May 4, 2026 • 38 mins
Jon initially dismisses a story involving a millennial childhood staple, but Sam's excitement changes his mind. Jon analyzes the closure of Spirit Airlines and why the DFL is partly to blame. Jon and Sam wipe out on Star Wars talk before Jon turns to Medicaid fraud in MN.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Good lording shot at all you Star Wars dirts, celebrate.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Four to four with me.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
The four.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
That's kind of like the original old school.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
To service have a great day.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
I think the motors, traders and thieves you call friend hello.
Speaker 5 (00:26):
That kind of made the fourth happy one to you
as well, our three here on Twin City's news Talk
Am eleven thirty and one three five FM. I was
a fan of Star Wars before I was a fan
of really anything. Having seen the original in the theater
when I was five years old certainly shaped me as
(00:50):
a person, definitely during my childhood. Speaking of childhood, millennials
were rejoicing as a staple of their childhood, making a
triumphant return this summer. Pizza Hut just announced their book
at summer reading program. Okay, first off, I don't believe
that my millennials are rejoicing over this pizza.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
This isn't made. This is a good thing.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
It encourages kids to read more books in exchange for
free pizza, and it's making a comeback.
Speaker 6 (01:19):
Huh.
Speaker 7 (01:20):
Maybe millennial parents now excited for their kids to have
that true story.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, dude, love me some Pizza Hut. By the way, man,
I used to do that program.
Speaker 7 (01:29):
Oh those personal pant pizzas, I could still taste them.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe this is something millennials are rejoicing in.
They need to bring back the red cups. You know
what I'm talking about. Oh man, those are so good.
So this summer, keep your kids reading and learning and
loving while all earning free pizza. The Free program A
will reward reward young readers who hit their milestones by
(01:53):
providing them with Digital Reading Award certificates, which are redeemable
for a free one topping personal pain.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Pizza from Pizza Hut. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
Available to students in grades preschool through six, but to
commenters insists it should be extended to adults as well. Yeah,
absolutely extended to adults. If Pizza Hut is worried about
losing money, they don't need to. Here in Minnesota, I
mean only and a half the adults can actually read,
so courtesy of the Minnesota Public Education System. Did have
(02:28):
a comment that rolled in regarding the seventeen point three
mile per hour speed limits sign that went up in Wisconsin.
Speaker 8 (02:36):
It's John seventeen point three miles an hour. You know,
we got rid of pennies. I say we transfer that
same logic over to this so out Therefore seventeen point
three would be twenty miles an hour. In my mind, how.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
Would you have even determined the point the point anything?
I don't have that specificity. I mean, I guess if
I'm looking at an analog speedometer, but not when you
got the digital readout on the dash. It's Wisconsin, man,
that's true.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Hey there, John, I'm pretty sure it is illegal for
police cars to sit blacked out in the nighttime or
when it is dark outside. I may want to get
a lawyer extraordinary to fully explain that.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
I don't think it is, because I have seen patrol
cars parked underneath overpasses with their lights off, just sitting there.
So unless they were empty, I have seen that. I
was just the other morning. I was driving in and
a lot of the cars were just flying down sixty
five up in Blaine near Minards, and then I noticed
the Blaine SUV off to the side with his lights on,
(03:40):
and then he didn't pull out and grab anybody, which
kind of bummed me out as well. All right, one more,
speaking of signs, just one more for you. This was
I believe in ann Arbor Michigan. I might be getting
the city wrong. I know it was in Michigan, but
local community activists decided to go and remove their neighborhood
(04:03):
crime watch signs. These are the ones that typically have
the eye attached to them. Here's the report from a
local news outlet.
Speaker 7 (04:11):
And they're inconsistent with their values and arbors are wealthy community.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
We don't want to push people away. We want to
welcome folks in. You know, so it is ann arbor.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
It's a little hard to hear, but did you guys
said at the beginning they find that the crime watch
signs in the neighborhoods are not inclusive because you're going
to offend criminals? Is that the thought process here?
Speaker 7 (04:33):
And they're inconsistent with their values.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
And arbors are wealthy community. We don't want to push
people away. We want to welcome folks in.
Speaker 9 (04:40):
You know, there are people that let me and also
my community that have big questions quite frankly in their
own neighborhood by others, you know, wondering what they're doing there.
This is this representative of our values and what we.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
How we want people to feel.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
Crime watch signs might be insulting to individuals. We have
an Hoa story coming up. I've made mention of this
on the show in recent weeks. We have to be
focused on turning as many people out in all our elections.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
It starts at the local level.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
It starts with when you do the hierarchy, the tiers
of elected leadership in the state. I mean, I'm talking
about starting with Hoa's school boards, local city council races.
And it's got to be one of the most ridiculous
things that I've heard as of late coming out of Michigan.
(05:38):
But you know, it's the same mentality carried by individuals
here who if they saw political opportunism in taking.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Down crime Watch signs in the name.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Of inclusivity, they would absolutely go and do it, all right,
speaking of pizza and reading programs.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
A free pizzas, that's nothing. We used to get tokens
for our report cards. For video games, we get like
five tokens for an A, three for a B, one
for a C. I fill up my whole pocket with
tokens play games for hours.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Well, good, that's good for you.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
It's cool.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Not really relevant to how we play video games today,
but still a pleasant story. Nonetheless, and I appreciate. Spirit
Airline customers woke up with a blunt message inside the
airline's app last week. Every flight is canceled, effective immediately.
The message read in parts that passengers should not go
(06:42):
to the airport under any circumstances. It also made clear
that the airline cannot help rebook travelers on other carriers,
leaving many scrambling for alternatives on their own. Instead, customers
were told refunds that would be automatically issued back to
the original form of payment for the flights purchased. So
(07:05):
we'll dive into more of what has happened with the
demise of Spirit Airlines. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blames Elizabeth
Warren and the Biden administration for its collapse. I have
audio of former Transportation Secretary Pete Ludagic actually bragging at
the time about stopping the merger between Spirit and Jet Blue,
and now in a relatively short period of time, Spirit
(07:29):
is no more. I'll give you details on that. Hoa
president that admitted fleecing residents out of eleven million dollars,
and then we're all drowning fraud allegations. Swamp investigators. Minnesota
officials say they have too few staff to handle the
massive spike in fraud reports. If that's true, boy, they
(07:52):
should have really gotten on top of that from the
get go, when all of those individuals working inside of
the Walls administration were talking about all the red flags
that were being raised, and yet they were criticized, and
they were moved to different departments, or they were just
ignored altogether.
Speaker 10 (08:10):
He's me Twin Cities newstalk station ATLKAM, Minneapolis. He's guaranteed
to be live, guarantee to be local John Justice weekday
mornings on iHeartRadio and Twin Cities News Talk, Guaranteed humans.
Speaker 11 (08:25):
He love that.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Spared Airlines officially shuts down. The collapse comes just days
after a last ditch effort to save the airline fell apart.
A roughly five hundred million dollar bailout push failed after
disagreements between the Trump administration and key bond holders stalled
(08:55):
any deal. President Donald Trump had signaled the administration was
at least open to stepping in where looking at it,
Trump said on Friday, if we can do it, we
do it. That window has now unfortunately closed. I've never
flown on Spirit airlines. You sit on like Hay bales right.
Speaker 7 (09:11):
Something like that. Have you flown on Spirit Airlines several times?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (09:16):
See I never now granted, I've never flown on Spirit Airlines. Okay,
so let me just say that upfront, flying on a
plane in general, for me is an awful experience, Like
it just doesn't adding insult to injury doesn't really make
that big of a difference for me. I mean, nless
I'm flying like in first class, which I don't think
(09:37):
I've ever done. You know, a bad experience on an
airline is just a bad experience, and I just my
goal is to get on the plane, get to my destination,
and get off the plane. And so therefore I've been
on bad flights before. But you know, people make a
big deal about Spirit Airlines being bad.
