Ed. Sec. Linda McMahon Checks in During NE Tour

Before that conversation with Sec. McMahon and Gov. Pillen about education, we talk about "President TACO," no room at daycare around here, car fires and coming storms, and so much more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning. I'm Scott Vorhees here with Craig Evans and
Lucy Chapman. Jim Rose back tomorrow. This is Nebraska's Morning News. Lucy,
do you want a taco? That's your fun that's the acronym.
Are you familiar with this acronym?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
No? I thought you were talking about eating a taco
because my yeah, yeah, that would not be good.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Lucy was gone a couple of days ago because she
had a tooth extracted, purely for cosmetic reasons. No, they
have soft tacos that'd be fine. Okay, And she's and
more pain today than she was yesterday, which is unfortunate.
And I I'm going to not rely on you to
carry the entire show today, so you do is well.

(00:48):
I know that it hurts to talk. I know as much.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
You don't rely on me much anyway, So carry on.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Yeah, this is gonna be a great show. It hurts
for Lucy to talk, it hurts you to listen to
me talk. Just let's just get through this pain together, Okay.
Taco ta co. And according to the critics of the president,
including people who are generally supportive of the president who

(01:16):
apparently want him to start ending civilizations. Taco stands for
Trump always chickens out ta co Trump always chickens out.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
I think always is a little bit strong.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
There are a lot of dead Ayatolas in Iran who
would disagree. Nicholas Maduro and his wife might take exception
to that acronym. There are a lot of people who
are in detention centers and have been sent to El
Salvador and Uganda who might suggest that they not always,

(02:00):
at least need to have an asterisk over that. But
if you're suggesting that, yeah, sometimes Trump is a whole
lot of bluster and talk. Well yeah, anyone who's been
watching this man since the eighties would say, yeah, I've
seen some evidence to that it's scientifically provable. But Taco

(02:23):
was a big part of the poly market leading up
to whether or not we were going to end the
civilization of Iran, whatever that meant, or whether Trump was
going to chicken out or a ceasefire, however you look
at it, there were people placing bets in the poly
market poly market and I don't know why it has

(02:44):
that stupid term, but this is like sports betting. You know,
you bet like I think the Guardians are going to
beat the Royals and then the yesterday, in fact, the
Guardians hammered the Royals sports brief coming up here in
about ten minutes, and so that you won your bet
and you get paid some money. For some people, sports

(03:05):
betting isn't nearly exciting enough. We have to bet on everything, everything, everything,
And there were a lot of things going, all right,
what time will there be a ceasefire announced? What time
will that ceasefire be announced? And there are enough people

(03:26):
placing these bets on these various apps where you can
do that that investigators are looking into whether or not
insider trading was responsible. In the minutes leading up to
the announcement of the ceasefire, suddenly there were a number
of people putting bets on there, going, I think we

(03:47):
are going to have a ceasefire, and then just a
couple of minutes later, ceasefire is announced, Like do people
have some sort of insider trading here? Maybe if that's
something that concerns you, here's a thought, don't do the

(04:07):
polymarket thing. I don't know. Get get a job, go
to work, produce, produce something, start a business. See what
someone else or a lot of someone else's might need
in your community and then work to meet that need
and charge a fair rate for it. Some people have

(04:31):
fun with this. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. I
don't know where's someone would be like, Hey, I was
gambling on this completely ridiculous platform and I didn't win.
Something's wrong. There were a number of bets that came
in there. It's possible that some could because there are

(04:54):
bets coming in all the time. That stands to reason
that there will be bets coming in on this kind
of thing in the moments leading up to the announcement
of the ceasefire. It doesn't mean that they knew what
they were doing, but the idea that like, I don't
know what's the accusation, President Trump and all of his
rich fat cat friends, who could buy any market, the

(05:15):
poly market, the wild oats. I mean, they could buy
any market they wanted to. But like, hey, let's make
thirty one, nine hundred and eight dollars by throwing a
bet out there just before we announce this. Hey, I
cashed out. That's great. I can take that money and
blow it all on hats. But a lot of people,

(05:35):
I don't know how much you could win, because if
the accusation is out there, that Trump always chickens out,
Then how much could that payout possibly be? Look, if
you're gambling and you have a problem with it, call
one of those numbers. If you're gambling and you'd think, ah,

(05:58):
this is fun once in a while. Sometimes I win,
some times I lose. Well, then that's how it goes.
I hope you're having fun with it. We have a
post overnight from the President on his truth Social on Iran.
It says all US ships, aircraft, and military personnel with

(06:18):
additional ammunition, weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and
necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already
substantially degraded enemy will remain in place in and around
Iran until such time as the real agreement. That's in
all caps, because Iran suddenly decided, well, we're gonna start

(06:42):
changing the agreement that we kind of tentatively agreed to,
so you didn't end our civilization on Tuesday night. Suddenly
it was like, we're gonna let the tankers go through
the Straight of Horror moves, but not all of them. Also,
we've decided we want to charge a h a fee

(07:04):
for someone to go through here. So now it's like
a toll road for Iran through there. So that and
obviously that's something that the President is not thrilled with.
He says, We're gonna be sticking around till the real
agreement reached is fully complied with. If for any reason
it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the and

(07:27):
he puts this in quotes, if the agreement is not
in place. If it's if it's not complied with, then
quote then the shooting starts. Thank you, mister John Wayne.
Then the shooting starts bigger and better and stronger than
anyone has ever seen before. It was agreed a long

(07:49):
time ago. And despite all the fake rhetoric to the contrary,
no nuclear weapons and the straight of horror moves will
be open and safe. Oh he does know the real
name of that strait. Maybe he thought it was called
the Blanket Straight No nukes. The strait needs to be
open and safe. In the meantime, our great military is

(08:10):
loading up and resting, looking forward actually to its next conquest.
America is back. That is the statement, middle of the
night statement from President Trump on truth Social Now. The
eleven ten kfab certified transmission a sports brief Lucy today
is the round one of the Masters at Augusta National.

