Talkline | Nov. 18, 2025 - MetroNews Talkline

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
We could get a vote today on the Epstein files
and we'll know the same as we did yesterday. It's
Metro News talk Line.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Away are underway radio turned.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
Off from the studios of w v r C Media
and the Metro News Radio and Television Network. The Voice
of West Virginia comes the most powerful show in West Virginia.
This it's Metro News talk Line with Dave Wilson and TJ.

Speaker 4 (00:50):
Meadows activated. So it's not where can we hold from Charles.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Stand by to David DJ.

Speaker 5 (00:59):
You're on.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Encovia Insurance, encircling
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Speaker 1 (01:13):
Good morning, Welcome inside the in cob Insurance studios. It
is Metro News talk Line on more than two dozen
Great affiliates radio affiliates across the state of West Virginia
and live video streaming on the Metro News TV app.
Eight hundred and seven to sixty five Talk is the
phone number eight hundred seven six five eight two five five.

(01:36):
That's the number to call if you would like to
be part of the program. Text line is three h
four Talk three oh four, so a couple of different
ways for you to participate. Coming up a little bit
later this morning, another announcement from Toyota investing in its
Buffalo manufacturing plants. We'll talk to the president of Toyota
West Virginia. David Roser will join us. Coming up bottom

(01:58):
of the hour. Also dive into the audit report that
did not lay out a pretty picture for the child
welfare system, the foster care system here in West Virginia delicate.
Gino Shrelli in the second hour will join us, and
also maybe a special guest along the way this morning
as well. But first say good morning to the cruise

(02:21):
that Carrol check is handling the video stream this morning.
Ethan Collins is our operator sitting by, and TJ. Meadows
is the master of ceremonies in Charleston.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
Good morning, sir, Good morning.

Speaker 6 (02:31):
I'm watching I'm watching Marjorie Taylor Green alongside Thomas Massey
right now. They're having a presser on Capitol Hill. And
did you ever think you would hear me say that
MTG is the voice of sanity in Washington when it
comes to the Republican Party in the House.

Speaker 4 (02:49):
Think I would say that?

Speaker 7 (02:50):
No?

Speaker 1 (02:52):
And I am. We're going to have that conversation one
day because I disagree with you. Actually, well has been
for the last two weeks. Okay, not today, TJ. Not today.
Not gonna let me bait you into that one well, no,
because we'll get into it one day. Yes, we can

(03:12):
go down that road.

Speaker 4 (03:13):
I'm just having a little fun with you, buddy. You
know what.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
You know why I can't get into it, TJ. Because
we have more important names holding we do that and
the Internet is not working today. Cloud Fair outage has
disrupted everything from X to chat, GPT. Even Metro News'
website has been impacted by the outage by cloud Fair,
which I didn't even know existed until this morning when

(03:35):
it popped up on the monitor.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
So guilty, same had no clue.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
If you've experienced that this morning. We do apologize that's
out of our control. Also, a I don't know a
little bit of a concerning reminder just how dependent we
are now on the internet getting online look just basic
information up. So it's a little concerning. What do we do?
What do we do if the Internet goes away?

Speaker 6 (03:59):
If I asked any of my children what an encyclopedia is,
they would give me a blank stare. That's a god's
honest truth.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Do you remember the guys that used to go around
Did you have those as a kid.

Speaker 6 (04:09):
That your ayclope had a whole set? Now it was dated.
It was like from like nineteen eighty. My dad had
got it or something when it But yeah, I had
one right in my room.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Got all the information I need right up to nineteen eighty.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (04:23):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yesterday, State Treasurer Larry Pack laid out his legislative priorities
heading into the twenty sixth legislative session, which will begin
in just a few weeks that'll begin in January. Joining
us on Metro News talk Line this morning is the
treasure of the great state of West Virginia. Larry Pack, Larry,
good morning, Glad you could join us.

Speaker 5 (04:40):
Hey, good morning, thanks for being on today. Beautiful brief
or rainy morning. We need to rain this.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
I bet you had the set of encyclopedias as a kid.
Did you have that set? TJ and I were talking about?

Speaker 5 (04:50):
Absolutely? Yeah, absolutely, a Hearnshaw you know that was that
was big stuff, having encyclopedias, and that's that's where we
went to learn stuff without it out.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
And that's that's all you needed. That was that's sort
of encyclopedias. Oh you need, Larry, what will be Let's
just start with your number one? What will be your
number one priority going into the twenty sixth legislative session.

