Talkline | Nov. 13, 2025

WVU President Dr. Michael Benson joins the show. Fox News Ryan Schmelz talks about the end of the government shutdown. Dave & TJ dig into declining enrollment numbers with WV Asst. Superintendent Jeff Kelley. Mike Murphy, with the Committee for Responsible Budgeting, explains what tariff dividend payouts would actually cost and the mounting national debt. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Good morning, Welcome into Metro News talk Line from the
Cove Insurance Studios.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
We are underway radio.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Turned off from the studios of w v r C
Media and the Metro News Radio and Television Network. The
Voice up West Virginia comes the most powerful show in
West Virginia. This it's Metro News talk Line with Dave
Wilson and t J.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
Meadows activated switch network.

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Visiting COVA dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Good morning, Welcome inside the Cove Insurance Studios. Dave Wilson
of Morgantown. TJ. Meadows is in Charleston. Our phone number
is eight hundred and seven sixty five Talk eight hundred
seven sixty five eight two, five to five. You can
text the show at three or four Talk three oh four.
Let's begin this morning. Tragic news coming out of Nicholas
County Governor Morrissey announcing this morning that rescue teams were

(01:30):
able to enter the mine and unfortunately located the body
of the missing mind foreman this morning deceased. Joining us
from the Metro New Studios in Charleston along with TJ.
Meadows is Metro News Jeff Jenkins, Jeff, good morning. Unfortunately,
tragic news coming out of Nicholas County this morning.

Speaker 6 (01:49):
Yes, forty two ye old Steve Lipscomb, a section foreman
at the mine. He's the one that's been missing since
last Saturday when that water started flooding the rolling thing
under mine near Swiss there in Nicholas County, and they
got enough water out as you mentioned, Dave, this morning.
They've been pumping since last Saturday. They were able to

(02:09):
enter the mine this morning and they made the tragic discovery.
Here's what Governor Morrissey said as he spoke last hour
at the mine or at the Energy Symposium, the Governor's
Energy Conference in Charleston. He made the announcement, Unfortunately, we
identified the body of Steven Lipscomb who was at the

(02:30):
mine in Nicholas County. And I want to take a
moment in silence because I know that all West Virginians
are praying for the family and for all the colleagues.
People worked tirelessly to try to find them. About six
plus in the morning.

Speaker 7 (02:51):
They were able to start to get through the high
water and seven point thirty seven. Unfortunately, that's when this
information came up.

Speaker 6 (03:00):
Now again, we also have a statement just released not
long ago from the company Alpha Metallurgical Resources, and they
describe what happened as the crew there encountered a sudden
and substantial inflow of water, and they say Lipscomb, forty
two year old Steven Lipskomb, was unable to reach safety.

(03:22):
And here's a statement Dave and TJ. From Andy Eatson,
He's the Alpha chief executive officer, and I think this
shows you how Lipscomb died. Here he says, quote, our
hearts are broken. Steve joined our company in two thousand
and six and was a dedicated employee, respected leader, and
friend to many. His actions to ensure the safety of

(03:42):
his crew members were heroic on behalf of our entire organization.
We extend our prayers and deeper sympathies to his wife,
two children, and all who knew and cared for him.
So they say that he was last seen attempting to
ensure that his crew made it out safely. Of course,
all other miners in his area were able acuate safely.
But he was not able to so, guys, he died

(04:03):
a hero as as the foreman, as a section foreman
trying to get his guys out first.

Speaker 5 (04:09):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Uh, tragic in everybody was hoping for the best, Jeff.
But tragic end to the operation there in Nicholas County
this morning.

Speaker 6 (04:21):
Yeah, you knew it is. The longer it went, guys,
the more you know that it might end up like this.
It was just so much water and the way the
company describes it here, it was very sudden and a
lot of it, and so you know, you react. Just
think of those guys in there. I mean, there were
seventeen who made it out safe, either work in a
section or mining a section. All of a sudden, here's

(04:41):
this rapid, you know, inflow of water, and so you
got to react quickly. So the section foreman is trying
to get his guys out of there. You know, they
may have been spread out, probably they were spread out
some you know, maybe the seventeen may not all have
been together, and so he's alerting them, getting them out.
And then so he you know, paid the alfenment price

(05:02):
there but got his guys out safely.

Speaker 8 (05:06):
Father two children, yep, man, you feel for them. You
pray that they have some kind of peace during this
unimaginable What happens next? Jeff? Where does this turn? I'm
assuming the investigation continues and were trying to learn exactly
what happened. Yeah, we will.

Speaker 6 (05:23):
Yeah, the state and federal investigations will continue here. The
company says it's working closely and it will work closely
to try to find out, you know, what caused the accident,
what the underlying causes are. The company went on to
thank let me just read this too. We want to
express our heartfelt gratitude to the mind rescue teams, agency officials,

(05:44):
and all who work tirelessly under extreme conditions throughout the
multi day rescue and recovery effort. We are deeply saddened
by the outcome, but thankful for the courage, professionalism, and
perseverance of these responders. So, yeah, so they'll that's what
we'll start now, right, Deman. They'll start and they'll try
to find out exactly what calls that sudden inflow of

(06:06):
the water and if it could have been prevented. So
we'll see.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
We've got the story posted up at wv metronews dot com.
This morning. Again, Cruz rescue crews were able to locate
the body of missing mind format Steve Lipskomb this morning
at the Rolling Thundermine in Nicholas County. Jeff appreciate the update,
Thank you very much. Hey guys, well reset, We'll be back.
This is talk Line on Metro News from the Encove
Insurance Studios.

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Speaker 1 (07:52):
Here be four Talk three or four. The text line
eight hundred and seven sixty five talk. That is the
phone number. Gang's all here. Jake Link is our video
producer and Ethan Collins is our audio producer. Coming up
a little bit later on what is the deal? What's
the deal? It's in like a bad stand up comic.
We'll get into the idea of the two thousand dollars

(08:13):
tariff dividend payouts, we'll talk to the Committee on Responsible Budgeting,
and we'll get into yesterday's presentation to the state school
Board about declining enrollment in public schools. With that, let
me formally say good morning to TJ. Meadows. Good morning, TJ.

Speaker 8 (08:29):
Meadows, Good morning, Dave Wilson. Just terrible news. Thoughts and
prayers with that family. Steve Lipscomb from here in Elkview.
According to that release that Jeff read two children. Just
very tough, very tough morning.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah, if you're just joining us. Rescue crews were able
to get into the rolling thunder mine early this morning
and unfortunately located the missing mind foreman Steve Lipscomb, who
passed away when that mine flooded on Saturday. We have
the story over at the website wv metronews dot com
and we'll be updating that as more information becomes available.

(09:02):
Joining us so I'll mentioned news talk Line this morning
is the President of West Virginia University, doctor Michael Benson.
Last week, the strategic Compass was released as WVU looks
to forge its future. Doctor Benson joins us on talk
line this morning. Good morning, sir, Good morning.

Speaker 13 (09:19):
How are y'all doing today?

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Doing well? Glad you could join us. Where is the
compass pointed for wv's future?

Speaker 13 (09:29):
Well, if I may, Before I get into that, I
do want to express on behalf of university our sympathies
and condolences to the Lipskuin family. I've been in the
bridge of mine in Wyoming and most recently the Mountain
Pleasant mine down Logan County, and these miners are brave, resilient,

(09:49):
incredibly hard working people, and I feel so badly for
his family as a father of five kids to now
leave his wife and those boys, I'm terribly sorry. And
I just want to start with that because I never
ever will take for granted the kind of conveniences we
have are all around this, including electricity that's affordable and accessible,

(10:11):
and these people help provide it, and I'm so grateful
to them. And that's a kind of a core pillar
of our state's economy and our heritage and tradition and history.
And it's not lost on me how hard these people work.
So I just want to start with that. Yes, we've
gotten through our strategic planning process, our compass, which kind

(10:33):
of outlines some of the things that we want to
do as a university. We've had a chance as they
stay now to socialize it with a lot of different groups.
Our Board of Governors took it up last week, but
we're focused on kind of five priorities, education, Discovery, health, service,
and experiences. And we've also tied some action verbs to

(10:54):
a phrase that we're all familiar with, which is let's go.
You see it on flags and bumper stickers and and shirts.
And so we decide to take some things that we
hope people can remember with the let's go and if
I can all to run through those real quick, but
the l lead with pride. I've found in my traveling

(11:15):
to now thirty four fifty five counties that by nature
West Virginians are a they're not braggers, they're not braggadoc shows.
They're actually speak for themselves. But they work very hard,
and they have pride in their state and pride in
their communities. And we want to lead with pride as
the state's Lang Grant institution E and power through education.
There's nothing more powerful than the ability to get an

(11:40):
education and let that education take you wherever you want
to go. And it's the one thing in this world
that can change one's life more rapidly and more profoundly
than anything else. He transformed lives. We do that, certainly
through w medicine, twenty five hospitals and four states, but
it's broader than that. It's everything we do on campus

(12:00):
to transform lives and make quality of life better and
improve it for every single West Virginia stake our claim.
We want to stake our claim as the twenty first
century example of what a state land grant university can
and should be, with extension offices in all fifty five counties,

(12:21):
and we hope make it a difference every day in
the lives of the people of the state. Gee is
grow our reach not only in terms of getting more
donors and more supporters for the university, but also we
want to, as we've said, make sure there is a
place at this university for every single West Virginia high
school graduate who wants to attend one of our three campuses,

(12:43):
whether down in Beckley or in Kayser or here in Morgantown.
And then probably my favorite outperform our competition. And what
I mean by that is we're surrounded by really fine
state institutions. You know, you look in Ohio, Ohio State,
remember the big ten Maryland just to our east, to

(13:04):
our north, pitt and Carnegie Mellon of course Penn State,
and then you go down to the south Virginia, Sex
and Virginia. So we've got some really fine schools that
we're going head to head for in Morollment. And we've
got to grow on enrollment. And I'm happy to say
that we have our largest freshman class it's since twenty
twenty two. So that is the compass. And happy to

(13:25):
share the mission statement also later on if you'd like
to hear that. But it's been a really fun experience to,
as I said, share this and ven it with different
campus groups with different boards, and people are excited and
I'm excited. And if you can hear it in my voice.
There's reasons for that, because I think it's a really
exciting time to be at the university. We're an inflection

(13:46):
point in our history and we have a chance to
really take a quantum leap forward.