(08:33):
You're not getting the I know golf clap will be
coming later this morning.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Now you're not getting free one.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
I know, you're not getting it's good to practice. You're
not getting the full master's music. Yet. They don't tee
off for another twenty to thirty minutes or so and
then live updates from Augusta. But the golfers are there
and they're all being asked about Tiger Woods, who was
charged yesterday with dui. Jason Day of Australia has some

(08:59):
pointed on Tiger, He's.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
Just a human being like everyone else, and we have
struggles and it's unfortunate. The only thing that I would
you know, that I don't understand is that it's a
little bit selfish of him to drive and put other
people that you know in harm's way as well. But
when you're the player that he was and how strong
willed he is, he thinks he can do almost anything

(09:25):
and that's probably why he's probably driving and a little
bit under the influence.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
It is.

Speaker 5 (09:29):
He was my hero.

Speaker 3 (09:30):
He's my hero, you know, he was my hero growing up.
The reason why I play golf is because of this
tournament and Tiger and you know it's it's hard to
see him go through what he's going through.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
Tiger was charged as well with Dui with refusing to
take a chemical or physical test. Both charges are misdemeanor.
He is stepping away, not playing in the Masters. Live
updates throughout the morning twice an hour going forward until
ten am here on eleven ten kfab as I mentioned earlier,
if you bet yesterday that the Guardians would beat the

(10:04):
Royals again, swung it and ripped deep Brightfield.

Speaker 6 (10:07):
This ball's gone.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Crans swam fair on Helmertinas Guardians over the Royals, Big
Lee ten to two, Twins beat the Tigers eight six,
Cardinals gonna win over the Nets, and the UH Chicago
Cubs beat the Rays six to two. The NCAA Men's
Hockey Tournament has the Frozen Four starting today in Vegas

(10:35):
four o'clock. UH The UH puck drops there between Wisconsin
and North Dakota, followed by Michigan and Denver championship game
on Saturday, and Nebraska forward Burke buked in jail as
entered the transfer portal. The six to ten junior from Turkey.
It was a team leader in blocks for the Big

(10:55):
Red this past year, had the fourth triple double in
NU history in the game against North Dakota, and he
released a statement on social media that many people responded
and said, there's no way that Bark from Turkey wrote this.
This is obviously AI. Maybe it was, Maybe it wasn't.
The sentiment was that he loved his time here, but

(11:18):
it's time for something else. Coach Hoiberg has now six
open roster spots to fill. I imagine he's looking for
a forward who potentially can shoot as well as rink
Mast was able to do for Nebraska. Still, the tenacity
of Bark buked in jail will certainly be missed this

(11:39):
next season. Great to have you with us. Thank you
so much for hanging out here. On Nebraska's morning news
with Craig Evans and Lucy Chapman, I am Scott Vorhees.
Jim Rose is back tomorrow. My hands are cold, Lucy
is impersonating McCaulay Culkin and home alone Hens got her
palms on her cheeks. You're well, there's nothing hotter than

(12:03):
your face. Am I allowed to say that? HR what?
That's right? I can always go get a job on
a the Washington County Board of Education. In Tennessee. You
hear that story. Some teenage girl, a student, goes to
talk to the school board. One of the school board members,
a guy named Keith, decided to give her a hug.

(12:26):
And this wasn't like off to the side, away from everyone.
He's sitting there at his chair. You know, you go
speak to the school board and they're all there behind there,
that long table and they've got their chairs and microphones
in front of them and they're sitting sitting next to
the other school board members. Right. You can picture this.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
I got it in my head.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Council meeting, school board. So it's not like he's like, hey,
I don't want anyone to hear this. His mic is
in front of his face and he's saying it loud
enough for anyone to be able to hear. He gives
this girl a hug and says, and I quote, god,
you're hot. You know that. Damn where do you go
to school at? Unquote you're like drunk. It doesn't sound

(13:11):
like it. It just sounds like he just felt no filter.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah, oh boy.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
Now he he has since made a statement and this
is I think I'm sure, yeah, this is I think
this is after she spoke to the school board and
he made a statement and tried to clarify it. I
didn't mean she was hot and like her looks. I
meant that, you know, she was on a roll. She

(13:42):
was she had good things to say and she was
on fire. What I mean.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Maybe especially if you asked worry she went to school?
Like what's going on in her school that she's in
charge of or doing stuff with? Maybe what was like.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, side hug. She's standing next to him and he
gives her a little side hug.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Oh, I'm gonna I'm gonna resend my first judgment.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Okay. The English teachers right now are saying when he
said where do you go to school at? It's not
proper grammar. It's not the way we should speak. You're
a member of the school board, Keith. So the other
school board members just gave him a public rebuke. Say hey,

(14:30):
if you could try not to make the comment wow,
you're hot to teenagers who come through here, that would
be great. Keith. So he got a public rebuke. He
apologized and said, I know everyone's seen this viral clip
across the country except Lucy Chapman and Omaha, but.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
I was busy I.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
Know you've been you're having teeth fall out of your face.

Speaker 6 (14:54):
I was watching Dark Knight and what the movie? Yeah,
you've seen it before?