Speaker 7 (09:52):
I will say Spirit Airlines is a budget or was
a budget airline, so I always went into it like
I know, I get what I pay for. Right that
being said, when I upgraded a first class on Spirit,
it was like forty extra box, So there you go.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
I remember I took a flight and I can't remember
what it was for, but there was an airline that
had gone down somewhat recently at the time. I mean
this is decades ago now off the northern coast of California,
and I remember I was getting on a flight in
San Diego to head home, and it was a Delta flight,
(10:29):
and I swear inside of the plane like there were
portions of my surroundings, of the interior of the craft
that were just covered.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
In duct tape.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
Like this plane was clearly on its last legs. And
I was already getting on board at a time when
I was concerned. I'm always concerned about the planes chopping
out of the sky, but we had just had a
major airline disaster, so it wasn't all that reassuring when
I saw that the tape the seats around me were
being you know, duct taped up because they were falling
up by the.
Speaker 7 (11:00):
Way, burying the lead. You flew from San Diego to
La Is that right? No, I don't remember where.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
I think I was living in Michigan at the time.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
This was a lot it might have been. It this
a long long time ago. I don't know.
Speaker 7 (11:12):
I wasn't flying back to lawsuit. I was gonna say,
is that like a ten minute flight?
Speaker 12 (11:15):
No?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, that was that would have been pointless.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
I just drive up the road for crying out loud, no,
I was heading I was heading back to a different
location camera where I was. Anyways, industry groups pushing for
a much larger safety net, some of them requesting as
much as two point five billion yo okay as a
temporarily federal support for the struggling low cost carriers. The
pitch was simple. Without help, airlines like Spirit should could collapse,
(11:39):
cutting competition and driving up prices. Now, for travelers, the
fallout was immediate. Flights were gone, plans were blown up,
and for many the scramble to find a replacement got
even more expensive. By the way, if you happened to
deal with any of this, if you were traveling and
had a flat on Spirit, I would be interested to
hear from you. The shutdown does mark a stunning collapse
(11:59):
for a thirty four year old company that once built
its brand on rock bottom fares and no frills travel.
For years, Spirit positioned itself as the go to option
for cheap domestic flights, even as complaints about fees, delays,
and customer service piled up. The ripull effects could hit quickly,
with one of the country's most aggressive low cost carriers
(12:20):
suddenly being gone. Competition strengths, prices could climb, especially on
routes where Spirit helped keep fares low. Now, Spirit Airlines
said refunds will be processed automatically, but offered little else
in terms of support for thousands of passengers that the
message it could not have been clear or do not
go to the airport now. In the midst of all
(12:41):
of this, there was an attempty years ago during the
Biden administration for Jet Blue and Spirit to merge together. However,
the Biden administration was not fond of that. Here's a
clip from then Transportation Secretary Mayor Pete Boodagic announcing the
Biden administration's decision to fight Jet Blue and the Spirit merger.
Speaker 13 (13:02):
Our department the Department of Transportation has generally not gotten
involved in these merger cases, but that's changing today.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
It is so important to make.
Speaker 13 (13:12):
Sure that passengers have choices, that they have access to
low fares, that they have access to competition, and yet
we've seen less and less and less of that competition
over the years. We are taking a step that again
is unusual in terms of recent years, but we think
is the right thing to do, supporting the DOJ's lawsuit
(13:33):
and independently using our own authorities which are a little
bit different from the DOJ, starting our own investigation and
taking other actions.
Speaker 11 (13:41):
Ah.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
Yes, the short sighted view of a leftist failing to
identify the unintended consequences. You see, if there had been
a merger between Jet Blue and Spirit at the time,
you at least had the opportunity for Spirit to still
exist under Jet Blue, or for Jet Blue to potentially
offer a secondary Jet Blue service jet you know, Jet
(14:06):
Blue Plus, where it offers you know, a no frills
travel package as opposed to your standard Jet Blue flights. Instead.
This is your unintended consequence. The very things that Pete
Buddhajen was saying they were worried about has now come
to fruition. Spirit is no longer flying and now there's
(14:30):
less competition and less consumer options for those that are
looking for an inexpensive way to go and travel.
Speaker 14 (14:40):
Good morning, John Dave here from Hoon Rapids say, for
anyone who's flown Spirit Airline will understand completely why they
went under. It was the worst service. It was no responsibility,
no accountability. There were delays, typically were not hours, but
(15:02):
sometimes a day if you got stuck at an airport.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Because they just didn't have the equipment.
Speaker 12 (15:09):
I'd smart from New Brighton. Spirit Airlines served a useful purpose.
They weren't really good, it wasn't comfortable. It was a
bit of a cattle call. But if you can get
a family of four on a plane round trip to
the East Coast and back for five hundred dollars all in,
that's pretty darn good. And that's something I was able
(15:31):
to do on Spirit Airlines. Try to do that on
any other airline, thanks.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
And you may have had a lack of good customer
service potentially, but that's not going to be the same
experience for everybody. And so much of those different troublesome
aspects that were mentioned in the talk back, I don't
dismiss them.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I'm sure that there's reality and truth to them.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
But there's also ways in which you're heading into a
circumstance of purchasing tickets on an airline where you know
what you're going to get, you can plan accordingly to
buttress any of what you wouldn't get with Spirit that
you would typically get with another airline.
Speaker 15 (16:11):
My experience with Spirit was I had a airline ticket
to go to Chicago at six am for a ten
Am meeting. Spirit canceled the six am flight and said
you can go on the ten am with no refund.
Had to buy a ticket on another airline to get
to Chicago on time. But even with that, Spirit should
(16:34):
have been allowed to merge with Jet Blue.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
They would not have been creating a monopoly.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
By the way, I got a great idea. So we
were talking about law enforcement on the roads earlier and
putting you know, empty squad cars on the side. We
can go and purchase a bunch of those smaller Spirit
Airlines planes and we can set those on the side
of the road because that would just slow people down
to staring at them, right, and all kinds of problems
(17:01):
this morning, yours.
Speaker 6 (17:02):
You're fascinating to talk to.
Speaker 7 (17:05):
I think we'll work shot that one, John, Just so
you know.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
I was just wondering, what's gonna happen with all those planes.
That guy in.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
Columbia can go and gut him out, and you can
use it to go and transport all of the cocaine
hippos from Pablo Escobar's farm.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
There you go.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you
need to listen to the previous hours of the show.
Here on Twin City's News Talking Art radio with your smart.
Speaker 16 (17:31):
Speaker yet the Allies or in Pulkins, you need to
come to discover your power.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Showing me and I will complete your training.
Speaker 16 (17:51):
With all combined strengthens, we can end this conflict and
bring order to the galaxy.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
How great would it be if in that moment Luke
just looked at him and said, you're.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Fascinating to talk to.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Twin Cities News Talk Am eleven thirty one oh three
five FM on a May the fourth be with you.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yes, that's right, my name is John Justice. Hello, that
glad you're with the show.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
This morning, we're going to get back to the collapse
of Spirit Airlines. I have some audio from the Treasury
on a Secretary to share with you. Plus a lot
of comments have come in to the iHeartRadio app and
it is time to bestow upon one lucky friend of
the show the title of Talkback of the Day, which
is a special one today considering it has made the
(18:38):
fourth It's brought to you by minileafanminileaf dot com. You
can get mini Leaf out in the wild. Recently added,
there are products of the Mendota Heights. Any Dina pot
Mama's locations or of course Taste Happy at minileaf dot com.
Here is your talkback of the day.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Good morning, John. It's actually really easy to move a hippo.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
All you need to do is lay out a line
of marbles in the direction that you want them to go.
Thank you, Ben for that joke that I wish that
I'd come up with here on Twin Cities News Talk.
You now have the bragging rights relating to the talk
back of the day brought to you by Minnie.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Leaf and Minnieleaf dot Com.
