July 1, 2025 • 38 mins
We kick off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
MA adding to cable costs with tax on some boxes…
Guest: Colin Young – State House News Reporter
A ceasefire between Iran and Israel has not ended the threat of cyberattacks from hacking groups supportive of Tehran…what Iranian cyberattacks are capable of against the U.S.
-Author of the upcoming book Spies, Lies, and Cybercrime: Cybersecurity Tactics to Outsmart Hackers and Disarm Scammers.
Guest: Eric O’Neill - FBI counterintelligence operative and cybersecurity specialist
Living Wage Fee: Latest addition to restaurant bills has diners vowing 'never to eat at restaurant again' – a 3 percent 'kitchen appreciation' tax….
Guest: Sherif Mityas - CEO of BRIX Holdings, a multi-brand franchising company specializing in food service chains
People Are Being Involuntarily Committed, Jailed After Spiraling Into "ChatGPT Psychosis"
-Many ChatGPT users are developing all-consuming obsessions with the chatbot, spiraling into severe mental health crises characterized by paranoia, delusions, and breaks with reality.
Guest: Leigh Richardson – PhD, licensed professional Counselor & Founder of the Brain Performance Center
Now you can leave feedback as you listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the FREE iHeart Radio app! Just click on the microphone icon in the app, and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
MA adding to cable costs with tax on some boxes…
Guest: Colin Young – State House News Reporter
A ceasefire between Iran and Israel has not ended the threat of cyberattacks from hacking groups supportive of Tehran…what Iranian cyberattacks are capable of against the U.S.
-Author of the upcoming book Spies, Lies, and Cybercrime: Cybersecurity Tactics to Outsmart Hackers and Disarm Scammers.
Guest: Eric O’Neill - FBI counterintelligence operative and cybersecurity specialist
Living Wage Fee: Latest addition to restaurant bills has diners vowing 'never to eat at restaurant again' – a 3 percent 'kitchen appreciation' tax….
Guest: Sherif Mityas - CEO of BRIX Holdings, a multi-brand franchising company specializing in food service chains
People Are Being Involuntarily Committed, Jailed After Spiraling Into "ChatGPT Psychosis"
-Many ChatGPT users are developing all-consuming obsessions with the chatbot, spiraling into severe mental health crises characterized by paranoia, delusions, and breaks with reality.
Guest: Leigh Richardson – PhD, licensed professional Counselor & Founder of the Brain Performance Center
Now you can leave feedback as you listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the FREE iHeart Radio app! Just click on the microphone icon in the app, and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's NIC's eyes, Dan Ray, I'm doing you easy, Boston's
News Radio. Thank you very much, Madison. As we roll
into a July first, Tuesday night edition of Nightside, we
have sort of made the turn here where it's a
halfway point, a little bit past the halfway point here
on Nightside. So welcome on in everyone, and thank you
(00:24):
for joining us. We have two guys in the booth.
Let's see who we get back there tonight. Is it
Sean and Shane and Shane? What am I saying? Sean,
Shane and Rob Brooks? And we are We're in good
shape here in that regard, we have a good show
lined up for you. My name is Dan Ray. I'm
the host of Nightside, and let us get rolling. We're
(00:45):
going to start off by talking about a new tax
here in Massachusetts. Very few things are taxed, as I'm
sure all of you who are taxpayers in Massachusetts. No,
the only two things that are actually taxed in Massachusetts
are anything that moves and anything that doesn't move. So
with that as a backdrop, let me introduce Colon Young.
(01:05):
He is a State House news report Colin, how are
you tonight?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Welcome very well, Dan, thanks very much, for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So the folks up on Beacon Hill, we're not exactly
sure who can claim credit for this, have decided that
they want to add to our cable costs because they
want to tax some of the cable boxes. Tell me
about it.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, this was something that the Healy administration first floated
back in February, and it was finalized in the middle
of June, so it is now in effect. And essentially,
what the Department of Revenue came out and said was
that the last time they looked at this issue, back
in two thousand and eight, cable boxes, or at least
(01:51):
the ones they were reviewing, were mostly just to actually
get cable TV into your house and watch it live.
Since then, you know, cable boxes now you can record
almost anything on TV. You can use your cable box
to get into your internet based streaming platforms and to
(02:13):
get to all kinds of other entertainment. And the Department
of Revenue determined that back in two thousand and eight,
they said cable boxes were not subject to the state's
sales tax because there were a piece of equipment used
exclusively for TV transmission, so they fit into an exemption.
(02:33):
And now they're saying essentially, Hey, these boxes do a
whole lot more than transmit TV. Now, so now they
should be subject to the sales tax, and that'll add
a six point two five percent at tax onto those
monthly rentals or the yearly leases of those boxes.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Okay, so so what's what's what is the monthly rental
for a box? I should have reviewed my own cable
bill here, what what are we talking about? Six point
six point two five percent of what I guess would be.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Those monthly rentals are usually in the fifteen dollars a
month twenty dollars a month range. That you know, I
shouldn't have pulled the exact number from my bill too.
I'm a little afraid to actually go see if I'm
now getting taxed on it. But usually they write about
fifteen to twenty dollars a month. So if it's twenty
(03:30):
dollars a.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Month, yeah, let's say twenty dollars a month, that's two
hundred and forty dollars of your cable bill per year
deals with the cable box, and six point two five
percent of that's going to be about another fifteen dollars
a year that Governor Heally is sticking her hand in
your pocket.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I mean, that's right.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Do they have no shame? I mean, it's like they're
going to get everybody and the people who rely upon
cable boxes off times, our folks who you know are older,
and that is really their form of entertainment.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Right, that's right. You think about the number of the
just the sheer number of cable boxes I would be
willing to bet has been on the decline in Massachusetts
as people cut the cord, cut the cable and they say, nope,
I'm just gonna use all the streaming apps instead. You're
exactly right. It leaves the the remaining people who have
(04:32):
cable boxes to foot the bill for something like this exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
And was there any opposition up there or was everybody
gleeful that they have found another way to uh, to
get money from from from this from the stone.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
You know, I was a little bit surprised, Dan, there
was really not much talk on Beacon Hill about this one,
and you know, surprised, of course. I wrote about it
back in February and then heard cricket and I was shocked.
I thought, for sure, oh this is going to get
people's attention, This will get people talking, and it really
didn't until it took effect last month. I will say
(05:12):
the one politician I heard talk about this in either
the House or the Senate was Senator Mark Montigny from
New Bedford. He brought it up during the Senate's budget
debate and tried to put a stop to it and
basically said, you know, dr can call this whatever it wants.
This is a new tax. This is raising the costs
(05:35):
of living for people all across Massachusetts. And so he
sort of planted his flag of opposition to it, and
of course it still proceeded to take effect all the same.
But there was at least one politician who you know,
said hey, wait a minute, what are we doing here?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
And who was that? Which that was?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
That was Mark Montigny, as he's.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
A state center. If for not mistake, well, at least
it's nice to know that there's one guy up there.
I just it's just as frustrating to think that so
many people are interested in, you know, just just getting
every little bit of money that they can, you know,
from from people here in Massachusetts. I don't know. It
(06:24):
almost as if they have decided that, guess what, people
in Massachusetts really don't care. We can just pick their
pockets anytime we want. I mean, that's the impression I'm
getting that that that there's no fight left is there's
no Republican party up there that's having much of an impact.
(06:45):
You're no one in the Democratic Party. There used to
be a bunch of Democrats who were concerned about taxpayers, but.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
It's they all talk about the cost of living. That
that's always they always talk about that as being one
of their top concerns, you know, and this one, particularly,
the way it came about, I think it might take
people by surprise when they get their bill and go, hey, wait,
that's a little bit higher than it has been because
(07:15):
this wasn't something that needed to be voted on by
the House in the Senate and get signed by the governor.