Speaker 8 (13:50):
I believe WVU President Doctor Michael T. Bentson joins us
on measure News talk line. Mike, you want WVU to
become a member of the Association of American Universities. That's
no easy get. Why is that on your list?

Speaker 13 (14:07):
Well, that's a very good question, TJ. Thank you for
that question. There are four thousand universities in America. There
are seventy one members of the AAU. Sixty nine are
in the United States. Of the sixty nine, they produced
forty five percent of the federally sponsored research and development
dollars that are awarded to universities, and they also produce

(14:30):
sixty percent of all the research PhDs. So that gives
you an idea of the HEF and the impact that
this core group of universities has. I know a bit
about it because I wrote a book about it's one
of its founders, Daniel Court Gilman. There were five university
presidents that got together in nineteen hundred and said, we
need to have standards for awarding the PhD. We need

(14:53):
to have focus on what the minimum requirements are for
that degree. We also have to have a clear voice
as to why support of research and their research enterprise
is so vital to our society, into our economy. So
you're right to get in is by imitation. As I
tell people, it's like getting married. You have to be asked,
you have to be invited, and you just can't Walton

(15:15):
and say, hey, we want to be a member. You
have to show them in terms of the quality of
your faculty, members of the academies, in your faculty, what
your graduation range is, how much you do and sponsor research,
where your faculty are published, if they are cited, they
are a whole kind of litany of requirements to be considered.

(15:35):
So the example I've used TJ most recently is the
University of South Florida, who used to be in the
Big East with US. They're now a member of the
American Athletic Conference, but in twenty twenty three they were
invited along with Notre Dame George Washington, Arizona State, u
See Riverside, and the University of Miami to join, and

(15:58):
they made a goal back into that intend that this
is what they wanted to do institutionally, So it was
this kind of inexorable path forward membership, and we're going
to put that same path forward and see and see
how we do. And with this, going through the process
of trying to be eligible for membership will make us

(16:19):
a better institution because it will force us to focus
on those key metrics that are all about quality and
all about production, and that I think is a really
laudable goal. I've had a chance to speak to legislators
about this, to the governor and to a person that
are very supportive. They want to see the flagship university
of our state become a member of arguably the most

(16:41):
prestigious university association that exists. So that's why we want
to do it, and it's a goal, and the faculty
I've talked to also loved the idea of pushing us
and making us better.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Michael Benson joining US Doctor Michael Benson, w President releasing
the Strategic Compass last week, Doctor Benson, we also learned
that freshman retention is up. What does that indicate to you?

Speaker 13 (17:07):
So it means the freshman number DAVE is the Let's
say a freshman came here in the fall of twenty four,
if they came back in the fall of twenty twenty five,
that's your retention for the first time freshmen. And we
hit an all time record high of eighty five percent,
So only fifty percent chose not to come back. Maybe
it was for finances, maybe they transfer somewhere else, but

(17:30):
we that is the number of work to continue to
focus on because it is a key indicator of how
well you're doing in that all important freshman year. When
they set foot on campus as a freshman, you have
to make sure you have this ecosystem around them that's
there to help them be successful. We won't do the
work for them, but we want to put them in
a position to be successful. And you have to have housing,

(17:51):
you have to have a proper food plan. You have
to have you know, transportation to go from point A
to point B. You have to have a service organizations
and fraternities and sororities, all those things that add to
student life. It sure helps if you have a winning
football team, and I commend coach Rodriguez for you've got
a two game winning streat going and so football Saturdays

(18:14):
are a great way to bring our community together, our
whole state, and all those things in the aggregate days
lead to improved experience that first year, and you get
them back from their sophomore year, and then the key
is to keep them here and to graduate them, because
that's another number we've got to focus on is our
six year graduation rate, which is hovering around sixty percent

(18:36):
right now, and that needs to be higher. That needs
to be over well over seventy percent.

Speaker 8 (18:41):
Just yesterday at the university announced a twenty twenty five
focused salary adjustment program. I was reading this morning detail
that I know salaries have been an issue. We've had
people laid off at WVU. What's the university doing to
retain talent?

Speaker 13 (18:57):
So that's the most important asset any organization has included
a university is human capital. So I'm happy to say
that we're spending approximately six million dollars this year for
salary investments. That includes nearly five million from our fiscal
year twenty six budget. And why enrollment is important. We

(19:19):
were able to add another million dollars because of our
increased dudent enrollment in fall of twenty twenty five. So
We've looked very carefully at that group of employees. It's
below a certain amount, and we want to make sure
they have the highest increase to get them kind of
closer to a mean of their peers, both on campus

(19:39):
but across kind of our peer set, like minded source
of institutions. But you know, people will associate their value
to an institution by their salary, and so I've made
it a priority to make sure we can take care
of our employees and pay them and give them good
benefits and tuition benefit and so forth, so they really

(20:01):
feel like they're a valued part of our university community.
And so I'm really happy with what we're able to
do this year, and we're coming off, as you reference,
some tough times, but I think there are blue sky
opportunities ahead of us, and I think doing an investment
in salaries like this and our people is one of
the most important things we could do.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
Doctor Michael Benson joining us. We got about sixty seconds
here at doctor Benson and I would like to do
another segment someday and just talk about the athletics aspect,
because we've already seen some major announcements, including new suites
at the Hope Coliseum, new suites at Milon Pushkar Stadium.
And when you said you would be dedicated to athletics,
that is certainly coming to fruition.

Speaker 13 (20:42):
Yes, well, a lot of credit goes to Red Baker.
All the credit goes to him and the team. But
it helps when you're winning. Tonight we're hosting pitt Our
women will play in the first round the NCAA tournament
on Friday. We had tough match last night with Marshall.
Marshall got the best of They are terrific teams, but
both of us I project will make the inst double

(21:04):
a tournament. The collection shows next Monday. So things are
going in the right direction with our athletic program and
in investment and facilities is key. And as you know,
Mylon Pushcar Stadium, we've done a few things to it,
but since nineteen eighty we haven't done anything with that
press box. So you've heard the plans and seen the renderings.
It's going to be a wonderful edition that we'll be

(21:24):
able to be utilized not just for football Saturdays six
and seven in the fall, but year round. Well it'll
be it'll have space that people can utilize for meetings
and functions, and receptions and that sort of thing, and
we're very excited about all these improvements.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
Doctor Benson will leave it there. Appreciate the time today.
This is talk Line on Metro News, the Voice of
West Virginia. It is ten thirty times to get a
news update. Let's check in on the Metro News radio network.
Find out what's happening across the great state of West Virginia.

Speaker 6 (21:56):
Western Virginia. Metro News. I'm Jeff Jenkins. A tragic end
to the sch for a miss seeing coal mine forman
in Nicholas County. Governor Patrick Morrisey announcing today the body
of Steve Lipscomb was found inside the Rolling thunder mineer Swiss.
Morsey says Cruise had pumped enough water out by six
this morning to send rescue crews into the mine. The
governor says it did not take teams long to make

(22:17):
the heartbreaking discovery.

Speaker 7 (22:19):
Unfortunately, we identified the body of Stephen Lipscomb, who was
at the mine in Nicholas County.

Speaker 6 (22:26):
Morsey shared the news during his appearance at the Governor's
Energy Summit in Charleston.

Speaker 7 (22:30):
Denise and my prayers go out to the family and
to everyone who knows this man, and I want to
thank everyone for all the work they did this past
week when all West Virginians came together.

Speaker 6 (22:44):
Lipscomb was last seen last Saturday when the mine filled
with water. Seventeen other miners did get out of that
mine safely again. The victim identified as mind forman Steve Lipscomb.
You can read more at wv metronews dot com. The
federal government is back open and Governor Morrisey also announcing
today that full November SNAP benefits will be returned to

(23:07):
EBT cards either later today or tomorrow. Of course, SNAP
benefits were discontinued because of the shutdown, but now the
federal government has reopened, the governor says those were returned soon.
You're listening to Metro News for forty years, the voice
of West Virginia.

Speaker 14 (23:23):
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Coverage of the West Virginia high school football playoffs are
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(23:44):
the Mountaineer Challenge Academy.

Speaker 8 (23:45):
Stream the action live on Metro News.

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Television, available on mobile, Rokue, Fire TV, smart TVs and
online at WV Metro newstv dot com.