Speaker 7 (19:17):
Going back before you move on, John, really quick, going
back to that Darth Vader scene with Luke Skywalker, would
you say that's the most iconic scene in film history,
one of the one of right, certainly one of the
biggest reveals because we didn't know at the time. Right Famously,
James Earl Jones had made the comment because he did
(19:38):
the voice for Darth Vader. So when they shot that scene,
I'm gonna geek out here for a moment. So when
they shot that scene, you had David Prowse who was
wearing the suit at the time. He was doing the
dialogue through the mask. They of course replaced that with
James Earl Jones and the booming Vader voice that everyone's
(19:59):
becomes so accustomed to in that moment, though, that was
not the dialogue that was written because they wanted to
keep it secret, so he said something completely separate from
all of this, and I believe the original line was
that ben Kenobi had killed his father, elictening the response
from Luke, and then in post production James Earl Jones
(20:20):
went and recut the dialogue. James Earl Jones said in
interviews years down the line that when he read the
dialogue for what would be in The Empire Strikes Back,
he actually thought the Vader was lying, like he didn't
even he didn't even believe it. I remember as a
kid just how shocked I was was by.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
This, because I don't think a lot of people the
one of the reasons why that film did so well
among an abundance of reasons, right, and just became the
one of the first major blockbusters for me as a
kid at five years old, going to see that film
with my dad and then following Luke's story of him
searching for his father. I mean that had a profound
(21:02):
impact on me as a child sympathizing, empathizing with Luke
at the time, going oh my gosh, that must have
been so difficult for me, didn't have a dad, and
then only to get you a few years later on
I would only be like eight or nine years old
when the Empire strikes back come out, and then to
find out that the dad was the worst person in
the galaxy.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
So there you go. Look at what you did. It's
all your fault. Now, that's all your fault.
Speaker 6 (21:23):
You're fascinating to talk to.
Speaker 16 (21:25):
All right.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
Treasury Secretary of Scottpassent blamed the Biden administration as we
were talking about earlier and the rejection of the Spirit
Jet Blue merger for the Spirit tot Airlines collapse in
an interview with Fox News over the weekend.
Speaker 17 (21:37):
And sot Cherry, let me get your take on what
took place in terms of Spirit Airlines, because I know
that the Democrats did not want Spirit to merge with
Jet Blue a year ago, and now we see that
Spirit Airlines closed operations. The Treasury was supposed to be
doing a deal to save this company.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Can you tell us what happened? Sure, Maria.
Speaker 18 (22:01):
So this is just more of the mess we inherited
from the Biden administration. In twenty September twenty twenty two,
Elizabeth Warren, who loves to write letters, sent a letter
to the Justice Department, to the Labor, to the Transport
Department saying that they should oppose.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
The merger with Spirit Airlines.
Speaker 18 (22:21):
Jet Blue wanted to buy them for three point eight
billion dollars. It would have given them much more resiliency,
and she and the Transportation Secretary Pete Boodhajege is probably
the worst Transportation secretary in history when he came to
the office. Also, they were against the merger. And if
(22:41):
Jet Blue had merged with Spirit, we would have all
these jobs that were lost. Yesterday we had thirty airport,
thirty regional airports who have a los service.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
And I can tell you what happened here.
Speaker 18 (22:53):
It wasn't Treasury, it was Commerce that was trying to
put something together. But the reason we were here was
because the merger. The Biden administration opposed the merger. We
shouldn't have been here in the first place.
Speaker 19 (23:08):
Hi, John, My limited experience is I've flown Spirit maybe
half a dozen times, never had a problem with him,
Always got where I was going when I wanted to
get there, they always continue to get a bum wrap, deserve,
maybe not deserve. The real issue is that the fairs,
(23:28):
now that they no longer fly to MSP Delta has
a skyrocket affairs.
Speaker 20 (23:35):
Incredibly, we wore off Spirit ear Lanes after about the
third time they stranded us someplace. That being said, if
you're looking for a cheap way, or if you were
looking for a cheap way to get someplace, you didn't
need to be, but you could be, but you didn't
really care when it got there, if you made it
home or not deserve its purpose.
Speaker 16 (23:53):
For that, I guess.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
You could basically just be bear. You sell for an
experience that might suck. This is kind of what I
was mentioning before then Spirit Airlines would have been would
have been the go to. I think the one takeaway
right now is there's a combination of factors as to
why Spirit Airlines is no longer around. I mean, the
big part I agree with the Treasury Secretary. But at
the same time, this is also the risk that you
run when you're running a low fair airline. Of all things,
(24:23):
the only thing that I care about is that well
the planes stay in the sky. The turbulence is the
same for all of them. Perhaps the skills of the pilot.
I don't know if that plays into it at all.
Speaker 21 (24:33):
I flew Spirit one time one time because they give
you a really low offer price and you're thinking some taxes.
You get there and they're like, oh, you got to
buy a seat and then oh you have a checked bag.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
And okay, really quick, what's going on with the cat?
What's what's what's going on with the cat?
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Want some sushi? What's good?
Speaker 5 (24:52):
Is it an outdoor cat? If it's an outdoor cat,
they're just a disease written as the feral cats. As
we found out earlier this morning. I just and he
once a fish? What's going on with the gat?
Speaker 21 (25:02):
You play the game, you're eventually like the guy who
said he flew a family of five coast to coast
for five hundred bucks. He must have done it with
little to no bags. That was the game I know.
I hated the one time I flew Spirit. Racho, John, Thanks.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Get that cat's a catting it something?
Speaker 7 (25:22):
What's going casts trying to leave their own talk back?
Speaker 2 (25:29):
That was amazing morning, guys.
Speaker 20 (25:34):
So with Spirit Airlines going in the tank, that's seventeen
thousand employees two thousand pilots.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yeah, thanks Pete.
Speaker 21 (25:45):
He really did a good job on that one.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I seen a meme this morning on Facebook and it
had Spirit airlines all painted yellow with the pork on them.
So change it to deport airline and have the government
plund it.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
Yeah, I think we have all the planes that we
need for deportation. I mean those continue to run in
and out of MSP. But yes, I'd seen that same
meme that's been floating around as well. All right, before
we turn our attention over to fraud, just a quick
one here, So from the New York Post. When Elizabeth
(26:31):
Arnold and her daughter visited Greece from Denver, Colorado in
August of twenty twenty one, it wasn't a sunbathe on
a beach or taken the ruins of Athens. Their sight
seeing looked pretty different from that of the typical tourist,
as they ran along a coastal trail near some tourist
(26:54):
destination islands in the region, taking a pause to soak
in this sound of a piano from a nearby window,
inhale the scent of crushed eucalyptus leaves, or dip their
feet in the ocean. Why am I bringing all this up?
Because for Arnold, a longtime runner and senior retreat leader
of run Wild Retreats, travel and running are inseparable, and
(27:18):
she's not alone. Trip Advisor's twenty twenty six trend cast
identified sweat jetting. By the way, trip Advisor is just
sort of another version of exactly. These are trips that
built around athletic experiences, and they're also one of tourism's
fastest growing avenues. Other people are calling these runcations getaways
(27:46):
centered on running, which can include everything from destination races
to resorts with scenic trails to hotels that employ their
own running concierge.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Is this what we're doing now?
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Are just are we just now adding cation to any
sort of activity. I'm on a Carcasian, I'm on a
couch cas that's usually me. I'm on a recliner. Can't
go on a recliner cation in the summer. You're just
going on vacation and you happen to be going and
running it where you're at. They do say their run
cations fall into two categories. For those that are curious
(28:23):
race focus trips, Oh you can't do that, Oh, they're
racing against each other. I'm sorry, Come on, John, Well,
you know it's just when you cross the streams on
this show and you talk about things outside of politics,
sometimes it gets a little confusing.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
A race focused vacation it's horrible.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
Or vacations where running is the primary way to explore
a destination.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
What are you being chased?
Speaker 5 (28:54):
As interest grows, hotels and resorts answer with guided runs,
curated routes, and wellness recovery programs.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
No, I'm I'm good.