Speaker 1 (14:59):
I imagine. Yeah, if I'm flipping channels and it's on,
probably gonna watch it.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
He's so good.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
I watched two minutes Heath Ledger is the Joker.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
I even watched a couple of minutes of the one
Batman movie I've never seen. This is the one with
what's his name Robert Pattinson from the Twilight movies. He
played Batman.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Seen that one.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
This kind of snuck it in a few years ago.
They're like, hey, you know what, we need another Batman movie. Like,
I'm already watching the new Batman movie. This is another
new Batman movie.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
I wouldn't watch that one.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
I'm not gonna watch that now, but if they put
it out now, i'd probably watch it. So I shelved it.
I tabled it. I'll probably watch it sometime. No, I
watched a few minutes. It didn't look bad. It's Batman.
I watch anything. Batman reads the dictionary, Batman reads President
Trump's truth social tweets. Was it watched? That?

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Was that Christian Bale?

Speaker 1 (15:53):
By the way, that'd be great tonight, the whole civilization ends.
That's gonna be Christian Bale's Batman was that, But.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
That's he's from Dark Knight, right, Christian Bale. Okay, I
got a little annoyed watching it this second time. I
got a little annoyed when he was talking, like, oh,
come on, let somebody else say that.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Christian Bale did three of those Batman movies, and in
the first movie and a half he sounded fine, he
sounded batmany. You know, his voice was a little deeper,
and then it just got cartoony. Yes, not only did
it the voice get growlier and deeper, but he also
was slurring like Batman's had a little bit to drink.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Wide subtitles on, so I might have missed.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
That Batman needs to be cut off. This is why
it only goes out at night bars are open.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
Imagine how short that movie would have been if he
wasn't drunk. I found him.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
I want to see Batman go out during the day
and fight crime. I live in the shadows, I can
see you. Craig Evans had a report there with the
six thirty News that I wanted to try and drill
down a little deeper into I don't have any answers
for you. I have baseless accusations and speculation. I'm always

(17:23):
happy knee jerk reactions, always happy to do that. The
report is is that Youth Emergency Services really good organization.
They help at risk young people in Omaha. They have
seven locations. They've got a new place that they're moving

(17:47):
kids into at twenty fifth and Farnham, and they've got
a big drive going underway to try and get clothes
and food and money so they can take care of
these kids. Now, the report is according to the executive
director of Youth Emergency Services. Her name's Kalisia Reed. She

(18:09):
says to First Alert six News, last year we served
just under eight hundred unique individuals in a twelve month period.
So over all of last year, eight hundred different people
at some point came through there to take advantage of
the services, whether they were homeless or at risk or whatever. Now,

(18:30):
she says, the first four months of this year, we
haven't even gotten through the first four months of this year,
but to this point in the year, we've already served
one thousand unique individuals. Now, some members of the media
have taken this as there are one thousand young people

(18:51):
who are homeless here in Omaha. There is no way
that that's true. Homelessness is surging, certainly, and there are
certainly people who are in that situation who have children.

(19:12):
First of all, what are we talking about what ages
constitutes youth homelessness. I don't think this is like Oliver Twist,
where we got a bunch of pickpockets out there trying
to get a few bucks a few shekels out of
your pockets so they could buy apples. I don't So
that's the first thing. I don't think we're talking about that.

(19:35):
I think we're talking about a lot of teenager, older
teenagers and whatever it is that would you would still
be allowed to be I mean, is there a cutoff
or they checking IDs? You can't vote in this country
without an ID. Right you can go to youth emergency
services and say I need some emergency services. Are you

(19:57):
a youth? Yes, I'm I'm I'm sixteen. You look eighteen
to me, get out, Let me see your ID. I'm homeless.
So I don't know. I don't think that we have
that many homeless youth in this community. But if we do,

(20:18):
If we do, and I would say that one is
too many? What exactly is the scenario here? Someone comes
into this organization, Obviously their first goal is we got
to take care of them. We got to try to
meet their emergency needs right now today. At some point, though,
when do you start having those questions with law enforcement? Yea,

(20:42):
some seventeen year old just wandered in here. He doesn't
have any place to live. He says he ran away
from home or whatever. Is anyone missing this kid? Does
this kid have drug issues? Is he wanted? Is that
why he's running on the streets. Someone's missing this kid
or someone kicked this kid out, And if it's a

(21:03):
minor child, and then now we've got neglect or worse,
maybe abuse charges that should come out. Someone needs to
try and figure out who the parents the caregivers are
and figure out if crimes have been committed. Why isn't
someone making a big deal of that besides me? And
with that, let's go down the street to Lincoln. According

(21:23):
to the Lincoln Police Department, in the last two weeks,
six people have died from drug overdoses. Two of those
deaths occurred yesterday. And they're warning about opioid addiction and saying,
you know, We got these vending machines around Lincoln where
you can go get narcan. If you're having an opioid overdose,

(21:44):
you can go to a vending machine and get a
free narcan and that'll stop your overdose. Because that's how
that works. I think I might be having an overdose.
Where's the nearest vending machine. There's four of them in
this town. Surely I can find one in the midst
of this overdose. So people are dying. These are people
who are homeless in Omaha. There are too many people

(22:08):
youth apparently, who are homeless. It is not compassionate to
allow people to live on the streets, to be abused
on the streets, to be addicted to drugs and die
of overdose on the streets, to freeze to death on
the streets. This is not compassionate. This is not the
way it's supposed to be done. We don't need to

(22:30):
be putting up new homes for homeless youth or vending
machines for opioid overdose narcan. We need to address the
root issues of all of this. We have another daycare
center closing its doors here in the Omaha metro area.
The lack of daycare facilities. The lack of room in

(22:52):
these facilities is one that according to the story here
from k e TV News Watch seven, the Greater Omaha
Chamber of Commerce put out a statement the other day
and said it's a one billion dollar annual business output
loss due to the lack of childcare here around Omaha.