Speaker 5 (05:09):
I think number one is just to make sure and
working with the legislature to make sure that we do
not roll back or we're not tempted to roll back
the universal eligibility with respect to Hope Scholarship. Twenty six
twenty seven school year is the year that it's it's universal.
Every K through twelve student, every parent of K through
twelve child, I can take advantage of help scholarship program.

(05:31):
This is a program that we passed in the legislature
in twenty one. It is my first year in the legislature.
Of course, there's only there are two in the House,
and I'm very proud of that vote. So we're going
to work really hard to make sure that we don't
roll back the eligibility, that we continue to lead the
charge when it comes to educational freedom in West Virginia.

Speaker 6 (05:49):
How do you think people may be tempted, Larry to
roll it back? Is it a cost factor? Is it
the argument that it decreases enrolling in schools. Where do
you think people will target it?

Speaker 5 (06:00):
I think there you know, you have kind of a
number of camps, but you you have the camps that
just don't like it, right, they don't like Hope Scholarship,
or maybe they don't like homeschool. Uh. So you have
some of that, but you also have some of the
folks that believe you have to choose. You have to
be either pro pro public school or pro choice. Can't

(06:20):
be both. I don't I disagree with that, but you
have some of that. And there's some physical folks as well,
uh that you know are always worried about about the budget. So,
you know, I think people's concerns are are you know,
come from good places. I just happen to disagree with them.
So we want to work really hard again to make
sure that that every parent in in West Virginia can

(06:41):
you know, has the ability to make a choice. And
that's all we're wanting to do is make sure that
we allow the parents to make a choice. So what's
the best educational pathway for their for their child?

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Larry, do you believe there are adequate guardrails in place
with Hope Scholarship to ensure West Virginians have a full
accounting of how they're taxpayer money is being spent through
the Hope Scholarship.

Speaker 5 (07:03):
Well as hard as the counting. I mean, we're very
transparent on where the money is being spent, and and
and and where it's going. So so there's there's absolute
UH transparency on every dollar. We put out an a
report that that that shows that we are A report
for this past fiscal year will be out somewhere in
the next couple of weeks, so you can drill down
the county pencil, you know, looking and the people like

(07:25):
pencils that they buy computers, if it was a private school,
which private school? Where's a private school? So so we're
very transparent as far as where the money is being spent. Now,
I think with any program, no matter what the program
is from, you know, from time to time, the legislature
UH is going to make some adjustments and that's their purview.
Matter of fact, that's their that's their role. The one

(07:46):
I'm really focused on, this universal eligibility. I think we
need to to stay the course. I think it's really
changing lives in West Virginia. I think it's been just
a great addition to the regions and the regions people
want to be.

Speaker 4 (07:59):
In Virginia, let's talk about teacher pay.

Speaker 6 (08:02):
You want to increase it to fifty thousand dollars starting
pay for teachers.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
How will you do it?

Speaker 5 (08:07):
Well, I think that basically what my suggestion is, and
it's really it's based a lot of over what Governor
Sarahuckaby Sanders did in Arkansas a few years ago. When
she came in the office, she realized that teacher pay
in Arkansas was basically in forty eighth or forty ninth
in the in the state. They put together a broad
pro public school program, but one of the big tenets

(08:30):
of the anchors of that program was to ensure that
no teacher made less than fifty thousand dollars. Currently, our
average startings pay for teachers is somewhere in the forty
two forty three thousand dollars range. That's after four years
of education. We want to attract new teachers, we want
to retain new teachers, and in order to do that,
we're going to have to move his pay raises up

(08:51):
and make sure that we're competitive with surround these states.
There's you know, other than your parents and your family,
there's nobody else that has more impact when you're growing
up then your teachers. We should v and we have
great teachers in West Virginia, we absolutely do. But we
need to pay them, we need to compensate, and we
need to encourage them. We think this is something that
West Gini needs to do and hopefully we'll get this

(09:13):
passed in the next session.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
Do you believe the extra funding for teacher pay raises
is somewhere in the budget just through you know, tightening
the belts, being a little bit more prudent or is
there a failing source out there?

Speaker 9 (09:26):
Sure?

Speaker 5 (09:26):
Sure, Well we pay for it out of surplus. You know,
we've had you know, fifty million dollars surplus last year.
We're at one hundred million dollars so forth this year.
West Virginia's are working. People are investing in West Virginia.
And when they're working invest in West Virginia, they're paying taxes.
So our financial situation is really good. We can afford it.

