12.22: Christmas Spirit - Hour 1

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, good Monday morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome in.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
It is Kentucky and is morning news, coffee and company
with you, and we are a field about Thornton's as
we get it started. Christmas week is here, folks, and
uh are we in the Christmas spirit?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Fellas? I think, Scott, are you there?

Speaker 3 (00:14):
I think I'm there. I'm there. I don't believe you.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yet, I'm I don't know if we can proceed until
I believe that you really are ready for Christmas.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
I got to get through the next two days.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Okay, shopping done, the shopping, all that's done.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
It's here that I got to get through.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Okay, yeah, days, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
My goodness, we got some what uh?

Speaker 1 (00:30):
What about you?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
John?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
You got I'm definitely ready for it.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
You got you got the shopping done?

Speaker 4 (00:34):
Shopping is ninety nine point nine percent done?

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Well good?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
I uh, I've got to go pick up two things
that were that I went back to what is still
an optionate places, which I'm happy to know. But the
last week or so I've been ordering things and then
picking them up in store, which is pretty convenient. I
don't have to worry about a delay in shipping. I
know where it is, uh, and uh, it's actually probably

(00:59):
it's my third way to really buy anything, honestly, just
because I'm impatient and the thought of waiting, you know,
three days when I could just go pick it up
is something I don't want to do. But man, last
Thursday and Friday, I was out and I did a
lot of mine, got most of everything done, just running around,
running errands, and I ended up in every mall here
in Louisville for a brief time. And I maybe because

(01:21):
it's the weekday, or maybe more than anything, it's because
of just how people shop now. It was sad to
see these malls clearly decorated for Christmas, but almost abandoned.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:32):
Yeah, I mean it takes a joe about that. This week,
same thing, and I walked in and.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
That was the thing, man, you waited that Honestly it
made me sad.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
Well, and that's what people You're reflecting what people are
saying on social media. There's a lot of those posts
going on right now, and a lot of people are saying,
we missed the malls, we missed the crowds, we missed
the hustle and bustle.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
And twenty years ago we would have said it was
hell on earth. We don't want to go, and.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
That's it, and now it's not here, and you're right.
There was a certain vibe that came with the mall.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Absolutely when you win, it was just a big deal.

Speaker 5 (01:59):
Either you win as a fit, you went individually, but
you went to the mall.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
When I think of Christmas as a kid or even
as a teenager and a young adult, and the visuals
that come to mind, there's a lot of them. One
of them is a busy mall with a long line
to see Sanna, uh and just you know, like going
back in time and now it's just kind of it's
kind of a sad visual. I mean, I don't know

(02:24):
if if you had went this weekend when people you
know aren't working. I mean I was there during business
during work hours, during week days, so maybe that so
I wasn't expected it to be where you couldn't move
in there, but it was, Uh, it was surprising, like
you know, didn't have to worry about a parking spot, right.

Speaker 5 (02:39):
But I think I think also what you're doing, it
resonates with a lot of people. More people are ordering
and picking up at the store as opposed to having delivered.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
That's a new trend that's emerging now.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Tore that's and that's the way for me.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
I just I would do that, not necessarily out of
oh this is convenient. I remember years ago thinking oh wow,
I've procrastinated. Thankfully I can still get it done at
the last minute. And then, as we discussed last week,
there are certain things that did these stores because they
don't deal with the amount of people coming in to
purchase items, having their stores loaded with inventory that they

(03:11):
don't think will sell because they're ordering it online and
having it shipped.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
They just don't keep it right.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Things that you would expect to be able to walk
in and get at a certain place, you may be surprised,
Oh yeah, they're gonna have to They'll order that and
get it to the store because they just don't keep
enough on hand. Because it's just I guess you know,
clearly numbers tell them that's not the way to go
about it. But thankfully there were there were certain items
that that for me, they had it. I bought it,
I showed up, gave them an I D and it
was there. It was very convenient. Now, one thing I

(03:38):
want to get your l's thoughts on and and I
I want honest, honest feedback here, you know, because I
I I don't. I'm very bad at wrapping presence. I
mean it, it's embarrassing, so I waste a lot of paper.
It looks I mean, it's it's it's a joke, and
I've never I guess I've never taken the time to learn.
But my wife thinks that that's that that's sweet because

