February 6, 2026 • 44 mins
And Gary Sadlemyer stops by! Greg Wagner from NE Game and Parks, too! Lots of reasons to end half-sentences with exclamation points after today's show!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Does Governor Jim Pillen have a problem here? The question
is a no big contract that was awarded to someone's
that he's been described as having a cozy relationship with
the biofuel's company. Governor says, we needed to do this
because we were up against the deadline. It was an emergency.
We had to get five point five billion dollars from
(00:23):
the FEDS that we didn't use some of this money, like.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Three hundred million as what Nebraska got.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I think, well, he said it was a five point
five billion, not all at one time. But the state
auditor says, this looks fishy. Of course you got chum
in the water for Democrats here against the governor. And
does the governor have a problem?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Ah?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Unclear. This this is the problem. The problem is the
cover up. What happened was they jumped the line on
warning a contract. This goes to the Department of Economic Development.
At the time, it was run by a guy named
Casey b I know Casey. Casey's a good guy. He
was the Chamber of Commerce director in Columbus. He's kind
of one of Pillin's guys. Got the job. They were
(01:09):
a little sloppy with the application process, so they were
late getting the application process in and to meet a deadline,
they needed to jump fast, and rather than spend the
time to bid this out to other people, they gave
it to this lady, Julie Bushall, who is a capable person.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I don't know her well, I know her a little bit.
She's married to.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
A judge, she's she's a she's a lobbyist, and she's
cozy with Politico's and.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
President and the only employee of Global Sustainability, her company developers.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
She works in the ethanol industry, in the biofuels industry,
and she's a lobbyist and she's very knowledgeable. Uh, she
is close to pilling, but not that way. Everybody needs
to democrats Field. She's very attractive. But that's not the issue.
But what yet you brought it up.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Well, this is what we do.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
But the issue with the state auditor, and we'll talk
to him in an hour, is that he was getting
three different stories from the Governor's office about what happened
relative to the reporting and the compliance on this contract.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
And in one.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Case, they actually submitted the contract eleven days after the deadline,
but then backdated their application. That's something you can't do.
You can't be deceiving the state auditor. The state auditor
is a constitutional office. It's not an appointment of the governor.
This is not a crony deal. We elect them. His
(02:37):
job is to walk around and make sure that people
are shepherding the people's money properly. Don't lie to the
state auditor. Don't mislead the state auditor. Don't irritate the state.
Just be honest about it. Okay, don't taunt the state.
If you've screwed up, say you know, I think we
screwed up here. I don't know that there was any
fraud here. I don't know that there was any any
(02:58):
felony here. It's a misdemeanor to mislead the state auditor.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
That's the thing. What all right, so all this comes out,
it is like, all right, we screwed this whole thing up.
Then what happens is slap him on the rid, right,
he has to resign and disgrace.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Casey resigned last year, so you know, it's not like
there's going to be a firing. But what the governor
should have done and said, you know what, here's what
we did. We jumped the line on this contract because
this Gal is an expert, and I really felt strongly
that we needed to give her the gig because the
clock was ticking. The fact that we were late is
our fault. We shouldn't have been late. We should have
(03:32):
been on top of this. We should have been able
to go through the process and do time to get
our people in place to apply for these funds. In
the Joe Biden administration, all he needs to do is
come clean and say, yeah, we were sloppy in the
Department of Economic Development, but that guy's gone.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Now we got somebody new. Next question.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Now he says that she was working pro bono for
the state for a long time. The state auditor fully says,
I don't have any right.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yet, don't see. Don't be doing this.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Don't be saying stuff like she should wouldn't have been
working pro bono for the state of Nebraska. Hey, so
we do it all the time in radio, we bring
our own money. But when it comes to the state,
don't do that. I don't know that she was doing it.
If she was doing that, she should have sent a
bill or she should have gotten a contract. They shouldn't
have had her working for free.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
That's it. It's just a little sloppy.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah, we'll talk with State auditor Mike axel f Fuley
coming up at seven o five this morning. We got
iheartradios Kurt Kretchmar live at these Super Bowl He's on
at seven thirty five, and at eight eight this morning,
our White House correspondent here on KFAB, John Decker on
Trump RX. That's a thing now, we'll get into all that.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Throughout the morning.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Greg Wagner from Nebraska Game of Parks coming up at
about eight forty seven this morning. It's all right here.
Dave emails via the Zonker's custom was in box Scott
at kfab dot com and says, Okay, this is it
mon day, almost seventy degrees. No more wreaths, no more inflatables,
no more lights, yard signs that have anything to do
(05:08):
with Christmas unless you have a mullet park on the
yard next to your empty Schlitz cans, cigarette stained couch
on your porch, and a VHF antenna on the roof
that of course is broken with a bra hanging from it.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Them's the rules. Jim.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
You're a gallivanting man about town with a lot of
really high falutin connections everywhere. Have you ever thought about
going to the Super Bowl. You could probably get that
pulled off there. I'm sure you've been invited.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
No, I've not been invited. I do know some people
who had Super Bowl tickets because they were Chiefs season
ticket holders and they got access when Case was playing there.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Never pressed that one, I suppose I I don't know.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
I could probably call around if I ever develop a
terminal disease, you know, or the clock is tick, and
I'll probably do that. Yeah, well, you know, to me,
unless you've got a great seat, the best seat is
ten feet away with a beer right there.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I know you can sit there in your recliner.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You can make what you want to make. You can
eat what you want to eat, when you want to
eat it. You don't have to have pants on it,
don't need a fit, I don't need to pay for parking,
you know. Like college basketball, for example, I went to
the Final Four a few years ago when it was
down in Dallas at Jerry Jones Death Star, and we
were three four stories in the air.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I mean, it's one.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Hundred thousand seat stadium and they have this gigantic TV
screen and it was watching the Wisconsin game and this
gigantic TV screen was really cool, and so I wound
up watching the game on the TV screen in the arena.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
That's so dumb.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
And I'm thinking, Okay, if I'm down low and I'm
close to the action, great, But if I have to
sit three stories in the air and I'm watching it
on TV, why don't I just do it at all?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I have to stop myself if I'm at a concert
and i'm backaways and I'm usually back away is at
a concert, but they've got, of course, you know, for
the big acts, you've got the big screens there flanking
the stage, and you'll sit there and you'll find yourself
staring at the screen. And then I have to stop
myself and think, well, I can do this from home.
Look at the stage, take in the stage.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Or the people who go to a concert and they
spend the entire time watching the concert through their phone
because they're videoing it for nobody. Yeah, they put the
phone down and just watch this. It really worth it.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
When KU won the national championship in nineteen eighty eight,
I was at the final fours in Kansas City and
it was at Kemper Arena, which I don't even know
if Camper Arena is still around, But you know that
was that was an arena with seventeen or eighteen thousand
people in it, and every seat was a great seat,
and you didn't have to worry about whether this was
a goodbye. Then they started playing these final fours in
(07:54):
football stadiums. Played it at the Super Dome, played it
at you know, the hubert Ah Humphrey Metrodome up in Minnesota. Well,
if you are watching a basketball game in a football stadium,
you better be close to the four or it's just
not a great experience. They if you just want to
be around the whole thing and you just want to
commiserate with the fans, awesome. And if Nebraska makes the
(08:16):
Final Four this year, I don't care if they're playing
on the planet Neptune.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I'm probably gonna.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Go for Husker fans who went and watched the basketball
team down at the old Big Eight tournament at Camper Arena,
Kansas City. Sure, I just looked it up here because
I was curious too. Kemper. I mean, it's been obsolete
by other stadiums.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
In case.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
It is now known as High Ve Arena, and it's
basically been converted into like a ubt or Iowa Fieldhouse.
This youth sports so good Mecca down there. Good morning.
This is Nebraska's Morning News with Jim Rose, Lucy Chapman,
Craig Evans. I am Scott Voh. He's great to have
(08:55):
you with us on Nebraska's Morning News. And when you
hear this new it is usually because it is time
for a visit from Nebraska State Auditor Mike axel f
Fully back here on eleven ten kfab auditor.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Fully, good morning, Great to have you.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
With us, Thanks Scott, good to be with you. Thanks
for inviting me on.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I have often said, no one wants to see you
walk into their office and start poking around. How was
it that you became aware and concerned of what is
now blown into a full blown Nebraska political scandal, and
that is the accusations of Governor Pillen awarding a no
bid two and a half million dollar contract to a
friend of his and they didn't follow the rules according
(09:38):
to your office.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
That's correct, That's correct, Scott. A year or so ago
we started getting phone calls because the contract had already
been let and the money was starting to flow up
to Julie Bischell, a one woman company. I lobb you,
and people started to complaining literally across the state of
getting phone calls and emails and so forth, saying, hey, Folly,
you got to get on this. Then you got to
(10:01):
check this thing out. There's something that doesn't smell right here.
And then I dug deeper and deeper into it. I agree,
there's something very much a foul when you skirt the
whole bidding requirements and give a soul source contract to
somebody on a whim, apparently without any proper bidding. I mean,
(10:23):
if you're running a public a private business, you can
do what you want with your money. You can hire
the guy down the street because you like him as
your friend, whatever. But in government, you're spending my money,
your money, the public's money, and there are bidding requirements
in the laws. Anything about sixty thousand dollars, you've got
to go off for public bid and give everybody and
their dog a chance to bid on that project. And
(10:44):
that just didn't happen here. They just skirted all of
that and said, now we're just going to give it
to this person because whatever. I don't know, I don't
know if the whatever is you did.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Well, State Auditor Mike fully this, Jim Rose, thanks for
coming on this morning.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Really appreciate it. Have there any there been any laws
broken here? Has anybody committed a criminal act here?
Speaker 5 (11:05):
Well, there's there is a criminals There is a criminal
dimension to this because the report was due to the
legislature on a particular date. Well, that date came and went,
and I went over and met with the director of
the Department's Economic development and said, hey, where's the report
and had a kind of a public look on his face.
