Solving Mysteries

Today on the Jimmy Barrett Show:

• Local Houston stories
• Runoff elections

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, what we need is more common sense.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Breaking down the world's nonsense about.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
How American common sense.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Will see us through With the common sense of Houston,
I'm just pro common sense for Houston from Houston. This
is the Jimmy Barrett Show, brought to you by viewind
dot Com. Now here's Jimmy Barrett.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
All right, welcome to our Monday program. But we're gonna
get started with trying to solve a mystery here and
it's and I'm trying to figure this one out. And
I have to admit I might be I might I
might be stumped for what the specific cause is. It
might be a whole bunch of things. But I'm I'm
I'm mystified about why it is that we continue to

(00:56):
see an uptick and the amount of teacher student relationships
at the high school level. I'm not talking about in college.
I'm talking about in the high school, where you're talking
about fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, and sometimes eighteen year old kids
who are having a physical relationship with a teacher sometimes

(01:21):
forty fifty or more years old. And I'm trying to
figure out how that's going on.

Speaker 5 (01:27):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:28):
Granted, yo, students don't look the same as when I
was a student. I don't think any of the girls
I went to high school with look like some of
the girls I see in the high school these days.
So there's a certain level. I don't know what it is.
I don't know if it's hormones. I don't know if
it's diet or what it is. But there are certainly
some young women out there who come to mind who

(01:53):
look a little bit older than your average sixteen or
seventeen year old. But if your teacher, you still understand
that that's that's forbidden, right, You're supposed to understand that.
And what is it other than you know, sex, What
is it a forty or fifty year old teacher would
see in a young student? Anyway, I don't quite understand

(02:15):
what's going on here. Anyway, there's been a huge uptick.
Here's the report on this big uptick from our television partner,
KPRC too.

Speaker 6 (02:23):
So they choose these vulnerable kids and they give them
a lot of attention.

Speaker 7 (02:26):
Sexual grooming and abuse inside our classrooms, and the accused
perpetrators are often the very people parents trust to protect
their kids. The criminal investigations underway involving the head football
coach at Kline High School, former and ukney Ic Middle
School teacher is in jail.

Speaker 8 (02:41):
Cleveland, ID says an employee at the Cleveland Ninth Grade
Center has been charged with an improper relationship.

Speaker 7 (02:49):
This past week, several Houston area educators were arrested, charged
or investigated over misconduct allegations involving students. So I looked
at data from TA and found out there has been
a nearly fit fifty percent increase statewide in sexual misconduct
investigations this school year compared to last and a more
than one hundred and fifty percent increase in inappropriate relationship investigations.

(03:11):
Is this a trend that's happening nationwide?

Speaker 6 (03:14):
We do see there's a general trend over the last
twenty years that we're seeing more cases of educator sexual
misconducting abuse.

Speaker 7 (03:21):
Doctor Elizabeth Juglig is a psychologist who has researched child
sexual abuse and educator misconduct.

Speaker 6 (03:27):
The educator will select a child who is either vulnerable
because of psychological problems or because they lack guardianship, or
they sometimes choose compliant children. They then gain access to
them through.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Their role in the school.

Speaker 6 (03:40):
And now we're seeing a lot of it through text, messaging,
and social media.

Speaker 7 (03:44):
In the last legislative session, Texas lawmakers expanded oversight of
educator misconduct. Senate Bill five seventy one strengthened mandatory reporting requirements,
and Housepill forty six twenty three holds school districts liable
if they're found negligent in handling abuse.

Speaker 9 (03:59):
Aations we need to really treat sexual misconduct prevention in
the same way that we treat other ways to keep
our kids safe.

Speaker 7 (04:08):
Jamie Forbes is the co founder of the organization Learning Courage,
which works with schools across the country to prevent sexual misconduct.
The issue is personal.

Speaker 9 (04:18):
My co founder and I are both survivors of educator
sexual misconducts from our time in high school.

Speaker 7 (04:26):
He tells me most teachers do the right thing, but
to look for the ones who don't. He says parents
need to have an open dialogue with their kids.

