August 22, 2024 • 32 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Very show is on the air. No, Rodney through
(00:25):
Lena is exploiting a loophole to raise your property taxes
eight percent without requiring voter approval. How does he do that?
I told you he's very clever. That dumb dumb Lena
could never do this, Sheila Jackson Lee, she wouldn't know
(00:48):
how to do it. Sylvester, uh huh. Although Silvester is
smarter than the others. But Rodney, he's very smart. So
there is a state law which says to counties, which
enabled counties who've experienced a recent natural disaster, and we
(01:09):
did that, you can you get an exemption to raise
taxes above three point five percent because you've just had
a natural disaster. Well, nobody thinks that the county needs
(01:32):
to raise taxes. And by the way, from three point
five percent to eight percent, it'll give them two hundred
and fifty million dollars in new revenue. Now they'll go
out to all the dumb dumbs they campaign to and
say them Republicans, they don't want y'all to have nice food,
but we do. They don't want y'all to have a
(01:54):
grocery store in your neighborhood. They begrudge y'all having nice closed,
go back to school, free health care, improved buses, nice purses.
You know, they don't want you to have all that
nice stuff, but we do. They don't want to pay
(02:14):
more taxes because they're greedy. They want to keep the
money they earn and we want you to have it.
And that will be their campaign, and it'll be an
off year election. And because Republicans don't field candidates in
off year elections, then that becomes is this on November's
(02:37):
ballot because usually what they do is they put this
on an off year election. I'll find out if that's
the case or not. But either way, if they can
pass it, it gives them two hundred and fifty million
dollars to hand out to COVID outreach to the former
chairman of Adrian Garcia's campaign, who was the digital director
for Hillary Clinton, who was working out of a one
(02:59):
room apartment and in Montrosen got upset when when they
pointed that out. The law was passed by the Texas
legislature in twenty nineteen. It caps a property tax revenue
increase at three point five percent if they want to
go higher than that. The voters have to approve it.
Why wouldn't you want the voters to approve you taking
(03:20):
more money from them? Well, because it's not to give
back to the voters or the stakeholders. It's to give
back to your buddies. And they're doing it in broad daylight.
Fox twenty six.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
With Harris County, where a little known loophole and state
law will allow Judge Lena Hedalgo and commissioners to jack
up property taxes a full eight percent next year without
asking voters for permission. How can that be? Turns out,
lawmakers in Austin granted an exemption to the state's cap
on non voter approved tax hikes to counties which have
(03:57):
experienced a recent disaster, as in the Duratio and Hurricane
Burrell pre Sinct three Commissioner Tom Wrens, he tells Fox
twenty six the Democratic supermajority on Commissioner's Court has already
decided to take full advantage and spend the taxpayer windfall
mostly on social programs.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
They want to go through with an eight percent increase
in your taxes, which is two hundred and sixty eight
million more dollars than we had this year. Let me
put that another way. We were able to fund all
of our programs this year, take care of all of
our business this year, do everything that we need to
(04:36):
do this year. But we need another two hundred and
sixty eight million dollars. We have a spending problem in
Harris County.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
He's right, Tom Ramsey, the last reasonable voice down there.
More on the sci fhair ISD bus issue. Remember Syfair decid, Well,
we don't have enough money, so we're gonna stop running
buses to kids and you'll just have to get them
here on your own, or they can walk here if
(05:09):
they get raped, and that'll be will act like we're
very upset. Maybe we'll hire some more security personnel. At
that point, parents and teachers are now pointing out some
of the wasteful spending that was done prior to the
bus cuts. The price tag on and I can't tell
how many parents sent this to me. A Willy Wonka
(05:32):
themed faculty and staff back to school event which featured,
among other things, a keynote speaker flown in from Nevada
with a price tag of thirty thousand dollars. Ramond It
did the teachers and staff when you went back to school.
(05:56):
Did they have these big, elaborate back to school of
events where the superintendent was Willy Wander But how how
could they ever possibly have morale unless they blew all
this money on a big party for themselves. The story
from ABC.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Thirteen still Wednesday.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
This was the site of that event. It was a convocation.
It's a back to school event held for teachers and staff.
It's not an annual event. It's also paid for by
the district, where told employees were split up into two
groups throughout the day. Both of those convocations featuring the
superintendent showed here dressed as Willy Wonka. The event has
(06:37):
prompted backlash amid those substantial cuts to services like bussing
that you just heard about. Several teachers who spoke to us,
each asking to remain anonymous fearing retaliation, were concerned again
about the price tag of this event, particularly the keynote
speaker and musician who performed they say twice throughout the day.
The website for that speaker says he charges twenty to
(07:00):
thirty thousand dollars per engagement and flies in from Nevada.
We've asked the district for those numbers, they've yet to
give them to us. We spoke with a former school
psychologist for the district. She's now a parent, who says
her own child's bus route was cut this year, Like
it's this huge, huge expense in the context of this
catastrophic budget crisis and these cuts that are like feeling
(07:24):
like boop.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Bleeding unbelievable using taxpayer dollars. But I'd like to know
how they cast this event. Uh, can I get all
of my teachers who are under five five and over
two hundred pounds? Come on over here. Come on, We
(07:44):
love you, We're not judging you. Y'all come over here,
all of you to my right. Everybody, come on, come on,
come onck mom, let's go, come on, speed it up.