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(24:16):
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Speaker 6 (24:25):
Huntington based Steel of West Virginia has announced this laying
off one hundred workers. The company closing down its melt shop,
which started working the nineteen fifties. The closure is part
of a readjustment at the plant. Steel of West Virginia
says it does plan to invest thirty million dollars in
the two rolling mills that remain after the layoff. Steel
of West Virginia will have about five hundred workers at

(24:46):
that Huntington facility. Lots of sunshine in the state today,
temperatures today climbing into the sixties. From the Metro News,
anchordask Sky, I'm Jeff Jenkin.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Three and four Talk three or four is the text
line eight hundred at seven sixty five Talk The phone
number coming up top of the hour, got to be
talking to the Assistant superintendent West Virginia Schools, Jeff Kelly,
will join us. Yesterday Brad McIlhenny reported student enrollment down

(25:32):
two and a half percents in public schools across the state.
That's continuing a trend that goes back to oh gosh,
twenty fourteen, but that also is in line with what
we're seeing nationally with public schools as well. What's it
all mean? Where do we go from here? We'll talk
about that coming up at the top of the hour.

(25:53):
Last night, the House of Representatives passed the funding bill
that came out of the Senate. President Trump signed it.
The government is officially reopened Fox News Radios. Ryan Schmelz
joins us from DC this morning. Ryan, good morning, Hey,
good morning. How are you doing well. So it was
an easy votes with no drama last night.

Speaker 5 (26:14):
Right, Yeah, of course, no, not at all. There's nothing,
nothing that came out that that ticked off a bunch
of people or anything like that. But in reality, there
was a provision that had people furious. And the provision
essentially was, you know, this, this one that would allow

(26:35):
members of the Senate, at least a handful of them
to sue over Operation Arctic Frost. You remember that was
the operation that was a done into the Biden administration
where allegedly the Senators had their phones looked at. So
that ticked off a number of Republicans and they pretty
much say that they're going to bring a piece of
legislation up next week that is going to overturn this.

(26:58):
But whether not the Senate would take that up another matter.

Speaker 8 (27:01):
Ryan, Whose bright idea was this? I mean, who was it?

Speaker 17 (27:05):
Thoon?

Speaker 8 (27:06):
Did somebody get to Thune? Is there any news on
who thought it would be a good idea to Christmas
tree this thing onto an appropriations package.

Speaker 5 (27:13):
Yeah, it's hard to tell. We're trying to find that out.
But you know, Lindsey Graham was was one of the
people who has already come out and said that he
will sue over it. So there's a lot of different
things out there that that kind of tie into this.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
Fox News Radios, Ryan Schmels. So what is the aftermath here?
It seems it seems Democrats who were against this, who
wanted to keep the shutdown going, did not want to
give in. Uh, they were not happy last night, Ryan, of.

Speaker 5 (27:43):
Course not no, and it was there was some divisions
going on. You know, late last night you saw Congress
when Marie Woosen camp Perez, she's one of the members
who's defending probably one of the the reddest districts for
a Democrat in this next election cycle, go on the
floor and can dem a fellow Democrat over his decision
to not run for reelection but to wait up until

(28:06):
the filing deadline so that his cheapest stack would be
the only person in the race to replace him. She
condemned that move, and there were a number of Democrats
who were not happy that she did that. So it
was a pretty divisive night for them, to say the least.
Plus you factor in all the different calls related to
Chuck Schumer. It's been a little aggressive.

Speaker 8 (28:24):
So let's go there, AOC hot and heavy on Chuck Schumer.
Other Democrats in the House outright saying he shouldn't be
the leader. Of course, they're not in the Senate, so
they don't get a say. What happens to Chuck Schumer here?
Does he lay low for a while and survive? What's
his next step?

Speaker 5 (28:41):
Yeah, that was my question AOC yesterday. And she didn't
really go into details about she wants Chuck Schumer gone
or not. She acknowledges she's getting a lot of talked
about it, but you know she's not ready to call
on him ultimately to go. But you know, no senators
have called for him to go yet from the dem side,
so that should be signific and to point out, but

(29:01):
you know, he's definitely a seat's definitely hot. And now
don't think there's any question about that.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
What about on the Republican side. Let me ask the
question this way, Ryan, which party's more fractured coming out
of this shutdown? Republicans or Democrats.

Speaker 5 (29:15):
It's got to be the Democrats. I don't think there's
any doubt about that. I mean, I Republicans feel like
they want this thing. Yeah, there's some anger about the provision,
and that's certainly going to be something that they have
to work out. But in the end, most of them
felt like they really want this this uh, this situation.
And there were some conservative members like Warren Davidson from

(29:35):
Ohio last night who was defending Speaker Johnson's decision to
keep the house home. And even though he took a
lot of flak for that in the press and whatnot,
but you know, the argument that that he was making
was that, you know, Speaker Johnson kept the house home
because that prevented moderates or or as as Daviddon calls it,

(29:56):
the surrender caucus from cutting a deal with Democrats, and
it's sent he just waited it out and eventually Democrat
caves on the Senate side. And so I think Republicans
really do feel like they want this thing.

Speaker 8 (30:07):
President last night in the Oval Office saying, let's just
give the money to Americans. Let's not put it in
the pockets of the insurance companies. Let them go out
by their own insurance. So he drew a line in
the sand that while Thune has promised a vote in
the Senate, but any indication if there would be a
vote in the House on ACA subsidies.

Speaker 5 (30:27):
Speaker Johnson is not committed to doing that whatsoever. There's
a discharge pradition Democrats are floating right now that extend
the program for three years. There's some talks going on,
whether it's among Republicans or on a bipartisan level, that
would compromise on the ASA. And there's some plans to
ultimately replace the tax credit program with either a flexible
spending account or a health savings account. So we'll see

(30:50):
ultimately what they come up with. But there are talks
going on amongst the various groups of members about this.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
Fox News radios Ryan Schmells Ryan the shutdowns, old news.
Let's release the Epstein files. That's the new news.

Speaker 5 (31:02):
Yeah. Yeah, we're jumping right back into the Epstein files
after all this is over. So here we go, you know, fun,
fun fun. So is this gonna a break here?

Speaker 14 (31:12):
Dude?

Speaker 1 (31:13):
Is this gonna happen?

Speaker 5 (31:14):
Happen next week?

Speaker 1 (31:14):
Okay?

Speaker 5 (31:15):
Speaker Johnson said that they're gonna have this voat next week,
so they're already making uh moves on this. Yeah, So
it uh, it appears that that that boat will happen,
and it looks like it has the votes to pass too,
So we'll see what happens.

Speaker 8 (31:29):
With that broke yesterday that the White House was lobbying
Lauren Boepert to I guess reverse herself and not sign
on to the discharge position. What are you hearing from
her camp and how that went down?

Speaker 5 (31:41):
Yeah, I have not had a chance to talk to
her or a camp about this, you know, I was
that kind of came out of nowhere. I don't even
think I found out about that that being a thing
like this morning. So Nancy Mace talked a little bit
about it. You know, she's actually defended President Trump and
said that there was no pressure, camp pain or any
type of you know, threats or anything like that. So

(32:04):
he's got some defenders who have signed on the Epstein position,
you know, trying to make peace here ran, how many.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
Of your days do you finish up? You go all right?
I think I got a pretty good handle on what's happening.
You wake up in the morning, you get every day,
who said what what?

Speaker 5 (32:19):
Every day?

Speaker 13 (32:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (32:20):
I mean, like look there there there are so many
times because there are some people who just don't don't
even have to, like, you know, they assigned me the
topic in the morning. But there's some people who just
pick their topic, and I'll get asked, like a question
about some truth social posts that President Trump put out
at midnight, and it's like six oh five in the morning,

(32:40):
and I just woke out not too long ago, haven't
had any coffee or anything like that, and I'm just like,
are you kidding me? You know I do this news
cycle is insane. It's absolutely insane.

Speaker 8 (32:53):
Let me toss this on you. We we got through January, right,
we get to January. I was reading last night. There
was already a few shots across the bow saying, well,
if this Subsidi thing doesn't work out, right, we'll do
it all over again. Surely not. Surely we've learned our
lesson here or Democrats have learned their lesson.

Speaker 5 (33:11):
I would think, yeah. And I know a lot of
people keep saying that we're back here in January, are
going to stay. Well, guess what, Snap's not going to
be on the table in January. It got funded through
the next fiscal year. They've passed three appropriations bills yesterday
that will fund certain agencies through the end of September,
So the VA funded, Department of Agriculture funded, so SNAP

(33:32):
is funded, and you know they're going to try to
get some other agencies funded too. I mean, if they
get the defense bill done between now in January, that
takes care of the troop pay issue and in the
military issue. So you know, there's there's certainly our avenues
and ways in which they can make January not be
this all over again, and it already isn't because you have,

(33:53):
you know, some things like SNAP covered. So I mean, here,
if you imagine they get the Department of Transportation funded
and in the military funded, and that's going to be
a pretty alleviating error less less severe shutdown. We could
be looking at.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
Fox News radios, Ryan Schmells, Ryan, always appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (34:09):
Thank you, Bud Hey, thank you having go on you
as well.

Speaker 1 (34:13):
We'll get some of your texts. Three oh four talk
three oh four is the text line eight hundred seven
six five eight two five five. That's the phone number.
A few once weigh in. Also, Governor Morrissey addressed the
energy somewhat earlier this morning. What did he have to say? Wow,
some interesting things. We'll get to that as well. It's
talk line from the COVID Insurance Studios.

