Talkline | August 4, 2025

Cabell County Senator Mike Woelfel says legislators need to start working together. WVU Medicine President & CEO Albert Wright joins the show. Brad McElhinny discusses the financial issues for GreenPower Motors. And Joe Brocato talks the start of High School Football. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:21):
I hope you had a great weekend. I hope your
week is off to a great starts. Metro News talk
Line is underway.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
You are surrounded.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Radio turned off from the studios of w v r
C Media and the Metro News Radio and Television Network.
The Voice of West Virginia comes the most powerful show
in West Virginia. This is Metro News talk Line with
Dave Wilson and d J. Meadows.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
So it's network control from Charles round the Blood.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Stand by you, David, DJ, You're on Metronews. Talk Line
is presented by Encova Insurance, encircling you with coverage to
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to learn more.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Welcome inside the Encoba Insurance studios. Dave Wilson of Morgantown, TJ.
Meadows is in Charleston. Jakelink is handling the video stream,
and Sophia Wasik is our audio producer today. Multiple ways
for you to be part of the program. Give us
a call eight hundred and seven to sixty five Talk
eight hundred seven sixty five eight two five five. That

(01:39):
is the phone number. You can text the show at
three oh four Talk three oh four coming up. We'll
talk to Mineral County Commission President Dutch Stags. A huge
response over the weekend when a fire broke out at
a healthcare facility and over one hundred residents had to
be evacuated. We'll talk to Stags about that up bottom

(02:00):
of the hour a little bit later on, but right
w Medicine President and CEO will join us, and Brad
McIlhenny will stop by later. It's been a while since
we've chatted with Brad. He'll join us in the second hour,
But first say good morning to mister TJ. Meadows from
the Charleston Fortifications on Virginia Street.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
Good morning, and a good morning to you, mister Wilson.
I had a chance to finally watch Happy Gilmour too
over the weekend. Yea good slapstick, funny, nostalgic. Probably not
everybody's bag, but I enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah, it was good. It was good.

Speaker 5 (02:32):
It was I mean, the cameos are great.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
There were a lot of them.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
Somebody tell me seventy five. I didn't keep count when
I watched, but it was.

Speaker 5 (02:40):
It was up there.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
There were a lot of a couple of subtle ones
in there working in rom Schneider. There was a callback
to The water Boy. If you caught it in there,
there were a couple of subtle you had to the
The online sleuths pointed out that one of his co
stars from Oh I'm totally blanking anyway, one of the

(03:04):
co stars that actually played a son of his in
a movie Who's Passed Away, was on a screen of
another movie that the characters were watching in it, So
some some subtleties in there as well.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
I thought Scotty Scheffler was fabulous. I mean, that is
a grade Hollywood caliber material right there from Scotty Scheffler.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Not to spoil it. John Daly stole the show.

Speaker 5 (03:26):
Oh he did. He did wonderful as well.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
Daily stole that movie. He was hilarious. But I digress.
Three or four Talk three or four is the tax
line eight hundred and seven six five eighty two five
five the phone number. Joining us on Metro News talk
Line this morning, got a variety of topics to bring
up with Cabal County Senator one or two Democrats in
the state. Senate Mike Wolffel joins us this morning.

Speaker 6 (03:48):
Mike, good morning, Hey, good morning guys.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Did you watch since we brought it up? Have you.
Are you a happy Gilmore kind of guy.

Speaker 6 (03:59):
Not a golf person.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Really, not a golf guy.

Speaker 6 (04:04):
I don't have the patience for golf.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Oh, I understand. I understand completely when it comes to that. Mike, well,
glad you could join us this morning again Caple County Center.
Mike Wolfe joining us here on Metro News talk line. Mike,
it's it's been a while since the legislator completed the session.
You got several months to go before you get back
into session. What has been keeping keeping your time over

(04:27):
the last few months.

Speaker 6 (04:29):
Well, my son and I practice law, and we've been
we've been fairly busy doing that. But you know, I
looked at the budget, the budget reconciliation bill that the
Congress passed about three weeks ago. We all know about that,
and it occurred to me that our budget here in
West Virginia is funded around I don't know, forty five

(04:52):
percent of our money comes from the federal government. So
I'm wondering how this will impact our state in terms
of oral health care, access to healthcare for people, food insecurity,
healthcare jobs. So I sort of reflected back on the

(05:14):
last session that we had in Charleston and felt like
we wasted about I mean sixty seventy percent of our
time was I think cultural issues that had carried over
from the previous election. You know what I mean that
you saw in the commercials that we all know what

(05:34):
these topics are. I don't need to go into them,
but it just seemed to me that we missed the
mark and we failed to address some real fundamental, I
mean crisis level issues that we have. And a friend
of mine mentioned a slogan of President former President Warrang G. Hardy,

(05:54):
which is returned to normalcy, which is what we need
to do. We need to get back to the basics
working together. You know, not only do you have the
political rivalries I guess between the Dems and the RS.
You guys know very well that there are plenty of

(06:14):
factions in that legislature among Republicans that slow things down
and create division. I've got a quick urgent what I
feel are urgent issues that I can list, but that's
what I've been thinking about.

Speaker 4 (06:34):
Well, before you get into those issues, I want to
ask you. We had Secretary of Nelson on the show
on Friday. He talked about a three hundred and thirty
eight million dollar surplus that the state has after closing
out the last fiscal gear.

Speaker 5 (06:47):
What do you think we should do with that money?

Speaker 6 (06:48):
Mike, Well, some of that money will have to go
to public defender services that was deferred. There are other
places that it's already sort of allocated.

Speaker 7 (07:00):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (07:00):
The governor is going to bring us in for addressing uh,
you know, healthcare costs in the context of PEI. So
those I think those those moneies will be gobbled up
fairly quickly. But I'm glad that we do have a surplus.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
Capital County Senator Mike Wolfeld joining us here on Metro
News talk line. You mentioned what you think are crisis
level issues. What are those issues?

Speaker 6 (07:25):
Mike, Well, I'll make a uh make it short and sweet.
Home utility bills, power bills. I mean, we're rising faster
than any state in the country. You know, we're an
energy state, and it's just crushing our people, middle class
people for people. So you know, I had a bill

(07:46):
to elect the Public Service commissioners because they're not accountable
to the people. Uh, they're appointed by the governor. That
went nowhere. Our labor participation rate as of May over
the last twelve months May to May twenty four to
twenty five dropped again. We're dead last in the country

(08:06):
in labor participation. We have six thousand kids who do
no fault of their own, are god knows where in
our foster care system. Are they in hotels? I mean
where are they and who are they living with? We've
got energy job losses that you guys have recounted that

(08:26):
have popped out here in the last few months, a
drug epidemic. And finally, where are we going to get
two hundred and eighty million dollars for the Hope Scholarship.
That's going to be fully funded. And the Hope Scholarship
is not going away, in fact, I think it'll be increased.
But the number I keep hearing around the capital two

(08:48):
hundred and eighty million dollars. So where are we going
to get that money? So I really think it's time
for us to go back to business, back to basics.
It starts with the governor, stay to the state. It
goes to leadership involves everybody. I mean, we have elected
officials that work in that state House. I'm speaking to

(09:10):
all of us. There's a lot of smart people there,
there's a lot of dedicated people there. I think if
we work together and put these ten Commandments to the
side for a while, you know, and issues like that
the people want us to solve their problems.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
Should we take some of that three hundred and thirty
eight million in pre fund hope? That was something Secretary
Nelson mentioned on Friday. Your thoughts on that.

Speaker 6 (09:35):
Yeah, again, some of that. I mean, I'm not an
expert in the budget. I don't know how you prefund
it without a vote of the legislature, but procedurally, I mean,
but you know, some of that money is already already
account accounted for. I know, quite a bit of it.
It's got to go into public defender services. And you know, uh,

(10:01):
you know that's a great idea too. We're going to
have to find that money somewhere, so you know, to
the extent it's not allocated, that's fine. But what about
pei A, what about the healthcare costs that are crippling
our state employees' ability? I mean, they just are they're
eating their paychecks.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Mike Wilfell joining us, a Democrat senator from Cabull County. Uh, Mike,
I look at that list as I was jotting it down.
Is there. It seems like it would be a process
to tackle any one of those issues. I can't imagine
there's one magic bullet bill that could fix the foster

(10:41):
care system or can get people to go to work,
the people who are you know, able and eligible that
that labor participation rate. So to what extent does the
state government need to step in to come up with
something to address these issues you've identified?

Speaker 6 (10:59):
Well, again, we have we have one hundred and thirty
four people elected to the legislature you know that are
dedicated generally, almost all very dedicated, smart people, And so
roll up our sleeves and quit play it. You know,
we've got to stop trying to get elected for the

(11:21):
next cycle. I mean, face it, these cultural issues come
up because they're trying to gin up maybe donations or
you know, funding the next campaign. I'll tell you what
if we if we don't, if we don't get our
act together, I'm going to have a bill that will
put on the ballot next year twenty twenty six, a

(11:44):
referendum for the constitution to impose term limits on the legislature.
It's time for that. I've always had a bill for that.
I'll introduce a bill. But I mean, really, the average
people that I speak to in Cavil and Wayne Counties
expect us to work together and not not just you know,
not just be disagreeable with one another and push these

(12:07):
issues down the road. I think we can solve Sure,
we can't solve them all at one time, but you
solve it by taking a bite and then you take
another bite. You work together. That's what we're expected to do,
and we haven't been doing that. As those factions you
know who they are in the Senate and in the House.
I mean, they like Democrats better than they like some

(12:28):
of the other Republicans right.