Speaker 9 (04:34):
It can be an uncomfortable topic, but what we know
is that conversation and education is the best way to
protect kids.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
Okay, how do you spot a teacher like this? Are
there some giveaway signs? I have no experience with this
when I was in school. Here's my memory of when
I was in school. All I only remember having one
quote unquote hot teacher. My French teacher was recently out

(05:06):
of college, so she was young. She was in her twenties,
very attractive, And that is the only teacher I've ever
had in my entire career that could ever say, yeah
that I'd like to get busy with that. Most of
my teachers, especially in elementary school, all by teachers were
much I mean they were like many of them were

(05:26):
getting ready to retire. They were old, or certainly I
thought they were old at the time. So I've never
quite understood that part of it. And in the phenomenon
that started I'm going to say fifteen twenty years ago,
and maybe this is where we started to see the increase.
Before fifteen or twenty years ago, it seems like they
all these incidents were almost always about male teachers and

(05:52):
young female students, or maybe in some cases extreme cases
a gay teacher with a gay student kind of a thing.
But you didn't really hear about young female teachers hitting
on high school boys. In fact, most when I was
in high school, I think we were I think boys

(06:13):
in general were thought of is two things generally immature
and only thinking about one thing, you know, trying to
get busy. I mean, that was kind of the sole mission.
At least that was my sole mission when I was
sixteen or seventeen years old, which is why I thank
god every day I had boys. I realized that that
sounds sexist, but I would have driven myself insane raising girls.

(06:37):
I would have just had too many members of being
as a teenage boy. But I've never really understood the
whole young female teacher looking for a young male student.
That never could. I always thought that girls complained about
boys being immature, and you would think they'd be looking
for somebody more mature than some sort of a high

(06:59):
school student. I don't know, maybe I'm missing something all this.
I'm sure there's a whole variety of different reasons why
teachers and students get involved in this stuff.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
This is from Baytown.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Students are very vulnerable.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
They are knowledgeable, but they don't quite understand the ramifications.
After the fact, teachers should act their age and author
iq and quit trying to live their second childhood. I
think in the employment process they ought to not only
go a background check, but they also should go a
mental evaluation before they're hired.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
M I wonder what kind of a test you could
give that would indicate that you might have somebody who's
going to be a problem. Is there a test you
can give that would would give you that kind of information?
If there is, maybe we should start giving it all right,
quick little break back with bortemoment. Jimmy Barrettshaw. You're an
am NAM fifty KPRC. I want to lead off our

(08:10):
second segment on our show today, on our Monday show
with Crime and Punishment. This is another local story, also
from KPRC two. It involves a man who was a
working in tom Ball as a restaurant manager. Evidently gave
one of his weight staff fentanyl to take the edge

(08:34):
off or for whatever reason he gave her the fetanyl.
I don't know if she knew it was fentanyl when
he gave it to her, but she took the fentanyl
and he killed her. He has been sentenced to six
years in prison. He could have faced longer than that,
but he's been sentenced to six years. Here's the report

(08:55):
from our television partner, KPRC two.

Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, Yeah, Joel and Lisa.

Speaker 10 (08:58):
We've been following the case of Eric Simberra for nearly
a year and a half now. It was a first
of its kind case fentanyl murder for the Tomball Police Department.
He is now twenty eight and a judge has just
decided tonight he will spend six years, not the max
of twenty in prison. Erica Russell had just turned twenty four,
only living here in Texas for less than a year.
She worked at a restaurant in Tomball where Simbera was

(09:21):
her manager, according to court records, and he gave her
a fatal bump of fentanyl one night after work in
August twenty twenty four. In January, records show Simbera pled
guilty to the lesser delivery of a controlled substance causing death.
And as you can imagine, this has been a devastating
time for Russell's family. Her mother talked with us right
after Simberra got arrested.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Losing my daughter, losing my Erica was there's no comparison
like I am in pain every single day of my life.
It is a death sentence.

Speaker 6 (09:50):
If you mess around with fentanyl, there's a huge chance
you're going to die.

Speaker 10 (09:54):
And we know fentanyl affects thousands of families across Texas.
Data from the State Health Department shows Fence overdose deaths
have actually been slowly dropping the last few years, from
more than twenty three hundred there in twenty twenty three
to just over twelve hundred reported last year. I just
got off the phone with Russell's family in the last
thirty minutes. They tell me that they are satisfied with
the judge's decision.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
They call it fair.