Let me get back to lated today. Well he didn't.
(11:25):
A number of days went by, and we followed up
again and again, and finally now we know publicly because
the chief lawyer for that agency is now publicly admitted
there was no report on the due date, but they
made a filing link and then backdated the report to
make it look like it had been filed on time.
We have all the records showing when that document was created,
(11:47):
when it was actually filed, and so that's that's a
deliberate deception of the State auditier. There's a criminal statute
that says you cannot do that. So as a result,
this is all now but turned over a log four
cents out of my hands. I've had my office direct
indication with the Attorney General's office. The Attorney General's office
has publicly acknowledged that they've received this complaint and concern
(12:11):
and it's under their advice.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Okay, so that's a misdemeanor. That individual, Casey Beelitz, was
Director of Economic Development. He's not there anymore. So what's
the problem with the Governor's office. Have they committed any violations?
They Have they broken any laws?
Speaker 5 (12:28):
Well, the law says if you're over fifty thousand dollars,
you got to go off the public bid. They say
there wasn't enough time. I fundamentally disagree, but there's a
plenty of times you have done this correctly. They could
have opened up the bid. They did not do that.
So that matters also pending in the law enforcement.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So the governor says that we needed to do this
quickly to be able to get five and a half
billion dollars in federal grants. So let's say they had
started earlier and they'd gone through the sham of a
process by taking the bids and then awarding it to
this group. Anyway, is there any indication this group is
just sitting on the money or taking it on trips
to Barbados, or are they doing things? And are we
(13:06):
getting the federal money the governor asked, had said we
needed to do this for Well.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
The consultant who was hired didn't be work on grant projects.
There's no question about that. Question is could someone else
have done it better? Or could state employees have done
it better? In one instance, they're booking about a particular
grant says actually the state employees who did all the work,
the legwork and made the filing, and they're giving all
(13:32):
this credit to the consultants. So there's a lot of
mushy things going on here, a lot of misstatements and
so forth, and I'm very concerned about But the contractor
to research to the contractor didn't do some work for
the state. The question is who else could have done
that or was it even needed at all? Because state
employees have done that right, No, because there was no bid.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
And in this case Ms Bischell, who runs her own company,
she's a one man band, delivered approximately three hundred million
dollars in grants to the state, at least through her efforts.
But that's that's a separate Yeah, and that's a separate point, auditor. Fully,
let's get back to the breaking of the law. If
the governor authorized a bid without going through the process,
(14:15):
is that illegal?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
And what are the ramifications?
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Well, that gets into the terrif for the Attorney General.
I've referred to all of this because because I thought
there was a violation, Well, I turned it over to
his office. And now since the balls in his court
is you got to do about all of that?
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Have you talked to him?
Speaker 5 (14:34):
My office has been in direct communication with his and again,
his spokesperson has publicly acknowledged that there's been a communication
between the two offices. And in the matter of pending Well,
you're you're.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
The longtime state auditor a couple of different times, lieutenant governor,
state senator. Yeah, I'm sure you and Jim Pillen have
had a lot of face to face conversations. He didn't
just coming in there and say, all right, Mike, how
can we get this result?
Speaker 5 (14:59):
Well, I do know Jim Pillen. I respect the man.
I think he's a very good man. I think he
was receiving some very very poor advice from some of
his advisors of how we should the seat on this.
I think he was ill served by his.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Staff, and he's also provided three different answers to the question.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And I'm sure that irritated you too.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Well, that's that's a question to the governor his spokesperson.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
All right, State Auditor Mike Foley, thank you very much
for taking the time this morning, and we'll talk again soon.
The Democrats are convinced that Governor Pillen is going to
be led out of the state capitol and handcuffs have
to resign and shame and never be able to show
his face again. And they're also alleging, you know, oh,
this is a friend girl. They're not calling him girlfriend.
(15:49):
They're all trying the friend girl. And they're like they
were together at this event.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
And they were together at that. This guy is a
straight arrow. There's no there's no hop in the corral
for Jim Pillon. Let me say this and then you
get the rest of your time. All right, thank you, chairman.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
You bet.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
It seems that Governor Pillen is obviously bothered about this.
Why it's out of character for him to lash out
in a teletown hall across the state and start using
a phrase like libtards, as he did three times in
that and then not apologize for it. He seems out
of character, frustrated, angry. I imagine all of this, the
(16:27):
accusations against his character and that of his office, I
believe is getting to him.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Well, it could be.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Scott Jim is a Jim's an entrepreneur and as scientist.
He's not a politician and he's not an operations guy.
This is an operational failure. But it's a very very
large state with a lot of agencies, and Director of
Economic Development is one of the higher profile ones, and
they sort of swing back and forth between public policy
(16:55):
and private sector engagement.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
That's what DEED does. Well, this is a failure on
there part.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
They weren't organized, they weren't sure what they were doing,
and then they went back and tried to fix it,
which was a mistake. What they should have said is
here's what we did. We probably shouldn't have done that,
and I'm sorry, and we fixed it now. Casey Beelitz,
who is Director of Economic Development, who is responsible for this,
We're resigned late in the year, so he's not even
there anymore. They have a new person, and presumably a
(17:23):
more organized or experienced one. Case is a private sector guy.
He's not a government guy.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
I know him. He's a good guy.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
But in this case, what you don't want to do
is cover it up. The cover up is worse than
the crime here. It's a little bit like Watergate. Okay,
you come out and you say, here's what happened. We
had a chance to get a grant. We were slow
in the application process. That's on us, that's on ded.
(17:50):
So I hired somebody right away because I thought this
person can go in there and get this money for
us right now. And there's a deadline. Lawyer, there's a
deadline looming, and we need to do this now. Well,
now you can argue whether the deadline was that emergency
or not. But in this case, just come clean. Your
hand was caught in the cookie jar. Say yeah, that's
(18:10):
my hand, Yeah it was in the cookie jar. In
other words, don't ask for permission, beg for forgiveness. And
in this case, if they had just come out and said, yep,
this happened, it shouldn't have happened. If there's a reprimand
in the offing, I'll take it.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
But let's move on. But now we're all caught up
in it because the AG and the State troller.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Involved go out to the San Francisco area Levi's Stadium,
where iHeartRadio's Kurt Kretchmar has been out there this week
hanging out with see you here with the Terrell Davis
and other players, former players who are there at the
Super Bowl. Kurt, thanks a lot for doing this very
early in the morning in San Francisco. What's the scene
(18:50):
like out there this week.
Speaker 6 (18:52):
It's been a good, good crowd. I've been to a
lot of the events. Seattle's only six hours away, so
a lot of Seahawks fans drove. And what a recent
trend that I've seen is a lot of fans will
come for the week and then go home because they
can't afford the tickets to the game nor can they
find them. So it's a majority of Seattle fans, but
(19:15):
there's quite a few New England fans out here too.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, it's a lot of people are kind of like,
I don't know if this game is going to be
any good. Seattle's been kind of mulling their opponents here recently.
I'd never count out the Patriots, especially with how Drake
May their quarterback, is coming on here. What's the sense obviously,
as You mentioned a lot of Seahawks fans, but you're
also hanging out with like the Dan Patrick Show and
all that fun stuff. Are we going to have a
(19:39):
pretty good game here on Sunday?
Speaker 6 (19:42):
I really think so because of the coaching and you
have two excellent coaches that have really been battle tested.
I mean New England having to win at Denver and
the Snow and Seattle they have to beat the Rams
twice in the last month of the season, so they're
going to be battle tests. Did I really think that
(20:02):
it's going to be the typical star that's not a star,
that is this the player of the game, just like
Malcolm Butler was for the Patriots when they last played
the Seahawks. And I really am looking at the wide
receiver and kick returner for the Seahawks, Rashid Shaheed, that
can change the game with one play. Yeah, and JSN
(20:26):
obviously is a tremendous player, and Darnold's going to make
his great throws. But that long kickoff return or hevn't
forbid a touchdown from a kickoff return, that changes the
emotion of the game.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, if the Patriots are dumb enough to kick to him,
everyone healthy. There was some issue with May after his
last game here. Everyone seemed to be okay.
Speaker 6 (20:47):
Yeah, he says, he's fine.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
All right, you're there in San Francisco, our former Husker
Roger Craig. Of course, forty nine ers legend just learned
yesterday he is going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Where are all the Roger Craig banners there in San Francisco.
You see a lot of stuff. They're celebrating number thirty
three and forty nine ers land.
Speaker 6 (21:09):
Yeah, it's all over. They had a lot of forty
nine ers events that were moderated Chris Berman and Rich
Eies and moderated ones. So you know, a lot of
the forty nine ers are shaking their fans are shaking
their heads, saying, we could have been here if we
didn't have so many injuries.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
I know, it's gotta be tough not to have that
home game. They're right there at Levi Stadium. So right now,
it's what five just after five thirty in the morning
out there. There's nothing going on out there now, right?
Or are there people like, hey, you can't drink all
day unless you start early.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
Just the crazies and the homeless people along the streets
of San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Well, and I don't know if they're gonna have game tickets,
but yeah, I mean San Francisco. We've all been there
and it's it's certainly quite a city. But as you said,
the homeless population there year round is amazing. Did San
Francisco try and hide some of that action in their
(22:10):
town here because everyone the world is watching this weekend.
Speaker 6 (22:14):
I'm told they did clean up quite a bit in
the better parts of town and in the China Basin
where the San Francisco San Francisco Giants Stadium is, it's perfect.
It's clean along the Fisherman's Wharf. But then I'm staying
closer to downtown, and yeah, they've tried to clean it up,
but you have people screaming each other in the streets
(22:37):
and and just what you would expect, just not as
bad as it has been.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Are you just swelling clam chowder and cand Diva chocolates
or what?
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (22:47):
And sourdough bread. They have those bread bowls and they
put the clam chowder in there and it just yummy.
