Talkline | June 2, 2025 - MetroNews Talkline

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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Ready to get another week started. Metro News talk Line
is underway Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Turned from the studios of w v RC Media and
the Metro News Radio and Television Network, a voice of
West Virginia, comes the most powerful show in West Virginia.
This is Metro News talk Line with Dave Wilson and
DJ Meadows. So it's network control. From Charles stand by

(00:46):
to David DJ.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
You're on.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Metro News talk Line is presented by encovera insurance encircling
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Visiting coovia dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Good morning, Welcome into the program. Met News talk Line
from the Encova Insurance studios. Gangs all here, ready to
start another week. Jake is on the video stream today
and Ethan Collins is our operator, sitting by eight hundred
and seven to sixty five. Talk is the phone number
eight hundred and seven six five eight two five five.
You could text the show at three oh four Talk

(01:25):
three oh four coming up. Matt Lewis, conservative columnist, will
join us next hour. The demise of the Democrats a
little premature. We'll get into that subject more with Matt.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
Joe.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Riccato stops by w baseball could depending on what happens today,
host a super regional, plus recap the softball state tournament
baseball state tournament coming up this week as well, So
lots to get to as the show unfolds this morning.
Plus we'll get into the vaccine exemption numbers a little
bit later on this hour. Good morning, mister TJ. Meadows,

(02:01):
who's in the Cove Insurance Studios, Charleston Style. Morning, TJ.

Speaker 5 (02:06):
I have to tell you I'm reading in the Wall
Street Journal this morning, models talking about AI. Models rewrite
code to avoid being shut down. That's why alignment is
a matter of such urgency. The machines are taking over. Brother, Hey,
it's inevitable.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Terminator predicted this just go back to Terminator. I've been
using AI more to help.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Like.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
To not not necessarily to do my work for me,
but like an advanced search engine. I don't know if
that's a good descripture or not, but it does a
much better job of kind of putting it all together
there for you.

Speaker 5 (02:39):
So back in my energy days, when I would get
a three hundred page federal piece of legislation dropped on
me and have to tell somebody in twenty minutes whether
or not it was good for our company used it extensively, extensively.
You just have to learn how to use it.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
It's a tool.

Speaker 5 (02:54):
It can be wrong, you can't rely on it, but
if you learn how to use it properly in the safeguards,
it can be very handy.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
In the meantime, I've been using it to make, you know,
funny illustrations that circulate amongst my broadcaster friends so much
better use. Yeah, you know, that's what i AI was
really invented for. Three or four talk three or four
the text line at eight hundred seven six five eight
two five five the phone number. Well, it's now been
that's been several months since the flood waters came through

(03:21):
parts of Southernwest Virginia, in particular in McDowell County and
Wyoming County. We were down there back in February. We've
been continuing to cover h the recovery efforts in that
part of West Virginia. It's also drawing national intention. CBS
News correspond Scott McFarlane recently visited McDowell County for an
upcoming report on I on America. He joined us on

(03:43):
the Metro News talk line this morning. Scott good morning,
thanks for joining.

Speaker 6 (03:46):
Us, one of fella's nice to be here.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
We've been covering this story. You know, since the floods happened,
the recovery efforts, it has been a long and slow
process in McDowell County. So what did you find when
you went there and what were you expecting?

Speaker 6 (04:02):
There is some frustration that there isn't more attention. You
all have done great work there and it was noted
by some of the people on the ground, but the
McDowell County, as we know, so inaccessible, so difficult to
get to, often feels invisible, like people don't pay it attentionally.
People don't realize the suffering that's been going on there,

(04:25):
flood or otherwise. And I think there's a palpable frustration,
of visceral frustration that they don't believe that they've seen.
They still have acute neats, still a lot of rebuilding
to do, still a lot of clean up. There's still
mud on the floors of some of the buildings, businesses,
and homes. We're three and a half months later, and
I think the biggest frustration it's not the mud, it's

(04:46):
not the down bridges, it's not the temporary homelessness. It's
the invisibility Scott.

Speaker 5 (04:54):
Why do you think that invisibility exists even in an
age today with the Internet where every story can be
told very easily. I think can contrast it to things
like the disaster in Asheville, North Carolina, some of the
wildfires in California. And I'm certainly not dismissing those terrible events.

(05:14):
They're tragic. Those folks need help. But it seems like McDowell,
to your point, hasn't got the same amount of attention
and thus not the same amount of help.

Speaker 6 (05:22):
And what's more, they're starting off from a lower economic floor. Obviously,
McDowell County is the highest poverty rate in West Virginia,
one of the highest poverty rates in America. Life expectancy
is twelve years lower in McDowell County than the rest
of the country. The highest drug overdose death rate in
America is in McDowell. So recovery is going to be
a little bit harder because working with less economic engines

(05:46):
in the county. Why is it? Why do they feel invisible?
I think they'd like to see more visits from members
of the state government. I heard that from a number
of people on the ground. Why haven't the state leaders
been here more? Why haven't the Fed leaders been here more?
It's been three and a half months. There's a long
way to go. They'd like to see more representation on
the ground. But then there's the fundamental issue, and we

(06:09):
know this when we go through. It is difficult in
certain parts of McDowell County when you get outside of Welch,
to get a cell phone signal, to get a GPS
to function in your car, to get a radio station
if you're hitting the scan button on the radio, and
that is a disincentive sometimes to want to make that

(06:30):
extra trip. And for those of us in Washington, it's
a seven and a half hour drive, and that is
a disincentive for organizations to want to send people there
when it's easier to go other places. And McDowell has
that mountain to climb in addition to the other ones.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Scott McFarland is joining a CBS News correspondent recently visited
McDowell County for an upcoming report. How does that area
compare to other parts of the country that you've visited
that have seen similar circumstances, similar types of obstacles to overcome.

Speaker 6 (07:03):
It's dramatically different. I'll give you a few comparisons. I
love that question. I was to western North Carolina, where
they had obviously the horrors of last summer, a flood
that was by orders of magnitude more severe than what
West Virginia suffered on February fifteenth. But they had that
economic engine of Asheville, a tourist destination, a high performing

(07:23):
economy to help the greater region improve. There's an economic
driver there. When we saw in twenty sixteen what happened
in White Sulfur Springs, they had an economic engine there
to help recovery goodness, and people actually sheltered at the
Greenbrier during the flood, and there's something there. What McDowell

(07:43):
doesn't have is that self sustaining, big investor in town
to help the government subsidize the recovery. And the biggest
contrast I saw was I spent this past weekend in
Wardensville in Hardy count where the town square and Wardensville
really has developed into something quite nice. They're building their

(08:06):
own economic engine to help the rest of Hardy County,
and I just don't know where that is in McDowell
right now. I mean, Welch lost a few businesses in
the flood downtown, but it's hard to It was hard
for us to detect it because so many of the
businesses there had shuttered a decade or two decades ago.
And even though the sign is just still on the
front window, and I don't know where that self sustaining

(08:28):
engine comes from.

Speaker 5 (08:30):
In McDowell, Scott, should we think about recovery more as
an exercise perhaps in relocation or replanting, maybe not uprooting
completely out of the county, But perhaps it's to your
point taking some folks, incentivizing them to move out of
the hollers and where they may be, and trying to

(08:52):
build some kind of centralized infrastructure in Welch where maybe
you do have a better chance. What would be your
thought there.

Speaker 6 (08:59):
That's been a discussion, and it's interesting. When we were there,
we spent time with a man named Roberto Diaz. If
you have ever been to McDowell, you've probably come across
somebody who knows Roberto Daz. He owns a Latin American
restaurant in the town square in Welch, and he keeps
it going almost charitably, does not make much of a

(09:19):
profit off the place, and he has been going door
to door, not just with meals, but helping people fix
up their houses. He's a handyman too, and the reason
he does it, he says, is because he wants people
to stay, don't leave, don't move. You've got a county
of McDowell, which I think, similar to Mingo, has lost
nearly ninety percent of the population it had since its peak,

(09:41):
and it certainly is hemorrhaging young people. They want to
stop that. They want to stop the replantation of people,
the movement of people to other areas. But the hurdle
they have is not just that they're in a flood
zone to your point, but building new housing is a
chronic issue because you have to build in the septic,
the sewer, the water, and putting up new houses is

(10:03):
wildly difficult in that area, even though there's space. So
they don't want people to leave. And part of the
fear from this flood on February fifteenth is more people
will leave, and they very much don't want that.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Scott, how do you, the big national guy, get this
story out. We know about this story, TJ. And I
know I think other West Virginians are well aware of
the plight of McDowell, and not just McDowell. You mentioned
Wyoming County, Mingo County, the southern coal fields. When the
mines closed, it just had this catastrophic economic impact. How

(10:38):
do you get that message to the rest of the
country where people just it's hard. I think it's hard
to tell that story unless you literally go there and
you get then you see, oh, that's why you can't
build anything. Oh, it's incredibly difficult just to get to Welch.
How do you tell that story?

Speaker 6 (10:53):
It's incredibly difficult just to get to Welch is such
a problem. It's such a problem for Welch, it's such
a problem for the state trying to revitalize. It's a
problem for me to convince editors to send me because
I've got to tell them to send me in a
very expensive set of equipment and a big crew all
the way to Welch and Berwin and Bartley, and those
are not jager, not accessible places. But I think it's

(11:16):
important that we shine light on people who feel they're invisible.
We're doing our best when we shine light on people
who don't think they're being seen. And I'll tell you
one of the symptoms of that is, according to Brad Davis,
a pastor at some of the churches in Welsh there's
a one in four voter turnout in McDowell County. That

(11:36):
is crazy love because people have given up, They've given
up on government solving anything, so they just tune out.
We have to CounterPunch that. We have to engage, make
people feel seen, make people feel like they got to participate.
And I tell you it was it was an absolutely
invigorating experience to see how resilient people in MacDowell are,

(11:58):
and they recognize because they're so distrustful of government. They
do everything grassroots, like I'm going to go fix my
neighbor's house, I'm gonna make meals for people who still
don't have refrigerators because of the flood and that level
of engagement. Boy, very wealthy counties all across the country
don't have that going for them and mcdal should be
applauded for that.