This didn't happen by law. This is something where the
Department of Revenue just issued this order, issued this directive
and said here's our policy going forward. So, you know,
there wasn't a lot of public There wasn't much chance
(07:38):
for the public to weigh in. There was a very
brief period back in the spring where do R took
comments from the public.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
But the attention to those it's just interesting that that
It's almost as if the fact that that Massachusetts will
continue to tax and pick people's pockets, it's almost on
automatic pilot. No one even has to fly the plane anymore.
(08:05):
No politician has to get up and say it's my idea.
And what that does is that immunizes the incumbents, and
it is Oh boy, I'll tell you it's it's time
for a lot of people to wake up in Massachusetts
and realize again. You know you're gonna say, hey, fifteen
dollars a year. Maybe fifteen dollars a year to you
and me doesn't mean a whole art, but it might
(08:27):
mean something to an older person or an older couple
who run fixed income. Absolutely, aren't those the people that
the Democrats say that they're concerned about.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
I don't know, even if it's only fifteen dollars, you
know that's that's still fifteen dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, you guys are great watchdogs up there. State House
News service the local TV stations used to have. When
I was working at WBZ, we had state House reporters.
John Henning was upgive for two four and different different
reporters took times that their Walt Sanders would spend a
lot of time at the people who perhaps you didn't
grow up watching, but I got to tell you they
(09:04):
kept the politicians more honest. And you guys are doing
a great job. How can you subscribe to your service,
state House News Reporter the average person just simply state
House News dot com.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I assume exactly state Housenews dot com. We are a
subscription based service, but people can definitely go to the website,
start checking it out, get a trial subscription to read
more and to check out some of the other features
on our website to try to keep them honest. And
if we had more reporters up there, like you know,
(09:39):
when all the TVs and all the local papers had
reporters there, you know, powering numbers, and it would be
good to get back to those numbers.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, well it really would. But again, you're doing a
great job as a State House news service, and thank
you for what you do because you're about the only
consistent line of communication we have. And I appreciate every
time you guys come on the show at night.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You always Walt, it's always a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Hey, thanks, callin we'll talk soon, Okay.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
My pleasure. Dan, thanks very much.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
All right, we're gona take quick break. We come back.
We're going to talk about cybercrime. Yeah, I'm going to
talk with Eric O'Neill. He's a cyber security expert, and
there's a lot of this stuff going on. Spies, lies,
and cyber crime coming up on the other side of
the break. Here on Nightside, my name is Dan Ray
and the host of the show. Been working with a
(10:28):
couple of little technical issues here and Robie got everything
squared away. While conducting the interv with Colin, I was
doing some multitasking. Rob and Shane are back in the
control room, so we have double duty tonight and we're
in good shape. We'll be back right after this on Nightside.
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on wz Boston's
(10:49):
news radio. Well, I am delighted to meet this next guest,
Eric O'Neill. Eric's career began in the FBI's Counter Intelligent
trenches as an undercover operative. And Eric, as I understand it,
you spent some time rooting out I think one of
the most heinous spies in f well, in US history,
(11:13):
Robert Philip Hanson. I know a little bit about that case.
You must know a lot about that case. Welcome to
night Side.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
It's great to be on night Side Light. Thanks for
having me.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yeah, so you worked that case, the Hanson case, if I.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Was sent undercover, and probably what was the most unique
case the FBI's ever run. They built a brand new
department within FBI headquarters as a mouse trapped to catch Hanson,
who was a spy for the Soviet Union and the
Russian Federation for over twenty two years.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
He also went to the same church I think as
the then director of the FBI he was. I had
Liz Wheelon, who wrote the book A Spy in Playing
Sight two or three years ago. Liz wrote a great
book on that I have to go back and reread it.
I want you to know that I spent a good
(12:05):
portion of my time as a television reporter for CBS
here in Boston investigating the totally corrupt Boston office of
the FBI. You probably don't want to hear me say that,
but instead of full disclosure, we had an office with
people like Paul Rico, Dennis Condon, John Connelly and others
up here, and we spent a lot of time going
(12:30):
after the FBI. But you're one of the good guys.
You went after the bad guys in the FBI. So
I am honored to meet you, Eric, let's talk.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
That was definitely my job to go undercover and catch
the spies and bad guys. And if you want to
read the definitive book on the Hanson case, it's my
book Great Day, which came out a few years ago,
and tell us the story from my eyes of being
inside the investigation.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Well, I'll tell you what do you know? You must
know Liz Wheel I.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Assume right, I know of her and we don't know
each other.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Yeah, okay, Well you know what I'm gonna do. I'm
going to call you and I'll have you back on
to talk about your book, and we'll do it for
an hour some night.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Okay, sounds great.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I mean that's seriously because I'm fascinated by this case.
This guy was a devout Roman Catholic as you as
you well know. I don't need to tell you anything
about him. Uh. And he's has he died in prisoners,
he's still alive.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
He passed away in June of twenty twenty three, a
couple of years ago, natural causes. Yeah, and he was
in super max prison in Florence, Colorado, and probably one
of the most horrible prisons on earth.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yeah, he's out there with the Boston bomber and a
lot of the other big name people. But what a
what a creep. Anyway, great day is the book? Okay,
I'll have you back. I problem. So let's talk about
cyber attacks. What's going on now? We got to cease
fire with Iron and Israel. I believe, and I don't
know what information you have, but I believe that Iran's
(14:01):
nuclear capacity and capability has been badly damaged. And the
reason I believe that is not any inside information, Eric,
but I believe you watch what people do as opposed
to what they say, and I know what they're saying
for domestic consumption in Iran, but I'm watching what they do,
and for them to have engaged in this ceasefire now
for over a week tells me that they're hurting right now.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, I agree with that assessment. I think that if
nothing else there a nuclear weaponization program has been pushed back.
I've said at least a decade. It takes quite some
time to come back from this. Those centrifugures that would
have all been destroyed take years to even build and
set up and it's going to be very difficult for
(14:45):
them to restart the program with all the scrutiny that's
on the country.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
And as I tried to convince a caller of mine
a week or so ago, without centrifuges, Iran doesn't.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Build bombs, that's right. They can't weaponize the ranium, uh,
to get it to the point where they can actually
put indugular weapon on one of their ballistic missiles.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Okay, so let's talk what what are we looking at
right now? How exposed are we to I don't worry
about Israel cyber attacking us, but I sure worry about uh,
you know, lone wolves, and I worry about Iranian operatives. Uh,
they had operatives who are around the world killing people. Uh.
I mean it's that they they play for keeps.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah. Well, and remember that not too long ago a
plot was uncovered, an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump. Yes,
so they certainly are not shy about launching terrorist attacks
of all shapes and sizes, whether it's kinetic or cyber. Now.
I think right now they're reeling. Uh. Their military has
(15:51):
been decimated.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
They their regime is struggling internally with their population who uh,
you know, maybe most people might not know. Most of
the people in Iran really hate the regime. They're trapped,
and so they have to deal with that unrest from
the inside. But the one thing that Iron can continue
to do is the eight symmetrical warfare that they have
(16:14):
been waging against the US and the West in general
for years, which is cyber.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Attacks, which would include.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Right, So, Iran has been attacking the United States in
particular for years, and they've been launching what we call
probe attacks against our critical infrastructure. These are attacks that
are in preparation for any kind of future of war,
which could be tomorrow, and these probe attacks are attempts
to embed themselves within different systems in the US critical infrastructure.
(16:49):
When I at lea say critical infrastructure, people normally think
lights and power, but it also includes water, natural gas,
waste water removal, you know, if you can't plush your
toilet problem, and communications. China, you know, just attack our
major telecom selth providers and was able to get into
(17:09):
networks and read people's texts and listen to their voicemails.
So critical infrastructure is sort of the holy grail for
threat actors of all stripes and sizes, and Iran has
been embedding themselves in our critical infrastructure for years now.