Speaker 7 (29:05):
I just say I ran a mile and a half yesterday,
a mile and a half, which is not that long,
and it did not feel like a vacation at all.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
No, I would not be a vacation. That's the last
thing that I would want to go and do on vacation.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
For crying out loud. This morning, when I got in,
oh man, my timing was off.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
So Chris Carr host over at the sister station K
one oh two. So he takes the stairs. We're up
five floors. I was like, Oh, that's interesting and maybe
I should start doing that. It's good way to get
a work out in the morning. I don't know how
many calories you burn climbing five flights of stairs, but
I imagine it's a lot, especially this morning, because we
arrived in exactly the same time. And when we walked in,
(29:40):
he goes, oh, you gotta take the stairs. It's like,
now I'm stuck. Yeah, well I guess, I guess. I
suppose I will. I don't even know where the stairs
are at for crying out loud, and they were in
a completely different location than I thought. And then he
smartly walked behind me because I told him we were
going up. I said, if you want to lead, I'm
(30:01):
probably gonna be slow going up these things. Like no, no, no,
it's fine. And then I asked him, like, why are
you walking behind me? He's like, just in case you fall.
So we got to the top of the stairs. I
know you noticed this. I could not hide it if
I tried. So he got to the top of the stairs.
I'm completely winded, and typically what I would do is
(30:23):
I would go get my cup of coffee and I
would come back to the studio right, but I'm so
winded I could barely talk.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
So I'm like, i gotta go get my coffee, cuff
off and good morning bye.
Speaker 7 (30:33):
That's always awkward too, because then you have to have
the conversation, but you're winded trying to go up the stairs.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
It's like, oh, and I was the dummy walking up
having a.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Conversation with him.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Right, I'm trying to act like I got like I
got this exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I'm good. Five flights of stairs, no big deal. I'll
be fine on the inside.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
Seriously, all I've been thinking about the whole morning is
dang it, man. Now I need the shower when I
get home because it feels like I worked out.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Playing Devil's advocate.
Speaker 22 (31:03):
I find myself wondering why Americans feel their own cheap flights.
I haven't traveled in six years or more, and it's
largely because of the declining behavioral standards of my fellow citizens.
You're dressed poorly, you're profane, you're drunk, You wreek of weed.
Your children are running up and down the aisles. At
least when flights are expensive, you keep out the riff rap.
(31:26):
You charge me a grant and make me wear a tie.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
I'm in all right, tom, Okay, just a little friendly advice.
I love your talkbacks, man, I do. I love your commentary.
Many of our listeners do. Your voice is incredibly distinct
and often soothing. That being said, many leaf products are
now available in Mendota Heights and I dinah at pop Mama's.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
I would encourage you to go.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
Maybe you think of some of those fung gummies or
for for sync of DeMaio, maybe get yourself a magical
margarita spooky mini leaf tonic. It just he's left a
few talkbacks this morning, and it seems like things are
a little little rough for maybe you know what I imagine
Tom is a lot like Scott, who we haven't heard
from this morning. By the way, takes care of himself.
Maybe a run casi there you go. Scott travels a lot.
(32:09):
I wonder Scott.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Actually participates in runcations that would not be on my list.
By the way, good Maran.
Speaker 11 (32:16):
John, great show, Thank you, I appreciate it. I just
burned a calorie and a half. I walked out to
my deck and put some water in the water dish
for the birds and then walk back in. So I
just burned a calorie and a half.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Ha ha awesome. Keep up the good work. Bye bye.
You know, go enjoy yourself at Tiktak.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
You know you're not going to be packing any bounds
on with that because you already burned off the calories.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Minnesota officials are seeing.
Speaker 5 (32:41):
A massive spike in new reports of fraud and social
service programs.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Oh, I'm shocked.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Overwhelming the ability to investigate, for investigators to handle all
the cases. I don't buy this for a second. Just
be upfront with my comment inventary. What is coming out
of the Attorney General thief Eleson's office. I just don't
buy it. They say that state authorities have to farm
(33:11):
out more cases to federal investors. Investigators tongue type today
and delayed their ability to identify and shut down credible
allegations of fraudulent providers. So on April twenty eighth, federal
and state law enforcement executed twenty two search warrants in
Minnesota tied to fraud investigations. It was the first major
public action we reported on the show the breaking News
(33:33):
on fraud cases by law enforcements since December. But no
charges were immediately filed and the search warrants remained sealed.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Not a huge surprise. It takes a while to go
through that information.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
Minnesota's Department of Human Services Inspector General James Clark said
it may take years to get through the backlog of
fraud referrals, and the proliferation of referrals also means at
a timeline when a tip come come in too, when
the potential fraudsters get charges even longer delays that could
lead the public with questions and service providers, some of
(34:07):
whom dispute allegations against them in limbo. So, first off,
I am of the opinion this was all by design.
Democrats wanted to redistribute the wealth. You can't put forward
policies directly related to that. For evidence of that, all
you have to do is listen to the lunatics on
(34:28):
the left inside the legislature during this session. You got
Athena Hollins last week talking about, you know, class warfare.
Don't threaten her with a good time, Aisha Gomez proposing
taxes on every single entity that they can. They want
to redistribute the wealth, and they found a means to
(34:49):
do that via these social services programs, making them incredibly
vulnerable by design to fraud, and then ignoring all of
the fraud warnings when they popped up. So in hindsight,
now when I see the fraud allegations, all they're swamping investigators.
To me, this just seems like a delay tactic and
(35:10):
I don't trust anything that they're saying regarding this, Clark said,
it's a volume issue. It's also an issue that investigative
capacity technological capacity has not had a corresponding increase to
meet the volume that we're facing. At the same time,
we were also told this wasn't that big of a deal.
(35:32):
It was a record breaking year. The Department of Human
Services withheld Medicaid payments to five hundred and forty six
providers over the fraud allegations, compared to one hundred and
sixty that were with HELLD the year before. Legislative Auditor
Judy Randalls said that her six person team got seven
hundred and sixty five reports last year, up from four
hundred and eighty one. The Minnesota Attorney General's Office has
(35:55):
been asking legislators to boost their Medicaid fraud control unit
ranks by thirty two to fifty people. Nick Wanka, who
leads the Medicaid fraud Control Unit at the Attorney General's Office,
at his staff is drowning in referrals. Wanka said his
team cannot be expected to take on two or three
(36:17):
times as many cases as they used to and get
quick results. And if this is all true, they only
have themselves to blame because they ignored the problem for
so long. But again, I question all of this coming
from the Attorney General's office. As a matter of fact,
I got an email that came in a friend of
the show says, I have a woman that I know
(36:40):
that works for the state. She's helping do some of
the site visits for fraud. She says they haven't done
very many because the providers aren't getting their paperwork back.
They have a whole team of people hired, but there's
not visits being done. She works from home three days
a week. I'm not sure how site visits can be
done when she's working from home three days a week.
(37:02):
Probably not necessary to hire more people. The piece goes
on to talk about in the past, state and federal
investigators would collaborate on complex medical fraud issues like the
massive farebo based a case involving interpreters and medical transportation
that has led to more than.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Thirty people charge.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
Now, Wanka said they must rely on more federal law
enforcement to lead the charge, with his staff potentially providing
some data analysis or secondary help, and they have to
be more judicious about which allegations they take on, opting
for potential cases that are more sweeping in scope, a
bigger dollar and more recent other cases they say are
(37:44):
going to fall by the wayside. We'll talk more about
this on tomorrow's show, as we are running out of
time today. If this is indeed on the up and up,
and I would love to get your take via the
email from now until tomorrow Tomorrow Morning Justice at iHeartRadio
dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Again, the lead.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
Here would be, Yeah, the fraud is as bad as
we think that it is. I just can't help but
think that they're stalling and coming up with any excuse
because they know how bad it is and they simply
don't want that exposed, especially before the elections here in
Minnesota later this year. If you miss any portion of
today's show on this May the fourth be with you, you
(38:26):
shure to check out the podcast that'll be available shortly
up on the iHeartRadio app. Curtesy of Sam, Thank you, Sam,
I hope the rest of you if you do celebrate
Star Wars Day, have yourself a fantastic day, and of
course we're back at it tomorrow. David Gartzenstein Ross will
be joining us to talk a little AI looking forward
to that, and you can always get your questions in
early on the iHeartRadio app or email me as well.
(38:50):
Enjoy the rest of your Monday. I'll talk to you
guys tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Bye. Thanks everybody, You guys are the best.
Good lording shot at all you Star Wars dirts, celebrate.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Four to four with me.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
The four.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
That's kind of like the original old school.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
To service have a great day.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
I think the motors, traders and thieves you call friend hello.