Speaker 5 (12:18):
As you visited McDowell County and prepared yourself to visit there,
once you were on the ground with the people, Scott,
what surprised you?

Speaker 6 (12:27):
I think that there is an optimism that permeates the place.
And I think if you're living in the lowest, the
highest poverty rate in West Virginia. You need to have
an optimism that you're going to make things better yourself.
You're going to be the solution. You're not going to
wait for somebody to come save you. And I think
that's a distinctive strength that those of us who live

(12:48):
in Washington, d C. We don't get surrounded by that
very often. People in McDowell have it. But here's the thing.
We're going to air a two part i ad America
on CBS News in the next week or two and
you will see it. To be able to do two parts,
but McDowell's worth it. The key here is you don't
tell McDowell's story by dunking on them. They have an
economic problem. It's been there since JFK campaign there in

(13:11):
nineteen sixty and introduced the idea of food stamps from
that garage in Welsh. You have to speak to the
strength people have that they're going to pull themselves out
of this without anybody else coming to save them for them.
And that is a unique quality in the people I
think throughout West Virginia, especially in McDowell.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
I was going to ask you that is that an
Appalachian trait that you don't see in other parts of
the country.

Speaker 6 (13:38):
You don't see that self sufficiency. You don't see a
guy trying to save his business but also going down
the street and fixing ten people's homes in a day.
You don't get that in Maryland. You don't get that
in the Beltway. You don't get that in affluent, heavily
populated counties, because there's always somebody else you can you
can pay to come by, or somebody who you expect

(13:58):
will subsidize your work. MacDowell, Well, it's you or it's nobody.
And the self sufficiency is so remarkable. And that's the
story we want to tell. Not the story of the
abandoned buildings on main Street, not the story of a
terrible poverty rate and a horrible fentanyl crisis, not the
story of the shuttered Walmart. Even Walmart couldn't make it

(14:19):
just outside of Welch. You tell the story that the
people who stuck it out and are going to make
it a better place.

Speaker 5 (14:26):
I wonder, given what you heard and given the challenges,
and it seems like the just the clear reality to
your point that folks there are going to have to
help themselves. If there's one or two things the federal
government can do, they said, the state government hasn't been
there enough. Is it money, is it hands on the ground,
is it labor? What's those couple of things that could

(14:47):
just make it a little bit easier for them.

Speaker 6 (14:49):
Yeah, it's it's a timely question because at this very
moment there's consideration of cutting Medicaid. And though people say
they won't do it here in Washington, let me tell
you it's on the table. They're talking about it. You
cut Medicaid, the one hospital that still exists in McDowell
would like the evaporate.

Speaker 5 (15:06):
That's a problem.

Speaker 6 (15:07):
That's a problem for maintaining population and maintaining health. I'm
going to talk about cutting Americrps. Americ Corps is getting sliced.
That's a much bigger deal. I discovered in Hampshire County,
in Greenbrier County than it is in McDowell. But boit
AmeriCorps was key to flood recovery from the White Sulfur
Springs floods. So maybe not cutting the safety net that

(15:28):
is still there is a good way to start helping
people help themselves.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Scott mcfalland CBS News correspondent recently visited McDowell County. That
report a two parter. We found out today I on
America will be coming up in the next couple of weeks.
We'll keep our eyes out for that. Scott, appreciate it.
Thanks so much for thanks so much for stopping by
and coming to West Virginia to tell the story.

Speaker 6 (15:49):
Keep up the good work. A big fan of your show.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Thank you very much. Appreciate Thanks scatting, your thoughts are
coming up next three h four talk, three oh four,
eight hundred and seven to sixty five talk and one
hundred and seven six five eight two five five. This
is talk line from the Encoba Insurance Studios.

Speaker 7 (16:03):
A lot of attention has been directed towards something President
Trump calls clean beautiful coal. That phrase often describes the
clean burning aspect of West Virginia coal, but there is
another type of coal, metallurgical coal, which is used to
make the steel our economy depends on, and West Virginia
has some of the highest quality met coal in the world.

(16:24):
West Virginia coal miners produce more met coal than any
other state, and seventy percent of all steel makers in
the United States rely on West Virginia met coal. This
accounts for two hundred billion dollars in economic impact throughout
the country and helps sustain over a half billion jobs.
As President Trump reinvigorates our economy, he will need a
lot of our high quality met coal. So the West

(16:46):
Virginia Coal Association asks you to join with them to recognize,
honor and salute our West Virginia coal miners. They built
this country and will play a vital role in rebuilding
the economy that will power the twenty first century.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
A message from the friends of coal.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
You're listening to talk Line on Metro News, the Voice
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Speaker 8 (17:11):
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(17:32):
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Speaker 1 (17:42):
HI, This is Dave Wilson along with TJ Meadows, join
us weekdays at ten o six for Metro News talk
Line on this metro news radio station. TJ. The more
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Speaker 9 (17:53):
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Speaker 1 (19:31):
Text line three oh four Talk three oh four eight
hundred and seven sixty five eight two five five. That
is the phone number, you know, GJ. We we talk
about it from the inside looking out all the time
about this this West Virginia attitude. It's unique to West
Virginia but Appalachian overall, that we don't wait around for government,

(19:53):
we don't wait around for people to come help us.
We'll help ourselves. We'll help our namehbers, We'll do this thing.
But to hear somebody from outside the state say that
somebody from a national perspective from DC to come in
see that attitude, it makes you feel a little bit better.
But I'll throw this out there at TJ. If you

(20:15):
can take that attitude and that perspective and then provide
the tools, whether that be some sort of funding. There's
some things you can't do. You can't go build the
sewer system to hook up to your neighbor's house. You
could rebuild their house, you could read to their drawwall,
you can't build the sewer system. Take that attitude with
resources and maybe there's a chance, maybe there's a chance

(20:38):
there to rebuild and bring some of these communities back.

Speaker 5 (20:42):
What certainly validates the thinking when someone that doesn't see
things every day and isn't day to day in the
West Virginia point of view comes in and sees that
grit to your point, sees that gravitas and makes the
connection that if they just had a few more resources,
these folks could do what they need to do. So
it's shining a light on the story. It's shining a

(21:02):
light on the optimism as he talked about, not the plight,
but also I think to anyone with any power that
would be listening, hopefully a message that's more attention is needed.
I also noted, despite what our leaders say, he's on
the ground, he's talking to people there. They say they
want to see the state government more. They say they
want to see the federal government more. Federal government maybe

(21:24):
we can or can't control that in terms of representatives
from FEMA or whoever it may be. But the state government,
I would think we could certainly. And it's almost it
goes beyond Dave. Even in McDowell County, there's from what
I've seen, there's Welch where everybody feels like the resources
go to. And then there's other parts of the county.
So even within the county there's this further deeper level

(21:45):
of well, help me get to Welch. But it doesn't
get to hear. It doesn't get to hear, it doesn't
get to hear, and so the problems are wide and deep.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
Three or four Talk three or four is the text
line eight hundred seven and sixty five eight two five five.
That is the phone number. Let's get a couple of texts.
Three or four Talk three McDowell County. The politicians don't
care about you until it's time to vote, and even then,
I doubt you actually see one. They want you to
pull yourself up by your bootstraps, get to work. It's
the classic you know who your friends are when times

(22:13):
get tough, guys. It socks for McDowell County because there's
no point for investment in the area. There's no interstate
to get to the area. Building houses is difficult, Infrastructure
is outdated and crumbling. There's no industry besides coal, and
that is minimal. If our government is run like a business,
investing in McDowell County is throwing good money at bad money.

(22:33):
I get it, and that kind of highlights the problem.
It is difficult Mingo County, well, Iman County. Parts are
certainly parts of Raleigh County. You can the southern coal
fields there TJ. But there there's opportunity. There's there's some
sort of opportunity there. And if the people don't want
to leave, the people want to rebuild. Okay, that's part

(22:54):
of the equation. Now, what kind of investment can you
put in there so towns can function?

Speaker 5 (22:59):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
I don't have a good answer. I'm just asking the question.
I guess is the cop out we use in the media.

Speaker 5 (23:05):
I don't think you're going to get it. Frankly, I
think if you're going to create any kind of economic engine,
it's going to be centered first and foremost on entrepreneurial endeavors,
which is always difficult, but at least that's something you
can control. Someone locally, I think is some of the
people we talk to on the ground there Dave. They
can decide to go out and start a business and
see if it'll grow, and maybe tourism helps in different

(23:25):
things that are attractive in this market. But it's it's
a challenge.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
Coming up, we'll dive into vaccine exemptions. We'll do that
coming up in just a moment. More of your text
as well. Three oh four talk three four and eight
hundred and seven to sixty five eight two five five.
That's the two ways to get in touch with this program.
Coming up, we'll dive into it to it vaccine exemptions.
As talk line continues on Metro News. Metro News is

(23:48):
the voice of West Virginia. It is ten thirty times
to get a news update. Let's check in with the
Metro News radio network find out what's happening across the
great state of West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
West Virginia.

Speaker 13 (24:02):
Metro News I'm Jeff Jenkins. Investigations continued this morning in Mercer,
Fayette and Wayne County's following separate crashes that claimed four
lives over the weekend. Police in Mercer County say two
people are dead after the park car they were in
on the site of Interstate's seventy seven southbound was hit
by southbound tractor trailer Saturday morning. Please in Fayette County
say it appears a man may have been electrocuted after

(24:24):
wrecking his truck Sunday morning in the Springdale area. A
third fatal crash took place in Wayne County. Happened on
State Route thirty seventh Sunday evening. A driver identified as
Chelsea Aldridge was killed in that wreck. Bail is set
at one point five million dollars this morning for a
suspended Berkeley County teacher charged with forty criminal counts against
a fourteen year old female student. Stay Police of charge

(24:46):
forty six year old Lucsino, a teacher at muslim In
Middle School, with twenty counts a third degree sexual assault,
ten counts of sexual assault by a person of trust,
and ten counts of soliciting a minor by computer. See
Leslie Groome the student with guest and money. State High
Education Chance Doctor Sarah Armstrong Tucker says, efforts by the
High Education Policy Commission to get more high school students

(25:07):
to complete FASTPAS is being recognized, and that's because of.