(04:01):
even though it's terrible, like I did it, and she
thinks that that's I guess what counts. But I want
to go somewhere where they can wrap my presence for me.
And I'm not sure if that's the thing anymore again,
that's that used to be a common thing, almost for
free at Mauls. Maybe more so, I just get people
there in the door, and I haven't seen that in
a few years. And it maybe because they just didn't

(04:22):
feel like it was necessary. But I'm gonna I'm gonna
hope my wife just just thinks that i gotta get
somebody to wrap these presents for me because I'm tired
of just I'm tired of looking so botched underneath the
tree that I want to get it done the right way.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
But I don't really know, like is that a thing anymore?

Speaker 3 (04:36):
That's a great point my mind.

Speaker 2 (04:38):
I guess my question for you guys, is it bad
that I have somebody wrap my presence for me?

Speaker 1 (04:42):
It's at all, no thank you.

Speaker 5 (04:43):
And in this day and age where everybody's doing the
gift bag thing, that's the other debate. You know, our
gift bag is the way to God? Would you rather
have a rap? That's half the fun on Christmas Day
is unwrapping? Yeah, not pulling something out of a bag.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
I think that for kids the unwrapping is is I mean,
it's it's essentral. Yes, it's a big part of the experience.
And I think parents would agree watching their kids unwrapped.
And I can think of each year as my kids
had gotten older, how it became easier for them to
you know, they didn't need assistance, they could get it
unwrapped on their own. But yeah, the bags is it's
way more convenient, that's for sure, and you can recycle

(05:17):
the next year.

Speaker 5 (05:18):
I got a question for you guys when it comes
to the kids, when Santa visits your house, does Santa
wrap your presence or he just leave?

Speaker 4 (05:24):
Mytory question this will be a. This is a trial
and error for me. We're gonna find out what someone
does with our house for day.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
So that's a great question, Scott, because I feel like
this is one of those debates that was never a
thing until maybe recently. And if you if you didn't
have Santa wrap his gifts and he just left them,
that's all you ever knew, And if anybody did it differently,
you thought it was weird. The other way around, if
Santa did wrap the gifts and then you see people

(05:50):
walking out, you see kids walking into the living room
and there's just things that are unwrapped, it seemed like,
what the he the hell's going on here?

Speaker 1 (05:57):
That is very odd.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
So I never had an unwrapped present, so that but
that's but that's just the way you know, it was
for me. So it's just natural to have everything wrapped.
But I've learned that that, you know, for for for others,
that's you know, they think they think they think it's
it's it's foreign. Growing up, John, did you have presence
unwrapped every under It.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
Was always a mixture of things for us.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
We had some that were wrapped, some that weren't, a
lot of the really big things there are certain things
you can't wrap. That stuff was people built and put together. Yeah,
and I thought, I think that's part of the fun
as well.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeaheah.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
I don't plan on ever changing it, but I did learn,
you know, there's certain I remember where. I don't remember
where it came up in conversation, but I I thought
someone was joking, what do you mean Santa doesn't wrap
his presence. He's Santa of all people. He's not cutting corners,
is he. But of course it also makes sense that
you know your kids would like to know did did
the big guy get this one for me? Or was

(06:49):
it mom and dad? Whenever they're wrapped, it kind of
mixes up. So hey, do what you do Christmas the
way you want to Christmas. No judgment here, but to me,
it always just it's still just the visual of walking
out of the bedroom into the living room and seeing
gifts that are unwrapped. It just it would feel like
somebody didn't do their job.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
Amen.

Speaker 5 (07:06):
Dude, Hey, I'm so glad you said that, because every
year Senta visited us, everything was wrapped and you saw
those boxes, and that was part of it. You didn't
know it was in those boxes and then you had
to wait for the parents to get up. You had
to wait for the old man to get his coffee,
and he had to go out for my ole man.
He had to go out and have a smoke and
then he came in and.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Man the the waking up on Christmas morning, before you
get to the part of opening presents as a kid,
I want to what can I do to recreate that
feeling in an adult world, Like what as an adult
can bring me that feeling that is maybe one of
the best feelings you experienced as a kid.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Yeah, that was. That was yourphor ita. That was it
was seeing the packages.