(23:15):
They said it's a four alarm fire. Apparently, the accusation
here is that we would have more people coming in here.
Businesses would be relocating here, employees would be relocating here.
But they're all having babies and they all need someplace
to put their kids in daycare throughout the day. So

(23:36):
apparently there are so many titans of industry who have
children between the ages of congratulations, mom, it's a girl
and they cut the umbilical cord and kindergarten age so
four to five years old. We've got so many titans
of industry world and business leaders who would they're they're

(23:59):
looking at all, going, this is obviously the best place
to put this business to relocate our headquarters. But is
there any place that I will be able to chuck
my three year old for the day. No, Well, then
we're going to Indianapolis or Tulsa or someplace else. If

(24:23):
it sounds like I'm a little dubious on the one
billion dollar annual business output loss, maybe am I sympathetic
to what I hear from real families though here in
the Omaha area one hundred percent. Actually I should say
one hundred and eighty five percent, because one of the

(24:46):
biggest reasons why you've had so many people who have
put their kids in childcare is because the Nebraska legislature,
and we talked about this the other day, has decided
that you're eligible for subsidies to put your kids in
in childcare during the day daycare centers during the day
if you are at one hundred and eighty five percent

(25:07):
of the poverty level. So people who are almost twice
the poverty level are able to get taxpayer subsidies so
they can put their kids in daycare. And there have
been some arguments at the unicameral that perhaps that's a
little bit too generous. Now, I am not saying that
if you are at one hundred and eighty six percent

(25:28):
of the poverty level, or if you're at one hundred
and three percent of the poverty level, that it's somehow
cheap to put your kids in daycare. It's not. There
are not a lot of places, and at those places
there is not a lot of room. When you have
a lot of demand and not a lot of supply
in room, costs go up. I don't know if you've noticed,
but costs have gone up for everything, everywhere, all the time.

(25:51):
Daycare is no exception. But when this is the case,
how in the world? How forgive me? If this sounds rude,
if this sounds ignorant, if this sounds accusatory, how bad
do you have to be as a business leader when

(26:14):
people are banging on your door. Please take my money
and my child. I'll pay double, I'll pay whatever it
is that you charge. Just take I can't care for
the kid. I work, or we both parents work, and
it doesn't make any sense to so you gotta take

(26:34):
the kid. Here's all of my money. Take it. And
apparently there's a number of people doing that to these
daycare centers. And one of them closes. Shoot, we got
room here in the Kfab studio. Bring them by here.
Lucy will watch them. Lucy loves kids.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Eh, there's a price. Everything has its price.

Speaker 5 (26:54):
Now here's the part of the show where Lucy says
she's glad she doesn't have kids.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
In the last year and a few months, according to
the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, one hundred
and eighty six childcare license closures have been reported in
the state of Nebraska, and only two hundred thirty six
license were issued. So we have a net positive there.
But there's still people out there going there's no room,

(27:22):
or is it that some of them have room? But
you go and take a look at the place and
the people operating it, and you go, I do not
choose to go there, doctor Seuss.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
Well, that or the regulations, the regulations like you have
the state puts on you.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Care for the child. You got to keep most of
their bones and blood inside their body during the a I.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
Would support those regulations. They can keep those. But I
would imagine that there are some regulations that people if
they could sit down and read them, they might think.
I mean, it's just like when you get a new iPhone.
Nobody reads all that stuff. But if you have to
read it, you have to read it, and I'm sure
they do.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
I don't know that the regulations on the business owners
potentially onerous. I think that there are may be some
people that are like I am a wonderful career of children,
and I can care for one hundred at a time
without any help. And they're like, you can't. You got
to have so many people for some of course kids.
I don't, but then.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
Again exaggerate much.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
Well, I don't know. I'm trying to figure out what
regulations you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
I don't know specific ones.

Speaker 6 (28:29):
Make sures, make sure when these kids are in your
day care facility, and they're making shoes that you know
that they're wearing protective eye wear.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
I don't know what the regulations are that are causing
these things to shut down, but they The story goes
on to say that this place that close, it's the
Premier Academy in Elkhorn. They do have a second location
which will be under new ownership, that's at one hundred
and forty fourth in Maple. But they said, well, the
costs are going up here, milk is increased, is doubled.

(29:00):
How much milk are you going through? And if that's
the case, then you go back to the parents and
say we need more money. Parents are like to take it.
Apparently the people are throwing money at these facilities and
they can't stay in business. I don't get it. I
don't get it. If you've got any answers for me,
please the Zonker's custom On's inboxes open Scott at kfab

(29:23):
dot com. I don't get it. You just need a
room with some paste, and then the parents pay you
a bunch of money and you try and keep most
of the kids bones inside their body and give them
back at the end of the day. How hard can
it be? Says absent father Scott Vorhees. Matt's got it
all figured out, he emails. Scott at kfab dot com says,

(29:47):
when are people going to start taking responsibility for their
own children and not leaving them in the hands of
somebody else to raise. You can't afford to take care
of your kids, don't have them. But nowadays these kids
spend more time with daycare than they do their own
family in their own homes. It's disgusting. Yeah, Matthew. They
should be at home where the parents are binge watching

(30:08):
TVs and different levels of the house and the kids
are in their room with their faces pressed against their screen.
You know, in the home we're child rearing. Real parenting
is going on. I yes, when it comes to those
who can't afford to have kids and somehow keep having