This is gonna be fun. Y'all are gonna love this.
You're gonna thank me later. Everybody, everybody under five to
five over two hundred pounds over here, to my right,
over here, to my right, and we have everyone. Okay,
you lucky folks are going to be the upa lumpus. Everybody.
(08:10):
Let's give it up for our oopa lumpus. Yes, okay,
and let's see here. I need an ugly older woman
to be Missus gloop. Miss Jones, you're gonna be missus
gloop Yep, that'll be great. And I need somebody who
looks a little bit like an undertaker. Mister Smith, you're
(08:34):
going to be Arthur Slugworth, all right, and let's see
him here for mister Salt. Everybody, I'm gonna have mister
Hernandez be mister Salt. Let's see let'sci Winston. You're gonna
be mister Beauregard. Who's our oldest person. Mister Thompson, you're
(08:56):
gonna be Grandpa George, Michael Ferry.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
Booty.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Come on. I know you're a big June Wilder fan.
I'm a fan, but you're a much bigger fan than
I defer to you on this. Is there a single
movie or production he's in that's not fantastic? Is it
just not coming to mind? Honest question? Okay, nitpick, go ahead.
(09:34):
Haunted Honeymoon, Okay, so I haven't seen it. I guess
I guess the things that are forgettable and that I
never watched, that the things that are terrible probably never
bubbled up to my level to watch, but to think,
to think, as as mel Brooks describes in his autobiography
(09:56):
that they are shooting blazing saddles and Gene Wilder is
going home every day instead of going out with the
cast and drinking, He's going home every day and writing
Young Frankenstein Frankenstein Frankenstein depends on which point in the movie.
(10:18):
But wow, the two characters and how you do that,
it's just what immense talent. And then his work with
Richard Pryor that was just fun. That was a period
when movies could be fun. I remember the moment when
(10:41):
I noticed that ted Lasso, that had become so popular,
had had been sort of affected by the bug of
you can't have this popularity without preaching about you know,
DEI and gay people and cross dressing. And it just
(11:04):
changed the quality of the writing, the style of the writing.
It was no longer something that you could just enjoy
as a television show. It now had to bang you
over the head. And that is what makes the left
so damn tedious. That's why they're not harmless. You're constantly
sitting through a I'll never forget. My wife was telling
(11:31):
somebody this the other day. She was one of the
top lawyers at El Paso Energy and they were flying
out to a platform in the Gulf, and she gets
there and you're coming in on this helicopter, and she's
thinking that platform may not even be enough to hold
(11:52):
this helicopter because it looks so small down there. And
then you get there and you're having the meeting, and
she said, you know what's amazing is there are spots
on this platform you could literally fall off into the
golf and you're done. These guys live this way for
three weeks at a time. This is very difficult living,
(12:16):
and it's all men. Why are we dragging these men
into sexual harassment seminars? Why aren't we focused on their
safety and their compass. I mean, this is just this
is the kind of stuff that somebody in a three
thousand dollars suit in a downtown Houston high rise in
(12:38):
the air conditioning who's never been out on that platform
is worried about whether Bubba Thibodeau from Homa is getting
enough sexual harassment training. Ramon, I don't know what to
make of this email, so I'm gonna I'm gonna defer
to you to interpret it to me, Okay, Joshua rights
Zar subject dreams Zar, I had a dream I was
(13:04):
sneaking into my ex girlfriend's house, all right, And somehow
in the dream you that's me turned out to be
her dad. Well, I don't have a daughter, so good
news is he's not trying to tell me something. Instead
(13:26):
of expressing guilt and remorse when you came to find
out who was in your house, I explained I was
a huge fan and you had no need to fuss
over me in your home or with my relationship with
your daughter. Then I came to my senses in my
(13:47):
dream that you didn't kill me or call the police,
and I should leave Michael Berry's home the way I
came in. I thought it was laughable. Just waking up
for work at five thirty am. Can't wait to hear
your show in a few hours. God bless, Is there
(14:08):
any part of that story you need repeated to come
to a conclusion. I'm gonna shoot. I've you know what,
I've minimized it.
Speaker 6 (14:18):
Now.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Let me see if I can find a hold on this,
if I can go back. Uh uh no, I'll find
it here. Hold on basically that he explained to me
that it wasn't a problem and I shouldn't need to
worry about it. Well, he as a listener, he's a fan,
and apparently he showed respect for my daughter, So you know,
(14:40):
I can appreciate that. Yeah, even in a dream, I
like that. I appreciate that. A lot of emails coming
in from especially mothers, talking about these Tim Walls and
Doug m hoff men and then getting off into the
(15:05):
perversions of pedophiles, and many of them making note that
of every priest or clergyman for that matter, who they've
seen on television, interviewed, or known of, that they displayed
(15:26):
some of these same very weird, very weird, very effeminate,
odd ikey behaviors. I mean, that's goring. I'm not accusing
them of being pedophiles. I am saying their behaviors are
(15:47):
outside the norm. That's okay, everybody doesn't have to be
within the spectrum of normal. But don't tell me how
this is what we're now going to celebrate. And don't
insult men for being a gun totin macho guy. See,
(16:13):
they're going after what used to be Reagan Democrats. Clinton
was the last Democrat to be able to pull them back.
A lunch pale white male for that matter, Hispanic and black,
but particularly white and Hispanic male who they are now.