Speaker 5 (00:26):
That kind of made the fourth happy one to you
as well, our three here on Twin City's news Talk
Am eleven thirty and one three five FM. I was
a fan of Star Wars before I was a fan
of really anything. Having seen the original in the theater
when I was five years old certainly shaped me as
(00:50):
a person, definitely during my childhood. Speaking of childhood, millennials
were rejoicing as a staple of their childhood, making a
triumphant return this summer. Pizza Hut just announced their book
at summer reading program. Okay, first off, I don't believe
that my millennials are rejoicing over this pizza.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
This isn't made. This is a good thing.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
It encourages kids to read more books in exchange for
free pizza, and it's making a comeback.
Speaker 6 (01:19):
Huh.
Speaker 7 (01:20):
Maybe millennial parents now excited for their kids to have
that true story.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, dude, love me some Pizza Hut. By the way, man,
I used to do that program.
Speaker 7 (01:29):
Oh those personal pant pizzas, I could still taste them.
Speaker 5 (01:32):
Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe this is something millennials are rejoicing in.
They need to bring back the red cups. You know
what I'm talking about. Oh man, those are so good.
So this summer, keep your kids reading and learning and
loving while all earning free pizza. The Free program A
will reward reward young readers who hit their milestones by
(01:53):
providing them with Digital Reading Award certificates, which are redeemable
for a free one topping personal pain.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Pizza from Pizza Hut. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 5 (02:02):
Available to students in grades preschool through six, but to
commenters insists it should be extended to adults as well. Yeah,
absolutely extended to adults. If Pizza Hut is worried about
losing money, they don't need to. Here in Minnesota, I
mean only and a half the adults can actually read,
so courtesy of the Minnesota Public Education System. Did have
(02:28):
a comment that rolled in regarding the seventeen point three
mile per hour speed limits sign that went up in Wisconsin.
Speaker 8 (02:36):
It's John seventeen point three miles an hour. You know,
we got rid of pennies. I say we transfer that
same logic over to this so out Therefore seventeen point
three would be twenty miles an hour. In my mind, how.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
Would you have even determined the point the point anything?
I don't have that specificity. I mean, I guess if
I'm looking at an analog speedometer, but not when you
got the digital readout on the dash. It's Wisconsin, man,
that's true.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Hey there, John, I'm pretty sure it is illegal for
police cars to sit blacked out in the nighttime or
when it is dark outside. I may want to get
a lawyer extraordinary to fully explain that.
Speaker 5 (03:18):
I don't think it is, because I have seen patrol
cars parked underneath overpasses with their lights off, just sitting there.
So unless they were empty, I have seen that. I
was just the other morning. I was driving in and
a lot of the cars were just flying down sixty
five up in Blaine near Minards, and then I noticed
the Blaine SUV off to the side with his lights on,
(03:40):
and then he didn't pull out and grab anybody, which
kind of bummed me out as well. All right, one more,
speaking of signs, just one more for you. This was
I believe in ann Arbor Michigan. I might be getting
the city wrong. I know it was in Michigan, but
local community activists decided to go and remove their neighborhood
(04:03):
crime watch signs. These are the ones that typically have
the eye attached to them. Here's the report from a
local news outlet.
Speaker 7 (04:11):
And they're inconsistent with their values and arbors are wealthy community.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
We don't want to push people away. We want to
welcome folks in. You know, so it is ann arbor.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
It's a little hard to hear, but did you guys
said at the beginning they find that the crime watch
signs in the neighborhoods are not inclusive because you're going
to offend criminals? Is that the thought process here?
Speaker 7 (04:33):
And they're inconsistent with their values.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
And arbors are wealthy community. We don't want to push
people away. We want to welcome folks in.
Speaker 9 (04:40):
You know, there are people that let me and also
my community that have big questions quite frankly in their
own neighborhood by others, you know, wondering what they're doing there.
This is this representative of our values and what we.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
How we want people to feel.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
Crime watch signs might be insulting to individuals. We have
an Hoa story coming up. I've made mention of this
on the show in recent weeks. We have to be
focused on turning as many people out in all our elections.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
It starts at the local level.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
It starts with when you do the hierarchy, the tiers
of elected leadership in the state. I mean, I'm talking
about starting with Hoa's school boards, local city council races.
And it's got to be one of the most ridiculous
things that I've heard as of late coming out of Michigan.
(05:38):
But you know, it's the same mentality carried by individuals
here who if they saw political opportunism in taking.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Down crime Watch signs in the name.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
Of inclusivity, they would absolutely go and do it, all right,
speaking of pizza and reading programs.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
A free pizzas, that's nothing. We used to get tokens
for our report cards. For video games, we get like
five tokens for an A, three for a B, one
for a C. I fill up my whole pocket with
tokens play games for hours.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Well, good, that's good for you.
Speaker 6 (06:18):
It's cool.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Not really relevant to how we play video games today,
but still a pleasant story. Nonetheless, and I appreciate. Spirit
Airline customers woke up with a blunt message inside the
airline's app last week. Every flight is canceled, effective immediately.
The message read in parts that passengers should not go
(06:42):
to the airport under any circumstances. It also made clear
that the airline cannot help rebook travelers on other carriers,
leaving many scrambling for alternatives on their own. Instead, customers
were told refunds that would be automatically issued back to
the original form of payment for the flights purchased. So
(07:05):
we'll dive into more of what has happened with the
demise of Spirit Airlines. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blames Elizabeth
Warren and the Biden administration for its collapse. I have
audio of former Transportation Secretary Pete Ludagic actually bragging at
the time about stopping the merger between Spirit and Jet Blue,
and now in a relatively short period of time, Spirit
(07:29):
is no more. I'll give you details on that. Hoa
president that admitted fleecing residents out of eleven million dollars,
and then we're all drowning fraud allegations. Swamp investigators. Minnesota
officials say they have too few staff to handle the
massive spike in fraud reports. If that's true, boy, they
(07:52):
should have really gotten on top of that from the
get go, when all of those individuals working inside of
the Walls administration were talking about all the red flags
that were being raised, and yet they were criticized, and
they were moved to different departments, or they were just
ignored altogether.
Speaker 10 (08:10):
He's me Twin Cities newstalk station ATLKAM, Minneapolis. He's guaranteed
to be live, guarantee to be local John Justice weekday
mornings on iHeartRadio and Twin Cities News Talk, Guaranteed humans.
Speaker 11 (08:25):
He love that.
Speaker 5 (08:29):
Spared Airlines officially shuts down. The collapse comes just days
after a last ditch effort to save the airline fell apart.
A roughly five hundred million dollar bailout push failed after
disagreements between the Trump administration and key bond holders stalled
(08:55):
any deal. President Donald Trump had signaled the administration was
at least open to stepping in where looking at it,
Trump said on Friday, if we can do it, we
do it. That window has now unfortunately closed. I've never
flown on Spirit airlines. You sit on like Hay bales right.
Speaker 7 (09:11):
Something like that. Have you flown on Spirit Airlines several times?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (09:16):
See I never now granted, I've never flown on Spirit Airlines. Okay,
so let me just say that upfront, flying on a
plane in general, for me is an awful experience, Like
it just doesn't adding insult to injury doesn't really make
that big of a difference for me. I mean, nless
I'm flying like in first class, which I don't think
(09:37):
I've ever done. You know, a bad experience on an
airline is just a bad experience, and I just my
goal is to get on the plane, get to my destination,
and get off the plane. And so therefore I've been
on bad flights before. But you know, people make a
big deal about Spirit Airlines being bad.
Speaker 7 (09:52):
I will say Spirit Airlines is a budget or was
a budget airline, so I always went into it like
I know, I get what I pay for. Right that
being said, when I upgraded a first class on Spirit,
it was like forty extra box, So there you go.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
I remember I took a flight and I can't remember
what it was for, but there was an airline that
had gone down somewhat recently at the time. I mean
this is decades ago now off the northern coast of California,
and I remember I was getting on a flight in
San Diego to head home, and it was a Delta flight,
(10:29):
and I swear inside of the plane like there were
portions of my surroundings, of the interior of the craft
that were just covered.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
In duct tape.