(30:30):
kids when suddenly the uterus looks more like a clown car,
and they're just like, I can't afford these all these babies.
I should probably stop having babies, which I will after
the next three. Don't worry. The taxpayers are going to
take care of them. Yeah, that's a problem. That's a
problem for taxpayers. It's a problem for those kids, not

(30:51):
a problem for the babies daddies. They aren't having anything
to do with it. But I don't think that's what
we're talking about here. Obviously, everyone's circumstance is different. Even I,
with my cold, black, dead, soulless heart, understand that families

(31:11):
have different circumstances. Bob says all problems will be solved
once the new streetcars are finished. Happy Master's Day, Thank you, Bob.
And the subject of that email is daycare. I think
he's saying that once the street car is operational, you
don't need daycare anymore. You just put your kid on

(31:32):
the street car. There'll always be someone on there to
watch them.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
What's free too, right.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
And well for yeah, at least a while there it's free.
And Josh says about the daycare shortage, I'm guessing it
had something to do with Title twenty. When a daycare
accepts Title twenty, the state only pays so much towards
daycare and typically doesn't cover all the costs. Yeah. I
wondered if that was kind of like Medicaid, if the

(32:01):
reimbursement rate on this stuff is embarrassingly low and you
got so many kids in there, and the daycare center says, well,
we have a lot of kids, a lot of daycare centers.
The ones that are full, the ones that are highly rated.
They don't take those who are on the subsidies. I imagine
not because, hey, if you're on subsidies, your kids are
probably well, you know, not well behaved. We don't want

(32:24):
your poor kids. I don't think that's it. I think
it has to do with the reimbursement rates from when
the state says, all right, we'll cover some daycare, but
we're not covering all the costs. We'll cover it up
to this, the daycare says, we can't afford to operate
if we take so many kids who are getting government
money and the reimbursement rate. That's a problem for the daycares,
that's a problem for hospitals. And medical facilities. For health

(32:48):
care facilities when more and more people are on government
health insurance and the reimbursement rates like twenty cents on
the dollar. Either places shut down, which we've seen happening
for daycare and rural hospitals, or everyone else, costs get
jacked up, which then begs the question, So, wait a second,
when I'm paying more for healthcare, when I'm paying more

(33:11):
for childcare and a daycare center, is that because costs
are gone up? Or because there are so many other
people like man, let someone else pay for this, and
that someone else is me? Is that why? Yes? In
many instances. Thanks a lot for the responses there. Appreciate
the conversation. This is news Radio eleven ten kfab Lucy

(33:32):
is looking at traffic camera where there's a car on
the side of the interstate that is on fire.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
It's fully engulfed burning. The fire trucks just got there.
This is six eighty northbound at center, so we probably
have quite the captive audience for a little while. Traffic
is backed up on ID westbound well past ninety six.
I think it's down to about eighty fourth now, and
then eastbound you're backed up well past l Street. So

(33:58):
if you're trying to head northbound on sixt eighty, you
might want to find an alternate route.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
I eighty over to Yeah ILQ and then work your
way back.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Yeah, it looks like that traffic is moving through to
If you're already on ID eastbound, it's going to be
easier to stay on I eight eastbound and can get
off at eighty fourth Street and head to where you
need to be. But yeah, you're gonna want to avoid
sixt eighty northbound. This is of course affecting six eighty southbound. Well,
first of all, the smoke has been pretty heavy across

(34:29):
the road there, But of course everybody has to stick
around or watch as they're driving by. So so and
look I'm guilty of that. I'm not. Oh yes, and judgment.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
You're so, you're six lanes away on the other side
of the interstate going six't eighty southbound, and you look
over and then clear to your left, there's a car
on fire on the on the shoulder of the interstate.
It's going to get your attention.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
Well, the smoke is really really heavy and it is
causing some visibility issues very just briefly as as it
blows through and.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
There are people stays around looking at it. So I
certainly hope that means that everyone, whatever the situation was there,
that there's no one injured in this.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
There was no they've anybody that had been in the
car was out good. And that's all I have.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
When you have more, tell us, you know, I will
all right. That's Lucy Chapman. It's we've been talking a
lot about babies. There's there's no room for your baby anyway.
Mary and Joseph had that problem, and you're not Mary
and Joseph. Look at your kid? Is that the christ child?
I know me either. So what are we gonna do

(35:39):
with all these kids? There's there's no place, there's no
daycare room in Omaha for your kids. The Chamber of
Commerce says, we're not getting people relocating to Omaha, starting businesses,
coming here for jobs because there's no place for your kid,
and it's it's a major problem. Meanwhile, I see the

(36:00):
news story. The panic here is that not enough people
are having babies. Can you people figure this out? Not
enough people in America are having kids, and when they do,
it's too expensive to raise a kid. There's no place
in childcare to have a kid. You don't really have
a good job to be able to pay for anything

(36:21):
related to the kid if your kid has problems. We
don't have medical cannabis in Nebraska. Hey, for you, advocates
of medical marijuana, I don't know when, if ever, you're
ever going to have approved medical marijuana in Nebraska. Unicameral
just took another shot at that Tuesday night. This is

(36:45):
after a year, almost a year and a half, after
voters said yeah, we think medical cannabis is a great idea,
the lawmakers and Lincoln said, uh, yeah, I think we
ought to make it such that I don't know what
the current rules are that make it so difficult for
anyone to get a license to be a medical marijuana distributor.

