Talkline | Jan. 2, 2026

Chris Lawrence remembers the 20th anniversary of the Sago Mine disaster. Hoppy Kercheval stops by. Ryan Schmelz gloats about his Ole Miss Rebels. Chris Stirewalt weighs in on a number of subjects. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Happy New Year.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Welcome to twenty twenty six. It's mentioned his talk line
more under way.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
You are.

Speaker 4 (00:26):
An emergency radio turned off from the studios of w
v RC Media and the Metro News Radio and Television Network.

Speaker 5 (00:38):
The Voice of West Virginia comes the most powerful show
in West Virginia. This it's Metro ne Who's talk Line
with Dave Wilson and DJ Meadows.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Activated switch that welcome you hold from Charleston.

Speaker 6 (00:52):
To stand by to David DJ.

Speaker 7 (00:56):
You're on.

Speaker 5 (01:00):
Metronews. Talk line is presented by Encoba Insurance, encircling you
with coverage to protect what you care about most. Visit
incova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Good morning, Welcome into the program and signed the Incoba
Insurance studios, Dave Wilson and Morgantown TJ's back.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
He is in the Charleston studios.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Zach Carrol Chick is handling the video stream and Sophia
Wassick is on the audio. Eight hundred and seven sixty five.
Talk is the phone number eight hundred seven sixty five
eight two five five. You can text the show at
three or four Talk three oh four Coming up this morning,
Hoppy Kerchival stops by. We'll see what Hoppy's thinking about
heading into twenty twenty six Ryan Schmells, and we will

(01:42):
force him to talk about something other than his old
Miss rabbles. But we'll talk to Ryan Schmells about his
old Miss rebels. And Chris Diarwaltz will join us as well.
And just because it's the second day of the year
doesn't mean you don't have steam. We will commence with
steam release at eleven thirty three the morning, but first
say good morning, back and ready for another year.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
TJ. Meadows Morning, Buddy, morning, Happy new year, sir, Good
new year. Loki party hard passed out what Loki you know.

Speaker 8 (02:11):
With the kids, we watched the ball drop, that's the
big thing. We did some puzzles with him. My son
got a three D printer Dave for Christmas, and let
me tell you what I mean. I don't think the
thing has stopped since he opened it up on December
the twenty fourth. He's made some really cool stuff. So
he and I were working on that. But yeah, it
was it was low key. I was signing some documents
this morning and I wrote them January the second, twenty

(02:33):
twenty five. Well, it didn't take long to happen, so
I had to go back and redo that. But yeah,
happy New Year, how about you, Loki, good time, Jenna
A little bit under the weather. Oh, I'm sorry to
hear that.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
So it was of course, our New Year's are always
low key. Anyway, I had intended to watch Miami and
Ohio State, and I saw Miami go up fourteen to nothing,
and then I saw Miami celebrate. So I missed everything
in between, but I caught the highlights on that quarterfinal
on on Wednesday night. Other than that, man, I was
I was kind of crashed out on the couch.

Speaker 8 (03:04):
I can't tell you how happy I am to see
the Ohio State Buckeyes lose that. I mean, I was
just a static.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, it is a darn shame that the Ohio State
Buckeyes lost in the quarterfinals.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
I didn't rub it in.

Speaker 8 (03:19):
Normally i'd text a few of my old coworkers say
what happened to the Ohio State University.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
I didn't do that.

Speaker 8 (03:24):
I'm trying to, you know, take the high road. But they,
you know what, they're so into themselves and they love
that school and they love that team so much. You
can't help but just kind of turn the knife a
little bit when you get a chance.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Get this.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
And if I had two hours to talk sports today,
seven in the last two years since we've had the
twelve team playoffs, seven of the eight teams who had
buys in the quarterfinals have lost in the quarterfinals. Indiana's
the only one. And oh, by the way, yeah it
was James Madison that didn't belong to the college football playoffs.
Texas Tech really showed them how to do it there
in the road in the Whatever Bowl.

Speaker 8 (03:56):
That was three minutes fifty seven seconds. That's where we
were in the program. And you threw that out from
the start of the show.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Listen, I heard of for a week all these chie
five teams. They're nice, but they don't belong.

Speaker 7 (04:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Well, James Madison scored thirty four against Oregon. Texas Tech
zilch Big twelve Conference, just pointing it out.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Pretty hard stat to overcome there.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
So we will get back to a lot more of
the hard news stuff when we get into next week.
I know a lot of you if you have the
extra day or I guess if you have an extra
day carryover, I guess it's a new year, probably extending
the holiday. And we got a lot to get into
because TJ, this is hard to believe. We were going
through the calendar on yesterday, my Wifie and I and

(04:40):
the n laws who helped take the dogs out, and.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
We were looking.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
I went, oh, oh, we go to Charleston a week
from Wednesday to do the show. Lawmakers will be there
and then we'll have the State of the State address
and then boom, we're into the sixty day legislative session.
So there's going to be a lot happening quickly.

Speaker 8 (04:57):
Here in the new year, and I'm ready for that.
You know, this kind of our super Bowl in this show.
We really like the legislature. I like the process, and
I think from that perspective, Dave, we've already seen this
from the House. They got to get going early. I
mean last year, right or wrong, there was this perception
that there wasn't a lot done for the economy in
terms of economic development, new business generation, that kind of thing.

(05:17):
The House has set an aggressive agenda. It'll be up
to the governor, be up to the Senate to match
that pace, and I'm eager to see exactly how they
do that.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Very interesting to see how the Senate responds to that,
because we've heard the House's agenda, we've seen the House's
goals of the agenda, what they want to do, what
they want to achieve. We haven't heard that from the
Senate yet, So we'll find out when we get down there,
and we'll be there on day one and we will
talk to all the key players as we always do,

(05:46):
see what the Senate wants to do, how much of
what happens the House works through its way through the
Senate vice versa. It's sixty days. It's a long time,
but it's a short time as well. But that is
still a little more than a week away. We will
discuss more next week. Today actually marks a dark anniversary
in West Virginia. It is the twentieth anniversary of the

(06:07):
Sego Mine disaster.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
One.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
It's hard to believe that has been it's been twenty
years since that tragedy in Upshur County. That you know
is Chris Lawrence put together a nice piece here remembering
what happened that day. We're going to talk to Chris
here in just a few minutes, but I wanted to
play this piece from Chris looking back on the disaster
at the Sego Mine in Upshur County. Twenty years ago today,

(06:31):
the state was buzzing with excitement. West Virginia was preparing
to take on Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

Speaker 9 (06:36):
You know, we were all excited about the Bowl game,
playing Georgia and everything. And so we went down to
Atlanta the night before and we were down there and
I had Laura Ramsberg, my communications director, was with me.
And early that morning she said, we got a you know,
the morning of the explosion. She said, we had a
problem back home. And I said, what isn't She's where

(06:57):
the mine explosion?

Speaker 10 (06:58):
Then Governor Joe Manchin in Atlanta visited the set of
Metro News talk line that also originated from there on
January tewod two thousand and six.

Speaker 9 (07:06):
Whatever happened, whether it be an explosion of what might
have happened, we don't know all the details yet. We
just know that there was an explosion or a problem.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
And Mansion McCalls he knew they needed to get home.

Speaker 9 (07:15):
My first flashback of everything goes back to the nineteen
sixteen mine explosion in Farmington and when I was there
with my mother, her brother, and my uncle John got
it was in that mine. I knew what my family
went through waiting in agony. Didn't hear a thing, and
I wasn't going to let that happen to any families.
That's when I was going through, so I had told

(07:37):
my security chauset I would have got to get.

Speaker 11 (07:39):
Back inside the minor stormiall communication. There's five rescue teams
on site for the beginning to prepare to go underground
for the search and rescue. But apparently the messane gas,
which is a natural gas being omitted from the mine,
has riven from sixteen percent seven hours ago to twenty
seven percent.

Speaker 10 (07:59):
Families of the team missing miners gathered to lean on
one another in prey at the nearby Sego Baptist Church mansion,
vowed to keep them informed regularly, and along with ICG
President Ben Hatfield, began to make regular visits to the
church to update the families on the progress of the search,
and then would tell the media.

Speaker 12 (08:16):
The manbus used by the twelve man production crew has
been spotted on the rail track approximately seven hundred feet
beyond the first body location, but none of the passengers
have yet been found.

Speaker 9 (08:29):
When the rescue operators got far enough in the mine,
we found one gentleman. He had perished when it first happened,
but then we saw footprints, so we got the information
that we know that they survived the first initial explosion.
The people with expertise says, were they're trained to go
right to the face of the mine, or they were

(08:50):
cutting and barricade themselves sent at that point in time,
I'll never forget the gas and all people kicked in
trying to drill a borehole to get air, fresh air
to them, but that.

Speaker 10 (09:01):
Was not as successful as many had hoped, and the
slow process of searching continued.

Speaker 13 (09:06):
A presidential blessing as a second night prepares to fall
in Upshur County and still no word from thirteen miners
trap two hundred and sixty feet below the surface.

Speaker 14 (09:15):
May God bless those who are a trapped below the earth,
and may God bless those who are concerned about those trapped.

Speaker 5 (09:22):
Below the earth.

Speaker 13 (09:23):
At this point in the night, to International Co Group officials,
the company that owns the Sego Minor Buchanan are apporting
progress getting into that mind the Governor, Joe Manchin spokesperson
Laura Ramsburg says that progress of this hour is not
as fast as earlier today.

Speaker 15 (09:37):
Much closer to where we believe the miners are or
where the incident of the explosion occurred. The problem is
the closer you get to that, the slower the going is.
Because you're dealing with debris, you're dealing with some gas concern.

Speaker 16 (09:52):
Now.

Speaker 10 (09:52):
Rescuers reached the trapped miners late on the third day
of the ordeal, and things begin to happen quickly.

Speaker 9 (09:57):
It was late at night when someone told me that
they found them alive. I just knew what the air
quality samples that were coming back. That would have been
a true, absolute miracle because the air quality was so bad.
We heard the god awfuless celebration at the church. Somehow
they intercepted that and someone told them they found them alive.