Speaker 10 (10:16):
They hope Samba gets the help he needs, but say
nothing will bring their daughter back. He has been out
on bond this time, but after the judges sentencing today
he has now been taken into custody.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
Right, so six years in jail? Is is that enough punishment?
Do you think? Is that appropriate punishment for giving somebody
a fatal dose ephenol, assuming he knew it was fennyl.
I don't think this is necessarily enough. I mean, for
all we know about the dangers of fennol, why anybody

(10:49):
it's like Betha and fennemin. You know your teeth are
going to fall out, right, you know you're going to
look like a corpse. Why would anybody do that? Why
if you know what the ingredients are methamfetamine, why would
you ingest that? Why would you do that. There are
other ways to get high if that's your goal, your
end goal, or to relax, that are far less dangerous.

(11:11):
Why why do we why do we do this? Why
do we dabble with things that are so dangerous, things
that can kill us? Why why do we take chances
like that? I mean to me, though, if you are
taking fetanol, you're telling me you have a death wish.
If you are taking methamphetamine, you tell me you you
don't really care if you live or die. And I'm

(11:32):
sure there's some people who probably you know, fit that description.
They really don't care if they live or die. Okay,
all right. If that's the case, If you don't care
if you live or die, then I guess that's one thing.
But how people make these decisions, or how anybody in
this day and age, with all the dangerous things that
are out there, would take something without knowing what that

(11:54):
something is. That that part is the part. I just
I really don't get it. I really don't.

Speaker 5 (12:00):
All right.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
Here's another local story I wanted to pass along. This
is a this one, well, it's a state wide story.
It's a piece that we saw in the Texas scorecard,
and it involves high voltage transmission lines electricity which are
going to run from the eastern part of the Texas
to the western part of Texas to the Permium basin

(12:23):
where we have all kinds of energy. Why do we
need to run transmission lines, high voltage transmission lines to
move electricity from the eastern part of the state to
the western part of the state. Why don't we just
build a power plant out there if they don't have
enough power plants. I mean, how much more expensive would
it be to build a new power plant out there

(12:44):
than it would be to build all these transmission lines.
And quite honestly, we probably wouldn't even know that much
about it, except it involves a couple of things, not
the least of which is a piece of property last
time we checked, still owned by a Chinese billionaire who's
a big friend of the Chinese Communist Party. You know,

(13:07):
he just happens at home hold the ownership of a
whole bunch of land by a military base, and now
right next to where these high speed transmission lines would
be going in. We had a guest on our program
this morning over on KATRH they're talking about it with
the Texas scorecard. Here's the investigator who wrote the report

(13:28):
my conversation with him about this story. First of all, First,
how long have we known about this?

Speaker 5 (13:34):
Robert Well known about mister Sung Gwong Shin, that's the
name of the chis Ashley mentioned. We known about him
owning this land since about twenty fifteen, and that was
caused a huge concern in text aff for a while,
especially because of the fact the proxiditiust land towards a
US military base.

Speaker 3 (13:55):
But as far.

Speaker 5 (13:56):
As the land coming into close proximity with one of
these new proposed extra privultus transmission lines, we learned about
that put at funding the Public Utility Commission of Texas
this week.

Speaker 4 (14:11):
Okay, so we're just now finding out about this is
the problem here? Security? Are we worried that we have
a potential Chinese spy who can gain access to information
on our electric transmission lines? Is that what we're concerned about?

Speaker 5 (14:25):
Well, mister Gang Shin has report ties with the Chinese
Communist Party and one of his original plans we bought
all this land was to build wind energy farms and
connect the to Texas power grid. Now you have specialists
like Michael Lucci at State Armors. That's an organization that
advises state governments and how to protect our states, saying, look,

(14:48):
allowing individuals like mister Gong Shin to have close access
or proximity towards our energy grid, that's an unacceptable security
risks would love the opportunity to be able to cause
damage totical state infrastructure.

Speaker 4 (15:01):
Okay, is it just out of curiosity? Is anybody inquired
with this Chinese national to see if he might be
interested in selling that piece of property?

Speaker 5 (15:10):
For several years now, Texas State Legislature State wlawmakers are
trying to counteract the threat of mister Wangshin opening this
owning this land. But according to the following that we
look at, it appears he's still in control of it.
We have contacted the entities through which he owns this
land and they have not responded to our requests for

(15:31):
common at this time.

Speaker 4 (15:32):
Okay, so he still owns it, and as long as
he owns it, that is a security risk. That's the case.
Why not move the transmission lines?