(09:47):
We think it's somewhere around around seventy million dollars if
we give every let's make sure that every teacher makes
no less than fifty thousand, and every other teacher if
they make more in fifty down and they get a
two thousand dollars range. I think that's some around seventy
million dollars a week, and well afford that. We need
to afford that. And you know, budgeting is the priorities,
and I don't know that we have any higher priority

(10:08):
than to make sure that our teachers are well paid.

Speaker 6 (10:12):
Elimination on the state income tax that's been talked about
at the legislature. They have balked on it. Why do
you think now is the time and do you think
it can actually get through this go around?

Speaker 5 (10:23):
Well, you know, my proposal or our proposal is, you know,
is to followed President Trump what the President Trump did
on the federal level and eliminate the tax on overtime
and the tax on tips. We all have waiters and
waitresses in our families. We know how hard they work.
We also have plenty of family members that work every time,

(10:43):
whether they're a nurse or a construction worker, they're a
coal miner, and we know when they work at every time.
The tax fight gets pretty heavy. So we're just trying
to help the working families in West Virginia. That was
President Trump's region for doing on the national level, we
think we should follow that on the state level. It's
a small tax amount for the state budget, but it's

(11:04):
a huge, huge benefit to these folks that are working
as waiters and are working on overtime.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Larry pack is joining US. Treasurer of the state of
West Virginia released his legislative priorities for the upcoming twenty
twenty six legislative session that'll begin a couple of weeks
into January. Governor Morrissey wants to see more reductions of
the state income tax. You're talking about getting rid of
the income tax on tips and overtime. Where are were

(11:31):
going to generate revenue from, Larry.

Speaker 5 (11:34):
Well, I haven't seen the governor's program. You know, we've
heard a lot of rumors about, you know, what he's
supposed to talking about. Look forward to hearing him come
out with his program, and you know, once he does,
I'll be glad to comment on it. But you know,
when I worked at Government Justice, we worked really hard
to bring We wanted a fifty percent p i T

(11:56):
Personal income tax cut. We end up getting somewhere around
thirty So that was a monumental accomplishment. We were pleased with.
Thats over a billion dollars a year in tax cuts.
So I think as far as going forward, we just
have to look and see what Governor Morsehy's plan is
in kind of weigh it and make sure that we
make it, make sure it makes sense. So you know

(12:17):
two things I come up with yesterday. It's about it's
about one hundred million dollars when you look at the
no tax on tips, no tax in overtime, and the
teacher raises, we can well afford that. But let's let's again,
let's wait until he puts his proposal out before we.

Speaker 6 (12:33):
Comment on Larry A blunt question. There have been some
folks in political circles who have said, this is not
what the state treasurer does or typically does. They typically
don't have a place in putting out legislative priorities and
calling for these kinds of initiatives.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
What do you say to that, Well, I can't really
speak to my predecessors, although you know, got a lot
of respect for him. But you know, I spent forty
years in private sector. The only thing I understand is
is is leadership and leading and talk about the issues
that are important to what I was doing. Whether it's
a CPA. Uh, whether it's in the healthcare business. And

(13:12):
you know, when you get into this job. Uh, you know,
I did the budget for a couple of years for
for for governor, governor justice. Uh, I'm well aware of
what we I think, what we need to do, the
direction we need to take. Uh, and I think it'd
be malpractice for me if I didn't talk about it.
So you know, I didn't come to I didn't run
for state treasure uh, just to do the things that

(13:34):
are in my office. I ran a state treasure to
be able to talk about the direction I think the
Western Union needs to go and give good advice to
to the government, give good advice what I believe is
good advice to the legislature. Now, legislature gets the final
say as to what happens. I respect Uh their they're
they're part of the process. And but same time, I'm

(13:55):
gonna give them suggestions and and I'm not going to
be shy about them.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
They've got a story post it for you over at
the website. You can read more about treasure Pack's priorities
over at wvmatronews dot com. If the website is working
thanks to that internet outage today, Larry, appreciate it so
much and we'll be seeing you not too far from
now during the Let's Slave session down in Charleston.

Speaker 5 (14:16):
Thank care, have good day.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
I guess you as well. State Treasurer Larry Pack take
a break, be back in a moment. This is talk
line from the Encovee Insurance Studios.