The good news is that we do find them. You know, SIKA,
who is the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency, and the FBI
(17:33):
i C three, the Internet Crime Complaint Center, and the
FBI's different cyber divisions are very good at rooting them out.
But our critical infrastructure is old, it has poorly designed
on patch systems, and so bad guys are constantly trying
to worm their way in.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
You know, I'll tell you a funny story that I've
told my callers online listeners. But several years ago, I
was with my family in a foreign country I'm not
going to say where, and we were having dinner in
a at a resort where we were and my daughter,
(18:11):
who for some reason checks every room where, every public
room where we are located, and she said to me,
don't turn around, don't look behind you. And of course,
what's your impulse when your daughter or someone says that
to you, You want to look around. Well, we were
sitting at a table right behind the author Selmon Rushti,
(18:35):
who at that point there had been a Fatois pointed.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Yeah, not the room you want to be in, not.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
The room you want to be in. It was, you know,
it was a nice area. So but but I remember
talking to my daughter after the saying, thank god they
didn't execute the fatois on him that night. Of course,
he was stabbed and sadly and badly injured recently in Buffalo,
New York by it looked like a lone wolf. But
these folks on the other side, they play for keeps
(19:02):
and eric. Guys like you, guys and women, men and
women like you are the front line. And I truly
appreciate everything that you do. The name of your book
is Spies, Lies and Cybercrime, kind of like the sex,
Lies and Videotape. But that's that's very well done, HarperCollins
(19:25):
available everywhere, I'm sure, and it's a it's a book
that everybody should read. I'm going to be back in
touch with you, and we're going to get you in
to talk about Gray Day and the pursuit of Hanson,
because obviously we have to make sure that our own
intelligence systems N S, A, C, I, A, FBI, et cetera.
(19:45):
All the alphabet soup agencies are you know, purer than
the driven snow and Hanson. Hanson was able to live
it a complete double life. And the work that you
did to to you know, secure his arrest and conviction,
it was the service of this country. So I'm honored
to meet you, Eric, and I hope we will have
(20:06):
you back. I promise, Okay, Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
It was great to talk to you, and I'm looking
forward to coming back on the show and diving into
that handsOn case. It was incredibly unique and important because
Hanson blue holes and counter intelligence and fixing. It was
critical for the entire intelligence apparatus here in the United States.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
But despite with some of the old FBI agents might
tell you in Bosson, I'm not a bad guy. I'm
on the right team.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I haven't heard anything negative, So don't worry about that.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Thanks Eric. We'll talk soon, all right, right when we
get back. When we get back, we're going to talk
about a new tax, well other tax. It's a tip.
It's a tip. It's a charge that you might see
when you go to a restaurant. Believe me, you want
to know about this one. My name's Dan Ray. This
(20:58):
is night Side. It's called a three percent kitchen appreciation. Oh,
it's a tax, but it's really, it's a surch arts.
Let's put it like that. We'll be back at Nightside
right after this. You're on night Side, well Boston's news radio.
All right, let's get right back at it. When look,
(21:19):
you walt to restaurants and you run it's restaurants are
expensive no matter where you go. Uh, and you certainly
want to leave a tip for the waiter or waitress
that served you and your party at that restaurant. And
there's there's a new charge which is showing up kind
(21:40):
of unannounced at some restaurants. It's a kitchen appreciation charge
with us as Sharif Mityas, he's the CEO of Bricks Holdings,
a multi brand franchising company specializing in food service chain,
so he knows a lot about this. He's been a
guest before. Sharif, welcome back to.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Night Side, Thanks for having me back on.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
So I've heard of this, I've yet to experience it.
But how common is this this new charge? You know,
there are a lot of restaurants that when you do
takeout now they you know, all you do is you
walk up, you drive to the restaurant, you've called the
(22:20):
order in. They tell you when you get there, you
drive there, you walk in, and you pay for your meal,
and they hand you your bag or whatever, and then
they're like asking you for a tip, which to me is.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Well, it's very common. I mean it's very common. How
common is this kitchen appreciation charge? So they kind of
call it a tax because it doesn't go to the government,
that theoretically goes to the folks who work in the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
That's right. Well, luckily it's not very prevalent, but you're
seeing it, to your point, in a lot of different ways.
Some people call it the server benefits tax. Some people
call it the living wage tax. Some people call it
the kitchen appreciation tax. So yeah, you can call it
a lot of different things. But whatever you call it,
(23:12):
it's a problem. First of all, you're being deceptive, right,
You're not being upfront that this is going to show
up on your bill, right, all you get at the
end of the meal that that's that's not right. And
restaurants that would would do that and are doing that
are are probably going to lose a lot of guests
very quickly.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
So let's just break it down for people. So you
go to a restaurant with your family, let us say
your your wife, your husband, and a couple of kids.
And when the bill comes the food and the drinks,
let's say keep it simple, one hundred dollars. Okay, so
it would it would have one hundred dollars. You're going
to assume that you're going to pay it. You're going
(23:51):
to add a tip. But on the one hundred dollars
right away, you're getting whacked for another three bucks on
this again as charge or kitchen appreciation dex whatever you
want to call it. So then you say, okay, I
want to you know, twenty percent is what you should
if you've had nice service from a wai or a waitress.
I think that's what should be should be done. So now,
(24:14):
so instead of costing you one hundred and twenty bucks,
have cost one hundred and twenty three bucks. So you're
getting nickeled and dined a little bit. I'd rather have
them say to me, there's a twenty five dollars charge
for the cooks in the kitchen, as opposed to they
nickel and dime you. It's it.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, it's a problem. And to your point, they shouldn't
even they shouldn't even come up with any type of charge,
even if they tell you up in front. If and
we know wages gone up, right, people get it. Food
has gone up. Everyone who's gone to the grocery store
to restaurants, we all know it, right. So it's not
some big surprise. Raise your prices a bit, right, we
all know we're paying more. So if the burger has
(24:52):
to be eleven dollars versus ten and a quarter, then
just raise the price of the menu item, right, Be upfront,
Be transparent with your customers.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I found out sunday. I have a friend of mine
who's dealing with a pretty tough medical diagnosis. So I
take them to brunch. I go to the gym on
Sunday morning and I got some time, and so we
had men to This was a local restaurant, it's a chain.
(25:21):
I'm not going to mention the name of it. And
we ordered. We had identical orders, like three pancakes and coffee.
Hadn't been in there in a couple of months and normally,
well one thing. I guess what that costs one order
of pancakes and a coffee. Two orders of pancakes and
(25:42):
two coffees. What do you think you would expect to
pay for that?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Well, it shouldn't have been more than twenty dollars, but
I'm guessing it was a.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Lot more thirty eight dollars.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Yeah, and that's a problem.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
It was unbelievable. It was like, first of all, if
we've gone to the ritz or to force size, I
get it. It's going to cost me sixty bucks for breakfast,
I get it, okay, and if I want to it's
like three pancakes. And by the way, this was not
We was seated next to a poor, homeless woman who
(26:16):
had all of her wife's possession sitting there with us.
Oh yeah, yeah, well you know she had to have
breakfast somewhere too, so it wasn't what you'd call an
elegant dining experience.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Reef right, But you paid for one.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Well, but by time you know, I'm not going to
show change the waiter he got, it's like forty eight
dollars for two vaters of three pan cakes. Now they
were trying to ship pancakes, so let me be honest
with you. There at the coat the coffees were three
ninety nine, which is a little exhabited. But I think
(26:52):
that what's going to happen is that people are going
to say, you know, and I can. I can scramble
some eggs at home and read the Sunday newspaper. This
easily they will kill the golden goose. I think, I
don't know, maybe maybe I'm just quanky, but I think
that all that concern in April about the tariffs, right,
that a lot of people, a lot of companies have
(27:14):
raised their prices, not because the prices went up, but
because they saw it as an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
And I think that's right.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Those companies are going to pay for it in the
long run. I mean, what is your own thing? How
quickly of the economy right now? The stock market seems
to be humming. I know that the tax the so
called big beautiful bill, which is not necessarily going to
be big and beautiful for everyone, that's for sure, just
(27:43):
survived in the in the Senate, and I think they
have lots of problems in the House. What is your
sense as to where the where the economy is going
right now?