These are the people that were there on January sixth,
who've been arrested and thrown in prison. These are the
(16:34):
people who go and serve. There is a rumor out
there that because of his weird sexual behaviors, Doug Imhoff
changed his name. Apparently, he was known as Jack his
entire life.
Speaker 7 (16:49):
Of Your Show every Day, Michael Berry, he had the
most pleasant boy.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I started on the air for a weekend show in
two thousand and five. It was nothing to speak of,
but I wanted to see if maybe I might want
to do that. Just before that, I was doing a
(17:22):
lot of interviews, especially related to whatever the city was doing.
I was always a guy that was against it, especially
under Lee P. Brown, and I enjoyed that a lot.
But I never expected to be doing what I'm doing
now for a living, and that I wouldn't be practicing law,
(17:43):
that I wouldn't be doing private equity, that I wouldn't
be in politics, per se. Never expected that. So radio
was a thing that entertained me as I drove around,
and it was a thing that was how I got
my message out when I was running for office and
(18:04):
when I was holding office, and my brother called one
day and he was in Beaumont and I was in Houston,
and he was out patrolling, and he called, this would
have been about might have been earlier, might have been
(18:24):
not just two thousand and four, might have been two thousand,
might have been late nineties. I just remember I did
not have a relationship with Walton and Johnson at that point.
And he is screeching, and when my brother laughed, his
voice would go real high. He would get he would
(18:45):
do this thing where he would almost hyperventilate and he
would start laughing but trying to talk. Some people do
this when they cry also, but he never cried, so
I don't know if he did it when he cried,
but he did laugh, and he would he was losing
his mind laughing, and I could hear the radio. He said,
(19:06):
listen to this. I hear this, and he turned it up,
and I know it must have been about this, must
have been about two thousand and three or two thousand
and four. I'll tell you what. I just say it
now that I think about it. So I said, Chris,
I can't hear it, just won't you just tell me
what's happening? And he said, you're listening to Walton Johnson,
(19:30):
and I said, well, I know who they are. Yes,
I have listened, but I tend to flip around. And
at this point, because I was in politics, I was
listening to shows that I was going to be on
where I was going to talk where I was. So
he says, you gotta hear this. Flip it over. You
get them in Houston. Well we got a different We
had a different station. They were on the Arrow, I believe, no, no, no, no,
(19:53):
no no. This was still the kal El days, or
maybe this was when they had been brought into because
remember they were on k LOL and which stevens Prue
had been on before, and now Walton and Johnson were there.
And then when Kalol was sold or when Kaloel was
(20:14):
flipped to reggathone and it was Mega one oh one,
then it was sold off to CBS or transferred to
CBS as part of a anti what do you call it,
anti monopoly provision. It was an FTC ruling. It had
(20:35):
to be they had to move two stations over, so
they did, and that was Mix and Mega one O one. Anyway,
I didn't know the guys yet, and I listened to
the listened to them using that song as their taser report,
(21:01):
and Steve Johnson would would do the report on there
had been somebody that had been tased. And if you remember,
the taser was a big deal then before the burner.
The taser was your less lethal option to get a
guy who was usually on PCP or maybe a ton
(21:25):
of coke or maybe just a bunch of amphetamines, and
the cops would try to get him to calm down,
but he had a death wish. And what they didn't
want to do is they did not want to uh,
they didn't They didn't want to kill the guy because
in addition to other things, that would ruin their career.
(21:49):
So they would tase them. And there was always some
story of some naked dude in Florida or something else,
some guy that they had to tase, and they tas
something else. They tased him into Willie and they and
it was it was so good that my brother picked
up the phone and called me and insisted that I
tune into it and listened to the taser report. That's
(22:16):
entertainment that is rising to the level that it is
so good. So in May of seven, when Eddie Martinez
tapped me to be the am operations manager to run
the three AM stations. Walton and Johnson were on nine
(22:40):
P fifty and I went in with the ratings and
I said, guys, the most significant bump you get in
listener reaction, it's to the Taser report. And Steve goes, yeah.
I said, do the Taser report. The more the merrier.
(23:03):
People love the Taser Report. And it was just one
of those things that was so good and so memorable.
And here we are almost twenty years later, and I say,
we talk about this all the time that I don't
just want to be what people tune into. Twenty years later,
(23:25):
I remember my brother laughing so hard, you know that
snort you get when you either cry or laugh. It
was that good. And you know, most of you know
producer Kenny. And when John Walton passed far too young,
producer Kenny stepped up. I mean he's done a phenomenal
(23:46):
job with that. I admire that show, but it's just
one of many things. You know, I quote Rush, But
you think about the influences you have and the things
that have made you laugh. Walton and Johnson, Yeah, that
every buddy has a party to Michael Barry. Joe. I
(24:08):
got an email from a lady who said she thinks
I'm wrong on the Doug m Hoff statement. She has
searched all over because she had never heard that before,
and she doesn't think that Doug m Hoff ever went
by the name Jack. So I if she says it,
(24:32):
then that's fine. If she if she devoted the time
to sleuthing it. If you say so, ramon, let's open
the phone lines to the people and hear from folks.
Seven one three nine nine nine one thousand. Seven one
three nine nine nine one thousand. By the way, apparently
(24:54):
y'all really enjoyed Jim Mudd's Saturday Rendezvous and Escapades with Dolores.