Speaker 17 (10:23):
Just a few moments ago we heard sirens and cheers.
We have now found out that twelve miners are alive.
They have found them inside the mine. There was a
lot of excitement here at the entrance to say go online,
a lot of people very happy.

Speaker 10 (10:36):
But mentioned recall having a pit in his stomach at
that moment, hoping it was true, but knowing it probably wasn't.

Speaker 9 (10:42):
And then we found out that that's not accurate. There's
only one person that still had a pulse that was alive.
Nobody wanted to go out and say anything, so I said,
I've got to talk to the families. So I went
into the church and I said, there has been an
absolutely horrible, horrible miscommunication and I I am so sorry,

(11:09):
but we only have one person. That's a lie. The
rest were not able to survive. And I mean the
place went crazy.

Speaker 17 (11:18):
The mood has gone from joy to outrage here at
the Sago Baptist Church. The families of the twelve miners
they were told who were alive, who were being brought
out of mind, they have now been informed only one
of those miners made it out. He has been taken
to Ruby Memorial Hospital and is in critical condition. Some

(11:38):
of these families absolutely do not want to talk to
the media. Others are speaking out. They are yelling and outrage.
They say they cannot believe they were told one thing
that their family members were alive, and then were told
one hour later that eleven were dead.

Speaker 18 (11:54):
Don't tell us one thing and then let us rejoice
and praise God.

Speaker 6 (11:58):
You know, hey, our guys are alive.

Speaker 14 (12:01):
You know hey, they're going to get.

Speaker 19 (12:02):
To come home.

Speaker 18 (12:03):
And then just like pull the rug off from underneath
of us.

Speaker 13 (12:07):
They said, it's a miscommunication. Come on, you come in
and tell all these people that have been waiting here,
and you got twelve.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
You got twelve guys coming out.

Speaker 12 (12:17):
The only confirmed survivor is Randall L. McCloy junior, who
has now been rushed to a local hospital in serious condition.
The eleven remaining miners in the barricade structure were determined
by the medical technicians on the rescue team to have
already deceased.

Speaker 10 (12:33):
Hadfield addressed reporters after the miscommunication and was asked how
it happened.

Speaker 12 (12:37):
But that information spread like wildfire because it had come
from the command center, but it was it was a
bad information.

Speaker 10 (12:43):
It would later be learned that speaking through a rescue
mask into a crackling radio, the message that there was
one alive was misconstrued as the excitement built in the
command center, and the information got to the church via
a text from somebody in the command center. Said, to
this day, facing those families after that erroneous report was

(13:04):
the hardest thing he has ever had to.

Speaker 9 (13:05):
Do as a human being. Forget about the leadership, forget
about being a politician, but going out and giving be
the bearer of such horrific news. I never forget it.
It'll never leave me, Chris.

Speaker 10 (13:18):
Investigators would eventually conclude the explosion was a result of
lightning striking a steel vent pipe, which sent a spark
into a sealed area of the mind below. The explosion
blew out the seals and allowed carbon monoxide to seep
into the active mine area.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
Now.

Speaker 10 (13:32):
Investigators would later learn from McCloy himself that several of
the scsrs carried by each miner to provide emergency air
didn't work. They were outdated or damaged from years of
being carried on miner's work belts and never changed out.
The disaster led to new legislation that requires the stashing
of caches of oxygen in the mine and the creation

(13:53):
of required rescue chambers underground. McCloy would recover against all
odds from carbon monoxide poisoning, and he was spectfully declined
being interviewed for this documentary. Today, in the yard the
Sego Baptist Church, a memorial still stands bearing the names
of the twelve miners who were killed in the Sego
mine twenty years ago. Today, I'm Chris Lawrence, Wdvmetronews Dot

(14:15):
com and we'll.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Talk to Chris. When we come back, we'll take a
quick break. We'll talk to Chris about covering that disaster
twenty years ago. Today at the Sego Mine in Upster County.
This is talk Line Metro News from the Encobe Insurance Studios.

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Speaker 2 (15:53):
Chris Lawrence joins us from Demention New Studios in Charleston.
It's twenty years ago today that the Sega mine disaster occurred.
Twelve miners were killed after lightning struck the mind. Chris
Lawrence joins us. Chris, good morning, Glad you could join us.
Take me back to breaking this story because it's a

(16:15):
weird time of the year. People were finishing up some
time off, were coming off holidays. Half the crew is
in Atlanta for the Sugar Bowl and kind of pick
it up from there.

Speaker 19 (16:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 10 (16:26):
In fact, right after the morning news I started getting
texts and calls from I got a call from someone
in in that area that said, we just heard like
lightning just hit and it hit something on top of
this mountain. Because people were actually calling the newsroom and
they said, you know, I don't know what it was,

(16:47):
but it was a really loud sound and about that,
and then someone called and said, they're rushing a lot
of emergency crews to this mine. And as you said,
Taklan was originating that more from Atlanta, and Jeff Jenkins
was in Atlanta covering the game at that time. He
traveled with the Mountaineers, and Hoppy was in Atlanta and

(17:09):
Senator at the time, Governor Mansion was in Atlanta as
well for the game, and that's when Jeff texted me
and said, Mansion's coming on talk line. We've had a
mine explosion. And so that was the first that it
was reported, was when Governor Mansion came on with Hoppy
and pretty much laid out what he knew, which was

(17:30):
not a lot other than there had been an explosion
and there were thirteen miners unaccounted for. It happened during
a shift change, as one crew was going in the
other crew was coming out. The crew that was coming
out made it to the surface, but the other guys
had not been heard from since it occurred. And that's
pretty much how it started to develop, and we moved

(17:52):
on from there. So as things moved on and time progressed,
Mansions quote in your piece, which was very well done,
by the way, all of a sudden we heard the
god awful list celebration at the church. That came a
little bit later on because they Mansion came back to
West Virginia.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
He and his people went to.

Speaker 10 (18:13):
Tallmansville and the families had sequestered themselves in the Sego
Baptist Church, which is a stone's throw from the mine,
and the worldwide media was in the art of that
church and Mansion, and the president of International Cold at
the time, the late Ben Hatfield, were coming out and Mansion,

(18:36):
as he stated in that peace, he wanted to make
sure that they stayed informed. He said, even if we
didn't have anything to report, I wanted to report to
him just to you know, to keep the uncertainty now.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
So they were doing that.

Speaker 10 (18:48):
They were coming out every two hours and giving these
updates and then they come out and update the media. Well,
I guess they got to a point where they found
the man trip with one of the men was dead,
but they couldn't find anybody else. And they also found
evidence around the man trip of they had deployed their
scsrs those self contained self rescuers is what that stands for.

(19:08):
And it's an hour supply of oxygen to be used
in an emergency, and they saw where they had I
guess there were some discarded things that from that process
that were there. They went, okay, well they survived the blast.
They're alive, or at least they were, and that's when
they decided they're probably at the face because that's what
they're trained to do. So but I guess it was

(19:29):
it took a long time for the crews because the
air was so bad in there, and they were you know,
it was exhausting work what they were doing anyway, wearing
all that equipment, so it was taking time, and of
course they were trying to get to them. And when
they finally got back there and found the miners, they
noticed that Randall McCloy was alive. They got a pulse

(19:50):
on him and they started CPR and working on him
to get him out. And when they were trying to
communicate back to the surface what they had found, as
it was told to the to the Inquiry later, the
Board of Inquiry that was that was looking into what
happened here. Apparently the man talking to the guys at

(20:13):
the surface had a mask on, and you know, there
was a lot of excitement anyway, and the communication from
the from down in the mind of the surface was garbled,
and he said and he said one alive, all others dead,
or something like that. Well he got misconstrued. Mansion said
he that somebody told him they found all of them alive.

(20:35):
And he said, I don't know how that could happen.
And then they heard that the bells start ringing and
sirens at the church because somebody had leaked that information
out to the families. And an hour later they had
to go back to that church and make that horrific
announcement in the church that in fact, that was wrong
and that only one had survived.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
The rest were dead, believe, and that made an awful
situation even worse. Hard to believe.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
It has been twenty years since that disaster. They're in
Upshur County. Chris, awesome job on the mini documentary there,
and there's a piece up at wv Metro news dot
com where you talk to then Governor Joe Manchin about
that day in that series of events. Chris, appreciate you
stopping by, Buddy. All right, man coming up, Hoppy Kirchwell

(21:22):
going to join us. We haven't talked to hop in
a couple of days, we'll get his thoughts, what's rolling
around in his mind heading into twenty twenty six. He
will join us later on Chris Starwalt will stop by
and just because it's day two of three hundred and
sixty five, you might have some steam to let off.
We'll do Steam release one hour from now. This is
talk line on Metro News for forty years, the voice

(21:44):
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 10 (21:55):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Chris Lawrence's Artificial intelligence continues
to develop. The world world seems to see the technology
with an air of wonderment as to what it can do,
but also a sense of concern because of its power.
Joel Farkes is a professor at ww Parkersburg and serves
as chair of the State Advisory Council on Faculty. He
recently delivered a report to the Council that about AI

(22:16):
and said it's a great tool for good but in education,
it's also a great tool for cheating.

Speaker 22 (22:20):
Is that the point now where you can't trust the
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all like pencil and paper. I mean, I mean in
some cases literally pencil and paper because they just can't
trust that students are doing their work outside class without AI, and.

Speaker 10 (22:41):
He said ww Parkersburg allows departments to implement AI policies,
but not all have done so. Preston County Sheriff's deputy
said a Christmas Eve crash has claimed to life. A
press release from the Sheriff's department indicated deputies were dispatched
to Tunnelden, where three people were involved in an accident
that left one dead.

Speaker 1 (22:58):
The name of the victim not released.

Speaker 10 (23:00):
In Fayette County, a Christmas Eve crashes also under investigation
after the vehicle there ran into a home and caused
major damage. The driver suffered serious injuries and has been
hospitalized ever since, and debuties say because of those injuries,
their investigation has been moving slowly, so they've been unable
to complete the probe or decide whether any criminal charges
will be file. You're listening to Matter News for forty

(23:21):
years the boys of West Virginia.

