(KMN) 10.1: Shutdown - Hour 1

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, it's five oh six here at News Radio
eight forty Whas Coffee and Company with you here to
get this Wednesday morning started. We've got the full crew,
Nick Coffee, that's me. I hope you knew that. If not,
now you do. Scott Fitzgerald alongside, and the Johns, John Alden,
John Shannon with us as well. And I guess we'll
start with news that was I suppose expected, and it

(00:21):
is certainly big news, and just saying it sounds really
really substantial, as if like, man, this is this is wild?
The government is shut down? We have I mean, doesn't
that just sound like, oh, all hands on deck? And
I'll admit this is one of those things that I'm
pretty I guess up to speed now what this means.
But I'm sure there's many that think that, really, okay,

(00:45):
government shut down?

Speaker 2 (00:47):
What does that? How does it relate to me? What
does that actually mean?

Speaker 1 (00:51):
And I'm sure for many of you you really won't
you won't notice initially. I guess really it comes down
to how long this actually lasts. But anyhow, we'll get
you caught up as best we can. But when it
comes to it actually happening, it was midnight last night,
federal government officially shut down after Congress and the White
House failed to agree on a funding bill. And this
marks the first time that this has happened, I believe

(01:12):
since twenty eighteen when this was see the twenty eighteen
or nineteen under Trump's first term, and it lasted thirty
five days, which was the longest in US history.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
So I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Know how long we'll be in this position, and your
guess is as good as mine. But yes, Scott, the
government is shut down.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
I'm glad you said.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
I'm glad you made note of that to Nick because
and I hope you'll probably and I'm sure you'll touch
on this later on this morning. But folks, take a
deep dive into what that actually means, now, okay, because
don't think that all of a sudden, you know, I
know there's folks that are worried about their benefits. They're
worried about you know, the VA benefits, Social Security, et cetera.
Take a deep dive. The one thing the media did
really well throughout this and that was they pointed out

(01:55):
what exactly is shut down. So take take the initiative
to reach out.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
And listen to Nick. He'll he'll keep you informed.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah, he'll keep you informed this morning, and just make
sure you understand exactly what. Don't just take the headline
that it's shut down and go, oh no, we're all
gonna you know.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Benefits are still going to be paid out.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
You're basically looking at national parks are going to close.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, So what it comes down to is the non
essential services. As Scott mentioned national parks. You know, certain
federal offices will shut down, but essential services like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,
air traffic control, US postal service. It sounds like those
will continue to operate as is. Uh, but how long

(02:36):
that actually is the case? You know, I don't really
know what's off the table here as far as what
the initial outcome is. And I say that for a
variety of reasons, because I do think there's a lot
of uncertainty, but also this isn't something that happens that often.
There Therefore, there's not a whole lot of uh, of
previous instances you can go back in reference. And I
also don't know if we've ever had this occur where

(02:59):
at least the climate politically seems as divided as and
it's not just the you know, the the citizens of
this country seemingly to be at war with one another,
who are really really in deep into the weeds when
it comes to politics. But as far as just the
two political parties, there's clearly a big shift, a big
difference there, and no seeming sign of either looking at

(03:23):
the other and saying, all right, well, maybe you're right,
let me compromise here on my end.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
I mean, again, we'll see what happens. But as far
as this thing lasting longer than ever, wouldn't shock me. Again,
the record was the last time it happened. As far
as how long, we're roughly thirty five days.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
So well, and I hate that from people that you know,
and people look at, well, okay, it's not essential services,
but you still have folks that work in these non
essential services. They're like, hey, this is my livelihood, this
is my job. And would I be interested in I know, again,
you'll you'll touch on this throughout the morning. What I'd
be interested in is do these folks still get paid,
you know, or do they get paid in the arrears?