If you missed that, it's on the podcast and it's
in yesterday's Blast. But I don't know. Three months ago
or so, a sweet nine year old lady named Delores
(25:16):
called in, and you know, I get to talking about
things unrelated to whatever she called about. And she likes
to go I forget the term she used for, but
she likes to go to garage sales and estate sales
and whatever you want to call it. State sales are
just for people who like to say their stuff costs
more and they don't want to seem trashy because garage
(25:37):
sales now are for Mexicans and poor people. Which I
always went to garage sales. If it's in a state sale,
there may be some nice stuff in there, and they
have to hire some third party company to come in
and mark everything up. But the good ones worthy where
the garage sales. When I moved into West u in
(25:58):
the mid nineties and bought a teardown for lock value,
I would go to all the garage cells on Saturdays
in the neighborhood because people, especially the old dudes. These
were guys that had come home from World War Two,
and they collected cool stuff, like they'd have old magazine collections,
(26:19):
and they'd have old record collections, and they'd have just
cool old Coca Cola stuff or old you know, Sinclair
oil or some old Pegasus sign or whatever. I love
that kind of stuff. But anyway, so Jim, our creative director,
stepped up and said, yeah, I'll take her. I'll take
(26:42):
her for sure, And Matt Brice and Robert Reese bought
her lunch at Federal American Grill and they went and
apparently just had the best time, and he made a
segment out of it. So listen to that. I love
sweet little old Lady, sweet little Amen for that matter,
but there are fewer of them, and so does Jim.
(27:06):
And his mother, Loretta, had passed away in the last
couple of years, same name as my mother, and I
think he probably felt like he was doing some good
for the universe enjoying his time with Dolores. But to
be clear, he actually really did enjoy his time. It
wasn't just him being a nice person. Speaking of good
stories that make you feel good seven one three, nine nine, nine,
(27:28):
one thousand, get to your calls in a moment, Bernie.
Little League is on the verge of winning the US Championship.
They have now clinched their spot in the US Championship Game,
which would take them on to play the World in Williamsport.
In Little League, an incredible story about their first baseman
(27:53):
who's quite the star. His name is Cole Newsome. He's
the son of the coach, and four years years ago
he had to have open heart surgery. You're not supposed
to be playing at twelve years old in the Little
League World Series in the Championship game after you've had
open heart surgery. The story from ksat.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
TV twelve year old Cole is healthy and certainly strong
enough to go yard on the national stage, so it's
hard to imagine that just four years ago he was
on an operating table.
Speaker 8 (28:26):
At eight years old. His first day of school going
to third grade, he spent getting heart surgery. So it's
kind of one of those things you don't prepare you
for as a parent. You know, he handled it like
a champion.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Head coach, but dad first, Justin Newson explained a routine
doctor's visit revealed a heart murmur. Was later found that
Cole had a growth starting to block one of the
valves in his heart.
Speaker 8 (28:50):
A very serious surgery, taking out someone's heart, cutting something
out of it and putting it back in an eight
year old is in your child takes you kind of
to another level of parrot for cool.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
It turns out he's calm, cool and collected on and
off the diamond.
Speaker 9 (29:06):
I was early down because I knew at the end
of it, I was just gonna get a lot of presents,
and that just made me happy. Did you get a
lot of presents? A lot?
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Six weeks after surgery, Cole was back doing what he loved.
I ain't baseball with the boys, and now they're showcasing
their talents for the entire country to see. Taking me
through that moment from the surgery table to a grand
Slam on the national stage. What's dad thinking, not head coach,
what's dad thinking that moment?
Speaker 8 (29:34):
Amazing feelings. I mean, he works hard, he's a great kid.
Like seeing how hard he works, seeing him do it
on that stage, just first ever grand slam like it was.
It was a lot of fun rewatching.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
But what were your thoughts when you got to watch
your heroics?
Speaker 9 (29:50):
It was amazing because it's all the other people do
it last year, and just to see myself do it,
it was just like really cool.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
I love that story. Families, children, the elderly. This is
what life's about. This is why we have to fight
the Democrats because we're not disagreeing on tax policy anymore.
Our very way of life is being destroyed, and they
(30:20):
hate everything related to the family. A conceived baby is
a choice to be killed. That's a sickness. The elderly
are to be done away with in death panels. Remember
(30:40):
when Sarah Palin said that Sarah Palin didn't get everything right,
but she got that right, and they ridiculed her there
were death panels. There absolutely were. In the very architect
of Obamacare, there were death panels because they cost too
much money. Those old people that ought to scare the
hell out of old people better vote. There was a
(31:03):
kid one of Crockett's friends. He was actually his debate
partner on his debate team, and they grew up same
year playing baseball, and he had they diagnosed a hole
in his heart. Well that's a lot for a family.
The process.
Speaker 6 (31:21):
Little kid, he was probably in eighth grade, maybe ninth
grade at the time, and the doctor said, this child
cannot take a hit, he cannot.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Play football, he could die. He was devastating. Hanks his name,
cutest little kid, great little kid, and a little be
a tiny kid. And so he goes to the coach
and says, coach, if I can't take a hit, can
(31:52):
I do the kickoff? And he would kick off and
sprint off the field before they get down there. I'd
have years every dayntime
It's that time time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Very show is on the air. No, Rodney through
(00:25):
Lena is exploiting a loophole to raise your property taxes
eight percent without requiring voter approval. How does he do that?