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Speaker 10 (24:22):
We told you New Year's Day about Brian Dingis of Chapmanville,
who was attempting to run one hundred miles and twenty
four hours to bring in the new year. He started
then run at Chapmanville Regional High School's track at seven
am New Year's Eve. Well, he finished up the one
hundred miles a little before six am on New Year's Day.
He did it in under twenty three hours. A lot
of folks showed up to help run with him and

(24:43):
offer their support. Donations were directed to the Morning Star
and Free Will Baptist Church from the Metro New's ANCHOREDESK.
I'm Chris Lawrence.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Text line is three or four Talk three or four
phone numbers eight hundred and seven six five talk eight
hundred and seven six five eight two five five those
you are two ways to weigh in steam release. We're
gonna do it today, even though it's only day two
of twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
You can vent.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
I I don't know what you'd have to vent about, TJ.
I mean, the year's one day old. But if you
have something to vent about, please by all means, well.

Speaker 8 (25:41):
There's plenty of spillover surely, I mean you don't you
don't have to vent about twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
We are twenty five spillover. Aren't you supposed to leave
that in twenty twenty five?

Speaker 7 (25:52):
Though?

Speaker 1 (25:52):
No, Yeah, that's what you start. You're fresh.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
It's like a it's like a big giant whiteboard, like
Brad mcklhenny's house. He's got a big giant whiteboard and
there's nothing on it right now.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
TJ. That's how you start the year, unfettered by your burdens.
I guess I'm weird.

Speaker 8 (26:10):
I still remember what happened in twenty twenty five, twenty
twenty four, twenty twenty three. That's how you learn, that's
how you grow, That's how you reflect to become a
better person. You can't just bury everything in the past.
Now you can reconcile with it. But in this case,
what two days into the year, one and a half days?

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Whatever it is? Yeah, sure, why not.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
By the way, the Chapmanville man that Chris Lawrence just discussed,
Brian Dingis who decided he was going to run one
hundred miles and twenty four hours.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
Good on him.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
He's going to join Dave and Amanda coming up on
Metro News at midday and there we'll get to the
bottom of why anyone would want to run in the
first place, but secondly run one hundred miles and twenty
four hours to get the year started going on him though.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
I couldn't do that pace. Could you do four miles
an hour?

Speaker 16 (26:58):
No?

Speaker 2 (26:59):
I couldn't do a mile an hour, dude, I know
I appear on camera to be a in the epitome
of physical budness for TJ. You know who could do
that pace? I guarantee you who could do that pace?
The host Ameritis happy Kerchival probably is an Adonis from
what I'm told, Hoppy, good morning.

Speaker 7 (27:18):
Not exactly. I could do four miles an hour for
a couple miles, not one hundred.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
You're a biker, do you do you run at all?

Speaker 7 (27:27):
Not as much anymore. I mean I don't like the cold,
so not out running the cold.

Speaker 16 (27:32):
I do.

Speaker 7 (27:32):
I do try to exercise, and like nigans of other people,
I've started the new year thinking I have to exercise
more this year, so we'll try to do a better
drive on that front. But one hundred miles and twenty
four hours, No, that's not on the agenda for twenty
twenty six.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
So what is on the agene?

Speaker 2 (27:47):
What are you looking forward to or what's on your
mind as we start this new year.

Speaker 7 (27:51):
Well, interesting you should ask, because I made a list
and for twenty twenty six and of what I think
are the bigger store ries and off your elections. I
think that's huge. That's going to just demand a lot
of coverage in West Virginia and nationally as the makeup
of Congress will change, the West Virginia Legislature will change.

(28:12):
But the question is how much in West Virginia will
Republicans continue to dominate? Will be successful primary challenges because
now with Republicans West Virginia, there's divisions within the Republican party.
Will Democrats successfully stop the slide? Nationally? The midterm elections
may be an indicator of what's going to happen in

(28:33):
the presidential election and presidential potential presidential candidates for positioning
themselves back in West Virginia. What's the Supreme Court going
to do on childhood vaccines? The West Virginia Legislature, which
you guys will cover very thoroughly by being there. House
Speaker Roger Hanshaw is that he wants to focus on
economic issues, but as we all know, in the legislative session,
other issues pop up. How will AI continue to change

(28:59):
anything in everything? And you know, expect the unexpected. We
can't really see into the future, so be prepared for that.
What's going to happen in Ukraine, the Middle East, on
and on in this uh, human nature being what it is,
A few people will do terrible things that will generate

(29:20):
disturbing news. That's inevitable. But there will be less well
publicized stories or no stories at all, of many people
who will do amazing things and will be generous and
empathetic with family and friends and total strangers, and those instances,
unlike TJ, give me hope for the future, Lincoln said.

(29:44):
Lincoln said, at least distributed to him. The best way
to predict the future is to create it. And so
I try to head into twenty twenty six, and I'm
not the most optimistic person, is hopeful. It is hopeful
that human interactions, the positive human interactions that occur every minute,
every day, will outweigh the few negative things that people

(30:11):
do in comparison.

Speaker 8 (30:13):
Well, just for the record, so far this year, I
have not turned to my wife after witnessing something stupid
and said, hey, let's just wave the big white flag
to China. Now, honey, I haven't done that yet, Hoppy,
So I'm trying to be optimistic to some degree. Talk
AI with me for a second. You mentioned that, would
you agree that those who embrace artificial intelligence, learn to

(30:33):
use it as a tool, see it for what it is,
will be better off than those who try to run
from it?

Speaker 5 (30:39):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (30:39):
Yeah, absolutely absolutely, because I think that the positive side,
and I just know what I read and think about,
is that the positive side of AI is it is
and will be this incredible tool economically, medically, socially, But
like with a lot of significant inventions, it will also

(30:59):
have a town and we don't know how extensive that
downside will be, right, I mean, I worry a little
bit that. And I've said we're in a post truth era,
and with AI, and with the rapid advancements in AI,
we may be entering a post reality era, which will
make it even harder for individuals to determine fact from fiction,

(31:20):
truth from falsity, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (31:24):
Let me give you a really bad example, but I'm
going to try to make this work. Do you remember
when instant replay first came out on television broadcast and
people didn't understand that it was instant replay. The thought
the same what the guy just scort another touchdown? That
was a thing when instant replay first came out, But
the younger people figured it out right.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Okay, So here's my bad analogy.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
I think the younger generation for us who are older
and who are going to have to adapt to AI,
for the people who are going to grow up with it,
For my nieces and nephews who are five years old,
four years old, and who are going to grow up
with it, I think they're going to have a keener
eye than we give them credit for. I think they
will grow up having a better understanding and having a

(32:07):
better sense of being able to pick out what is
fake what is real. They're going to grow up in
this environment where we didn't have to. We didn't and
we had to learn it at an at a more
seasoned age, if you will.

Speaker 1 (32:21):
That's my that's my optimism.

Speaker 7 (32:23):
I'll agree with you that the instant replays a bad analogy.

Speaker 25 (32:26):
It is.

Speaker 1 (32:26):
It's terrible. But that's best I come up with is
that I.

Speaker 7 (32:30):
Think that's an optimistic way to look at it. And
but I think that sits into what I said is that. Look,
it's going to be this incredible tool that can make
advancements in a variety of fields that we can't even
imagine today. But again, like something that is that is
that powerful, it's going to be misused by some and
that's that's the other side of that coin, and that's

(32:52):
a that's a concern, and I'm I guess I'm just
that I think there's a legitimate concern because it's the
future of that is unknowable. Even some of the top
top individuals who are creating AI admit we don't know
what it's going to do. So I guess I'm glad

(33:17):
I'm not going to be around probably in twenty years
to see what happened.

Speaker 8 (33:21):
Well, and we didn't know what the internet was going
to do. I think AI will end up being you know,
garbage in, garbage out. It's how effective somebody can use
the tool.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
If you know how to be a.

Speaker 8 (33:30):
Good prompt master, we may have a new career a
prompt master, just like a webmaster was new to the Internet.
The better the prompt, the better the results. So, you know,
if you know how to use it, I think it'll
it'll be a tool. If you don't know how to
use it, garbage in, garbage out. I could be wrong
about that, but that's the way I see it.

Speaker 7 (33:47):
I feel like about what about what about those who
who learn really how to use it and use it
to exploit. I think it's a more powerful tool to
learn and accomplished. It's a more powerful tool to mislead
swindle those things.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
Nothing new under the sun. The way I look at it.
People are people.

Speaker 8 (34:08):
If they're a devious they use anything that comes down
the pike to be devious. If they're of goodwill and
good faith, they'll use it for that. But that's a
very simplistic analysis on my part. I'll admit that I
feel like shifting gears back to some of the stories
you talked about. I feel like the morris the administration,
the legislature, but I'll put more of the onus on

(34:30):
the Morrissey administration. I feel like they need a signature
economic development win, and they need it early in this session.
The honeymoon is over. We haven't heard of data Center yet.
The couple of power plants that we've talked about were
already in the pipeline and moving forward, I feel like
that administration and this legislature needs a signature economic development
win as part of something that needs to happen in

(34:52):
twenty six.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Am I right or wrong?

Speaker 7 (34:55):
Yeah? I think that's fair. What Jim Justice, whatever you
think of Jim Justice, his administration had a lot of
economic wins. I mean a lot. Now, not all of
them hit, but many of them did for a variety
of reasons. And as you all have talked about, Governor
Morrissey has talked about last year's focus was all on

(35:17):
economic development. But I'm not sure, I mean, does that
resonate to people feel that I don't recall that many
economic wins in twenty twenty five to you.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Oh, there were none. That's what I'm getting at.

Speaker 8 (35:29):
I feel like, at least for the business community, and
so goes our economy in West Virginia. I think so
goes West Virginia. I feel like that was absent in
twenty five and you got to turn it up a
notch in twenty six.

Speaker 7 (35:40):
So yeah, yeah, I would agree. And House Speaker Roger
Hanshall has said that's his number one priority. But again
in the legislature, sometimes the tab will wag the dog
and something else will come up, and that'll suck a
out of oxygen out of the Capitol and it'll go
in some off off in some weird direction. Right, So

(36:01):
that happens too.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
I'll be Kurtzwell joining us here on Metro News talk line.
Democrats stop the slide? If what happens? If they win
a seat in the Senate two seats? What do Democrats
have to do to make you raise your eyebrow?