The food here is tremendous, especially the fish restaurants.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Yeah, you sit there at the Bay and you have
clam chowder and a bread bowl of fish restaurant, yet
you're smelling the intake of the eighty bazillion sea lions
right there. It's not exactly the most appetizing thing.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
And you got to avoid the urine, the needles, and
the defecation by the homeless.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
If you can get past all of that, it's a
great place to have lunch.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
Play. Travis was out here, who's on all of our
I Heart talk stations, and he had counted ten used
needles on the ground walking from the media center to
his hotel.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
All right, occurred to put shoes on and have a
great weekend out there at the Super Bowl.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
Thanks guys for having me on in.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
The Zonker's custom was inbox Scott atkfab dot com. We
started off this hour with Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley
the accusations against the Governor's office for awarding a contract
that should have been up forbid to an independent individual
in the biofuels industry. It was kind of up against
(24:01):
a deadline, says the Governor's office, like, yeah, we awarded
the bid to this person. Sorry if the paperwork wasn't
in order, but we needed to get billions of dollars
in federal grant and some matching funds, and time was
of the essence. State auditor Mike Foley says, yeah, I'd
have some questions about all this. Democrats, of course, saying
that the governor needs to resign and be arrested and
(24:22):
drummed out of public life forever.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
So we had that.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Conversation, a couple of different assessments from you here in
the inbox. Joe says our auditor as a complete goober.
The world is ending after listening to him as an outsider,
sounds like much ado about nothing. But the Democrats are
scare mongering as usual. That's Joe's assessment. Dan listened to
the exact same interview and says, you guys, notably Rosy,
(24:48):
seem more upset at fully for reporting now I'm not
then with the actual infraction. Time to put the big
boy pants on and grow up now.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
I look.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
I think that the governor was the governor's office was sloppy.
Think that the Director of Economic Development, who I consider
a friend. He is a private sector guy, and private
sector people struggle with government regulations. When you take a
private sector guy and put him in a government job.
There is a big learning curve because their whole world
has been about, Okay, what's the job, go do it.
(25:17):
But when you get into government, you have procedures and
policies and laws that need to be followed, and most
people don't know them. Casey Ballet's not a bad guy,
but chances are he was focused on something else. His
department was focused on something else, and suddenly this deadline
came up, and he went to the governor said, Gov,
we got to get somebody out there to get this
three hundred million dollars.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Well, we got to go through a bid process. Let's
forget let's let's forget about that right now, Let's get him.
Who's gonna make us do that?
Speaker 4 (25:45):
All right?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Well, this is the point, and Mike fully will.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
And you know, Bob Carey went through the same thing
when he was governor and he hated it because he
ran a business like business people, and business people don't
get caught up in red tape, procedure and steps. They
just go get the job done. In other words, they
don't ask for permission, They beg for forgiveness. Well, Jim
Pillen's attitude about the government is the same way what's
(26:10):
the best, most efficient way to get the job done?
Forget about laws and procedures and policies. What's the best
way to get it done?
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Now?
Speaker 3 (26:17):
This lady, Okay, Julie Bushell is a very capable person.
She is really good, she's really smart, and she knows
the bio energy sphere better than most. And so who better. Now,
I don't know about two point five million, but who
better to go get three hundred million at the time
than her?
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Right, It could have gone through the process and gone
right back to her anyway, and no one would have
said anything.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Probably would have won the gig.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
I'll just say this, Dan, you know, putting my big
boy pants on and growing up is not my strong suit,
and I appreciate the advice. We now welcome on our
White House correspondent John Decker here back to Nebraska is
Morning News to discuss something called Trump r X. It's
a website. It's the thing, John explained, Pane. What is
Trump our X.
Speaker 7 (27:02):
Yeah, TRUMPARX dot gov. That's the website that we're talking about.
The President rolling it out last night. I was in
the Eisenhower Old Executive Office Building with President Trump with
doctor Os when they rolled out this new website. Right now,
there are about forty drugs that are covered by this
website in which the prices is offered on the website
(27:26):
are lower than what you typically would be able to
get if you were to try to get those drugs
on your own, and so you can't purchase it through
the website.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
Instead.
Speaker 7 (27:37):
What the website does is it you'd enterre to see
whether your drug is covered first and foremost, and if
it is, you can get a coupon. You take that
coupon to where it is that you fill your prescriptions,
your pharmacy, and that's how the whole process works. The
White House says there will be more drugs added to
the lists beyond this first forty, but this is something
(27:58):
that certainly tackles that issue, that big issue of affordability,
and I think that's certainly what the administration is chouting
right now.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Yeah, let's look at something that a lot of people
either use or have certainly heard of, ozempic. If you
go through your insurance, that can certainly cost you hundreds,
if not over one thousand dollars a month. But sample
prices at trumparx dot gov include ozempics starting at just
one ninety nine a month. Now, I'm wondering, John, why
(28:26):
would the the drug makers want to do that. Wouldn't
they want to force you towards using your insurance to
get more money? But at the same time, long question. Sorry,
sometimes the insurance reimbursement rates aren't very good. So do
do the drug companies want to be a part of
all this?
Speaker 7 (28:44):
Well, the President is essentially forcing these various pharmaceutical companies
to be a part of this process. You know, you
had threatened them with applying tariffs because a significant percentage
of the drugs that they manufacture are actually manufactured outside
the US. So they've agreed to lower the price of
(29:06):
these particular pharmaceuticals to the point where they are the
lowest in the world. And as you know, there are
often drugs where you could purchase them for a lot
cheaper in various countries around the world if you traveled
up to Canada or traveled down New Mexico. The idea
here is to make it so that if you're purchasing
(29:27):
these particular drugs, these forty drugs, you're going to get
the lowest price available anywhere in the world from these
pharmaceutical companies.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Right, But I'm still paying my premium. So I go
outside my insurance. I paid directly to the drug maker.
I get a discount, but I'm still paying my premium.
Speaker 7 (29:42):
Well, you are still paying your premium still, Like you know.
I look, I'm not here advocating on behalf of the administration.
That's not my job. As you know, I'm just telling
you how this process works, and we'll see whether you know,
it's something that's embraced by those who certainly are looking
the lower costs related to the pharmaceuticals that they need
(30:03):
to sometimes have on a daily basis.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I hope you got at least thirty seconds to tell
me what it was like to be there at the
National Prayer Breakfast yesterday as President Trump went on for
well over an hour is cracking jokes, calling out people
with whom he disagreed at the prayer breakfast, What was
the attitude in the room like during the President's speech yesterday.
Speaker 7 (30:21):
You know, I'm glad you asked me that question. I
was in Washington, Hilton for the Prayer breakfast, and you know,
I like to read the room, you know, and there
were people there that were maggot, you know, and they
were you know, laughing along with the president. But the
vast majority of people in that room, And I was
looking in the room, and I'm giving you my honest assessment.
They are people for whom religion, their belief in God
(30:48):
is so important. And I could tell they were bothered
by the President going down that road at the National
Prayer Breakfast of all places. So that was my read.
I'm not saying that was every in the room, but
that was the vast majority of people. And by the way,
that room can hold approximately twenty five hundred people. As
you've never been to the Washington Hill, it is a
(31:08):
massive ballroom.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, I wondered if that was the case. John, great
reporting as always. I'll let you get back to tagging
along with the president. Thank you very much for the
time today.
Speaker 7 (31:18):
Thank you thanks for having me on today. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
That is news Radio eleven ten kfab White House correspondent
John Decker here on Nebraska's Morning News. I just you
could hear sphincters tightening as the President is like and
let me tell you about these Democrats.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
If you love God, I don't know why you'd vote
for Democrats.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Here today, we're trying to be more friendly and it's
the prayer breakfast for crying out.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
You can accuse democrats of being anarchists, you can accuse
them of being not bright, you can accuse them of
suffering from the effects of excessive medication.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
But let's stay away from whether or not they believe
in God. How about that.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
But when you have the president speak at your event,
doesn't matter what the event is, you're gonna get the
same guy.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Can kind of see why Jim Pillon and Donald Trump
are such good friends.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
It's not a lot of polish there. I really don't
care what other people think of it. Scott atkfab dot
com and here in the Zonker's custom was inbox. The
email on signed says, I think you guys need to
broadcast to a segment of your audience that there are
reports there will be ice all over rivers today, possibly
causing damage, causing people to flee their properties. They should
(32:26):
meet along local rivers to demonstrate their opposition to this situation.
Yes they well, yes, that crowd, and thank you for
that email. I am fluent in sarcasm. They love the
idea of ice dams. That's what they've been trying to do.
Ice dams, ice jams. They love all of that. I
don't know if an ice jam is where you go
(32:46):
out there and obstruct ice or if it is a
like a dance party where a lot of members of
ICE are dancing an ice jam. You don't have to
answer that, Lucy, I can see the I can see
the scorn on your face quite frankly.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
No, an ice jam, I don't know where they are
they break dancing?
Speaker 8 (33:04):
Is that how they're breaking up the ice?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
That's how I'd like to envision it. An ice jam
is they gotta blow off some steam once in a while.
They can't sleep, megaphones their hotels all night, and they
can't do their jobs, and these guys gotta be tired
and wiped out, and I feel unappreciate it. Every once
in a while they got to get together for an
ice jam. Listen to ice ice Baby, Greg says, what
(33:27):
do you want to bet? A lot of people won't
use Trump RX, even if they could save money, simply
because it has the name Trump on it. Oh yeah,
same thing with the Trump accounts for your Trump babies. Hey, hey,
we're giving your kid one thousand dollars. Great, I'll take it.
What's it called it's called the Trump account. No thanks
Scott at kfab dot com. In the Zonker's custom was inbox.
(33:50):
The cap email says, you guys are always saying I
miss Gary. Some of us are saying it.
Speaker 8 (33:56):
I've never scary, I've never said it I miss Gary.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
There's a lot of people say that, not a lot
of people saying miss Gary. So the captain says, why
don't you guys just play old saddle Meyer recordings and
simply say Gary is back from retirement. All right, let's
go to the archives here and here's Gary Saddlemayer recording
from a long time ago.