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah? I think the issue, I think and everyone feels
it is just the uncertainty. Right we just don't know
what's going to happen three months, six months from now,
and so when people are uncertain, people pull back, right,
they don't go out as much. They kind of hoard
a little bit of the money, right, discretionary spending, So
restaurants do get hit. Other kind of discretionary spending out there,
(28:14):
retail gets hit because people are just they're not concerned
as much as just uncertain and so that uncertainty creates pullback,
and that's what you're seeing. And so yes, more people
are going to eat at home, more people are going
to hold back on that one extra purchase. And that's
what I think we're going to see for at least
the next few months, until we kind of see where
(28:35):
interest rates are headed. People see where this bill is headed,
and the impact in the economy. We'll see if trade
deals get resolved. All these things just create uncertainty, and
so once they get resolved, people should be happy to
go back out and spend a little bit more money.
They kind of know what they have to spend. But
until that point, then it's going to be tight and
it's going to be tough.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Well, there's a lot of the bill, the no tax
on tips for weight staff, which I think is going
to help help people. At the same time, I read
today the gasoline prices are down lowest in the last
for maybe five years, which is a good print. And
I also I follow the oil markets very closely. Oil
(29:17):
despite everything that's been going on in the Middle East,
is still down in the you know, sixty four sixty
five dollars range for the various oil, all of which
is a good indicator. Now, you know, apps in something
crazy happening, maybe we're on a on a good flight
path here. I don't know. We'll keep our fingers crossed,
(29:38):
that's for sure.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I so appreciate you you coming back because I know
that you really do understand this industry, and we've talked
about different aspects of it and what percentage real quickly,
what percentage And I'm sure there's no study on this,
but what percentage of the restaurants around the country do
you think of doing the on takeouts? Handing you when
you give me a credit card, you know you want
(30:00):
to do an eighteen percent twenty percent tip. I got
hit with that and an ice cream joint a few
couple of months ago. It was like a ice cream
goal from my grandson and myself and it was expense.
It was sixteen bucks and they wouldn't take cash. They
said oh no, you got to go credit card and
do create cash when I left nothing as a tip
(30:24):
on the credit card, and then I took a couple
of bucks out of my pocket and I said, now
do you take cash for tip? Oh? Yeah, yeah, I
take cash for tip. I believe. Yeah. I got to
do something on the direction, and maybe I'll have you
on for this. I want to do something on we
moving towards a cashless society. I had a oh, ar,
(30:46):
well that I'm worried. Are you concerned about that or no?
Or am I paranoid? Well?
Speaker 3 (30:51):
I think it's I think there's always going to be
a place for cash. Just to be very clear, but yeah,
we're definitely moving towards more of a cashless society, especially
as more digital payments occur. Right, people are paying on
their front to keep up, not even pulling out the
credit card. Right, So it's easy to tap a button
(31:12):
without even pulling your wallet out. And so especially the
younger generation Dan, right, so a little be younger than
you and.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
I I should have you back and we should talk
about that. I was sure at a store on Sunday,
just buying scallops, and I went to pay in cash,
and the guy said to me, he says, you're the exception.
So what are you talking about. It was a nice
scallop store, very very nice story. He said. Only about
two percent of our customers now pay cash. Everybody's got
the plastic. Everybody's got the plastic. And I mean, I'll
(31:38):
tell you this, the one place cash is always going
to work. If you're in Vegas and you want to
get front row seat at one of those shows, just
tell them mister.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
There you go, bes as you go always in Vegas.
Thanks for having me on again, Dan, Thanks talk soon.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Okay, when we get back, we're going to talk about
chat GPT, which is great. We'll explain what it is.
But there's not something called chat gp psychosis. People are
actually being involuntarily committed because they're spiraling downward into chat
GPT psychosis. We're gonna talk with doctor Lee Richardson. She's
(32:14):
a professional counselor and founder of the Brain Performance Center.
You won't believe this stuff. This is scary. Back on
Night Side after this Night Side with Dan Ray on
Boston's news Radio, we're delighted to be joined by doctor
Lee Richardson, a licensed professional councilor, founder of the Brain
Performance Center, Doctor Richardson. I know we're a little crammed
(32:37):
on time here. I apologize for that, but we're talking
about people who are being involuntarily committed because they are
somehow spiraling into chat GPT psychosis. You and I both
know what chat GPT is, but tell us for those
who don't tell us exactly what it is quickly and
(33:00):
and what is going on. People are getting hooked on
this stuff.
Speaker 4 (33:05):
Well, people are getting hooked on it because what's going
on is people are finding their best friend on a computer,
someone that they can talk to in the middle of
the night and they can in their darkest moment, sure
what they're feeling and what they're thinking. And the problem
is is chat GBT can't tell what's reality and what's delusional.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Yeah, they could talk to me in the middle of
the night, at least until midnight. I'm better than chat GPT.
Chat GPT basically is this this little website or this website, Well,
you pretty much can put anything in there and it'll
spit back a whole bunch of stuff to you.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Well, it's a large language model and absolutely you can
ask you can ask chat I mean, I have a
good friend that calls Chat instead of AI, she calls
him Al, her boyfriend. Yeah, I've got to go talk
to Al, my boyfriend. I'll tell you because you can
say anything and ask questions and you'll get an answer.
(34:08):
The problem is is Al will talk back to you
the same way you talk to him. And I think
that's where people are getting They're getting hooked. They are
I mean they're lonely. I mean, loneliness still continues to
be a huge, a substantial global problem. And we're lonely,
(34:31):
and we turn to something that we think can give
us good answers and it can't. The platforms for a
thirteen year old.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Let me ask you this question. I know that there's
no number that you can cite from me here, but
just from your experience, what percentage of the people in
America do you think are clinically what you would call lonely,
meaning you know, have such a small circle of friends
or don't reach out to people. Are we talking like
(35:02):
two or three percent? Are we talking twenty twenty five percent?
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Oh no, we're talking twenty twenty five percent. And if
you think back till a couple of years ago, our
Surgeon General declared it an epidemic. And then there's research
that shows that the loneliest population are the young males
age fifteen to thirty four, and one out of five
of us has depression or anxiety, and with that comes
(35:31):
some loneliness.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
So how do we here? We have like four minutes left,
so let's solve the problem. How do we solve this problem?
I mean, you know, there's no quick and easy answer.
I know that. But what can people do to turn
this this horrific set of circumstances or state of mind around?
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Well, I think we all have to take responsibility and
pay attention, use your situation aware. If you see friends,
if you see family or colleague, and you see big
behavioral changes, they're isolating, they're shutting down, or they're not
sleeping at all, they're up all night, they stopped eating.
(36:14):
All of these are red flags that they're struggling with something.
And you know, so many times people say, I don't
know what to say. If you say nothing more than
I since you're having a bad day, and if there's
anything I can do to make it your day a
little bit better, please tell me. You know what's going
(36:35):
to make a difference.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
It's funny you talk about these males between fifteen and
thirty four. I think about the kid that took the
shot at President Trump or then candidate Trump, twenty year
old kid out in Butler, Pennsylvania, and I still have
read very little about his background in terms of how
the heck do you get to that point where you're
going to climb up on a roof? Or this guy
(36:57):
in Idaho the other day who set the fire and
then decided to take potshots as a sniper at firefighters,
how do you ever get to that point? I mean, it's.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
This is scary you get to that, You get to
that point because you get no attention, You get not
everybody has access to mental health counseling. If you don't
have insurance, you probably don't. And even if you have insurance,
connecting with the right therapist is very, very difficult because
(37:30):
the demand is so high. So I think that we
as society have got to recognize that brain health instead
of saying those two ugly words mental health. Brain health
is everybody's responsibility. And when you see somebody struggling, just
say how can I help you? Dr Richard, I don't feel.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Like you, Doctor Richard, don't mean to interrupt but and
I've short changed your time, and you've been always a
great guy. I apologize for that. Give us the website.