Speaker 4 (12:32):
Talk to me about utility bills. You mentioned that, Look,
we all want lower utility bills, all of us. You
talked about electing PSC members as opposed to appointing them.
I'm only familiar with one state that does that, I know, Louisiana.
Does it Do you see in your research? Do you
see lower utility rates in states that elect PSC as

(12:54):
opposed to a point.

Speaker 6 (12:56):
I've always supported Cole because I'm a southern West Virginia guy.
But coal is being subsidized by the power companies, and
that's just the way it is. We're going to coal
when we were going to we're subsidizing coal and that's
raising power raise That's just those are That's a fact.

(13:16):
Would you agree with that? PJ Or at least went
a weigh in on that that comment. I may.

Speaker 5 (13:22):
Well.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
I think personally, when you take a look at some
of the legislation that went through the legislature last year,
I don't think it passed that would do away with
the premise of of economic dispatch.

Speaker 5 (13:34):
I think you can make an argument you favor one
commodity over another. That's me personally, and.

Speaker 6 (13:38):
That's coal being favored over other commodities, right, if that
were correct.

Speaker 5 (13:45):
But do you think the PSC can do away with that?

Speaker 4 (13:47):
But I mean, that's a legislative function that went through
last year largely.

Speaker 5 (13:53):
I don't know he would bind the.

Speaker 6 (13:56):
Man. I'm not an expert in much of anything. I
can tell you how to defend the three to two defense,
or you know, I can take to talk about basketball. Okay,
I can tell you how to attack it. But I'm
not an expert. I'm not a know at all. I
don't have all these answers, but I can recognize you
know the issues, and I can tell you if you

(14:17):
walk and talk to your neighbors at the grocery store.
They're fired up about the utility bills, which you're eating
up their paychecks. So whatever the answers are, let's get
one hundred and thirty four people with the governor's leadership
and let's get after it.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
Mike, I think I think I agree with you. I
think I have to think about it for a minute
or two, but thank you well. To your point is, people, look,
we can do the hot button issues and they'll generate
a ton of text messages on this program. They will.
Uh maybe it's the donation dollars. Maybe it's all the

(14:56):
fact that politics is national down instead of you know,
local up these days. But I think there is a
I do believe there's a pretty close consensus idea that
you all are expected to at least work together to
deal with these everyday problems that people have, whether it's
utility bills, whether it's healthcare cost, whether it's you know,

(15:18):
trying to figure out how we get people into the
labor force. Now, there can be disagreements on how to
address those issues, but if you're working on those things,
I think that that counts for something, and that's what
people expect.

Speaker 6 (15:33):
Go back twenty two years, and you say, okay, eleven
of those years we're Democrats leading the state. Eleven of
those years Republicans leading the state. There's no reason to
put point fingers and blame. Okay, we were forty eight,
forty nine, fiftieth in most good things and first, second,
or third in most bad things consistently throughout that period,

(15:54):
because we still are today. So don't blame people.

Speaker 5 (16:00):
Together, Mike.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Mike Wolfville joining US Cable County Senator. Well, Mike, we'll
see what you got. Four months, five months until the
legislature gets back to work. Well, we'll see how county today. Mike.

Speaker 6 (16:19):
We appreciate it, buddy, Thank you, Thank you, guys, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
Mike Lawful, Cable County State Senator, joining us Heerio Metro
News talk Line. We have more as we continue from
the en Cove Insurance Studios.

Speaker 8 (16:30):
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Visit Encova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
Three or four talk three oh four is the text line.
Eight hundred and seven sixty five eight two five five
UH is the phone number tax line. So as I
pulled up here three or four talk three or four.
Why do we say we have a three hundred and
thirty eight million dollar budget surplus when so many unfunded
and underfunded projects that Mike Wolfel just listed, well, we

(18:16):
had more money coming in than we expected to go out.
That's a surplus. Now most of that are a large
portion of it has already spoken for. As they say,
three or four talk three oh four. Why has the
labor participation rate gone down and utility costs gone up?
Who has been in charge for the past ten years?
Crime oar Republicans, you all support a fascist movement. At

(18:36):
least Dave and TJ will keep carrying your bags. Says
the text. Well, like what Mike Wolfel said, go back
twenty two years, and it's not a lot's changed. He's
got a point there. Not a lot has changed. And
I will say with the labor participation rate going down,
it's the same problems we've always been fighting with the

(18:57):
labor participation rate, whether it's it's simply jobs in certain
parts of the state, the drug epidemic is. We're still
I think in the beginning stages of really feeling the
impacts of that from the last you know, fifteen twenty years,
so that all factors in that would all factor in.

Speaker 4 (19:15):
We're old and we've lost population pretty bluntly, I don't
you know that has an effect on utility rates. Look,
I get Mike's point that bill that ran through last
year that somewhat mitigated economic dispatch. I talked about it, Davey. Remember,
I didn't like it. I think it favored one commodity
over the other. With that said, I don't care who's

(19:35):
in the governor's mansion, I don't care who's in the
state house. Commodities like they are what they are, And
I don't know that any administration on a state level
can do anything about utility prices.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
Should they try. So they try to do something.

Speaker 4 (19:54):
The only thing you can do is maybe pass a
law to say that the utility can only earn further
cap or return. Right, say they could earn five or
six percent. But then what that's going to do. Bond
prices are going to go up. Bond costs are going
to go up for utilities. Utilities aren't going to want
to invest there when they can invest in operating companies
that have a ten percent return. I mean it's a
function of, again, we don't have enough people to afford

(20:14):
the infrastructure that you need to be able to create
a sewer system, a water system, an electric system in
a state like this. It all comes back to what
we talk about all the time. Population no silver bullet.
To your point, very hard, can you try?

Speaker 5 (20:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (20:30):
But if you if you do that, you're going to
see people de invest. In my humble opinion, companies de invest.
They won't want to put more money because capital is
going to go where you can get a better return.
That's all fair and accurate, and I hear you. But
to Mike's points, I get no choice and who provides
my electricity. I get no choice in who provides my gas.
And if they come back and say it's going up

(20:51):
twelve bucks a month, it's going up twelve bucks a month.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
The only thing I can do is turn the thermostat down.

Speaker 4 (20:56):
You can deregulate the market on the commodity side, but again,
in my humble opinion, West Virginia is not a big
enough market than any marketer of electricity or natural gas
is going to want to come in here and do business.
But you could do that. There's an argument out there
to deregulate the energy market. You heard charlel Line last week,
though she fled out said we're not gonna.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
Do that, right three ou four talk three or four
is the text line eight hundred seven to sixty five
Talk eight hundred seven to sixty five eight two five
five Coming up. A fire broke out at a healthcare
facility in Mineral County over the weekend. More than one
hundred around one hundred residents had to be moved. Huge
community response. We'll tell you about that coming up other
side of the break and later on Albert Wright w

(21:36):
Medicine President COEO will join us as well. I hope
you're having a great Monday. This is talk Line on
Metro News, the Voice of West Virginia. It is ten
thirty times to get a news update. Let's check in
with the Metro News radio network. Find out what's happening
across the great state of West Virginia.

Speaker 11 (21:54):
West Virginia Metro News eyeing Jeff Jenkins and investigation continues
in Marshall County after four people died in a wreck
sometime during the last few days. All four, two men
and two women, all in their eighties, were from the Buffalo,
New York area, and they were on their way to
the Hari Krishner Compound in Marshall County at the Golden Palace.

(22:15):
They were set to visit there, but they weren't heard
from for a few days and their wreck vehicle was
found late Saturday night off of Big Wheeling Creek Road,
and investigation into that crash is underway. You can read
more at wv metronews dot com. The Maryland State Police
Aviation Command says it was called into action over the
weekend in West Virginia. It rescued a hiker on Seneca

(22:35):
Rocks who had fallen in a remote area. The fallen
climber was rescued by an aerial hoist by a crew
out of Cumberland, Maryland. No word on the extent of
the hikers injuries. That hiker was taken to Ruby Memorial
Hospital in Morgantown for treatment. Tomorrow night, police officers will
be spending time in communities as part of the annual
National Night Out. Several state cities and towns have events scheduled.
Harrison County Sheriff's departments planning a block party. Chief Deputy

(22:58):
Rob Waybright says that they have big plans.

Speaker 6 (23:00):
We're going to have a bunch of giveaways.

Speaker 12 (23:02):
We have some bicycles that were donated this year that
we're going to give away.

Speaker 6 (23:06):
We'll have music, food, a lot of things for the kids.

Speaker 11 (23:10):
The party starts at six tomorrow evening at six h
nine West Main Street. And if you live in one
of those communities, you're likely going to have some fun too.
Six to eight tomorrow night, you're listening to Metro News,
the voice of West Virginia.