Speaker 5 (10:41):
Like this plane was clearly on its last legs. And
I was already getting on board at a time when
I was concerned. I'm always concerned about the planes chopping
out of the sky, but we had just had a
major airline disaster, so it wasn't all that reassuring when
I saw that the tape the seats around me were
being you know, duct taped up because they were falling
up by the.
Speaker 7 (11:00):
Way, burying the lead. You flew from San Diego to
La Is that right? No, I don't remember where.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
I think I was living in Michigan at the time.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
This was a lot it might have been. It this
a long long time ago. I don't know.
Speaker 7 (11:12):
I wasn't flying back to lawsuit. I was gonna say,
is that like a ten minute flight?
Speaker 12 (11:15):
No?
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, that was that would have been pointless.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
I just drive up the road for crying out loud, no,
I was heading I was heading back to a different
location camera where I was. Anyways, industry groups pushing for
a much larger safety net, some of them requesting as
much as two point five billion yo okay as a
temporarily federal support for the struggling low cost carriers. The
pitch was simple. Without help, airlines like Spirit should could collapse,
(11:39):
cutting competition and driving up prices. Now, for travelers, the
fallout was immediate. Flights were gone, plans were blown up,
and for many the scramble to find a replacement got
even more expensive. By the way, if you happened to
deal with any of this, if you were traveling and
had a flat on Spirit, I would be interested to
hear from you. The shutdown does mark a stunning collapse
(11:59):
for a thirty four year old company that once built
its brand on rock bottom fares and no frills travel.
For years, Spirit positioned itself as the go to option
for cheap domestic flights, even as complaints about fees, delays,
and customer service piled up. The ripull effects could hit quickly,
with one of the country's most aggressive low cost carriers
(12:20):
suddenly being gone. Competition strengths, prices could climb, especially on
routes where Spirit helped keep fares low. Now, Spirit Airlines
said refunds will be processed automatically, but offered little else
in terms of support for thousands of passengers that the
message it could not have been clear or do not
go to the airport now. In the midst of all
(12:41):
of this, there was an attempty years ago during the
Biden administration for Jet Blue and Spirit to merge together. However,
the Biden administration was not fond of that. Here's a
clip from then Transportation Secretary Mayor Pete Boodagic announcing the
Biden administration's decision to fight Jet Blue and the Spirit merger.
Speaker 13 (13:02):
Our department the Department of Transportation has generally not gotten
involved in these merger cases, but that's changing today.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
It is so important to make.
Speaker 13 (13:12):
Sure that passengers have choices, that they have access to
low fares, that they have access to competition, and yet
we've seen less and less and less of that competition
over the years. We are taking a step that again
is unusual in terms of recent years, but we think
is the right thing to do, supporting the DOJ's lawsuit
(13:33):
and independently using our own authorities which are a little
bit different from the DOJ, starting our own investigation and
taking other actions.
Speaker 11 (13:41):
Ah.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
Yes, the short sighted view of a leftist failing to
identify the unintended consequences. You see, if there had been
a merger between Jet Blue and Spirit at the time,
you at least had the opportunity for Spirit to still
exist under Jet Blue, or for Jet Blue to potentially
offer a secondary Jet Blue service jet you know, Jet
(14:06):
Blue Plus, where it offers you know, a no frills
travel package as opposed to your standard Jet Blue flights. Instead.
This is your unintended consequence. The very things that Pete
Buddhajen was saying they were worried about has now come
to fruition. Spirit is no longer flying and now there's
(14:30):
less competition and less consumer options for those that are
looking for an inexpensive way to go and travel.
Speaker 14 (14:40):
Good morning, John Dave here from Hoon Rapids say, for
anyone who's flown Spirit Airline will understand completely why they
went under. It was the worst service. It was no responsibility,
no accountability. There were delays, typically were not hours, but
(15:02):
sometimes a day if you got stuck at an airport.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Because they just didn't have the equipment.
Speaker 12 (15:09):
I'd smart from New Brighton. Spirit Airlines served a useful purpose.
They weren't really good, it wasn't comfortable. It was a
bit of a cattle call. But if you can get
a family of four on a plane round trip to
the East Coast and back for five hundred dollars all in,
that's pretty darn good. And that's something I was able
(15:31):
to do on Spirit Airlines. Try to do that on
any other airline, thanks.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
And you may have had a lack of good customer
service potentially, but that's not going to be the same
experience for everybody. And so much of those different troublesome
aspects that were mentioned in the talk back, I don't
dismiss them.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I'm sure that there's reality and truth to them.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
But there's also ways in which you're heading into a
circumstance of purchasing tickets on an airline where you know
what you're going to get, you can plan accordingly to
buttress any of what you wouldn't get with Spirit that
you would typically get with another airline.
Speaker 15 (16:11):
My experience with Spirit was I had a airline ticket
to go to Chicago at six am for a ten
Am meeting. Spirit canceled the six am flight and said
you can go on the ten am with no refund.
Had to buy a ticket on another airline to get
to Chicago on time. But even with that, Spirit should
(16:34):
have been allowed to merge with Jet Blue.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
They would not have been creating a monopoly.
Speaker 5 (16:41):
By the way, I got a great idea. So we
were talking about law enforcement on the roads earlier and
putting you know, empty squad cars on the side. We
can go and purchase a bunch of those smaller Spirit
Airlines planes and we can set those on the side
of the road because that would just slow people down
to staring at them, right, and all kinds of problems
(17:01):
this morning, yours.
Speaker 6 (17:02):
You're fascinating to talk to.
Speaker 7 (17:05):
I think we'll work shot that one, John, Just so
you know.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
I was just wondering, what's gonna happen with all those planes.
That guy in.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
Columbia can go and gut him out, and you can
use it to go and transport all of the cocaine
hippos from Pablo Escobar's farm.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
There you go.
Speaker 5 (17:23):
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you
need to listen to the previous hours of the show.
Here on Twin City's News Talking Art radio with your smart.
Speaker 16 (17:31):
Speaker yet the Allies or in Pulkins, you need to
come to discover your power.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Showing me and I will complete your training.
Speaker 16 (17:51):
With all combined strengthens, we can end this conflict and
bring order to the galaxy.
Speaker 5 (18:00):
How great would it be if in that moment Luke
just looked at him and said, you're.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Fascinating to talk to.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Twin Cities News Talk Am eleven thirty one oh three
five FM on a May the fourth be with you.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yes, that's right, my name is John Justice. Hello, that
glad you're with the show.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
This morning, we're going to get back to the collapse
of Spirit Airlines. I have some audio from the Treasury
on a Secretary to share with you. Plus a lot
of comments have come in to the iHeartRadio app and
it is time to bestow upon one lucky friend of
the show the title of Talkback of the Day, which
is a special one today considering it has made the
(18:38):
fourth It's brought to you by minileafanminileaf dot com. You
can get mini Leaf out in the wild. Recently added,
there are products of the Mendota Heights. Any Dina pot
Mama's locations or of course Taste Happy at minileaf dot com.
Here is your talkback of the day.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Good morning, John. It's actually really easy to move a hippo.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
All you need to do is lay out a line
of marbles in the direction that you want them to go.
Thank you, Ben for that joke that I wish that
I'd come up with here on Twin Cities News Talk.
You now have the bragging rights relating to the talk
back of the day brought to you by Minnie.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Leaf and Minnieleaf dot Com.
Speaker 7 (19:17):
Going back before you move on, John, really quick, going
back to that Darth Vader scene with Luke Skywalker, would
you say that's the most iconic scene in film history,
one of the one of right, certainly one of the
biggest reveals because we didn't know at the time. Right Famously,
James Earl Jones had made the comment because he did
(19:38):
the voice for Darth Vader. So when they shot that scene,
I'm gonna geek out here for a moment. So when
they shot that scene, you had David Prowse who was
wearing the suit at the time. He was doing the
dialogue through the mask. They of course replaced that with
James Earl Jones and the booming Vader voice that everyone's
(19:59):
becomes so accustomed to in that moment, though, that was
not the dialogue that was written because they wanted to
keep it secret, so he said something completely separate from
all of this, and I believe the original line was
that ben Kenobi had killed his father, elictening the response
from Luke, and then in post production James Earl Jones
(20:20):
went and recut the dialogue. James Earl Jones said in
interviews years down the line that when he read the
dialogue for what would be in The Empire Strikes Back,
he actually thought the Vader was lying, like he didn't
even he didn't even believe it. I remember as a
kid just how shocked I was was by.