(37:09):
For a while there it was like, all right, only
one per region and so and also any of these
medical marijuana places can't be near like a school or
a church or a Starbucks, Like but there's Starbucks everywhere,
and like, well then I guess it can't. We can't

(37:29):
have one in this region. They made it so ridiculous.
And of course yes there are families that say, but
my kid and I get that, And to you, I
continue to say, break the law. If it comes to
taking care of your kid, and if moving to some
place that allows this kind of thing, which apparently some
doctors say is the only thing that can take care

(37:51):
of your kid, then go to where the doctors are
and if you have to stay here, then break the law.
I don't know if I'm allowed to advocate that you
break the law, but shoot, every single middle score ruler's
got a vape in with marijuana in it. You can't
get something that no one's going to bust you forward
to take care of your kids seizures. The state senator
who throttled this bill Tuesday night called it a quote

(38:15):
recreational marijuana bill masquerading as a medical marijuana bill that
was to KETV Newswatch seven yesterday. So, because this didn't
make it through any of the hurdles in the unicameral,
any practitioners that wanted to offer this, that wanted to
get a license or at least apply for one to
offer this won't be able to do so this year.

(38:37):
So now you got to wait until maybe twenty twenty seven,
which if they do anything next year in the session,
that probably won't take effect until maybe twenty twenty eight. Look,
I don't disagree with State Senator Brian Harden and that

(38:57):
there are a lot of people who want this to
be a pathway to recreational marijuana for Nebraska. But anytime
you go to a music festival or anywhere, you already
see a lot of recreational marijuana. I don't think the
approval of it means anything better for society. Some people
are able to have a little bit of a shot
of this or a toke of that or something, and

(39:19):
it's no different than you having a glass of wine.
Most people, though, get stoned to the but Jesus belt
every single chance they get on this stuff, and then
they start operating school buses. So I don't think there's
anything great for society in any of this. It is
subject to abuse, but you know, so's alcohol. I've always said,

(39:41):
if I'm going to be around a bunch of potheads
or alcoholics, I'd rather be around the potheads. They're all
about sharing and hugging. Alcoholics want to fight. I'll hang
out with the potheads. The music's better with the alcoholics, admittedly,
But oh, there's all these problems here with having kids

(40:04):
and then CNNs crying going. The birthrate's way down, in America.
People need to have babies. Why And I wonder how
many people all these anti Trump young would be mothers
or like, I'm not going to bring a baby into
this world where but Trump's president. It's irresponsible, yep, because

(40:26):
Trump's always going to be president, the first eight term
president in American history. Not far from where this car
is on fire there six' eighty near center, the Omaha
City Council finally voted. A whole generation has waited to

(40:48):
see what's going to happen with the long vacant hotel.
One of them. There are a few hotels, and not
all of them are bad, but one of them. I mean.
I grew up in the area of one hundred eighth
in l Streets when I was a kid, that area,
if you cross one hundred and eighth Street, head down

(41:09):
towards one hundred and ninth and m where whatever the
hotel was called. When I was a kid, we'd ride
our bikes down there. It was probably the most dangerous
place in my little corner of the world for me
to go, which is why we went there. It was
very dangerous and we couldn't help. We'd ride our bikes
down there. Let's see what's going on, and of course

(41:31):
we do that in the middle of the night when
it is most dangerous. And it's gotten so much worse
since then. This little hotel near the southwest corner of
one hundred and eighth and L I don't think they've
had a pain customer in there, and I don't know
forty years.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
It can't have been that long, because I know that
had a really cool karaoke bar underneath that, didn't they?
Or am I thinking of a different building?

Speaker 1 (41:56):
You might be thinking of a different building. There are
a couple kind of down there and that place has
been an absolute shinola hole for my entire life, okay,
And it's just full of graffiti everything, like the walls
have been knocked down. And finally the city council, and
it was a four to three vote, voted to approve

(42:19):
the demolition of this building. The three members of the
city council going, why should we demolish this building? It's
where homeless people get eaten by mountain lions.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Well, it is a lot of money.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
Our people got to learn how to spray paint on buildings.
We don't give them this building to It is a
lot of money, but the city will not be reimbursed
for no one. I don't know that anyone actually owns
the place. Brinker Harding Lavagna good one. Amy Melton said no, no,
the property owners should pay for this. They're not wrong,

(42:55):
but also the property owners be that as it may ever,
gonna pay for this. The place is an it's not
only an eyesore, it's also just very very very very dangerous.
And that's that's a good area of town. I grew

(43:16):
up there. It's probably about just look at the caliber
person that can be produced from this part of town.
You could have a really good business, hotel, something something there.
And right I know it's right you right off the

(43:36):
Interstates right through one hundred and eighth in l that
area there. There's no reason why it can't be something great.
There's a lot of space area. And if you think,
well it costs a lot of money to demolish it,
I'm sure you got some guys here in Omaha to
happy to find a way to do that for less
than three hundred thousand dollars. Well, you you're gonna give
me permission to get my homemade, my homemade explosives and

(43:59):
blow this thing up. We can get that done. When
do you want it done? This weekend? We'll get it.
We'll get it take care of by Saturday night. We
now welcome on to Nebraska's morning news our news radio
eleven ten KFAB, National correspondent Rory O'Neil. I'd mentioned a
moment ago John Decker was going to be with us.
He's tagged out. Rory has tagged in same question though, Rory,

(44:20):
and thank you very much for jumping in here and
joining us on eleven ten KFAB. What's the latest on Iran?

Speaker 5 (44:26):
Well, right, it's really tough to paint that picture because
it seems everything is changing at least a little bit,
and we're getting different versions of events from both sides.
By the way, George Clooney's batman was a war crime,
just to put that out there, you.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Know what, I can't can't argue with you on that one,
nor would.