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(24:15):
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Speaker 11 (24:22):
Electric bus maker green Power, which has a plan in
South Charleston, is scheduled to update its investors on the
company's finances later today. A call is scheduled for late afternoon.
Metro News and other news organizations have reported about Greenpower's
financial issues. The company had to do some major cutback
of workers at that South Charleston operation in recent months. Today,

(24:43):
across this state lots of sunshine, another pretty comfortable day,
temperatures getting into the low eighties. From the Metro News
anchor desk, I'm Jeff Jenkins.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Later Metro New Sports Joe Braccato will join us. Today
is the first official day of high school football practice
across West Virginia. Not just that, but all fall sports
getting started. To dig Joe bro is touring the states
taking in football camps, and we'll catch up with Joe
coming up in the second hour of the program. Over

(25:37):
the weekend, About one hundred residents had to be evacuated
from Kaiser Healthcare Center on Saturday nights when a reported
When a fire was reported, there was a huge response.
Reports indicate three residents had to be hospitalized for smoking elation,
the remaining had to be evacuated. Mineral County Commissioner Dutch
Staggs praise the work of the entire Kaiser community. He

(26:00):
said on Facebook, what a coordinated effort to move over
one hundred patients out of the nursing home, with most
going to Kaiser at fire station number two. Wow and
all caps and exclamation marks. Joining us on Metro News
talk Line this morning is the Mineral County Commissioner Dutch
Stags Dutch, good morning, Glad you could join us. Dutch

(26:23):
you there, tell you what I think. We've got a
bad phone connection, Sophia. Try to reconnect with him and
we will catch up with boy. And that was a
great setup too, by the way, I thought.

Speaker 5 (26:38):
You did you did well well. Try to Monday though.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
We're trying to reconnect with Dutch there in Mineral County.
You could read the story we've got right now posted
over at wv metronews dot com. In the meantime, let
me see text line at three oh four Talk three four.
Oh thank you, by the way, Texas, says Dave. The

(27:01):
young man who played Adam Sandler's son and grown ups
was Cameron Boyse. Became a Disney star in the The
Descendants film. Yeah, that was the actor I was struggling
to find earlier in the show. Thank you appreciate it,
Texter says, why would you just go back twenty two
years to make it even blame? Let's go back ninety
six years, eighty five of which was Democrat stranglehold. Please

(27:23):
step aside for a few more decades, says the Texter.
Three or four Talk three or four told you that
Dave and TJ would love to cover for the failures
of Republicans. There is never any need for accountability when
the blame is with Republicans, then they lie and run
on fixing everything. Good job acting as servile mouthpieces Dave

(27:46):
and TJ.

Speaker 4 (27:49):
How can any politician fix utility rates? Any utility?

Speaker 5 (27:54):
How How explain that to me?

Speaker 4 (28:00):
Growing an economy and putting more people into it so
that those prices are lowered because of that rejuvenated economic activity.
How can somebody pull a lever today that is a legislator,
and lower the cost of electricity, the cost of water,
the cost of natural gas.

Speaker 5 (28:16):
I'm all ears, I want to know.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Well, I'll say, all politicians run on fixing everything. All
you need to do is elect them and they'll fix
all the problems. I will say that in the last decade,
Republicans have lowered the income tax. If that you consider
that a win, that's a pretty big win. Repealed right
to work. I mean, you can go down a list
of things that the Republican Party did accomplish. Now you

(28:39):
may not consider those wins, but if you supported those
particular initiatives, then yeah, they did a pretty good job.
If you're on the other side, you may not consider
those as accomplishments. But up until you know, the last
couple of years, what happened part of the reason, part
of the reason we are where we are. The majority
kind of got through the list of things they always

(29:01):
wanted to do for one hundred years, you know, repeal
right to work, income tax reduction, so on and so forth.
Then you went, well, now what now what we're in
the now what portion of the Republican supermajorities And they
haven't figured that out yet as a party, because you
have different factions who want to go this way, want
to go that way, think that you should have more

(29:22):
government involvement, think you should have less government involvement. They
haven't figured out the now what portion of the platform?
All right, I think we've got Dutch back on the
line and a better phone connection. Dutch you there, yes, sir,
I am hey, all right, let me give you the
formal reintroduction. Dutch Skags stags, I beg your pardon, Mineral
County Commissioner Dutch. I was talking about the tremendous response.

(29:45):
So just kind of set this up for us. The
fire call comes in Saturday, there's a fire at Kaiser
Healthcare Center and the community stepped up in a huge way.

Speaker 14 (29:56):
Oh, absolutely absolutely. It actually started with a a firearm
went off and they thought it was a false alarm,
and they went there and checked it out and the
firearm continued to go off. Eventually they found they started
getting some smoke coming from the eves and then it
became a full arm box fire or box alarm fire

(30:17):
and alerted all the area and we had about sixteen
or more ems company show up, had over fifteen fire
departments come and just to take care of everything. Evacuated
over one hundred patients from that facility within about ten minutes.

(30:40):
Within within a ten minute process, I believe three of
them were taken to some mc valley nearby hospital right
away for some smoke inhalation. And then the community, the
community stepped up in a way. It was reel uh

(31:01):
to set up the Kaiser fire stations right next to
the nursing home, and we got of course, we have
some shelters and stuff set up in the area, so
we went around and was gathering up or people was
going around gathering up to the cots from these shelters.
We set up around seventy cots in the fire department

(31:23):
with the with a number of volunteers that we had
coming up and and set all this up with blankets
and stuff so that these patients could have a place
to lay down. Now keep in mind these were army
corts and weren't the most comfortable, but however it was
a place for him to to to lay down without
being on the ground or on the on the floor.
So and and people donated stuff. We've had Walmart Uh

(31:48):
send in some stuff. Some mc valley hospital Uh, set
pillows and some dividers. Uh, there's a hotel. Oh man,
what's the name of that hotel? There's a hotel that
they're needed pillows And I gotta look at my notes

(32:09):
now I'll run out of brain space. I gotta look
at my notes.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
That's no problem.

Speaker 4 (32:14):
Hey Dutch, let me ask you a question in terms
of how quickly this happened. You summed up very well
on your Facebook post. You said, Wow, is this something
that the EMS folks locally there on the ground practice
and talk about with that nursing facility. Do they train
for this kind of instance? And that's how it was
able to happen so quickly.

Speaker 14 (32:34):
We trained for four disasters and four emergencies like this.
As far as I know, we not have trained directly
with the nursing home and a situation like this for
a while. I was talking to our administrator this morning,
Luke McKenzie, and and he mentioned he was talking about
how well it came together, just because we really haven't

(32:57):
had an opportunity to to edge cation exercises with with
this facility. But it did come together very well. Everything
went very smooth. Microtels is the hotel. I was thinking
of Haynes Company got some stuff in there. Roberts Oxygen
got us, got us lots of oxygen bottles of oxygen

(33:20):
there in a short amount of time, I mean within
an hour. We had Kaiser fire stations set up to
be able to take these patients in and get them
taken care of. The nurses, the local nurses that come
out that weren't even affiliated with the nursing home. We
had two nurses who teach at the Vote Tech Center

(33:42):
came up and I think they was there all night.
I'm not one hundred percent sure. I was there till
about one or two in the morning, along with Jason Whitlock.
One of the other commissioners, third Commissioner, Roger Lethamam was there.
I think he was down on I didn't get to
see him or talk to him, but he was there
for a while as well. And and the the amount
of the amount of of professionalism that was there that

(34:07):
night nine one nine one one. Dispatchers did a great
job talking on the radio, stay in calm about everything,
keeping stuff organized. Uh we had we had chiefs and
and uh E M s chiefs and fire chiefs who
took control of the of the scene. And was directing

(34:27):
people where they needed to go, and everything that was
done very organized.

Speaker 1 (34:33):
Dutch Staggs is joining us at Mineral County Commissioner Dutch
is what's the situation today as far as the healthcare
facility and those patients that had to be evacuated.

Speaker 14 (34:45):
Okay, so the patients were evacuated, they have been as
of I believe yesterday they got all the patients out
of the Kaiser fire department. Uh today, actually I just
talked to Jason Whitlock or another commissioner, him and and
some of our nine on one staff. They are getting
what is left at the Kaiser fire station, getting back

(35:07):
to the people that gave us that, that brought it
down that night or got it to us that night.

Speaker 6 (35:12):
Uh.

Speaker 14 (35:13):
So they were getting stuff back and getting getting the
fire station back the way it was. So as far
as I know, all the patients, they have been delivered.
I think some went to UPMC and then they were
The others are kind of scattered around other nursing homes
in the area. I don't know which ones where they
went or anything like that. I don't have the details

(35:34):
on that, but uh, but to the best of my knowledge,
are moving along as far as the the health center
or their nursing home right now, they're shut down. I
don't know the extent of damage other than I heard
it was just smoke. Uh, And I don't know. You

(35:56):
would have to talk to the fire marshal that was
on scene to get more information or the help center
themselves to to get more information as to their status
of opening back up or when they're going to be able.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
To Dutch Stags joining US Mineral County Commissioner H. Dutch.
Was this the result of excellent training and preparation or
just just the community coming together?

Speaker 14 (36:20):
Uh?

Speaker 6 (36:21):
Definitely.

Speaker 14 (36:22):
Training, Definitely, training had a lot to do with it.
Command our fire department and need ems in the area
to come in there, and and even uh Alliegany County
even contributed some of their dispatching, contributed to getting oxygen
and stuff in there. And it's just it's honestly, it's

(36:42):
a combination of everybody's training and everybody's dedication to be safe.
And I really got to point out too that Mineral
County Fire and EMS is almost entirely volunteer, so all
of these people there were not getting paid, or a
big majority of them, very big majority of them. We're
not getting paid to be there. In all of our

(37:08):
Mental County units are all based volunteer. It has a
huge shout out to our county and to our members
that are more than willing to come there and take
time away from their family and their jobs and their
personal life to help other people.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
Dutch stags. He's a Mineral County commissioner, a huge community
response moving those residents when that fire call came in
Saturday night at the Kaiser Healthcare Center there in Mineral County.
Dutch give our best to all of the volunteer ems
and firefighters and everybody else that had to jump into
action there and get everybody moved safely. Give our best

(37:46):
to all of them and keep us updated on the status. Okay,
all right, well do thank you appreciate it very much,
dutch Stags. Mineral County commission joining us on Metro News
talk Line. Got to take a break. We'll get to
your text at three or four. Talk for it. Lets
you know what's happening in our number two of Metro
News talk Line. Stalk Line from the co Insurance studios
back at a moment.