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (03:58):
So versus non essential I mean like TSA agents, air
traffic controllers, bornatrol, active military they're going to keep working,
but it will be sort of without without It can
be without pay until funding resumes.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
So it can be without pay, doesn't mean that it
necessarily is. And as far as which individual I guess
positions within the federal government that would go without pay
and would not is that I guess it's dependent upon
what you actually do and say.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yesterday that a lot of the ones that don't get
paid end up getting back paid later. It will, but
you still have to know.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
You got to go through the whole thing and notice
your mortgage company, your creditors.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
You got to know land.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
I mean, I don't know if there's ever been a
time where the average the common you know, the average
American can can maybe go less time without a paycheck exactly.
It just seems as if that's you. Timing's not on
your side when it comes to that. But as far
as uh there, it looks like in Kentucky there about
roughly twenty twenty three thousand, five hundred federal civil civilian

(05:05):
employees in Kentucky that could face furloughs.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
So you know, if you are a federal employee, you
could qualify for unemployment benefits under the UFCE program, which
is in place if something like this happens. But again,
the last time this happened was twenty eighteen. Twenty nineteen
lasted thirty five days, and since nineteen seventy seven there
have been twenty one shutdowns total that lasted lasting a
total of one hundred and sixty two days. So these

(05:30):
things often actually cost money rather.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Than saving it.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Sure, and a good point.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah, so we'll see it was expected. I guess.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
I don't know if anybody having I guess a little
bit of a heads up makes a difference. But yes,
we start this morning. We started October here with a
government shutdown.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
Remember the days when government jobs used to be money.
I mean you got to work at the post office
and you worked there for life, you know, not long either,
Yeah you're twenty years and get out here.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Still probably a good gig to have overall, But when
these things happen, you're like, well, I don't know, maybe
what I come myself into. Right, I will say this
before we before we get to our first update at
Traveick and Weather. I would say this, being of course
a big national story could lead to it being a
distraction for certain other things, and I would say, if
you're JCPS, you're happy that there's a distraction out there,
like a government shut down, because yesterday was another day

(06:15):
of just when it comes to the optics, I'm not
sure you could convince many people that there's any real
I mean, put it this way, I'll be blunt. I'm
not sure anybody really knows what the heck's going on.
And I'm not sure there's ever been more uncertainty as
far as the JCPS school system because of yesterday. And
we'll talk about that on the other side. It's Kentucky.
It's Morning News, your first update of Travick and Weather's

(06:37):
right here right now on news Radio.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Eight forty whas.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
It's five seventeen here at news Radio eight forty whas
Kentucky and this morning News Coffee and Company with you.
And it feels good to be able to say this again.
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(07:46):
I mean, it's kind of if.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
I told them part of who you are.

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Yeah, if I told you I had a Thornton's tattoo
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I would believe Yeah. So I now can say.

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It, and you know, and I probably could have said
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Speaker 2 (08:58):
On.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
But what this care package includes is you get a
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(09:20):
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Yet my children I purchase them, they consume them. I'm
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We'll take a look at Matt Melosavitch's forecast from WLK
well that's coming up next. And of course sports, we've
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So we are loaded this morning and certainly by the
time we get to five point thirty five, I'll lay

(10:48):
out for those that weren't paying attention or maybe just
don't really care because it doesn't impact them. But JCPS,
they had their scheduled media briefing yesterday at about twelve
fifteen with a plan only for then. The evening news
was underway last night, they had to say that their
plan is now not what they said it was, so
not a not a great sign when it comes to

(11:10):
optics at a time where the JCPS system is facing
one hundred and eighty eight million dollar deficits.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
So what a mess?

Speaker 1 (11:19):
All right, quick break, don't go anywhere traving some weather
updates or next right here on news radio eight forty
whas so is yesterday afternoon when JCPS around twelve fifteen
had their press conference, media gathering, whatever you want to
call it, and it started with promises of transparency when

(11:40):
it comes to the overall mess that they're in a
one hundred and eighty eight million dollar deficit. When I
say transparency, I mean how you got there, but also
sort of what's going to be done in order to
get out of this mess. So that is when doctor
brown Yere would of course the superintendent with JCPS, he's
in his first nest year. He spoke pretty confidently about

(12:03):
the plan to hire a company to conduct a financial audit,
and he added that the firm that he selected was
already selected and reputable, experienced, and quick. And I don't
know if that initial news was met with Okay, that's
good to hear. That'll that'll, that'll fix everything. And I
don't mean to be sarcastic here, but I could also

(12:27):
understand if there's many that that thought, Okay, you're you
got one hundred and eighty eight million dollar deficit, and
your your your plan is to tell us taxpayers that, well,
we're going to pay somebody to tell us how we
got here, and hopefully they can give us an idea
on how to clean it up. I mean, again, that's
not a crazy scenario to uh to to see whenever
you're in you're in a situation like this, a school

(12:48):
system with that big of a financial crisis on their hands,
but throwing money at things to figure it out has
never really worked seemingly for JCPS when it comes to
other things. In fact, some of the issues that you
that you've had that have become disastrous at times, including
the fund that the nightmare scenario they had a few
years ago when they couldn't get anyone became a national story.