Speaker 5 (44:44):
He, but that's true. But look, we're getting different versions
of events, and even Vice President Vance thinks that there's
a language issue because right now, the latest twist is
that Iran is unhappy with this ceasefire because Israel has
continued its attacks into Lebanon, Iran, claiming that they it

(45:05):
was their understanding that the ceasefire would include Israel stopping
strikes on Hezbolah targets in Lebanon. Vice President and Van
said that was never the case. So Iran says, well,
we're not going to allow ships through the Strait of
war moves. Well, look a lot of reasons ships are
not going to the Strait. The company, the ship owners

(45:26):
don't want to take the risk. They're insurance companies don't
want to take the risk. We got about a half
dozen ships through there yesterday, but you know, six weeks
ago you'd get one hundred and twenty five, one hundred
and thirty ships a day. So it's still just a
trickle that's been going through there. So a lot of
this is all still in motion.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Yeah, it's funny. Iran says, we have nothing to do
with those Hezbollah terrorists. We had nothing to do with them,
and Israel says, well, fine, we're going to attack them
in Lebanon, and they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you
can't do that. Now, the president is accusing the failing
New York Times and fake new CNN of coming up
with fake ten point plan points for Iran to agree

(46:07):
to the ceasefire, and Trump says all ten points were
a made up hoax. They are evil losers at CNN
in the Times, and it is meant to discredit the
people involved in the piece process. Does anyone actually know
what Iran wants or what America wants, or what anyone's
agreed to here?

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Not?

Speaker 5 (46:28):
Really, It seems as if none of this was written down,
and that perhaps the President was looking at a different
top ten list, not the ten lists number ten list
that we've seen for the few weeks now. Heck, Iran
has been demanding these same ten things for months in
negotiations with the US. But it's so it seems the
White House was saying that, you know, the list that

(46:50):
was reprinted is not the same list that they were
working from, because the President said this top ten list
was something they could start negotiations with. But it includes
things like letting Iran continue its nuclear program not going
to happen, reparations taking lifting sanctions. It was a wish list,

(47:11):
not really something practical. Of course, the Trump administration has
a list of fifteen things it wants Iran to agree
to to try to end this.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
Well. Trump is on true social here late last night
and says two things, no nuclear weapons and the Straight
of Horror Moves will be open and safe. There was
one report, Rory, that Iran wanted to treat this Strait
of Horror Moves as a toll road, a dollar per
barrel of oil on all these tankers here is I
don't know if that's a real thing or not.

Speaker 5 (47:41):
Well, we know that that's one of the proposals floating
out there. Even President Trump said that maybe the US
should get a piece of that action. That didn't go
over very well. But six weeks ago the strait was
international waters and yes Iran makes up half the border
of it, but it was considered international. Now with again

(48:02):
we're having this whole discussion based on two social posts,
so we don't have a whole lot of information. But
now it seems that Iran is coming up with this
toll scheme that could generate a billion dollars a week
for them if they put that sort of dollar per
barrel kind of toll on passing ships.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
Oils up about five and a half percent stock market
into Caesar down here about nine minutes before the trading day.
It's another interesting day, Rory. Thank you very much for
being a part of it here with us.

Speaker 5 (48:31):
Thanks guy.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
A day ago at this time, we had someone from
the Department of Health and Human Services who came on
this show and said, you know what, we think you're
governor up there in Nebraska. Jim Pillen's doing a great job. Like, yeah, well,
we'll see because he's on here now with a special
guest on tour in Nebraska. Governor Pillen, who do you
have the opportunity to hang out with today?

Speaker 4 (48:53):
Hey, we're having a ball. We're so blessed to have
sex Trade McMahon here. She's a champion for kid she's
a champion for parents, she's a champion for teachers. She's
a champion for getting government out of our hair and
let us make local decisions. And as the Secretary says,

(49:14):
the federal government will be there with the three hundred
and ten million dollars for Nebraska, but let's let Nebraskas
decide how to use it and not have to spend
about fifty million of the three hundred and ten sending
reports back to Washington, DC with the bureaucrats. She's a champion,

(49:34):
she loves kids, and we're really really excited to have
Secretary McMahon welcome to Nebraska, and she's bringing us rains,
so we're gonna make.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Yeah, we need that, and we have US Education Secretary
Linna McMahon with us as well. Secretary, it's a pleasure
to have you on the program. Before we get too
far down the road here, there are a lot of
names that I think of in my childhood that made
my childhood better. Teachers like Missus Hanson, mister Haybrock, Missus Appley,
great teachers, but also names like hal Cogan, Andre the Giant,

(50:08):
Ricky the Dragon, Steamboat. And I would be remiss if
I didn't thank you for your big part in providing
a huge part of the entertainment of my childhood. Now,
as Governor Pillen said, we got a lot of work
to do on the education front. You are on tour
returning education to the states. How do we get a
chance to do what Governor Pillen was suggesting in giving

(50:28):
states more local control over education.

