in August.
Speaker 9 (17:28):
He has the right to do that. He did that.
That's why we're in this holding pattern a lot in
a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
It is interesting though, with all of the things that
are going on in this world right now, but from
the you know, the war in Israel and Gaza, and
you know the politics here in this country and climate
change and everything else that as bad as those murders were,
that that that is the thing that is.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Just capturing people. It's it's it's like, I mean, for people.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Who don't know anybody directly, it's kind of a soap
op at this point, isn't it.
Speaker 12 (18:01):
I would one hundred percent agree with that statement. It's
interesting because, as I mentioned, you know, there is so
much time that has been given to this, and I
think part of it is is that they were young,
they're good looking, and there are you know, right, it's
the kind of that and I think that we are
all so obsessed with true crime in a way right
(18:23):
now within our culture that this plays right into that.
With that said, if you come to Idaho, was it
the story of the year.
Speaker 6 (18:32):
Yes?
Speaker 12 (18:32):
Were there other major stories of the year that probably
have even more impact on people?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yes?
Speaker 9 (18:40):
And we as at least here at our.
Speaker 12 (18:42):
Station at icy Stint Public Radio, we really take a
lot of time to decide do we cover this, do
we not cover this because of the salaciousness of it?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Right?
Speaker 12 (18:50):
Do you just want to give it, you know, flame
to the fire, or do we report when it's necessary
to report.
Speaker 10 (18:58):
Brian Nelson, you know, hearing these accounts both from Khalil
and from Gemma of sort of a single criminal incident
that became the story of the year. I'm thinking about
one of the things that happened earlier this year in
Kansas City, where a sixteen year old high school student
named Ralph Yarl went to a door in Kansas City's Northland.
(19:21):
He knocked on the door because he was there to
pick up his twin brothers from a playdate. Turns out
he was at the wrong address. He was one block over,
and an eighty four year old man named Andrew Lester
shot Ralph Yarrel through the screen door in the head
told him not to come back. There was one incident.
(19:43):
Ralph Yarrel, who is black, has had a remarkable recovery
health wise. He's an honor student in his high school.
People are really excited that he has lived through this
and been able to tell this story. But the fact
is that one incident became symbolic on so many levels
of problems plaguing the community, certainly racial tensions in the city.
(20:06):
Questions about whether the police investigation of this incident would
have proceeded differently if if it had been a black
man shooting a white young person instead of the other
way around. There's there's no clear plan for what Kansas
City is doing to improve its statistics around gun violence.
So I can see how these one incident stories become
(20:29):
much bigger issues and much bigger stories.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Again, our number this hour is two one seven five
three one two zero one nine. Again two one seven
five to three one two zero one nine. Let's go
to Janet, who is calling from Chicago. Janet, welcome to
the middle Go ahead, Hi.
Speaker 13 (20:46):
I'm calling from Telson, a neighborhood where recently we have
a migrant shelter and I think it was it's a
whole warehouse. In October, we are told it's going to
be about four hundred people and expand to one thousand.
Well recently it's about twenty three hundred people.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Wow.
Speaker 13 (21:09):
And right before Christmas, a little boy, he's five years old,
he fell ill and he passes passed away. So it's, uh,
you know, it's hard to see the crisis unfolding. And
also we have a homeless encampment that's too far, that's
been here for quite a while, so there's some tension
(21:30):
between like who do we help and how much help
do we give?
Speaker 14 (21:33):
And so there's really.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Janet, I assume this is this is because of like
the governor of Texas who's been sending migrants from the
border up to places like Chicago exactly. And how do
your neighbors and how do you feel about it? I mean,
do you do you feel like you have a responsibility
uh to to you know, help deal with this issue
(21:57):
that the border states are dealing with, or do you
feel like this is just a mess or you know.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
What do you think?
Speaker 6 (22:03):
Well?
Speaker 13 (22:03):
I really feel everybody has a responsibility and so it's
not so much that I feel personally resentful or anything
like that. It's more of how do we deal with
the situation in the most like humane and equitable way.
And like I said, we do have a homeless population already,
(22:26):
so it's just really hard to see people so vulnerable.
It's kind of like, bring me a tipping point where
you know, we need to take care of people. We
can't have people living out on the street. And there's
some migrants who would prefer to be out on the
street than be in the shelter, so.
Speaker 15 (22:46):
It's a big issue.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Well, Janet, I really appreciate your call. Thank you so
much for that. I'll go to our panel if any
of you want to jump in on this. Is this
an issue that you're seeing in your cities with a
lot of migrants coming in to either Kansas City, Boys
or Nashville.
Speaker 12 (23:03):
I wouldn't say, Jeremy, that we have a rash of
migrants coming in. We have a migrant population in the
Treasure Valley. And what we also are dealing with though,
when the caller mentioned homelessness, that is something that we
see here and that has to do with a housing crisis,
which I don't think is unique to Bois or to Idaho,
(23:26):
but our housing prices have been skyrocketing, in particular during
the pandemic when people realized what they could buy in
Idaho if they worked remotely, so we had a huge
influx of people. In fact, report just came out today
that Idaho is second in the nation for the seventh
year in a row when it comes to growth per capita.
(23:46):
We continue to grow and our housing prices continue to
go up exponentially. We have a tremendous housing crisis issue
going on here, and it is the majority of the
folks that we're seeing in crisis are working adults, they
have families. It is people that are on the edge,
you know, right one illness and they're going to be
(24:07):
out on their own. That's what we're dealing with here.
And I think that that is something that every city
is probably grappling with in some sense.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
It is interesting, and I'll go to you, Khalil, because
I know Nashville is just a booming city, but that
even as interest rates went up so much in the
last year, that home prices didn't really drop that much
for people that are looking to buy, and rents didn't
come down that much either.
Speaker 11 (24:34):
No, Fortunately, I'm rent and my landlord has not raised
rent in two years, so I thank you Steve for
that year. But I have to say that housing is
definitely a huge issue out here in Nashville. Affordable housing
has been about fifteen thirteen. Fourteen years ago. Nashville was
labeled the It's city. And I've only lived here for
(24:55):
two years, but people have been coming in droves to
this city for the upper tunity that's here. There's no
state income tax, which is drawing a lot of people
who particularly came and bought up properties during the pandemic. Now,
you know, Nashville has a really growing and thriving community
of migrants and immigrant communities here. But tourists come twenty
(25:16):
upwards to twenty million people come to visit. You don't
see many homeless folks because Nashville does a good job
of I'm not going to say a good job.
Speaker 8 (25:22):
I should change my wording.
Speaker 11 (25:24):
They like to hide the homeless, and so they're pushed
out to certain parts of town. And on the show,
we continue to have people who work with the unhoused
community talking about you know, the caller mentioned that there
are some migrants who would rather be on the streets
than in shelters because in the shelter system. They're understaffed,
they're not very well funded. And through personal experience of
(25:45):
having been a bar manager in Albuquerque talking with unhoused
folks mentioning it's cold outside and maybe you should go
to the shelter, the shelter is actually more dangerous than
the streets are for them in a lot of situations.
So I think it's a whole hundred point restoration we
need to do for the whole crisis.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I remember doing a story years ago as a reporter
in New York City about the homeless Intake Center there,
and the city said that it was about treating everybody
with dignity and respect, and I remember thinking, dignity and
respect are the last things I would think of in
terms of the way people are are coming in here
every single day having to go and report and see
(26:22):
if they can get housing for the night. But anyway,
that is a big issue sure across the country. Again,
our number this hour two one seven five three one
two zero one nine. I'll give it again two one
seven five three one two zero one nine. If you
want to join our conversation, let's go to Jane, who's
in Houston, Texas. Jane welcome to the middle.
Speaker 14 (26:41):
Go ahead, thanks very much. I just want to say
it breaks my heart this year that our governor in
Texas appoints it a superintendent elf Houston Independent School District
and who has no certification and no education backgrounds, and
(27:02):
he's basically using no research base. He's replacing teachers who
are currently salaried with non experienced teachers at a lower rate.
There's a restraining order right now that he cannot do it,
but that's what he wants to do. He's closed libraries
in schools and it's all based He was able to
(27:25):
do it based on one school. There are over two
hundred and seventy four schools there in Houston here, and
instead of improving that school, he went in and he's
totally dismantling the sacrifice so many teachers have made. I
think of what teachers. A teacher who goes into school
(27:48):
and teachers and kids are two and three grade levels below,
well those and brings those kids up one grade level.
He considers them ineffective. And he has committed to bringing
non certified teachers in and he's saying he's going to
get a fifteen percent.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Jane, let me ask you.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Let me ask you do you work in the school
system there in Texas.