(13:10):
The schools, the bus system was a complete mess. Well,
they spent a lot of money on an AI platform
that was supposed to help them and again cost a
lot of money, and you would you have to show
for it and embarrassment.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
That's what I mean. That's that's that's essentially what happened.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
So that was yesterday and then by the end of
the day in the evening, they that plan has been
has been pretty much axed. So there was a board
meeting last night and year what abruptly changed course instead
of confirming the hire of this this firm to to
conduct an audit, uh he he called for an RFP process,

(13:48):
meaning there's gonna be multiple firms that can bid on
the audit. And he told board members last night, quote
the RFP is the best process to make that happen.
So a lot of questions, I'm sure why shift from
a quick hire to a competitive bid were talking is it?
Is it a cost issue? Is is it timing? It

(14:09):
is is it the scope of the audit needing to
be different than what you initially had planned. And of
course is this going to delay an already very urgent process.
And I don't think we have any direct answers from
doctor Yearwood just yet, but this is probably the way
you have to go about it. I mean, maybe this
is doctor Yearwood not realizing that the and I I'm

(14:31):
not even saying that this is protocol, but it wouldn't
shock me that it is. Meaning in this situation, you
you don't just individually, even though you're a superintendent. Maybe
you don't go find somebody. Maybe you you know, you
have to make it a process where you have the RFP.
So the optic's not great. It just looks as if
you got to find Mean, it's not just about looks.

(14:52):
It's fact you have a financial crisis on your hand,
probably one that you've never even come close to being
in as as an entity, meaning JCPS, And it just
looks as if the plan to figure it out, move forward,
climb out of this mess. Nobody seems to be on
the same page. So probably not the I mean, at
the end of the day, probably not a huge deal.

(15:12):
I just think given the circumstances, the looks of and
competence and and just not really having it all figured out,
Blame it on a communication issue, whatever it may be.
Just just adding this to it doesn't help. Now, another
question that he was he was asked last night by WDRB,

(15:36):
and I believe this is the first time we've had
this the answer to this question because as soon as
you hear of this financial nightmare and also the he said,
she said, as far as the real transparency, right, should
people have been as surprised to learn how bad it was?
And then again that that's a he said, she said
situation at this point. But doctor Earwood did say that

(15:56):
he knew there was a deficit when he took the job,
but he did not know that it was one hundred
and eighty eight million dollars, and only he would know,
and he'll never fully probably be transparent.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
Maybe I'm wrong, but wouldn't shock me if he knew
that deficit was what it was, maybe he wouldn't have
been as interested in the job.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
I don't know that only he would know. But what
a mess. All right, We've got travicking weather updates on
the way. Stick with us. We've also got Rory.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
O'Neal of NBC News going to join us on the
other side, So stick around right here, it's coffee and
company Feelbuth Thornton's on news radio eight forty whas.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Happy Hump dates to you. Welcome in.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
It is Kentucky at his morning news. Coffee and Company Feel.
Beeth Thornton's here on news radio eight forty whas. Let's
bring in Rory O'Neil of NBC News. Rory, the government
is shut down. There's a lot of folks, I'm sure
that hear that and think, wow, that sounds pretty pretty serious,
which it is, but a lot of folks wondering how
does this impact me?

Speaker 4 (16:51):
Well, look, it's serious too. If you're one of those
workers right, say you work for the TSA, there's a
pretty good chance that they're going to force you to work,
but you're not. How could be getting a paycheck? That's
a big issue. And imagine if you lived around the
DC area. Suddenly all those people seeing their salaries perhaps disrupted. Now, look,
there's a law that says that after the government reopens, well, okay,

(17:14):
you'll get any lost money back, but you know, do
you want to go without a paycheck for a week
or two or hey, the last shutdown was thirty five days.
I remember hearing stories of landlords trying to give some
of their tenants a break knowing that they would be
paid full eventually.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
Yeah, I think right now, when you consider the last
time this happened twenty eight, twenty nineteen, I think financially,
a lot of folks were maybe in a little bit
of a better situation. Everybody's situation is different, but timing
I don't think is ideal when it comes to just
the cost of everything. And also last I check, when
it comes to the arrangement. I come to work, you
pay me. That's that's something that's just been an expectation.