Speaker 5 (07:45):
And then we always had that number one gift under
the tree that always stood out from the you knew.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Hey, I'll wait to get to that one later because
that's the special one.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
Yeah, go dude.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
All right, we're already we're already getting the Christmas spirits
lifted with these early conversations. Good stuff, all right, Scott'll
be back with sports here before too long. And my goodness,
we've got a lot to get into, a lot to
react to from the weekend as we get Christmas weekend started,
including some big news coming out of Kentucky. Here that
is already getting some national attention, at least this morning,
as Jim Beam is set to pause production at their

(08:15):
main distillery here in Kentucky in twenty twenty six. So that,
of course is a big piece of news, but we've
got a lot of those to get a lot of
other things to get to as well this morning, So
stick around. We'll get your first check of traffic in
weather right here, right now. It's news Radio eight forty whas.
Good morning, Kentucky, and a Christmas week has arrived, and

(08:35):
we thank you for hanging out with us here at
five point thirty five December the twenty second.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
And I'll tell you what.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
It doesn't feel like Christmas has snuck up on me,
which is good. I feel like really taking a couple
days off last week really helped me, I guess, at
least just kind of slow down and enjoy the Christmas
season because it's here. But yeah, now it's here, and
we've got a few more days, and I would imagine
most have been able to get their shopping done. If not,
good luck, I'm sure you still have options.

Speaker 6 (09:02):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
In fact, I'm sure some will maybe wait until Christmas Eve,
because that's just what some people do. But uh yeah,
I'm glad to get most of mine out of the way,
and I've already got some feedback from some folks as
far as I guess, helping me not feel bad if
I actually have somebody wrap my gifts for me, because
it will look better and maybe my wife won't even notice.
But then again, she probably will say, wait a second,

(09:22):
I've seen you wrap presents before who did this? And
I'm just gonna tell her, Look, you deserve better than
whatever it is I give you where it's just I mean,
it's it. I mean I would end up wrapping it
and then there would be corners that have no paper
on it, and I would then just rip off one
and then it just it was it was botched. I
think my I think my five year old son, if
given the chance, could probably wrap a present better better

(09:44):
than me. Are you I could see you actually being
a good present.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
Oh no, no, no, no, I've not wrapped anything any gifts that
we've already given through different Christmas events we've had in
the last few days. My wife's wrapped all of them
for me, and I can I can't thank her enough
for doing that.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yeah, And.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
I just know that I'm a a lot of waste
of paper whenever I give it a shot, and it
just looks And I'm not trying to be dramatic and exaggerated,
but if you were to look at all the presents
that are going to be under our tree on Christmas
morning from maybe not from Afar, but like you would
visually stand out that that that you know, maybe somebody
with one hand, one arm tried to wrap this present.

(10:22):
So anyways, we're getting closer, folks, December twenty seconds, so
just a few days away. All right, some news items
to touch on here as we as we roll along.
You did hear a little bit about this during the
update there from John Shannon, But Jim Beam is going
to pause operations at the main distillery in twenty twenty six,
at least temporarily. So they've they've suspended operations at the

(10:45):
main distillery that we'll start again at the beginning of
this year. But this is the company is essentially saying
that this is about planning an investment, not really a panic,
but they are pausing operations and it's the Clearmont location.
And what what they're gonna do is, I guess shift
focus more so to just other things. Obviously, tariffs have

(11:07):
been mentioned as as a factors as to why they're
they're not not as necessary as far as just producing
the way they have. And we'll get more into just
the details of this, because I don't want to throw
a bunch of numbers at you without having at least
an explanation. But the taxes that they pay annually on
these these old barrels, I mean, it's it's it's it's

(11:28):
enough to where you would you would clearly always be
mindful of of of of of what inventory you have
because of the taxes you have to pay, because obviously
it is not cheap. Uh, this state taxes these bourbon companies, uh,
these distilleries quite a bit.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
So we'll get more into that little later on.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
But again they're not they're not wanting you to to
to to panic that you know, there's something that's something
has gone wrong and the companies in any kind of trouble. However,
you know, it is piece of news. It's gonna get
a lot of attention. Now. It doesn't look as if
there's any plans for any kind of layoffs or anything
like that, which is obviously the good news. But yeah,
we'll get into more that a little bit later on
as far as just maybe a numbers explanation as to