Speaker 14 (28:10):
I don't right now, but I spent twelve years in
the trenches, okay, teacher, as a mentor teacher and as
a math content specialist.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
All right, well, thank you so much for bringing that
call to our bringing that issue to our attention there
in Texas.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
You know, Tulliver, We're getting more comments coming in online
as well.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yeah, Brian, And Northern Indiana says here in Northern Indiana,
the smoke that drifted down from record Canadian wildfires almost
every day this past summer made working outdoors unsafe. People
are realizing climate change is impacting every living thing.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Did any of you on our panel experience the smoke
from the wildfires, Jemmy.
Speaker 8 (28:50):
You did well.
Speaker 12 (28:51):
Actually, for the first time ever, we didn't because Idaho
normally has massive wildfires. So we had a couple of
days we saw some smoke from Canada. But you know,
we had a very bizarre summer due to climate change,
and that we didn't we weren't dealing with massive fire.
What we have seen, too is I've been in Boise
(29:14):
since nineteen ninety nine, and you know, you had kind
of a fire season right started like in June, it
ended by August September. Fire season can pretty much start
in March and it can go to October November, and
we are in a valley, so then we also experienced
(29:35):
just that smoke hanging in the air. It is something
though that What I found interesting about the fires in
Canada was that it impacted large East Coast cities like
New York City, and it was all of a sudden
New Yorkers realized there are wildfires that happened.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
I mean, that's the beauty of this show the Middle
is that most stories that impact the coastal cities are
the ones that get all the attention. When there's a huge,
huge blizzard in the middle of the country, nobody cares
because the media doesn't cover it because they're all based
in New York and Washington.
Speaker 8 (30:07):
Yeah, absolutely really care when they're traveling. Let's say that, right, right,
that's why we do.
Speaker 10 (30:13):
None of us in the Middle care about it when
we're traveling as well. I almost didn't make it back
for the show this week because I was in South Dakota.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
You were you had to drive back to Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Was it bad bad weather?
Speaker 10 (30:22):
Well, well, you had to drive to Denver to catch
a flight to Kansas City because we couldn't get out
of Rapid City.
Speaker 8 (30:26):
It was quite quite a week.
Speaker 6 (30:27):
Wow. Wow.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Well, Khalil, Gemma, Brian's stand by because we've got more
calls coming out people's top stories of the year, and
of course Taliver, we're going to hear Brian's top story
as well from Kansas City.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
I'm praying it's about barbecue.
Speaker 15 (30:39):
Please.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
We'll be right back after this break.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
This is the middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson. We're taking your
calls about the biggest news stories to come out of
your community this year. Our number this hour two one
seven five three one two zero one nine again two
one seven five three one two zero one nine. Our
guests are Khalil Akoluna Akolo, who is at Nashville Public Radio,
Gemma Goddad at Boise State Public Radio, and case rs
(31:05):
Brian Elison in Kansas City. Before we go back to
the phones, let's go to Brian Allison. Brian in Kansas City,
what would you say was the big story of the year.
Speaker 10 (31:15):
Well, not to diminish the very serious stories that some
of which we've already talked about here, that have happened
this year in Kansas City, the serious problems the city
is facing, but maybe in part because of those problems,
I want to highlight the story that is, without question,
the one that's gotten the most attention nationally, maybe internationally
in Kansas City this year, and that, of course, is
the budding relationship between Kansas City chiefs tight end Travis
(31:38):
Kelcey and popular lege Taylor Swift.
Speaker 8 (31:42):
Right, And you know it is it is a big story.
Speaker 10 (31:45):
It's an economic story, it's a sports story, it's a
cultural story, and it certainly has been the object of fascination.
And I have to say, joy. You know, we're living
in a time when a lot of bad things are
happening in the world. There's a lot of conflict, there's
a lot of questions that don't have clear answers. There's
a lot of political partisan divisions. This is not one
(32:06):
of those stories. This is a story that has been
for the most part unquestionably uniting, unifying not only in
our metro but but really, I mean, I think around
the country, perhaps except for all the people disappointed that
they can now not date Travis Kelcey or Taylor Swift,
their interests.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Yeah, by the way, she has made over a billion
dollars on her concert tour. She has made over one
hundred million dollars just on Spotify, just on Spotify in
the last year.
Speaker 10 (32:36):
Taylor sweat well and that you know that part of
the story is really important. I mean, she she came
to Kansas City, she sold that Arrowhead Stadium twice. This
was earlier in the year. The Economic Development Council of
Kansas City estimates that the financial impact the city made
forty eight million dollars outright by her being here. They
estimate that the financial impact was two hundred million dollars
(32:57):
overall by extension just from her and doing two concerts here.
So then when she agreed to come back multiple times
to watch Kansas City Chiefs games and cheer and Travis
Kelcey and where his jersey and include mentioned him in
a song during one of her performances in Argentina, it
has it has been amazing, Savannah Holly Bates, one of
(33:19):
our reporters here at CASEY, you are just put up
a feature story today about this Chiefs. Ticket sales on
stub Hub tripled for all the remaining home games after
she came to the first one. The Google search where
is Kansas City doubled in the three months after after
her the first visit, and even Mayor Quentin Lucas told
(33:41):
told Savannah in an interview that he was visiting Paris,
a woman from New Zealand met him, learned he was
the mayor of Kansas City, and the first thing she
said to him was, oh, Taylor Swift.
Speaker 8 (33:52):
So apparently that's who we are now.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Wow, Okay, the phone calls are coming in.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Let's get to them.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Claire in Addison, Wisconsin, Hi, Claire, welcome to the middle
Go ahead, Hi.
Speaker 15 (34:03):
Jeremy, thank you. I would I love your show. I
would say the biggest story for the whole state of
Wisconsin is a recent development. Our great state Supreme Court
just ruled that our district legislative maps are unconstitutional and
(34:27):
are forcing the Great Republicans to they have to be remade.
They are unconstitutional.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
This is that this is the newly liberal Supreme Court
in the state of Wisconsin, which is going to have
a whole lot of effects, probably on things like abortion
rights and also, as you say, the district maps in Wisconsin.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Correct, is that? Now?
Speaker 1 (34:53):
The interesting thing I've always thought about Wisconsin is that
it is so evenly divided politically, but often it ends
up putting people that are very far to the right
or to the left in office statewide? Is the what
the Supreme Court is doing? How do people feel about
Is it causing tension in Wisconsin? Because some people might
be pretty conservative and some pretty liberal.
Speaker 15 (35:15):
Well, certainly Robin Voss, who is the Republican leader of
the Legislature, is unhappy right now. I think though, that
an indication that the maps were not reflective of the
electorate was the fact that we had have had a
Democratic governor for two consecutive terms, even though Republicans were
(35:44):
winning in regional elections. In other words, there are more
Democrats in the state.
Speaker 16 (35:53):
Winning.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yeah, thank you so much for that call.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
That's a great point and one that we've certainly has
made a lot of news around the country this year.
What's been happening in Wisconsin. Let's go to John, who's
in Chicago. John, welcome to the Middle What was the
biggest story for you this year?
Speaker 16 (36:10):
I would say the biggest unspoken story in the United
States is the anti bipodisan behavior of the Republican Party
that they refuse to come to terms and attempt to
form a compromise upon which democratic government is required in
order to function effectively.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Tell me more, what do you mean.
Speaker 16 (36:32):
I mean that there's a deliberate attempt to force the
government into a economic catastrophe in terms of funding the government.
There is an antagonism toward there's no desire to come
to terms and meet in the middle with problems like
(36:54):
the border, like the current foreign situation. So there seems
to be refusal of the Republican Party to attempt a
bipartisan solution to the major problems confronting the United States.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
John, thank you so much for that call. You know,
let me go to Khalil, Yeah, in Nashville on that one.
You know, Nashville is a sort of a blue city
in a red state. How do people feel there about
what's going on in Washington right now?
Speaker 11 (37:25):
A lot of people are upset with in action. That's
that's happening in Washington. And you know, I'm fifty years old,
and I remember a time when the debt limit was
not a football shaped political grenade that each party kind
of threw and threatened at each other. It was about
having the government work. The ideas on the specifics of
how government works is something that's open, you know. But
(37:49):
people in Nashville are really trying to fight the state
really coming in and taking control of a lot of things.
The state took control of the airport earlier this year.
A judge ruled you can't do that. The state passed
to end tie drag law of local judge rules you
can't do that. So that's been this issue in this
push between kind of local jurisdictions and municipalities and the
state itself, and that's kind of a reflection of what's
(38:11):
happening nationally.