Speaker 5 (15:40):
That's one of the questions. Several questions being asked about
these transmissions lines. You know, first off, the very idea
itself is being criticized. What's the proposal for these lines
to move energy from East Texas to the energy rich
Permian Basin, and Krick has been asking, Whyma, why don't
we just build energy locally in the Permian base region
instead of moving all this energy over And there are

(16:04):
numbers of Texans who have been alert that these lines
are going to cross through their property, that they're going
to be subject in the domain. And these Texans are like,
wait a minute, what is going on here? Why are
you seizing my land for something? Especially the close they
look at this project, the more questions they have.

Speaker 4 (16:19):
Plus I'm wondering too, I mean that any studies on
the health implications of high transmission lines? Are there any
things that along those lines that these people who's going
to have this across their property you need to be
worried about.

Speaker 5 (16:32):
Those are several questions that is being raised, like how
is this going to affect the health of my land?
You'd have ranchers who are concerned about what kind of
effect is this going to have on my cattle? And
during April twenty eighth meeting of a local government commission,
someone question encors due diligence regarding federal wildlife preservation requirements.

Speaker 11 (16:53):
It looks no end Call, which is one of the
say organizations involved in this. They're an electricityed delivery company.
Didn't look like they had been following general requirements at
this level.

Speaker 4 (17:04):
Okay, well, it'll be interesting to see if there's any
further attempt to try to stop this project. Is the
Attorney General's Office gotten involved? Is there anybody at this
point who's thinking they're trying to step in and prevent
this from happening.

Speaker 5 (17:15):
We don't heard from the History in General's Office, but
there is the Office of Public Utility Council. They file
a statement with the Stay Office Administry of Hearings on
this saying, look, you have to take into account state
a security lall when it comes to this project, and
also make sure that you take an account the Texans
has been excluded from this process and take their concerns

(17:38):
into account.

Speaker 3 (17:39):
All right.

Speaker 4 (17:40):
That is Robert Montoya. Robert is an investigative reporter who
works for Texas Scorecard. All right, next segment coming up,
among other things here Mark Jones, Rice University Professor. Today
is the first day of early voting for the May

(18:00):
twenty six primary runoff, which is coming up next Tuesday.
We are We've been running campaign spots like crazy for
the last couple of weeks for this runoff elections, especially
the race involving May's Middleton and chip Roy. So we're
gonna get some thoughts from from Mark Jones on the

(18:20):
races he finds most interesting. I think almost all, if
not all of them are pretty much on the Republican side.
Back with more in a moment, Jimmy Baird Show here
on AM nine fifty KPRC. By today is the first

(18:47):
day for early voting for the May twenty six runoff.
You've got a couple of big elections, especially on the
Republican side, where I think you'll have some I don't
want to say good voter turnout, because it's never voter
good voter turnout for any primary season. Better this year

(19:08):
than in past year, certainly because we've had some very
contested races. You know, the chip Roy, Mace Middleton thing
comes to mind. Will be asking Mark Jones about that.
The John Cornyan thing comes to mind. We've already seen
that people that President Trump have endorsed have done very
very well. In fact, maybe a good lead into this

(19:29):
to share with you would be the report out of Louisiana.
In Louisiana, Bill Cassidy. You know who Bill Cassidy is.
Bill Cassidy, Bill Cassidy sort of the John Cornyn of Louisiana. Yeah,
he's no Senator John Kennedy. It seems that we have

(19:49):
the same situation here in Texas that they have in Louisiana,
where they have one staunch conservative in Louisiana, just like
we have Ted Cruz here and then one rhino which
they have in louise added Bill Cassidy and in our case,
John Cornyn. So let's do this first. Let's listen to
the report on Bill Cassidy, who just not only did

(20:11):
he not make the runoff because this was the first
primary election, now they're going to have to have a
runoff between the two top VOGUE getters. He didn't make.
He came in fourth, thoroughly defeated. Here he is the
report from News Nation.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
Office for eight years, came in last.

Speaker 8 (20:26):
This has not happened to a Republican since twenty twelve
other instance. Yeah, so this was a big deal, a
major political shakeup in Louisiana. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy losing
his GOP primary bid failing to even make the runoff
after a brutal challenge backed by President Trump. Congresswoman and
Trump endorsed that Julia Letlow, who had President Trump's endorsement,

(20:48):
finished first with about forty five percent of the vote.
State Treasurer John Fleming came in second. Cassidy finished a
distant third, ending his re election campaign. Trump celebrated the
result of course on truth Social writing that Cassidy's political
career is over after years of attacking.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
Him for voting to convict Trump.