Speaker 9 (34:17):
Baby's Morning News. Great to have you here on this
Friday morning. Greg Wagner coming up. How's that.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Morning news?
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Yeah, well we.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Had to change something Gary. Everything we do here is
designed to upset.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
You as you listen to.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
The radio throughout the morning and send us text messages.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Then we relay on the air, but then add sauce,
how you doing?
Speaker 4 (34:42):
How you doing it? But I'm very ticked off?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
What else is new?
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Awesome?
Speaker 9 (34:49):
Jerk got into my bank account again, which a couple
of years ago.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Now, which of your kids hack?
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Hack?
Speaker 9 (34:57):
So the reason I'm here is because I need to
get into the you need some money, Yeah, thank you guys. Yeah,
I need to get into our corporate widget, which I
can't do from home, to change the change the settings
for deposits, and it's just see here. It is a
(35:18):
royal pain.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah here, I thought you came in here to stop
by and see us.
Speaker 9 (35:22):
Well, uh, all right, but I've been listening every morning.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah, we know by the texts. So what do you
think of this pilling business.
Speaker 9 (35:30):
It's not good, man, this is not this is not good.
This is I don't know how much trouble the governor
is in legally. I mean I heard fully on with
you guys earlier. However, thanks for listening. Perception wise, I
think it's a very.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Bad look, especially an election year.
Speaker 9 (35:49):
Yeah, I don't think the libtard thing was good. I
agree with you, Jim rarely, but I do that's in
a while. He could have handled both of these things
in the aftermath much better instead of being defiant about everything.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Right, Well, Bob Carey is the last He's the last
businessman to be governor.
Speaker 9 (36:08):
Because he is a good executive and a very smart guy,
as we know. Yeah, but you know he's a little
bit like Trump, you know, unforced errors.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
I suppose you could say.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Yeah again, you know, this is the first farmer we've
had elected governor since the thirties.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
And these guys operate as independent contractors and they do
things the way they want it done, on their time,
and they don't have a lot of tolerance for procedure,
process or other people. And that's one of the reasons
for their success. But it also gets you in trouble
when you're in the government.
Speaker 9 (36:44):
Oh yeah, if you have run something as either an
owner or CEO or whatever in a private sector, as
you say it's just we're going to do this, now
go do it. It's a completely different ballgame. And it
drove Trump absolutely crazy his first term because he made, well,
he made a couple of mistakes. One of them was
assuming that everybody in the administration was on his team instead.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
Of trying to undermine him.
Speaker 9 (37:08):
But the other one was assuming that you can just
go go do stuff.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
He still does that.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
But now you guys all that you guys have known
Jim Pillen going back a ways, you know, from since
he was as a player on the Nebraska football team,
and then certainly as a businessman as a regent. Now
as the governor, I'm looking at things like you mentioned Gary,
the the libtard comment and the it wasn't something that
(37:33):
it was behind the scenes, and an open mic picked
it up. It was on his tele town hall to
the state of Nebraska anyone could listen to, and he
made a point of saying it three times. And I'm
wondering if some of the stuff here, the accusations not
just of impropriety when it comes to this no big
contract which might be a paperwork dispute, but of course
(37:54):
the Democrats and detractors are trying to frame it as
and he's cheating on his wife, this woman. I think
that it's it's all really bothering him, and it seems
out of character for some of the things that we're
seeing and hearing from the governor right now.
Speaker 9 (38:10):
Well, if you if you take your perceptions from what
political opponents say, particularly about a conservative, you ought to
check yourself because there if you have any evidence stuff
like that, then let's see it. The fact that she
is a woman and that their friend, you know, they
were seen together. Well, how many times have you been
seen together with somebody who you're not married? To because
(38:33):
of whatever a meeting or a social situation or whatever.
I don't put from what I know of Jim Pillen
and not close personally, but I've known him as you
guys have for a long time.
Speaker 4 (38:44):
That's not Jim Pillen. No, he's not Jim Pillen. This
is but they try to frame it that, you know
he was seen with her well.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Because it's an election year and she is attractive, but
she's married to oh judge, so that just that that
thing is just that's crazy tinfoil hat stuff.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
But he is. He's a take.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Charge guy, and he's a singular focused guy. He's not
political and even though he served on the Board of Regents,
that's not the same. So he's sort of learning on
the job. And much like Trump and Bob Carrey did,
you can't just say whatever pops into your head without
getting backwashed. And that's the libtard comments. That's the stuff
(39:25):
about snap benefits. Remember that from last summer, that fight
that he had with the Asian reporter from Flatwater Free Press.
Pick your spots. He's made big promises about property taxes
that have not come through, and he's not made good
on the promises. And that's the stuff tacked onto this
stuff that makes for TV commercials.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Gary, who do you like on Sunday Seahawks Patriots or
bad Bunny? What do you most?
Speaker 9 (39:55):
I'm torn about watching that show, that halftime show.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
I have to know, well, I know.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
The way that it's that conservatives say it is just
gonna be out there, just you know, shooting ice agents
and uh and slapping white people and.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Well he's doing in Spanish, I won't be able to
understand him. Run President.
Speaker 9 (40:14):
I suspect Seattle will when I picked New England some
weeks ago to win the whole thing.
Speaker 4 (40:21):
So I think it's going to be an awesome game.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
The hope, So I hope.
Speaker 4 (40:26):
I mean, I love Drake May, that young guy. Wow.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
I always hope the game is so good that we
don't spend a lot of time the next day talking
about the halftime show, the commercials and all that stuff.
Speaker 9 (40:36):
But well, it's interesting too with Sam Darnold. The Vikings
had him last year and they had won fourteen games
and they're on the verge of the best record in
the NFL, and then he swallowed the olive and two
consecutive games, the big ones at the end, uh to
the Detroit, and then the Rams and and uh and
so goodbye, goodbye Sam. And now he's not choking, he's
(40:58):
playing great.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
He swallowed the olive. Gary.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
Actually that is a reminder that that remark was actually
made by Lyle on the air once.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Wow, this is why this and only this is why
we missed you, Gary. Thanks, thank you so much for
popping it. Gary.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Gee.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Folks not familiar with nineteen sixties rhetoric, that's drinking a martini.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
All right, let's choking. We'll bring Greg Wagner into this.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Bow from Nebraska game in Parks here on news radio
eleven ten kfa B. Greg Wagner, if anyone had listened
to you week to week here, they'd think that they
had gone into a coma and missed several months. It was, hey,
don't stay, don't go out on the ice, no ice fishing.
(41:48):
And then and then seven days later, hey, we can
go ice. We have ice, nice ice, maybe totally fine.
And now one week later I wouldn't go out on
the ice. Welcome to Nebraska. And that was a tough winter,
wasn't it. So glad it's over.
Speaker 8 (42:02):
It's weird. Yeah, is this spring? What's the calendar? Saying, no, not.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Yet, I know, not even close. No.
Speaker 8 (42:08):
Sixty seven Monday, you said, Scotty.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Groundhogs said, I know the groundhogs had six more weeks
of winter. He didn't say when that would start.
Speaker 8 (42:15):
Our grown hogs, we mainly are still sleeping.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
We might still get it, obviously for fishing, if someone
wanted to try and do that.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Right now, what are we looking at? Well, we still have.
Speaker 8 (42:25):
Believe it or not, some ice. But I'm telling you
the ice fishing season as rapidly deteriorating as the ice
is extreme caution. You got to really know that particular
body water. We got water sitting on top of the ice, shoreline,
melting water around docks, rocks, stumps that radiate heat. I'm
I'm calling this one. I think we're I think we're done.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
The possibility of flooding there on the Platte, the Elkhorn,
the Loop.
Speaker 8 (42:52):
I told Craig Evans this, Only when we get into
early next week will we have still that potential for
flooding and probably the potential for wildfire.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
All right, tell me about the potential for hunting this weekend,
shed antlers.
Speaker 8 (43:08):
It's the time of year where we have a lot
of our hunters, the conventional hunters, they like to go
out and look for shed antlers. In early February is
the start of deer drop on their antlers for regrowth purposes.
It's turned into kind of a big deal. It's an
outdoor scavenger hunt. And uh it's it's great. It's a
good time. Be careful going along these rivers because you're
(43:29):
gonna have to note the flood watches and warnings and
all that.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
What's happening this weekend at the state parks.
Speaker 8 (43:35):
Man be in a state park, get outside, go outdoors. Hey, God,
Gary Saddle, there's an outdoor guy.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Look at him, was right there, he's he's that draft.
Speaker 8 (43:46):
I mean, he's in and out.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
There's food in the studio up and Wanders brought that
over for my birthday and nobody's eating it. All right,
you belated by you were saying the state parks, state parks,
get out there and enjoy. Grounds are all open. You're
gonna bring your own water.
Speaker 8 (44:05):
In our water shut down of course it's still winter,
and have your current state park permit. You can buy
it online, printed off and in rock and roll and
go if you want to.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
What's on the outdoor bulletin board.
Speaker 8 (44:16):
I'm you know, I have a lot of people saying,
what are the owls doing? I hear owls in the woods.
I've heard them at Fatina Forest.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
I've heard them all one in my neighborhood the other day.
Speaker 8 (44:26):
Really, there you go. They are in their nesting period
and they're protecting their breeding territory.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
They're hooting, so don't bother them.
Speaker 8 (44:36):
Well, they won't hurt you, they won't.
Speaker 7 (44:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (44:38):
Okay, So we've got that and a lot of people
seeing wild turkeys as they spend more time enjoying the
mild weather in longer days and everything else. And still
have a lot of bald eagles in Kenada geese around
as well.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Awesome, as are you, Greg? Thank you very much
Does Governor Jim Pillen have a problem here? The question
is a no big contract that was awarded to someone's
that he's been described as having a cozy relationship with
the biofuel's company. Governor says, we needed to do this
because we were up against the deadline. It was an emergency.