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Speaker 1 (15:47):
Jeff Jenkins informs me the website is up and running,
and he's correct. I confirm that we double sourced at TJ.
The website is up and running. After that cloud Fair
outage this morning, I.

Speaker 4 (16:00):
Wish I could say the same about the Internet in
my studio.

Speaker 6 (16:02):
I'd be able to confirm it that that's the problem
for me now.

Speaker 1 (16:06):
Three or four talk three or four is the text
line eight hundred and seven six five eight two five five.
Spent a couple of minutes there with it, and we
didn't want to take up the entire conversation with Larry
Pack about the Hope scholarship. But that has been TJ,
and if I'm being honest, it has been a convenient
scapegoat when we get into these conversations about declining public

(16:28):
school enrollment. When we're talking about the declining funding for
public schools, which is tied to enrollment, which is tied
to the school aid formula, which opens up a broader conversation.
I did read, and I had read it prior to
yesterday's show, but one of the textures suggested Deborah Sullivan,
the state school board member, her op ed that was

(16:50):
in the gazette mail and she goes into and I
think she makes some good points TJ about the Hope Scholarship,
about public school funding, the school aid formula, of the
archaic state code that governs public schools. But to use
Hope Scholarship as a scapegoat as the one thing that

(17:13):
has led to consolidations and closures is well, it's a fallacy.
It has certainly contributed to students leaving public schools, but
that is not the one thing that is to blame
for where we're headed with enrollment and declining funding because
of the declining enrollment.

Speaker 6 (17:31):
No, not at all. I think Pack said it really well.
You can be a supporter of both. You can think
about this, if you have a child who is extraordinarily
gifted and their current school just doesn't allow them an
environment that challenges them, and you can use Hope to
put them into a better situation. What's wrong with that?

(17:53):
What's wrong with that? It's good for the student, Absolutely,
nothing is wrong with that. Parents that want a home school,
there's nothing wrong with that. Should there be guardrails around
homeschooling to make sure that it's not abused? Sure, But
to say that this is the largest factor. To your point,
it's not. It's not we're losing population hand over fist.

(18:18):
This is a good tool in the box to be
able to mitigate some of those situations for individual students.
And the sooner everybody gets to a place where you
can be a supporter of both, I think the better
will be.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
And last week we had Eddie vincent on from barb
Barbara County School Superintendent and this struck me when he
told us TJ even if even if he had full
increased enrollment and funding, he doesn't have the number of
certified teachers necessary to keep all of those schools in

(18:51):
Barbara County open. That is probably, and he said, probably
the biggest factor in the consolidation plans there with the
middle schools. That finding staff and certified tea is becoming
increasingly difficult, a problem we've known about for much more
than the last couple of years. So even if even
if hope doesn't exist, you still have staffing issues if
you're looking at trying to keep all these community schools open.

Speaker 6 (19:13):
And I'll go even further than Larry did with the
fifty K. I think that's a good start, but locality
pay how many times have we tried to pass that.
It comes up politically for one reason or the other
and ignores the economics of the situation. Until we address that,
if you're in Berkeley or Jefferson or those counties that
can jump over to Louden, you're gonna lose every day.

Speaker 4 (19:34):
You're just gonna lose. What do we have?

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Thirty three is that right? Thirty three counties are border counties.

Speaker 4 (19:41):
Sounds about right.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
Sounds in that neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
And you can say the same. If you're over in
the Ohio Valley can jump over and go to Ohio.
You're in the Panhandle, you got I mean, if you're
in the northern Panhandle TJ. You're ten miles from two states.
Either way.

Speaker 6 (19:55):
The market doesn't see the state line, Dave, is the
best way I've heard it said.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
It just doesn't.

Speaker 6 (20:00):
It's a regional market that extends beyond state borders. And
until you address that and do some of these things
that may be politically unpopular in some of the counties
where they wouldn't see those kinds of races, you're going
to continue to see the same results. And I'll just
say it, some of these counties that are the border
counties are the best place in terms of ROI that
we're actually seeing growth in the state that's propping everything

(20:21):
else up. So the last thing we want to do
is screw up the education system in those counties that
are actually helping fund the rest of the state. You
see where I'm going here, Well, you're talking about Berkeley, Jefferson.
I would throw mone Gallia into that, into that mix
where you're talking about counties that are seeing growth.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
Yeah, yeah, they're on the border. Especially if you've not
if you've not been to the Eastern Panhandle in a while,
talking to you friends over on WEPM, great Martinsburg affiliate. There,
it's exploded. I mean I used to spend a lot
of time, used to live in work or our worked
in Winchester, Virginia, lived in Northern Virginia for several years,
familiar with.