Speaker 8 (21:07):
Following January sixth, let Low thank Trump during her victory remarks,
calling the result a win for the America First movement,
while Cassidy of knowledge the loss and thank supporters.

Speaker 12 (21:19):
I've had the privilege of representing the state of Louisiana
for twelve years.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
I've hable to participate in democracy.

Speaker 5 (21:26):
And when you participate in democracy, sometimes it doesn't turn
out the way you wanted to.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
But you don't be powerful, you don't.

Speaker 12 (21:34):
Whine, you don't claim the election was stolen.

Speaker 8 (21:38):
As a fictional anchorman once said, that's the way the
cookie crumble. Sometimes the result is being viewed as another
sign of Trump's continued hold over Republican primaries, especially against
GOP lawmakers who have.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Broken with him.

Speaker 8 (21:51):
And there's still more uncertainty in Louisiana. Several houses remain
delayed as the state continues to deal with redistricting challenges
after a court fight over congressional masks.

Speaker 4 (22:03):
So there's another rhino that's gonna bite the dust. He
will not be in the November election, So there will
be a new Louisiana senator to join Senator John Kennedy.
Will there be a new Republican senator at least running
in November. It's pretty tight. It's certainly tightened up thanks

(22:28):
a lot of ad money they got spent. But I
still think I still see, at least in my mind,
I still see a win for Ken Paxton. Of course,
we'll find out next Tuesday or hopefully by next Tuesday
night early Wednesday morning, So this would be a good
time to bring this on. This is my conversation from
this morning with Mark Jones, Rice University professor. He follows

(22:50):
all things political science. To talk to him about, you know,
the races he finds interesting, the ones that he thinks
could end up being contested as a result of your
voter For the next few days, here's my conversation with
Professor Mark Jones. Were you surprised by that by the
way that louis Anna race?

Speaker 12 (23:09):
Oh no, at the moment, I think Senator Cassidy voted
to impeach President Trump. He probably set that those wheels
in motion. And then now that the President's back and
he had to compete in a Republican primary, It's pretty
tough to win in a Republican primary when Donald Trump
is dead set against you winning.

Speaker 4 (23:27):
Do you think that John Cornyn is going to face
a similar faith here in Texas?

Speaker 6 (23:33):
Well?

Speaker 12 (23:33):
John Cornyn didn't vote to impeach President Trump and has
during the President Trump's second term in office, been a
very strong supporter of the president, voting with him pretty
much all the time. At this point, President Trump also
has not decided to make an endorsement in the race,
either for John Cornyn or for his chief rival, our

(23:54):
only rival, Ken Paxson.

Speaker 4 (23:55):
I think that says a lot, though, that he hasn't
endorsed anybody, because I think he probably probably would have
endorsed John Corning until he found out just how unpopular
John Corny has become with some Republicans in this state.

Speaker 12 (24:08):
Oh yeah, I think the Pendent's been looking at this
the entire time, but yet right now he's decided not
to make an endorsement, and every day that he doesn't
endorse Cornyon is a good day for Ken Paxton, because
I think Paxton so is not that he gets a
Trump endorsement, simply that Becausident remains neutral.

Speaker 4 (24:26):
That race is going to be interesting. What are some
of the other races of these runoff races that you
find interesting? What do you think about the May's Middleton
hip Roy race.

Speaker 12 (24:34):
Well, I think after the US Senate race, the next
state wide race it's really served up. The top race
on the undercard is the Attorney General race. Middleton did
a really good job campaigning and getting his name out
there back in the fall. Tip Boy was well ahead
in that race. Midleton was a virtual unknown. Middleton leap
frog to Croy on March third, and I think now

(24:57):
is the clear front winer to win on May twenty
t the Yes lockdown, But I think right now we
have to say that Middleton's a strong favorite. Rory has
also run a fout of Donald Trump on several occasions,
and while he's trying to sort of portray himself as
pro Trump. Of the two candidates, Middleton's clearly the more
pro Trump candidates.

Speaker 4 (25:17):
Interesting. I have noted that I have not seen this
kind of money spent negative campaign ad money spent on
a primary season before. Have you ever seen anything like this?
Especially here in Texas? This has been crazy?