Speaker 15 (38:07):
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(38:31):
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(38:59):
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Speaker 3 (39:20):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Encova Insurance and
circling you with coverage to protect what you care about most.
Visit Encova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Three of four talk three oh four the text line
eight hundred and seven sixty five eight two five five.
Albert Wright, w Medicine President and CEO Well join us
in the second hour. Also, Brad McIlhenny makes his triumphant
return to the program. He hasn't gone anywhere. We just
couldn't get him on last week.

Speaker 5 (39:49):
He's a busy man.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Three or four talk three or four guys. It's very
easy to create a budget surplus at revenue estimates low enough,
and you create a surplus. It's fake, but it's a surplus,
which sounds great. Fifty to fifty with you on that one.
One man's fake surplus is another man's responsible budgeting.

Speaker 5 (40:08):
I call that starving the beast.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
Well, as you so eloquently said, I don't know several
weeks ago, government budgeting is screwed up or something like that.
I think it's see the rest of the world, right,
you and I. You sit down, you sit down with
your wife, You do the family budget. Do you go, okay,
how much money's coming in, how can we spend it all?
Or you go okay, these are expenses and you make

(40:32):
your you know, your budget, your family budget. That's how
we budget. Well, I would like the government to budget
that way, but usually what you get is how much
money we have coming in, how can we spend it
all as quickly as possible? Again being a bit facetious.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
There, well, but only a bit. I mean.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
I always like to say, the finance people tell you
what you're going to have, the accountants tell you what
you actually have, and then government accounting. I don't even
know what in the world that's supposed to be, but
it's it's not like a private sector.

Speaker 5 (41:00):
I'll put it that way.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Three or four talk three four, Good morning guy, says
the Texter. Wonder how many years Mike Wolffel's proposed legislation
will limit House and Senate terms. Considering he's coming up
on twelve years in the Senate, it is safe to
assume the proposed limit will be at least sixteen years
for the Senate. Otherwise, he can put his proposed legislation
in place by stepping aside and not running for reelection

(41:22):
in twenty twenty six. Love the Show, says the Texter. Oh,
I dare ask you where you are on term limits.
I see their function, I see their purpose, but also
there is something to be said for individuals in the
legislature who understand how the system works, have some experience

(41:43):
in legislating. There is a limit to that. I don't
know what the right number is. I don't know where
your Goldilocks number is there. But there is value to
having people who can go there, know what they're doing,
know how to work the legislature, know how to work
the parties in charge. And there's also value I think
teach and going Okay, thank you very much, you've done

(42:04):
great time for somebody else to step in.

Speaker 5 (42:07):
There's a sweet spot.

Speaker 4 (42:08):
I'll say this, there's aspirations and there's practical outcomes. We
can't even get a bill that every member of the
Board of Public Works is okay with to set term
limits on some of those positions. We can't get that
through the legislature. We're not going to get a bill
through the legislature that would limit the legislature itself.

Speaker 1 (42:28):
I agree. What's easier telling somebody else how long they
can be in their job or telling yourself how long
you can be in.

Speaker 4 (42:33):
Your job because everybody else wants to the other job. Dave,
you know what I'm getting at. Everybody always wants to
be one up the ladder. But now your points will
take a look. I've always argued that leadership will emerge
in some level in some fashion. But let's go back
to the utility rate. It's not the harp on that
that's highly complex, highly complex. How many legislators fully understand

(42:59):
how the whole sell elect is that the market works.
Probably very few. So to your point, you got to
get down in the weeds on a lot of things
if you're going to fix certain issues, and those that
have spent the time have a head start. When you
replace those folks, that institutional knowledge goes away and you
don't have it. Same with budgeting, right, same with the
mess that is government budgeting that we're talking about.

Speaker 1 (43:20):
And you look at DJ any of them, what's the
list of things that Mike Wolfe will rattle it off?
Their labor participation, foster care, drug epidemic. Those are highly
complex issues. The foster care system. What we got six
thousand kids in that foster care system. It's it's highly
complex when you go on, you know, in a different

(43:41):
way than utility rates, but still it's new one. Those
aren't easy, easy issues to solve, and you can't do
it in a term or two.

Speaker 4 (43:49):
No, No, it's a long term process, and we've always
been behind the eight ball. I mean, let's be honest,
if you look at the history of West Virginia, back
to the founding of this state, back to what happened
when coalbearance came in and you had that absentee ownership
over the land and all these we've always been behind
the eight ball and trying to work our way ahead.
We've always had disadvantages. Now you can say that's topography,

(44:12):
you can say that's lack of economic development. There's all
kinds of different reasons. But we've always been fighting the fight,
and you know, at some point it becomes hard, and
if you don't have the people that understand it, then
it's even harder.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Final break will be back at a moment. This is
talk line on Metro News from the in Cove Insurance Studios.

Speaker 17 (44:32):
A lot of attention has been directed towards something President
Trump calls clean beautiful coal. That phrase often describes the
clean burning aspect of West Virginia coal, but there is
another type of coal, metallurgical coal, which is used to
make the steel our economy depends on, and West Virginia
has some of the highest quality met coal in the world.

(44:54):
West Virginia coal miners produced more met coal than any
other state, and seventy percent of all steel makers and
the United States rely on West Virginia met coal. This
accounts for two hundred billion dollars in economic impact throughout
the country and help sustain over a half billion jobs.
As President Trump reinvigorates our economy, he will need a
lot of our high quality met coal. So the West

(45:16):
Virginia Coal Association asks you to join with them to recognize,
honor and salute our West Virginia coal miners. They built
this country and will play a vital role in rebuilding
the economy that will power the twenty first century. A
message from the Friends of Coal.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
More texts at three or four Talk three h four guys.
Republicans have also watched as tens of thous West Virginians
have left the state in the past ten years, and
if Republicans were any good, maybe they would have won
more elections in the twentieth century. Stop blaming the Democrats
for Republican shortcomings unless you want to take the blame
for Dimm's problems. Texter says, maybe the first time I

(46:17):
mostly agreed with the Democrats. The Senator from Cabull County
had a lot of good points and concerns. I do
think some of the social issues needed to be addressed. However,
I'm not sure the recent legislative session really solved anything.
There's a homeless drug situation in Charleston, Huntington, Morgantown, etc.
That's bleeding into the smaller surrounding communities. See fire at

(46:38):
historic Henry Clay Hotel in Clay County last week. Rumors
that the new Charleston area homeless are dropped off there frequently,
says the Texter. The list of accomplishments is an accomplishment,
no matter how you look at it. The difference is
do you consider it positive or negative? A positive or
negative accomplishment, says the test. That's fair. I think that's

(47:01):
what I was trying to say. But you said it's
so much better perspective. Yes. Second Hour, Albert Wright w
Medicine President CEO will join us. Brad mclhenny bottom of
the hour and high school football practices starting around the state.
We'll get an update from Joe Briccado All coming up
six minutes from now on talk Line on Metro News.
The Voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 3 (47:28):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Incovia Insurance, encircling
you with coverage to protect what you care about most.
Visit Incovia dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
Second hour of Metro News talk Line Dave and TJ
with you. Jake Link is our director of video operations.
He has a kind of ring to it. Sophia Wassig
is our audio producer. Today. Three or four Talk three
O four is the text line eight hundred and seven
sixty five eight two five five. That is the phone number.
We'll get to more of your texts coming up in

(47:59):
just a bit. Mackail Henny will join us at the
bottom of the hour. It's been a hot minute since
we've spoken to Brad and Joe. Briccato is out and
about in the Great State today as high school football
camps opening up today officially, as well as the rest
of fall sports around the state. We'll talk to Joe
a little bit later on. Once again, say good morning to TJ.

(48:21):
Meadows from the Charleston Bureau. Morning, sir, Morning Dave.

Speaker 4 (48:24):
I'm watching the market because that's what I like to do.
You know, stock's sold off big on Friday. We had
that weaker than expected jobs report, and then there was
the whole issue of revising the May and June employment figures,
which the President then acted on by firing the head
of the BLS. I mean, we can get into that
at some point if you want. But stocks are rebounding
this morning, so you know, coming back, not as bad

(48:46):
as maybe we thought. Dows up four hundred and eighty
six points.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
All right, I'll take it. I'll take it. Although I
was told by our financial advisor we're long term investors,
So okay, as long as it's there fifty years from now,
TJ Well, forty fifty I won't realize any of those games.
Let's go forty years from now. We're in good shape.

Speaker 5 (49:10):
Let's be honest.

Speaker 4 (49:11):
Volatility is how you make money. Volatility is how do
you make money, and you got to be it in
it for the long haul. I don't know anybody, anybody.
I know a lot of people. I don't know anybody.
If I'm being honest, it's smart enough to make money
as a day trader, and is smart enough to outpace
the market. I mean, Warren Buffett can't do it in
the long term, and he'll tell you that. So if

(49:32):
Warren Buffett can't do it. I have no business trying
to do ith.