Speaker 16 (34:31):
Governor Patrick Morrissey has set of very bold goal fifty
gigawats of new energy capacity by twenty fifty. Thanks to
House Bill twenty fourteen, West Virginia's coal plans will be
upgraded to run longer, stronger, and more efficiently, thus delivering reliable,
affordable base load power. Our families and businesses will be

(34:52):
able to count home. West Virginia Coal Association President Chris
Hamilton stated Governor Morrissey's plan to grow West Freevirginia's energy
generation capacity to fifty gigawatts by twenty to fifteen is
a dynamic approach to economic development which will supercharge our
state's coal industry and broader economy. With Governor Morris's leadership

(35:13):
and the action of the Legislature, West Virginia is once
again America's energy leader. Cole is powering progress. Coal is
powering West Virginia. Brought you by the West Virginia Coal Association.

Speaker 8 (35:33):
To care for Here at the Health Game, we are
here cold from all of us here at the Health Plan.

Speaker 12 (35:43):
We want to make your season bright, whether you're wrapping
gifts are planning next year's goals. We're here for you.
Happy holidays and Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

Speaker 11 (35:57):
Here.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Encova Insurance and
circling you with coverage to protect what you care about most.
Visit Encova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
Text lines wide open three or four Talk three four
eight hundred and seven to sixty five Talk the phone number,
couple of texts here. Texas says sixty violations this year
alone for those worthless mind owners. Leslie Rubin had a
good story WHS Television about the violations at the Rolling
Thundermine there in Nicholas County. Keep this in mind, and

(36:46):
she went into good detail on that story. Most of
those were classified as insignificant. And DJ, I'm sure you're
pretty well aware of this with your work and energy
and power plants all these years. Not all violations are
created equal. There are significant things, there are major problems,
and there are like you forgot to put the latch
back on the door type of violations. Not all violations

(37:09):
are created equals, So be careful throwing around that sixty
violations number. That's all I'm saying.

Speaker 8 (37:13):
No, I think you have to to your various point
you really have to dig into that number and understand
what these were. Were these minor human error issues like
the latch on the door like you're talking about, or
were they known preventable safety issues. You know, it's too
early to tell. Really. What needs to happen here is

(37:36):
a full investigation, because I do think there are very
fair questions about this water. What was known about what
was on the other side of that wall. Was the
wall regularly tested for integrity? Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't.
I don't know, but with that much water, you would
think that there would have been some regular testing to

(38:00):
make sure that you had enough integrity to hold it back.
That's the thing that just I can't get over with this.
The amount of water six thousand gallons a minute they
were pumping, according to the governor without fail. I mean,
that's like eight point six million gallons of water a day.
When you do the math, I mean, that's just hard
to get your head around that, your arms around it.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
Ye Imshaw. Other investigations. Of course, investigators will be there
to try to get some answers, and it's going to
take time. We all like answers right now, but it
will take time. Texas Hays asked President Benson if he
has any plans this evening. I bet he's going to
a basketball game, would be my guess, That's what I
would do. Michael Benson failed to mention Marshall as a competitor.

(38:44):
Brad Smith is ahead of the curve and driving the
university in the right direction. Doctor Benson's an example of
someone making something simple nonsense.

Speaker 14 (38:51):
Go.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
How many of us work for organizations that come up
with stupid acronyms? That gets more eye roll than a
thirteen year old daughter gives. Sure, we'll make some staff
memorize and then pop quiz everyone. Uh yeah, I roll
my eyes at that too. But I'll say this. I
was down to Coastal Carolina a couple of weeks ago
when Marshall played down there, TJ. They are building all

(39:15):
over that campus, and it's a couple of years since
I've had been down there, And in just a couple
of years you could see the difference the structures that
have been built to the upgrades here. Uh you know
the upgrades there. Who do you think put all that
into motion? Well it was the guy, But it was
the guy that's in Morgantown right now. Michael Benson. If
he can do what he did at North Carolina at

(39:37):
Coastal Carolina, if he can bring that to WU, they're
going to be going on the right path. They're going
to be going in the right direction. So give the
guy a chance.

Speaker 8 (39:46):
Acronyms included, I agree and uh acronyms. You know, look,
we all kind of roll our eyes a little bit.
I think of Office Space, one of my favorite movies
of all time with me. But you know what makes
the difference. It's who who is selling it. That's what
makes the difference. Michael T. Benson is no Bill Lumberg, folks,
and that's the difference maker here.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
What is it you say you would you do around here?

Speaker 14 (40:12):
Exactly?

Speaker 1 (40:14):
What was the reports? He had to do?

Speaker 13 (40:16):
That?

Speaker 8 (40:16):
The TP no, the TPS reports, the TPS reports. You know,
I got thirteen different bosses. I get yelled at by
thirteen different people. I'll tell you a funny thing about that.
When that came out, I was working at Verizon at
the time, and you know, the guy that does the
Delbert stuff was an old Bell Atlantic AT and T guy,
and a lot of that came from his experience in

(40:36):
the telephone company. The ceiling tile in that set was
exactly like the ceiling tile in all of the offices
at Verizon mccorky Lavenue. I was like, Oh, it's gone
full circle. Man, it's the guy obviously worked for the
phone company whoever made that movie.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
And I guarantee everybody listening now, when you watch that movie,
you go through and then you start placing characters from
your office or your job site in Okay, Yeah, that's
that's Bill, that's Dave Allen, that's Harold. You know, you
just go right down the line. Everybody from your office
or your workplace is in that movie somewhere. And the Office,

(41:15):
if you watch The Office the series as well, we
find them there. I'm not asking anybody name names. I'm
just saying, admit, you do it. I do it all
the time. Three oh four Talk, three oh four, tay
you what take final break the hour. We'll come back.
We'll get to some more text. We'll set up our
number two. We're gonna be talking about public school enrollments.
It continues to decline in West Virginia. We'll get to

(41:36):
that topic coming up top of the hour. This is
talk line from the Encode Insurance Studios.

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Speaker 19 (42:12):
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to building us stronger West Virginia. Our mission economic diversification.
By fostering innovation and supporting tech initiatives, we pave the
way for a brighter future. From cutting edge research to
tech driven solutions, We're transforming the landscape. Join us in
creating opportunities and driving progress. Let's build a diverse economy together.

(42:36):
Visit WVHTF dot org. High Technology Foundation shaping West Virginia's future.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
Engineer's talk line for being co insurance studios jackpots are
growing in West Virginia. Jackpots on the rise every week.
Power Ball hits Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Mega Millions lights
up Tuesdays and Fridays. That's five chances a week to
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(43:30):
jackpot five hundred and forty six million dollars. Mega Millions
jackpot is nine hundred and sixty five million dollars. So
go ahead, play today A text line three or four
talk threeh four Glad the shutdown is over. Now. They
need to use some common sense, use the previous fiscal
year budget as the existing benchmark for the next year,

(43:51):
eliminate crs, and the focus put on reducing spending, not
increasing it. Keep on doze and also no vacations until
a consensus is established. This was unneeded and against my
beliefs as a caveman, says the Texter Dave and TJ.
Next week, Congress should pass a standalone bill that states

(44:11):
Congress will not get paid in the event the government
is shut down. Uh huh, what's the chance when that
happen won't happen?

Speaker 8 (44:20):
If they're going to do that, pass a bill that
says you effectively can't have a shutdown in the absence
of an agreement moving forward, you have a clean cr
take the whole thread off the table. Why not do that.
They'll never do that either because it makes sense.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
Texter says the cost of coal mining is too high.
Some of those so called minor infractions can have major consequences.
If Governor really wants to make West Virginia great, he
should do more to protect our miners. TJ. Governor Morrissey
was at the West Virginia Energy Summit this morning. Talked
about a couple of announcements regarding energy and energy generation

(44:56):
and a big announcement for folks in Harrison County this morning.
Do you have that handing?

Speaker 8 (45:02):
I do, okay, So partnering with Kendall Energy Blackstone, which
is an alternative asset manager along with GE. You know,
GE is probably the leader in gas turbines in America.
Governor announcing a six hundred and twenty five megawatts power
plants in Harrison County. Six hundred and twenty five megawats.
That's a one point two billion dollar investment in Harrison County.

(45:23):
Eight hundred construction jobs. Development is underway. I assume that
would mean that once they get their processing and permitting
and everything done, they'll break ground. But that's big. That's
the second natural gas fired power plant in what two
weeks that we've heard, the first one being First Energy.
The difference here, Dave, this is probably a merchant This
is a merchant deal right. It's there. They would either

(45:45):
competitively supply their energy into the wholesale market in PJAM
or if they had a complete off taker, like if
a data center wanted to move next door. That's a
trend that's going on lately. We don't have any firm
specifics about where the energy output will go. But this
isn't hit a utility rate base. Customers won't pay for it,
at least not directly unless there's some kind of contract

(46:05):
with a utility, which doesn't appear to be. But yeah,
that's big. First natural gas power plant on a baseload
level in West Virginia. I think this one will beat
First Energy to the table in terms of being online.
So big deal.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
We were talking before the show, and not to get
too far ahead connecting dots, but it's north central West Virginia.
There's a lot of gas up there. Doddridge County, by
the way, Dodd Ridge Tyler, can you connect the dots?
Are the dots there to connect or TJ?