How do folks get in touch with you or the
Brain Performance Center?
Speaker 4 (38:06):
Well absolutely, we've got that good old fashioned thee Brain
Performance Center dot com and they can find doctor Lee
Richardson on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Doctor Richardson, We'll have you back, and I owe you
some time here. You're a great guest. No, no, no,
I know that, and I do appreciate that. But I
got some guilt fields here, doctor Richardson. I got to
work them out. Okay, thanks so much. You're welcome by
doctor Lee Richardson. We come back. We're going to talk
about a situation that probably I could talk to doctor
(38:40):
Richardson about, and that is the guy out in Idaho,
not the guy that took the shots of the firefighters,
but the guy that killed four college students. He now
is going to be able to plead guilty and avoid
the death penalty. Is that really justice? We'll be back
right after the nine o'clock news on night sid
It's NIC's eyes, Dan Ray, I'm doing you easy, Boston's
News Radio. Thank you very much, Madison. As we roll
into a July first, Tuesday night edition of Nightside, we
have sort of made the turn here where it's a
halfway point, a little bit past the halfway point here
on Nightside. So welcome on in everyone, and thank you
(00:24):
for joining us. We have two guys in the booth.
Let's see who we get back there tonight. Is it
Sean and Shane and Shane? What am I saying? Sean,
Shane and Rob Brooks? And we are We're in good
shape here in that regard, we have a good show
lined up for you. My name is Dan Ray. I'm
the host of Nightside, and let us get rolling. We're
(00:45):
going to start off by talking about a new tax
here in Massachusetts. Very few things are taxed, as I'm
sure all of you who are taxpayers in Massachusetts. No,
the only two things that are actually taxed in Massachusetts
are anything that moves and anything that doesn't move. So
with that as a backdrop, let me introduce Colon Young.
(01:05):
He is a State House news report Colin, how are
you tonight?
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Welcome very well, Dan, thanks very much, for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
So the folks up on Beacon Hill, we're not exactly
sure who can claim credit for this, have decided that
they want to add to our cable costs because they
want to tax some of the cable boxes. Tell me
about it.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, this was something that the Healy administration first floated
back in February, and it was finalized in the middle
of June, so it is now in effect. And essentially,
what the Department of Revenue came out and said was
that the last time they looked at this issue, back
in two thousand and eight, cable boxes, or at least
(01:51):
the ones they were reviewing, were mostly just to actually
get cable TV into your house and watch it live.
Since then, you know, cable boxes now you can record
almost anything on TV. You can use your cable box
to get into your internet based streaming platforms and to
(02:13):
get to all kinds of other entertainment. And the Department
of Revenue determined that back in two thousand and eight,
they said cable boxes were not subject to the state's
sales tax because there were a piece of equipment used
exclusively for TV transmission, so they fit into an exemption.
(02:33):
And now they're saying essentially, Hey, these boxes do a
whole lot more than transmit TV. Now, so now they
should be subject to the sales tax, and that'll add
a six point two five percent at tax onto those
monthly rentals or the yearly leases of those boxes.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Okay, so so what's what's what is the monthly rental
for a box? I should have reviewed my own cable
bill here, what what are we talking about? Six point
six point two five percent of what I guess would be.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Those monthly rentals are usually in the fifteen dollars a
month twenty dollars a month range. That you know, I
shouldn't have pulled the exact number from my bill too.
I'm a little afraid to actually go see if I'm
now getting taxed on it. But usually they write about
fifteen to twenty dollars a month. So if it's twenty
(03:30):
dollars a.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Month, yeah, let's say twenty dollars a month, that's two
hundred and forty dollars of your cable bill per year
deals with the cable box, and six point two five
percent of that's going to be about another fifteen dollars
a year that Governor Heally is sticking her hand in
your pocket.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I mean, that's right.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Do they have no shame? I mean, it's like they're
going to get everybody and the people who rely upon
cable boxes off times, our folks who you know are older,
and that is really their form of entertainment.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Right, that's right. You think about the number of the
just the sheer number of cable boxes I would be
willing to bet has been on the decline in Massachusetts
as people cut the cord, cut the cable and they say, nope,
I'm just gonna use all the streaming apps instead. You're
exactly right. It leaves the the remaining people who have
(04:32):
cable boxes to foot the bill for something like this exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
And was there any opposition up there or was everybody
gleeful that they have found another way to uh, to
get money from from from this from the stone.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
You know, I was a little bit surprised, Dan, there
was really not much talk on Beacon Hill about this one,
and you know, surprised, of course. I wrote about it
back in February and then heard cricket and I was shocked.
I thought, for sure, oh this is going to get
people's attention, This will get people talking, and it really
didn't until it took effect last month. I will say
(05:12):
the one politician I heard talk about this in either
the House or the Senate was Senator Mark Montigny from
New Bedford. He brought it up during the Senate's budget
debate and tried to put a stop to it and
basically said, you know, dr can call this whatever it wants.
This is a new tax. This is raising the costs
(05:35):
of living for people all across Massachusetts. And so he
sort of planted his flag of opposition to it, and
of course it still proceeded to take effect all the same.
But there was at least one politician who you know,
said hey, wait a minute, what are we doing here?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
And who was that? Which that was?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
That was Mark Montigny, as he's.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
A state center. If for not mistake, well, at least
it's nice to know that there's one guy up there.
I just it's just as frustrating to think that so
many people are interested in, you know, just just getting
every little bit of money that they can, you know,
from from people here in Massachusetts. I don't know. It
(06:24):
almost as if they have decided that, guess what, people
in Massachusetts really don't care. We can just pick their
pockets anytime we want. I mean, that's the impression I'm
getting that that that there's no fight left is there's
no Republican party up there that's having much of an impact.
(06:45):
You're no one in the Democratic Party. There used to
be a bunch of Democrats who were concerned about taxpayers, but.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
It's they all talk about the cost of living. That
that's always they always talk about that as being one
of their top concerns, you know, and this one, particularly,
the way it came about, I think it might take
people by surprise when they get their bill and go, hey, wait,
that's a little bit higher than it has been because
(07:15):
this wasn't something that needed to be voted on by
the House in the Senate and get signed by the governor.
This didn't happen by law. This is something where the
Department of Revenue just issued this order, issued this directive
and said here's our policy going forward. So, you know,
there wasn't a lot of public There wasn't much chance
(07:38):
for the public to weigh in. There was a very
brief period back in the spring where do R took
comments from the public.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
But the attention to those it's just interesting that that
It's almost as if the fact that that Massachusetts will
continue to tax and pick people's pockets, it's almost on
automatic pilot. No one even has to fly the plane anymore.
(08:05):
No politician has to get up and say it's my idea.
And what that does is that immunizes the incumbents, and
it is Oh boy, I'll tell you it's it's time
for a lot of people to wake up in Massachusetts
and realize again. You know you're gonna say, hey, fifteen
dollars a year. Maybe fifteen dollars a year to you
and me doesn't mean a whole art, but it might
(08:27):
mean something to an older person or an older couple
who run fixed income. Absolutely, aren't those the people that
the Democrats say that they're concerned about.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
I don't know, even if it's only fifteen dollars, you
know that's that's still fifteen dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Yeah, you guys are great watchdogs up there. State House
News service the local TV stations used to have. When
I was working at WBZ, we had state House reporters.