Speaker 9 (38:13):
Emma, I would agree with that. In Idaho.
Speaker 12 (38:16):
I think what's interesting here is that we are a
supermajority within our legislature a Republican, and we are seeing
infighting within the Republican party itself, and this has been
bubbling and boiling and it seems to be coming to
and head. Our legislative session starts January eighth, ish, if
I remember correctly. And the issue is is we've had
(38:37):
far right Republicans get into office and there's a small
faction of them. However, they've caused a lot of ruckus
and they even call our you know, very I think
middle of the line Republican governor to liberal this is
so it's interesting to see all of this infighting. Same
(38:59):
as Jill said, though, we just had a ruling come
down by a federal judge here in Idaho just two
days ago, because we had an anti trans bill that
was going to go into effect on January one, where
miners would not be able to get gender affirming care,
puberty blockers, things like that, and where doctors did this.
Speaker 9 (39:20):
Doctors would be jailed.
Speaker 12 (39:21):
This federal judge Windmill said, you know, really, this violates
the fourteenth Amendment. We saw this after the Civil War,
we saw this with interracial couples. He put this in
the same vein as that. So there is now a
stay on that. So it's a very interesting time, not
(39:42):
just in Idaho, but I think within our country.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
You know, we got some voicemails as well, and I
want to listen to one that came in from Grant
from Iowa who says his top story is about local
environmental action.
Speaker 17 (39:56):
Listen, the most important story in my community was the
local residents through our city government, adopting a climate action plan.
Now that we have a plan, we can start moving
in a coordinated direction.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Brian Ellison in Kansas city. Have there been any actions
like that there or is this something that people are
concerned about?
Speaker 10 (40:21):
Well, I think folks are very concerned about environmental action,
action for racial justice and equity, a lot of sort
of local concerns that often don't rise to the attention
or to the agreement of a very similar dynamic in
Missouri and in Kansas. As we've heard about in Idaho
and Tennessee, super majority Republican control of the House and
(40:42):
the Senate. In Missouri and in Kansas. There's a Democratic
governor now in Kansas, but not in Missouri. In fact,
there are no statewide elected officeholders in Missouri who are Democrats.
They are all Republicans. But I want to say, and
maybe this is an encouraging word to that earlier caller, Jeremy,
I think one of the interesting things that has happened
the last couple of years in Missouri is that because
of that sort of Republican infighting that that that Gemma
(41:07):
described happening in Idaho. Uh there there has in fact
that that has happened in Missouri as well, but it
has forged an almost strange bipartisanship among among some Republicans,
so called moderate Republicans along with some Democrats, to actually
pass some really really significant legislation, or at least to
(41:28):
modify the legislation that's going to pass in ways that
are more palatable to Democrats. And so it's been an
interesting time. The state budget would not have passed this
year in Missouri. The governor's proposed budget that Democrats largely supported,
would not have passed without Democrats and Republicans coming together
to do it. And so it's an interesting time and
and maybe some basic model for some sort of future
(41:51):
work in the middle, as you say.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Well right, And and by the way, the reason that
the government didn't shut down, and the reason that we
didn't default on the nation's debt was because of people
in the broad middle just voting these things through while
the far right and far up voted against. I think
we have time for another call here. Let's go to Tracy,
who is near Juliet, Illinois. Hi, Tracy, Welcome to the middle.
Speaker 4 (42:13):
Go ahead, all right.
Speaker 18 (42:16):
Our local news story for the year was the murder
and stabbing of the young Palestinian boy I believe he
was six and his mother, proud of their landlord for
being Palestinian and Muslim. I worked for almost ten years
across the streets from that home, and it's just me
(42:40):
and everybody I know to the core.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Since that has happened, had there been able to be
conversations among people about what's going on in Israel and
in Gaza or is it just getting so tense that
you can't even talk about it.
Speaker 18 (43:00):
No, there is a lot of conversation. And also more importantly,
we've always discussed not more importantly, but as important as
we had discussed previously, how that landlord was off and
it drove home the see something, say something aspect and
(43:26):
the war in Gaza is just horrific, and the fact
that we here can't know what they're going through, much
less the displaced people. It's a huge topic of conversation
(43:47):
with the people I know.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Yeah, thank you so much, Tracy, really appreciate that call.
I'll go to our panel on this. This has been
such a huge issue over the last few months. I mean,
we did our first episode about the war in Israel
and Gaza just right after it started in early October,
and the calls were incredible from people of all different
views coming around the country.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
But it has only just expanded in terms of how difficult.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
These conversations are in college campuses and other places. Have
any of you been covering that or have heard from
people about how this is going.
Speaker 8 (44:23):
Well.
Speaker 11 (44:24):
We've had a lot of folks come to us and
ask when we were going to do a show on
the have an episode about this. Strictly, there's been a
lot of coverage, great coverage done by WPLN Nashville Public
Radio reporters on the Jewish communities and the Palestinian communities
and Muslim communities and how they're responding to this tragedy
and how they're coming together to create conversation.
Speaker 8 (44:45):
But something that I want to do. When I heard
about that eight.
Speaker 11 (44:48):
Year old boy being murdered, I had to take a
seat because a little boy who is really just beginning
out in life is murdered for something happening halfway across
the globe. Because Americans us don't have any context of
how to understand this thing and this crisis, and a
lot of times we feel like we're distanced from these things.
(45:08):
We can make a comment either on a platform like
this or social media, but we have to recognize that
this world is a very very small place and these
are things that are happening to people that are directly
related to us, and for this is Nashville. I want
us to have a very deep conversation about these issues,
about how we're all connected in this way, not just
necessarily kind of cosmetically talking about these issues and where
(45:32):
Americans lie on it politically, because I think this is
a human issue more so than anything political.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Absolutely, we were getting some more comments in online on Twitter,
Kristen writes one of the most impactful stories in Kansas
and the US this year had to be the raid
of the Marriyan Recorder newspaper and its subsequent fallout. Brian,
just give me the short fifteen second version of what
that was.
Speaker 10 (45:57):
Yeah, the Mary and County Record Community Malltown newspaper was
raided by the police department of that town in what
turned out to be the potential for negative coverage of
the police chief, who's a former Kansas City Police detective
as notably, and of course it raised all sorts of
First Amendment violations. How did they get the warrant to
(46:19):
do that? And the end, all of the evidence that
was gathered has been handed back and destroyed. The fallout continues,
and it raised a lot of questions about local journalism
and its future in small towns in America.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Well, before we close out this hour and close out
twenty twenty three, on the middle, we have time Tolliver
for a quiz for our guests.
Speaker 3 (46:37):
Yes, indeed, all right, This one's multiple choice. What was
the most searched news story of twenty twenty three? Feel
free to jump in and you have the answer. I
have a shiny new the middle mug. Whoever gets the
answer right first, So jump in, Okay, okay, first the
Titan submersible. Second Hurricane Hillary, third Israel and Gaza, Fourth
Hurricane Dalia. Jump in.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
I would say.
Speaker 10 (47:03):
Taylor swift.
Speaker 9 (47:05):
Is Taylor Swift Way.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Khalil, what was yours?
Speaker 11 (47:08):
I was thinking maybe the Montgomery brawl, but oh yeah,
bad for sure.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
So what was answerza?
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Okay, that's number one.
Speaker 10 (47:20):
Yeah, restores a little bit of confidence in people that
that they actually do care about.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
That as oh, they absolutely do. Well.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
I want to thank all of you, Khalil Kolona, hosts
of This is Nashville on Nashville Public Radio.
Speaker 8 (47:34):
Khalil, thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 11 (47:37):
I really appreciate this, And Brian, I'm glad that Taylor
Swift brought a lot of money to Kansas City, but
hopefully she can run some routes and catch some balls.
Speaker 8 (47:44):
You guys need receivers bad.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Because she left Nashville long ago and he's upset about that.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
Jemma Gudget, host of Idaho Matters on Boise State Public Radio,
and Brian Elison at Case you are in Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Thanks to both of you as well.
Speaker 9 (47:56):
Thank you so much, Thank you pleasure.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
And happy New Year time.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Oliver.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
What do we have on tap for next week's show.
Speaker 3 (48:02):
Well, we're talking about these newly popular drugs like ozimpic
and we go v that are being used by so
many people in this country. There's a shortage, so we're
asking what do you think about this new kind of
drug that's being used by Americans to lose weight.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
You can call us at eight four four four Middle
and leave a message or join us live next week.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
By the way, we have a weekly newsletter. It's free.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
You can sign up and listen to The Middle dot com.