Speaker 4 (20:56):
The Eastern Panhandle.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Left obviously, came back, went back over there, and went,
man a lot. How much has been built in a
decade over there. It's amazing. It's amazing. And you've got
to recruit and keep that staff you're talking about absolutely
all right, Coming up Toyota, speaking of investment, is investing
in the plant at Buffalo and modernizing and making an

(21:20):
investment in the future. As far as the manufacturer of
parts for hybrid vehicles, We'll talk to David Roser, he's
the president of Toyota West Virginia. What does that mean
for that part of the state. We'll get into that conversation.
More of your text We'll get to the text line.
Haven't even got there yet. This morning at eight hundred
and seven to sixty five Talk that's the phone number.
Text line is three or four Talk three oh four.

(21:40):
This is talk line on Metro News for forty years,
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 12 (21:56):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Jeff Jenkins. Toyota West Virginia
says it's adding eighty jobs to its plan in Buffalo
in Putnam County, a more than two hundred million dollar
investment into that plant. They say they're adding the jaws,
but calls the customers want more hybrid vehicles. You can
read more at wv metronews dot com. Trump Administration on

(22:17):
its way to change in the much discussed Waters of
the US Rule from the Federal EPA. The rule got
it start under former President Barack Obama. Opponent's filed lawsuits,
including West Virginia, which was one of the first states
to do so. Federal Epadminister Leezelden says they're proposing modifications
to that rule, and he promised they aren't going too far.

Speaker 13 (22:34):
This wasn't about taking a pendulum and swinging it as
far as you can up against another edge. It's about
getting it right and I think that our farmers or
ranchers or landowners and the states absolutely deserve it.

Speaker 12 (22:48):
Governor Patrick Morris who joined Zelden in DC Monday for
that announcement. Zelden was in West Virginia last week with
US Senator Shelley Moore.

Speaker 4 (22:56):
Capito.

Speaker 12 (22:57):
State Division of Highways will be in Morgantown tonight to
allowusiness to get a look at proposals for the next
phase of the Green Bag Road Improvement Project. DA eight
spokes when Brent Walker says, residents can go from table
to table and have their questions answered.

Speaker 14 (23:10):
It'll be an opportunity for the public.

Speaker 15 (23:13):
To come in and learn more about this widening project.

Speaker 12 (23:18):
We're listening to Metro News for forty years, the Voice
of West Virginia.

Speaker 16 (23:23):
How can you measure the value of education based athletics. Well,
the value is in what makes it invaluable. That's because
school sports aren't just about winning. They're about learning and growing.
School sports aren't just about gaining trophies and accolades. They're
about learning life lessons, bringing the whole community together, developing

(23:44):
character and integrity, having coaches who mentor you, and teammates
who become lifelong friends. And you can't put a price
on any of that. That's what makes education based athletics invaluable.
Of course, when you participate in school sports, you want
to win and become a better athlete, but the purpose
is so much greater becoming a better person. Support your

(24:08):
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Speaker 4 (24:14):
This message presented by the WVSSAC and the West Virginia
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Speaker 12 (24:22):
Mercer County Deputy say former longtime state lawmaker Tony Whitlow
was the victim of a wrong way driver. The ninety
two year old Witlow died last Wednesday, when a car
going the wrong way on yours round four to sixty
hit his vehicle head on. One person has been charged,
but authorities haven't yet released a driver's name. Some rain
across the Mountain state today going to be pretty steady
in many areas today. It's really going to be wet

(24:43):
over the next several days. Here in West Virginia. Cool
temperatures today, struggling to get out of the forties. From
the Metro News anchor desk, I'm Jeff Jenkins.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
We'll open up the phones, open up the text lines.
Next segment, eight hundred and seven to sixty five Talk
and three oh four Talk, three oh four. Toyota's US
manufacturing presence is expanding in part of the commitment to
invest over up to ten billion dollars in the US
over the next five years. Toyota announcing nine hundred twelve
million dollars in investment two hundred and fifty two new

(25:34):
jobs across five manufacturing facilities across the country to increase
hybrid capacity and bring hybrid electric corollas to its production lineup.
The investment includes the Toyota plants in Buffalo, West Virginia,
joining US on Metro News talk Line this morning is
Dave Roser, Toyota West Virginia President. Dave, good morning, thanks
for being a part of the program. Hey, good morning,

(25:57):
Thanks for having me absolutely. So, what is Toyota investing
into the buffalo plants here in West Virginia?