We had to get five point five billion dollars from
(00:23):
the FEDS that we didn't use some of this money, like.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Three hundred million as what Nebraska got.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I think, well, he said it was a five point
five billion, not all at one time. But the state
auditor says, this looks fishy. Of course you got chum
in the water for Democrats here against the governor. And
does the governor have a problem?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Ah?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Unclear. This this is the problem. The problem is the
cover up. What happened was they jumped the line on
warning a contract. This goes to the Department of Economic Development.
At the time, it was run by a guy named
Casey b I know Casey. Casey's a good guy. He
was the Chamber of Commerce director in Columbus. He's kind
of one of Pillin's guys. Got the job. They were
(01:09):
a little sloppy with the application process, so they were
late getting the application process in and to meet a deadline,
they needed to jump fast, and rather than spend the
time to bid this out to other people, they gave
it to this lady, Julie Bushall, who is a capable person.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I don't know her well, I know her a little bit.
She's married to.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
A judge, she's she's a she's a lobbyist, and she's
cozy with Politico's and.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
President and the only employee of Global Sustainability, her company developers.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
She works in the ethanol industry, in the biofuels industry,
and she's a lobbyist and she's very knowledgeable. Uh, she
is close to pilling, but not that way. Everybody needs
to democrats Field. She's very attractive. But that's not the issue.
But what yet you brought it up.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
Well, this is what we do.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
But the issue with the state auditor, and we'll talk
to him in an hour, is that he was getting
three different stories from the Governor's office about what happened
relative to the reporting and the compliance on this contract.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
And in one.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
Case, they actually submitted the contract eleven days after the deadline,
but then backdated their application. That's something you can't do.
You can't be deceiving the state auditor. The state auditor
is a constitutional office. It's not an appointment of the governor.
This is not a crony deal. We elect them. His
(02:37):
job is to walk around and make sure that people
are shepherding the people's money properly. Don't lie to the
state auditor. Don't mislead the state auditor. Don't irritate the state.
Just be honest about it. Okay, don't taunt the state.
If you've screwed up, say you know, I think we
screwed up here. I don't know that there was any
fraud here. I don't know that there was any any
(02:58):
felony here. It's a misdemeanor to mislead the state auditor.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
That's the thing. What all right, so all this comes out,
it is like, all right, we screwed this whole thing up.
Then what happens is slap him on the rid, right,
he has to resign and disgrace.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Casey resigned last year, so you know, it's not like
there's going to be a firing. But what the governor
should have done and said, you know what, here's what
we did. We jumped the line on this contract because
this Gal is an expert, and I really felt strongly
that we needed to give her the gig because the
clock was ticking. The fact that we were late is
our fault. We shouldn't have been late. We should have
(03:32):
been on top of this. We should have been able
to go through the process and do time to get
our people in place to apply for these funds. In
the Joe Biden administration, all he needs to do is
come clean and say, yeah, we were sloppy in the
Department of Economic Development, but that guy's gone.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Now we got somebody new. Next question.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Now he says that she was working pro bono for
the state for a long time. The state auditor fully says,
I don't have any right.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Yet, don't see. Don't be doing this.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Don't be saying stuff like she should wouldn't have been
working pro bono for the state of Nebraska. Hey, so
we do it all the time in radio, we bring
our own money. But when it comes to the state,
don't do that. I don't know that she was doing it.
If she was doing that, she should have sent a
bill or she should have gotten a contract. They shouldn't
have had her working for free.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
That's it. It's just a little sloppy.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah, we'll talk with State auditor Mike axel f Fuley
coming up at seven o five this morning. We got
iheartradios Kurt Kretchmar live at these Super Bowl He's on
at seven thirty five, and at eight eight this morning,
our White House correspondent here on KFAB, John Decker on
Trump RX. That's a thing now, we'll get into all that.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Throughout the morning.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Greg Wagner from Nebraska Game of Parks coming up at
about eight forty seven this morning. It's all right here.
Dave emails via the Zonker's custom was in box Scott
at kfab dot com and says, Okay, this is it
mon day, almost seventy degrees. No more wreaths, no more inflatables,
no more lights, yard signs that have anything to do
(05:08):
with Christmas unless you have a mullet park on the
yard next to your empty Schlitz cans, cigarette stained couch
on your porch, and a VHF antenna on the roof
that of course is broken with a bra hanging from it.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Them's the rules. Jim.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
You're a gallivanting man about town with a lot of
really high falutin connections everywhere. Have you ever thought about
going to the Super Bowl. You could probably get that
pulled off there. I'm sure you've been invited.
Speaker 3 (05:36):
No, I've not been invited. I do know some people
who had Super Bowl tickets because they were Chiefs season
ticket holders and they got access when Case was playing there.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Never pressed that one, I suppose I I don't know.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
I could probably call around if I ever develop a
terminal disease, you know, or the clock is tick, and
I'll probably do that. Yeah, well, you know, to me,
unless you've got a great seat, the best seat is
ten feet away with a beer right there.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I know you can sit there in your recliner.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You can make what you want to make. You can
eat what you want to eat, when you want to
eat it. You don't have to have pants on it,
don't need a fit, I don't need to pay for parking,
you know. Like college basketball, for example, I went to
the Final Four a few years ago when it was
down in Dallas at Jerry Jones Death Star, and we
were three four stories in the air.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I mean, it's one.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Hundred thousand seat stadium and they have this gigantic TV
screen and it was watching the Wisconsin game and this
gigantic TV screen was really cool, and so I wound
up watching the game on the TV screen in the arena.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
That's so dumb.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
And I'm thinking, Okay, if I'm down low and I'm
close to the action, great, But if I have to
sit three stories in the air and I'm watching it
on TV, why don't I just do it at all?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
I have to stop myself if I'm at a concert
and i'm backaways and I'm usually back away is at
a concert, but they've got, of course, you know, for
the big acts, you've got the big screens there flanking
the stage, and you'll sit there and you'll find yourself
staring at the screen. And then I have to stop
myself and think, well, I can do this from home.
Look at the stage, take in the stage.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Or the people who go to a concert and they
spend the entire time watching the concert through their phone
because they're videoing it for nobody. Yeah, they put the
phone down and just watch this. It really worth it.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
When KU won the national championship in nineteen eighty eight,
I was at the final fours in Kansas City and
it was at Kemper Arena, which I don't even know
if Camper Arena is still around, But you know that
was that was an arena with seventeen or eighteen thousand
people in it, and every seat was a great seat,
and you didn't have to worry about whether this was
a goodbye. Then they started playing these final fours in
(07:54):
football stadiums. Played it at the Super Dome, played it
at you know, the hubert Ah Humphrey Metrodome up in Minnesota. Well,
if you are watching a basketball game in a football stadium,
you better be close to the four or it's just
not a great experience. They if you just want to
be around the whole thing and you just want to
commiserate with the fans, awesome. And if Nebraska makes the
(08:16):
Final Four this year, I don't care if they're playing
on the planet Neptune.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I'm probably gonna.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Go for Husker fans who went and watched the basketball
team down at the old Big Eight tournament at Camper Arena,
Kansas City. Sure, I just looked it up here because
I was curious too. Kemper. I mean, it's been obsolete
by other stadiums.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
In case.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
It is now known as High Ve Arena, and it's
basically been converted into like a ubt or Iowa Fieldhouse.
This youth sports so good Mecca down there. Good morning.
This is Nebraska's Morning News with Jim Rose, Lucy Chapman,
Craig Evans. I am Scott Voh. He's great to have
(08:55):
you with us on Nebraska's Morning News. And when you
hear this new it is usually because it is time
for a visit from Nebraska State Auditor Mike axel f
Fully back here on eleven ten kfab auditor.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Fully, good morning, Great to have you.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
With us, Thanks Scott, good to be with you. Thanks
for inviting me on.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
I have often said, no one wants to see you
walk into their office and start poking around. How was
it that you became aware and concerned of what is
now blown into a full blown Nebraska political scandal, and
that is the accusations of Governor Pillen awarding a no
bid two and a half million dollar contract to a
friend of his and they didn't follow the rules according
(09:38):
to your office.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
That's correct, That's correct, Scott. A year or so ago
we started getting phone calls because the contract had already
been let and the money was starting to flow up
to Julie Bischell, a one woman company. I lobb you,
and people started to complaining literally across the state of
getting phone calls and emails and so forth, saying, hey, Folly,
you got to get on this. Then you got to
(10:01):
check this thing out. There's something that doesn't smell right here.
And then I dug deeper and deeper into it. I agree,
there's something very much a foul when you skirt the
whole bidding requirements and give a soul source contract to
somebody on a whim, apparently without any proper bidding. I mean,
(10:23):
if you're running a public a private business, you can
do what you want with your money. You can hire
the guy down the street because you like him as
your friend, whatever. But in government, you're spending my money,
your money, the public's money, and there are bidding requirements
in the laws. Anything about sixty thousand dollars, you've got
to go off for public bid and give everybody and
their dog a chance to bid on that project. And
(10:44):
that just didn't happen here. They just skirted all of
that and said, now we're just going to give it
to this person because whatever. I don't know, I don't
know if the whatever is you did.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Well, State Auditor Mike fully this, Jim Rose, thanks for
coming on this morning.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Really appreciate it. Have there any there been any laws
broken here? Has anybody committed a criminal act here?
Speaker 5 (11:05):
Well, there's there is a criminals There is a criminal
dimension to this because the report was due to the
legislature on a particular date. Well, that date came and went,
and I went over and met with the director of
the Department's Economic development and said, hey, where's the report
and had a kind of a public look on his face.
Let me get back to lated today. Well he didn't.
(11:25):
A number of days went by, and we followed up
again and again, and finally now we know publicly because
the chief lawyer for that agency is now publicly admitted
there was no report on the due date, but they
made a filing link and then backdated the report to
make it look like it had been filed on time.