The Middle is brought to you by Longnok Media, distributed
by Illinois Public Media in Arvana, Illinois, and produced by
Joann Jennings, Harrison Patino, John Barth and Danny Alexander. Our
technical director is Jason Kroft. Our theme music was composed
by Andrew Haig. Thanks also to Nashville Public Radio, iHeartMedia,
and the more than three hundred and seventy public radio
(48:43):
stations that are making it possible for people across the
country to listen to the Middle. By the way, that
number is going to go up next week. I'm Jeremy
Hobson from all of us at the Middle.
Speaker 2 (48:51):
Happy New Year.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
I'll talk to you next week, which is also next year.
Speaker 17 (48:55):
Woods Pas
Welcome to the Middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson. As always, Tolliver
is here.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Tolliver. We are days away from the new year.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Do you have any resolutions planned I should do.
Speaker 3 (00:13):
I'm going to finally start going to the gym. I'm
not going to go in or stand those outside selling supplements.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
You know.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
After our conversation last week about what made people happy,
and we heard a lot about how social media doesn't
make them happy, I'm going to, yet again try to
use a lot less social media.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Last year I put.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
A twenty minute limit on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Used per day, wow, which actually cut my usage down
a lot.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I realized how useless it is the doom scroll for hours. Anyway,
it has been a very busy year in the news.
We've covered a lot of it right here on the Middle.
The wars in Ukraine and Israel, and Gaza, inflation, opioids.
There's been no shortage of important national and international news.
But what about in your community? What was the biggest
(00:56):
story where you live? That's what we're asking this You
can reach out to us and listen to the Middle
dot com. Before I introduce our guests. Last week, we
asked what made you happy in twenty twenty three. What
a fun show that was. We got so many heartening
calls and plenty of voicemails too after the show.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Take a listen.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Yeah, my name is Jeff Rader. I'm calling from Atleana, Georgia.
Speaker 5 (01:19):
My name is Nadine. I live just outside of Toledo, Ohio.
Speaker 6 (01:24):
Hi, Jeremy. This is Jerry Kerris in Mount Juliett, Tennessee.
Speaker 7 (01:28):
Hi, Jeremy. My name is Dina Jonak and I am
calling from Kate Coral, Florida. My two golden Doodle puppies
made my year so happy.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
I'm a social worker. I changed to a job where
I was doing more direct practice from administration. This isn't
the best decision I think I've ever made in my life.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
The thing that made me happiest this year was the
birth of my very first grandchild. I am sixty seven
years old, so I have been waiting quite a long time.
Speaker 6 (01:59):
I'm happy that I survived broken back and then calling cancer.
I stopped asking why me, and I started asking why
not me? And it gave me a renewed faith and
a belief in the beauty of life and love.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Thanks to everyone who called in so this hour again,
we want to know what was the most important story
in your community this year, whether it's local politics or
a major crime story, what made the biggest impact where
you live. Joining us from Nashville Public Radio, Khalil Ekulona.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Host of This is Nashville. Khalil, Welcome to the middle. Jeremy.
Speaker 8 (02:36):
It's nice to be with you again. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
It's great to have you. From Boise State Public Radio
in Idaho. Jemma Goddebt, host of Idaho Matters, is with us.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Gemma, welcome to you.
Speaker 9 (02:46):
Well, thank you so much. Good to be here with you.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And from Casey you are in Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Brian Ellison, Hi, Brian, Hey.
Speaker 10 (02:54):
Jeremy, it's always a pleasure to be with you well.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
And we are going to get to each of you
throughout this show and ask you about what the most
or one of the most important stories was this year
where you are. I'm going to start with Khalil in Nashville. Khalil,
what would you say was the most important story in
your area this year?
Speaker 8 (03:14):
There were quite a few.
Speaker 11 (03:16):
A lot of Nashvillians would argue and say that the
New Titan Stadium.
Speaker 8 (03:21):
Deal was a big issue.
Speaker 11 (03:22):
They were overwhelming disapproval for that, I'd say from most Nashvillians. However,
I have to point to the tragic school shooting that
took place on March twenty seventh at the Covenant School,
where six people lost their lives, three adults and three students.
The shooter, the assailant. The alleged assailant also lost their
(03:43):
life and was killed. Then that was the biggest story
to really hit this state because there was a lot
of fallout to come right from that.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Made national news.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I mean, it became a political story as well. We
remember they called them the Tennessee Three came out of that, right.
Speaker 11 (04:00):
Yes, Representatives Justin Jones from Nashville, Justin J. Pearson from Memphis,
and Gloria Johnson from Knoxville were three State House representative
members who protested, I mean after the shooting.
Speaker 8 (04:12):
It was such a shock to the entire community.
Speaker 11 (04:15):
I host a daily show here in Nashville called This
is Nashville, and we heard the news just before and
we were trying to decide do we stop the show
that we had planned to cover this.
Speaker 8 (04:25):
We did come to it later on in the weekend.
Speaker 11 (04:27):
Subsequently, in the weeks after, we discussed it, but it
really shocked the city, shook the city to its core,
and thousands of students and people came to the state
capitol they were finishing up the legislative session to protest
for the state representatives and lawmakers to finally do something
about gun safety. That is where representatives Johnson, Pearson, and
(04:51):
Jones got went along with the protesters, grabbed the bullhorns,
were screaming from the House floor. They were repudiated and
reprimanded by their colleagues. Eventually, within the next within one week,
there was a vote to expel the members. Justin Jones
and Justin Pearson both happened to be young, Both happened
(05:14):
to be African American males were expelled from the House.
Gloria Johnson, an older white woman, was she spared. She
was spared expulsion by one vote. Let's say, why do
you think that was?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
By the way that she was spared expulsion?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
But they were. I mean, you say both happened to
be African American.
Speaker 8 (05:30):
Is that why we can look at that?
Speaker 11 (05:33):
You know, we can speculate and look at that and
potentially say that that's why who knows? You know, I
know that both Justin Johnson and Justin Pearson were basically
freshmen in the state House, and Gloria Johnson had been
there for some time, so she may have had relationships
with some of her colleagues, and one of them.
Speaker 8 (05:49):
Let's let's all put this under context.
Speaker 11 (05:51):
It's a super majority, a super supermajority in the state legislature,
so heavily Republican, heavily conservative as opposed to not that
many Democrats in there.
Speaker 8 (06:00):
She may have had a relationship.
Speaker 11 (06:01):
There may have been one person and a secret vote
ballot to say, hey, I don't want to expel her.
But it made them international stars. I saw them on
the BBC talking about this.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah, now you know you're in Tennessee. We say it's
a super Republican majority. Our other guests, Brian and Jemma,
are both also in very red states, right, Missouri and Idaho.
Speaker 10 (06:23):
Yeah, that is definitely the case, and every significant incident
of violence or of intense conflict does result in that
kind of playing out on the legislative front. In Kansas City.
One of the big topics this year and for the
last several years, Jeremy has been the state's control of
the police board. It's the only American city where the
(06:45):
city does not control its own board of police commissioners.
It's actually a state board appointed by the governor that
dates back, I don't know, seventy five years or something.
But local efforts to change that have continued to fail,
and these We've had a number of incidents as well
where the police conduct has been questioned, and of course
(07:07):
the result is that again and again people say, we
in the local community can't do anything about that because
it's under state a state appointed boards control, and of
course that raises those partisan issues you raised as well, Jeremy,
that Kent City is a bluer city in a very
red state.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
You know, this was just one of many mass shootings
this year, as happens every year.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
We had the terrible.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Shooting in Lewiston, Maine, the shooting in Monterey Park, California,
and many others. But in Tennessee, after this, with all
the national news that was made about the Tennessee three khalil,
there weren't any big gun control measures passed.
Speaker 11 (07:47):
No, no, there weren't much to the I think disappointment
and dismay to a lot of Tennesseeans. I'm not just
going to say Nasvillians or Democrats. I'm gonna say Tennesseans,
because you know, under a lot of pressure, Governor Bill
Lee called for a special legislative session.
Speaker 8 (08:03):
They had that.
Speaker 11 (08:05):
I think that was reported that the House and the
Senate took different approaches. The House was going to take
up twenty eight bills and measures to address gun safety.
The Senate decided to only take up four. There was
infighting within the chambers, each individual chamber themselves as far
as what they would work and push to get done,
but not much happened.
Speaker 8 (08:25):
At the end of the day. They only passed four things.
Speaker 11 (08:27):
A bill to strengthen Tennessee Bureau of Investigation background checks
before storring guns. They offered gun owners an incentive for
the safe storage of guns, either for gunlocks or gun safes,
because another issue as far as gun safety that's been
happening out here in Tennessee, particularly in Nashville, is that
a lot of guns are being stolen from cars.