Speaker 8 (46:35):
Yeah? I think potentially, you know, depending on how this
thing is engineered. I mean a lot of the newer
plants might not necessarily take field gas. But if you
could engineer this so that you could take this gas
directly from a supplier, I didn't have to be pipeline quality.
You know, that's big because that's West Virginia gas. Anither
way it'll be West Virginia gas, but that's West Virginia
gas being used here, rather than being shipped out on

(46:58):
a pipeline somewhere down south or ending up in an
LNG export facility using the gas here, which means the
gas will be cheaper, which means the energy out of
this thing will be very competitive in the market.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Coming up second hour, we'll get more into the presentation yesterday,
student enrollment declining in public schools and what about these
two thousand dollars tariff payoffs.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Encova Insurance, encircling
you with coverage to protect what you care about most.
Visit Incova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Betcha News talk line already in progress. Thank you for
letting us be part of your day. Appreciate you listening
in on one of our great radio affiliates across the
state of West Virginia. Appreciate if you're watching on the
Metro News TV app. Coming up this hour, more of
your text at three oh four Talk three to four,
we'll open up the phone line. Says, well, we've had
some very tight shows the first couple of days this week,

(48:03):
so we'll open things up today to get your take
on the news of the day. Eight hundred and seven
to sixty five, Talk through a four to talk through
a four. Bottom of the hour, we'll talk to Mike
Murphy with the Committee on Responsible Budgeting. What about this
idea two thousand dollars tariff dividend payments? Sounds like fun, right, Well,

(48:24):
we'll talk about that coming up at the bottom of
the hour. Once again, say good morning to our producers.
Jake Link runs the video side of things, Ethan Collins
runs the audio, and TJ. Meadows patrols the Virginia Street
studios on a daily basis. I don't know about that,
but he is in Charleston.

Speaker 8 (48:42):
Good morning, TJ, Good morning, de Side. Don't ruin Mike's appearance.
Tariffs are taxes. That's where this money came from. We
paid it as taxes. It's just going to get worse
with more tariffs. Take the money, pay down the blasted debt.
If you're gonna do anything at all. That's my two cents.
But hey, what do I know? Hey, what do we
need Mike for? Then we'll just open up the phone

(49:03):
license stead Now you know, I think Helper mentioned it
quickly when we were talking to him the other day,
and that's that's where you and I started having this conversation.
There's not enough tariff money to cover the two thousand
dollars payments. And I'm not good at math, never was,
or I would, you know, be an engineer or something.

(49:25):
But anyway, we'll get into that coming up bottom of
the hour and we'll talk to again Mike Murphy for
the Committee on Responsible Budgeting.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
Brad mcklhoney joined us yesterday. He was covering the state
school board meeting. During that meeting, it was presented to
board members. West Virginia public schools have lost two and
a half percent of students over the past year. Student
enrollment is now at two hundred and thirty four thousand,
nine hundred and fifty seven. The state counted two hundred

(49:54):
and forty one thousand, twenty four students in the twenty
four to twenty five school year. That's a six point
three five percent decline from the over two hundred and
fifty thousand students that we're enrolled in twenty one twenty two,
according to the Annual Enrollment Data Book. For more, please
welcome to the program. The West Virginia Assistant Superintendent Schools,

(50:15):
Jeff Kelly. Jeff, good morning, glad you can join us.

Speaker 20 (50:18):
Happy to be here, Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
So those are the broad numbers, Jeff, what are we
to make of the continuing decline of student enrollment in
public schools?

Speaker 20 (50:29):
Well, I think you know, we're seeing similar trends in
our overall population in the States. I think it's probably
expected that you would see that type of decline or
at least some similar decline in our school systems across
the state. And of course we've been experiencing that for
some time. I mean I were called back my days

(50:51):
as a principal, I face those same declines, obviously on
a smaller level, and you got to deal with those
things and make appropriate adjustments as a result.

Speaker 8 (51:03):
So we're seeing some county school systems. We saw the
vote in Rome County to consolidate. We saw the vote
in Barbara County just this week to consolidate, likely more
votes coming. That's at the county level. At the state level,
what can you and the department do in terms of
dealing with this continuing decline in enrollment? What tools do

(51:24):
we have in the bag?

Speaker 20 (51:24):
Jeff Well, I mean from a fiscal standpoint, we have
to try to provide support to our counties to help
them project out. You know, I think if you're being
reasonable and you're sitting in the superintendency or sitting on
a county board, you know you have to be looking

(51:47):
at these projections in your county five and ten years
out and ultimately make good fiscal decisions as a business board,
because that's what they are. Our local boards are business boards.
So we got to try to help them kind of
produce a crystal ball here and get out in front
of things so that they don't you go off the

(52:08):
cliff and end up the deficit. And so we try
to make every effort here to help them forecast those
things and usually at the end of it, though there
are not so pleasant decisions. I mean, these things are
usually going to result in either school closings and consolidations
or significant staffing cuts, and those are tough business decisions,

(52:31):
but they have to be made.

Speaker 1 (52:33):
So if we spoke to Eddie Vincent, who's the superintendent
schools there in Barbara County, and he said to us,
he said, look, even if we didn't have an enrollment problem,
even if we had student population, we were being funded,
we had the money, we still don't have the staff
to fill the buildings that we have and teach the
students that we have. So even if there was funding there,

(52:56):
he had doubts that they'd be able to keep all
those middle schools open because certified teachers are so hard
to find right now.

Speaker 20 (53:02):
Well, and he makes a quality point here in that,
you know I mentioned earlier, if our if our state
population is decreasing, that means our that means our our
educational human resources are decreasing as well. I mean, you're
going to have less people to choose from to be principles,
to be bus drivers, to be teachers, to be counselors.

(53:24):
So you know, if you're trying to maintain for example,
six elementary schools in your county with six second grades,
that comes a little bit tougher each year. Uh, if
you're continuing to operate six facilities when your human resource
UH population is depleting as well. So he absolutely hit

(53:46):
the nail on the head there.

Speaker 8 (53:49):
I've listened to some of the public meetings around these
local county closures, very passionate. I get that a lot
of parents don't want their kids on buses for long
hours or so what I mean, that's not unreasonable. However,
one of the themes I tend to hear from some
people is, well, if we had just fixed the school

(54:10):
aid formula, we could afford some of this. Jeff, I
don't know that tweaking the formula. I don't know that
redoing the formula from scratch would fix some of these
economic problems. Is that, Naiven, my partner? Am I right?

Speaker 14 (54:25):
Well?

Speaker 20 (54:26):
Listen, the funding formula conversation is not new, and these
student population decreases who are not new either. The ultimate
question is if we're going to try to address this
through the funding formula, what does that look like. I know,

(54:47):
we don't have a money tree sitting outside that we
can go shake and just throw money at things. So
if they're going to start moving money around, the question
is going to be where are they going to move
the money from. It's it's going to have a ripple effect.
And so I think I probably agree with you in
that I don't know that it's going to fix all

(55:09):
the problems. Now, there's some things that may be able
to be addressed through that process, but you know, I
think we're gonna have to have a hard conversation and listen,
these things are usually doable, but they usually come with sacrifice.
And so there's if this is going to be a
path that we're going to go down, uh, there's probably

(55:32):
going to be some sacrifice along the way, and there's
probably gonna be some unhappy campers. So we're about to
get down into it and get in the weeds and
see what see what we can kind of produce as
a path or an out or a plan moving forward.
I know we're having a meeting on Monday that several
of us are attending UH in Rome County with some

(55:52):
stakeholders to start having these discussions, and uh, you know,
it's worth it to sit down and have this conversations
and see if we can map out some solutions.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
Jeff Kelly is joining us. Here is West Virginia School's
assistant superintendent the declining enrollment Jeff. There are reasons why
families are choosing not to go to public schools. Not
all of this is due to population decrease. Some of
that is some families are choosing other options. Do we

(56:23):
know the why or do we have an idea of
the why families are choosing to leave public schools that
either go to charter schools, private schools, or homeschooling.

Speaker 20 (56:35):
Well, I'm sure there are probably a myriad reasons why.
I think that some folks are probably viewing that as
a better option. We certainly know that we have parents
that we ran some data there while bick on parents
that were in trouble due to tru and see issues,
and that's one reason they're trying to dodge that bullet

(56:56):
and they leave the school system so that they can
avoid that. But nonetheless, and we can get into the why,
but the end of it all is that we are
experiencing these declines and that's the reality that we face
on a day to day basis. Now, we got to
do a better job in our local school systems of

(57:17):
promoting all the good that's going on there. I mean,
there are great things going on in our schools all
across this state, and I'm not sure that we're doing
an optimal job there of selling our product. So we
got to do a better job on that front too.

Speaker 8 (57:33):
I was going to give you a chance to sell
because we're talking about a lot of problems. I also
want to talk about the good things. Tell me some
of the good things that are going on in our
public schools in West Virginia.

Speaker 20 (57:43):
Well, I mean, you saw Superintendent Blat yesterday talk about
a program that took place up there in the Northern
Panhandle with a program there with Netflix, and that's just
one simple highlight. I know we're not recognizing schools for
doing great work. Our test scores are up, our attendance

(58:07):
is up, and these aren't easy needles to move, the
academic needles, but they're moving in the right direction. I
still believe in I mean I was a product of
public education, as were most people in this state. I
think it's a quality experience for our young men and women.
I think we're trying to enhance skill sets so that

(58:29):
when they walk out of our buildings at the age
eighteen they can go out and be productive and provide
for their families. So I see a lot of great things.
I'm going to visit two schools next week and.