John Henning was upgive for two four and different different
reporters took times that their Walt Sanders would spend a
lot of time at the people who perhaps you didn't
grow up watching, but I got to tell you they
(09:04):
kept the politicians more honest. And you guys are doing
a great job. How can you subscribe to your service,
state House News Reporter the average person just simply state
House News dot com.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
I assume exactly state Housenews dot com. We are a
subscription based service, but people can definitely go to the website,
start checking it out, get a trial subscription to read
more and to check out some of the other features
on our website to try to keep them honest. And
if we had more reporters up there, like you know,
(09:39):
when all the TVs and all the local papers had
reporters there, you know, powering numbers, and it would be
good to get back to those numbers.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yeah, well it really would. But again, you're doing a
great job as a State House news service, and thank
you for what you do because you're about the only
consistent line of communication we have. And I appreciate every
time you guys come on the show at night.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You always Walt, it's always a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Hey, thanks, callin we'll talk soon, Okay.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
My pleasure. Dan, thanks very much.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
All right, we're gona take quick break. We come back.
We're going to talk about cybercrime. Yeah, I'm going to
talk with Eric O'Neill. He's a cyber security expert, and
there's a lot of this stuff going on. Spies, lies,
and cyber crime coming up on the other side of
the break. Here on Nightside, my name is Dan Ray
and the host of the show. Been working with a
(10:28):
couple of little technical issues here and Robie got everything
squared away. While conducting the interv with Colin, I was
doing some multitasking. Rob and Shane are back in the
control room, so we have double duty tonight and we're
in good shape. We'll be back right after this on Nightside.
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on wz Boston's
(10:49):
news radio. Well, I am delighted to meet this next guest,
Eric O'Neill. Eric's career began in the FBI's Counter Intelligent
trenches as an undercover operative. And Eric, as I understand it,
you spent some time rooting out I think one of
the most heinous spies in f well, in US history,
(11:13):
Robert Philip Hanson. I know a little bit about that case.
You must know a lot about that case. Welcome to
night Side.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
It's great to be on night Side Light. Thanks for
having me.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Yeah, so you worked that case, the Hanson case, if I.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Was sent undercover, and probably what was the most unique
case the FBI's ever run. They built a brand new
department within FBI headquarters as a mouse trapped to catch Hanson,
who was a spy for the Soviet Union and the
Russian Federation for over twenty two years.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
He also went to the same church I think as
the then director of the FBI he was. I had
Liz Wheelon, who wrote the book A Spy in Playing
Sight two or three years ago. Liz wrote a great
book on that I have to go back and reread it.
I want you to know that I spent a good
(12:05):
portion of my time as a television reporter for CBS
here in Boston investigating the totally corrupt Boston office of
the FBI. You probably don't want to hear me say that,
but instead of full disclosure, we had an office with
people like Paul Rico, Dennis Condon, John Connelly and others
up here, and we spent a lot of time going
(12:30):
after the FBI. But you're one of the good guys.
You went after the bad guys in the FBI. So
I am honored to meet you, Eric, let's talk.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
That was definitely my job to go undercover and catch
the spies and bad guys. And if you want to
read the definitive book on the Hanson case, it's my
book Great Day, which came out a few years ago,
and tell us the story from my eyes of being
inside the investigation.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Well, I'll tell you what do you know? You must
know Liz Wheel I.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Assume right, I know of her and we don't know
each other.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Yeah, okay, Well you know what I'm gonna do. I'm
going to call you and I'll have you back on
to talk about your book, and we'll do it for
an hour some night.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Okay, sounds great.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I mean that's seriously because I'm fascinated by this case.
This guy was a devout Roman Catholic as you as
you well know. I don't need to tell you anything
about him. Uh. And he's has he died in prisoners,
he's still alive.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
He passed away in June of twenty twenty three, a
couple of years ago, natural causes. Yeah, and he was
in super max prison in Florence, Colorado, and probably one
of the most horrible prisons on earth.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yeah, he's out there with the Boston bomber and a
lot of the other big name people. But what a
what a creep. Anyway, great day is the book? Okay,
I'll have you back. I problem. So let's talk about
cyber attacks. What's going on now? We got to cease
fire with Iron and Israel. I believe, and I don't
know what information you have, but I believe that Iran's
(14:01):
nuclear capacity and capability has been badly damaged. And the
reason I believe that is not any inside information, Eric,
but I believe you watch what people do as opposed
to what they say, and I know what they're saying
for domestic consumption in Iran, but I'm watching what they do,
and for them to have engaged in this ceasefire now
for over a week tells me that they're hurting right now.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah, I agree with that assessment. I think that if
nothing else there a nuclear weaponization program has been pushed back.
I've said at least a decade. It takes quite some
time to come back from this. Those centrifugures that would
have all been destroyed take years to even build and
set up and it's going to be very difficult for
(14:45):
them to restart the program with all the scrutiny that's
on the country.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
And as I tried to convince a caller of mine
a week or so ago, without centrifuges, Iran doesn't.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Build bombs, that's right. They can't weaponize the ranium, uh,
to get it to the point where they can actually
put indugular weapon on one of their ballistic missiles.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Okay, so let's talk what what are we looking at
right now? How exposed are we to I don't worry
about Israel cyber attacking us, but I sure worry about uh,
you know, lone wolves, and I worry about Iranian operatives. Uh,
they had operatives who are around the world killing people. Uh.
I mean it's that they they play for keeps.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah. Well, and remember that not too long ago a
plot was uncovered, an Iranian plot to assassinate President Trump. Yes,
so they certainly are not shy about launching terrorist attacks
of all shapes and sizes, whether it's kinetic or cyber. Now.
I think right now they're reeling. Uh. Their military has
(15:51):
been decimated.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
They their regime is struggling internally with their population who uh,
you know, maybe most people might not know. Most of
the people in Iran really hate the regime. They're trapped,
and so they have to deal with that unrest from
the inside. But the one thing that Iron can continue
to do is the eight symmetrical warfare that they have
(16:14):
been waging against the US and the West in general
for years, which is cyber.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Attacks, which would include.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Right, So, Iran has been attacking the United States in
particular for years, and they've been launching what we call
probe attacks against our critical infrastructure. These are attacks that
are in preparation for any kind of future of war,
which could be tomorrow, and these probe attacks are attempts
to embed themselves within different systems in the US critical infrastructure.
(16:49):
When I at lea say critical infrastructure, people normally think
lights and power, but it also includes water, natural gas,
waste water removal, you know, if you can't plush your
toilet problem, and communications. China, you know, just attack our
major telecom selth providers and was able to get into
(17:09):
networks and read people's texts and listen to their voicemails.
So critical infrastructure is sort of the holy grail for
threat actors of all stripes and sizes, and Iran has
been embedding themselves in our critical infrastructure for years now.
The good news is that we do find them. You know, SIKA,
who is the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency, and the FBI
(17:33):
i C three, the Internet Crime Complaint Center, and the
FBI's different cyber divisions are very good at rooting them out.
But our critical infrastructure is old, it has poorly designed
on patch systems, and so bad guys are constantly trying
to worm their way in.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
You know, I'll tell you a funny story that I've
told my callers online listeners. But several years ago, I
was with my family in a foreign country I'm not
going to say where, and we were having dinner in
a at a resort where we were and my daughter,
(18:11):
who for some reason checks every room where, every public
room where we are located, and she said to me,
don't turn around, don't look behind you. And of course,
what's your impulse when your daughter or someone says that
to you, You want to look around. Well, we were
sitting at a table right behind the author Selmon Rushti,
(18:35):
who at that point there had been a Fatois pointed.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Yeah, not the room you want to be in, not.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
The room you want to be in. It was, you know,
it was a nice area. So but but I remember
talking to my daughter after the saying, thank god they
didn't execute the fatois on him that night. Of course,
he was stabbed and sadly and badly injured recently in Buffalo,
New York by it looked like a lone wolf. But
these folks on the other side, they play for keeps
(19:02):
and eric. Guys like you, guys and women, men and
women like you are the front line. And I truly
appreciate everything that you do. The name of your book
is Spies, Lies and Cybercrime, kind of like the sex,
Lies and Videotape. But that's that's very well done, HarperCollins
(19:25):
available everywhere, I'm sure, and it's a it's a book
that everybody should read. I'm going to be back in
touch with you, and we're going to get you in
to talk about Gray Day and the pursuit of Hanson,
because obviously we have to make sure that our own
intelligence systems N S, A, C, I, A, FBI, et cetera.