Speaker 8 (08:47):
People leave their guns in.
Speaker 11 (08:48):
Their glove compartment or under their seat, or sometimes on
their seat or their dashboard, and those guns are taken
and stolen. They approved fifty million dollars for mental health facilities.
Study on human rights violations and thirty million dollars for
Tennessee colleges and.
Speaker 8 (09:04):
Universities for security up trades.
Speaker 11 (09:06):
That was all this is in the face of mind
you again, thousands is not hyperbole. Thousands of young people,
school aged kids came out to protest, and a lot
of family members, a lot of people, their constituents, people
who know them.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
There's some comments coming in online from listeners Tolliver.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
What are we hearing?
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, John and South Bend, Indiana Rights. The most important
event in twenty twenty three for me is climate change.
It was the hottest year on record. That will only
get worse going forward. We were making very little or
no progress on planet Earth. Climate change will cause more
wars as we try to survive.
Speaker 6 (09:42):
You know.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
We had another comment come in before the show about
climate change and somebody was very happy that their community
had put out a declaration about climate change. Jemma, you're
in the state of Idaho. Is that an issue you
think that people in your state are worried about and
would call the most important issue of the year.
Speaker 12 (10:02):
You know, I don't know if ever Adahan would say
it is the most important issue. However, similar I think
to Nashville. Boise is a big blue dot in a
very red state, and in the city of Boise, our
mayor put a declaration in place that we will be
carbon neutral by twenty fifty and it's happening. I mean,
(10:22):
there is a lot of progress, at least within what
we call the Treasure Valley, so it's Boise, Napa, Meridi,
and all of the you know, major cities, which has
the largest population in the state. And it is something
that I think if you look within the Treasure Valley,
so southern Idaho, it is something that that's important. I
(10:44):
think that you know, let's let's go out to the
remainder of the state.
Speaker 9 (10:49):
I think in.
Speaker 12 (10:49):
Some ways there are other issues top of mind for people,
and I think there is still, you know, that argument
that people want to make even around climate change and
climate change is real. That is a hard pill to
swallow for some people in Idaho. But in Boise, in
the Treasure Valley, highly important.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
There's another comment, Tolliver coming in from Clarksville, Tennessee.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah, Tim says, our big story was the tornado of
December ninth, twenty twenty three, two years from the date
of another devastating tornado that flattened nearby Mayfield, Kentucky. This
event demonstrated that some things still bring a community together
in empathy, and not only immediately, but with a long
tail commitment. I was actually in Tennessee for that, Khalil.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I mean, this is somebody saying the top story in
Tennessee was a tornado.
Speaker 11 (11:36):
That's another huge story that happened here as well. I
was in town when it occurred, and we did a
show on it the next day. And there's a wonderful
group of people out here, volunteers. They go by NAT
they call themselves Nashville Weather's Service, not the Nashville Nashville
Severe Weather, and they're volunteers. They get on YouTube, they
(11:56):
formerly Twitter, now X they have a channel that's the
first you go when you hear potential weather. He referred
to that two year anniversary of the tornado in Kentucky
and he said, we can just get used to a
due to climate change, tornado seasons from December through April.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Well, I want to ask our guests to stand by.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
We've got calls coming up as we ask you what
is the most important story in your area this year?
And of course, Taliver, we also want to ask our
listeners on the podcast to please rate the podcast.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Of course, a five star rating is appreciated.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
The highest stars you can get, the highest stars you
can give.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
We'll be right back after this break.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
This is the Middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson. If you're just tuning,
In the Middle is a national call in show. We're
focused on elevating voices from the middle geographically, politically, and philosophically,
or maybe you just want to meet in the middle.
This hour, we're asking you what was the biggest story
in your community this year. I'm joined by Khalil Ikulona
at Nashville Public Radio, Jemma Gaudette at Boise State Public Radio,
(12:55):
and Brian Ellison at case you are in Kansas City, Tolliver.
We're fourteen shows in. I was going to ask if
you've memorized our number. We have a special number for
listeners to call for this New Year's Eve ish episode.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I don't know either one. You can call us at
two one seven five to three one two zero one nine.
That's two one seven five three one two zero one nine.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
And as we wait for your calls, let's go to
Gemma Goddebt in Boise. Your story of the year, Gemma,
is also one that made national headlines the murder of
those four college students in Idaho, which happened just about
a year ago right now, but the suspect has yet
to go on trial.
Speaker 9 (13:33):
Right so, Jeremy.
Speaker 12 (13:35):
It was in the early morning hours of November thirteenth
of twenty twenty two where the four college students were
killed in an off campus house. And then on December
thirtieth of last year, Brian Coberger was arrested at his parents'
home in Pennsylvania. He was at the time he had
just finished up his first semester of a PhD program
at Washington State University that's in Pullman, Washington. Pullman and
(13:58):
Moscow are eight miles apart, so very very close together.
He was extradited back to Idaho, and as you said, no,
he has not gone to trial yet. However, in the
last couple of days, prosecutors went to the judge in
Leyta County, Moscow's up in North Idaho, asking for a
trial date to be set in the summer, after the
(14:19):
University of Idaho is out for the year, but also
the Moscow High School is out for the summer because
the high school is adjacent to the courthouse. It's a
small town. There's already parking issues, so they're hoping for
a summer trial date. It will be six weeks they're
asking for. With that said, one of the big issues
(14:39):
that have come that has come up in this is
that the home where this happened, it today started being
demolished my day like today today, today, today, December twenty
eighth today, much to the upset of two of the
families who are whose children were killed, uh Kaylae Gonsalivus
(15:02):
and Xanta Cronodle's family. In fact, they came out with
a statement today really asking why, and their argument and
their attorney's arguments has been you are destroying evidence by
allowing the demolition of this home to move forward. Uh.
The FBI in October did was at the home quite
(15:25):
quite a bit.
Speaker 9 (15:26):
They took evidence. But you know, when you think of
a trial.
Speaker 12 (15:30):
Right, sometimes in murder cases in particular, sometimes juries go
to that location, they do a walk through.
Speaker 9 (15:38):
That is not happening.
Speaker 12 (15:39):
The University of Idaho in response says, you know, this
is this is too difficult. This, this is so difficult
for our students, for our community, we need to tear
this down so we can start.
Speaker 9 (15:54):
To move forward.
Speaker 12 (15:55):
And Jeremy, what people I think need to understand about this.
It's not just the shock of it. It's not I mean,
you know, there are so many podcasts, there as so
many people that do so much around this.
Speaker 9 (16:08):
Right. Idaho is small.
Speaker 12 (16:12):
Everyone somehow has some type of connection to this, right,
whether they went to the University of Idaho, whether they
have kids at the University of Idaho, whether they knew
any of these students at the University of Idaho. There
are such ripple effects, I mean my.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Own That's why a year later now, people this is
still a story that you would say is the biggest
story of the year in Idaho.
Speaker 9 (16:37):
Absolutely.
Speaker 12 (16:38):
I mean to the point my own husband studied in
that house all of the time during law school because
one of his good friends lived in that house during
law school. And that was more than twenty some years ago.
There are just there are so many connections, and it
is it is difficult, I think, to live here and
(16:59):
to honest we give it as much attention as a
lot of these national outlets are giving, if that makes sense,
because it is so personal and especially as we sit
here all waiting when will.
Speaker 9 (17:13):
A trial happen? Will you know what what's next?
Speaker 12 (17:17):
And I think there's a feeling of a lot of
victimization because it's taking so long. But with that said,
Brian Coberger, he gave up his right to his speedy
trial back in August.
Speaker 9 (17:28):
He has the right to do that. He did that.
That's why we're in this holding pattern a lot in
a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
It is interesting though, with all of the things that
are going on in this world right now, but from
the you know, the war in Israel and Gaza, and
you know the politics here in this country and climate
change and everything else that as bad as those murders were,
that that that is the thing that is.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Just capturing people. It's it's it's like, I mean, for people.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Who don't know anybody directly, it's kind of a soap
op at this point, isn't it.
Speaker 12 (18:01):
I would one hundred percent agree with that statement. It's
interesting because, as I mentioned, you know, there is so
much time that has been given to this, and I
think part of it is is that they were young,
they're good looking, and there are you know, right, it's
the kind of that and I think that we are
all so obsessed with true crime in a way right
(18:23):
now within our culture that this plays right into that.
With that said, if you come to Idaho, was it
the story of the year.
Speaker 6 (18:32):
Yes?