We have all the records showing when that document was created,
(11:47):
when it was actually filed, and so that's that's a
deliberate deception of the State auditier. There's a criminal statute
that says you cannot do that. So as a result,
this is all now but turned over a log four
cents out of my hands. I've had my office direct
indication with the Attorney General's office. The Attorney General's office
has publicly acknowledged that they've received this complaint and concern
(12:11):
and it's under their advice.
Speaker 3 (12:12):
Okay, so that's a misdemeanor. That individual, Casey Beelitz, was
Director of Economic Development. He's not there anymore. So what's
the problem with the Governor's office. Have they committed any violations?
They Have they broken any laws?
Speaker 5 (12:28):
Well, the law says if you're over fifty thousand dollars,
you got to go off the public bid. They say
there wasn't enough time. I fundamentally disagree, but there's a
plenty of times you have done this correctly. They could
have opened up the bid. They did not do that.
So that matters also pending in the law enforcement.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
So the governor says that we needed to do this
quickly to be able to get five and a half
billion dollars in federal grants. So let's say they had
started earlier and they'd gone through the sham of a
process by taking the bids and then awarding it to
this group. Anyway, is there any indication this group is
just sitting on the money or taking it on trips
to Barbados, or are they doing things? And are we
(13:06):
getting the federal money the governor asked, had said we
needed to do this for Well.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
The consultant who was hired didn't be work on grant projects.
There's no question about that. Question is could someone else
have done it better? Or could state employees have done
it better? In one instance, they're booking about a particular
grant says actually the state employees who did all the work,
the legwork and made the filing, and they're giving all
(13:32):
this credit to the consultants. So there's a lot of
mushy things going on here, a lot of misstatements and
so forth, and I'm very concerned about But the contractor
to research to the contractor didn't do some work for
the state. The question is who else could have done
that or was it even needed at all? Because state
employees have done that right, No, because there was no bid.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
And in this case Ms Bischell, who runs her own company,
she's a one man band, delivered approximately three hundred million
dollars in grants to the state, at least through her efforts.
But that's that's a separate Yeah, and that's a separate point, auditor. Fully,
let's get back to the breaking of the law. If
the governor authorized a bid without going through the process,
(14:15):
is that illegal?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
And what are the ramifications?
Speaker 5 (14:19):
Well, that gets into the terrif for the Attorney General.
I've referred to all of this because because I thought
there was a violation, Well, I turned it over to
his office. And now since the balls in his court
is you got to do about all of that?
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Have you talked to him?
Speaker 5 (14:34):
My office has been in direct communication with his and again,
his spokesperson has publicly acknowledged that there's been a communication
between the two offices. And in the matter of pending Well,
you're you're.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
The longtime state auditor a couple of different times, lieutenant governor,
state senator. Yeah, I'm sure you and Jim Pillen have
had a lot of face to face conversations. He didn't
just coming in there and say, all right, Mike, how
can we get this result?
Speaker 5 (14:59):
Well, I do know Jim Pillen. I respect the man.
I think he's a very good man. I think he
was receiving some very very poor advice from some of
his advisors of how we should the seat on this.
I think he was ill served by his.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Staff, and he's also provided three different answers to the question.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
And I'm sure that irritated you too.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
Well, that's that's a question to the governor his spokesperson.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
All right, State Auditor Mike Foley, thank you very much
for taking the time this morning, and we'll talk again soon.
The Democrats are convinced that Governor Pillen is going to
be led out of the state capitol and handcuffs have
to resign and shame and never be able to show
his face again. And they're also alleging, you know, oh,
this is a friend girl. They're not calling him girlfriend.
(15:49):
They're all trying the friend girl. And they're like they
were together at this event.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
And they were together at that. This guy is a
straight arrow. There's no there's no hop in the corral
for Jim Pillon. Let me say this and then you
get the rest of your time. All right, thank you, chairman.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
You bet.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
It seems that Governor Pillen is obviously bothered about this.
Why it's out of character for him to lash out
in a teletown hall across the state and start using
a phrase like libtards, as he did three times in
that and then not apologize for it. He seems out
of character, frustrated, angry. I imagine all of this, the
(16:27):
accusations against his character and that of his office, I
believe is getting to him.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Well, it could be.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Scott Jim is a Jim's an entrepreneur and as scientist.
He's not a politician and he's not an operations guy.
This is an operational failure. But it's a very very
large state with a lot of agencies, and Director of
Economic Development is one of the higher profile ones, and
they sort of swing back and forth between public policy
(16:55):
and private sector engagement.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
That's what DEED does. Well, this is a failure on
there part.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
They weren't organized, they weren't sure what they were doing,
and then they went back and tried to fix it,
which was a mistake. What they should have said is
here's what we did. We probably shouldn't have done that,
and I'm sorry, and we fixed it now. Casey Beelitz,
who is Director of Economic Development, who is responsible for this,
We're resigned late in the year, so he's not even
there anymore. They have a new person, and presumably a
(17:23):
more organized or experienced one. Case is a private sector guy.
He's not a government guy.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
I know him. He's a good guy.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
But in this case, what you don't want to do
is cover it up. The cover up is worse than
the crime here. It's a little bit like Watergate. Okay,
you come out and you say, here's what happened. We
had a chance to get a grant. We were slow
in the application process. That's on us, that's on ded.
(17:50):
So I hired somebody right away because I thought this
person can go in there and get this money for
us right now. And there's a deadline. Lawyer, there's a
deadline looming, and we need to do this now. Well,
now you can argue whether the deadline was that emergency
or not. But in this case, just come clean. Your
hand was caught in the cookie jar. Say yeah, that's
(18:10):
my hand, Yeah it was in the cookie jar. In
other words, don't ask for permission, beg for forgiveness. And
in this case, if they had just come out and said, yep,
this happened, it shouldn't have happened. If there's a reprimand
in the offing, I'll take it.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
But let's move on. But now we're all caught up
in it because the AG and the State troller.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Involved go out to the San Francisco area Levi's Stadium,
where iHeartRadio's Kurt Kretchmar has been out there this week
hanging out with see you here with the Terrell Davis
and other players, former players who are there at the
Super Bowl. Kurt, thanks a lot for doing this very
early in the morning in San Francisco. What's the scene
(18:50):
like out there this week.
Speaker 6 (18:52):
It's been a good, good crowd. I've been to a
lot of the events. Seattle's only six hours away, so
a lot of Seahawks fans drove. And what a recent
trend that I've seen is a lot of fans will
come for the week and then go home because they
can't afford the tickets to the game nor can they
find them. So it's a majority of Seattle fans, but
(19:15):
there's quite a few New England fans out here too.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, it's a lot of people are kind of like,
I don't know if this game is going to be
any good. Seattle's been kind of mulling their opponents here recently.
I'd never count out the Patriots, especially with how Drake
May their quarterback, is coming on here. What's the sense obviously,
as You mentioned a lot of Seahawks fans, but you're
also hanging out with like the Dan Patrick Show and
all that fun stuff. Are we going to have a
(19:39):
pretty good game here on Sunday?
Speaker 6 (19:42):
I really think so because of the coaching and you
have two excellent coaches that have really been battle tested.
I mean New England having to win at Denver and
the Snow and Seattle they have to beat the Rams
twice in the last month of the season, so they're
going to be battle tests. Did I really think that
(20:02):
it's going to be the typical star that's not a star,
that is this the player of the game, just like
Malcolm Butler was for the Patriots when they last played
the Seahawks. And I really am looking at the wide
receiver and kick returner for the Seahawks, Rashid Shaheed, that
can change the game with one play. Yeah, and JSN
(20:26):
obviously is a tremendous player, and Darnold's going to make
his great throws. But that long kickoff return or hevn't
forbid a touchdown from a kickoff return, that changes the
emotion of the game.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, if the Patriots are dumb enough to kick to him,
everyone healthy. There was some issue with May after his
last game here. Everyone seemed to be okay.
Speaker 6 (20:47):
Yeah, he says, he's fine.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
All right, you're there in San Francisco, our former Husker
Roger Craig. Of course, forty nine ers legend just learned
yesterday he is going into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Where are all the Roger Craig banners there in San Francisco.
You see a lot of stuff. They're celebrating number thirty
three and forty nine ers land.
Speaker 6 (21:09):
Yeah, it's all over. They had a lot of forty
nine ers events that were moderated Chris Berman and Rich
Eies and moderated ones. So you know, a lot of
the forty nine ers are shaking their fans are shaking
their heads, saying, we could have been here if we
didn't have so many injuries.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
I know, it's gotta be tough not to have that
home game. They're right there at Levi Stadium. So right now,
it's what five just after five thirty in the morning
out there. There's nothing going on out there now, right?
Or are there people like, hey, you can't drink all
day unless you start early.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
Just the crazies and the homeless people along the streets
of San Francisco.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Well, and I don't know if they're gonna have game tickets,
but yeah, I mean San Francisco. We've all been there
and it's it's certainly quite a city. But as you said,
the homeless population there year round is amazing. Did San
Francisco try and hide some of that action in their
(22:10):
town here because everyone the world is watching this weekend.
Speaker 6 (22:14):
I'm told they did clean up quite a bit in
the better parts of town and in the China Basin
where the San Francisco San Francisco Giants Stadium is, it's perfect.
It's clean along the Fisherman's Wharf. But then I'm staying
closer to downtown, and yeah, they've tried to clean it up,
but you have people screaming each other in the streets
(22:37):
and and just what you would expect, just not as
bad as it has been.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Are you just swelling clam chowder and cand Diva chocolates
or what?
Speaker 4 (22:46):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (22:47):
And sourdough bread. They have those bread bowls and they
put the clam chowder in there and it just yummy.