Speaker 17 (26:06):
Yeah, thanks, thanks for thanks for asking. Yeah, so, you
know what we announced today. We're investing in additional four
hundred and fifty three million dollars into our plant to,
as you said, expand our hybrid production capability to really
meet growing customer demand for our hybrid products. Now, more specifically,

(26:29):
what that means is we are expanding our production capacity
of the sixth generation hybrid transaxle that was the unit
that we announced back in April of this year, which
was at that time eighty million dollar investments. We'll also
be implementing changes on both of our four cylinder engine lines,
the increased production of the hybrid compatible four cylinder engines,

(26:53):
and we'll also be adding capacity to our WE'D motor
line that is also part of the hybrid powertrain system.

Speaker 6 (27:03):
So, Dave, eighty new jobs. How will you fill those positions?
Do you have people lined up in waiting or where
will you go to find people who have been trained
that can meet the need.

Speaker 17 (27:15):
Yeah, as you said, Uh, this investment will increase our
our employment at the plant by eighty positions. You know, first,
we always send team members. There is a web page
that you can go to at toyda dot com that
lists all of our positions. But we're going to fill

(27:36):
these positions with the local members that we have in
the area. You know. The good news is we do
have a healthy population of h from the community that
are still looking for positions here at Toyota, you know,
and it's a great manufacturing you know, advanced manufacturing really
is a great career and we welcome everyone to take
a look.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
Dave Rose, you're joining us at Toyota West Virginia. President
Toyota announcing nine hundred and twelve million dollars in investments
across the country, including four hundred and fifty three million
investments in the Buffalo, West Virginia plant. Dave, what does
this do to ensure the longevity of the plant there
in Buffalo.

Speaker 17 (28:17):
Yeah, and it really does. It really is an investment
in our future, and really in three different ways. One,
if you look at the product hybrid, demand continues to
grow and it just shows that further trend towards electrification
of power train West Virginia. The plant in West Virginia,
we are still the only Toyota facility in North America

(28:38):
to produce hybrid transactions, and once this change is complete,
one hundred percent of the product that we produce here
will be hybrid compatible. Second, is that really updates our process.
So this gives us an opportunity to invest in machine
refurbishments so we can extend the life of our equipment.
But we're also able to invest in some new equipment
and bring in the latest technology in advancement facturing. But

(29:01):
then also, as you mentioned in the previous question, really
it's an investment in our people. Again, we're expanding our
workforce by eighty members, and more importantly, it reflects our
value of providing long time, long term job security for
our folks.

Speaker 6 (29:15):
So Dave, first off, as a guy who drives a
Toyota minivan like fifty percent of the time, love you guys.
You've made my life a lot easier. Number one. Number two,
give us a little history, because you know it's it's
coming to the point where you know, Toyota's always kind
of been there.

Speaker 4 (29:32):
You know you're used to seeing it when you drive by.

Speaker 6 (29:34):
Give us, give us a bit of the history of
the plants, when it got started, what brought you all
to West Virginia, how you've grown over time. Just tell
your story a bit.

Speaker 17 (29:44):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 18 (29:44):
Thanks.

Speaker 17 (29:46):
You know, our plant here in Buffalo, West Virginia, which
is in Putnam County, we've been here almost thirty years now,
you know. And we did start as an engine facility,
and then we shortly after that is when we added
the drive train capability to produce transaxles, you know. And
as you said, with this investment now we represent over

(30:08):
a three billion dollar investment in the state of West Virginia,
you know. And really what brought us to the state,
and quite honestly, I think it's part of what makes
our plant special is the team members. We have a
great team here. They are extremely hard working, very capable,
and they really they excel within that Toyota production system

(30:29):
and it's really made us a benchmark plans across the region.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
Dave Rose, you're joining us President of Toyota at West
Virginia announcing additional investment into the Buffalo, West Virginia plant
form of fifty three million dollars eighty jobs. Are are
hybrids winning out in the race for the future, David?
Or they kind of the go between from the traditional
internal combustion engines to eventually getting to where we're all

(30:56):
driving evs.