Speaker 12 (18:32):
Were there other major stories of the year that probably
have even more impact on people?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yes?
Speaker 9 (18:40):
And we as at least here at our.
Speaker 12 (18:42):
Station at icy Stint Public Radio, we really take a
lot of time to decide do we cover this, do
we not cover this because of the salaciousness of it?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Right?
Speaker 12 (18:50):
Do you just want to give it, you know, flame
to the fire, or do we report when it's necessary
to report.
Speaker 10 (18:58):
Brian Nelson, you know, hearing these accounts both from Khalil
and from Gemma of sort of a single criminal incident
that became the story of the year. I'm thinking about
one of the things that happened earlier this year in
Kansas City, where a sixteen year old high school student
named Ralph Yarl went to a door in Kansas City's Northland.
(19:21):
He knocked on the door because he was there to
pick up his twin brothers from a playdate. Turns out
he was at the wrong address. He was one block over,
and an eighty four year old man named Andrew Lester
shot Ralph Yarrel through the screen door in the head
told him not to come back. There was one incident.
(19:43):
Ralph Yarrel, who is black, has had a remarkable recovery
health wise. He's an honor student in his high school.
People are really excited that he has lived through this
and been able to tell this story. But the fact
is that one incident became symbolic on so many levels
of problems plaguing the community, certainly racial tensions in the city.
(20:06):
Questions about whether the police investigation of this incident would
have proceeded differently if if it had been a black
man shooting a white young person instead of the other
way around. There's there's no clear plan for what Kansas
City is doing to improve its statistics around gun violence.
So I can see how these one incident stories become
(20:29):
much bigger issues and much bigger stories.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Again, our number this hour is two one seven five
three one two zero one nine. Again two one seven
five to three one two zero one nine. Let's go
to Janet, who is calling from Chicago. Janet, welcome to
the middle Go ahead, Hi.
Speaker 13 (20:46):
I'm calling from Telson, a neighborhood where recently we have
a migrant shelter and I think it was it's a
whole warehouse. In October, we are told it's going to
be about four hundred people and expand to one thousand.
Well recently it's about twenty three hundred people.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Wow.
Speaker 13 (21:09):
And right before Christmas, a little boy, he's five years old,
he fell ill and he passes passed away. So it's, uh,
you know, it's hard to see the crisis unfolding. And
also we have a homeless encampment that's too far, that's
been here for quite a while, so there's some tension
(21:30):
between like who do we help and how much help
do we give?
Speaker 14 (21:33):
And so there's really.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Janet, I assume this is this is because of like
the governor of Texas who's been sending migrants from the
border up to places like Chicago exactly. And how do
your neighbors and how do you feel about it? I mean,
do you do you feel like you have a responsibility
uh to to you know, help deal with this issue
(21:57):
that the border states are dealing with, or do you
feel like this is just a mess or you know.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
What do you think?
Speaker 6 (22:03):
Well?
Speaker 13 (22:03):
I really feel everybody has a responsibility and so it's
not so much that I feel personally resentful or anything
like that. It's more of how do we deal with
the situation in the most like humane and equitable way.
And like I said, we do have a homeless population already,
(22:26):
so it's just really hard to see people so vulnerable.
It's kind of like, bring me a tipping point where
you know, we need to take care of people. We
can't have people living out on the street. And there's
some migrants who would prefer to be out on the
street than be in the shelter, so.
Speaker 15 (22:46):
It's a big issue.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
Well, Janet, I really appreciate your call. Thank you so
much for that. I'll go to our panel if any
of you want to jump in on this. Is this
an issue that you're seeing in your cities with a
lot of migrants coming in to either Kansas City, Boys
or Nashville.
Speaker 12 (23:03):
I wouldn't say, Jeremy, that we have a rash of
migrants coming in. We have a migrant population in the
Treasure Valley. And what we also are dealing with though,
when the caller mentioned homelessness, that is something that we
see here and that has to do with a housing crisis,
which I don't think is unique to Bois or to Idaho,
(23:26):
but our housing prices have been skyrocketing, in particular during
the pandemic when people realized what they could buy in
Idaho if they worked remotely, so we had a huge
influx of people. In fact, report just came out today
that Idaho is second in the nation for the seventh
year in a row when it comes to growth per capita.
(23:46):
We continue to grow and our housing prices continue to
go up exponentially. We have a tremendous housing crisis issue
going on here, and it is the majority of the
folks that we're seeing in crisis are working adults, they
have families. It is people that are on the edge,
you know, right one illness and they're going to be
(24:07):
out on their own. That's what we're dealing with here.
And I think that that is something that every city
is probably grappling with in some sense.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
It is interesting, and I'll go to you, Khalil, because
I know Nashville is just a booming city, but that
even as interest rates went up so much in the
last year, that home prices didn't really drop that much
for people that are looking to buy, and rents didn't
come down that much either.
Speaker 11 (24:34):
No, Fortunately, I'm rent and my landlord has not raised
rent in two years, so I thank you Steve for
that year. But I have to say that housing is
definitely a huge issue out here in Nashville. Affordable housing
has been about fifteen thirteen. Fourteen years ago. Nashville was
labeled the It's city. And I've only lived here for
(24:55):
two years, but people have been coming in droves to
this city for the upper tunity that's here. There's no
state income tax, which is drawing a lot of people
who particularly came and bought up properties during the pandemic. Now,
you know, Nashville has a really growing and thriving community
of migrants and immigrant communities here. But tourists come twenty
(25:16):
upwards to twenty million people come to visit. You don't
see many homeless folks because Nashville does a good job
of I'm not going to say a good job.
Speaker 8 (25:22):
I should change my wording.
Speaker 11 (25:24):
They like to hide the homeless, and so they're pushed
out to certain parts of town. And on the show,
we continue to have people who work with the unhoused
community talking about you know, the caller mentioned that there
are some migrants who would rather be on the streets
than in shelters because in the shelter system. They're understaffed,
they're not very well funded. And through personal experience of
(25:45):
having been a bar manager in Albuquerque talking with unhoused
folks mentioning it's cold outside and maybe you should go
to the shelter, the shelter is actually more dangerous than
the streets are for them in a lot of situations.
So I think it's a whole hundred point restoration we
need to do for the whole crisis.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
I remember doing a story years ago as a reporter
in New York City about the homeless Intake Center there,
and the city said that it was about treating everybody
with dignity and respect, and I remember thinking, dignity and
respect are the last things I would think of in
terms of the way people are are coming in here
every single day having to go and report and see
(26:22):
if they can get housing for the night. But anyway,
that is a big issue sure across the country. Again,
our number this hour two one seven five three one
two zero one nine. I'll give it again two one
seven five three one two zero one nine. If you
want to join our conversation, let's go to Jane, who's
in Houston, Texas. Jane welcome to the middle.
Speaker 14 (26:41):
Go ahead, thanks very much. I just want to say
it breaks my heart this year that our governor in
Texas appoints it a superintendent elf Houston Independent School District
and who has no certification and no education backgrounds, and
(27:02):
he's basically using no research base. He's replacing teachers who
are currently salaried with non experienced teachers at a lower rate.
There's a restraining order right now that he cannot do it,
but that's what he wants to do. He's closed libraries
in schools and it's all based He was able to
(27:25):
do it based on one school. There are over two
hundred and seventy four schools there in Houston here, and
instead of improving that school, he went in and he's
totally dismantling the sacrifice so many teachers have made. I
think of what teachers. A teacher who goes into school
(27:48):
and teachers and kids are two and three grade levels below,
well those and brings those kids up one grade level.
He considers them ineffective. And he has committed to bringing
non certified teachers in and he's saying he's going to
get a fifteen percent.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Jane, let me ask you.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Let me ask you do you work in the school
system there in Texas.
Speaker 14 (28:10):
I don't right now, but I spent twelve years in
the trenches, okay, teacher, as a mentor teacher and as
a math content specialist.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
All right, well, thank you so much for bringing that
call to our bringing that issue to our attention there
in Texas.
Speaker 6 (28:27):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
You know, Tulliver, We're getting more comments coming in online
as well.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Yeah, Brian, And Northern Indiana says here in Northern Indiana,
the smoke that drifted down from record Canadian wildfires almost
every day this past summer made working outdoors unsafe. People
are realizing climate change is impacting every living thing.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Did any of you on our panel experience the smoke
from the wildfires, Jemmy.
Speaker 8 (28:50):
You did well.
Speaker 12 (28:51):
Actually, for the first time ever, we didn't because Idaho
normally has massive wildfires. So we had a couple of
days we saw some smoke from Canada. But you know,
we had a very bizarre summer due to climate change,
and that we didn't we weren't dealing with massive fire.