Speaker 5 (20:39):
This, because I don't think a lot of people the
one of the reasons why that film did so well
among an abundance of reasons, right, and just became the
one of the first major blockbusters for me as a
kid at five years old, going to see that film
with my dad and then following Luke's story of him
searching for his father. I mean that had a profound
(21:02):
impact on me as a child sympathizing, empathizing with Luke
at the time, going oh my gosh, that must have
been so difficult for me, didn't have a dad, and
then only to get you a few years later on
I would only be like eight or nine years old
when the Empire strikes back come out, and then to
find out that the dad was the worst person in
the galaxy.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
So there you go. Look at what you did. It's
all your fault. Now, that's all your fault.
Speaker 6 (21:23):
You're fascinating to talk to.
Speaker 16 (21:25):
All right.
Speaker 5 (21:26):
Treasury Secretary of Scottpassent blamed the Biden administration as we
were talking about earlier and the rejection of the Spirit
Jet Blue merger for the Spirit tot Airlines collapse in
an interview with Fox News over the weekend.
Speaker 17 (21:37):
And sot Cherry, let me get your take on what
took place in terms of Spirit Airlines, because I know
that the Democrats did not want Spirit to merge with
Jet Blue a year ago, and now we see that
Spirit Airlines closed operations. The Treasury was supposed to be
doing a deal to save this company.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Can you tell us what happened? Sure, Maria.
Speaker 18 (22:01):
So this is just more of the mess we inherited
from the Biden administration. In twenty September twenty twenty two,
Elizabeth Warren, who loves to write letters, sent a letter
to the Justice Department, to the Labor, to the Transport
Department saying that they should oppose.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
The merger with Spirit Airlines.
Speaker 18 (22:21):
Jet Blue wanted to buy them for three point eight
billion dollars. It would have given them much more resiliency,
and she and the Transportation Secretary Pete Boodhajege is probably
the worst Transportation secretary in history when he came to
the office. Also, they were against the merger. And if
(22:41):
Jet Blue had merged with Spirit, we would have all
these jobs that were lost. Yesterday we had thirty airport,
thirty regional airports who have a los service.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
And I can tell you what happened here.
Speaker 18 (22:53):
It wasn't Treasury, it was Commerce that was trying to
put something together. But the reason we were here was
because the merger. The Biden administration opposed the merger. We
shouldn't have been here in the first place.
Speaker 19 (23:08):
Hi, John, My limited experience is I've flown Spirit maybe
half a dozen times, never had a problem with him,
Always got where I was going when I wanted to
get there, they always continue to get a bum wrap, deserve,
maybe not deserve. The real issue is that the fairs,
(23:28):
now that they no longer fly to MSP Delta has
a skyrocket affairs.
Speaker 20 (23:35):
Incredibly, we wore off Spirit ear Lanes after about the
third time they stranded us someplace. That being said, if
you're looking for a cheap way, or if you were
looking for a cheap way to get someplace, you didn't
need to be, but you could be, but you didn't
really care when it got there, if you made it
home or not deserve its purpose.
Speaker 16 (23:53):
For that, I guess.
Speaker 5 (23:58):
You could basically just be bear. You sell for an
experience that might suck. This is kind of what I
was mentioning before then Spirit Airlines would have been would
have been the go to. I think the one takeaway
right now is there's a combination of factors as to
why Spirit Airlines is no longer around. I mean, the
big part I agree with the Treasury Secretary. But at
the same time, this is also the risk that you
run when you're running a low fair airline. Of all things,
(24:23):
the only thing that I care about is that well
the planes stay in the sky. The turbulence is the
same for all of them. Perhaps the skills of the pilot.
I don't know if that plays into it at all.
Speaker 21 (24:33):
I flew Spirit one time one time because they give
you a really low offer price and you're thinking some taxes.
You get there and they're like, oh, you got to
buy a seat and then oh you have a checked bag.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
And okay, really quick, what's going on with the cat?
What's what's what's going on with the cat?
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Want some sushi? What's good?
Speaker 5 (24:52):
Is it an outdoor cat? If it's an outdoor cat,
they're just a disease written as the feral cats. As
we found out earlier this morning. I just and he
once a fish? What's going on with the gat?
Speaker 21 (25:02):
You play the game, you're eventually like the guy who
said he flew a family of five coast to coast
for five hundred bucks. He must have done it with
little to no bags. That was the game I know.
I hated the one time I flew Spirit. Racho, John, Thanks.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
Get that cat's a catting it something?
Speaker 7 (25:22):
What's going casts trying to leave their own talk back?
Speaker 2 (25:29):
That was amazing morning, guys.
Speaker 20 (25:34):
So with Spirit Airlines going in the tank, that's seventeen
thousand employees two thousand pilots.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yeah, thanks Pete.
Speaker 21 (25:45):
He really did a good job on that one.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I seen a meme this morning on Facebook and it
had Spirit airlines all painted yellow with the pork on them.
So change it to deport airline and have the government
plund it.
Speaker 5 (26:07):
Yeah, I think we have all the planes that we
need for deportation. I mean those continue to run in
and out of MSP. But yes, I'd seen that same
meme that's been floating around as well. All right, before
we turn our attention over to fraud, just a quick
one here, So from the New York Post. When Elizabeth
(26:31):
Arnold and her daughter visited Greece from Denver, Colorado in
August of twenty twenty one, it wasn't a sunbathe on
a beach or taken the ruins of Athens. Their sight
seeing looked pretty different from that of the typical tourist,
as they ran along a coastal trail near some tourist
(26:54):
destination islands in the region, taking a pause to soak
in this sound of a piano from a nearby window,
inhale the scent of crushed eucalyptus leaves, or dip their
feet in the ocean. Why am I bringing all this up?
Because for Arnold, a longtime runner and senior retreat leader
of run Wild Retreats, travel and running are inseparable, and
(27:18):
she's not alone. Trip Advisor's twenty twenty six trend cast
identified sweat jetting. By the way, trip Advisor is just
sort of another version of exactly. These are trips that
built around athletic experiences, and they're also one of tourism's
fastest growing avenues. Other people are calling these runcations getaways
(27:46):
centered on running, which can include everything from destination races
to resorts with scenic trails to hotels that employ their
own running concierge.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Is this what we're doing now?
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Are just are we just now adding cation to any
sort of activity. I'm on a Carcasian, I'm on a
couch cas that's usually me. I'm on a recliner. Can't
go on a recliner cation in the summer. You're just
going on vacation and you happen to be going and
running it where you're at. They do say their run
cations fall into two categories. For those that are curious
(28:23):
race focus trips, Oh you can't do that, Oh, they're
racing against each other. I'm sorry, Come on, John, Well,
you know it's just when you cross the streams on
this show and you talk about things outside of politics,
sometimes it gets a little confusing.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
A race focused vacation it's horrible.
Speaker 5 (28:45):
Or vacations where running is the primary way to explore
a destination.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
What are you being chased?
Speaker 5 (28:54):
As interest grows, hotels and resorts answer with guided runs,
curated routes, and wellness recovery programs.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
No, I'm I'm good.
Speaker 7 (29:05):
I just say I ran a mile and a half yesterday,
a mile and a half, which is not that long,
and it did not feel like a vacation at all.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
No, I would not be a vacation. That's the last
thing that I would want to go and do on vacation.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
For crying out loud. This morning, when I got in,
oh man, my timing was off.