I told you he's very clever. That dumb dumb Lena
could never do this, Sheila Jackson Lee, she wouldn't know
(00:48):
how to do it. Sylvester, uh huh. Although Silvester is
smarter than the others. But Rodney, he's very smart. So
there is a state law which says to counties, which
enabled counties who've experienced a recent natural disaster, and we
(01:09):
did that, you can you get an exemption to raise
taxes above three point five percent because you've just had
a natural disaster. Well, nobody thinks that the county needs
(01:32):
to raise taxes. And by the way, from three point
five percent to eight percent, it'll give them two hundred
and fifty million dollars in new revenue. Now they'll go
out to all the dumb dumbs they campaign to and
say them Republicans, they don't want y'all to have nice food,
but we do. They don't want y'all to have a
(01:54):
grocery store in your neighborhood. They begrudge y'all having nice closed,
go back to school, free health care, improved buses, nice purses.
You know, they don't want you to have all that
nice stuff, but we do. They don't want to pay
(02:14):
more taxes because they're greedy. They want to keep the
money they earn and we want you to have it.
And that will be their campaign, and it'll be an
off year election. And because Republicans don't field candidates in
off year elections, then that becomes is this on November's
(02:37):
ballot because usually what they do is they put this
on an off year election. I'll find out if that's
the case or not. But either way, if they can
pass it, it gives them two hundred and fifty million
dollars to hand out to COVID outreach to the former
chairman of Adrian Garcia's campaign, who was the digital director
for Hillary Clinton, who was working out of a one
(02:59):
room apartment and in Montrosen got upset when when they
pointed that out. The law was passed by the Texas
legislature in twenty nineteen. It caps a property tax revenue
increase at three point five percent if they want to
go higher than that. The voters have to approve it.
Why wouldn't you want the voters to approve you taking
(03:20):
more money from them? Well, because it's not to give
back to the voters or the stakeholders. It's to give
back to your buddies. And they're doing it in broad daylight.
Fox twenty six.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
With Harris County, where a little known loophole and state
law will allow Judge Lena Hedalgo and commissioners to jack
up property taxes a full eight percent next year without
asking voters for permission. How can that be? Turns out,
lawmakers in Austin granted an exemption to the state's cap
on non voter approved tax hikes to counties which have
(03:57):
experienced a recent disaster, as in the Duratio and Hurricane
Burrell pre Sinct three Commissioner Tom Wrens, he tells Fox
twenty six the Democratic supermajority on Commissioner's Court has already
decided to take full advantage and spend the taxpayer windfall
mostly on social programs.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
They want to go through with an eight percent increase
in your taxes, which is two hundred and sixty eight
million more dollars than we had this year. Let me
put that another way. We were able to fund all
of our programs this year, take care of all of
our business this year, do everything that we need to
(04:36):
do this year. But we need another two hundred and
sixty eight million dollars. We have a spending problem in
Harris County.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
He's right, Tom Ramsey, the last reasonable voice down there.
More on the sci fhair ISD bus issue. Remember Syfair decid, Well,
we don't have enough money, so we're gonna stop running
buses to kids and you'll just have to get them
here on your own, or they can walk here if
(05:09):
they get raped, and that'll be will act like we're
very upset. Maybe we'll hire some more security personnel. At
that point, parents and teachers are now pointing out some
of the wasteful spending that was done prior to the
bus cuts. The price tag on and I can't tell
how many parents sent this to me. A Willy Wonka
(05:32):
themed faculty and staff back to school event which featured,
among other things, a keynote speaker flown in from Nevada
with a price tag of thirty thousand dollars. Ramond It
did the teachers and staff when you went back to school.
(05:56):
Did they have these big, elaborate back to school of
events where the superintendent was Willy Wander But how how
could they ever possibly have morale unless they blew all
this money on a big party for themselves. The story
from ABC.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
Thirteen still Wednesday.
Speaker 5 (06:17):
This was the site of that event. It was a convocation.
It's a back to school event held for teachers and staff.
It's not an annual event. It's also paid for by
the district, where told employees were split up into two
groups throughout the day. Both of those convocations featuring the
superintendent showed here dressed as Willy Wonka. The event has
(06:37):
prompted backlash amid those substantial cuts to services like bussing
that you just heard about. Several teachers who spoke to us,
each asking to remain anonymous fearing retaliation, were concerned again
about the price tag of this event, particularly the keynote
speaker and musician who performed they say twice throughout the day.
The website for that speaker says he charges twenty to
(07:00):
thirty thousand dollars per engagement and flies in from Nevada.
We've asked the district for those numbers, they've yet to
give them to us. We spoke with a former school
psychologist for the district. She's now a parent, who says
her own child's bus route was cut this year, Like
it's this huge, huge expense in the context of this
catastrophic budget crisis and these cuts that are like feeling
(07:24):
like boop.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
Bleeding unbelievable using taxpayer dollars. But I'd like to know
how they cast this event. Uh, can I get all
of my teachers who are under five five and over
two hundred pounds? Come on over here. Come on, We
(07:44):
love you, We're not judging you. Y'all come over here,
all of you to my right. Everybody, come on, come on,
come onck mom, let's go, come on, speed it up.
This is gonna be fun. Y'all are gonna love this.