Speaker 14 (25:10):
The work of our student affairs and our Financial aid offices.
I mean, they have really just been terrific and tremendous
and making sure that students know how to complete the FATA,
that they're able to complete the FASA.

Speaker 13 (25:23):
West Virginia finis fifteenth among states. You're listening to Metro News,
the voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Don't miss the twenty twenty five State High School Baseball
Championship Tournament presented by Toyota. Thursday, June fifth through Saturday,
June seventh. The best teams in the state will battle
it out in Charleston at Go Mart Ballpark. Listen to
all of the games on the Metro News Radio network
and at wv Metro News dot com. Plus, you can
watch all four championship games Saturday, June seventh on a

(25:51):
Metro News TV app. The twenty twenty five State High
School Baseball Championships presented by toyotas our June fifth, here
on Metro News.

Speaker 15 (26:00):
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(26:22):
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Speaker 13 (26:30):
Clay County Sheriff Allan King says he's thankful for a
gift from the Berkeley County Sheriff's Department. King's department got
a used cruiser from Berkeley County or just a.

Speaker 16 (26:37):
Small county, small budget. You know, we appreciate anything we
can get, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 13 (26:42):
The Berkeley County Shares Department has also made cruiser contributions
recently to the Mingo and McDowell County Shares Departments and
the McDowell County Town of Kimball Police Department. Play a
Sunday in West Virginia, warming to the upper seventies from
the Metro News anchor desk I'm Jeff Jenkins.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
Metro News talk Line continues eight hundred and seven to
sixty five talk and three or four Talk three h four.
Writing for the seventy four nonprofit news site covering education,
Amanda Caduled did a deep dive into vaccination exemption request.
Just over three hundred and thirty requests for religious and
philosophical exemptions to Wes Virginia school vaccine policy have been submitted,

(27:40):
all have been approved for this school year, and thirty
five have been granted for the coming school year. To
talk more about the requests, the process, and the potential impacts,
Amanda joins us on Metro News talk Line this morning. Amanda,
good morning, Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 17 (27:58):
Good morning, Thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
Were you surprised when you got the information from the
Department of Health Services that over three hundred of these
exemptions had been requested and granted?

Speaker 17 (28:11):
You know, and talking to experts, I heard that they
were not necessarily surprised by this. They thought that the
you know, the governor's executive order opening the door for
these exemptions would result in a number of families applying
for them.

Speaker 18 (28:28):
You know.

Speaker 17 (28:28):
What I did hear from experts was there surprise at
how many of them were granted. The fact that one
hundred percent of these requested exemptions were granted so quickly,
that was something that they were not necessarily expecting.

Speaker 5 (28:41):
What do experts warn that could happen with such an
increased rate one hundred percent from you know, virtually zero
we had no religous exemption. What are they telling you
in terms of the consequences?

Speaker 17 (28:52):
Sure, So I talked to Sissy Price, who's a registered
nurse and the co director of West Virginia Families for Immunization,
and her real can concern is that because one hundred
percent of these exemptions were granted so quickly, it's going
to send a message to families that if they apply,
they will also be granted. And so her concern is
really that, while you know, three hundred and thirty is

(29:13):
a pretty small percentage of the two hundred and fifty
thousand school aged kids in West Virginia, that number is
going to increase quite rapidly, and if that happens, it
can impact her commutiny, which means that kids who are
immunocompromised right or who are unable to get vaccinated for
medical reasons might be at risk. She's worried that teachers

(29:34):
might be at risk as well for these vaccine preventable diseases,
especially amid the backdrop of this measle's outbreak that we're
seeing nationwide with over a thousand cases across over thirty states.
You know, those are just some of the concerns that
have been raised. Another issue is that we don't know
where these vaccine exemptions are occurring. So, for example, we

(29:54):
don't know if all three hundred and thirty one of
those vaccine exemptions are in a single town, single region,
or if they're spread across the state, and that could
impact the herd immunity in a given school or district
as well.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
That data about where these exemptions are being granted. As
far as the Governor's executive order goes, is the state
required or is are the agencies required to keep that information?

Speaker 17 (30:19):
Or is that just you know, well so what yeah,
great question. So the executive order itself did not say
anything about noting where the exemptions were, but over the
past few weeks, the governor has put out you know,
updated guidance and he said that in order to receive
an exemption, parents or guardians need to write in to

(30:40):
the Department of Health with a few key points of
information including what school their kid is going to attend
and also their dress. So at this point that should
be information that is being submitted by parents.

Speaker 5 (30:55):
So if it's submitted, it's just not currently tracked and available,
but it could be at least that's what I infer
from your comment there. Did the state give you any
indication if they would begin tracking and releasing that data?

Speaker 17 (31:11):
Unfortunately, I was not able to get a response from
the state on that. The only thing I was told
was it there not currently tracking it, But definitely we're
going to continue to report on this and hopefully get
that information down the line.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
Talking to Amanda Goaduld, she is with the seventy four
nonprofit news site covering education, did a deep dive into
the religious and philosophical exemption request. So far in other
states that have had these sorts of exemptions, again, it's
thrown out there a lot. West Virginia's the outlier. I
think it's forty five forty some states have these types
of exemptions. Did they see or did you get into

(31:47):
this and increase in exemption requests the longer that exemption
was out there?

Speaker 17 (31:54):
Yeah, so in talking to Richard Hughes, who's a GW
University law professor and nationwide box lack expert, he noted
that once a state introduces these religious or philosophical exemptions,
we have historically seen a pretty dramatic increase in parents
requesting them. Like you said, West Virginia is an outlier,

(32:14):
or historically has been. Up until this executive order, it
was one of only five states that had neither religious
nor philosophical exemption, so parents could only request exemptions for
medical reasons.

Speaker 5 (32:27):
If those numbers grow, you talked about herd immunity, what
percentage does it start to alarm the experts in terms
of the number of unvaccinated children in the schools, in
terms of jeopardy of losing herd immunity.

Speaker 17 (32:41):
That is an excellent question, and I, as I'm not
a medical expert, I don't want to comment on that
right now, but I can definitely check back in with
those experts and get back to you.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
That's fine, Amanda. Compare and I don't know that you
can compare and contrast really the religious exemptions philosophical exemptions
to medical exemptions. But West Virginia's had medical exemptions. How
many of those over the last say, ten years, have
there been how many have been granted, how many have
been denied?

Speaker 17 (33:08):
Yeah, So that was another thing that both Sissy Price
and Richard Hughes pointed to, was this really start contrast
in the fact that three hundred and thirty one religious
and philosophical exemptions were immediately granted, whereas if we look
back over the past ten years, one hundred and twenty
five medical exemptions were actually denied. In total, over ten years,

(33:29):
there were two hundred and thirty permanent medical exemptions that
were granted as well as two hundred and eighty eight
temporary medical exemptions. So already just since January, so the
past five or so months, we've seen more philosophical exemptions
granted than medical permanent medical exemptions over the past decade.

Speaker 5 (33:50):
Our hypothesis here, and Dave has raised this I agree
with him, is that because of COVID and the potential
downfalls of COVID and the way it was rolled out,
that that has somehow fueled anti vaccine campaigns against more
seasoned and more stable vaccines like measles, mumps, rebella, those

(34:11):
kinds of things, and it's playing a role in terms
of the numbers going down among childhood vaccination. What are
the experts say, if anything at all about that.

Speaker 17 (34:20):
Yeah, so I spoke to Michael Ramy, who's the president
of the Parental Rights Foundation, and he basically echoed that
exact point that you're making that since COVID and talking
to parents, he's seen a real increase in hesitancy and skepticism.
He mentioned that, you know, changing regulations and the speed
of the COVID vaccine being developed while experts say that

(34:41):
it is safe and effective, that that worried parents, and
that specifically, you know, mandatory COVID vaccines for schools across
the country obviously not in every state, but in some
districts really had parents concerned. And that since then there's
been an increase in this skepticism and hesitancy, And so
organizations like his that are in favor of greater parental

(35:03):
rights really welcome these kind of changes. He also and
Richard Hughes mentioned the sort of backdrop of RFK Junior,
the current head of HHS, and sort of the ways
in which his history of vaccine hesitancy and skepticism might
also be fueling this movement.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
Amana, the folks you spoke to for your article. How
are they countering the other narrative, the pro exemption narrative
and trying to get their message out there.

Speaker 17 (35:36):
Yeah, so you know, there are a lot of different
ways this is happening. In talking to Sissy Price, who
is a registered nurse, and talking to other nurses that
are actually working in schools, they say that the most
important way to counter these vaccine skeptical narratives is through information,
and so they encourage parents to ask the questions and
you know, to really come forward and say, here's what

(35:58):
I'm hearing is this act? Can you show me science?
Can you show me data to back this up? So
they're really coming at this from an education based perspective.

Speaker 5 (36:08):
All data though in all studies. You know, it seems
to me you followed this issue. I can go on
the net these days and I can find any kind
of study to validate anything that I really want. I
guess more of a perspective of yours. But how dangerous
is that today when we have these kinds of scientific debates,
When you can go on the internet and basically find

(36:29):
anybody that backs your position. I mean, it would seem
to be a real problem.

Speaker 17 (36:33):
Yeah, I mean again, they point to the importance of
verifying sources. So looking at where are these studies coming from,
who are the doctors behind them, who are the researchers
behind them, You know what universities are they coming out of,
what questions are they asking? And again that really gets
to a question of education right, making sure that we
have an informed public that knows how to verify sources,

(36:54):
that knows how to look into these studies and say, okay,
which one of these really are valid in providing valid information,
in which one of them perhaps are not.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
Amanda Godueled, she is with the seventy four nonprofit news
site covering education, did a deep dive into the West
Virginia vaccine exemptions granted so far and more to come. Amanda,
good work, good article. Thank you so much for coming
on this morning.