Speaker 1 (49:35):
There's a guy on TikTok somewhere who will show you
how to do it.

Speaker 5 (49:37):
TJ, Well, that's true, that's true.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
Four WW Medicine hospitals have been named by US News
and World Report to its twenty twenty five twenty twenty
six Best Hospitals as high performing Hospitals for nineteen procedures
and conditions. This is the highest distinction a hospital can
earn for US News and World Reports Best Hospitals Procedures, Conditions.
To help put that into context, what does that mean

(50:03):
for you, the potential patient at one of these facilities.
Albert Right joins us, the president and CEO of w Medicine. Albert,
good morning, good to talk to you again.

Speaker 18 (50:12):
Hey, good morning, Dave and TJ. And thanks for having
me on. And I'm here to assure you that WVU
Medicine is a long term investor in the health of
West Virginia and we'll be here in the next fifty
hundred years if you want to check on it.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
So we hear these and I mean this in a
good way, Albert, We hear these awards and distinctions all
the time. Number one hospital in this number one in
this procedure, but put that in some context for how
that impacts the patients.

Speaker 18 (50:38):
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And you know, we're our
goal guys, and I've talked to you about this before.
You know, we want to be a top quartile academical system,
and we we not only want to make sure we're
providing access and clinical care across the state, but we
want to make sure that we're benchmarking against the the

(51:00):
best hospitals around the country. And you know, we don't
do things as a health system to get awards, but
we want to make sure that we're providing, you know,
the best care, and we want to make sure that
we're providing you know, high volume care so they would
get really good at it and recruit you know, sub
specialists that are just focused on on very specific disease states.

(51:22):
And we benchmark against hospitals all around the country. And
you know, every year the US News Best Hospital rankings
come out, and you know, this year we had four
of our facilities that that we were recognized as performing
really well against your peers. And of course JW. Ruby

(51:43):
Memorial Hospital here in Morgantown was ranked as the you know,
the best hospital in the state of West Virginia, which
we consider to be a great honor and you know,
and it's it's the type of institution we want to be.
And when I look at how Ruby ranked against you know,
other hospitals on the country, I think we can all
be proud of the great work that's being done there.

Speaker 4 (52:04):
Albert, you're sticking around as well. We had President Benson
on a few weeks back and he told us about
a contract extension.

Speaker 5 (52:10):
You're going to be here.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
I don't know if you'll be here for one hundred
and fifty years, but you're going to be here for
a while.

Speaker 5 (52:14):
Tell us about that.

Speaker 18 (52:16):
No, that's that's great. I actually hit my eleven year mark.
Will be next week, actually on August eleventh, I'll hit
eleven years. I came here in twenty fourteen, and I
was blessed by our board of directors and you know,
former President Gee and now new President Benson or you know.
I enjoy what I'm doing. I think we have a

(52:37):
great team, and I think we're making a difference. And
I want to stay here and they wanted me to stay,
so that's a good combination. And I just did a
six year extension that'll take me through you know, the
next six years. So excited to keep going. And as
long as we're making a difference, I want to be
a part of that. So thanks you, TJ.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
Albert right joining us WW Medicine president and CEO. Well
Albert and you decade plus with WV Medicine. What's the
most significant transformation it has made over the last decade?

Speaker 18 (53:09):
You know, I think, Dave, we've done kind of two
big things and we're working on a third. One is
you know, if you if you walked out of the
football Stadium, which shares a parking lot with Ruby Memorial
a decade ago, you know it kind of looked like
big general hospital and if you look at it now,
Ruby Memorial is really a collection of six to seven

(53:31):
sub specialized institutes with heart and vascular, the Rockefeller Neurosciences,
you know, cancers doing big things as we pursue NCI designation,
our critical care traumas to we're rebuilding eye. We just
built that beautiful children's hospital, so you know, this is
really a world class academic medical center. One. Two, you know,

(53:51):
we built out a network of twenty five individual hospital
campuses that stretch from you know, we're in the north
to Bluefield in the south, you know, Parkersburg out west
Over to Martinsburg and Jefferson County in the east, and
we're really creating a population health footprint, you know, all

(54:12):
connected on our interoperable electronic medical record and our goal
long term, you know, our mission is to improve the
health trajectory of the state of West Virginia. And historically,
you know, we've had a lot of challenges in health
outcomes in you know, in anything you look at, from
heart disease to buy diabetes, obesity, addiction, and you know,

(54:34):
our goal is to change that into long term become
a you know, a a a role model healthcare system
with a state that has an improving health population and
again to be a top quartile academic health system with
the health outcomes in the state to to you know,
to mirror that. So that's our long term goal, and

(54:56):
you know, our Peak Health which is our provider sponsored
health plan, continues to grow. We currently offer a Medicare
advantage plan in twenty nine counties around the state. In
twenty twenty six, that'll go up to forty nine counties.
And the neat thing about Peak Dave and TJ. It
allows us to make investments in people's healthcare that really
incentivizes us to keep the population as healthy as possible

(55:20):
and in the lowest cost setting as possible. And that's
very fun as a healthcare provider because you're really starting
to make investments in behavioral health, the social determines of
health home monitoring. So, you know, our goal is to
be a positive force in the state of West Virginia
going forward.

Speaker 4 (55:40):
We talk a lot about healthcare costs on this show.
It seems like almost daily we talk about it. We
talk about health insurance rates. How can PEAK help average
West Virginians who are struggling with those rates? What kind
of role do you see at playing long term?

Speaker 18 (55:55):
Yeah, I think that's a great question, TJ. And there's
a lot to there's a lot of possibilities there. You know,
form always follows finance in life and in healthcare, right,
and so you know, you want to create financial incentives
that reward the right type of behavior. And what PEAK
does as being both a payer and a provider, right,

(56:19):
So we're both you know, or the health care provider,
and we're both the payer and remember PEAK is a
joint venture between w Medicine, Martial Health down in Huntington
and Valley Health out in Winchester, Virginia. And what PEAK
allows us to do, Dave and TJ is to really
create alternative payment models that are different than than the

(56:41):
historical fee for service relationship that healthcare organizations have within
church where you where you just get paid to do
things to people, and it's usually historically incentivized sick care,
you know, it's when you when you need a heart surgery,
or when you need you know, you know, some type
of spine sort or whatever the case may be. By

(57:04):
creating alternative payment models in PEAK, we're really able to
incentivize ourselves to keep people as healthy as possible and
in the lowest cost setting. So all of the sudden,
you know, you're really able to make investments. You know
that that you keep that pre diabetic from becoming a
diabetic or you or you or able to make modifications

(57:27):
in the home or provide transportation that are make sure
people are getting care or getting screens before they end up,
you know, before they avoid care and then end up
with a you know, a later stage cancer diagnosis. The
quicker you can you know, screen or treat people the

(57:47):
most likely you're going to have success and it's lower costs.
So PEAK really allows us to create incentives to keep
a healthier population, which is you know, it would be
it would be very fulfilling for me as to see
the largest health system in the state, to have our
hospitals half empty and still be you know, still be
profitable to the point where we can keep going. But

(58:10):
we're doing it because we're keeping that population healthier.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
Albert Ryan is joining us WV Medicine president and ceoh, Albert,
I'll take that one step further and maybe try to
get you into just a little bit of trouble here.
But can can WV Medicine and Peak? Is there a
role for that in trying to revamp And I think

(58:34):
we've got to look outside the box and think differently
about p I. A is where I'm going Herebert Albert.
Is there a role for WVU Medicine and PEAK there
to step in? And I don't I don't know what
the role would be. Is there a role, I guess
is my question.

Speaker 18 (58:49):
I think that's the possibility, and I think those were
active conversations.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
Dave.

Speaker 18 (58:54):
You know, so p I is one that you know
is a struggle because you know, it's it's been a
challenge for health providers with PI. It's a challenge for
the governor and the state legislatures, the challenge for PI
members as those rates go up. And I know, and
I get to talk to a lot of my colleagues,
you know, in other insurers like the Health Playing Up

(59:14):
and Wheeling or Peak Health. I think we want to
have a seat at that table and figure out how
do we create something that's a win win long term.
And we have to make sure it's a win win
for PI and rollies. We'd have to make sure it's
a win for the state, and we have to make
sure it's a win for health systems. But you know,
we're as a nonprofit payer provider in w and I've

(59:39):
talked to my colleagues at Marshall, both Brad Smith and
the president and Scott Raine's the new CEO there. We
want to be a part of that solution. So I
think the devil's in the details and nothing's imminent. There's
you know, it's just conversations at this point. But I
think it's reasonable to think about how can we all
come together to find a solution and if can be

(01:00:00):
a part of that or or high Mark or the
health plan, or whoever the case may be. I think
those are realistic conversations we should be having.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
So as those conversations take place, the variables continue to
play out. And I don't want to say we're up
against it, but we'd hear talk about a special session.
It seems like medical inflation, at least from what I read,
I don't think the state has any real chance of
keeping up with that curve. Can this be an answer
sooner rather than later? In those conversations? How quickly could

(01:00:30):
it move?