Speaker 14 (58:43):
To see some of.

Speaker 20 (58:43):
The great things going on there. Again, I think we
have fantastic teachers in our state that are doing a
good job, and I think it's a quality experience for
our kids. So I don't know how well I am
as a sell, but I have two nephews. They go
to public schools, and I wouldn't send them anywhere else.

Speaker 1 (59:07):
Jeff Kelly is joining US Assistant Superintendent of West Virginia
Schools here on Metro News talk line this morning. Enrollment
continues to decline except two counties buck the trend. Doddridge
and Tyler bucked the trend. Any thought as to why
those particular counties had enrollment going up instead of going
down like the other fifty three, Well.

Speaker 20 (59:29):
I think they're experiencing some favorable economic situations in those counties,
and that usually goes hand in hand. You know, we
got to have a school system that builds students that

(59:50):
have skill sets that can be that can be used
for jobs. And those two counties seem to do pretty
well well on the academic side of things, and I
think folks are setting up shop there to do business
relative to the gas industry, and so they're working well.
And that there's business setting up shop and there's quality

(01:00:14):
school systems there. So that's match made in heaven. If
we can duplicate that in the other fifty three counties
will be we'll be doing extremely well.

Speaker 21 (01:00:26):
Well.

Speaker 8 (01:00:27):
I think you hit on something there. I remember back
in my day, which has been a while now coming up,
but you know, I grew up in cold country, YEP,
and you had various cold countries that were partners in
education with this school or that school, and the industry
was really you know, paramounts. They were bought in. They
were partnering with these institutions because they saw what it

(01:00:49):
could do for kids. If we can get back to
growing our economy in West Virginia, I would think some
of what you're talking about, and some of what we're seeing,
particularly in Doddridge and Tyler Counties where the gas industry
is prospering, we would see some of that organically, right.

Speaker 21 (01:01:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 20 (01:01:07):
I mean it's no coincidence that we're seeing that we've
struggled in the southern coal fields academically since the decline
of cult. I mean they again, they were partners. The
business side was able to support the school system and
the school system was able to produce individuals that could

(01:01:29):
could go and work in those those mines and support
you know, the community and that capacity. So again to
your point, if if we can start to to solve
the economic problem through business in some of our counties,
then I think you'll see, uh, you'll see a move

(01:01:53):
in our test scores as well. Relevant to that, I
don't think there's I think that's you've hit the nail
on the head there.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Jeff Kelly, Assistant school superintendent here in the great state
of West Virginia. Jeff, appreciate the perspective this morning. Thank
you very much.

Speaker 20 (01:02:07):
Hey Tom, thank you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
Absolutely take a break at some of your thoughts. It's
talk Line on Metro News from the Incobe Insurance Studios.

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Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
Three or four talk three or four is the text
line eight hundred and seven six five eight two five
point five. Mike Murphy with the Committee on Responsible Budgeting
will join us spot of the hour talk about this
idea of tariff dividend payouts. Three or four talk three
or four. Doddridge and Tyler's enrollment went up because they
went out and recruited every athlete they could get in
the surrounding counties, says the Texter. Three or four Talk

(01:04:02):
three four Dave and TJ. If there was ever a
useful need for AI cut education administrative costs by consolidating
boards and administrative positions. You can do this by creating
a central board of Education that's main job is overseeing
the day to day operations as if it is one
company with fifty five franchises. Use AI to compare the

(01:04:23):
results of who is creating the best product for learning,
suggests the Texter. I don't know about that specifically, but look,
we got to think a little bit outside the box here,
a little bit on how to run this more efficiently
and effectively, because look, you bring us up all the time,

(01:04:45):
our populations declining, birth rates are declining. We're running out
of people to support all the buildings, all the facilities
that we have.

Speaker 8 (01:04:54):
Some of these struggling counties, you know, the ones that
are taken over by the state. Do you consolidate them
and you can have one financial controller where you can't
get a financial controller for all of these counties. I mean,
look what just let's just talk about it. Look what
happened in Boone County where I grew up three million
dollars over hand sanitizing.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
Come on, somebody's asleep at the wheel and you don't
Maybe there's a compromise. There's a middle ground somewhere where
you have like the text are suggested a combined administration
administrative level, but you still maintain your your county schools.
There's got to be something in between you could work

(01:05:37):
out just just thinking.

Speaker 8 (01:05:38):
Out either no, you're on the well, that's the thing
people are afraid to think these days because the politics
around this are so sensitive. They are. But we can
even get over that, and we can sit down at
the table and come up with a plan to fix it,
or economics will do what economics always does. It will
come in like a purge and cleanse all of this

(01:06:00):
way because we'll come to a point where we're bouncing
checks and we can no longer afford everything, and the
situation it will be much harder to do then rather
than taking the pain now getting ahead of it and
doing something.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
Look, I brought up the why with with Jeff Kelly.
They're in the conversation. I think it was Joe Staltlein,
the Montague County delegates said that we got to figure
out why families are choosing to choosing these other options
they are available, whether they're charter, public, homeschooling, whatever the
case may be. Because if you can't figure that out,
just like any other product, ToJ if this product over

(01:06:34):
here is a better product, If this is a better vehicle,
I'm gonna go buy this vehicle over that vehicle. And
you've got to understand why people are leaving. Is it
because of discipline? Is it because of educational opportunities? Are
there nefarious reasons? Are you trying to skirt you know,
truancy issues. We've got to figure out or at least
have an idea of the why and not simply blame,

(01:06:55):
as some of the Texters have already, the idea that
you have educational options available, that there is the hope
scholarship available there. Yes, that's a factor. No, I don't
think it's the reason.

Speaker 8 (01:07:07):
Yeah, look I would be guessing as to the why. Sure,
I'll tell you while my kids are in private school.
If you want to go there, that's up to you.
There's a lot happening in this day and age. I've
told you many times my wife and I are Christians.
We try to educate our children on the Bible, and

(01:07:29):
we make our life decisions based on Biblical teachings. You
can't do that in a public school. I'm not saying
you should do it in a public school. So we
put our kids into a Christian school where life is
looked at through that paradigm and smaller class size. Those
were the two drivers for us. And that was before
hope scholarship or whatever came along. But there you go.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
Textra points out Tyler County's numbers could be impacted to
the influx of former Payden City kids. That's right. Paydon
City High School closed and those kids either had to
go up to New Martinsville were out to uh Kidwell there.

Speaker 8 (01:08:04):
Well, here's the thing. A one time blip, and I
think you would agree is a one time blip. It's
not a trend. You can't weigh it accordingly until there's
a trend moving forward that says, yep, something's different here.
So we've got a one time blip. Why I don't know.
And we'll see.

Speaker 1 (01:08:20):
Public school enrollment is not declining is in West Virginia.
That's not unique. This is happening across the country. In fact,
public school enrollment, the numbers I was looking at between
nineteen and twenty three was down two and a half percent.
So the other states are dealing with this as well.
So what do you do? What do you make of it?

(01:08:42):
I don't have answers. I just asked questions. That's the
that's the media cop OUTDJ. I'm just asking questions.

Speaker 8 (01:08:50):
I got to tell you there are. But that's good, Dave,
because these questions need to be asked. I'll just leave
it at that. And if somebody's gonna ask him, it
might as well be you and me.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
Call it up. We'll ask questions about this two thousand
dollars tariff payout. This is a talk line on Metro
News for forty years, the voice of West Virginia. It's
eleven thirty. Let's check him with the Metro News radio network.
Find out what's happening all across the great state of
West Virginia.

Speaker 4 (01:09:19):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Chris Lawrence, a sad ending
to the search for a missing coal miner in Nicholas County.
Rescue teams discovered and recovered the body of Steve Lipscomb
of Elkview around seven thirty this morning at the Rolling
thunder mine near Swiss. He had been missing since the
mine flooded on Saturday. Governor Patrick Morrissey delivered the terrible
news this morning at the Energy Summit in Charleston.

Speaker 7 (01:09:40):
Denise and my prayers go out to the family and
to everyone who knows this man, and I want to
thank everyone for all the work they did this past
week when all West Virginians came together.

Speaker 4 (01:09:54):
Lipscomb was the last miner who was unaccounted for after
seventeen other workers on that shift got out of the
mine when a seal to an old mind works was
breached and water started to fill up the working area.
Alpha Metallurgical Resource, as owner of the mine, put out
a statement saying that Lipscomb was last seen trying to
ensure that his crew got out safely. They did.

Speaker 8 (01:10:14):
Lipscomb leaves behind a wife and two children.

Speaker 4 (01:10:17):
Another news Governor Morrissey also announcing today that the government
shutdown now over. West Virginians who receive Snap benefits should
have their full November benefits on their cards either today
or no later than tomorrow. State police say a racing
promoter from Richie County is facing fraud charges. Barry Brown,
owner of XRA Events, is alleged to have been involved
in multiple fraudulent schemes focused on racing venues and related business.

(01:10:39):
State police said in a news release they have evidence
of crimes and a pattern of fraudulent activity. You're listening
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Speaker 15 (01:10:48):
The high school football playoffs are here and the best
matchups of the weekend are on Metro News TV. Check
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(01:11:11):
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Hi.