(19:45):
All the alphabet soup agencies are you know, purer than
the driven snow and Hanson. Hanson was able to live
it a complete double life. And the work that you
did to to you know, secure his arrest and conviction,
it was the service of this country. So I'm honored
to meet you, Eric, and I hope we will have
(20:06):
you back. I promise, Okay, Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
It was great to talk to you, and I'm looking
forward to coming back on the show and diving into
that handsOn case. It was incredibly unique and important because
Hanson blue holes and counter intelligence and fixing. It was
critical for the entire intelligence apparatus here in the United States.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
But despite with some of the old FBI agents might
tell you in Bosson, I'm not a bad guy. I'm
on the right team.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I haven't heard anything negative, So don't worry about that.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
Thanks Eric. We'll talk soon, all right, right when we
get back. When we get back, we're going to talk
about a new tax, well other tax. It's a tip.
It's a tip. It's a charge that you might see
when you go to a restaurant. Believe me, you want
to know about this one. My name's Dan Ray. This
(20:58):
is night Side. It's called a three percent kitchen appreciation. Oh,
it's a tax, but it's really, it's a surch arts.
Let's put it like that. We'll be back at Nightside
right after this. You're on night Side, well Boston's news radio.
All right, let's get right back at it. When look,
(21:19):
you walt to restaurants and you run it's restaurants are
expensive no matter where you go. Uh, and you certainly
want to leave a tip for the waiter or waitress
that served you and your party at that restaurant. And
there's there's a new charge which is showing up kind
(21:40):
of unannounced at some restaurants. It's a kitchen appreciation charge
with us as Sharif Mityas, he's the CEO of Bricks Holdings,
a multi brand franchising company specializing in food service chain,
so he knows a lot about this. He's been a
guest before. Sharif, welcome back to.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Night Side, Thanks for having me back on.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
So I've heard of this, I've yet to experience it.
But how common is this this new charge? You know,
there are a lot of restaurants that when you do
takeout now they you know, all you do is you
walk up, you drive to the restaurant, you've called the
(22:20):
order in. They tell you when you get there, you
drive there, you walk in, and you pay for your meal,
and they hand you your bag or whatever, and then
they're like asking you for a tip, which to me is.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Well, it's very common. I mean it's very common. How
common is this kitchen appreciation charge? So they kind of
call it a tax because it doesn't go to the government,
that theoretically goes to the folks who work in the kitchen.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
That's right. Well, luckily it's not very prevalent, but you're
seeing it, to your point, in a lot of different ways.
Some people call it the server benefits tax. Some people
call it the living wage tax. Some people call it
the kitchen appreciation tax. So yeah, you can call it
a lot of different things. But whatever you call it,
(23:12):
it's a problem. First of all, you're being deceptive, right,
You're not being upfront that this is going to show
up on your bill, right, all you get at the
end of the meal that that's that's not right. And
restaurants that would would do that and are doing that
are are probably going to lose a lot of guests
very quickly.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
So let's just break it down for people. So you
go to a restaurant with your family, let us say
your your wife, your husband, and a couple of kids.
And when the bill comes the food and the drinks,
let's say keep it simple, one hundred dollars. Okay, so
it would it would have one hundred dollars. You're going
to assume that you're going to pay it. You're going
(23:51):
to add a tip. But on the one hundred dollars
right away, you're getting whacked for another three bucks on
this again as charge or kitchen appreciation dex whatever you
want to call it. So then you say, okay, I
want to you know, twenty percent is what you should
if you've had nice service from a wai or a waitress.
I think that's what should be should be done. So now,
(24:14):
so instead of costing you one hundred and twenty bucks,
have cost one hundred and twenty three bucks. So you're
getting nickeled and dined a little bit. I'd rather have
them say to me, there's a twenty five dollars charge
for the cooks in the kitchen, as opposed to they
nickel and dime you. It's it.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, it's a problem. And to your point, they shouldn't
even they shouldn't even come up with any type of charge,
even if they tell you up in front. If and
we know wages gone up, right, people get it. Food
has gone up. Everyone who's gone to the grocery store
to restaurants, we all know it, right. So it's not
some big surprise. Raise your prices a bit, right, we
all know we're paying more. So if the burger has
(24:52):
to be eleven dollars versus ten and a quarter, then
just raise the price of the menu item, right, Be upfront,
Be transparent with your customers.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
I found out sunday. I have a friend of mine
who's dealing with a pretty tough medical diagnosis. So I
take them to brunch. I go to the gym on
Sunday morning and I got some time, and so we
had men to This was a local restaurant, it's a chain.
(25:21):
I'm not going to mention the name of it. And
we ordered. We had identical orders, like three pancakes and coffee.
Hadn't been in there in a couple of months and normally,
well one thing. I guess what that costs one order
of pancakes and a coffee. Two orders of pancakes and
(25:42):
two coffees. What do you think you would expect to
pay for that?
Speaker 3 (25:46):
Well, it shouldn't have been more than twenty dollars, but
I'm guessing it was a.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Lot more thirty eight dollars.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Yeah, and that's a problem.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
It was unbelievable. It was like, first of all, if
we've gone to the ritz or to force size, I
get it. It's going to cost me sixty bucks for breakfast,
I get it, okay, and if I want to it's
like three pancakes. And by the way, this was not
We was seated next to a poor, homeless woman who
(26:16):
had all of her wife's possession sitting there with us.
Oh yeah, yeah, well you know she had to have
breakfast somewhere too, so it wasn't what you'd call an
elegant dining experience.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Reef right, But you paid for one.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Well, but by time you know, I'm not going to
show change the waiter he got, it's like forty eight
dollars for two vaters of three pan cakes. Now they
were trying to ship pancakes, so let me be honest
with you. There at the coat the coffees were three
ninety nine, which is a little exhabited. But I think
(26:52):
that what's going to happen is that people are going
to say, you know, and I can. I can scramble
some eggs at home and read the Sunday newspaper. This
easily they will kill the golden goose. I think, I
don't know, maybe maybe I'm just quanky, but I think
that all that concern in April about the tariffs, right,
that a lot of people, a lot of companies have
(27:14):
raised their prices, not because the prices went up, but
because they saw it as an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
And I think that's right.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Those companies are going to pay for it in the
long run. I mean, what is your own thing? How
quickly of the economy right now? The stock market seems
to be humming. I know that the tax the so
called big beautiful bill, which is not necessarily going to
be big and beautiful for everyone, that's for sure, just
(27:43):
survived in the in the Senate, and I think they
have lots of problems in the House. What is your
sense as to where the where the economy is going
right now?
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah? I think the issue, I think and everyone feels
it is just the uncertainty. Right we just don't know
what's going to happen three months, six months from now,
and so when people are uncertain, people pull back, right,
they don't go out as much. They kind of hoard
a little bit of the money, right, discretionary spending, So
restaurants do get hit. Other kind of discretionary spending out there,
(28:14):
retail gets hit because people are just they're not concerned
as much as just uncertain and so that uncertainty creates pullback,
and that's what you're seeing. And so yes, more people
are going to eat at home, more people are going
to hold back on that one extra purchase. And that's
what I think we're going to see for at least
the next few months, until we kind of see where
(28:35):
interest rates are headed. People see where this bill is headed,
and the impact in the economy. We'll see if trade
deals get resolved. All these things just create uncertainty, and
so once they get resolved, people should be happy to
go back out and spend a little bit more money.