The food here is tremendous, especially the fish restaurants.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Yeah, you sit there at the Bay and you have
clam chowder and a bread bowl of fish restaurant, yet
you're smelling the intake of the eighty bazillion sea lions
right there. It's not exactly the most appetizing thing.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
And you got to avoid the urine, the needles, and
the defecation by the homeless.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
If you can get past all of that, it's a
great place to have lunch.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
Play. Travis was out here, who's on all of our
I Heart talk stations, and he had counted ten used
needles on the ground walking from the media center to
his hotel.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
All right, occurred to put shoes on and have a
great weekend out there at the Super Bowl.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
Thanks guys for having me on in.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
The Zonker's custom was inbox Scott atkfab dot com. We
started off this hour with Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley
the accusations against the Governor's office for awarding a contract
that should have been up forbid to an independent individual
in the biofuels industry. It was kind of up against
(24:01):
a deadline, says the Governor's office, like, yeah, we awarded
the bid to this person. Sorry if the paperwork wasn't
in order, but we needed to get billions of dollars
in federal grant and some matching funds, and time was
of the essence. State auditor Mike Foley says, yeah, I'd
have some questions about all this. Democrats, of course, saying
that the governor needs to resign and be arrested and
(24:22):
drummed out of public life forever.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
So we had that.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Conversation, a couple of different assessments from you here in
the inbox. Joe says our auditor as a complete goober.
The world is ending after listening to him as an outsider,
sounds like much ado about nothing. But the Democrats are
scare mongering as usual. That's Joe's assessment. Dan listened to
the exact same interview and says, you guys, notably Rosy,
(24:48):
seem more upset at fully for reporting now I'm not
then with the actual infraction. Time to put the big
boy pants on and grow up now.
Speaker 4 (24:55):
I look.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
I think that the governor was the governor's office was sloppy.
Think that the Director of Economic Development, who I consider
a friend. He is a private sector guy, and private
sector people struggle with government regulations. When you take a
private sector guy and put him in a government job.
There is a big learning curve because their whole world
has been about, Okay, what's the job, go do it.
(25:17):
But when you get into government, you have procedures and
policies and laws that need to be followed, and most
people don't know them. Casey Ballet's not a bad guy,
but chances are he was focused on something else. His
department was focused on something else, and suddenly this deadline
came up, and he went to the governor said, Gov,
we got to get somebody out there to get this
three hundred million dollars.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Well, we got to go through a bid process. Let's
forget let's let's forget about that right now, Let's get him.
Who's gonna make us do that?
Speaker 4 (25:45):
All right?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Well, this is the point, and Mike fully will.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
And you know, Bob Carey went through the same thing
when he was governor and he hated it because he
ran a business like business people, and business people don't
get caught up in red tape, procedure and steps. They
just go get the job done. In other words, they
don't ask for permission, They beg for forgiveness. Well, Jim
Pillen's attitude about the government is the same way what's
(26:10):
the best, most efficient way to get the job done?
Forget about laws and procedures and policies. What's the best
way to get it done?
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Now?
Speaker 3 (26:17):
This lady, Okay, Julie Bushell is a very capable person.
She is really good, she's really smart, and she knows
the bio energy sphere better than most. And so who better. Now,
I don't know about two point five million, but who
better to go get three hundred million at the time
than her?
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Right, It could have gone through the process and gone
right back to her anyway, and no one would have
said anything.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Probably would have won the gig.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
I'll just say this, Dan, you know, putting my big
boy pants on and growing up is not my strong suit,
and I appreciate the advice. We now welcome on our
White House correspondent John Decker here back to Nebraska is
Morning News to discuss something called Trump r X. It's
a website. It's the thing, John explained, Pane. What is
Trump our X.
Speaker 7 (27:02):
Yeah, TRUMPARX dot gov. That's the website that we're talking about.
The President rolling it out last night. I was in
the Eisenhower Old Executive Office Building with President Trump with
doctor Os when they rolled out this new website. Right now,
there are about forty drugs that are covered by this
website in which the prices is offered on the website
(27:26):
are lower than what you typically would be able to
get if you were to try to get those drugs
on your own, and so you can't purchase it through
the website.
Speaker 6 (27:36):
Instead.
Speaker 7 (27:37):
What the website does is it you'd enterre to see
whether your drug is covered first and foremost, and if
it is, you can get a coupon. You take that
coupon to where it is that you fill your prescriptions,
your pharmacy, and that's how the whole process works. The
White House says there will be more drugs added to
the lists beyond this first forty, but this is something
(27:58):
that certainly tackles that issue, that big issue of affordability,
and I think that's certainly what the administration is chouting
right now.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Yeah, let's look at something that a lot of people
either use or have certainly heard of, ozempic. If you
go through your insurance, that can certainly cost you hundreds,
if not over one thousand dollars a month. But sample
prices at trumparx dot gov include ozempics starting at just
one ninety nine a month. Now, I'm wondering, John, why
(28:26):
would the the drug makers want to do that. Wouldn't
they want to force you towards using your insurance to
get more money? But at the same time, long question. Sorry,
sometimes the insurance reimbursement rates aren't very good. So do
do the drug companies want to be a part of
all this?
Speaker 7 (28:44):
Well, the President is essentially forcing these various pharmaceutical companies
to be a part of this process. You know, you
had threatened them with applying tariffs because a significant percentage
of the drugs that they manufacture are actually manufactured outside
the US. So they've agreed to lower the price of
(29:06):
these particular pharmaceuticals to the point where they are the
lowest in the world. And as you know, there are
often drugs where you could purchase them for a lot
cheaper in various countries around the world if you traveled
up to Canada or traveled down New Mexico. The idea
here is to make it so that if you're purchasing
(29:27):
these particular drugs, these forty drugs, you're going to get
the lowest price available anywhere in the world from these
pharmaceutical companies.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Right, But I'm still paying my premium. So I go
outside my insurance. I paid directly to the drug maker.
I get a discount, but I'm still paying my premium.
Speaker 7 (29:42):
Well, you are still paying your premium still, Like you know.
I look, I'm not here advocating on behalf of the administration.
That's not my job. As you know, I'm just telling
you how this process works, and we'll see whether you know,
it's something that's embraced by those who certainly are looking
the lower costs related to the pharmaceuticals that they need
(30:03):
to sometimes have on a daily basis.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I hope you got at least thirty seconds to tell
me what it was like to be there at the
National Prayer Breakfast yesterday as President Trump went on for
well over an hour is cracking jokes, calling out people
with whom he disagreed at the prayer breakfast, What was
the attitude in the room like during the President's speech yesterday.
Speaker 7 (30:21):
You know, I'm glad you asked me that question. I
was in Washington, Hilton for the Prayer breakfast, and you know,
I like to read the room, you know, and there
were people there that were maggot, you know, and they
were you know, laughing along with the president. But the
vast majority of people in that room, And I was
looking in the room, and I'm giving you my honest assessment.
They are people for whom religion, their belief in God
(30:48):
is so important. And I could tell they were bothered
by the President going down that road at the National
Prayer Breakfast of all places. So that was my read.
I'm not saying that was every in the room, but
that was the vast majority of people. And by the way,
that room can hold approximately twenty five hundred people. As
you've never been to the Washington Hill, it is a
(31:08):
massive ballroom.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, I wondered if that was the case. John, great
reporting as always. I'll let you get back to tagging
along with the president. Thank you very much for the
time today.
Speaker 7 (31:18):
Thank you thanks for having me on today. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
That is news Radio eleven ten kfab White House correspondent
John Decker here on Nebraska's Morning News. I just you
could hear sphincters tightening as the President is like and
let me tell you about these Democrats.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
If you love God, I don't know why you'd vote
for Democrats.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
Here today, we're trying to be more friendly and it's
the prayer breakfast for crying out.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
You can accuse democrats of being anarchists, you can accuse
them of being not bright, you can accuse them of
suffering from the effects of excessive medication.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
But let's stay away from whether or not they believe
in God. How about that.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
But when you have the president speak at your event,
doesn't matter what the event is, you're gonna get the
same guy.
Speaker 3 (31:59):
Can kind of see why Jim Pillon and Donald Trump
are such good friends.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
It's not a lot of polish there. I really don't
care what other people think of it. Scott atkfab dot
com and here in the Zonker's custom was inbox. The
email on signed says, I think you guys need to
broadcast to a segment of your audience that there are
reports there will be ice all over rivers today, possibly
causing damage, causing people to flee their properties. They should
(32:26):
meet along local rivers to demonstrate their opposition to this situation.
Yes they well, yes, that crowd, and thank you for
that email. I am fluent in sarcasm. They love the
idea of ice dams. That's what they've been trying to do.
Ice dams, ice jams. They love all of that. I
don't know if an ice jam is where you go
(32:46):
out there and obstruct ice or if it is a
like a dance party where a lot of members of
ICE are dancing an ice jam. You don't have to
answer that, Lucy, I can see the I can see
the scorn on your face quite frankly.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
No, an ice jam, I don't know where they are
they break dancing?
Speaker 8 (33:04):
Is that how they're breaking up the ice?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
That's how I'd like to envision it. An ice jam
is they gotta blow off some steam once in a while.
They can't sleep, megaphones their hotels all night, and they
can't do their jobs, and these guys gotta be tired
and wiped out, and I feel unappreciate it. Every once
in a while they got to get together for an
ice jam. Listen to ice ice Baby, Greg says, what
(33:27):
do you want to bet? A lot of people won't
use Trump RX, even if they could save money, simply
because it has the name Trump on it. Oh yeah,
same thing with the Trump accounts for your Trump babies. Hey, hey,
we're giving your kid one thousand dollars. Great, I'll take it.
What's it called it's called the Trump account. No thanks
Scott at kfab dot com. In the Zonker's custom was inbox.
(33:50):
The cap email says, you guys are always saying I
miss Gary. Some of us are saying it.
Speaker 8 (33:56):
I've never scary, I've never said it I miss Gary.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
There's a lot of people say that, not a lot
of people saying miss Gary. So the captain says, why
don't you guys just play old saddle Meyer recordings and
simply say Gary is back from retirement. All right, let's
go to the archives here and here's Gary Saddlemayer recording
from a long time ago.