Speaker 7 (36:15):
This is groundbreaking. Get better and more candidates, and raise
more money and have a message that resonates with people.
And it's harder for them to get candidates because so
many who would have been moderate Democrats have switched to
the Republican Party because that's their best avenue to get elected.
So where are the moderate Democrats who have a chance.

(36:40):
A lot of them have become Republicans. And if you're
a far left Democrat in West Virginia, you have almost
zero chants. And some of them will emerge, I mean
some of them already are, and they just don't in
this state. They just don't have a chance. So how
does the Democratic Party stop the slide? And I think
it's getting more and better candidates and moderate candidates, get

(37:02):
some candidates with some money and go out and run
effective campaigns. Do what the Republicans did thirty years ago,
and the template is there, and they started by getting
by filling races, getting in some they couldn't in every
but getting in at least some instances, qualified candidates, and

(37:24):
running better campaigns.

Speaker 8 (37:27):
This lockout of Independence in the primary, can Democrats successfully
connect with them? Will the message resonate enough that an
independent would want to throw an elbow? They traditionally lean
conservative and say, you know what, fine, I'll vote for
the moderate Democrat this time.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
How does that play well?

Speaker 7 (37:43):
I think that if I were heading the Democratic strategy,
I would say to Independence, I would target them and say,
the Republican Party has said specifically they don't want you.
They have turned their backs on you. The fact that
they don't want you in the primary means they don't
want to hear from you. Do so there's there's an
opportunity there because independence make up what a twenty five.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
Something like that. I'll pull the numbers, but you're in
the ballpark, yeah, of all registered voters.

Speaker 7 (38:14):
So to me, when the Republicans did that, because that
to me, by shutting off independence, that is a that's
almost like an egotistical move we are so big and
we're so bad, we don't need to hear from independence anymore.
And technically that's true, especially when it comes to their primary.
But so they have shut the door on independence. That

(38:35):
means there's thousands of you know, two hundred and some
thousand right individuals that are there and looking for a
home in the primary.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
He's Hoppy kirchwe You can read his commentary this morning
over at WV Metro Neewes dot com as he looks
back on year one of semi kind of sort of retirement.
Hop always appreciate it, buddy, Thanks for stopping by today.

Speaker 7 (38:57):
Thank you guys. You guys did a great job eating
the previous host who was aging out, and I wish
you continued success in twenty twenty six. Keep up the
great work.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
Thank you very much, Hoppy Kerchievill host emeritis here on Talkline.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Coming up.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Ryan Schmells wants to gloat. We'll let him right after this.

Speaker 26 (39:17):
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all ages and skill levels, including the mountaineers. So whether
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Speaker 27 (39:47):
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(40:09):
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Speaker 5 (40:29):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Encova Insurance and
circling you with coverage to protect what you care about most.
Visit NCOVA dot com to learn more.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
It's got to Washington, DC. Fox News Radios. Ryan Schmels
joins us, Ryan, how are you today?

Speaker 28 (40:50):
I'm feeling great. I'm a little tired, obviously, I had
to work. But yeah, now, when you pull off the
greatest win in your football program's history, you feel pretty good.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
Were you feeling confident when they lined up for the
field goal there with about six seconds left?

Speaker 28 (41:08):
Well, considering that the kicker had booted like two field
goals prior to that, they were farther than in the
distance that we asked him to kick that field goal,
I was feeling pretty confident. I mean, he's gonna have
a statue built outside of the stadium probably by next
week after that kick. So yeah, I was feeling pretty confident.
But there's always that feeling of doubt. But ye, man,

(41:30):
he made it, So we're good, Toddy, haughty Toddy.

Speaker 7 (41:36):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
So who's up next? Let's see. I'm trying to I
don't have the bracket in front of me. Oh you
got that?

Speaker 28 (41:43):
They played my Yeah. And it's funny too, because you know,
I believe you know, it's like when you look at
Miami and Old Miss. I mean like if they would
have just the game being in Atlanta, which is where
the other games being played, would have been very convenient
for both I think fan bases. I mean it's like
a five hour drive from Mississippi. It's like a you know,

(42:05):
a couple hours for from Florida too. It would have
been very convenient for it to be there, but instead
they're going to make us all go all the way
up there board so oh well, oh well will you go?

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Can you get there?

Speaker 28 (42:18):
The Fiesta of All might be a little hard to
pull off in less than a week, but the National
Championship Game is a different story. My parents actually lived
at Florida, so that would be very realistic for me
to pull off.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
Yeah, that's in Miami. I can see you pulling that
one off. Now you got to get there first, Ryan.

Speaker 28 (42:37):
Yeah, well, my parents lived two hours away, so I mean.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
Miss has got to get to the You're already booked, No,
it's no doubt.

Speaker 28 (42:43):
Yeah yeah, yeah, oh okay, well yeah, well you got
to book these things like in advance if you want
to actually like you know, not blow all your money.
If you do it the last minute, then then you
go broke. Yeah you got you know, that's right. They
have the twenty four to seven cancelation policies and stuff
like that. It's the note change fees on those flights,
so heyka, prepare for these things.

Speaker 8 (43:04):
So it's twenty twenty six. I'll give my first bit
of advice. Or you could just watch it on TV
and take that money and put it in an index
fund and grow your tire good.

Speaker 28 (43:12):
Well, that's that's that's what I'm doing about the Fiesta Bowl.
That's probably the better move there.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
Invested money for the Fiesta Bowl, go to the national championship.

Speaker 15 (43:21):
I got it.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
Yeah, So okay, let we got about I got about
a minute here.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
But I have to ask an old miss rebel, genuine
old miss rebel. Does it make it sweeter knowing Kiffin
left because Kiffin didn't believe he could win a national
championship there?

Speaker 28 (43:37):
It's pretty surreal that that is kind of what is
playing out right now, and that, you know, Pete Golding
considering this only a second game. I don't know if
there's ever been a better two game debut than what
Pete Golden's done, you know, winning a college football playoff
game and dominating Fashion at home, and then now winning
the Sugar Bowl and going to the semi finals. I mean,
that's that's quite the way to start things off right.

Speaker 8 (44:00):
Not bad, it's not bad, Ryan, But there's no risk
if you're kiffing. He gets the big buyouts. You know,
he can afford to have his eyes bigger than his stomach.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
There's no risk.

Speaker 28 (44:11):
Yeah, I mean, you know if he if he I mean,
you look at somebody at kipping and he adds a
national title to his resume and that's uh, that gets
you into the Hall of Fame probably, But you know
he's not going to have that right now unless he
wins one of the ms fews. So you know, he
made his decision. He's got to live with it.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yeah, worked out for Brian Kelly. There was no risk there,
worked out for him.

Speaker 28 (44:31):
No risk.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
All right, Ryan, we'll talk about Congress next week. It'll
still be there, it'll still be dysfunctional. We'll get a
we'll get an update next week. But congratulations so far
on the Rebels.

Speaker 28 (44:42):
Hey, thank you gentlemen, Happy New Y're in. Thanks for
letting me come on and celebrate.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Absolutely, Ryan Smells, Fox News Radio and our resident Ole
Miss Rebel. We'll take a break. Wrap up the first hour.
This is talk line from the en Cove Insurance Studios.

Speaker 1 (44:57):
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To care for you at the plan.

Speaker 18 (45:21):
We are here, Principal Greg Dash of m Tech.

Speaker 30 (45:28):
Thanks to funding impart from West Virginia Lottery proceeds, we're
expanding m Tech with a new stem.

Speaker 18 (45:33):
Edition across West Virginia.

Speaker 31 (45:35):
Opportunities like these are made possible when you play, helping
to ensure more students can discover their future right here
at home. For forty years, proceeds from the West Virginia
Lottery for Education have totaled four point one billion dollars
West Virginia Lottery eighteen plus to play play responsibly.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
I did see this story and thought of you, TJ Go.
The US is stepping back from imposing trade killing duties
on Italian pasta makers.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
Don't worry about any excessive tariffs on your Italian pasta
being imported into the United States. The US Commerce Department
had said it would slap anti dumping duties of ninety
two percent on Italy's main pasta exporters as soon as January. However,
the Trump administration is going to be rolling that back.
So we're tackling the big issues, buddy.

Speaker 8 (46:47):
Tariffs or taxes protection stuff. Yeah, tariffs or taxes protectionism
is dumb free market. Yeah, man, do we have a
big American pasta production industry here? I have no clue,
but I would say I mean a lot of the
processed food companies I'm sure do a lot.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
So you ever get you ever get true homemade pasta? Yes?

Speaker 8 (47:10):
My wife actually has a lot of Hungarian recipes and
she does a lot of dumplings in different Hungarian kinds
of noodles and things like that.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
So absolutely making me hungry.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
This is talk a lot of metro News, the Voice
of West Virginia.

Speaker 5 (47:28):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Incova Insurance, encircling
you with coverage to protect what you care about most.
Visit incova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
Metro News talk Line already in progress. Second hour of
twenty twenty six Dave Wilson to Morgantown, TJ Meadows in Charleston.
Either way, it's the Encove Insurance Studios. Zach Carrolcheck is
our video producer and our audio producer is Sophia Wassick
eight hundreds and sixty five Talk eight hundred and seven
sixty five eight two five five.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
That's the phone number.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Three oh four Talk three oh four is the text
line Steam release coming up bottom of the hour.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
We will offer you an opportunity.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
It's events if you're carrying over steam from twenty twenty five,
maybe you're an Ohio state fan. Probably not in this state,
but if you are, there is the possibility you would
want to release some steam, and we all feel very
badly for you. TJ and Charles Morning, TJ.

Speaker 8 (48:29):
Good morning, sir. I'm scrolling through Facebook. You know, I
went off Facebook for about a week. Probably a good idea,
good idea.

Speaker 1 (48:36):
Some good news though.

Speaker 8 (48:37):
Denise Morrissey, the first lady here in West Virginia, announcing
on her social media about seven hours ago that her granddaughter,
Lucille Marie born two fifty nine am January the second,
in Morgantown, her daughter Julia, the Governor's daughter, Julia, welcoming
a new grandshawk, Lucille Marie. Yeah, that's awesome, that's just awesome.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
Congratulations. That's much more uplifting than what I was going
to bring up to you. I was just going to
try to needle you a little bit, and see if
you are ready to embrace the warmth of collectivism in
New York City like a big giant bear hug.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
TJ Yeah, uh, you.