Speaker 18 (01:00:31):
You know? I don't know the answer to that, TJ.
I do know that it has the highest attention of
the Governor, of our leaders, of the Senate and of
the House of Delegates, and you know, and they've called
you know us down as stakeholders for calling other stakeholders,
and they're really doing their their due diligence right now

(01:00:53):
and figuring, uh, trying to figure out what the next
steps are do I think I think if you get
really smart, good people in the room, I think you could.
I think you could start to come up with solutions
sooner rather than later. I know, I know our team
would stand ready at the drop of a hat to
get in those conversations and try to figure out you know,

(01:01:15):
win wins because you're you're right, with medical inflation, and
you know, remember we're not only a healthcare system, but
we're a big employer. So we have to we have
to find ways to control our medical costs as well
as you know, as cost go up around the country,
we have to be creative and in the state, we
have to be creative to find ways to control health costs. Otherwise,

(01:01:38):
you know, somebody is going to do that for you,
and it's going to be in the form of the
federal government, you know, cutting programs. And I would much
rather us be proactively part of the solution to figure
out how do we bend that cost curve well improving
the health of the population. I would much rather have
the seat at the table than to have that be
decided for us. Out of Washington, d C.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
We're talking to Albert right WW Medicine Presidency. Speaking of Washington,
d C. How closely have you been watching the developments
with Medicaid and as Congress looks for areas to reduce funding,
especially on the healthcare front.

Speaker 18 (01:02:14):
I watch it extremely closely. You know, because that's you know,
a big part of our a big part of our
pay or source in the state of Western and industry
almost all around the country. But are really your entitlement programs,
your Medicare and your medicaids, and as those continue to
grow in time, I think it's you know, it's important

(01:02:37):
that we all have reasonable conversations of how do we
bend those cost curves. But you know, our advocacy, gentlemen,
is really with with our congressional constituencies really around how
do we do that in a way that make sure
we're still able to take care of folks. Make sure
it's very important that we try to keep as many

(01:02:57):
people with with appropriate healthcare careverage as possible, you know,
and you know, we don't want to kick people off
of their health insurance, so you know, we watch those
conversations very closely. I do think we want to make
sure we don't have people lose coverage. But I do
think it's important for us, as the large healthcare system
and the other healthcare systems in the state to recognize

(01:03:20):
that we have to be part of the solution in
lowering the cost of health care. You know, our health
care costs around the country are approaching twenty percent of
the gross domestic product of the country, and we can't
allow that to continue on. We have to find ways
to make sure healthcare is affordable, and that is almost
always by prioritizing early intervention and treatment to keep people

(01:03:43):
from getting to advanced disease dates.

Speaker 4 (01:03:46):
I do want to ask the press release here, it
talks about excellence in nineteen different procedures and conditions, put
you on the spot, but also give an opportunity to brag. Sure,
if there's one thing, one thing WVU Medicine stands out
for far and above the rest, what do you think
that one thing is.

Speaker 18 (01:04:04):
Oh, geez, I don't know that I have one thing.
I think you know. I think we've done a great
job of creating access around the state TJ to get
you to where you need to go when you need
highers levels of care, and when you really look at
those high performing procedures that they talk about, whether it

(01:04:26):
be you know, we got lots of awards for you know,
complex heart conditions, We got lots of awards for complex
GI surgery and neuro conditions. If you really look at
what we've done around the state over the last decade
in Morgantown and at those big regional hub hospitals of

(01:04:48):
you know, Wheeling and Princeton and Charleston, Bridgeport, Martinsburg. You know,
is we've really recruited sub specialty physicians that you know,
to borrow a fray at the Mayo Clinic uses a
lot doctors that know more and more about less and less,
which means they're very sub specialized and they only do

(01:05:09):
complex things that we will consider rare and weird, but
they do them so much that they're not rare and
weird to them. But they're exceptionally good at that robotic
heart surgery or that craniotomy or that bone marrow transplant.
So I think that embracement of subspecialization has you know,
I think we're exceptionally proud of and has definitely made

(01:05:31):
a difference in the health outcomes for the people of
West Virginia and those surrounding states we serve.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
W you Medicine President CEO Albert, Right, Albert, always an
interesting conversation when we bring you on. Thank you very much,
appreciate it.

Speaker 18 (01:05:44):
Thank you guys, have a great day, appreciate the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
Absolutely you as well. Coming up your Text three or four,
Talk three or four. This is talk Line from the
Enco Insurance Studios.

Speaker 5 (01:05:54):
Hey there, it's Dave Valmas.

Speaker 2 (01:05:55):
I'd like to invite you to join myself along with
thirteen News and Tonight Live anchor Amanda Baron. Each weekday
from Noontil three for Metro News Midday, brought to you
by Selango Law, We'll cover the news from across the
state of West Virginia, the news West Virginians need to
keep them informed during their workday. It's weekdays from Noontil
three Metro News Midday with thirteen News and Tonight Live

(01:06:15):
anchor Amanda Baron, brought to you by Selango Law On
Metro News the voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 16 (01:06:23):
Looking for a big new game to play, Well, there's
no game bigger than the new Dino sized Jurassic World
Scratch Off game from the West Virginia Lottery, which gives
you a chance to win up to fifty thousand instantly.
And if that weren't enough, you can enter in our
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(01:06:44):
get down to your local lottery retailer today and Welcome
to Jurassic World. Must be eighteen year older to play
played responsibly.

Speaker 1 (01:07:13):
Three oh four Talk three oh four. Texter says, is
taking away Dorito's and Cheetos really lower health costs? Blows
smoke up someone else's backside. Albert says to Texter, Well,
I do know this, and I'm just applying common sense.
All right, Maybe you got a point if you have
to have a law to take away your your Doritos

(01:07:33):
and Cheetos. But I'm just applying a little common sense.
I will probably have lower health care cost if instead
of eating Doritos and Cheetos, I eat, you know, banana
chips and cucumbers. Not that I'm advocating that. I'm just
trying to apply some common sense and logic to the situation.

Speaker 5 (01:07:51):
That's all.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
That's all. If you have a fruit smoothie, a natural
fruit smoothie instead of a uh, you know, Carmel vanilla chocolate,
you know, milkshake, Not that I would ever have something
like that, TJ, you might have better health care health
outcomes later in life.

Speaker 5 (01:08:11):
Well, he talked about diabetes.

Speaker 4 (01:08:13):
If you can prevent pre diabetes and ultimately full blown diabetes,
I would think over the course of a lifetime. That
would represent an extreme cost reduction because it's that, let's
face it, health care costs when they really go up,
it's the last couple of years of life, when you're
really dealing with everything. And then that exacerbates because it's

(01:08:33):
a socialized insurance program, so that exasperates premiums for everything.
So if you can prevent those things, you'll lower costs overall.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
Oh, I've got a friend, former colleague. You could wind
her up and we wouldn't have to say another word
the rest of the show, TJ. We could just sit
back and go go, and she would spend the next
half hour.

Speaker 5 (01:08:51):
She could do it too, remember that for a slow day.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Coming up, Brad mackleh, and you mentioned your state wide
correspondent will join us, green power there, motors back in
the news or will be we'll talk about that coming up.
Talkline on Metro News, the Voice of West Virginia. It
is tenth eleven thirty. It's eleven thirty. Let's get a
news update. Check in with the Metro News Radio Network.
Finals happening across the great state of West Virginia.

Speaker 19 (01:09:16):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Chris Lawrence, and early morning
accident on I seventy nine and Knawa County left one dead.
The victim was ejected when he lost control of his
pickup truck near Big Chimney around five twenty this morning.
Deputies have not released his name. He's from out of
state and they're notifying next to Ken the driver was
the only one in the vehicle that flipped over. Four Buffalo,
New York area residents are dead victims of a crash

(01:09:38):
on a rural road in Marshall County. The four two
men and two women, all in their eighties, were on
their way to the Neuvvern Dobbin Palace of Gold last
week when they wrecked. They had not been heard from
since Thursday. Their vehicle and bodies were found on Saturday
night after relatives reported the missing. They had crashed over
a steep hill off a Big Wheeling Creek road. The
Higher Creation has posted a message of condolence to social media.

(01:10:00):
State PS chair Charlotte Lane says she believes orders to
have the Weird Water Board improve their system will work.
Three hundred to four hundred customers without water much of
the winter due to water main breaks, and Lane said
the failure of the aging water infrastructure was odd in
a town that size.

Speaker 20 (01:10:18):
West Virginia has an extremely large number of water and
sewer utilities and a lot of them have aging infrastructure.
So what we found in Weirton is not really unusual.
What was unusual about Weirton was it was a larger system.

Speaker 19 (01:10:40):
You're listening to Metro to use the voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 21 (01:10:44):
When guys like me separate from the military, we tried
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to take care of our bodies and our minds. I
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quality health care at the lowest costs. And I'm telling
every veteran I know that taking care of yourself is

(01:11:05):
the strongest thing you can do. Get what you've earned.
Visit choose dot Va dot gov.

Speaker 22 (01:11:13):
The football season is right around the corner. Get ready
for high school and WV football by downloading the Metro
News television app. Watch Metro News all day, including Talkline,
sports Line, Free Guys before the Game, Metro News Middays,
and Hotline. Yet the Metro News Television app from the
Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Metro News Television
is powered by Dan Cabbage, emc Go, mar Lou Wendell, Marine,

(01:11:37):
stank Welt Enhancement, Panhandle Cleaning and Restoration, and Holkill Valley.