They kind of know what they have to spend. But
until that point, then it's going to be tight and
it's going to be tough.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Well, there's a lot of the bill, the no tax
on tips for weight staff, which I think is going
to help help people. At the same time, I read
today the gasoline prices are down lowest in the last
for maybe five years, which is a good print. And
I also I follow the oil markets very closely. Oil
(29:17):
despite everything that's been going on in the Middle East,
is still down in the you know, sixty four sixty
five dollars range for the various oil, all of which
is a good indicator. Now, you know, apps in something
crazy happening, maybe we're on a on a good flight
path here. I don't know. We'll keep our fingers crossed,
(29:38):
that's for sure.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
I so appreciate you you coming back because I know
that you really do understand this industry, and we've talked
about different aspects of it and what percentage real quickly,
what percentage And I'm sure there's no study on this,
but what percentage of the restaurants around the country do
you think of doing the on takeouts? Handing you when
you give me a credit card, you know you want
(30:00):
to do an eighteen percent twenty percent tip. I got
hit with that and an ice cream joint a few
couple of months ago. It was like a ice cream
goal from my grandson and myself and it was expense.
It was sixteen bucks and they wouldn't take cash. They
said oh no, you got to go credit card and
do create cash when I left nothing as a tip
(30:24):
on the credit card, and then I took a couple
of bucks out of my pocket and I said, now
do you take cash for tip? Oh? Yeah, yeah, I
take cash for tip. I believe. Yeah. I got to
do something on the direction, and maybe I'll have you
on for this. I want to do something on we
moving towards a cashless society. I had a oh, ar,
(30:46):
well that I'm worried. Are you concerned about that or no?
Or am I paranoid? Well?
Speaker 3 (30:51):
I think it's I think there's always going to be
a place for cash. Just to be very clear, but yeah,
we're definitely moving towards more of a cashless society, especially
as more digital payments occur. Right, people are paying on
their front to keep up, not even pulling out the
credit card. Right, So it's easy to tap a button
(31:12):
without even pulling your wallet out. And so especially the
younger generation Dan, right, so a little be younger than
you and.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
I I should have you back and we should talk
about that. I was sure at a store on Sunday,
just buying scallops, and I went to pay in cash,
and the guy said to me, he says, you're the exception.
So what are you talking about. It was a nice
scallop store, very very nice story. He said. Only about
two percent of our customers now pay cash. Everybody's got
the plastic. Everybody's got the plastic. And I mean, I'll
(31:38):
tell you this, the one place cash is always going
to work. If you're in Vegas and you want to
get front row seat at one of those shows, just
tell them mister.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
There you go, bes as you go always in Vegas.
Thanks for having me on again, Dan, Thanks talk soon.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Okay, when we get back, we're going to talk about
chat GPT, which is great. We'll explain what it is.
But there's not something called chat gp psychosis. People are
actually being involuntarily committed because they're spiraling downward into chat
GPT psychosis. We're gonna talk with doctor Lee Richardson. She's
(32:14):
a professional counselor and founder of the Brain Performance Center.
You won't believe this stuff. This is scary. Back on
Night Side after this Night Side with Dan Ray on
Boston's news Radio, we're delighted to be joined by doctor
Lee Richardson, a licensed professional councilor, founder of the Brain
Performance Center, Doctor Richardson. I know we're a little crammed
(32:37):
on time here. I apologize for that, but we're talking
about people who are being involuntarily committed because they are
somehow spiraling into chat GPT psychosis. You and I both
know what chat GPT is, but tell us for those
who don't tell us exactly what it is quickly and
(33:00):
and what is going on. People are getting hooked on
this stuff.
Speaker 4 (33:05):
Well, people are getting hooked on it because what's going
on is people are finding their best friend on a computer,
someone that they can talk to in the middle of
the night and they can in their darkest moment, sure
what they're feeling and what they're thinking. And the problem
is is chat GBT can't tell what's reality and what's delusional.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
Yeah, they could talk to me in the middle of
the night, at least until midnight. I'm better than chat GPT.
Chat GPT basically is this this little website or this website, Well,
you pretty much can put anything in there and it'll
spit back a whole bunch of stuff to you.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Well, it's a large language model and absolutely you can
ask you can ask chat I mean, I have a
good friend that calls Chat instead of AI, she calls
him Al, her boyfriend. Yeah, I've got to go talk
to Al, my boyfriend. I'll tell you because you can
say anything and ask questions and you'll get an answer.
(34:08):
The problem is is Al will talk back to you
the same way you talk to him. And I think
that's where people are getting They're getting hooked. They are
I mean they're lonely. I mean, loneliness still continues to
be a huge, a substantial global problem. And we're lonely,
(34:31):
and we turn to something that we think can give
us good answers and it can't. The platforms for a
thirteen year old.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Let me ask you this question. I know that there's
no number that you can cite from me here, but
just from your experience, what percentage of the people in
America do you think are clinically what you would call lonely,
meaning you know, have such a small circle of friends
or don't reach out to people. Are we talking like
(35:02):
two or three percent? Are we talking twenty twenty five percent?
Speaker 4 (35:06):
Oh no, we're talking twenty twenty five percent. And if
you think back till a couple of years ago, our
Surgeon General declared it an epidemic. And then there's research
that shows that the loneliest population are the young males
age fifteen to thirty four, and one out of five
of us has depression or anxiety, and with that comes
(35:31):
some loneliness.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
So how do we here? We have like four minutes left,
so let's solve the problem. How do we solve this problem?
I mean, you know, there's no quick and easy answer.
I know that. But what can people do to turn
this this horrific set of circumstances or state of mind around?
Speaker 4 (35:53):
Well, I think we all have to take responsibility and
pay attention, use your situation aware. If you see friends,
if you see family or colleague, and you see big
behavioral changes, they're isolating, they're shutting down, or they're not
sleeping at all, they're up all night, they stopped eating.
(36:14):
All of these are red flags that they're struggling with something.
And you know, so many times people say, I don't
know what to say. If you say nothing more than
I since you're having a bad day, and if there's
anything I can do to make it your day a
little bit better, please tell me. You know what's going
(36:35):
to make a difference.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
It's funny you talk about these males between fifteen and
thirty four. I think about the kid that took the
shot at President Trump or then candidate Trump, twenty year
old kid out in Butler, Pennsylvania, and I still have
read very little about his background in terms of how
the heck do you get to that point where you're
going to climb up on a roof? Or this guy
(36:57):
in Idaho the other day who set the fire and
then decided to take potshots as a sniper at firefighters,
how do you ever get to that point? I mean, it's.
Speaker 4 (37:09):
This is scary you get to that, You get to
that point because you get no attention, You get not
everybody has access to mental health counseling. If you don't
have insurance, you probably don't. And even if you have insurance,
connecting with the right therapist is very, very difficult because
(37:30):
the demand is so high. So I think that we
as society have got to recognize that brain health instead
of saying those two ugly words mental health. Brain health
is everybody's responsibility. And when you see somebody struggling, just
say how can I help you? Dr Richard, I don't feel.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Like you, Doctor Richard, don't mean to interrupt but and
I've short changed your time, and you've been always a
great guy. I apologize for that. Give us the website.
How do folks get in touch with you or the
Brain Performance Center?
Speaker 4 (38:06):
Well absolutely, we've got that good old fashioned thee Brain
Performance Center dot com and they can find doctor Lee
Richardson on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Doctor Richardson, We'll have you back, and I owe you
some time here. You're a great guest. No, no, no,
I know that, and I do appreciate that. But I
got some guilt fields here, doctor Richardson. I got to
work them out. Okay, thanks so much. You're welcome by
doctor Lee Richardson. We come back. We're going to talk
about a situation that probably I could talk to doctor
(38:40):
Richardson about, and that is the guy out in Idaho,
not the guy that took the shots of the firefighters,
but the guy that killed four college students. He now
is going to be able to plead guilty and avoid
the death penalty. Is that really justice? We'll be back
right after the nine o'clock news on night sid
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