Speaker 5 (25:31):
Oh No.

Speaker 12 (25:31):
At the US Senate level, we've set a record for
the nation in terms of the amount of money spent
on the US Senate campaign, and generally there's been quite
a bit of super pac campaign. And the more you
have super PACs involved, the more negative the ads will
be because they tend to produce and post ads that

(25:53):
are negative rather than positive.

Speaker 4 (25:56):
So to kind of wrap things up here, Mark Jones,
is there anything on the Democrat side that do you
see as interesting? Is on the Republican side? What are
the races you're keeping an eye on?

Speaker 12 (26:06):
Well, statewide, you have two. You have the Lieutenant governor
race that think he could win US Marcos Vallees, and
then you also have the Attorney general race Nathan Johnson
versus Jared Jorski.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
Those are the only two.

Speaker 12 (26:20):
Things statewide, and those aren't driving any interest.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
What's all? Whatever?

Speaker 5 (26:23):
Really?

Speaker 12 (26:24):
I think democratic turnouts going to collapse from the two
two million that it was back in March, it'll probably
be below a million or right around there this spring. Locally,
I think the key race on the y R Key
races on the Democratic side is a county judge race
between Anise Parker and Letitia Plumber. And then Congressional District eighteen.

(26:46):
You have two city members of Congress, Al Green who's
been there for more than twenty years, and Christie Menafee
who's only been there a couple of months, running the
Congressional District eighteen, which is sort of central Harrison County
down towards Fort Bend County, YEP.

Speaker 4 (27:01):
And I think the uh on the Democrat side, if
anything's gonna be really interesting there, maybe the Christian Menafee
al Green thing, although I think I think Christian Menofye
wins that race. I think that I think that even
the oldests have had enough of Al Green. I mean,
what's Al Green done? You know, well, he walks around

(27:24):
with a cane and you know, complains about Trump and
tries to interrupt Trump when he's doing the State of
the Union, other species like that. Other than that, what
is the guy done? He really hasn't done anything, So
I think that, you know, even even if you've been
there for a long long time. I think we're kind
of most people are kind of in the mood now
for you've got to get something done, uh, and you

(27:46):
have to stand for certain things for me to support
you anymore. I'm not just gonna vote for you because
you've been there forever, and thank goodness, even even in
the on the Democrats side, there are some people that
are starting to feel that way. All right, we're taking
a quick little break out. We're coming back here in
just a moment. We will talk with a former US
attorney in news Mexican tributor. His name is Jaye Town.

(28:06):
The Senate did something noble? Hang on, the United States
Senate did something noble? How did that happen? I'll share
that with you coming up next year on AM nine
fifty KPRC and The Jimmy Barrett Show. If I were

(28:32):
to say the United States Senate did something noble, you
would probably say, what what do you mean? They did
something noble? What have they done that's noble? Well, they
did something, and quite honestly, I didn't even realize they
did it last Thursday, but they did. They voted. Now granted,
this is you're gonna have to put an asterisk next

(28:53):
to this because it's not as clear and concise as
you would like it to be. But basically, United States Senators,
on a voice vote, agreed to go without pay during shutdowns.
And that's a little bit different. That's the first time
I've seen Congress vote, anybody in Congress vote against having

(29:15):
themselves paid. Now A granted, there's a couple of things
about it. First of all, you should know that it
doesn't go into effect until after the November election. The
next chance for shutdown is October, so they'll get paid
in October if there's a shutdown. Hopefully there's not, but
they would get paid. But at least they did something

(29:36):
I think is fairly right. Jay Town was with me
this morning, the former US attorney in Newsmaxican tribted. Here's
my conversation with him about what the United States Senate
has finally done. Isn't that convenient? That's chances for shutdowns
in October, but this wouldn't be covered under that voice vote.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
That's correct, and this only applies to the Senate. And honestly,
you know, the twenty seventh Amendment actually prevent them from
you know, when it was I think best understood when
it was passed, it was to prevent Congress from giving
themselves pay raises. Nobody envisioned them actually with holding their
own paychecks, right, that would be something you know, only

(30:15):
Christ would do if he were elected to the United
States Congress. But believe it or not, the twenty seventh
Amendment this allows any alteration in pay up or down
before the November elections, and so it actually is is
the constitutional sort of way to do this. The good

(30:35):
news is October first, the money runs out, just like
it does every year, and not a new thing. It
would take nothing more than a forty day continuing resolution
to keep the government funded to get them to the
point where they are now having to not get their

(30:57):
paycheck while thee if there is a shut down until
they get a budget. The thing that is so surprising
to me and maybe shouldn't be, is it part of Kennett.
Senator Kennedy's resolution was not just that you will forego
your pay, but you will not be able to leave
Washington while there's a government shutdown. And the Senators wouldn't

(31:17):
agree to that. And don't forget this only applies to
the Senate, the House can still go home.