Speaker 17 (37:17):
Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
Get your text at three h four Talk three oh
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Speaker 1 (41:19):
Three at four Talk three or four is the text
line eight hundred and seven and sixty five eight two
five five. Couple of thoughts to you, Jay, one being that,
of course you're going to see more religious and philosophical
exemptions that are ill I guess, being granted through that
executive order than medical exemptions, because well, the standard is

(41:40):
quite frankly, very very low. It's your word, that's all.
The medical exemptions have a pretty high bar, and there
are some things in there that I think are leave
room to improve. So number one, that makes sense there
would be more religious and philosophical than medical because the
bar is quite frankly, so much lower. But also, and

(42:00):
I will go back to this, you brought it up,
the damage that was done, the trust that was broken
between established institutions that we trusted, we believed in during
the COVID pandemic. I didn't realize in the moment, but
the far reaching ramifications. I will say this until I'm

(42:22):
blue in the face. That's why we're having these discussions today.
Trust was broken there, and now you have people who
I am fine with rightfully questioning everything, but now it's
creeping into trying to set policy. And I will say
for the record again, I think Wes Virginia's policy is fine.
I've not seen anything that we should be changing these

(42:42):
vaccination policies and allowing for these exemptions. My personal opinion
on that matter, I've not seen anything. I could be persuaded,
but I haven't seen any data to change my mind there.
But the trust that was broken has done significant damage
to trust in really all public institutions to some degree.
And that's why we're having this conversation. Partly why we're
having this conversation right now, I think the.

Speaker 5 (43:04):
Fact that we have three hundred or so that we've
approved and we know where they are right because it's
noted that there had to be on the exemption form,
I think and address and different things, so we know
roughly where these children are. When we talk about transparency
last week, I don't know why that wouldn't be transparent
that we wouldn't be able to track and let the

(43:26):
public know where these pockets are. Now, I look this
up quick CDC search, and it looks like for measles,
because that's what we were talking about. In order to
prevent communicable transmission, you need about a ninety five percent
immunity rate. She noted in her piece, two hundred and
fifty one thousand school students in West Virginia, roughly five

(43:48):
percent of that is around little more than twelve thousand.
We're at three hundred, So I think, look, you can,
based on the formula, you can say that we're still fine, obviously,
but if you're not tracking the pockets, and these start
to exacerbate in terms of what many in the legislature,

(44:09):
I think about what Tom Takubo talked about Dave when
we were at the capitol. He noted that our vaccination
rate is really poor until kids have to go to school,
and then it upticks. So if that trend happens and
we get more and more kindergarteners, more more first year
second years, and as we start to build that and
you get a lot of kids that aren't vaccinated, you know,

(44:29):
we're a couple of years away from potential issues there,
just based on the math here and what we're talking
about in the formula.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
I don't necessarily disagree, but I'll disagree with you. And
this is not based off scientific evidence. This is based
off past observations, because I've heard this argument with regard
to other laws we have enacted in West Virginia, whether
it's been I'll use this as an example, conceal carry.
If we allow people to carry without a permit, Oh
my gosh, we're gun crime is going.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
To go in.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Say, everybody's gonna be walking. Have we seen that major uptick?
Everybody has? Everybody If we allow somebody to carry on
campus campus kits always came up with carry on campus
campus carried. If we allow these things, oh my gosh,
the doom's days say. The doomsday sayers right are out
telling you how those messages do not land. If you

(45:21):
are trying to make a good argument, I guess is
where I'm going with this, TJ. So if you're making
and I'm not saying you are making an argument, but
if one is to make the argument that we are
going to have these widespread measles cases and there's going
to be death and destruction, those arguments are not going
to land if you are trying to persuade public opinion,
and it's never landed for me personally, And I think

(45:42):
those outland day statements, while they might be attention grabbing,
they're not going to land. As far as trying to
sway the narrative or moderate the policy at all.

Speaker 5 (45:52):
You may have, you always have a tough time changing
people's minds who are dug in. Sure, So there's that
right at the top. I think one of the difference
is respectfully to that argument, is with gun control. You
know it's the individual with this the unknown variable is
the disease itself. That you can't control the communicable nature

(46:15):
of the disease. So I think it's something we have
to watch, I mean personally, based on these formulas, Let's
say we got up into the couple thousand and three
thousand within a couple of years, I mean, I'd want
to look at that. I'd be concerned. I'd be even
more interested to know where they are and where the
pockets are because I think you could probably make the
argument that each pocket probably has a different herd immunity

(46:38):
based on the number of people in it. Right, So
if you've got only three hundred state wide, but twenty
five of those are in a certain school and a
class of fifty people. You know, you get where I'm
going with that. So I just think it's something that
we need to watch and continue to understand what the
risk profiles will be.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
That's Squoy. He's in a quick call before we got
to take this break. Paul in Pocahontas County.

Speaker 4 (46:58):
Go ahead, Paul, more than gentlemen. Our constitution protects us
supposedly from government overreach. The Fourth Amendment says we are
to be secure in our person. And so I'd like
you guys to address where does government get the authority
to mandate that you, as a constitutional individual, have to

(47:21):
take an injection that could alter your life, your RNA,
your DNA without any you know, let's see, there's the
the habeas corpus that they're yelling about for the illegals.
You know, it's if those if the vaccinations quote work,
then those that choose not to take the injections are

(47:44):
not endangering anyone else.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
Paul. Hey, Paul, appreciate the call. We're running really tight
against the break, but I will I will answer you
this way. If you feel that deeply, and that strongly
that you don't want your job to take the fact
there are other avenues, homeschooling being one of them, and
we do have a pretty robust school choice option now
in West Virginia with the promised scholarship. So if you
do feel that strongly, there are options available to you.

(48:09):
Paul appreciate the call. Got to take the final break
of the hour back to wrap it up in a moment.

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Speaker 13 (49:35):
West Virginia Broadband Office Director Kelly Workman says the state
has led the way in securing new federal money for
broadband expansion, but now the process is on hold as
a Trump administration reviews the funding and reworks the program.
Workman says the state was is six weeks from receiving
final approval and moving forward.

Speaker 17 (49:50):
We know that the program is being revised that we
don't know how and we don't know when.

Speaker 24 (49:56):
Kyle Wiggs at the Sports desk, West Virginia did have
leads Kansas State Sunday three to nothing. They led late
eight to seven into the bottom of the eighth, but
things fell apart as Kansas State went on to defeat
West Virginia fourteen to nine, so the Mountaineers still in
sole possession of first place in the Big Twelve again
the match number of one.

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Speaker 25 (50:51):
It's two hours of sports conversation to wrap up your weekend.
It's the City Net Sunday Night Sports Line. Hey, this
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Speaker 1 (51:37):
Three at four, Talk three or four. The text line
Texter says, you guys act like Fauci. The fraud are
paying you with all the vaccine BS are shoving down
people's throats. If your vaccine works, then a couple of
kids in a classroom aren't going to harm your kids.
My daughter is an infectious disease doctor in Minneapolis, and
she calls BS on your statements. Well, if a couple

(51:59):
of kids turns into TJ's points, a couple more kids
turns into now fifty percent of the classrooms unvaccinated, fifty
percent of the school, seventy percent of the school, could
you have an issue on your hands. Well, we've seen
those issues, TJ in parts of Texas where these exemptions exist.

Speaker 5 (52:16):
Yeah, I don't think you can dismiss what is happening
in other parts of the country, and I think it's fair.
I think it's plausible to conclude that one of the
reasons it has not yet come to West Virginia is
because we do have such a high vaccination rate. So
when we talk about loosening the requirements around that rate,
I think it's totally acceptable to talk about what probable

(52:36):
outcomes may occur as a result. It's all we're saying.
All we're saying, and to your point to the previous scholar,
no one is mandating that your children have these vaccines, period, period.
There is no state law that compels you, no federal
law that compels you to have your children vaccinated. You

(52:57):
must have them vaccinated if they go to a public school.

Speaker 1 (53:01):
Texter says, we briefly explained how trust was broken during COVID.
The whole situation six jumping. People were very understanding because hey,
it was new, nobody had it figured out except when officials,
mainly elected officials, I would say, decided to jump on

(53:23):
the bag bandwagon, speak with certainty, and then start to
push mandates and regulations that well crippled the economy.

Speaker 5 (53:30):
All right, we'll come back to that.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
The Democrats' demise greatly exaggerated. We'll talk to Matt Lewis
coming up six minutes from now. This is talk Line
All Metro News, the voice of West Virginia.

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Speaker 1 (53:57):
Second Hour Eteers talk Line from the in COVID Insurance Studios.
David TJ with you. Coming up a little bit later on,
Joe Bricado will join us doubleeve you. Baseball could could,
depending on today's outcome, host a super regional. It's going
to plan a super regional no matter what. It's either

(54:18):
going to be in Baton Rouge, That's how I have
to say it, TJ. Baton Rouge, or it's going to
be in Morgantown. We'll find out. Later today. We'll talk
to Joe about that softball state tournament wrapped up over
the weekend. Baseball state tournament gets underway Thursday, so Joe
will stop by and get us all caught up today
on all the happenings on high school and College Sports

(54:40):
three A four Talk three or four of the text
line eight hundred and seven to sixty five Talk eight
hundred seven to sixty five eight two five five. Friend
of the program Matt Lewis, conservative commentator podcaster. His podcast
is called Matt Lewis and the News. Get It TJ
See who did there? I see that wrote this last week?
It is it's hard to tell whether Democrats are genuinely

(55:02):
teetering on the edge of oblivion or if we're simply
in the part of the narrative arc where the main
character is faced down in the mud before the third
act redemption. You have my attention. Matt Lewis joins a
so Much A News talk line this morning. Matt, good morning,
good to see again. Hey, good to be here. All right,
So I answer your own question, are we at there?

(55:22):
Are Democrats down and out? Or is this where the
comeback story begins?

Speaker 26 (55:27):
Well, I mean I think the question is is have
we entered into something different? Is Donald Trump just a
different animal?

Speaker 4 (55:37):
Or is this hit?

Speaker 26 (55:39):
You know, are we in the midst of just another
popular president? And you know we have seen this before,
you know, going back after Watergate, Republicans seemed down and out.
They even had to put out these pins that literally
said the slogan was Republicans are people too. Republic Plans

(56:00):
were vanquished. Everybody thought they were going to be in
the political wilderness forever. And then, of course Reagan gets
elected and he wins two terms, his vice president wins
a third term. So you have twelve years of Republicans
controlling the presidency, people Johnny Carson making jokes about Democrats
will never be back in the White House. And then

(56:21):
Bill Clinton comes along, and this is a pattern that
we have seen.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
When George W.