Speaker 8 (49:18):
Know, Lennon called from the grave and said, hey, I
want my speech back. I think is the best way
to describe that. Just wow, wow, don't get me started.
But you know what, that's fine.

Speaker 1 (49:32):
Try that.

Speaker 8 (49:33):
You know what will happen. It will fail, so go
ahead try it. Everybody needs a reminder every now and
then that communism is bad, So go ahead.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
But we'll all get free bus rides. But anyway, speaking
of wraps around you like a big warm hug, Chris Tirewalt,
politics editor for The Hill and News Nation, host of
The Hill Sunday on News Nation, Senior Fellow and American
Enterprise Institute and best selling author, joins us Chris, good morning,
Happy New Year.

Speaker 6 (50:00):
No one has ever said that about me. I mean
my wife hopefully, But I don't think anybody has ever
described me as being that. I've pride myself, in fact,
on being a little prickly. You got to keep it
a little prickly in this business.

Speaker 2 (50:15):
What was it Rush used to call himself the lovable
little fuzzball? So that that you're not the lovable little fuzzball.

Speaker 32 (50:22):
No.

Speaker 25 (50:22):
I you know.

Speaker 6 (50:23):
The thing is in this business, if you want to
do your job well, or you want to serve your audience,
like I don't, I think you have to be if
you want to do this work, you kind of have
to like to be the skunk at the garden party.
And I always start to feel uncomfortable when too many

(50:46):
people agree with me on too many things. So you
got to, like, you got to look for your shots
so that right when any branch or division or subgroup,
uh politically or idiologically is cheering me on too much,
I always have to sure to say something that they
don't like.

Speaker 8 (51:02):
Doesn't that bring you some stress though, Chris? At times
that that people may not I mean, I know, you
don't have to have everyone agree with you. You don't
need that personally. I get that, But does it ever
stress you out a little bit that a lot of
people maybe they want to go after you for what
you think or what you write.

Speaker 6 (51:16):
I don't care.

Speaker 28 (51:17):
I mean.

Speaker 6 (51:18):
The the thing, certainly, you know, when you have people
threaten your family, when you have people say these awful things.
This is true, but this is also a good reason
not to go on Twitter. I find your whole concept
of steam release and when Hoppy did it just it's
like the antithesis of everything that I like about the business,

(51:43):
which is this is what I think. I'm putting it
out there, I'm reporting it, I'm doing whatever, and if
you don't like it, you're William F. Buckley used to
they published compendiums of his responses to readers, and in
my newsletter, people can write in and I try to
engage with them, even people who are only at seventy

(52:06):
percent good face, sixty five percent good faith. I will
engage with those folks, even if they're crummy, even if
they're insulting. I will even take their criticism sincerely. But
the people who are just looking for engagement or looking
for action, looking for to feel the satisfying. There was

(52:27):
a guy, uh, there was a pundit one time who
wrote a book called The Joy of Hate. I don't
feel it. I don't feel the joy of hate. And
I think people who do feel the joy of hate
are It's not real joy, right, It's not. It's not
real joy.

Speaker 28 (52:43):
So William F.

Speaker 6 (52:44):
Buckley used to respond to the reader, I call it
the mail bag. I don't know what they called it
in William F. Buckley's text, but he would and they
put together a compendium of his responses which were really interesting,
and they called the book cancel your own blank blank subscription,
which was his response when people would write it and

(53:06):
they and cancel my subscription. He said, well, you can
cancel your own blank link subscription. And I feel that
I like that energy. I'm putting it out there. If
you don't like it, listen to something else, watch something else.
I'm trying in good faith. I want to engage with
people who are engaging in good faith, people who are
just upset about stuff and they think it'll make them
feel better to be rotten. I got no time.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Chris dar Well joining us here. I'll mentioned his talk line. Chris,
I've been itching to ask you about this because it
seems like a subject that would have been perfect for
the former Inkstained Wretch's podcast Sixty Minutes CBS News Barry Weise.
She pulls the story, the piece on the maximum security
prison and El Salvador. Then there was a leaked memo

(53:50):
about some editorial changes she wanted to make. You are
an experienced Inkstained Wretch, what do you make of this situation.

Speaker 6 (53:59):
Well, I think the the folks at sixty minutes were
waiting for their chance, right, what's our chance? They had
a narrative and I don't want to say everybody at
sixty minutes, but the folks who had those feelings had
prefigured what their feelings were going to be, and they

(54:19):
were waiting for the opportunity to say, Aha, and this
is it, and now we have it. And the matter
that they chose was I think the error that Barry
Weiss made was that she waited too long in the
process to raise reasonable concerns about it. I watched the

(54:40):
leaked content and it was nothing new. It was depressing,
but it was not a new It didn't advance the story. Particularly,
We've all heard the horror stories. We know what a
miserably sort of intentionally cruel, awful idea that this open

(55:02):
air prison camp and sending people. We know the story about,
for example, the hairdresser who was not a gang member
and being a gay man thrown into this facility was
a nightmare. I can't I can't imagine, thank God, and
the other stories of but the barbarism of the administration
is the point they think that's good. So this story

(55:25):
using a lot of content from the administration. That is,
christin Numb wants you to know that she doesn't care.
She wrote about shooting a dog in her book, right,
she wants you to know that she's not nice. And
this took that same content and whipped it back up
into a Sioux flea. And what Barry Weiss told the

(55:45):
people at sixty minutes is this doesn't advance the story.
And she had a point. Now, she shouldn't have waited
until the Friday before the Sunday, but she so they
were waiting for their chance to go after her. They
blasted around this. I think it was an imperfect opportunity.

(56:06):
They should if they were waiting, they should have waited longer,
because I don't think it's unreasonable to say, yeah, you
should get viewpoints from the administration in this, yet you
should advance the story, not just roll around in it
like a dog and a dead deer.

Speaker 8 (56:21):
I want to turn to Mayor Mom Donnie, who said
yesterday we will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with
the warmth of collectivism. I know what I think about that.
What do you think about that?

Speaker 15 (56:35):
Well?

Speaker 6 (56:35):
I think that if the mayor of New York were
a powerful enough position to do the things that Zorn
Mam Donnie wants to do. It probably wouldn't work. But
I think is the blessing and the curse for him
is that he doesn't have that kind of authority. He

(56:56):
doesn't have that kind of power. And I admire his
He didn't pivot right, and he made a point, I'm
not pivoting. They told me to pivot. I don't want
to pivot. I'm going to be the person who you
voted for. And I admire that he's saying, this is
what I ran on, this is what I'm going to do.
It's a very sort of Trumpian promises made, promises kept.

(57:19):
I don't care if if everybody doesn't like it, I'm
going to do it anyway. I think the frustrations of
governing a dysfunctional factionalized on full of different enclaves, full
of different interest groups. It's to him, I say good luck.
And I also you echo a sentiment that George Will expressed,

(57:45):
which was it's probably good periodically for a market economy
and for Madisonian democracy to see the other tribe right.
And what happened in New York the last time they
had somebody this progressive. It was John Lindsay, the winsome
boy mayor of the nineteen sixties, and it did not

(58:07):
end well. Right, It was a very similar situation. He
was of a movement of a group of people of
a time, and it didn't work well. I wish him luck.
I wish New York luck. But New York is very,
very hard to govern. And the reason that they ended
up with Michael Bloomberg as this successful popular governor mayor

(58:29):
was that they had tried a bunch of other stuff
and found it wanting.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
Chris Tirewalt joining us here, I'll mentioned his talk line
politics editor for The Hill and News Nation, host of
The Hill Sunday. How will the Democrat Party be watching
New York, Chris to as it develops its platform looking
ahead to twenty twenty eight or is this an indication
of what's coming in twenty twenty eight.

Speaker 6 (58:52):
Well, New York is not like the rest of the country.
New York is not like the rest of the country
anymore or even more than what a Republican primary in
West Virginia would produce, and whether that would be saleable
in the rest of the country. West Virginia is about
is republican is New York. It's a little less republican

(59:14):
than New York is Democratic, but it's a similar idea,
and what you can pitch and what you can talk
about to primary voters in West Virginia is not something
that's going to work. Here's the way I think about it.
The primary election turnout across the country this year will
be about the same as it was in twenty twenty four,
and about the same as it will be in twenty

(59:34):
twenty eight. We have low primary turnouts every cycle, but
it doesn't go up in presidential years. Stay's about the same.
The difference is who's in the rest of the electorate.
So if there's let's say one hundred and fifty million
people voting in a presidential year, there's only going to

(59:56):
be one hundred million people voting in the the midterms
this year. The primary electorate will stay the same. It'll
be about fifty million people. And the question for Democrats
and Republicans is can you acknowledge what that other fifty
million people want?

Speaker 32 (01:00:17):
Do you know?

Speaker 6 (01:00:18):
Are you interested in giving them what they want? Because
you don't get the low propensity the Republicans, the reason
the Democrats are advantaged is because they're the party out
of power. That's always good in midterms, it's always helpful.
But the other reason they're advantaged is the midterm electorate
is much smaller than the presidential year, and the Republicans

(01:00:43):
have the low propensity non college blue collar voters. Those
were the people who used to be their parents and
grandparents were in the Democratic coalition before. Now they're in
the Republican coalition. They just don't turn out with the
same frequency as Democrats. In the managerial class. The people
with college degrees, the people with more money basically have

(01:01:07):
more skin in the game, and they tend to be
more civically engaged, and Democrats do better with those voters
and do. Democrats could get away with an awful lot
this year and still have what looks like a good
year if they want to maximize and really take it
to Republicans, if they want to win thirty five or

(01:01:29):
forty seats in the House, if they want a real
chance at flipping the Senate, and very importantly for Democrats,
it should not be understated given all of the legal
rigmarole that is going to go on around the twenty
twenty eight election, and what we can expect to be
a truly hideous contest for the presidency. Having governorships and

(01:01:49):
control of state legislatures or more jerrymandering or less jerrymandering,
or deciding how ballots are counted for deciding all of
those things is going to matter a great deal. So
Democrats want to maximize and set themselves up in the
best possible way for twenty twenty eight. They will say,
some places, you want a Barista socialist right. Some places

(01:02:12):
that's the correct answer. Some places it's a pro life
moderate democrat. Some places is Joe manchet right. Some places
you want to give you If you are part of
a party's primary electorate and you don't live in a
state like West Virginia, if you live in a state
with competitive districts, and you live in a state like that,

(01:02:33):
if you're part of the primary electorate, you have a job,
and your job is select candidates who can win general elections.
And I don't know whether Democratic voters are ready to
do that in a bunch of places. They sure did
it in Virginia, New Jersey. They went boring moderate, boring, boring,
boring moderate, And that's what works in swing places. If
Democrats are willing to do that, then they can have

(01:02:56):
a spectacular twenty six. If they give in to what
their base wants and make themselves feel good, then Republicans
will have a less bad cycle, and that will have
its own implications for twenty eight.