Speaker 5 (31:23):
They don't.

Speaker 3 (31:24):
They'll still get paid. Their staffers won't, but they will.
So it's not a complete resolution. Kennedy can only control
the Senate, you know. Speaker Johnson's also from Louisiana, can
maybe put the same thing forward in the House.

Speaker 4 (31:40):
But this is a good step. Well, it's a step
in the right direction, that's for sure. But given the
fact Jay Town, that virtually every United States Senator is
independently wealthy at this point, does it really does missing
a couple of paychecks really worry them, because after all,
they'll get their pay back pay once they go back
into sessions. So is that enough in order to keep
them from having a government shutdowns? The financial incentive it up?

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Well, I think you said it right. Step in the
in the right direction, You're right. I don't think they're
gonna miss many fields, but there is an incent there,
and if the House were to follow suit, now there's
a great incentive because not every member of the House
is independently wealthy. We can't all be Elon Homer, right,
So it's it's you know, it's just one of those

(32:28):
things that it shows that they have skin in the game,
and that Senator Kennedy's purpose. He's not trying to bankrupt anybody,
but he's essentially just saying, you're an elected member of
the United States Congress and you need to do your
job for the American people. You shouldn't go home and
continue to get paid while ICE and the FBI and

(32:50):
d OJ and d o D they don't get paid.
They have to go to work. There's there's no not
going to work, right because they're essential employees. So they're
still working for free, right when I mean, how many
times did you fly and go through TSA and those
people had not been paid for months, and so it
really is a step in the right direction.

Speaker 4 (33:11):
As you said, well, good good on him for shaming
them into doing that. The question is would that tactic
work in the House. Does the House need to step
up and do the same thing now, just send the
right message.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
I think so, And I think that Speaker Johnson, you know,
would agree to this and maybe even go a little
bit further. You know, he's a he's a constitutional scholar,
and believe it or not, the twenty seventh Amendment, while
it's the most recent amendment, it was originally proposed in
seventeen eighty nine by James Madison. So this is not

(33:45):
a new idea that you can't give yourself pay raises
or that you shouldn't you know, you should have diminished
pay for when you can't keep the government open. They
can't imagine James Madison ever at once foresaw the government
shutting down every single year.

Speaker 4 (34:05):
I'm sure he didn't, But wouldn't it be something if
the House did do it? Can you imagine that the
House and the Senate doing doing something right virtually at
the same time. No, that never happens. I wish we'll
think a my part, all right before I go. I
do want to mention this because we had him on
our morning program today. Mattress Mac mac gives back and

(34:27):
he's given back again, and fifty mattresses giving a given
away to veterans. This is going to be tomorrow, Tuesday,
May nineteenth, the Gallery Furniture at the North Freeway location.
If you are a veteran or a former veteran and
you have ID so you can prove that you are,
just show up with the truck so that you can

(34:47):
carry away a free mattress. Now this is good for
the first one hundred and fifty people who show up,
and honestly, there'll probably be people lining up as early
as four and o'clock in the morning, or maybe even
earlier than that. I'll let you know in the morning
because I'll be driving in super early. Litten know if
there's anybody there when I'm driving in right around three
o'clock in the morning. But first come, first serve. So
if you're interested in a free mattress, tomorrow's the day

(35:09):
to do it. Between seven and nine am that's when
they're actually doing the giveaway. But you'll need to line
up a lot of rather than that if you want
to be one of the first one hundred and fifty.
But you know, salute to Mattressmack for doing that. Listen,
you'all have a great day. Thanks for listening. I'll see
you tomorrow morning, bright nearly at four am. Five am. Yeah,
let's back at five five am over our news radio
seven forty ktr H. We are back here at four

(35:31):
on Am nine fifty KPRC.