What we have seen, too is I've been in Boise
(29:14):
since nineteen ninety nine, and you know, you had kind
of a fire season right started like in June, it
ended by August September. Fire season can pretty much start
in March and it can go to October November, and
we are in a valley, so then we also experienced
(29:35):
just that smoke hanging in the air. It is something
though that What I found interesting about the fires in
Canada was that it impacted large East Coast cities like
New York City, and it was all of a sudden
New Yorkers realized there are wildfires that happened.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
I mean, that's the beauty of this show the Middle
is that most stories that impact the coastal cities are
the ones that get all the attention. When there's a huge,
huge blizzard in the middle of the country, nobody cares
because the media doesn't cover it because they're all based
in New York and Washington.
Speaker 8 (30:07):
Yeah, absolutely really care when they're traveling. Let's say that, right, right,
that's why we do.
Speaker 10 (30:13):
None of us in the Middle care about it when
we're traveling as well. I almost didn't make it back
for the show this week because I was in South Dakota.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
You were you had to drive back to Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Was it bad bad weather?
Speaker 10 (30:22):
Well, well, you had to drive to Denver to catch
a flight to Kansas City because we couldn't get out
of Rapid City.
Speaker 8 (30:26):
It was quite quite a week.
Speaker 6 (30:27):
Wow. Wow.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Well, Khalil, Gemma, Brian's stand by because we've got more
calls coming out people's top stories of the year, and
of course Taliver, we're going to hear Brian's top story
as well from Kansas City.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
I'm praying it's about barbecue.
Speaker 15 (30:39):
Please.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
We'll be right back after this break.
Speaker 1 (30:44):
This is the middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson. We're taking your
calls about the biggest news stories to come out of
your community this year. Our number this hour two one
seven five three one two zero one nine again two
one seven five three one two zero one nine. Our
guests are Khalil Akoluna Akolo, who is at Nashville Public Radio,
Gemma Goddad at Boise State Public Radio, and case rs
(31:05):
Brian Elison in Kansas City. Before we go back to
the phones, let's go to Brian Allison. Brian in Kansas City,
what would you say was the big story of the year.
Speaker 10 (31:15):
Well, not to diminish the very serious stories that some
of which we've already talked about here, that have happened
this year in Kansas City, the serious problems the city
is facing, but maybe in part because of those problems,
I want to highlight the story that is, without question,
the one that's gotten the most attention nationally, maybe internationally
in Kansas City this year, and that, of course, is
the budding relationship between Kansas City chiefs tight end Travis
(31:38):
Kelcey and popular lege Taylor Swift.
Speaker 8 (31:42):
Right, And you know it is it is a big story.
Speaker 10 (31:45):
It's an economic story, it's a sports story, it's a
cultural story, and it certainly has been the object of fascination.
And I have to say, joy. You know, we're living
in a time when a lot of bad things are
happening in the world. There's a lot of conflict, there's
a lot of questions that don't have clear answers. There's
a lot of political partisan divisions. This is not one
(32:06):
of those stories. This is a story that has been
for the most part unquestionably uniting, unifying not only in
our metro but but really, I mean, I think around
the country, perhaps except for all the people disappointed that
they can now not date Travis Kelcey or Taylor Swift,
their interests.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Yeah, by the way, she has made over a billion
dollars on her concert tour. She has made over one
hundred million dollars just on Spotify, just on Spotify in
the last year.
Speaker 10 (32:36):
Taylor sweat well and that you know that part of
the story is really important. I mean, she she came
to Kansas City, she sold that Arrowhead Stadium twice. This
was earlier in the year. The Economic Development Council of
Kansas City estimates that the financial impact the city made
forty eight million dollars outright by her being here. They
estimate that the financial impact was two hundred million dollars
(32:57):
overall by extension just from her and doing two concerts here.
So then when she agreed to come back multiple times
to watch Kansas City Chiefs games and cheer and Travis
Kelcey and where his jersey and include mentioned him in
a song during one of her performances in Argentina, it
has it has been amazing, Savannah Holly Bates, one of
(33:19):
our reporters here at CASEY, you are just put up
a feature story today about this Chiefs. Ticket sales on
stub Hub tripled for all the remaining home games after
she came to the first one. The Google search where
is Kansas City doubled in the three months after after
her the first visit, and even Mayor Quentin Lucas told
(33:41):
told Savannah in an interview that he was visiting Paris,
a woman from New Zealand met him, learned he was
the mayor of Kansas City, and the first thing she
said to him was, oh, Taylor Swift.
Speaker 8 (33:52):
So apparently that's who we are now.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Wow, Okay, the phone calls are coming in.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Let's get to them.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Claire in Addison, Wisconsin, Hi, Claire, welcome to the middle
Go ahead, Hi.
Speaker 15 (34:03):
Jeremy, thank you. I would I love your show. I
would say the biggest story for the whole state of
Wisconsin is a recent development. Our great state Supreme Court
just ruled that our district legislative maps are unconstitutional and
(34:27):
are forcing the Great Republicans to they have to be remade.
They are unconstitutional.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
This is that this is the newly liberal Supreme Court
in the state of Wisconsin, which is going to have
a whole lot of effects, probably on things like abortion
rights and also, as you say, the district maps in Wisconsin.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Correct, is that? Now?
Speaker 1 (34:53):
The interesting thing I've always thought about Wisconsin is that
it is so evenly divided politically, but often it ends
up putting people that are very far to the right
or to the left in office statewide? Is the what
the Supreme Court is doing? How do people feel about
Is it causing tension in Wisconsin? Because some people might
be pretty conservative and some pretty liberal.
Speaker 15 (35:15):
Well, certainly Robin Voss, who is the Republican leader of
the Legislature, is unhappy right now. I think though, that
an indication that the maps were not reflective of the
electorate was the fact that we had have had a
Democratic governor for two consecutive terms, even though Republicans were
(35:44):
winning in regional elections. In other words, there are more
Democrats in the state.
Speaker 16 (35:53):
Winning.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Yeah, thank you so much for that call.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
That's a great point and one that we've certainly has
made a lot of news around the country this year.
What's been happening in Wisconsin. Let's go to John, who's
in Chicago. John, welcome to the Middle What was the
biggest story for you this year?
Speaker 16 (36:10):
I would say the biggest unspoken story in the United
States is the anti bipodisan behavior of the Republican Party
that they refuse to come to terms and attempt to
form a compromise upon which democratic government is required in
order to function effectively.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
Tell me more, what do you mean.
Speaker 16 (36:32):
I mean that there's a deliberate attempt to force the
government into a economic catastrophe in terms of funding the government.
There is an antagonism toward there's no desire to come
to terms and meet in the middle with problems like
(36:54):
the border, like the current foreign situation. So there seems
to be refusal of the Republican Party to attempt a
bipartisan solution to the major problems confronting the United States.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
John, thank you so much for that call. You know,
let me go to Khalil, Yeah, in Nashville on that one.
You know, Nashville is a sort of a blue city
in a red state. How do people feel there about
what's going on in Washington right now?
Speaker 11 (37:25):
A lot of people are upset with in action. That's
that's happening in Washington. And you know, I'm fifty years old,
and I remember a time when the debt limit was
not a football shaped political grenade that each party kind
of threw and threatened at each other. It was about
having the government work. The ideas on the specifics of
how government works is something that's open, you know. But
(37:49):
people in Nashville are really trying to fight the state
really coming in and taking control of a lot of things.
The state took control of the airport earlier this year.
A judge ruled you can't do that. The state passed
to end tie drag law of local judge rules you
can't do that. So that's been this issue in this
push between kind of local jurisdictions and municipalities and the
state itself, and that's kind of a reflection of what's
(38:11):
happening nationally.
Speaker 9 (38:13):
Emma, I would agree with that. In Idaho.
Speaker 12 (38:16):
I think what's interesting here is that we are a
supermajority within our legislature a Republican, and we are seeing
infighting within the Republican party itself, and this has been
bubbling and boiling and it seems to be coming to
and head. Our legislative session starts January eighth, ish, if
I remember correctly. And the issue is is we've had
(38:37):
far right Republicans get into office and there's a small
faction of them. However, they've caused a lot of ruckus
and they even call our you know, very I think
middle of the line Republican governor to liberal this is
so it's interesting to see all of this infighting. Same
(38:59):
as Jill said, though, we just had a ruling come
down by a federal judge here in Idaho just two
days ago, because we had an anti trans bill that
was going to go into effect on January one, where
miners would not be able to get gender affirming care,
puberty blockers, things like that, and where doctors did this.