Speaker 26 (56:27):
Bush was president, people were talking about a permanent governing majority.
Carl Rove was talking about that. And then you get
Barack Obama for two terms, and then Democrats are talking
about the Coalition of the Ascendant and Republicans are afraid
they'll never win the White House back because the demographic
changes that have taken place.

Speaker 2 (56:48):
And then you get Trump.

Speaker 26 (56:49):
So the Democrats right now look really down and out,
but maybe they are, and maybe they'll be and we'll
all be surprised.

Speaker 5 (57:02):
Man, did Trump change the game? And maybe inadvertently, but
in that he's in office, he loses. He's off for
four years before he's back, but he never stopped talking.
During those four years, Republicans knew exactly where to look
for their talking points. And when I think about Democrats
being a Democrat, I'm not one, but I think to myself,

(57:25):
where would I look? And I scratch my head. It
seems like no one's at the mic for the Demps.
Does that make this different or at least make it
feel different?

Speaker 2 (57:33):
It definitely makes it feel different.

Speaker 26 (57:35):
And was it Will Rogers who said, you know, he
wasn't a member of any organized political party. He was
a Democrat. You know, maybe it's a common lament that
Democrats are disorganized.

Speaker 8 (57:48):
But look, you're right.

Speaker 26 (57:50):
I think for the last however many years, the last decade,
really Republicans have had a leader in Donald Trump, and
they've known where to look in terms of guidance, and
Democrats haven't had that really. I mean, Joe Biden was president,
but he didn't really have the rhetorical ability to cast
a vision and to kind of lead the party and

(58:12):
any sort of you know, having like a moral high
ground or or or whatever.

Speaker 20 (58:17):
I mean.

Speaker 26 (58:17):
Bill Clinton certainly did that. Maybe not on moral high ground,
but Bill Clinton changed what the Democratic Party stood for.
And uh so Democrats, I think for many years now
have been have been without that that leader casting a vision.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
But does But what does that mean?

Speaker 26 (58:37):
And I guess what I'm getting at here is that
it's not unusual for political parties to go through decades
of being kind of lost and in the wilderness without
that that force, and then someone will rise, you know,
to the occasion, you know, and and and the weird
thing is you usually don't see them coming, even at

(58:58):
this stage in the elections, Michael, you don't see them coming, right.
So if I said to you in twenty thirteen, Back
in twenty thirteen, you may remember, Republicans were not in
a great place. You did sort of have the Tea
Party starting to provide some passionate energy, but Republicans literally
had just lost yet another election to Barack Obama. The

(59:18):
Republican the RNC, the Republican National Committee, put out what
they called an autopsy report. That's what you do today, people,
is put out an autopsy looking at the Republican Party.
And if I had said to you in twenty thirteen,
don't worry, Donald Trump will be elected president in three years,
you would have thought I was crazy. And so it
very well may be that there is some Democrat who

(59:40):
will emerge, that somebody we're not even thinking of yet
who could deliver them to the promise land.

Speaker 1 (59:48):
Talking to Matt Lewis, Conservative a columnist. You can read
his work at the Hill dot com, his works everywhere.
He's got a podcast as well. Pretty good podcast, if
I say so myself, Matt, Matt Lewis andels and I
guess this speaks to what you're saying about things being cyclical.
If you go back to where Democrats were after the

(01:00:08):
second term of George W. Bush. I mean, who sees
Barack Obama coming in being the powerhouse that he was,
and look where Republicans were, Like you said twenty thirteen,
I also believe too, Trump is a unique animal and
his whatever that thing, that thing that makes him unique
is non transferable, whether that's JD. Vans, Marco Rubio, or

(01:00:30):
some other Republican. So Republicans need to understand that, I
believe if they are going to be successful in twenty
eight because whatever he is that doesn't apply to anybody
else in the party.

Speaker 26 (01:00:42):
I completely agree, and that is also not new right.
I think Reagan, Ronald Reagan had a star power that
didn't apply to George Bush and Bill Clinton had a
charisma and a swagger that was not transferable to Al Gore.
And Barack Obama had this hope and change celebrity aura

(01:01:04):
that did not apply to Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden.
And so part of what I'm getting at is that
there are these these these two term presidents in modern
history that are rock stars to a certain degree, and
once they're gone, the whoever takes over, you can try
to emulate them, you can try to run the same
plays that they ran, but there's a magic, and I

(01:01:27):
think there is a magic that Donald Trump has and
it's very infuriating to Democrats into a lot of people
who think, well, that's not constitutional or that's not nice,
and yet he gets away with it. And I guess
what I'm saying is that's not unusual that there are
rockstar politicians in this era going probably the modern era,

(01:01:49):
with John F. Kennedy being the first real TV president
and the rules do not apply to him. But yeah,
when whenever, you know, let's assume that Donald Trump leaves
at the end of his second term. If it's jd Vance,
jd Vance is a smart guy. Jd Vance is a
good politician, But he's a politician, Donald Trump. People don't

(01:02:11):
see him as a politician. It's like he's a celebrity.
People think he's funny, he's likable. We saw what happened
even with Elon Musk. You know, I get to speak anecdotally,
like I have friends I go out to lunch. Of
them they love Donald Trump.

Speaker 6 (01:02:25):
They don't like Elon Musk.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
It's not transferable.

Speaker 5 (01:02:31):
So how quickly for the Democrats does this savior I'll
use Rama Manuel's term that he applied to himself last week.
Does this savior need to emerge? Because it seems like
things are getting sooner and sooner these days, and so
if this person isn't there yet, and I think you're right,
I don't think it can be a known commodity because

(01:02:51):
for whatever reason, all the known commodities come with baggage
or they've just let's just be candid, some of them
have loser painted all over them. With that set, how
quickly does this person need to come on the scene.

Speaker 26 (01:03:03):
Well, Donald Trump started running really in twenty fifteen, that's
the year before the twenty sixteen election, and he wasn't
really taken seriously. I think he got in the race
in twenty fifteen, right, yeah, and then the first votes
are usually in January of the election year or the
primary begins, and so I would say that it could

(01:03:25):
be twenty twenty seven before we even have a sense
of who this person might be. I will tell you
who I the type of person I think it needs
to be. I think for Democrats, based on the context,
based on the world as it is today, and based
on the stereotypes against them, I think it needs to

(01:03:46):
be a man. I think it needs to be someone
who is not a conventional politician. So it can't be
someone who has been in the US Senate for years
who is. It can't be someone who's polished, and I
think it probably needs to be someone who kind of
has masculine attributes. I think Donald Trump, at least for now,
has kind of changed the game. So you know, if

(01:04:09):
John Fetterman, the Senator from Pennsylvania, had he not suffered
that stroke, I would think he might be the kind
of person. You know, he wears the hoodies and the shorts,
and he's you know, six foot seven or something. You know,
bench press' is mac Trucks. But I think someone like
that they can be a politician. They can't seem like

(01:04:30):
a politician, and I think it probably has to be
a guy, partly because and I'm not saying that's fair,
but Democrats have now lost of the last three presidential
elections with a female running at the top of the ticket. Now,
in fairness, they were running against Donald Trump in both cases.
But my guess is that Democrats are going to go

(01:04:54):
back to dudes this time around.

Speaker 5 (01:04:57):
This will make you both chuckle as you're describing that. Matt,
I kind of thought of Jesse the body Ventura in
my fight.

Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
It could do work.

Speaker 26 (01:05:04):
I mean that kind of person. Yeah, Like I said,
you know, Stephen A. Smith is someone, the Rock might
be someone. I mean, it sounds crazy. I know people
are probably laughing when I say this, and in a
normal conventional political world it would be laughable. But remembered,
what did people Everybody laughed at Donald Trump too, You're right, So, yeah,

(01:05:27):
that's the context.

Speaker 1 (01:05:28):
Matt Lewis joining US conservative columnist, author of the books
Too Dumb to Fail might be a description of this
show and filthy rich politicians. He's also a podcaster. But Matt,
speaking of the Democrats, they just don't strike me. And
again we're sitting here June second, twenty five. You know,
the primaries don't start for you know, another two and
a half years. But if you're sitting around right now discussing, well,

(01:05:52):
how do we talk to men and where do we
find our Joe Rogan that doesn't scream organization that is
ready to succeed to me.

Speaker 26 (01:06:01):
Well, yeah, on one hand, uh, you you could argue
that acceptance is the first step toward recovery. So Democrats
have now accepted the fact that they have a problem,
they have a real problem with particularly young white men,
but with men, and so yes, it seems really pretty
lame and sad that that they're having these meetings and

(01:06:24):
that they're you know, talking about this. But acceptance is
the first step. But look, I don't think that this
is the kind of thing that you can fix with
like a bullet, you know, a PowerPoint presentation and like
from now on, we're going to talk about sports. From
now on, we're gonna you know, we're not going to
make fun of guys and say that the future is
female anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
Stop doing that, Like it's.

Speaker 26 (01:06:45):
Not gonna work like that. Really, honestly, it doesn't matter
that much what the Democratic party does. What matters is
who the standard bearer is. If the Democrats nominate a
Bill Clinton or a Barack Obama or a Ronald Reagan,
then they will win. And if they don't, they can

(01:07:07):
have all this stuff, right, but you know, at the
best case scenario, they win because JD. Vance is not
Donald Trump?

Speaker 4 (01:07:16):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
Is that the thing that people are looking for, authenticity?
And maybe maybe that's what you get with Trump. I
mean he hey, he says in the Camp paying Trail
he's going to pose tariffs. He imposes tariffs. Is that
what people are looking for? Is that what Democrats need,
that that authentic candidate who's not tailor made based on
focus groups and trying to placate all these different intersectional

(01:07:41):
qualities big time.