You're gonna thank me later. Everybody, everybody under five to
five over two hundred pounds over here, to my right,
over here, to my right, and we have everyone. Okay,
you lucky folks are going to be the upa lumpus. Everybody.
(08:10):
Let's give it up for our oopa lumpus. Yes, okay,
and let's see here. I need an ugly older woman
to be Missus gloop. Miss Jones, you're gonna be missus
gloop Yep, that'll be great. And I need somebody who
looks a little bit like an undertaker. Mister Smith, you're
(08:34):
going to be Arthur Slugworth, all right, and let's see
him here for mister Salt. Everybody, I'm gonna have mister
Hernandez be mister Salt. Let's see let'sci Winston. You're gonna
be mister Beauregard. Who's our oldest person. Mister Thompson, you're
(08:56):
gonna be Grandpa George, Michael Ferry.
Speaker 6 (09:03):
Booty.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Come on. I know you're a big June Wilder fan.
I'm a fan, but you're a much bigger fan than
I defer to you on this. Is there a single
movie or production he's in that's not fantastic? Is it
just not coming to mind? Honest question? Okay, nitpick, go ahead.
(09:34):
Haunted Honeymoon, Okay, so I haven't seen it. I guess
I guess the things that are forgettable and that I
never watched, that the things that are terrible probably never
bubbled up to my level to watch, but to think,
to think, as as mel Brooks describes in his autobiography
(09:56):
that they are shooting blazing saddles and Gene Wilder is
going home every day instead of going out with the
cast and drinking, He's going home every day and writing
Young Frankenstein Frankenstein Frankenstein depends on which point in the movie.
(10:18):
But wow, the two characters and how you do that,
it's just what immense talent. And then his work with
Richard Pryor that was just fun. That was a period
when movies could be fun. I remember the moment when
(10:41):
I noticed that ted Lasso, that had become so popular,
had had been sort of affected by the bug of
you can't have this popularity without preaching about you know,
DEI and gay people and cross dressing. And it just
(11:04):
changed the quality of the writing, the style of the writing.
It was no longer something that you could just enjoy
as a television show. It now had to bang you
over the head. And that is what makes the left
so damn tedious. That's why they're not harmless. You're constantly
sitting through a I'll never forget. My wife was telling
(11:31):
somebody this the other day. She was one of the
top lawyers at El Paso Energy and they were flying
out to a platform in the Gulf, and she gets
there and you're coming in on this helicopter, and she's
thinking that platform may not even be enough to hold
(11:52):
this helicopter because it looks so small down there. And
then you get there and you're having the meeting, and
she said, you know what's amazing is there are spots
on this platform you could literally fall off into the
golf and you're done. These guys live this way for
three weeks at a time. This is very difficult living,
(12:16):
and it's all men. Why are we dragging these men
into sexual harassment seminars? Why aren't we focused on their
safety and their compass. I mean, this is just this
is the kind of stuff that somebody in a three
thousand dollars suit in a downtown Houston high rise in
(12:38):
the air conditioning who's never been out on that platform
is worried about whether Bubba Thibodeau from Homa is getting
enough sexual harassment training. Ramon, I don't know what to
make of this email, so I'm gonna I'm gonna defer
to you to interpret it to me, Okay, Joshua rights
Zar subject dreams Zar, I had a dream I was
(13:04):
sneaking into my ex girlfriend's house, all right, And somehow
in the dream you that's me turned out to be
her dad. Well, I don't have a daughter, so good
news is he's not trying to tell me something. Instead
(13:26):
of expressing guilt and remorse when you came to find
out who was in your house, I explained I was
a huge fan and you had no need to fuss
over me in your home or with my relationship with
your daughter. Then I came to my senses in my
(13:47):
dream that you didn't kill me or call the police,
and I should leave Michael Berry's home the way I
came in. I thought it was laughable. Just waking up
for work at five thirty am. Can't wait to hear
your show in a few hours. God bless, Is there
(14:08):
any part of that story you need repeated to come
to a conclusion. I'm gonna shoot. I've you know what,
I've minimized it.
Speaker 6 (14:18):
Now.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Let me see if I can find a hold on this,
if I can go back. Uh uh no, I'll find
it here. Hold on basically that he explained to me
that it wasn't a problem and I shouldn't need to
worry about it. Well, he as a listener, he's a fan,
and apparently he showed respect for my daughter, So you know,
(14:40):
I can appreciate that. Yeah, even in a dream, I
like that. I appreciate that. A lot of emails coming
in from especially mothers, talking about these Tim Walls and
Doug m hoff men and then getting off into the
(15:05):
perversions of pedophiles, and many of them making note that
of every priest or clergyman for that matter, who they've
seen on television, interviewed, or known of, that they displayed
(15:26):
some of these same very weird, very weird, very effeminate,
odd ikey behaviors. I mean, that's goring. I'm not accusing
them of being pedophiles. I am saying their behaviors are
(15:47):
outside the norm. That's okay, everybody doesn't have to be
within the spectrum of normal. But don't tell me how
this is what we're now going to celebrate. And don't
insult men for being a gun totin macho guy. See,
(16:13):
they're going after what used to be Reagan Democrats. Clinton
was the last Democrat to be able to pull them back.
A lunch pale white male for that matter, Hispanic and black,
but particularly white and Hispanic male who they are now.