Speaker 19 (01:11:42):
Starting today, Capital Market in Charleston has launched its Sip
and Shop program, enabling customers to buy drinks, whether they
be cocktails, beer, or wine, from vendors at the market
and using a special cup, drink them as they travel
in and out of all the shops. And today's opening
day of high school football practice for the twenty twenty
five season. The season kicks off with Parkersburg and Morgantown

(01:12:04):
in the SSAC Kickoff Game presented by the West Virginia
Army National Guard on Metro News Television August twenty eighth.
From the Metro News anchor desk, I'm Chris Lawrence.

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
Joe Briccado will join us. Before the top of the hour,
you heard Chris Lawrence mentioned that high school football practices underway.
There were some teams out at midnights well twelve oh
one hitting the field to get the season started. Fall
camps for all fall sports getting started today. We'll check
out Joe Briccado in just a bit see where he

(01:12:56):
is in the great state of West Virginia. Electric to
mak A. Green Power, which has a manufacturing facility in
South Charleston, is scheduled to update investors on the company's
finances later today. A call is scheduled for this afternoon.
Of course, we have reported about Green Power's financial issues.
The company had to do some major cutbacks of workers
at South Charleston operation in recent months. Brad mclheney will

(01:13:20):
be covering that call later this afternoon. He joins us
on Metro News talk line. Brad, good morning, good to
see you again.

Speaker 9 (01:13:27):
Oh hi, good morning, Dave, good to see you, and
good to see TJ as well, and hello listeners.

Speaker 1 (01:13:32):
So kind of catch us up to speed, brag give
us the cliff notes version of where we are going
into this call today, because it has been rough one
way to put it for green Power over the last
year or so.

Speaker 9 (01:13:47):
Yeah, not great, and so I don't know how you
put a shine on Green Power's financial performance during a
call later this afternoon.

Speaker 1 (01:13:55):
We have a.

Speaker 9 (01:13:57):
Market expert who co hosts program who might chime in
a little bit more with the broad view of green
Power's performance, But you know, let me tell you why
it's important to West Virginia. Just a couple of years ago,
green Power was one of a number of manufacturers announced
for a presence around the state. Seemed like West Virginia

(01:14:20):
was on a roll. Some of them were in the
realm of green energy, and green Power was one of them,
making electric school buses from South Charleston. But since then
it has been a bumpy ride. State officials said that
green Power would bring up to two hundred new jobs
to West Virginia when manufacturing was supposed to begin in

(01:14:40):
late twenty twenty two, eventually reaching up to nine hundred
new jobs. At last count, there were eighty nine employees
at that facility in South Charleston. Near the end of May,
green Power notified more than a dozen of those workers
that were being laid off under an agreement with the
state that would have paid out up to fifteen million dollars.

(01:15:01):
Green Power was in line to deliver forty one buses
for use around West Virginia school systems, but as of
the spring, only about a dozen had been delivered. In
a separate financial agreement, green Power was in line to
deliver fifty all electric school buses to seven West Virginia
County school systems as part of an eighteen and a
half million dollar order through the US Department of Environmental

(01:15:24):
Protections Clean School Bus Program. Just a few of those
have come through. So West Virginia trying to collect what
remains of its own investment in green Power. The state
and Green Power Company in kind of a cold war
at this point. And you know, it's in West Virginia's

(01:15:47):
interest because of all that sunk cost for Green Power
to succeed. And we'll hear the details this afternoon. I
think four fifteen is that earnings call. I use earnings
in quotes, but I you know, all signs are that
the health of a company is not good.

Speaker 4 (01:16:04):
Stock just skyrocketing today, going to a high of sixty
one cents of share, opening it thirty five cents. It's
tapered off a bit, it's now about forty five percent.
This on news that they've got to deal with the
state of New Mexico. But that deal doesn't look you know,
all that's substantial to me.

Speaker 5 (01:16:22):
I guess I would say fill it in from.

Speaker 9 (01:16:23):
There, you know, on the deal with New Mexico, I
don't know the details, but boy, you know, to operate
a company, you've got to.

Speaker 1 (01:16:31):
Have cash flow.

Speaker 9 (01:16:32):
You've got to have oxygen, which is money coming through,
and that that's stock.

Speaker 1 (01:16:39):
That's that's as TJ.

Speaker 9 (01:16:40):
Meadows would say, that's that's the market placing a value
on green power, and the value is not much.

Speaker 18 (01:16:48):
You know.

Speaker 9 (01:16:48):
The story that green Power tells is that they were
onto something with the the green energy school buses, the
electric power being something that the Biden administration was generally
interested in producing fewer emissions for the environment. However, they

(01:17:10):
were in a high inflation environment at the same time
made their costs go up. Now the Trump administration is
far less interested in green power, far less interested in
the kind of school buses being made by a company
like this, and now they're in a high tariff environment.
I don't know that that really tells all of the story,

(01:17:33):
but that that is the story that GreenPower tells about
the external forces acting on their capacity for success.

Speaker 4 (01:17:41):
Dave just to chime in, it looks like six buses
here and some chargers, So I guess back to my point,
it's not a huge pilot program with the state of
New Mexico, but it moved their stock a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:17:51):
And they are the same buses that and I've sent
you photographic evidence. I have seen the beast out on
the road in Montague County, one of the green Power buses.
But Brad, to your point and TJ is more to
you if you want to expound a little bit. I
was reading and I can't take credit for these thoughts.
I was reading an analysis of green Power this morning,
and there's a big reliance on the regulatory environment and

(01:18:14):
governmental grants coming in to help fund the development of
these buses. Having a regulatory environment like California where there's
a mandate, there's an ev mandate that goes out into
twenty thirty five, and if you don't have that type
of environment, it really leaves you no margin for error
there trying to develop this. I think, Brad, you're right,

(01:18:37):
they're onto something. Are you too early? Is the atmosphere
not ready for it yet? Is the regulatory environment? I
mean that could change in four years. Who knows what
it might be four years from now. So a lot
of thoughts there ToJ. But all of that kind of
creates this storm, if you will. And green Power is

(01:18:57):
trying to figure out how to negotiate that navigate that.

Speaker 4 (01:19:01):
Yeah, look, give them credit, they're not quitting, but to
your point, they're a one trick pony. This is all
that they do and if they don't have those regulatory
conditions that create a market unlike a Bluebird that is
very diversified. Bluebird's doing the same thing with e buses,
but they're also making a lot of traditional buses, right,
so they're not dependent on one product line. Green Power
doesn't enjoy that. So all of these things, and Brad,

(01:19:23):
I know you've followed as well. They also trade on
the Canadian Exchange and they've been suspended from the Canadian
Exchange since what I think around July the tenth was
the last day, made the ninth that they traded for
failure to submit the various documents and financials that they
have to to be able to trade on the Canadian Exchange.
So there's about ten thousand shares out there that are

(01:19:44):
just sitting that can't trade on the Canadian market.

Speaker 9 (01:19:47):
Not good, No, that's not a great sign. And so
they're on probation in Canada. We at Metro News thought
that there would be an earnings call for green Power
in the United States but because of the information you
just describe regarding the Canadian market, we kept thinking, is
there really going to be an earnings call like the
one that we now know is today they're going to

(01:20:07):
have one. But that was not a good situation at all.
Late this spring early summer, if you're keeping track of
Green Power's relationship with the State of West Virginia, the
State of West Virginia put the company on default, gave
them a final notice of default saying that they had
fallen months behind on the lease payments for the South

(01:20:29):
Charleston facility, cinema sternly worded letter, and then you know,
kicked kicked more sand in the gears with the final
paragraph which said, in addition to all those problems, the
West Virginia Department of Economic Development has been made aware
quote of the West Virginia school Boards various issues with

(01:20:50):
the safety and quality of Green Power buses delivered to date,
and then the Department of Environment of Economic Development said,
we expect these issues will be resolved in future deliveries.
So not only problems with layoffs, with paying the least
payments on the South Charleston facility, and with the overall

(01:21:10):
financial performance, the state of West Virginia is saying that,
in its view, these are not great buses.

Speaker 4 (01:21:17):
Take this for what it's worth. So take this and
what is it now? Eight dollars for a cup of coffee.
Down to your favorite local coffee place and they'll give
you a cup of coffee. I drove by there the
other day. I was curious. Drove by their South Charleston facility.
I'll just say, from my eyes, it did not look
like there was a robust activity going on at the facility.

(01:21:40):
I think I counted six cars in the parking lot
and the same six seven buses that have been sent
in there that you can see from the interstate for
I don't know how long. Again, take that for what
it's worth. But didn't seem to be a lot going on.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
Where are you getting eight dollars coffee?

Speaker 4 (01:21:56):
I didn't say I'm paying it, But if you go
one of the big places, man, that's what they're I
saw a coffee receipt the other day from a friend
of mine. Now granted this is in New York. They
put the tariff for coffee, but they put the tariff costs,
Oh did they? They're breaking it out on the receipts.
So they're telling you how much more the tariff costs
for your coffee. But yeah, I mean a large coffee
at like one of the chain places. Now, I'm pretty

(01:22:17):
sure it's close to seven dollars last time I went through.

Speaker 1 (01:22:20):
That's why you get the gas station coffee.

Speaker 5 (01:22:23):
Or you just brew it at home.

Speaker 1 (01:22:25):
Well, you could do that.

Speaker 4 (01:22:26):
Put it in your favorite travel mug, put a couple
of cacups in your briefcase.

Speaker 1 (01:22:30):
Come to work. You're all good, Brad mcahonny does not
need coffee.

Speaker 9 (01:22:35):
We're all gonna have to start using ground up dirt
and crunched up leaves and hot water from our homes.