Speaker 5 (01:07:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 26 (01:07:43):
And I think like a Bernie Sanders, he's going to
be too old. That's the irony for Democrats is the
two obvious candidates. Bernie Sanders, who he's too far to
the left for my personal taste, but he can go on,
Joe Rogan, he can go on THEO Vaughn, he can
go on to a three hour podcast and he is
he believes the things he said. And then John Fetterman,
who had the stroke. I mean, those are the two

(01:08:03):
best Democrats in this current environment. But yeah, I think
it's authenticity. I do think kind of masculinity are is
important this time around. But you can't be a polished politician.
You cannot use the talking points and wear the suit
and the necktie and all of that. And yeah, I
think Donald Trump uses that authenticity. That doesn't mean he's

(01:08:29):
always honest. I don't think he's always tells the truth.
But was it Dave Chappelle who caught him an honest liar?
And yeah, I think people people can tell if you're
sort of b asking them with the talking points or
if you're you know, who else had it in a
different way, you know, twenty five years ago the first
time he ran for president was John McCain. John McCain

(01:08:52):
had that same thing, the straight talk express Democrats need
it this time around.

Speaker 5 (01:08:58):
I just keep racking my brain about who it could be,
and I keep coming up with a goose egg. But
I guess to your point, that's what makes it magic,
right this this dark horse comes out of nowhere and
steals the show. But I just, uh, I can't envision it.

Speaker 26 (01:09:11):
So we'll see, and I tell you That's what makes
it uh so frustrating, right is people who work in politics,
they want to be able to control things, and it
makes like you can't just hope, Like if I'm head
of the DNC, I can't tell everybody at the next meeting, like,
don't worry, we don't need to raise money, we don't

(01:09:31):
need to organize, you know, all of these like campaign
headquarters in Ohio, just you know, leaping the net will appear.
A savior will rise from these streets. Like that's not
a plan. Hope is not a plan, but in reality,
that's kind of what it's gonna take. Like, is thecademic emerges,

(01:09:52):
then that's how you win.

Speaker 5 (01:09:54):
Is the Rock a Democrat?

Speaker 4 (01:09:55):
Do we know?

Speaker 1 (01:09:56):
I don't think we know, And I think the.

Speaker 26 (01:09:58):
Rock has probably, like a lot of these celebrities, has
probably flirted a little bit with both sides of the aisle.
I think he's been critical of Trump at some points
and probably praised Trump at other points. But keep in mind,
nobody knew if Dwight Eisenhower was a Republican either, so
that's not necessarily a disqualifier. In fact, it could be

(01:10:18):
a good thing to not know if someone is a Democrat.

Speaker 1 (01:10:23):
At this point, he's Matt Lewis, conservative columnist. You can
read his work at The Hill dot com, among other places.
I also has a podcast, Matt Lewis and the News.
Matt always a fun conversation. Appreciate a buddy, Thanks for
having me. We'll get some sast coming up next. Three
or four talk three oh four, eight hundred and seven
to sixty five talk. That's the phone number. Back in
a moment.

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
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the Health Plan.

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Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
You're listening to Talkline on Metro News, the voice of
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Speaker 10 (01:11:47):
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and for your daily fix, Outdoors Today brings you two

Speaker 25 (01:13:16):
It's two hours of sports conversation to wrap up your weekend.
It's the City Net Sunday Night Sports Line. Hey, this
is Travis Jowes joining myself and Greg Hunter every Sunday
night from six oh six until eight o'clock. As we
wrap up the sports weekend, we talk mountaineers, high school,
Mountain East Conference, and the latest in the national scene.
The Sunday Sports line is listener interactive. You could call
or text the show at three oh four Talk three

(01:13:39):
oh four. It's a perfect weekend sports wrap up on
your favorite metro news aphilia or watch the show at
wv metronews dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:14:05):
Text line is three oh four Talk three oh four.
Phone number is eight hundred and seven to sixty five
Talk eight hundred and seven sixty five eight two five five.
AOC is currently polling third highest behind Barack and Michelle Obama.
I just heard your eyes roll over the radio. But
would you have rolled your eyes back then if someone

(01:14:25):
would have said Donald Trump will be your president twice?
Accessible healthcare for all coming soon to a country near you,
says the Texter. I do not roll my eyes at
AOC at all, and I caution those who do be careful,
be careful. She's going to get as it stands today,
And again I tend to lean with Matt lewis there

(01:14:48):
that somebody is going to come to you that we
have no idea, no idea who they are at this point.
But right now there's her contingent. She's going to get
the Bernie Sanders contingent of voters. And in a plurality
of voting in a primary. She is in a good
position as it stands today here in twenty twenty five.
So do not roll your eyes at AOC.

Speaker 5 (01:15:11):
Everybody has a chance. Look, Presidential politics and who makes
it to the White House oftentimes is not about what
you did well. It's about what you did poorly. That's
what eliminates you. Even Biden had a shot until that
debate performance, and it was clear despite everything we knew
about Obiden, Obiden about Biden. So that is a big

(01:15:35):
as variable as anything. You can have a great candidate
on either side, they make the mistake, You're done.

Speaker 1 (01:15:41):
Texter says, maybe Mark Cuban, although he has shot this down.
People have been known to change their minds. Donald Trump
once famously said he would never run for president, So
you know there's a chance, there's a chance.

Speaker 5 (01:15:52):
I guess God has takebacks these days.

Speaker 1 (01:15:56):
This, Texter says the governor of Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro or
the governor of Kentucky Andy Busheer Forsher is interesting. You've
brought him up a couple of times, TJ.

Speaker 5 (01:16:05):
I like Bashir. I think he did extremely well. I
think he did very well in matter of fact, I
know he did in East Kentucky, an area that Trump
won almost as hugely as he did West Virginia. Yet
this guy manages to win the vote there in most
of the area, maybe except Boyd County. He's got a
shot the kind of qualities that Matt was talking about.

(01:16:28):
I don't know that Basher could sell that. So if
that's what ends up being what Democrats need to do
to win, that Rock persona not happening with Andy Basheer,
but I like Bashir.

Speaker 1 (01:16:39):
Here's a here. The twenty twenty eight election will be
a cage match between Bongino versus The Rock. About that.

Speaker 5 (01:16:49):
That'd be interesting?

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
Would you watch that on pay per view? I think
I'd spring for that. Ah, probably I would go to
your house and watch it on yourn. Come on down,
Dave and TJ. I do not think any Democrat in
Congress will be a lot. Acted President wants the excessive
spending and national deficit collapses our economy, says the Texter
three or four Talk three or four. When does w
Baseball play next? Well, we'll let you know. Joe Bricado

(01:17:12):
is going to join us. Mountaineers are awaiting the winner
of Little Rock and LSU could be playing at home,
but Kendrick Family Ballpark could be if Little Rock pulls
off the upset. We'll talk about that coming up with
Joe plus recap Softwall in preview baseball, high school of
state tournaments. As we continue, this is Talk Linel Metro News,
the Voice of West Virginia. It's eleven thirty. Time to

(01:17:35):
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 28 (01:17:43):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Chris Lauren, so Man one
to do on three outstanding fellow. Ly Warrens was caught
in Randolph County over the weekend. Sheriff Rob Albin, in
a press release said he's deputies, along with the State Police,
arrested the fugitive Saturday in the community of Maybe Pete.
Perez had been sought by the state Police arrest as
he tried to flee out the back door of the
home where he was confronted by law enforcement. He faces

(01:18:04):
charges of child neglect with gross risk of injury, distribution
and display of child pornography, and soliciting a minor via
computer in Greenboro County. A man wanted is still at
large in the sheriff's department. There is asking for the
public self to find him. Jason Roberts wanted after he
skipped out on his bond and faces a number of
fellony charges. Our authorities arrested Roberts made tenth on those
warrants and at the time of his arrest, he was

(01:18:25):
armed with a handgun. A local bailbondsman posted his bail,
but he failed to show up for court and has
now declared a fugitive by law enforcement. The three West
Virginia s sheriff's departments and a small town police force
are beneficiaries of pre owned cruisers. Clay County Sheriff Alan
King tells Metronews they took delivery of a Ford tourist
that was donated at no charge by the Berkeley County

(01:18:46):
Sheriff's office.

Speaker 16 (01:18:47):
It's a good program. I'm glad that they do that.
They got the option to sell those vehicles. They can
auction them all if they help these other departments. That's
the highly appreciated.

Speaker 28 (01:18:58):
Clay County took del one of the cruisers. The mcdallen
and Mingo County Sheriff's office got two more and the
town of Kimball received one of those vehicles. You're listening
to Matronews the Boys of West Virginia.

Speaker 16 (01:19:11):
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Speaker 28 (01:20:08):
To fly today, The Mountaineer Baseball team on Sunday overcame
not one but two five run deficits to beat Kentucky
and claim the Clemson Regional title of the NCAA Baseball Tournament,
final score thirteen to twelve. Now the Mountaineers await the
I come up today's matchup between LSU and Little Rock
in the Baton Rouge Regional. Should that be Little Rock

(01:20:30):
win that one? WU would host the regional in Morgantown
later this week. From the Metro News anchored ESK, I'm
Chris Lawrence.

Speaker 1 (01:21:00):
Four of your texts coming up at three or four
Talk three oh four. Phones are always open as well.
Give ethan our operators something to do. The boys just
looking for direction eight hundred and seven to sixty five
Talk eight hundred seven sixty five eight two five, five
and three or four Talk three oh four. I was
watching ESPN. I don't know if it was the Plus

(01:21:21):
or the Deuce or the O. Cho's watching one of
them last night, TJ OJO, and they do this cool thing.
It's called a squeeze play. So they're showing you four
sometimes five simultaneous baseball games going on at the same time.
W and Kentucky are up in the left hand corner,
this little aitybitty corner. And my wife, who has supersonic

(01:21:43):
hearing because she can't see anything when she takes her
glasses off, is looking at me. I can't see what's
going on. What are you talking about? They're down two
in the bottom of the eighth with two outs of
Mars on second and third, and she goes, you're insane.
You can't find the chips in the cabinet behind when
they're by another bag, but you can see that.

Speaker 5 (01:22:01):
Well, I've watch five games at one time, but you
can't find the chips.