Speaker 9 (39:20):
Doctors would be jailed.
Speaker 12 (39:21):
This federal judge Windmill said, you know, really, this violates
the fourteenth Amendment. We saw this after the Civil War,
we saw this with interracial couples. He put this in
the same vein as that. So there is now a
stay on that. So it's a very interesting time, not
(39:42):
just in Idaho, but I think within our country.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
You know, we got some voicemails as well, and I
want to listen to one that came in from Grant
from Iowa who says his top story is about local
environmental action.
Speaker 17 (39:56):
Listen, the most important story in my community was the
local residents through our city government, adopting a climate action plan.
Now that we have a plan, we can start moving
in a coordinated direction.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Brian Ellison in Kansas city. Have there been any actions
like that there or is this something that people are
concerned about?
Speaker 10 (40:21):
Well, I think folks are very concerned about environmental action,
action for racial justice and equity, a lot of sort
of local concerns that often don't rise to the attention
or to the agreement of a very similar dynamic in
Missouri and in Kansas. As we've heard about in Idaho
and Tennessee, super majority Republican control of the House and
(40:42):
the Senate. In Missouri and in Kansas. There's a Democratic
governor now in Kansas, but not in Missouri. In fact,
there are no statewide elected officeholders in Missouri who are Democrats.
They are all Republicans. But I want to say, and
maybe this is an encouraging word to that earlier caller, Jeremy,
I think one of the interesting things that has happened
the last couple of years in Missouri is that because
of that sort of Republican infighting that that that Gemma
(41:07):
described happening in Idaho. Uh there there has in fact
that that has happened in Missouri as well, but it
has forged an almost strange bipartisanship among among some Republicans,
so called moderate Republicans along with some Democrats, to actually
pass some really really significant legislation, or at least to
(41:28):
modify the legislation that's going to pass in ways that
are more palatable to Democrats. And so it's been an
interesting time. The state budget would not have passed this
year in Missouri. The governor's proposed budget that Democrats largely supported,
would not have passed without Democrats and Republicans coming together
to do it. And so it's an interesting time and
and maybe some basic model for some sort of future
(41:51):
work in the middle, as you say.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Well right, And and by the way, the reason that
the government didn't shut down, and the reason that we
didn't default on the nation's debt was because of people
in the broad middle just voting these things through while
the far right and far up voted against. I think
we have time for another call here. Let's go to Tracy,
who is near Juliet, Illinois. Hi, Tracy, Welcome to the middle.
Speaker 4 (42:13):
Go ahead, all right.
Speaker 18 (42:16):
Our local news story for the year was the murder
and stabbing of the young Palestinian boy I believe he
was six and his mother, proud of their landlord for
being Palestinian and Muslim. I worked for almost ten years
across the streets from that home, and it's just me
(42:40):
and everybody I know to the core.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Since that has happened, had there been able to be
conversations among people about what's going on in Israel and
in Gaza or is it just getting so tense that
you can't even talk about it.
Speaker 18 (43:00):
No, there is a lot of conversation. And also more importantly,
we've always discussed not more importantly, but as important as
we had discussed previously, how that landlord was off and
it drove home the see something, say something aspect and
(43:26):
the war in Gaza is just horrific, and the fact
that we here can't know what they're going through, much
less the displaced people. It's a huge topic of conversation
(43:47):
with the people I know.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Yeah, thank you so much, Tracy, really appreciate that call.
I'll go to our panel on this. This has been
such a huge issue over the last few months. I mean,
we did our first episode about the war in Israel
and Gaza just right after it started in early October,
and the calls were incredible from people of all different
views coming around the country.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
But it has only just expanded in terms of how difficult.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
These conversations are in college campuses and other places. Have
any of you been covering that or have heard from
people about how this is going.
Speaker 8 (44:23):
Well.
Speaker 11 (44:24):
We've had a lot of folks come to us and
ask when we were going to do a show on
the have an episode about this. Strictly, there's been a
lot of coverage, great coverage done by WPLN Nashville Public
Radio reporters on the Jewish communities and the Palestinian communities
and Muslim communities and how they're responding to this tragedy
and how they're coming together to create conversation.
Speaker 8 (44:45):
But something that I want to do. When I heard
about that eight.
Speaker 11 (44:48):
Year old boy being murdered, I had to take a
seat because a little boy who is really just beginning
out in life is murdered for something happening halfway across
the globe. Because Americans us don't have any context of
how to understand this thing and this crisis, and a
lot of times we feel like we're distanced from these things.
(45:08):
We can make a comment either on a platform like
this or social media, but we have to recognize that
this world is a very very small place and these
are things that are happening to people that are directly
related to us, and for this is Nashville. I want
us to have a very deep conversation about these issues,
about how we're all connected in this way, not just
necessarily kind of cosmetically talking about these issues and where
(45:32):
Americans lie on it politically, because I think this is
a human issue more so than anything political.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Absolutely, we were getting some more comments in online on Twitter,
Kristen writes one of the most impactful stories in Kansas
and the US this year had to be the raid
of the Marriyan Recorder newspaper and its subsequent fallout. Brian,
just give me the short fifteen second version of what
that was.
Speaker 10 (45:57):
Yeah, the Mary and County Record Community Malltown newspaper was
raided by the police department of that town in what
turned out to be the potential for negative coverage of
the police chief, who's a former Kansas City Police detective
as notably, and of course it raised all sorts of
First Amendment violations. How did they get the warrant to
(46:19):
do that? And the end, all of the evidence that
was gathered has been handed back and destroyed. The fallout continues,
and it raised a lot of questions about local journalism
and its future in small towns in America.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Well, before we close out this hour and close out
twenty twenty three, on the middle, we have time Tolliver
for a quiz for our guests.
Speaker 3 (46:37):
Yes, indeed, all right, This one's multiple choice. What was
the most searched news story of twenty twenty three? Feel
free to jump in and you have the answer. I
have a shiny new the middle mug. Whoever gets the
answer right first, So jump in, Okay, okay, first the
Titan submersible. Second Hurricane Hillary, third Israel and Gaza, Fourth
Hurricane Dalia. Jump in.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
I would say.
Speaker 10 (47:03):
Taylor swift.
Speaker 9 (47:05):
Is Taylor Swift Way.
Speaker 2 (47:06):
Khalil, what was yours?
Speaker 11 (47:08):
I was thinking maybe the Montgomery brawl, but oh yeah,
bad for sure.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
So what was answerza?
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Okay, that's number one.
Speaker 10 (47:20):
Yeah, restores a little bit of confidence in people that
that they actually do care about.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
That as oh, they absolutely do. Well.
Speaker 1 (47:29):
I want to thank all of you, Khalil Kolona, hosts
of This is Nashville on Nashville Public Radio.
Speaker 8 (47:34):
Khalil, thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 11 (47:37):
I really appreciate this, And Brian, I'm glad that Taylor
Swift brought a lot of money to Kansas City, but
hopefully she can run some routes and catch some balls.
Speaker 8 (47:44):
You guys need receivers bad.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Because she left Nashville long ago and he's upset about that.
Speaker 1 (47:49):
Jemma Gudget, host of Idaho Matters on Boise State Public Radio,
and Brian Elison at Case you are in Kansas City.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Thanks to both of you as well.
Speaker 9 (47:56):
Thank you so much, Thank you pleasure.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
And happy New Year time.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Oliver.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
What do we have on tap for next week's show.
Speaker 3 (48:02):
Well, we're talking about these newly popular drugs like ozimpic
and we go v that are being used by so
many people in this country. There's a shortage, so we're
asking what do you think about this new kind of
drug that's being used by Americans to lose weight.
Speaker 1 (48:14):
You can call us at eight four four four Middle
and leave a message or join us live next week.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
By the way, we have a weekly newsletter. It's free.
Speaker 1 (48:21):
You can sign up and listen to The Middle dot com.
The Middle is brought to you by Longnok Media, distributed
by Illinois Public Media in Arvana, Illinois, and produced by
Joann Jennings, Harrison Patino, John Barth and Danny Alexander. Our
technical director is Jason Kroft. Our theme music was composed
by Andrew Haig. Thanks also to Nashville Public Radio, iHeartMedia,
and the more than three hundred and seventy public radio
(48:43):
stations that are making it possible for people across the
country to listen to the Middle. By the way, that
number is going to go up next week. I'm Jeremy
Hobson from all of us at the Middle.
Speaker 2 (48:51):
Happy New Year.
Speaker 1 (48:52):
I'll talk to you next week, which is also next year.
Speaker 17 (48:55):
Woods Pas
Host
Jeremy Hobson
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