Speaker 5 (29:20):
So Chris Carr host over at the sister station K
one oh two. So he takes the stairs. We're up
five floors. I was like, Oh, that's interesting and maybe
I should start doing that. It's good way to get
a work out in the morning. I don't know how
many calories you burn climbing five flights of stairs, but
I imagine it's a lot, especially this morning, because we
arrived in exactly the same time. And when we walked in,
(29:40):
he goes, oh, you gotta take the stairs. It's like,
now I'm stuck. Yeah, well I guess, I guess. I
suppose I will. I don't even know where the stairs
are at for crying out loud, and they were in
a completely different location than I thought. And then he
smartly walked behind me because I told him we were
going up. I said, if you want to lead, I'm
(30:01):
probably gonna be slow going up these things. Like no, no, no,
it's fine. And then I asked him, like, why are
you walking behind me? He's like, just in case you fall.
So we got to the top of the stairs. I
know you noticed this. I could not hide it if
I tried. So he got to the top of the stairs.
I'm completely winded, and typically what I would do is
(30:23):
I would go get my cup of coffee and I
would come back to the studio right, but I'm so
winded I could barely talk.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
So I'm like, i gotta go get my coffee, cuff
off and good morning bye.
Speaker 7 (30:33):
That's always awkward too, because then you have to have
the conversation, but you're winded trying to go up the stairs.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
It's like, oh, and I was the dummy walking up
having a.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Conversation with him.
Speaker 5 (30:43):
Right, I'm trying to act like I got like I
got this exactly.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I'm good. Five flights of stairs, no big deal. I'll
be fine on the inside.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
Seriously, all I've been thinking about the whole morning is
dang it, man. Now I need the shower when I
get home because it feels like I worked out.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Playing Devil's advocate.
Speaker 22 (31:03):
I find myself wondering why Americans feel their own cheap flights.
I haven't traveled in six years or more, and it's
largely because of the declining behavioral standards of my fellow citizens.
You're dressed poorly, you're profane, you're drunk, You wreek of weed.
Your children are running up and down the aisles. At
least when flights are expensive, you keep out the riff rap.
(31:26):
You charge me a grant and make me wear a tie.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
I'm in all right, tom, Okay, just a little friendly advice.
I love your talkbacks, man, I do. I love your commentary.
Many of our listeners do. Your voice is incredibly distinct
and often soothing. That being said, many leaf products are
now available in Mendota Heights and I dinah at pop Mama's.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
I would encourage you to go.
Speaker 5 (31:46):
Maybe you think of some of those fung gummies or
for for sync of DeMaio, maybe get yourself a magical
margarita spooky mini leaf tonic. It just he's left a
few talkbacks this morning, and it seems like things are
a little little rough for maybe you know what I imagine
Tom is a lot like Scott, who we haven't heard
from this morning. By the way, takes care of himself.
Maybe a run casi there you go. Scott travels a lot.
(32:09):
I wonder Scott.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Actually participates in runcations that would not be on my list.
By the way, good Maran.
Speaker 11 (32:16):
John, great show, Thank you, I appreciate it. I just
burned a calorie and a half. I walked out to
my deck and put some water in the water dish
for the birds and then walk back in. So I
just burned a calorie and a half.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Ha ha awesome. Keep up the good work. Bye bye.
You know, go enjoy yourself at Tiktak.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
You know you're not going to be packing any bounds
on with that because you already burned off the calories.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Minnesota officials are seeing.
Speaker 5 (32:41):
A massive spike in new reports of fraud and social
service programs.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
Oh, I'm shocked.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Overwhelming the ability to investigate, for investigators to handle all
the cases. I don't buy this for a second. Just
be upfront with my comment inventary. What is coming out
of the Attorney General thief Eleson's office. I just don't
buy it. They say that state authorities have to farm
(33:11):
out more cases to federal investors. Investigators tongue type today
and delayed their ability to identify and shut down credible
allegations of fraudulent providers. So on April twenty eighth, federal
and state law enforcement executed twenty two search warrants in
Minnesota tied to fraud investigations. It was the first major
public action we reported on the show the breaking News
(33:33):
on fraud cases by law enforcements since December. But no
charges were immediately filed and the search warrants remained sealed.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Not a huge surprise. It takes a while to go
through that information.
Speaker 5 (33:44):
Minnesota's Department of Human Services Inspector General James Clark said
it may take years to get through the backlog of
fraud referrals, and the proliferation of referrals also means at
a timeline when a tip come come in too, when
the potential fraudsters get charges even longer delays that could
lead the public with questions and service providers, some of
(34:07):
whom dispute allegations against them in limbo. So, first off,
I am of the opinion this was all by design.
Democrats wanted to redistribute the wealth. You can't put forward
policies directly related to that. For evidence of that, all
you have to do is listen to the lunatics on
(34:28):
the left inside the legislature during this session. You got
Athena Hollins last week talking about, you know, class warfare.
Don't threaten her with a good time, Aisha Gomez proposing
taxes on every single entity that they can. They want
to redistribute the wealth, and they found a means to
(34:49):
do that via these social services programs, making them incredibly
vulnerable by design to fraud, and then ignoring all of
the fraud warnings when they popped up. So in hindsight,
now when I see the fraud allegations, all they're swamping investigators.
To me, this just seems like a delay tactic and
(35:10):
I don't trust anything that they're saying regarding this, Clark said,
it's a volume issue. It's also an issue that investigative
capacity technological capacity has not had a corresponding increase to
meet the volume that we're facing. At the same time,
we were also told this wasn't that big of a deal.
(35:32):
It was a record breaking year. The Department of Human
Services withheld Medicaid payments to five hundred and forty six
providers over the fraud allegations, compared to one hundred and
sixty that were with HELLD the year before. Legislative Auditor
Judy Randalls said that her six person team got seven
hundred and sixty five reports last year, up from four
hundred and eighty one. The Minnesota Attorney General's Office has
(35:55):
been asking legislators to boost their Medicaid fraud control unit
ranks by thirty two to fifty people. Nick Wanka, who
leads the Medicaid fraud Control Unit at the Attorney General's Office,
at his staff is drowning in referrals. Wanka said his
team cannot be expected to take on two or three
(36:17):
times as many cases as they used to and get
quick results. And if this is all true, they only
have themselves to blame because they ignored the problem for
so long. But again, I question all of this coming
from the Attorney General's office. As a matter of fact,
I got an email that came in a friend of
the show says, I have a woman that I know
(36:40):
that works for the state. She's helping do some of
the site visits for fraud. She says they haven't done
very many because the providers aren't getting their paperwork back.
They have a whole team of people hired, but there's
not visits being done. She works from home three days
a week. I'm not sure how site visits can be
done when she's working from home three days a week.
(37:02):
Probably not necessary to hire more people. The piece goes
on to talk about in the past, state and federal
investigators would collaborate on complex medical fraud issues like the
massive farebo based a case involving interpreters and medical transportation
that has led to more than.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Thirty people charge.
Speaker 5 (37:22):
Now, Wanka said they must rely on more federal law
enforcement to lead the charge, with his staff potentially providing
some data analysis or secondary help, and they have to
be more judicious about which allegations they take on, opting
for potential cases that are more sweeping in scope, a
bigger dollar and more recent other cases they say are
(37:44):
going to fall by the wayside. We'll talk more about
this on tomorrow's show, as we are running out of
time today. If this is indeed on the up and up,
and I would love to get your take via the
email from now until tomorrow Tomorrow Morning Justice at iHeartRadio
dot com.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Again, the lead.
Speaker 5 (38:05):
Here would be, Yeah, the fraud is as bad as
we think that it is. I just can't help but
think that they're stalling and coming up with any excuse
because they know how bad it is and they simply
don't want that exposed, especially before the elections here in
Minnesota later this year. If you miss any portion of
today's show on this May the fourth be with you, you
(38:26):
shure to check out the podcast that'll be available shortly
up on the iHeartRadio app. Curtesy of Sam, Thank you, Sam,
I hope the rest of you if you do celebrate
Star Wars Day, have yourself a fantastic day, and of
course we're back at it tomorrow. David Gartzenstein Ross will
be joining us to talk a little AI looking forward
to that, and you can always get your questions in
early on the iHeartRadio app or email me as well.
(38:50):
Enjoy the rest of your Monday. I'll talk to you
guys tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Bye. Thanks everybody, You guys are the best.
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