Speaker 1 (01:22:05):
Oh it was. It was maddening trying to watch all
five because there's something going on in all of them,
and the something going on in Clemson was wu coming
back from down five runs not once, but twice mentioned
New Sports hardest working man of media. Joe Ricotta joins
us coming back from down five Joe is tough. Doing
it twice, Well, that's nearly impossible, but Mountaineers pulled it

(01:22:28):
off and we'll be playing in the Super regionals.

Speaker 3 (01:22:30):
Well, it does help. When you have a pair of
six run innings, your odds of winning a baseball game
are usually pretty good.

Speaker 1 (01:22:36):
If you're gonna do that.

Speaker 3 (01:22:36):
Yes, West Virginia needed all of those six run frames
plus another run to get the victory, But thirteen to twelve,
they defeat Kentucky and for the second year in a row,
sweep their way through regional play. They're now six and
oh in the last two years in regional play and
they have a spot in the super Regionals locked up
this coming weekend.

Speaker 5 (01:22:56):
So what happens next? Joe, who's got to win, who's
got to lose? Who do we play?

Speaker 3 (01:23:00):
Everybody will be looking at the matchup tonight. It is
a nine o'clock start in Baton Rouge.

Speaker 5 (01:23:05):
Did I say that right?

Speaker 3 (01:23:05):
David bat Home Rouge. I'm sorry, you gotta get that
Cajun in there. My apologies. LSU hosts Little Rock. If LSU,
who is the number six national seed, wins that game,
and this is the decisive game of that regional, then
LSU would host West Virginia this coming weekend. If Little Rock,
who has a record that's six games under five hundred,
they only got into the tournament because they won their

(01:23:27):
conference tournament after going on a great run late in
the season. If Little Rock upsets LSU for the second
straight day, West Virginia would host the Super Regional this
coming weekend, which would be a rocus entertaining overflow crowds.

Speaker 1 (01:23:42):
Awesome, awesome, But this is okay Again. I don't mean
to wax poetically about baseball, but this is why I
love the game. Joe Little Rock beats LSU, Vandy Goutton.
The number one overall seed gets knocked out yesterday by
Right State. Right State beats Vanderbilt. Anything can happens. This
is better than this is better than March Madness.

Speaker 3 (01:24:02):
Texas, the number two overall seed gets knocked out. UTSA
wins that regional, so they're going on to face UCLA next.
It's the equivalent of if you were watching the opening
week of n SO Doubla, March Madness and basketball. A
pair of number one seeds getting knocked out. That's what
we saw yesterday. So there's a lot of smaller programs
that can have success and do well in this tournament.

(01:24:23):
There's generally a lot of anarchy, and we've certainly seen
that in the first weekend of the tournament.

Speaker 1 (01:24:27):
The Coastal Carolina's moving on out of that region. Florida
is I mean, some of the big names that you
expect in Omaha have been They've been eliminated already.

Speaker 3 (01:24:36):
True, we also have one more Big twelve team that's
in Super Regions. Arizona certainly a brand name program, but
they joined the Mountaineers as two of the teams two
of the ten teams so far that have qualified for
sup super regional play. And whether permitting six more teams
will qualify tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:24:50):
All right, we'll be watching LSU at least I'll be
watching at least the first few innings.

Speaker 4 (01:24:55):
Joe.

Speaker 1 (01:24:55):
That's late.

Speaker 3 (01:24:55):
It's nine o'clock starts, late starts, so you're going to
make the opening pitch.

Speaker 1 (01:25:00):
I'll make the opening pitch. I won't make the final pitch. Okay,
all right to LSU. Little Rock will be keeping an
eye on that one. The high school softball state tournament
wrapped up over the weekend. Couple of champions crowned. Winfield
wins three in a row, but they've done it in
two different classes now because the classifications changed. But they've
won three in a row and cabl Midland crown champions
for the first time in four a over the weekend.

Speaker 3 (01:25:22):
So Winfield the three time defending champions, but in two
different classes. They won their first two titles.

Speaker 1 (01:25:26):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (01:25:27):
They won their first two titles in Class Double A
and Steve Hensley's crew getting the job done once again
with a two to one victory over Frankfort in a
very well played contest. The Winfield able to walk it
off with a run in the bottom of the seventh
to win their third consecutive state title. And you know,
we talk about the anarchy and college baseball, there was
anarchy just to get Winfield into the state tournament. They

(01:25:48):
were down to their final out in their final regional game,
trailing Chapmanville. They find a way to scratch a run
across back in the decisive game of that regional, send
the game to extra innings, win in extra innings, and
then they go reno in the state tournament. So, as
we see, with a lot of baseball and softball, very
unpredictable and no surprise to see Winfield certainly win the
state championship, but their path to get there was certainly

(01:26:10):
very challenging. Cable Midland one of the top programs in
the state, regardless of class. They are the first, as
you said, Dave, the first Quad A state champion. This's
the first year of the four class state tournament, and
Andrea Wats can't say enough about her and what she
was able to do in the circle fourteen strikeouts in
the state championship game against the Jefferson team that lost
their first game fought their way back to get into
the championship round. But it's cable Midland winning the title

(01:26:33):
along with oaklann and Pendleton County who won earlier in
the tournament.

Speaker 1 (01:26:35):
She threw no hitter in that hurricane on Friday, didn't she?

Speaker 3 (01:26:40):
I thought it was more of a tornado than a hurricane.
The wins seemed to be more.

Speaker 1 (01:26:44):
Were they swirling then?

Speaker 5 (01:26:45):
Yeah? I think so.

Speaker 3 (01:26:46):
Yes, some wild conditions that we saw weather wise on Friday.

Speaker 1 (01:26:52):
My job was just to hold down the tent so
Luke and Kyle could actually work.

Speaker 3 (01:26:57):
I usually when I'm shooting in the outfield from a
try pod, usually the video is pretty steady. But when
you have to physically hold the tripod down to the
earth to make sure that it doesn't fly away on you, yeah,
a little challenging.

Speaker 5 (01:27:07):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:27:07):
We've got recaps, highlights, photos the whole nine yards over
at WDV metronews dot com. We get a day or
two off sorta. We got to get ready. The high
school baseball State Tournament will start on Thursday to wrap
up the twenty four to twenty five athletic season and
again for classifications, So four more teams in Charleston. That
means four more games and a lot of fun coming

(01:27:29):
up starting Thursday.

Speaker 3 (01:27:30):
So we've got twelve state tournament games this year. This
time next year, we'll have twenty eight state tournament games.
As we've mentioned, I don't want to get you started
on that because that'll fill up the rest of you
the twenty minutes of the show. But this is the
first four class tournament and with that, very interested to
see how Class A turns out. Madonna has been the
number one team in our poll throughout basically the entire
season of twenty six and four record, very strong squad.

(01:27:52):
Behind that, you have some teams that have not had
a lot of success at the state tournament level. Gilmour
County won a state championship back in twenty twenty one.
Been a while since save beart be there. East Hardy
was eight and fifteen going into the postseason. They've won
their four postseason games, so they will take a twelve
and fifteen record. Webster County is thirteen and thirteen. They're
making it to the state tournament for the first time ever.

(01:28:14):
So Class A, which would be the first bracket that
we'll see on Thursday, should be interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:28:18):
Class four a's loaded, though.

Speaker 3 (01:28:20):
Class four A is absolutely loaded, and it does not
contain one of the dominant programs in the state of
West Virginia in Jefferson.

Speaker 5 (01:28:27):
They were knocked out by Hedgesville.

Speaker 3 (01:28:28):
The Eagles, after dropping the opening game of the regional
finals against Jefferson, defeated the Cougars twice. So Hedgesville is
in as the number four seed. Hurricane, a traditional dominant program,
they are the number one seed. George Washington is the two.
They'll take on Morgantown GW one the MSAC Tournament, which
is a good precursor to what we'll usually see at
the state tournament, and Morgantown's in for the second year

(01:28:50):
in a row for the first time in program history.

Speaker 1 (01:28:52):
Not to be remissed Triple A. I mean, all the
brackets of it's the state tournament, but Triple A looks
really good.

Speaker 3 (01:28:58):
You can make an argument for any one of the
four teams, strong argument for any one of the four
teams in Class Triple A. Ripley has the fewest amount
of losses of any program in the state. They're twenty
four to three. They're the top seed. They split a
regular season series with Hurricane, so that's obviously a quality result.
Winfield was in the state tournament a year ago. They're
the four seed. Now they won the state tournament two
years ago at the Class and Double A level, and

(01:29:18):
the two versus three matchup Frankfurt the only defending champion
to get back to Charleston. They're the number two seed.
They'll take on the number three seed in Fairmont Senior.

Speaker 1 (01:29:25):
Guess we've talked about everybody else, might as well give
us the Double A bracket.

Speaker 3 (01:29:28):
Wheeling Central the number one overall seed. They'll take on
Wyoming East in the one versus four game, and I
think what should be probably the best semi final matchup
of the entire tournament, the two versus three game Logan.
Already with eight state championships, they're back and for the
first time since winning the state title in twenty twenty two,
they're taking out a Philip Barber team that's making their
first state tournament appearance since nineteen seventy five.

Speaker 1 (01:29:50):
Are you ready to go? What's your go to ballpark lunch?
While you're doing all this work.

Speaker 3 (01:29:56):
The pretzels because you have to think usually as you're
shooting the game. You have to have something that is
going to hold throughout the course of the game. If
you can't get to it right away and you have
a lengthy inning, the pretzel can stand the test of time.

Speaker 5 (01:30:09):
Throughout the day.

Speaker 1 (01:30:10):
This is a true professional, TJ. True professional.

Speaker 5 (01:30:14):
I just want to know if the rock for president
would do anything for you, Joe, does that interest you
at all?

Speaker 3 (01:30:19):
I was glad that you asked me that, TJ. Hey,
I'm all for outside the box thinking and a little
bit of anarchy. Perhaps, why not?

Speaker 5 (01:30:31):
I hear you. Good for you, good man.

Speaker 1 (01:30:33):
That is as controversial as you'll ever get from Joe Brocott.