These are the people that were there on January sixth,
who've been arrested and thrown in prison. These are the
(16:34):
people who go and serve. There is a rumor out
there that because of his weird sexual behaviors, Doug Imhoff
changed his name. Apparently, he was known as Jack his
entire life.
Speaker 7 (16:49):
Of Your Show every Day, Michael Berry, he had the
most pleasant boy.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
I started on the air for a weekend show in
two thousand and five. It was nothing to speak of,
but I wanted to see if maybe I might want
to do that. Just before that, I was doing a
(17:22):
lot of interviews, especially related to whatever the city was doing.
I was always a guy that was against it, especially
under Lee P. Brown, and I enjoyed that a lot.
But I never expected to be doing what I'm doing
now for a living, and that I wouldn't be practicing law,
(17:43):
that I wouldn't be doing private equity, that I wouldn't
be in politics, per se. Never expected that. So radio
was a thing that entertained me as I drove around,
and it was a thing that was how I got
my message out when I was running for office and
(18:04):
when I was holding office, and my brother called one
day and he was in Beaumont and I was in Houston,
and he was out patrolling, and he called, this would
have been about might have been earlier, might have been
(18:24):
not just two thousand and four, might have been two thousand,
might have been late nineties. I just remember I did
not have a relationship with Walton and Johnson at that point.
And he is screeching, and when my brother laughed, his
voice would go real high. He would get he would
(18:45):
do this thing where he would almost hyperventilate and he
would start laughing but trying to talk. Some people do
this when they cry also, but he never cried, so
I don't know if he did it when he cried,
but he did laugh, and he would he was losing
his mind laughing, and I could hear the radio. He said,
(19:06):
listen to this. I hear this, and he turned it up,
and I know it must have been about this, must
have been about two thousand and three or two thousand
and four. I'll tell you what. I just say it
now that I think about it. So I said, Chris,
I can't hear it, just won't you just tell me
what's happening? And he said, you're listening to Walton Johnson,
(19:30):
and I said, well, I know who they are. Yes,
I have listened, but I tend to flip around. And
at this point, because I was in politics, I was
listening to shows that I was going to be on
where I was going to talk where I was. So
he says, you gotta hear this. Flip it over. You
get them in Houston. Well we got a different We
had a different station. They were on the Arrow, I believe, no, no, no, no,
(19:53):
no no. This was still the kal El days, or
maybe this was when they had been brought into because
remember they were on k LOL and which stevens Prue
had been on before, and now Walton and Johnson were there.
And then when Kalol was sold or when Kaloel was
(20:14):
flipped to reggathone and it was Mega one oh one,
then it was sold off to CBS or transferred to
CBS as part of a anti what do you call it,
anti monopoly provision. It was an FTC ruling. It had
(20:35):
to be they had to move two stations over, so
they did, and that was Mix and Mega one O one. Anyway,
I didn't know the guys yet, and I listened to
the listened to them using that song as their taser report,
(21:01):
and Steve Johnson would would do the report on there
had been somebody that had been tased. And if you remember,
the taser was a big deal then before the burner.
The taser was your less lethal option to get a
guy who was usually on PCP or maybe a ton
(21:25):
of coke or maybe just a bunch of amphetamines, and
the cops would try to get him to calm down,
but he had a death wish. And what they didn't
want to do is they did not want to uh,
they didn't They didn't want to kill the guy because
in addition to other things, that would ruin their career.
(21:49):
So they would tase them. And there was always some
story of some naked dude in Florida or something else,
some guy that they had to tase, and they tas
something else. They tased him into Willie and they and
it was it was so good that my brother picked
up the phone and called me and insisted that I
tune into it and listened to the taser report. That's
(22:16):
entertainment that is rising to the level that it is
so good. So in May of seven, when Eddie Martinez
tapped me to be the am operations manager to run
the three AM stations. Walton and Johnson were on nine
(22:40):
P fifty and I went in with the ratings and
I said, guys, the most significant bump you get in
listener reaction, it's to the Taser report. And Steve goes, yeah.
I said, do the Taser report. The more the merrier.
(23:03):
People love the Taser Report. And it was just one
of those things that was so good and so memorable.
And here we are almost twenty years later, and I say,
we talk about this all the time that I don't
just want to be what people tune into. Twenty years later,
(23:25):
I remember my brother laughing so hard, you know that
snort you get when you either cry or laugh. It
was that good. And you know, most of you know
producer Kenny. And when John Walton passed far too young,
producer Kenny stepped up. I mean he's done a phenomenal
(23:46):
job with that. I admire that show, but it's just
one of many things. You know, I quote Rush, But
you think about the influences you have and the things
that have made you laugh. Walton and Johnson, Yeah, that
every buddy has a party to Michael Barry. Joe. I
(24:08):
got an email from a lady who said she thinks
I'm wrong on the Doug m Hoff statement. She has
searched all over because she had never heard that before,
and she doesn't think that Doug m Hoff ever went
by the name Jack. So I if she says it,
(24:32):
then that's fine. If she if she devoted the time
to sleuthing it. If you say so, ramon, let's open
the phone lines to the people and hear from folks.
Seven one three nine nine nine one thousand. Seven one
three nine nine nine one thousand. By the way, apparently
(24:54):
y'all really enjoyed Jim Mudd's Saturday Rendezvous and Escapades with Dolores.