Speaker 22 (01:22:41):
Thanks Biden.

Speaker 1 (01:22:42):
That would be an herbal tea, Brad. That's an herbal
tea that you're recommending there. All right, you're going to
be keeping an eye on the call later this afternoon,
keeping an ear on it, keeping an ear on Brad.
I'll have the story later today over at wv metronews
dot com. Brad always appreciate it, Glad. We could have
you back, buddy, he thinks Joe Riccartt.

Speaker 4 (01:23:02):
Can I just say one thing very quickly? Yeah, we're
not rooting for anybody's demise here. I don't want to
seem like we're coming all giddy off. You know, you
hope for the best, but the signs just aren't good.
That's all I'm saying. But you hope they can pull
it out, and you hope for the best, but it
doesn't look great.

Speaker 1 (01:23:16):
You're talking about green Power, not Brad mackwhenny right exactly?

Speaker 5 (01:23:19):
All right, Yeah, it.

Speaker 1 (01:23:20):
Looks great for Brad. No, Look, the facts are what
the facts are. The earnings numbers are what they are.
You can't do anything about that, and I do. Look,
we all hope, don't we that they pull through and
this thing works out and you have eight hundred people
working in South Yeah, yeah, I hope for I hope
that is the situation. Joe Riccato will join us next
high school football kicked off today back in a moment.

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Speaker 1 (01:25:06):
First week of August in West Virginia means fall sports
can officially begin practice. That means high school football teams
hit the field, some as early as twelve oh one
this morning, hitting the field, getting the season started. It
also means Joe Bercado packs his car and drives across
the state visiting high school football camps from Panhandle to Panhandle,

(01:25:28):
from Martinsburg all the way over to Huntington. I don't
know where he is this morning, but he joins us
on Metro News talk line, Joe, good morning.

Speaker 6 (01:25:35):
Where are you, hey, Dave.

Speaker 12 (01:25:37):
I'm just driving around Huntington looking for these eight dollar
coffees I've been hearing so much about. I haven't found
him yet, but still on the lookout.

Speaker 1 (01:25:45):
Uh, just fine, fine, Steve Cotton, He'll hook you up.

Speaker 12 (01:25:49):
It is the eight dollar coffee better than the five
dollars milkshake from a well known movie about thirty years ago.
Are they about the same?

Speaker 5 (01:25:57):
I guess it depends. You know the answer that's in
the Iowa Beholder.

Speaker 4 (01:26:00):
But I'll text you where you can get your eight
dollar coffee so you can avoid the place and go
get it much cheaper.

Speaker 1 (01:26:06):
Thank you, all right, Joe. High school football getting started.
Some teams got out there at twelve oh one this morning.
What camps are you visiting today?

Speaker 6 (01:26:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (01:26:14):
There were three schools that I know of, and I'm
sure there were probably some others in a Beckley, Muscleman
and Cavil Midland all had practices starting at the stroke
of midnight and or this past night. I've got two
stops down, three to go today. Visited practices this morning
at George Washington and Spring Valley, a couple of MSAC
teams that have a lot of optimism going into this year,

(01:26:36):
and three more stops later today I'll be checking out Valley, Huntington,
and Nitro, spending two days in the Charles scenario, and
then heads south out.

Speaker 4 (01:26:45):
For that Joe Howard summer camps ran nowadays. Back when
I played, we just moved to you know, the new
kind of helmet and got away from leather. We did
the two days. You got up at like seven in
the morning, mintil noon, took an hour and a half break,
and then came back for another two or three hours.
What's it looked like in today's lands of high school football.

Speaker 12 (01:27:02):
Yeah, there's a little bit of a trend. I think
away from two days. Even though the two schools that
I visited today in GW and Spring Valley both have
day one two days and then they'll go with single
practices tomorrow to break it up. But I think you
see a lot of teams maybe going towards you know,
they'll have a four hour window in which they'll be in,
you know, at the field or at the facility and

(01:27:23):
maybe take an hour break and kind of split up
the practice that way. But certainly with the way that
the flex day practices or the thirty two off season practices,
if you will, that's kind of changed things in the
way that you know, a lot of teams are coming
in and their guys have been in football mode for
a while now. It may have taken the last two

(01:27:44):
weeks of the month of July to really get ready
and be in conditioning mode during some of those flex
day practices. So it certainly has changed a lot over
the years with the advent of these off season practices.

Speaker 1 (01:27:59):
Difference, you get so much more instruction time between the
coaches and the players that you know, twenty twenty five
years ago, you didn't have August first might be the
first time that you really had instruction time with your coach.
That's not the case now with these practice days and
seven on seven drills and in the conditioning there's just
a lot more interaction. It's still a big day, it's

(01:28:21):
still the start of fall camp, but it's not like
it was, say twenty years ago, right, no question about.

Speaker 12 (01:28:27):
It, And there is a lot of excitement that comes
along with this particular day, the first Monday in August.
That's not just for football but for all fall sports
throughout the state of West Virginia. But you know, particularly
with football, it does kind of get the clock or
the calendar going for a lot of these guys because
you know four days from now they'll be able to
put on pads shortly after that full contact practices, and

(01:28:49):
then your first scrimmage or your first gridorama against a
couple of other schools comes up next weekend. So this
day really does kind of get that uniform clock going
for all the teams across the state.

Speaker 4 (01:29:02):
What programs are you particularly eager to take a look
at the season?

Speaker 12 (01:29:05):
Joe always looking forward to the trip over to the
Eastern Panhandle and I'll be headed there Friday, And in
particular because in Class Quade last year you had the
top three seeds in the Quaida playoffs and they were
all Eastern Panhandle teams. You had Martinsburg who ended up
defeating number two Spring Mills in a fantastic championship game.

(01:29:26):
You also had number three Jefferson and they return a
live from last year. So looking forward to getting over
to the Eastern Panhandle later this week. I had a
chance to visit defending champions in the other three classes
so far, seeing Bridgepoord in Triple A, Frankford and Double A,
and Wohama in Class A already. So all of those

(01:29:46):
previews if you did not happen to check them out,
they're all archived at the Metro News TV app. But
looking forward to getting over to the Panhandle on Friday.

Speaker 1 (01:29:55):
High school football seasonal kickoff August twenty eighth, That is
a Thursday night at Ponty leis Field Parkersburg versus Morgantown
in the WVSSAC Kickoff Classic. We'll have that game on
the Metro News TV app. Joe Braccato will be there.
I will be there. Looking forward to it, Joe. It's
not far away now.

Speaker 12 (01:30:15):
Looking forward to it's about three and a half weeks
and as you know, David gets on you quickly. But
looking forward to that Kickoff Classic with a couple of
the most story programs in the state of Western Nia.
There's a number of other teams opening up on that night,
and then obviously the first full night the Veteran in
Game Night on the twenty nine, So August goes quick.
It'll be kickoff Tome before we know it.

Speaker 1 (01:30:35):
Joe Safe travels. We'll check in again, Thanks guys, Joe Bricado.
Metro News Sports back to wrap it up in a moment.
This is talk Line from the Encode Insurance Studios.

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Speaker 22 (01:31:15):
The free Metro News TV app is the place to
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Speaker 1 (01:32:01):
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(01:32:22):
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So go ahead, play today, three or four talk three
or four. Let's squeeze at a couple of texts before
we have to go. Dave, please tell TJ. Don't buy
an eight dollars coffee. Just get some cramp bark tea

(01:32:43):
from to Ekman, says the Texter.

Speaker 5 (01:32:46):
I went back and check the records.

Speaker 4 (01:32:48):
I did it last week because I forgot my coffee
and I didn't have any of my briefcase. It was
eight twenty two at the Large National Establishment down the
street here from the radio ranch.

Speaker 1 (01:32:58):
I don't know is that'll it feels like a lot
for a cup of coffee.

Speaker 5 (01:33:01):
Feels like it to me.

Speaker 4 (01:33:02):
I mean it was just coffee with a shot of
vanilla because I was feeling froggy.

Speaker 1 (01:33:07):
What what is it if you go to h you
know a certain fast food restaurant that serves breakfast and
has arches out by the sign.

Speaker 4 (01:33:15):
That's a good question. So I think the one in
the valley they do like that, that cheap thing. I
think it's like two bucks in something so that it
depends on where you're at.

Speaker 1 (01:33:24):
Yeah, uh three or four? Talk three of four. Green
power is taxpayer funded, government giveaway, says the texture. The
problem with green power is simple, follow the money, see
where it went. If you can. I'm fine with the
current utility rates. FTDR says the Texter, Uh, term limits,

(01:33:46):
lack of experience is a serious problem at all governmental levels.
Term limits would exacerbate the problem. I think you got
an argument there. I think you can make that argument, certainly. Certainly, Uh,
Texter says, when you have when you have have, I've
lost the ability to read TJ. When have you all

(01:34:06):
asked about cutting funding for the military. It's bloated and exorbitant.
The DoD cannot pass an audit prove you aren't complete
hacks who have no clue. Write an article about this,
do a segment on it. Does this not fit in
the household budgeting metaphor that you all misuse repeatedly. Tanks
give all the money, food and insurance for the needy.
Cut it all, says the texture. No, you can't cut

(01:34:28):
it all, but I will say they waste a ton
of money. They do, waste a ton of money, all right,
that's going to do it for us. Mention News Midday
coming up some of these same metro news radio stations
we talk to tomorrow. Talk Linel Metro News, the voice
of West Virginia.