Speaker 3 (01:30:37):
I mean, you think about it. If you had the
combination which he would have as president and commissioner of
a pro football organization or you know, president or whatever
his title is, and to hold those two offices at
the same time, that would be some pretty good multitasking.
But hey, UFL leader plus president of the United States,
why not?

Speaker 5 (01:30:57):
Anything's on the table at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:30:59):
He is the hardest working man in sports media, and
we'll have we'll have you covered wall to wall from
the Baseball State Tournament as well live radio play by
play coverage at wv metronews dot com and the Metro
News Radio Network on Thursday and Friday and Saturday as well.
But we'll also have all four championship games at WV
metronewstv dot com and on the Metro News app. I

(01:31:20):
forget anything. I think that's all we got.

Speaker 3 (01:31:22):
The schedule is online right now. We'll have a full
tournament preview posted later today with the notes and nuggets
from each of the sixteen teams that'll be making their
way to Charleston this week.

Speaker 5 (01:31:31):
Hardest working Man, don't forget to follow Joe on social media.
His videos are outstanding. Why thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:31:36):
We'll give your social media.

Speaker 3 (01:31:38):
Sometimes the videos or the video in the videos are
in frame and in focus.

Speaker 5 (01:31:42):
Not all the time, but some of the time, most
of the time.

Speaker 1 (01:31:46):
Metro News Sports Joe Bacado, Thank you. Joe appreciate it
as always, buddy.

Speaker 5 (01:31:49):
Thanks guys.

Speaker 1 (01:31:49):
We'll get to your text coming up. Three or four
talk three oh four eight hundred and seven sixty five
eight two five five. That's the phone number as well.
This is talk line from the ing Cove Insurance Studios.

Speaker 2 (01:31:59):
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Speaker 1 (01:32:57):
You're listening to talkline on Metro News Voice of West Virginia. Listen.
I'm a West Virginian through and through.

Speaker 8 (01:33:07):
Grew up in Bridgeport, thirty five years in the Charleston area,
rooted for the Mountaineers since well, let's not talk ages.
You won't find a bigger fan of our teams, but
they get called out when they deserve it. Metro News Hotline.
The same for everything, movies, music, local happenings, my inside
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(01:33:28):
your afternoon anecdote to the ordinary. On weekdays three to
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Speaker 1 (01:33:37):
Hi, this is Dave Wilson, along with TJ Meadows. Join
us weekdays at ten o six for Metro News talk
Line on this metro news radio station. TJ. The more
things change, the more they stay the same. That's right, Dave.

Speaker 9 (01:33:48):
We'll continue to examine and discuss issues important to West Virginia,
hold elected officials accountable, and make certain you have a
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Speaker 1 (01:33:56):
Earnin new host same talk line. Join us week days
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Speaker 2 (01:34:03):
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Speaker 10 (01:34:07):
Like Metro News, start each weekday at six oh six
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The Morning News also brings you the latest in sports
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Speaker 2 (01:34:35):
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Speaker 1 (01:35:27):
Texter wants to know, with all the SEC regional losses
and lack of Big ten teams, should the Big twelve
acc and what has laughed of the PAC twelve go
into discussions about limiting the number of SEC Big ten
at large? Baseball invites I ask the sports line, guys, yeah, SEC, look,

(01:35:48):
Greg Sanki's running college college athletics at this point. But
it is nice when the big dogs, yeah, find out
maybe they're not as big as they thought. Texter says,
when I get tired of politics, I laugh at the
sign that says watch for ice on bridge when it's
eighty degrees, or the sign that said for rent and
had a trash can leaning on it, says the Texter.

(01:36:09):
A little levity. Three Democrat Congress members who would crush
Trump into a presidential debate, Jamie Raskin, Jasmine Crockett, and Moscowitz.
What do you think, DJ? What do you think?

Speaker 5 (01:36:25):
I don't know, man, I've given up trying to predict
the future. My crystal ball is not what.

Speaker 1 (01:36:29):
It used to be at that.

Speaker 3 (01:36:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:36:33):
To be honest, none of them, I don't think any
of them would do well against Trump. Trump was good.
In debates he threw again the just a he's a
mud monster. This is what Matt Lewis was talking about. Right,
he gets away with just about everything. He's a mud monster.
The more mud you throw at him, the bigger he gets.
And then in debates he says stuff and he's aggressive.

(01:36:56):
Three before talk three or four? Please, oh please, Democrats
put up a ticket of AOC and Jasmine Crockett talk
about an no brainer ticket might be wishful thinking. Three
or four talk three or four is the text line
at eight hundred and seven sixty five eight two five five.
That is the phone number. All right, A new program

(01:37:23):
called It starts at Wonder School. It's a technology based
platform business for childcare industry. Jason Moss is the head
of Government Initiatives for Wonder School and part of that
role he's working closely with Western and Small Business Development
Center to roll out a try Share an innovative benefit program.
All right, Jason, that's the setup. Good morning, Thanks for

(01:37:45):
joining us. Can you take it from there? Explain what
this is all about?

Speaker 2 (01:37:50):
Good morning.

Speaker 33 (01:37:51):
This is about ensuring that West Virginians can go to
work and stay at work. And one of the big
issues with that is the childcare crisis, and it's pretty
acute here in West Virginia. Right in West Virginia, about
sixty five percent of folks live in a childcare desert.
That means they're simply not enough childcare that's available given

(01:38:14):
the number of kids that are in the area. And
you combine that with affordability issues of childcare, and you've
got a sort of a real unfortunate situation where people
may want to be working or want to stay at working,
but they have to deal with the very real reality
of their children and what's going to be the care
for their children. So we are here in the state

(01:38:37):
working with the Office of Economic Development in West Virginia's
Small Business Development Center to help to address that.

Speaker 5 (01:38:43):
So what is try Share? How does that break down?

Speaker 33 (01:38:47):
Try Share is a innovative program to address the affordability
part of childcare. And the way it works simply is
its employers saying we're going to help contribute a portion
to your childcare costs. The state is saying we're going
to match that based on household income, and now the
employee is paying just the remaining balance.

Speaker 1 (01:39:08):
Whatever.

Speaker 33 (01:39:08):
The combination of the state and the employer the balance
from what they paid. So that's the beauty. Now, this
is a program that actually started elsewhere. It started in
Michigan a few years ago, and then it expanded to Kentucky,
to North Carolina, West Virginia. Is really sort of one
of the pioneers in trying to make this happens as

(01:39:31):
real sort of a solution to part of this childcare crisis.

Speaker 1 (01:39:35):
Jason Moss is joining us. He's head of the new
government Initiatives for Wonder School of Technology platform business for
childcare industry. How is this, then, Jason, different than your
average child daycare center that parents may be utilizing now.

Speaker 33 (01:39:51):
So the great thing about this is this solution works
with all existing childcare centers and in home centers. Nobody
if you if your child is enrolled in a program,
we don't want to take that child out that that'd
be a terrible solution. So here what we're saying is

(01:40:11):
that we're trying to address the affordability part the cost.
So you may have your child enrolled in a program
and that cost is killing you. That could be as
much as your mortgage. That's a tremendous pain for many families.
This is a way through again through sort of an
employer benefit and a state match to bring that cost down.
But it does, but your child is still able to

(01:40:33):
take advantage of going to that center, just now that
cost is lower than what it once was. So that's
that's the beauty as it compliments all the childcare that's
already in place.

Speaker 5 (01:40:44):
I'm sure you're well aware of some of the budget
issues that we have in West Virginia as you talk
with a state leadership. Do we need legislation? Do we
need more appropriations to make that work? Could we use
economic development dollars to potentially make this work? Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:41:01):
I am aware.

Speaker 33 (01:41:04):
So this is this is a pilot, and the dollars
have already been allocated. So that's the great news. This
started with what's called a an ARC Power grant, Appalachian
Regional Commission grant. The money was was awarded to the
Small Business Development Center. There's a portion of it that's
a part of the state match. Those dollars are now
sitting there. They're they're not going to be taken back.

(01:41:26):
So I think the real question is based on the
success of this pilot, and this pilot is going to
be in eight counties. Could this potentially be something much larger?
And you know, our belief is yes. I think there's
a lot of people at the legislative level, industry level
are all sort of leaning in to sort of see
how this pilot goes. But I think there is you know,

(01:41:46):
appetite to say if this, if this pilot is successful,
that there is you know, potentially more dollars available through
different channels, whether it's through ARC grants, whether it's through uh,
you know, governor's budget legislation, would to make this wider.

Speaker 1 (01:42:02):
Jason about thirty seconds, What do you need? You need
people to get involved, You need employers to get involved.
What do you need?

Speaker 33 (01:42:09):
It all starts with the employers, and right now that's
our focus is making sure that employers are aware that
if you want to be competitive, if you want to
improve your recruitment, if you want to improve your retention,
this is a great opportunity to do something to really
help with one of the biggest pains for employees, and

(01:42:29):
that's the affordability of childcare.

Speaker 1 (01:42:32):
Jason Moss, head of the new government Initiatives for Wonder
School Technology platform business for the childcare industry. We have
more information about try share over at the website. Jason,
thank you very much, appreciate you coming in.

Speaker 5 (01:42:46):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (01:42:47):
Coming up. We'll squeeze in a couple of texts then
we'll call today. It's talk line from the and COVID
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Speaker 1 (01:46:15):
Three or four talk three or four. The texter who
wrote in asking if they should limit the sec Big
ten at large Base one invites texter said, Dave, I
forgot to give you a sarcasm warning. Thank you. It
helps on the text line, it helps tremendously.

Speaker 5 (01:46:32):
That's funny.

Speaker 1 (01:46:34):
Presidential debate. You guys worry me that you think Trump
does well. If you used real time fact check, he
would have nothing to offer. Harris had one issue that
was untrue during the debate, and Trump was only checked
a small percentage. Sadly to me, West Virginians believe things,
he says.

Speaker 5 (01:46:49):
It's on his opponent. The opponent has to call him out.
Politics is perception and perception is reality.

Speaker 1 (01:46:55):
Simple, I agree, an AOC Jasmine Crockett ticket would be
a no brainer, says the texter. I got the sarcasm there,
got it on that one.

Speaker 5 (01:47:06):
Picked up on that one.

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