Speaker 18 (30:59):
Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 17 (31:00):
I don't know if I would say that it's winning.
But Toilet has long had a philosophy of providing a
multi pathway approach to meeting the needs of our customers.
So there is a growing trend towards electrification, but not
everyone can, but everyone's driving conditions are unique. So we

(31:21):
feel at having a multi pathway approach, which means having
a full complement of powertrain options meaning traditional uh you know,
ice vehicles or gas engines, to hybrid, plug in hybrid,
battery electric and even fuel cell vehicles. We believe that
that gives the customer an option that best meets their

(31:42):
driving their driving needs, and we do believe that it's
for many customers it is a first step towards electrification.
They start to get a feel for how the vehicle
drives and the performance of it, and then you know,
maybe if it fits their needs that sell continue to
transition towards elextication, but maybe not and that's okay.

Speaker 6 (32:04):
Is that part of the Toyota culture, Because as I
look at your competitors like Forward, for instance, they went
really heavy into the F one P fifty lightning and
then we read in the Journal and other outlets that
they're pulling that back. Compared to when I look at
Toyota over history, over their history, it seems like it's
a much more deliberate customer voice approach in the product

(32:28):
you're pointing out, And I'm thinking that has to come
from the top, and that's part.

Speaker 4 (32:31):
Of your culture.

Speaker 17 (32:34):
Yeah, your observation is spot on. We do fundamentally believe
in a customer driven market, and when you start artificially
trying to change that customer demand, then you introduce a
lot of a lot of waste and a lot of
other things into the market that really you know, you're

(32:56):
having a force into the market. So you are exactly correct.
Believe heavily in a customer driven market, and you know
we're focused on the customer. We want to deliver value
for the customer for their dollars.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
Dave Roser he is president of Toyota West Virginia and
justin Dave, tell your story. We got about a minute
and a half here for those folks who you know,
maybe considering to applying or maybe just starting out there
at the plant. Uh, there's room to move up in
the Buffalo plant, is there not?

Speaker 17 (33:29):
Yeah, you know it's interesting. Just this morning, I had
a conversation with one of our production team members and
she was talking about her career path and her goals
and what she's really you know, what she hopes to
accomplish in her career. The manufacturing is a great I've
been in manufacturing my whole career. I love it. I
think there are great opportunities within manufacturing. I started as

(33:54):
a frontline supervisor and have been able to progress through
the company to this position. And I'm not the only one,
and there are plenty of other similar examples of where
team you start on the production floor but are able
to grow their careers and have great careers at Tolyida
within manufacturing. And yeah, we encourage everyone, you know, please
take a look and even you know, we've done a

(34:16):
lot of work with our fourteen program, which is a
high school internship program that allows students to come straight
out of high school and start their careers in manufacturing
at a very early age. And I just I think
they've got wonderful careers that lie ahead of them.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
Dave Rosier, President of Toyota West Virginia. Toyota announcing four
hundred and fifty three million dollars in investments into the
Buffalo Plant, eighty new jobs. Dave, we appreciate it, congratulations
and look forward to seeing the expansion.

Speaker 17 (34:47):
Yeah, thank you, appreciate you having me on the show,
and you know, talk about all the good things that
our team members do here in Buffalo, West Virginia.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
Absolutely. David Rosier, President of Toyota West Virginia. Take a break.
Thank you back, we'll get to your text. Three or
four talk three O four eight hundred and seven sixty
five eight two five five. This is talk line from
the Encobe Insurance Studios.

Speaker 15 (35:07):
Governor Patrick Morrissey a set of very bold goal fifty
gigawatts a 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 baseload power. Our families and businesses will be able

(35:29):
to count on West Virginia Coal Association President Chris Hamilton
stated Governor Morrissey's plan to grow West Virginia's energy generation
capacity to fifty gigawatts by twenty fifteen is a dynamic
approach to economic development which will supercharge our state's coal
industry and broader economy. With Governor Morrissey's leadership and the

(35:50):
action of the Legislature, West Virginia is once again America's
energy leader. Cole is powering progress. Cole is powering West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 15 (36:00):
Brought to you by the West Virginia Coal Association.

Speaker 3 (36:19):
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circling you with coverage to protect what you care about most.
Visit incova dot com to learn more.

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Mega Millions is fifty million dollars. To go ahead, play
today here be four Talk three or four Textra says
thirty seven summers ago. I used my grand parents encyclopedias
to memorize the presidents. Their encyclopedias only went up to
LBJ A few weeks later. I added Nixon through Reagan,
says the Texter. That's the problem. That's the problem with

(37:11):
the old encyclopedias. Good information to.