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Speaker 4 (01:11:49):
Two games Friday night and two Saturday will celebrate the
start of the college basketball season at West Virginia State University,
alma mater of Earl Lloyd. The Earl Lloyd Classic is
to celebrate the first African American to appear in an
NBA game.

Speaker 25 (01:12:02):
Every phone call I have with recruit, that's one of
the first topics I bring up because I want to
educate the young It's crazy because I ask all of them,
who's the first African American I ever played in the NBA.
Not one has ever got it right.

Speaker 4 (01:12:13):
Coach Brian Poor there, tell me about telling Lloyd's story
from the Metro News anchored ask. I'm Chris Lauren.

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a four text line eight hundred and seven to sixty five.
Talk the phone number. We'll get some more of your
thoughts coming up in just a moment. So President Trump
has floated the idea out there of maybe a two
thousand dollars per person tariff dividend sending money out sounds

(01:13:23):
kind of like the COVID era Joe Biden stimulus payments.
The Committee for Responsible Budgeting has run the numbers on
exactly how much that could cost, what the impact could be.
Joining us on Metro News talk Line this morning is
chief of staff for the Committee on Responsible Budgeting, Mike Murphy. Mike,
good morning, thanks for joining us.

Speaker 14 (01:13:44):
Good morning guys. Great to be with you.

Speaker 1 (01:13:46):
Appreciate you coming on. So it sounds like a great idea. I'd,
you know, take an extra two grand, go blow it
on something ridiculous probably, But how much would this actually
cost if the President were to move forward with this
idea of out tariff revenue dividends whatever he wants to
call them.

Speaker 14 (01:14:04):
Yeah, so it sounds like a great idea. We run
the numbers on this and What we did is we
run an analysis. You mentioned the Biden stimulus payments back
in COVID and actually some of them are under President
Trump of twenty twenty also, so we had to we
modeled an estimate on this because all the presidents said
on this idea was two thousand payments. There's no details

(01:14:24):
something now this would work. He implied that maybe it
would not go to higher income, higher income folks, and
so we modeled it off of the Biden era ones.
Because of those stimulus payments checks they phased out a
little bit of higher income. So modeling off of that,
here's the bottom line. We estimate that it would cost
about six hundred billion dollars a year. First said two

(01:14:46):
thousand dollars dividend payments. But keep in mind right now,
the estimated revenue from the tariffs that are in place
right now is about three hundred billion. We asked debate
a year. Actually to date so far this year they
brought in about one hundred billion. You also have to
take it to a cap Supreme Court might deem a

(01:15:07):
lot of those illegal. So bottom line, it's going to
be pretty costly to do those dividend payments and not
come close based on what they're projected to bring in
to add up when we're already guys, as you know,
in thirty eight trillion dollars of dead.

Speaker 8 (01:15:26):
So we're going to get into that a little bit here,
because there's been a lot that's happened. But just Mike,
why why, I mean, my second grader can do that math.
I just I don't understand what the point here is
other than political points on a scorecard somewhere to make
people feel better about tariffs. So maybe that's the endgame,
but I just I don't get it.

Speaker 14 (01:15:46):
Buddy, Well, I think that is pretty much it. I
think you hit the nail on the head. This is
about you know, we have a political system across the board.
It's not just one party that does it. Both do
right that that giving away things it's politically easy, making
the tough choices by getting our debt under control is
a lot harder. And that's essentially where we are. Not

(01:16:07):
to mention the fact that we're in a state where
we can't even do budgets. We just got out of
a shutdown for for something days as a result of
not being able to get together on things. So you know, no,
it's all about it's all about the giveaway side of
the Ledger and not about the side of actually making
things add up and do tough choices, which is what

(01:16:27):
budgets all about.

Speaker 1 (01:16:29):
I know we can't get into the president's head. If
we could, you know, we could write a book and
you know, sell it for exorbitant amounts of money. But
it almost feels like it's throw the idea out there.
It's kind of like we've probably all done with our
lives before, you know, I could really use a new
pickup truck, and you kind of wait to see what
the reaction is going to be. Is this what he's doing,
throwing an idea out there with no details, just to

(01:16:51):
see what theree And you can't answer this question, Mike,
but's that's what it feels like. We'll throw an idea
out we'll see what the reaction is and if it works.
It works, it does, and it doesn't.

Speaker 14 (01:17:03):
Your guests as good as mine. But I think I
think that you know, obviously, the reaction to this has
been a little bit muted, i'd say, in terms of
just the policy circles here in Washington, As is often
the case sometimes with the President, some of these ideas too.
It's no one's really expecting it. No one really knows
that he may be thinking about said things, so then
they have to react. I think the Treasury Secretary, in fact,

(01:17:25):
was kind of on the Sunday shows and he sort
of he said he didn't really know about this, and
I had to speak. I'd yet to speak with the President
about it. So I think he has a tendency to
kind of obviously put out put out these ideas. But
you know, again he just goes back to the last question.
A lot of these ideas you know, in other parties,
Like I said, do it too. It's it's about to

(01:17:46):
give away side here. It's what's politically expedient at the
at the expense, the expense frankly future generations, which is
what we're doing here, passing the buck.

Speaker 8 (01:17:58):
I want to get into this deal a bit with
you about funding the governments. You put a piece out
yesterday it was titled Congress to Wipe three point four
trillion with a T from the Pago scorecard. No one
talked about this at all. It got zero hype, maybe

(01:18:19):
outside Rampaul and Thomas Massey who had some concerns. I
want you to do our listeners as solid here explain
what PAGO is and why this is so important and
really what the Congress decided in ignoring all of this.

Speaker 14 (01:18:33):
Thank you for raising this. The Pago the Pago issue
is for your listeners, it's kind of what it sounds like.
Pago means pay as you go. There are rules on
the book in Congress that are supposed to force Congress
to have to pay for the things they do. It's
a little complicated, but in principle, what it means is
if you pass mandatory directs, bending bills or tax cuts,

(01:18:57):
there's a provision called PAGO that if you do that,
you can pass them. But then at the end of
the calendar year, there's a mechanism place that's going to
order across the board cuts across a range of programs,
things like Social Security exempted, but across a range of
programs to make it add up. So if you didn't
pay for it at the time, we're going to charge
you for it. To make you, guys pay for it
at the back end. It threw an automatic sequesters what

(01:19:20):
they call well, what often happens, guys, is they just
because no one really understands that rule. Frankly, and they
don't know what's happening half the time up there is
they tuck things into bills to kind of wipe that
Pago scorecard clean. They call it a scorecard where they
add all this stuff up, and that's what they do,
and they just drop it in and the members on
both sides kind of vote for it. I tend to

(01:19:41):
think that they actually don't even know it's in there,
unless folks like you just mentioned two of them, Rand Paul,
Thomas Massey, they understand this stuff, and they tried to
put forward like a hold on, guys, you're trying to
wipe the scorecard clean. At three point four trillion. That's
from the result, by the way of the One Big
Beautiful Bill Act, when they passed that, it was scored
to end over over three trilliingn to the debt that

(01:20:03):
goes on the scorecard. They wiped it clean. No one
even noticed it. They did that in the bill yesterday.
So now that's a quester cut that would have happened
to pay for it at the end of this year.
It's gone.

Speaker 1 (01:20:17):
TJ. I read that article this morning as well, and
apparently you know rules, well whatever, we don't want to
add that to the scorecard. We'll just we'll just wipe
it away, you know, cares act. Eh, we'll just take
that off the scorecard. Art, but we'll just take that
off the scorecard. What's the use of having the rules
if you can just wipe them away?

Speaker 14 (01:20:33):
Mike, Oh, that's exactly right. And there's there's been ideas
we've put them forward, other people put them forward. You
got to strengthen those rules, and some of them are
about sort of like, okay, so maybe you have to
raise the vote threshold to like to do that. They'd
be able to do that, right because a lot of
the folks, you know, like super majority instead of majority. No,
you could probably get a super majority to do those

(01:20:54):
kind of things because a lot of folks in both
parties don't want those to happen. And what will happen
as you kind of get you get to the end,
you get to voting on a bill, and the argument
from leadership or otherwise will be to their members, we
can't let those sequester cuts happen. Those cuts are going
to cross the board and hurt programs including medicare. We
can't do that. Well, yeah, you should have paid for
it to begin with. Obviously right. So yeah, I mean

(01:21:19):
they do just keep circumventing their own rules, and the
result is we just keep digging the hole deeper.

Speaker 8 (01:21:25):
And the thing that really bothers me because a lot
of people admittedly might have trouble crystallizing this because the
numbers are so big, so attack me. Will not attack me,
but call me out here if it's an unfair comparison.
This would be like Joe Schmoe on Main Street saying
I've got ten thousand dollars on my credit card bill.

(01:21:46):
I'm just gonna ignore it, and the credit card company's
gonna let me ignore it and somebody else will pay
for it. That will never happen in the real world.
Yet that's what Congress did.

Speaker 21 (01:22:00):
I think.

Speaker 14 (01:22:02):
I think it's a pretty good analogy. I think i'd
add to it. It's basically like you're kind of wiping
that credit card clean and passing that but not completely clean.
You're essentially passing it to your kids or your grandkids
to eventually pick up the tag because it's not being
white clean like that. That's being added now and someone's
going to have to eventually pay the tab for that.