Speaker 8 (01:03:08):
Chris Hulhok Politics now available at the Hill dot Com,
posted this morning reference to Janis, by the way, was
just wonderful.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
Appreciate that.

Speaker 8 (01:03:17):
Walk us through some of these districts that you call
out and some of these I guess precursors that you're
identifying in your piece.

Speaker 6 (01:03:25):
Man I wrote that on Tuesday. What are you talking about?
Do you think you think I remember the counties the
counties I mentioned. What do you think this is?

Speaker 16 (01:03:34):
No?

Speaker 6 (01:03:34):
I know Maripopa County, Arizona is at the top of
the list. It's the biggest, most important swing county in
the country. The Arizona is the hardest swing states. It's
a very challenging place. What all of those counties have
in common is that they all voted for Joe Biden

(01:03:55):
in twenty twenty, and they all voted for Donald Trump
in twenty twenty four, some of them by pretty substantial margins.
This is like, these are your bell weathers of the
bell weathers, and these are the places that if you're
a huge nerd you can watch. You can say, Okay,
how's what's going on here, playing in a place like this,
and how will they respond? And that includes of court

(01:04:16):
always Pennsylvania, the mother of all swing states, Georgia, Arizona,
North Carolina, Michigan, and some other place.

Speaker 8 (01:04:24):
I can't remember, Hildogo County, Texas, Nash County, North Carolina. Yeah,
Georgia was big too at that public utility commissioner's race
that wasn't really I think telling if you even call back.

Speaker 6 (01:04:35):
To that totally, and you're as big a nerd as
I am. Hidalgo County, Texas is really interesting. That's the
second to southernmost county. And this is the place that
we're going to be watching to see we're Republican games
with Hispanic voters in twenty twenty four about Donald Trump

(01:05:00):
or were they about Kamala Harrison, Joe Biden? And what
I mean to say is is it a new coalition
that has legs and goes forward or was this a
protest vote? And now that the party in power has
failed to deliver on its promises, most of its promises.
Then do these folks snap back? How does immigration affect

(01:05:23):
these folks? They want to close border, but are they
concerned about interior enforcement? What do they think about prices
and the job market and all that stuff. So Hidalgo County,
Texas I find really fascinating.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
He is Chris Starwalt, politics editor for The Hill On
News Nation, host of The Hill Sunday On News Nation,
Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and author of
books on politics and media. Chris, Happy New Year, appreciate it.
We'll talk to you again next week.

Speaker 6 (01:05:46):
Buddy, Happy new Year, fellas, good to be with you.

Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
Coming up, take a break, get ready for steam release.
This is a talk line from the co Insurance Studios.

Speaker 16 (01:05:57):
Did you know.

Speaker 14 (01:05:58):
Marvel Production make Clarksburg the Marvel Capital of the World
by acro Agat up until the late nineteen fifties, and
today those Marvels are worth thousands of dollars.

Speaker 21 (01:06:09):
Clarksburg, Yes, Clarksburg.

Speaker 14 (01:06:11):
Did you know that Clarksburg's Robinson Graham was the first
theater in West Virginia to introduce talking pictures in nineteen
twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (01:06:18):
Clarksburg.

Speaker 14 (01:06:19):
Yes, Clarksburg, Explore more at Come Home to Clarksburg dot com.

Speaker 18 (01:06:26):
Principal Greg Dash of m Tech.

Speaker 30 (01:06:28):
Thanks to funding impart from West Virginia Lottery proceeds, we're
expanding m Tech with a new Stem.

Speaker 18 (01:06:33):
Edition across West Virginia.

Speaker 31 (01:06:35):
Opportunities like these are made possible when you play, helping
to ensure more students can discover their future right here
at home. For forty years, proceeds from the West Virginia
Lottery for Education have totaled four point one billion dollars.
West Virginia Lottery eighteen plus to play Play Responsibly.

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
Steam release coming up at eleven thirty three. Yes, even
here on a semi sort of holiday weekend, we will
offer that opportunity for you. The West Virginia Lottery is
turning forty and wants to celebrate You play in store
and online all year and enter the app for your
chance to win a share of three million dollars in

(01:07:32):
cash and prizes, including cruise packages and the Big million
Dollar draw.

Speaker 1 (01:07:37):
So don't miss out on these monthly drawings.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
Visit West Virginia Lottery dot com wv Lottery dot com
for details. Eighteen plus to play, Please play Responsibly Steam
RelA is coming up three oh four Talk three oh four,
eight hundred and seven to sixty five Talk eight hundred
seven sixty five eight two five five. You did miss
the big story earlier this week? To Jay, the big
story squirrel, what do we come up with? Squirrel contra?

(01:08:03):
Squirrel contra is what one of the Texters came up
with on New Year's Eve.

Speaker 1 (01:08:08):
Sorry I missed that.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
Well, you know, we gotta get down to the big
issues here. What's happening to the squirrels on the Capitol grounds?
I said, look, if we got a squirrel problem, we
can round up two three guys and we'll have a
nice dinner at the end of the day once it's
all so, it's an.

Speaker 1 (01:08:23):
Easy solution, easy solution. I mean, do we have a problem.
I didn't get that. I don't know it. I mean,
are we infested? I don't know what that looks like.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
How we're rounding up the squirrels and we're shipping them
to El Salvador.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
That's what we're doing.

Speaker 8 (01:08:36):
I think I went to the Capitol for the first
time that I remember, I was like six or seven
years old. I saw squirrels. I've seen squirrels every time
I've ever been there. I don't know what the big
deal is unless we just have too many of them.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
They're just a cuter version of rats, is all.

Speaker 21 (01:08:48):
They are.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
Basically the same animal. They just have a fluffy tail
and they're a little bit cuter.

Speaker 7 (01:08:53):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
And they taste good when you cook them in gravy
and add some dumplings.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
Squirrel Gate.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
Oh, don't get me started. This is talk line on
Metro whose steam release is coming up next? On Metro
News the Voice of West Virginia, it is eleven thirty.
Time to get a news update. Let's check in on
the Metro News radio network find out what's happening across
the great state of West Virginia.

Speaker 10 (01:09:18):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Chris Laura and say. Putnam
County pastor has been identified as the victim of an
accident while working on his vehicle. Forty four year old
Sam Pearson, Junior of Hurricane died Thursday when a truck
he was working under collapsed on top of him. Hurricane
Mayor Scott Edwards confirmed that Pearson was dead by the
time the local first responders made it to his home.
Pearson was the pastor of Grace Church in South Charleston

(01:09:41):
and leaves behind a wife and two teenage daughters. Authority
Saale woman died in a house fire in Hampshire County
this week. It occurred in the early morning hours of
Sunday in the community of Augusta. The victim's name was
not released, but authority says she was an older female
and died en route to the hospital. The cause for
the fire is not known. In Parkersburg, a woman is
dead after a on US Route fifty w Forty two

(01:10:02):
year old Ashley Perry was killed when her vehicle was
struck as she pulled on the Route fifty. Today marks
twenty years since the underground explosion in Upshur County that
ultimately claimed twelve coal miners lives. The Sego Mind disaster
was a three day ordeal. As rescue team searched for
the mind's survivors, Then Governor Joe Manchin comforted loved ones

(01:10:22):
at the nearby Sego Baptist Church.

Speaker 9 (01:10:24):
My first flashback of everything goes back to the nineteen
sixteen mine explosion in Farmington from my uncle John got
he was in that mind. I knew what my family
went through waiting in agony didn't hear a thing, and
I wouldn't want to let that happen to any families.
That's when I was governed.

Speaker 10 (01:10:40):
Read more at ww metronews dot com you're listening to
metro Neews for forty years. The Boys of West Virginia.

Speaker 33 (01:10:46):
Metallurgical Coal builds the world, and the met Coal Producers
Association is the network that makes it possible. The MCPA
unites America's met coal producers, giving members a powerful voice
in policy, partnership and progress. Producers, suppliers, and innovators come
together here to build relationships, drive growth and strength in

(01:11:07):
our industry. Joined today, visit Metcole dot com. Met Cole
makes it possible. MCPA makes it personal.

Speaker 30 (01:11:17):
Hi, I'm Nathan Atkins with CEC. Why did I choose CEC?
It's simple. As a Huntington native and a Marshall grad,
I'm thrilled to work in CEC's Charleston office getting back
to my community.

Speaker 1 (01:11:26):
At CEC, I dive.

Speaker 30 (01:11:27):
Into every engineering aspect, learning from West Virginia's best. Being
employee owned means that I have a stake in my future.
We're not just names on projects. We connect with clients,
adding personality to every job at CEC. We engineer progress
in the great state of West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
Find out what CEC can do for you visit cecinc
dot com.

Speaker 10 (01:11:47):
A former member of the Legislature has died. Margaret Staggers
died New Year's Day. She was a Democrat and served
in the House from twenty six to twenty fourteen and
then again from twenty eighteen to two thousand, representing Fayette County.
She was an emergent physician at Beckley Appalachian Regional Hospital
and director of EMS operations in Fayette, Wyoming, and Boone Counties.
She was also the daughter of late West Virginia Congressman

(01:12:09):
Harley Staggers. Margaret Staggers was eighty from the Metro News ANCHOREDESK.
I'm Chris Lawrence.

Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
Was talking to video producer Zach during the break and
he delivers what should be on a bumper, sticker or
T shirt?