(12:06):
why this is a smart move on their part. Also
something else from from over the weekend. In fact, I
haven't seen any major update on this. I'm sure we'll
get one this morning, but you do have a couple
of a couple of Yeah, two level Metro Police officers
have been injured after a vehicle crashed into them. So

(12:27):
this took place, I believe on Friday evening, and Aaron Ellis,
a spokesman for LMPD, has said that two officers responding
to a stranded motorist that was on Newburgh Road and
at Abernathy Road. It was around ten to fifteen on
Friday night, and both of those officers were outside of
their marked vehicle with their emergency lights on, checking on

(12:48):
that stranded vehicle, and according to police, a vehicle then
headed south on Newburg Road and rear ended the police vehicle,
and police said both those officers and the driver were
taking to Uvil Hospital. Was serious but not life threatening injuries.
So serious injuries there, which of course is a tough
thing to deal with, but clearly great that it's not
life threatening but that's one of the many, many examples

(13:11):
out there as far as the dangers that are there
with what it is that they do. These are two
officers just again a routine check on an abandoned vehicle,
and somebody I guess, not paying attention or whatever it
may be, ends up wrecking into their vehicle that was stopped,
and obviously it caused a big accident. So the driver
who crashed into the office. They believe that the driver
who crashed into those officers may have been intoxicated, but

(13:34):
the test results for that, I guess have not come
back yet, so that of course will be a big
factor in what happens from this situation when it comes
to criminal charges that kind of stuff. But we'll get
into this also a little bit later on when it
comes to just the officer involved injuries and of course shootings,
that's of course something that does happen, and we'll get
into where twenty twenty five ranks compared to twenty twenty

(13:57):
four as far as officer involves shootings. But if you've
been keeping up with the news as of late, probably
not a surprise to hear that in this year there
was a real surge as we round out twenty twenty five,
in fact, three in the last month or so. But
the reason I want to get into this a little
bit is because I would I would hope if you're
somebody that at least you know, just wants to be informed,
wants to I mean, if you're not watching the bodycom

(14:19):
videos that come out after these things happen, I think
you should just because you'll you'll get a chance. I mean,
you'll see firsthand what takes place when these things happen.
I just I worry that there's many that here of
an officer involves shooting and they don't even want to
have an opinion for themselves. They just want to reside
where they feel like they should and they just you know,
make the assumption, well I'm sure the officer.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Didn't have to do that.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Well if you watch these this evidence that shows the
situation and you, you know, realize these people are human
beings too. I mean, they're doing a job and that's
what the job calls for. Unfortunately, so I don't know,
I think a lot of people probably just see the
headline initially and never keep up. And look, I get it,
life's busy, it's hectic, but we have transparency now, and

(15:05):
I think it'd be silly not to at least, you know,
if you want to form an opinion on it, if
you want to know what's going on, it's there for
you to find out for yourself. All right, stick around trafficing,
weather updates on the way right here at news Radio
eight forty whas. It is coffee in company with you
here at news Radio eight forty whas, and we are
fueled by Thorntons and we're now joined by mister Rory O'Neil.
So we got a partial release of the Epstein related

(15:26):
documents that dropped on Friday afternoon, the late Friday news
dump what a lot of people call it, but it
seems to have raised more questions than it answered, which
I can say that doesn't necessarily surprise me. But just
the overall rundown here as we are three days removed
from an initial release here, well.

Speaker 6 (15:43):
Look, if you are actually printing out the hundreds of
thousands of pages, you'd be going through a lot of
toner because of all the pages that have been blacked
out in this document release. Now, the Justice Department admitted
they did not meet the deadline as required by that
federal law, but said that there were still conducting reviews
to make sure there wasn't identifiable information of victims contained,

(16:07):
and other excuses have been given. But look, there's a
bipartisan call to say that's not good enough. That look,
we passed a law that it's twenty twenty five, that
these records these days can be gone through with computer
searches a lot more effectively, and that even though there
may be a lot of them, they have a legal
responsibility to comply with what Congress is demanding.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
So what's next here as far as just more of
what we've seen, as far as just images and people
trying to, I guess make an assumption of the identities
of those that aren't shown. It just I don't think
anybody's going to ever get what it is that they're
actually seeking out of this, but I know they're not
going to stop trying.