Speaker 9 (34:17):
Baby's Morning News. Great to have you here on this
Friday morning. Greg Wagner coming up. How's that.
Speaker 4 (34:26):
Morning news?
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Yeah, well we.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Had to change something Gary. Everything we do here is
designed to upset.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
You as you listen to.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
The radio throughout the morning and send us text messages.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Then we relay on the air, but then add sauce,
how you doing?
Speaker 4 (34:42):
How you doing it? But I'm very ticked off?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
What else is new?
Speaker 4 (34:48):
Awesome?
Speaker 9 (34:49):
Jerk got into my bank account again, which a couple
of years ago.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Now, which of your kids hack?
Speaker 4 (34:57):
Hack?
Speaker 9 (34:57):
So the reason I'm here is because I need to
get into the you need some money, Yeah, thank you guys. Yeah,
I need to get into our corporate widget, which I
can't do from home, to change the change the settings
for deposits, and it's just see here. It is a
(35:18):
royal pain.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Yeah here, I thought you came in here to stop
by and see us.
Speaker 9 (35:22):
Well, uh, all right, but I've been listening every morning.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah, we know by the texts. So what do you
think of this pilling business.
Speaker 9 (35:30):
It's not good, man, this is not this is not good.
This is I don't know how much trouble the governor
is in legally. I mean I heard fully on with
you guys earlier. However, thanks for listening. Perception wise, I
think it's a very.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Bad look, especially an election year.
Speaker 9 (35:49):
Yeah, I don't think the libtard thing was good. I
agree with you, Jim rarely, but I do that's in
a while. He could have handled both of these things
in the aftermath much better instead of being defiant about everything.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Right, Well, Bob Carey is the last He's the last
businessman to be governor.
Speaker 9 (36:08):
Because he is a good executive and a very smart guy,
as we know. Yeah, but you know he's a little
bit like Trump, you know, unforced errors.
Speaker 4 (36:18):
I suppose you could say.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
Yeah again, you know, this is the first farmer we've
had elected governor since the thirties.
Speaker 4 (36:25):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
And these guys operate as independent contractors and they do
things the way they want it done, on their time,
and they don't have a lot of tolerance for procedure,
process or other people. And that's one of the reasons
for their success. But it also gets you in trouble
when you're in the government.
Speaker 9 (36:44):
Oh yeah, if you have run something as either an
owner or CEO or whatever in a private sector, as
you say it's just we're going to do this, now
go do it. It's a completely different ballgame. And it
drove Trump absolutely crazy his first term because he made, well,
he made a couple of mistakes. One of them was
assuming that everybody in the administration was on his team instead.
Speaker 4 (37:06):
Of trying to undermine him.
Speaker 9 (37:08):
But the other one was assuming that you can just
go go do stuff.
Speaker 4 (37:11):
He still does that.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
But now you guys all that you guys have known
Jim Pillen going back a ways, you know, from since
he was as a player on the Nebraska football team,
and then certainly as a businessman as a regent. Now
as the governor, I'm looking at things like you mentioned Gary,
the the libtard comment and the it wasn't something that
(37:33):
it was behind the scenes, and an open mic picked
it up. It was on his tele town hall to
the state of Nebraska anyone could listen to, and he
made a point of saying it three times. And I'm
wondering if some of the stuff here, the accusations not
just of impropriety when it comes to this no big
contract which might be a paperwork dispute, but of course
(37:54):
the Democrats and detractors are trying to frame it as
and he's cheating on his wife, this woman. I think
that it's it's all really bothering him, and it seems
out of character for some of the things that we're
seeing and hearing from the governor right now.
Speaker 9 (38:10):
Well, if you if you take your perceptions from what
political opponents say, particularly about a conservative, you ought to
check yourself because there if you have any evidence stuff
like that, then let's see it. The fact that she
is a woman and that their friend, you know, they
were seen together. Well, how many times have you been
seen together with somebody who you're not married? To because
(38:33):
of whatever a meeting or a social situation or whatever.
I don't put from what I know of Jim Pillen
and not close personally, but I've known him as you
guys have for a long time.
Speaker 4 (38:44):
That's not Jim Pillen. No, he's not Jim Pillen. This
is but they try to frame it that, you know
he was seen with her well.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Because it's an election year and she is attractive, but
she's married to oh judge, so that just that that
thing is just that's crazy tinfoil hat stuff.
Speaker 2 (38:59):
But he is. He's a take.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Charge guy, and he's a singular focused guy. He's not
political and even though he served on the Board of Regents,
that's not the same. So he's sort of learning on
the job. And much like Trump and Bob Carrey did,
you can't just say whatever pops into your head without
getting backwashed. And that's the libtard comments. That's the stuff
(39:25):
about snap benefits. Remember that from last summer, that fight
that he had with the Asian reporter from Flatwater Free Press.
Pick your spots. He's made big promises about property taxes
that have not come through, and he's not made good
on the promises. And that's the stuff tacked onto this
stuff that makes for TV commercials.
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Gary, who do you like on Sunday Seahawks Patriots or
bad Bunny? What do you most?
Speaker 9 (39:55):
I'm torn about watching that show, that halftime show.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
I have to know, well, I know.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
The way that it's that conservatives say it is just
gonna be out there, just you know, shooting ice agents
and uh and slapping white people and.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Well he's doing in Spanish, I won't be able to
understand him. Run President.
Speaker 9 (40:14):
I suspect Seattle will when I picked New England some
weeks ago to win the whole thing.
Speaker 4 (40:21):
So I think it's going to be an awesome game.
Speaker 2 (40:24):
The hope, So I hope.
Speaker 4 (40:26):
I mean, I love Drake May, that young guy. Wow.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
I always hope the game is so good that we
don't spend a lot of time the next day talking
about the halftime show, the commercials and all that stuff.
Speaker 9 (40:36):
But well, it's interesting too with Sam Darnold. The Vikings
had him last year and they had won fourteen games
and they're on the verge of the best record in
the NFL, and then he swallowed the olive and two
consecutive games, the big ones at the end, uh to
the Detroit, and then the Rams and and uh and
so goodbye, goodbye Sam. And now he's not choking, he's
(40:58):
playing great.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
He swallowed the olive. Gary.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
Actually that is a reminder that that remark was actually
made by Lyle on the air once.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Wow, this is why this and only this is why
we missed you, Gary. Thanks, thank you so much for
popping it. Gary.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Gee.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Folks not familiar with nineteen sixties rhetoric, that's drinking a martini.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
All right, let's choking. We'll bring Greg Wagner into this.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Bow from Nebraska game in Parks here on news radio
eleven ten kfa B. Greg Wagner, if anyone had listened
to you week to week here, they'd think that they
had gone into a coma and missed several months. It was, hey,
don't stay, don't go out on the ice, no ice fishing.
(41:48):
And then and then seven days later, hey, we can
go ice. We have ice, nice ice, maybe totally fine.
And now one week later I wouldn't go out on
the ice. Welcome to Nebraska. And that was a tough winter,
wasn't it. So glad it's over.
Speaker 8 (42:02):
It's weird. Yeah, is this spring? What's the calendar? Saying, no, not.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Yet, I know, not even close. No.
Speaker 8 (42:08):
Sixty seven Monday, you said, Scotty.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Groundhogs said, I know the groundhogs had six more weeks
of winter. He didn't say when that would start.
Speaker 8 (42:15):
Our grown hogs, we mainly are still sleeping.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
We might still get it, obviously for fishing, if someone
wanted to try and do that.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Right now, what are we looking at? Well, we still have.
Speaker 8 (42:25):
Believe it or not, some ice. But I'm telling you
the ice fishing season as rapidly deteriorating as the ice
is extreme caution. You got to really know that particular
body water. We got water sitting on top of the ice, shoreline,
melting water around docks, rocks, stumps that radiate heat. I'm
I'm calling this one. I think we're I think we're done.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
The possibility of flooding there on the Platte, the Elkhorn,
the Loop.
Speaker 8 (42:52):
I told Craig Evans this, Only when we get into
early next week will we have still that potential for
flooding and probably the potential for wildfire.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
All right, tell me about the potential for hunting this weekend,
shed antlers.
Speaker 8 (43:08):
It's the time of year where we have a lot
of our hunters, the conventional hunters, they like to go
out and look for shed antlers. In early February is
the start of deer drop on their antlers for regrowth purposes.
It's turned into kind of a big deal. It's an
outdoor scavenger hunt. And uh it's it's great. It's a
good time. Be careful going along these rivers because you're
(43:29):
gonna have to note the flood watches and warnings and
all that.
Speaker 2 (43:32):
What's happening this weekend at the state parks.
Speaker 8 (43:35):
Man be in a state park, get outside, go outdoors. Hey, God,
Gary Saddle, there's an outdoor guy.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Look at him, was right there, he's he's that draft.
Speaker 8 (43:46):
I mean, he's in and out.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
There's food in the studio up and Wanders brought that
over for my birthday and nobody's eating it. All right,
you belated by you were saying the state parks, state parks,
get out there and enjoy. Grounds are all open. You're
gonna bring your own water.
Speaker 8 (44:05):
In our water shut down of course it's still winter,
and have your current state park permit. You can buy
it online, printed off and in rock and roll and
go if you want to.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
What's on the outdoor bulletin board.
Speaker 8 (44:16):
I'm you know, I have a lot of people saying,
what are the owls doing? I hear owls in the woods.
I've heard them at Fatina Forest.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
I've heard them all one in my neighborhood the other day.
Speaker 8 (44:26):
Really, there you go. They are in their nesting period
and they're protecting their breeding territory.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
They're hooting, so don't bother them.
Speaker 8 (44:36):
Well, they won't hurt you, they won't.
Speaker 7 (44:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (44:38):
Okay, So we've got that and a lot of people
seeing wild turkeys as they spend more time enjoying the
mild weather in longer days and everything else. And still
have a lot of bald eagles in Kenada geese around
as well.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
Awesome, as are you, Greg? Thank you very much
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