Speaker 1 (01:12:47):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:12:48):
He says, Look, I just need people to know I'm
not a manly dude. I'm not a classy dude. I'm
a lazy dude.

Speaker 1 (01:12:53):
And that's why I do what I do fair enough,
fair enough. My man came out of nowhere.

Speaker 2 (01:13:00):
It was there was a whole conversation going on, but
that was the that was the exclamation point at the end.
I went, you know what, that's fair enough. That needs
to be on a T shirt. All right, speaking of
putting it on a T shirt.

Speaker 25 (01:13:12):
I want you to get up now. I want all
of you to get up out of your chest. I
want you to get up right now and go to
the window, open it and stick.

Speaker 17 (01:13:23):
Your head out and yell.

Speaker 25 (01:13:25):
I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take
this anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:13:29):
Yes, it's only the second day of twenty twenty six,
but you've got some steam that held over from twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 1 (01:13:35):
I'm certain of that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:36):
Plus maybe you can do preemptive steam steam about things
that are going to irritate you in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (01:13:42):
Whatever it's up to you.

Speaker 2 (01:13:44):
The final half hour of a show on Friday is
all about you and whatever's irritating you. Give us a
call at eight hundred and seven to sixty five Talk
eight hundred and seven six five eight two five five.
If you'd like to call to release your steam. You
can text your steam as well. Three or four talk
three four is the text line. Just a couple of
guidelines Number one. Please don't get us sued or fired.

(01:14:06):
Let's kind of go hand in hand. We'd appreciate the
host may not respond. You can steam about the host.
You have permission to steam about Ethan Collins or most
of the time audio producer. He has opened himself up
to that. Why I don't know, but he has, and
otherwise let it fly. Eight hundred and seven to sixty
five talk and text lists three or four talk three four.

(01:14:28):
Let's start on the text line, mister Meadows, all right,
here we go.

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
Social media is so didn't take long to come across one.
I can't read.

Speaker 8 (01:14:37):
I don't think I can say that, So there we go.
So Glad says the text for President Trump is destroying
the Narco terrorists of Venezuela that Democrats just love. Save
this for steam release. We'll do if TJ plays it
with Seventy thousand West Virginians lose their insurance today and
six hundred million in Medicaid cuts take effect in West
Virginia alone. So you Trump worshipers have won one. I

(01:15:00):
hope you're proud of yourselves, but I don't understand how
you can call yourself a Christian and support people dying
This way, says the Texture three oh four Talk three
oh four is the text line. People creating fear regarding
AI are the same type that created Y two K fear,
Dave and TJ. I cannot carry two years on my

(01:15:22):
shoulders at the same time. As a matter of fact,
it's one day at a time for me at this
time in my life. Now stop and smell the roses
and breathe the fresh air. Enjoy life as much as possible.
Try to ignore the hate, as hard as it may
be at times, which tries to surpass our joy. My
way of trying to get through twenty twenty six, Conservative
independence non party should vote for the best Democrat that

(01:15:45):
is more likely to be defeated in the general by
the Republican. That's how they can keep their conservative and
non party status, says the Texter.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
Eight hundred and seven to sixty five Talk eight hundred
seven sixty five eight two five five. Let's go to
the phone, Scotty, what's your team?

Speaker 34 (01:16:01):
Scott Well YouTube powder puffs for one.

Speaker 7 (01:16:06):
Uh.

Speaker 34 (01:16:06):
You don't ask anybody a hard question anymore. You just
want to be just the two nice guys. Let me
ask you this question. Maybe you can look into it.
How does the governor have the right to give the
West Virginia employees days off when that's gonna that cost
the state about six point five million dollars for him

(01:16:27):
to give every state employee the day off. Never heard
you guys bring it up. They could use that money
for the for the insurance for teachers and stuff. But YouTube, guys,
since you can't respond, YouTube powder puffs need.

Speaker 16 (01:16:40):
To copping up a little bit.

Speaker 34 (01:16:42):
Figure out what's going on in this state. Thanks, fellows,
have a great weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:16:47):
Scott, You are welcome and thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (01:16:49):
Eight hundred and seven to sixty five Talk eight hundred
and seven sixty five eight two five five Back to
the text teams, DJ just.

Speaker 8 (01:16:56):
Remember, guys, squirrel lives matter. Lol Ah, I just heard
of news updates drawing concern towards Trump's cognitive decline because
of him having his eyes closed at some meetings. Biden
slept more than a preschool or at nap time. How
can anyone not see the bias of the mainstream media,

(01:17:17):
Dave and TJ. The Soviets in Russia and the Socialists
in China are not communists. Pure communism is characterized by
pot luck festivals by different American tribes where the degree
of wealth distribution showed your status. I consider myself a
Green Bay packer communist, where groups of people, not government
should sometimes be owners of services and property.

Speaker 1 (01:17:41):
Oh okay, let me.

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
Get Paul from Pocahontas County in here, Paul morning Fellas.

Speaker 16 (01:17:47):
My scheme is with the abject ignorance of our population
who are falling for the whole affordability finger pointing. And
what they don't seem to understand, particularly Dims, is that
the reason all them prices are up is because the
buying power of that piece of paper in their hand
has been totally destroyed by the amount of money. When

(01:18:08):
you dilute the currency, it devalues it, and they have
been devaluing by almost ninety percent the buying power of
our dollars. So all that free government cheese, whether it's
the nine million or billion that the Somali stole, or
all the money that went to pay for the illegal
cell phones and nice hotel rooms in five starre New
York hotels, that people, is why you're paying more at

(01:18:33):
the grocery store and for everything else. Learn some economics.
The Congress has spent every penny of it, they had
to sign off on it. They're the ones to look
at and watch out for the economy next week. Because
the Chinese just stopped twenty two million ounces of silver
that had been paid for by the Chicago Exchange from

(01:18:53):
leaving the dock last night. So comics is getting cut
short about forty million ounces that are due I'm Monday
or so to be delivered. Paul, have a good year.

Speaker 2 (01:19:03):
You have a good year as well, Paul. We appreciate it.
Hope to hear from you before next year. Eight hundred
seven sixty five talk and three or four talk three
oh four. Don't allow neck or back pain to control
your life. Trust the chiropractors at the Double Medicine Center
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coming up more of your steams. Give us a call
at eight hundred seven to sixty five talk eight hundred
seven six five eight, two, five, y five, Text your
steam to three or four talk three oh four. This

(01:19:47):
is talk Line from the Encove Insurance Studios.

Speaker 33 (01:19:49):
For over thirty years, High Technology Foundation has been committed
to building us stronger West Virginia our mission economic diversification.
By fostering innovation and support tech initiatives, we pave the
way for a brighter future. From cutting edge research to
tech driven solutions, We're transforming the landscape. Join us in
creating opportunities and driving progress. Let's build a diverse economy together.

(01:20:13):
Visit WVHTF dot org. High Technology Foundation Shaping West Virginia's future.

Speaker 27 (01:20:20):
Tens of thousands of hard working West Virginians earn their
living in our state's growing natural gas industry, including thousands
for Intero Resources, west Virginia's top natural gas producer, and
Taro's investments are boosting our local workforce in small businesses.
We're proud to give back and invest locally to support
West Virginia workers producing West Virginia energy. But the Mountain

(01:20:42):
State's best days are ahead and Intero Resources is just
getting started. Visit and Taro Resources dot com to learn more.

Speaker 5 (01:21:02):
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.

Speaker 1 (01:21:11):
To learn more.

Speaker 2 (01:21:12):
Steam release continues eight hundred and seven sixty five Talk
eight hundred and seven sixty five eight two five five.
You can text your Steam to three h four Talk
three oh four. That is the text line sitting that
is bringing ultra fast fiber internet to more West Virginia
holmes every day right now. Get fifty percent off any

(01:21:34):
plan for your first year. Check availability and join the
fiber revolution at sittynet dot net. Citty net connects, protects
and perfects gets more of your text steams. In a moment,
let's go back to the phones. Scott Different, Scott puts
your Steam.

Speaker 19 (01:21:49):
Hi, TJ.

Speaker 32 (01:21:50):
I want to add that I appreciated your commentary about
garnishing wages for overdue student loans. I wanted to add
to that mentioned that as a high school teacher and
parent of a high school senior, working to obtain the
promised scholarship is a huge motivation to avoid student loans,

(01:22:13):
and garnishing wages is something that parents and teachers can
use to say, listen, don't rely on loans because you
may have to have your wages garnage later. I appreciate you, Thank.

Speaker 2 (01:22:26):
You, appreciate it, Scott. Let's go to Bill. Hey, Bill,
you're on steam?

Speaker 19 (01:22:30):
Release Hey, Hey, how are you doing? I don't have
a steam. I couldn't work up steam if I wanted
to right now because it's chilli. First, I wanted to
thank you guys. I'm walking at the Mall of Morgantown
and you make my walk so much more pleasant. Second,
like I wanted to wish you guys a happy new

(01:22:51):
year and keep up the work.

Speaker 1 (01:22:53):
Well, Thank you, Boll, Thank you very much.

Speaker 17 (01:22:54):
Bill.

Speaker 2 (01:22:55):
Happy new year to you as well.

Speaker 1 (01:22:57):
Thanks Bill.

Speaker 2 (01:22:57):
Eight hundred and seven to sixty five talk eight hundred
seven six five eight two five five.

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
That's to call to.

Speaker 2 (01:23:03):
Release yours team. You can text us three oh four
talk three oh four. Back to the text steams TJ.

Speaker 1 (01:23:08):
Three oh four talk three oh four.

Speaker 8 (01:23:10):
My steam is TJ taking a vacation to jam a
bunch of Britney Spears CDs and drinking banana strawberry dacrese.

Speaker 1 (01:23:19):
You can respond, oh, baby, baby, how was I supposed
to know?

Speaker 8 (01:23:26):
With all the fraud, It's time to stop collecting income
taxes from the American worker. Let the non citizens pay
about twenty percent, raise the tax base on the companies
that hire them. Let the tariffs take up the slack.
We'll call the government money. We'll call that the government's
money rather, and we can just sit back and see

(01:23:47):
how they waste their money. Just think about how much
better the economy will shoot up. Also, maybe they will
be able to afford the American dream. TJ and the
other guy. Did you hear Howie Monroe's horrible problem for
his New Year's Eve feast? He couldn't find fish gravy
for his seafood soup.