Speaker 6 (16:48):
Rory well, right, and we've talked before, and I've told
you I compare this to the JFK files or to
UFO files that those who believe will never be satisfied
until they're their opinion is followed up by some of
the release of the documents here. So let's see how
this goes moving forward. Obviously with the holidays is going
to be a bit of a break with members of

(17:09):
Congress not there in DC. So this is going to
be something that really is going to set the table,
I think in the new year. As this call for
these documents, because it's bipartisan, it's not.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
Going to end YEP, no doubt.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Roy O neils Our guest joining us Certain News Radio
eight forty whas So some online sleus may have distracted
police during the hunt for the Brown Mit shooting suspect.
What can you tell us about these viral tips that
I guess you can hinder these investigations.

Speaker 6 (17:40):
Right the internet giveth and taketh away, I think is
the takeaway here. But during the manhunt for that suspect,
there was a lot of stuff going on online saying
that they were targeting young conservatives, then some saying no,
this was religious in nature and he was chanting something
before the gun fire. It doesn't seem like any of
that was accurate. What we're seeing was some very influential

(18:02):
online accounts, accounts that have a lot of sway a
lot of followers. We're going to get into some pretty
dicey areas with some of their online posts and comments.
A lot of the news conferences then went down those
rabbit holes on the different issues. Turns out it was
unrelated to any of these things, and the Internet got
it really wrong, these keyboard cluseaus. But you know what's

(18:25):
interesting too, is that it was also the Internet that
helped solve this case. The semi homeless man who gave
the necessary tip had been posting on Reddit about what
he saw, and it was that Reddit post that really
did lead detectives to find the suspect, first to find
that rented car in Providence and then tie the shooting

(18:47):
at Brown to the shooting at MI T that then
finding the gunman dead of a self inflicted gunshot wound
in New Hampshire.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
So there have been other examples rory of the Internet
having folks use their resource they have and they can
track things that police maybe can't, but also maybe they're
able to at least just they can put it out
there with no repercussion right law enforcement, they had information
like that's one of the things that I do if
I was if I was somebody investigating, and it would

(19:16):
these things would make me look.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Bad at my job. But obviously when it is your job.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
You have a certain way you have to go about it,
and you can't just post something on Facebook when you
get en up, when you get a new clue, you know, well, right.

Speaker 6 (19:27):
And look, we've seen the internet do those sick things.
There was some AI generated stuff after the Bontai beat shooting.
You know, Candas Owens was out putting stuff out there
after Charlie Kirk's assassination that wasn't really legit. So yeah,
there's a lot of that stuff floating around out there.
And again it's it's not just you know, wa goos

(19:47):
with one hundred and fifty eight followers. In some cases,
these are people with millions of followers who were putting
up these really distracting kind of messages. Then not only
does it distract investigators, then it's undermine the authority of
the authorities. And now because if you say, well, they're
covering up the truth, and then that's based on some
wacko theory that's not true at all, But you still

(20:10):
lose confidence of those authorities that are up there, oftentimes
trying to do their best. It's it's a difficult balance,
but this is where we are in twenty twenty five.
Almost twenty six.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Indeed, Rory is always appreciate the time. Enjoy the rest
of your day. We'll talk tomorrow, my friend.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
Thanks neck, talk to you then.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
He is Rory O'Neal.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
You know, I don't think there's ever been a time
where you have to really work harder to find out
what's real what's not. Certain things are pretty obvious. But
then again, I mean, I know I I question things
I see more than ever, not because I'm just, you know,
somebody that assumes everybody's lying to me. But it's easy

(20:46):
to misinform people if they're not, if they don't have
their radar on. All right, we've got a trafficking weather
update before you, coming up right here, right now. We'll
see how these roadways are looking as we get Christmas
week started. Also, Scott's back with another sports update for us.
If there's Radio eight forty w h A s