Speaker 7 (50:32):
Well, Scott, thanks so much for having me on this one.
It's a pleasure to be here with the Governor and
also the First Lady of the State of Nebraska as well.
So what our goal is, it's to make sure that
we can get the bureaucracy out of Washington, d C.
And we want education closest to the kids. The President
certainly believes, as do why that the best education is

(50:55):
that it's closest to our kids, and we can't do
that from Washington. You see, one size does not fit
all in education. And so as we look at the
President looks at how to best run education, he thinks
that if we get more money into the hands of
governors and state superintendents that can spend it in the states,

(51:17):
that is the best way because they know where the
money needs to go better than we do in Washington.
And so you know, we're going to be looking at
more block grants coming to the states. Let's get it,
you know, the regulatory environment off the backs of teachers
and let them teach. You know, they they're spending almost
fifty cents of every dollar that comes in for education

(51:39):
on regulatory compliance. Let's let teachers teach and get out
of their way and let them do it. If they
can do that, and if they can bring programs like
the Science of Reading into the state, we're going to
see this and APE scores go up, and we'll see
mass scores go up as well. But if we keep,
you know, preventing those kind of programs, then we're not

(51:59):
going to have the kind of progress that would hope
to see, not only Nebraska, but across the country.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
Now you saw that yesterday in South Dakota. You're going
to see it throughout the day here in Nebraska. But
you're touring all fifty states, Secretary, and here in Nebraska,
it sounds great to me to return education to the states.
I think that a lot of schools across the state
are doing a great job. You're going to be going
through more states, though, where if you give education to

(52:26):
those states who have had a long problem of churning
out social justice warriors and gender neutral bathrooms and students
who have a diploma that's so watered down they can't
even get a job at door dash, that's maybe not
the best circumstance to return education to those states. So
what role should the federal government play in education?

Speaker 7 (52:48):
Well, if you think about it, I'm not sure what
the percentage here in Nebraska is, but actually states and
local governments already support their education up to about ninety percent.
The federal government provides about ten percent on average. Those
states that are not doing well, You know what. We
can't wave a magic wand and make them do better.

(53:09):
They already have so much control. What we are trying
to do is offer best practices. The Department of Education
is not control curriculum in the states. We don't hire teachers,
we don't buy books. That is up to the individual states.
But hopefully if we can educate them as to a
lot of best practices that are happening in the country,
they then will take that responsibility. Some governors are going

(53:32):
to do a really good job that Governor Pillan's going
to do. But I can tell you there are some
states that are still foundering in what they're doing, and
the federal government is not going to have much to
change with that unless they get on board with the
right kind of programs that are going to be available.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
We have US Education Secretary Linda McMahon with US Governor
Pilling as well, and don't worry, Secretary, I'll keep an
eye on Governor Pilling for you do you leave Nebraska.
But we had a former governor here who became a
US Senator, Ben Nelson, who led to Obamacare and the
taking over of student loans by the federal government, causing

(54:13):
public education higher education in this country to start jacking
up tuition and encourage students to take out loans. You
are tired of taxpayers being on the hook for these
student loans. What are you doing about it?

Speaker 7 (54:28):
Well, if you think about the fact that the student
loan portfolio is about one point seven trillion dollars, which
makes me running the fifth largest bank in the country,
and I think that's ridiculous. So we've signed an interagency
agreement with the Department of Treasury that eventually that process
and that responsibility will be fully transferred over to Treasury

(54:51):
where it certainly belongs. But we are putting caps through
legislation that we have been able to put through well
and work that we are doing so that graduate programs,
you know, you're not going to be able to graduate
from college with two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in
debt or even more, because we're putting caps on. You know,

(55:14):
certain professions can in graduate school can get up to
two hundred thousand dollars, but other professions that don't meet
the same criteria, that cap for graduate work's going to
be one hundred thousand dollars. Whereas before that happened and
this blew my mind. Those graduate programs. Whatever a university charged,

(55:36):
that is how much you could borrow if they told
you it was going to cost five hundred thousand dollars,
you could borrow five hundred thousand dollars. That's totally insane.
So by putting the kind of caps that we've instituted,
that's going to put that's going to create downward pressure
on these universities to start lowering their costs. And other
measures that we have in place are also looking at

(55:58):
what is the return on investment. If US students are
not going to be making any more money with graduate
degrees than they would if they had not gone to
school and gotten that graduate degree, then the federal government
is not going to approve their loans. So there are
measures that we're putting in place that I think are
going to be very beneficial in helping to bring down

(56:19):
the cost of higher education.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
We're frankly counting on you in the Trump administration to
churn out educated, critically thinking students who can be a
great part of the next generation of America greatness and
support the wonderful teachers who get them their Secretary Linda McMahon,
Department of Education, it's a pleasure to have you on
the program. I don't know if Governor Pillon has mentioned this.

(56:42):
He was on the board of regents here in Nebraska.
He knows the thing too about education as well. And
I know you too are going to have a lot
of great conversations as you tour parts of the state today.
I love both of you guys checking in. Thank you
very much for taking the time. So Governor, sorry, I
spent so much time talking to the secretary, but frankly,
we talked to you all the time. I don't get
a jet's doctor.

Speaker 4 (57:02):
I wanted to make sure that Nebraskans heard fully from
the Secretary and that you heard the passion and convictions
in her voice that we are getting rid of bureaucracy.
And you know, the key is we need to pay
teachers more. And this work will help us because the teachers,
you know, I thank them all the time. Thank you

(57:24):
for investing in kids. We've got to get rid of
all the administrative bloats. We've got to make sure that
we pay the best teachers the most. Everybody we're here
in Waverley at school this morning. Everybody knows who the
best teachers are, including the bus drivers and the janitors.
We need to pay them accordingly. We got to get

(57:45):
to merrit We got to get back to the basic
stuff and run education like a business and make sure
we reward the best for being the best.

Speaker 1 (57:54):
You're both welcome to come on here with updates anytime.
Thank you both so much for the time today.

Speaker 5 (58:00):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
That is Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen and US Education Secretary
Linda McMahon here on Nebraska's Morning News