Speaker 6 (01:24:06):
Lord?

Speaker 8 (01:24:06):
If I only had a huge problem like that, uh,
Dave and TJ. I hoped that Morrissey would start a
bridge cleaning and painting program. We haven't had a cleaning
and painting program for twenty five years. Billions are being
wasted because no painting. Look at the Washington Street bridge.
Doesn't look like Morrissey is going to do anything to
solve the problem. With Mayor Momdanie now in office implementing

(01:24:31):
his free programs, along with being cheered on by Bernie
and AOC, what could possibly go wrong? West Virginia Democrats
should start calling themselves socialists like their comrades do in
the high taxed Blue states. My steam, I apologized, but
I missed Hoppy's retirement update. Has he completed his move

(01:24:52):
to Minnesota yet? I finally recall listening to him for
over twenty years, never questioning any government grant directed toward
the state of West Virginia. West Virginia always ranks in
the top three of takers of federal tax money, and
Kerchieval was the biggest cheerleader. A lot of good it did,
says the Texter David TJ. I feel much better off

(01:25:13):
this new year under the Trump administration. The country, though,
is still teetering in default, and we have been made
aware of rampant fraud throughout the federal government. We need
a complete federal audit before any more of the people's
tax money is given away. In my humble opinion, Hey, Ethan,
the jerk store called, and they're running out of you.

Speaker 1 (01:25:36):
For each Texas says that seems okay, I gotta go back. TJ.

Speaker 8 (01:25:42):
Would you call the farmers getting Trump's bailout? Getting the
frigidity of rugged individualism or the warmth of collectivism. It
seems collectivism is acceptable when certain industries are in need,
but it's frowned upon when it would benefit individuals another year,
didn't we just have one? Says the text I really

(01:26:03):
enjoyed the lights at Comart Park in Charleston, But ninety
six bucks for six tickets that I bought us a
bit much steam? Why do people need to be on
one side or the other? How dumb are you if
you believe either side has your best interests at heart?
Money and power is all either side cares about. Divide
us and they win again, says the texter.

Speaker 2 (01:26:26):
Three out four talk three oh four. That is the
text line. You can always give us a call at
eight hundred seven sixty five Talk eight hundred seven six
five eight two five five last call for phone calls,
last call for texts. An opportunity to release your steam
early in twenty twenty six. This is talk line from
the Cove Insurance Studios.

Speaker 27 (01:26:45):
Tens of thousands of hard working West Virginians earn their
living in our states growing natural gas industry, including thousands
for Intero Resources, West Virginia's top natural gas producer, and
Taro's investments are boosting our local workforce in small businesnesses
we're proud to give back and invest locally to support
West Virginia workers producing West Virginia energy. But the Mountain

(01:27:07):
State's best days are ahead and in Taro Resources is
just getting started. Visit and Taro Resources dot com to
learn more.

Speaker 33 (01:27:15):
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(01:27:37):
Join today visit metcoal dot com. Met Coal makes it possible.
MCPA makes it personal.

Speaker 1 (01:27:47):
We are there for you, do care for you at
the Health Plan.

Speaker 29 (01:27:52):
The health Plan is still growing, giving you a large
network of doctors, friendly and helpful customer service representatives, and
competitive it's flexible pricing.

Speaker 1 (01:28:01):
Plans that meet your needs. Log on to health Plan
dot org for more information.

Speaker 25 (01:28:05):
We are.

Speaker 16 (01:28:07):
To care for you and.

Speaker 11 (01:28:11):
Me here.

Speaker 2 (01:28:32):
The West Virginia Lottery is turning forty and one's to celebrate.
You play in store and online all year and enter
in the app for your chance to win a big
share of three million dollars in cash and prizes, including
cruise packages the Big million dollar draw. So don't miss
out on these monthly drawings. Visit wvlottery dot com for details.

(01:28:55):
Eighteen plus to play, Please play responsibly. Last call for
phone calls and to next eight hundred and seven to
sixty five Talk eight hundred seven sixty five eight two
five five. That is the phone number you can text
your steam to three or four Talk three oh four
to the phones. Todd, you're on Steam. Release what's steam?

Speaker 7 (01:29:13):
Todd?

Speaker 3 (01:29:14):
Hey, this is not directed at you two guys for once.
This is directed at that callar that was complaining about
the state workers getting today off. I gotta I can
cure his negativity. Number One is state workers, we are
going to get paid regardless if Governor Morrisey gave it

(01:29:34):
to him off today or not. They get paid regardless. Two,
if he's so unhappy with his job, he could just
become a little state worker and then he can have
Fridays and holidays, special holidays off.

Speaker 2 (01:29:51):
There's my steam, Todd, appreciate it, buddy, have a great weekend.
Eight hundred and seven sixty five talk and three or
four talk three oh four. Let's get some more tech
steams In.

Speaker 8 (01:30:02):
Dave May the legislators pass a law to require change
be given and not rounded up, thus penalizing the customer.
Texter says Biden never called Trump sleepy down the guy
complaining about the governor giving state employees off. Don't hate
the player, hate the game. I'm enjoying my day off.

(01:30:24):
Thanks for your tax dollars today, says the Texter. Although
I'm glad rich rod Is back. Was Kurt Signetti seeing
that his dad was a coach here given any thought
to hire based on what he has done with the
football team with no history is remarkable. WVU Mountaineers basketball

(01:30:45):
versus Iowa State nine pm, ESPN two, not ESPN plus.
I'm not sure what that was in reference to, but
there you go, my steam. I'm tired of being lectured
about what type of Christian I am when my faith
taught me to use reason as well. Continuously demanding the
government provide untenable resources to everyone and the entire world

(01:31:07):
is unreasonable. I have a right to object to that
without having my faith questioned, says the Texter.

Speaker 1 (01:31:15):
My Steam.

Speaker 8 (01:31:16):
No one with such low character and moral depravity as
Trump should hold any office.

Speaker 1 (01:31:23):
Dave and TJ.

Speaker 8 (01:31:24):
Brand new snowmobiles are all over the trails. Must be
Trump's big beautiful Bill must be working that from the
Northern outpost Dave.

Speaker 1 (01:31:35):
Three or four Talk three or four.

Speaker 2 (01:31:37):
The text line Texter says, Hey, guys, do you think
the Moops could beat the Russians military or at least
at trivial pursuit? Asked the Texter, the Moops. Did you
watch the Rose First of all, did you watch the
Rose Bull Parade? That's a yearly tradition for my wife.
It was pouring the rain in Pasadena, but Morgantown got

(01:31:59):
a shout out on the NBC coverage.

Speaker 1 (01:32:02):
Really, what well? Hoda copy?

Speaker 32 (01:32:04):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:32:04):
The NBC.

Speaker 2 (01:32:05):
She's kind of semi to a retired anchor. Now, I
grew up in Morgantown and they were talking about the
Rose Bowl game, and she said she was rooting for
Indiana because of her neighbor growing up, Kurt Signetti, who
uh was grow grew grew up and graduated from Morgantown
High School because obviously his dad was Frank Signetti coaching
the Mountaineers.

Speaker 1 (01:32:25):
So how did I not know that Hoda grew up here? Yeah?

Speaker 19 (01:32:28):
How did on?

Speaker 32 (01:32:28):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:32:28):
I think it was Dogwood Avenue.

Speaker 2 (01:32:30):
Her father was a professor at WVU, so she uh
spent many of her formative years in the universities.

Speaker 1 (01:32:37):
Well, you learned something every day.

Speaker 2 (01:32:39):
But it, you know, it always comes back to West Virginia,
it does.

Speaker 1 (01:32:42):
It always circles back around.

Speaker 2 (01:32:44):
And again A big shout out to Kurtz Signetti there
by the way, Morgantown guy taking Indiana onto the semi finals.

Speaker 1 (01:32:52):
He got the nod from Pat You see him on
the field, Yeah, you see that?

Speaker 2 (01:32:57):
Did you see the look the look on Signette's face.
He's got like the eye brow raised, this kind of weird,
kind of scary stare coming off the sidelines there. But uh,
Indiana moving on with a Morgantown guy at the helm.

Speaker 1 (01:33:10):
Hey here's another one real quick.

Speaker 8 (01:33:11):
Yeah, Kim Codwell, yeah, Glenville State Marshall over to Tennessee
hit two hundred and fifty wins the other day.

Speaker 1 (01:33:19):
I saw so another Mountain State girl doing well.

Speaker 19 (01:33:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:33:24):
Well, well, while we're at it, we're giving shout outs here.

Speaker 7 (01:33:26):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:33:26):
Peyton Ilderton the Logan Wildcat, gets the game winning shot
for Marshall in overtime at Coastal Carolina yesterday. I had
that on the iPad and I was watching the Rose
Bowl yesterday.

Speaker 1 (01:33:36):
Got to keep up. You got to have your priority
straight on a big sports day. So at the you know,
I was accused of being a pessimist. Let me be
an optimist for a minute. West Virginia, we bat and
we swing above our weight. We really do.

Speaker 8 (01:33:50):
If you think about all the West Virginians that have
gone out throughout this country and made a mark for
the size of our state and the population that we have,
we do pretty dagg I'm good.

Speaker 16 (01:34:02):
That.

Speaker 1 (01:34:02):
And we track you.

Speaker 2 (01:34:03):
Once you've come through West Virginia and stayed here more
than twenty four hours, we will claim you as our
own forever.

Speaker 1 (01:34:09):
Let's see Lou Holtz all right, that's going to do
it for today.

Speaker 2 (01:34:14):
Metro News Midday coming up on many of these same
Metro News radio stations, Dave Allen and Amanda Bart. We'll
get you through the middle part of the day. That's
why they call it Metro News Midday, and then followed
by Metro News Hotline with Dave Weekly and the sports
Line guys will be in later on this evening. Follow
the news of the day over at the website. WV
metro news dot com. Have a great weekend. We'll talk
to you Monday morning at ten o six. This is

(01:34:35):
talk Line on Metro News for forty years, the voice
of West Virginia.