(17:53):
And now for it to be well, when this shut
down ends, whenever that may be, then you'll get you'll
get made whole. I mean, this could be a real
scary situation because even though you're going to probably have
a little bit more lenience from everybody, creditors, landlords because
of the situation, it still can be It could just
probably make those living checked at check probably even more
worried than they already have been as far as just
keeping their head above water.

Speaker 4 (18:15):
Well right, And of course, now the Trump administration is
also viewing this as perhaps an opportunity to do some
deep job cuts at the same time. Because it's a
shutdown and people are being furloughed, there's a bit more
leniency for the administration to take some potentially drastic action
on reducing the federal labor force, which they say got
way too bloated over COVID. They tried doze earlier this year,

(18:37):
had some success, but they see this as an opportunity
to do even more job cuts. So there's that aspect
of things for the federal workforce. For those of us
on the outside, we probably won't miss it too much.
You know, the Social Security check still going out. The
VA hospital is still open today, but if you're a
new applicant for your Social Security benefits, that may not

(18:58):
be processed. And if you need to call certain government agencies,
there may not be anyone there to pick up the phone.
And again, whether it's a disruption of a couple of days, okay,
I think everyone's life will move on fine. But if
this drags out again for two three weeks, if we
break the thirty five day record, you know, that could
be a much more significant disruption.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Roy on Ili NBC News is our guest joining us
here on News Radio eight forty whas. So, we've got
Donald Trump telling us that he has some plans to
deploy troops to Chicago, Memphis, and Portland as part of
a plan to stern violent crime and assist with the
immigration enforcement that he's been clearly emphasizing since he's been
in office. What can you tell us about the latest

(19:40):
heere as far as folks in these cities, what should
they expect.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
Well, we know in places like Chicago and in Portland, Oregon,
local authorities have been saying, you know, stay out of
our business. They don't want these federalized troops. It's a
bit more of a mixed message. When we turned to Memphis,
you know, in Portland, we got an update from the
police chief yesterday saying, look, I've got an area of
one hundred and forty five square miles. Do we have protests, yes,

(20:05):
he says, but they're happening outside one ice building on
one block. And they say that, Yeah, things got a
little fiery back in June. I mean that literally, But
since then they say, you know, things have calmed down. Yes, there.
I think we're seven arrests or something in the past
two weeks at that site, all from minor infractions, so
they're not really seeing this as much of a big

(20:27):
deal now. In Memphis, the US Attorney General, Pam Bondi,
said that they've had special deputies more than two hundred officers.
She was posting on social media this week that they
had made after those special deputizing of two hundred nineteen officers,
they made nine arrests and seized two illegal firearms.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah, I think when you hear of the when I
hear from leaders of these cities, that make it clear
that they're not requesting or wanting any assistance from Trump
as far as sending anybody there to And I'm sure
it's people just picking specific clips of what they say.
But whenever I hear the mayor of Portland say they
don't have a problem with certain things, and I'm thinking,

(21:11):
I'm not in Portland myself, but it's really didn't look
that way.

Speaker 4 (21:14):
Well, right, and that's the other issue, you know, He says,
I've been watching TV and I keep seeing the old
clips from June running over and over again. Says that's
not what's happening now, Like, yeah, there was an issue
back in June, and yes, the protesters are still there
outside that ice facility, and yes he'd rather they weren't there,
but he says, look, there's no need to send in
the National Guard. He says, we know we've got this.

(21:36):
You know, people still have a right to protest and
you know they have to balance that. But certainly you
don't need to bring in according to the police chief.
He says, we don't need the National Guard in Portland.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Rory is always we appreciate you making time for us
this morning. Enjoy the rest of your day. My friend
will talk tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (21:50):
Thanks Nick, talk to you then.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
Rory on Neil NBC News always appreciate his time. Always
a good conversation. Quick time out. We've got traffic and
weather updates on the way. Another sports update is on
the way as well. It is a Wednesday, Happy hump Day.
Thank you for hanging out with us. It is Coffee
and Company Field Beeth Thorton's right here on Kentucky and
it's morning News.