(01:22:22):
It just happens to not be the current Congress, current
generation that's picking up the tab. But you bring up
a really important fundamental point we've probably talked about on
this show before. It is so hard to deal with
these trillion dollar deficits. It just goes over people's heads.
And we deal with that when we go around the
country talking to people about it's very abstract to people, actually,
But here's what's not abstract. But it's not abstract. It's

(01:22:43):
in a few years from now, social security, which people
rely on. It's one of the biggest drivers over deaths
problem too. It's going to go across the board cuts
of twenty four percent because it's going to go and
solve it. That I think is going to get people's
attention because that's actually tangible, right as opposed to.

Speaker 8 (01:23:02):
What's the year on that is that twenty thirty three.

Speaker 14 (01:23:04):
It's twenty thirty two now. Actually moved so it was
estimated to be twenty thirty three by the trustees. It
got moved up a month honestly as a result of
the of COVID some of the impacts there. I'm sorry
not it won't beautiful, but excuse me, I've moved up,
moved up a year. So that's seven years, you know,
that's when that's when today's sixty year olds reach the

(01:23:27):
normal retirement age. So this is not like a far
off problem anymore. This is coming, and the earlier you
deal with it, it's much better. You get to phase
these things in smaller adjustments. By the way, we know,
the political reality is if they're not going to let
like current seniors of people on the program have to
bear much of the burden, so they just every year
you go less seniors who are the wealthiest generation of

(01:23:48):
seniors we ever have had, are not going to have
to help deal with this, right, So that I think
my point is that that's more tangible, whereas things I
think like they're broad. Our debt is very hard for
folks to understand how that impacts their lives.

Speaker 1 (01:24:03):
Talking to Mike Murphy, chief of staff for a Committee
on Responsible Budgeting during the shutdown, one of the big
points was the expanded ACA tax credits. Democrats wanted to
guarantee to have those extended, Republicans not really wanting to
extend them. Mike, what's the financial cost if those tax credits,

(01:24:23):
the expanded ones, are extended. Can we mean from talking
to you the last ten minutes. I don't think we
can afford much of anything, Mike, But what's the what's
the financial cost here?

Speaker 14 (01:24:33):
So they're estimated to cost about thirty billion a year,
so you can figure they're going to be about three
hundred three hundred billion over ten years. And yeah, that
is without a doubt where where some of this debate
is headed now in the next next month or two,
we'll see where it goes. There seems to be political
pressure amongst different constituencies obviously to maybe have some kind

(01:24:54):
of deal to extend these, but you do have to
pay for them, and I think that there will be
a lot of pressure to not pay for the US
and thirty billion in the context of the thirty eight
trillion dollar death seems small. It's just another what's another
cup of thirty billion right for a year, but now
three hundred billion, three hundred billion over ten years. And

(01:25:15):
you know, those who have pointed out the fact that
these were supposed to be enhanced and temporary are exactly right,
like that is how these were designed. But it kind
of goes back to the first question you asked about
the tariff things of why this happens. It's so much
easier to give things away to expand benefits, and when
you try to take them away, this is what happens. Right,

(01:25:37):
you have these kind of debates and discussions.

Speaker 1 (01:25:39):
Mike Murphy, chiefs of Staff for a Committee on Responsible Budgeting. Mike,
we got to run. Appreciate the insights today. Thank you
very much.

Speaker 14 (01:25:46):
Great to be with you, guys.

Speaker 1 (01:25:47):
Take care, rest The show belongs to you. We'll get
some of your text three or four Talk three four.
We'll open the phones as well. At eight hundred seven
sixty five Talk eight hundred seven sixty five eight two
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Speaker 3 (01:27:27):
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Speaker 1 (01:27:38):
Open phones eight hundred and seven sixty five Talk eight
hundred seven sixty five eight two five five. You can
text us at three or four Talk three oh four.
Let's go to Wheeling. Say good morning to Bob. Hey, Bob,
good morning, How are you doing doing great?

Speaker 15 (01:27:52):
Bob?

Speaker 1 (01:27:52):
What's on your mind?

Speaker 14 (01:27:54):
Well?

Speaker 17 (01:27:55):
I wanted to respond to the comment at the at
the end of the last segment about the the credits
for the ACA insurance go ahead, and it seemed to
be the context was making it like it was some
kind of a giveaway, like the two thousand dollars PARA

(01:28:16):
bill or the two thousand dollars that we got with
the COVID thing. I was on that insurance for several
years before I reached Medicare age, and it made insurance
affordable for someone who was self employed in his late
fifties and early sixties. I was still paying three for

(01:28:38):
five hundred dollars a month for my insurance, but the
credit at least made it possible to have where I
wasn't being eight hundred to one thousand dollars a month.

Speaker 1 (01:28:50):
Bob, appreciate the phone call, And look, you're right. There
are real world impacts here to youj on what people
are paying for their health insurance. And that's why I
think Democrats pull it. When you look at the polling numbers,
they pull much better here. And that's a real world
impact if your health insurance premiums are going to go up.
But let's make no bones about it. And Bob, I

(01:29:11):
appreciate the phone call. Buddy, these premiums have been held
artificially low because or artificially lower or not low lower
because of those subsidies that were passed and supposed to
be temporary back in twenty twenty and have been extended
a couple of times.

Speaker 8 (01:29:26):
No doubt, no argument. And look, if we didn't have
thirty eight trillion dollars in debt and we had more
money than we knew what to spend, if we have
some kind of you know, wealth fund setting around, we
could talk about using it for things like this, but
more fundamentally and respectfully to Bob and others, I get it,
it makes it easier, I get it. But why should

(01:29:48):
other people have to pay more in taxes to cover
your health insurance because you're taking a risk at self employment.
Not trying to be pejorative, but I think it's a
fair question. Let's go back to the Northern Panhandle. Larry
wants to talk about student enrollment.

Speaker 21 (01:30:04):
Hey Larry, Well, hey, that was listening. I've listened pretty
much all day, and at first I heard there was
only three counties in West Virginia that had increased student enrollment.
Now I heard on your programs earlier that there are two.

Speaker 1 (01:30:21):
Counties, yeah, Tyler and Doddridge.

Speaker 21 (01:30:24):
Yeah about I guess three wink to two. But what
about counties like Berkeley, the Eastern Panhandled Now, they had
decreased student enrollment. The population of just say, Berkeley County
in the Eastern panandle has increased five times in the
last The population has increased five times in the last

(01:30:46):
thirty years. So they're just going living in Berkeley County,
but nobody has any children.

Speaker 1 (01:30:54):
Uh well, good question, Uh, Larry, and I will tell
you Berkeley County was down one hundred and sixty eight students.
Jefferson was down one hundred and fifty eight students from
the previous year. So it's kind of flat numbers there,
but they were they were down a little bit in
those counties. I don't know where they're going.

Speaker 21 (01:31:12):
Maybe people in the states should think about this. If
there's so many people, what was the increase in population
at least five times? Gift for Berkeley County is the
second most populous county in West Virginia. Now, oh yeah,
and it's increasing and increasing and increasing. So what's the
state doing about it? Just saying everyone that doesn't have

(01:31:34):
children can move to West Virginia it's not making any sense.

Speaker 1 (01:31:39):
Larry, appreciate the phone call. We got to hit the
brake here because time is what I'm indicating. Three or
four talk three or four, eight hundred and seven and
sixty five eight two five five wur wrapped things up
in a moment.

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Speaker 23 (01:32:22):
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Speaker 14 (01:32:27):
It's showtime.

Speaker 23 (01:32:28):
The holiday hit Maker walks the office halls with West
Virginia Lottery holiday scratch offs and an unstoppable spirit. What
are you doing.

Speaker 20 (01:32:36):
Bringing the holiday hype here?

Speaker 8 (01:32:38):
Enjoy scratch off?

Speaker 3 (01:32:39):
It's on me?

Speaker 2 (01:32:40):
Whoa ticket?

Speaker 3 (01:32:42):
My work here is done?

Speaker 23 (01:32:43):
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Speaker 1 (01:33:08):
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The Powerball jackpot is five hundred and forty six million.

(01:33:28):
Mega Millions jackpot is nine hundred fifty six million, So
go ahead, play today. Appreciate all the text, all the
phone calls. Good show. I thought it was a decent
show today, not bad.

Speaker 8 (01:33:41):
I give us a solid B.

Speaker 1 (01:33:43):
Yeah, that seems about like that seems about right. That's
where I was in high school. Solid B, you know,
right there in the meaty part of the curve. Coming
up tomorrow, Chris Diarwalt will stop by. Oh we can
probably think of a thing or two to talk to
Chris about tomorrow. Also, it'll be Steamer, your weekly chance
to vent and get it all off your chest before
you head into the weekend. Coming up Metro News Midday

(01:34:06):
on many of these same Metro News radio stations, followed
by Hotline and later tonight, Kyle Wiggs and the crew
on Metro News sports Line, Big basketball game and Hope
Coliseum Mountaineers taking on Pitt tonight at the Coliseum. All right, plans,
Oh you're ready, you go to watch the game tonight.

Speaker 8 (01:34:23):
Let's go. I'll watch the game. Yeah, if my kids
allow me. There's this little science project that's hanging out
there too.

Speaker 1 (01:34:30):
I don't know, we'll see science project. I was watching
soccer last night. Can't say that too many times, but
I was coming up metro News midday. This is talk
Line on Metro News, the Voice of West Virginia.