If you missed that, it's on the podcast and it's
in yesterday's Blast. But I don't know. Three months ago
or so, a sweet nine year old lady named Delores
(25:16):
called in, and you know, I get to talking about
things unrelated to whatever she called about. And she likes
to go I forget the term she used for, but
she likes to go to garage sales and estate sales
and whatever you want to call it. State sales are
just for people who like to say their stuff costs
more and they don't want to seem trashy because garage
(25:37):
sales now are for Mexicans and poor people. Which I
always went to garage sales. If it's in a state sale,
there may be some nice stuff in there, and they
have to hire some third party company to come in
and mark everything up. But the good ones worthy where
the garage sales. When I moved into West u in
(25:58):
the mid nineties and bought a teardown for lock value,
I would go to all the garage cells on Saturdays
in the neighborhood because people, especially the old dudes. These
were guys that had come home from World War Two,
and they collected cool stuff, like they'd have old magazine collections,
(26:19):
and they'd have old record collections, and they'd have just
cool old Coca Cola stuff or old you know, Sinclair
oil or some old Pegasus sign or whatever. I love
that kind of stuff. But anyway, so Jim, our creative director,
stepped up and said, yeah, I'll take her. I'll take
(26:42):
her for sure, And Matt Brice and Robert Reese bought
her lunch at Federal American Grill and they went and
apparently just had the best time, and he made a
segment out of it. So listen to that. I love
sweet little old Lady, sweet little Amen for that matter,
but there are fewer of them, and so does Jim.
(27:06):
And his mother, Loretta, had passed away in the last
couple of years, same name as my mother, and I
think he probably felt like he was doing some good
for the universe enjoying his time with Dolores. But to
be clear, he actually really did enjoy his time. It
wasn't just him being a nice person. Speaking of good
stories that make you feel good seven one three, nine nine, nine,
(27:28):
one thousand, get to your calls in a moment, Bernie.
Little League is on the verge of winning the US Championship.
They have now clinched their spot in the US Championship Game,
which would take them on to play the World in Williamsport.
In Little League, an incredible story about their first baseman
(27:53):
who's quite the star. His name is Cole Newsome. He's
the son of the coach, and four years years ago
he had to have open heart surgery. You're not supposed
to be playing at twelve years old in the Little
League World Series in the Championship game after you've had
open heart surgery. The story from ksat.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
TV twelve year old Cole is healthy and certainly strong
enough to go yard on the national stage, so it's
hard to imagine that just four years ago he was
on an operating table.
Speaker 8 (28:26):
At eight years old. His first day of school going
to third grade, he spent getting heart surgery. So it's
kind of one of those things you don't prepare you
for as a parent. You know, he handled it like
a champion.
Speaker 4 (28:41):
Head coach, but dad first, Justin Newson explained a routine
doctor's visit revealed a heart murmur. Was later found that
Cole had a growth starting to block one of the
valves in his heart.
Speaker 8 (28:50):
A very serious surgery, taking out someone's heart, cutting something
out of it and putting it back in an eight
year old is in your child takes you kind of
to another level of parrot for cool.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
It turns out he's calm, cool and collected on and
off the diamond.
Speaker 9 (29:06):
I was early down because I knew at the end
of it, I was just gonna get a lot of presents,
and that just made me happy. Did you get a
lot of presents? A lot?
Speaker 4 (29:14):
Six weeks after surgery, Cole was back doing what he loved.
I ain't baseball with the boys, and now they're showcasing
their talents for the entire country to see. Taking me
through that moment from the surgery table to a grand
Slam on the national stage. What's dad thinking, not head coach,
what's dad thinking that moment?
Speaker 8 (29:34):
Amazing feelings. I mean, he works hard, he's a great kid.
Like seeing how hard he works, seeing him do it
on that stage, just first ever grand slam like it was.
It was a lot of fun rewatching.
Speaker 4 (29:46):
But what were your thoughts when you got to watch
your heroics?
Speaker 9 (29:50):
It was amazing because it's all the other people do
it last year, and just to see myself do it,
it was just like really cool.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
I love that story. Families, children, the elderly. This is
what life's about. This is why we have to fight
the Democrats because we're not disagreeing on tax policy anymore.
Our very way of life is being destroyed, and they
(30:20):
hate everything related to the family. A conceived baby is
a choice to be killed. That's a sickness. The elderly
are to be done away with in death panels. Remember
(30:40):
when Sarah Palin said that Sarah Palin didn't get everything right,
but she got that right, and they ridiculed her there
were death panels. There absolutely were. In the very architect
of Obamacare, there were death panels because they cost too
much money. Those old people that ought to scare the
hell out of old people better vote. There was a
(31:03):
kid one of Crockett's friends. He was actually his debate
partner on his debate team, and they grew up same
year playing baseball, and he had they diagnosed a hole
in his heart. Well that's a lot for a family.
The process.
Speaker 6 (31:21):
Little kid, he was probably in eighth grade, maybe ninth
grade at the time, and the doctor said, this child
cannot take a hit, he cannot.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Play football, he could die. He was devastating. Hanks his name,
cutest little kid, great little kid, and a little be
a tiny kid. And so he goes to the coach
and says, coach, if I can't take a hit, can
(31:52):
I do the kickoff? And he would kick off and
sprint off the field before they get down there. I'd
have years every dayntime
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