Speaker 6 (37:14):
A point instrumadow is that research paper. I was looking
at your citations. That encyclopedia is a little dated. You
could have went to the library and got one that
was a little more updated.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
Uh three or four Talk three or four. I like
this one. Living in the eastern Panhandle. The speaker you
had on stated that we are cash cow and need
to be taken care of. Is one of the smartest
people you've had on. Don't get out of projections for
the next five to eight years is twenty two hundred

(37:44):
more students. Please have more guests on that see things openly,
and we know we need money sent back to the
Panhandle to keep up.

Speaker 6 (37:51):
We might we might have him on again teaching. Yeah, maybe,
I mean's okay, let's just be honest about it. Let's
go there. Where does capital go? It goes to where
it gets it best return. That's how the private sector works.
We need to think more like that in the state
of West Virginia because we have very finite resources, ain't
hart I just had to pay a dollar to my

(38:13):
English teacher again. I'm still stuck on that. Every time
put a.

Speaker 4 (38:16):
Dollar in the jar.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Think we can get that guest again.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
By the way, I don't know. He's pretty popular.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
Well, let's not push it. Three or four four, let
me see a lost track. You guys realized the no
tax on overtime and tips is a rebate and correct.
Donald Trump's government is still taking tax out on ot
Ask me how I know, says the Texter guys. Will

(38:43):
Department of Education member, our school board member, Debor Sullivan
be on your show to talk about the pluses and
minus of Hope Scholarship. We did reach out and she
politely declined to come on again. Read through it. It's
a good read. I think she made some very valid
points or some points in there. I disagreed with her
it came to the Hope Scholarship. But we do need
to be having these conversations because I agree with Debrah

(39:04):
Sullivan and I agree with Paul hardesty on this point, TJ.
The playing field is not level, and that's because West
Virginia has done a great job to provide school choice,
school choice options and open that door, but we've done
nothing to keep public schools on level playing field with them.
It's time to revisit that code that governs our public
school system included that the way formula.

Speaker 6 (39:26):
Now that visual that Paul had holding up the book,
the blue Book, the Bible that he has to adhere
to versus what other schools have to I mean, it's
like a piece of paper that was powerful.

Speaker 4 (39:41):
And he's not wrong. You have to be equitable, and
that is inequitable.

Speaker 1 (39:47):
And to be clear, I'm not talking about placing more
regulation on hope, scholarship or school choice. I actually think
the opposite. I'm talking about, can we take the wraps
off public schools? Teachers do what they do best. We
do have some great teachers in the state. I truly
believe that to you, Jay, But man are they hamstrung.

(40:09):
But all of the requirements they have to meet, whether
federal or state or this and that, and it becomes
hard for them to do what they do best. Critical
thinking teach kids have to think critically teaching to the test.

Speaker 4 (40:25):
Okay, you do that.

Speaker 6 (40:27):
If you pass a test, what happens the rest of
your life? If you teach a child how to critically think.
That's why I've never put too much stock in standardized tests.
That's why I didn't mind in COVID when they did
away with the testing. And look, go to college. You'll
fly or die. You'll either make it or you'll flunk out.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
That's what makes it. Boy, here we go, rabbit hole.
Put a foot in the rabbit hole. Evaluating educational outcomes
to me is nearly impossible. It's so hard to quantify,
isn't Is it standardized test? Is it GPA? Do you
look at graduates five years after they've left your school
to go, oh, well, they're successful. They've they've been able
to get jobs, they've been able to build lives and

(41:07):
support themselves. Because isn't that Ultimately the goal is to
help build functioning members of society outcome based education? Yeah, well,
how do you measure that outcome? Yeah, you're a data
how do you put that data on there to where
we go? Yes, this is working?

Speaker 6 (41:24):
Well, you have to ask, and no one asks anyone
from your high school they're at Saint Mary's. Of course
you're well known, so you would be easy to track.
But anybody ever, you know, anybody ever do a survey
there of Saint Mary's graduates to say, hey, you know
we're gen dub.

Speaker 4 (41:39):
What are you doing? What's your median income? You know
what helped you?

Speaker 6 (41:44):
Answers No, because there's no one to do it, and
teachers are busy enough. But sure, you know, the market
data speaks for itself. I'm much more concerned about you
being a productive citizen, being able to pay your taxes,
be able to be gainfully employed so that I don't
have to support you on the government teat as.

Speaker 4 (41:59):
You know, do you even remember what you got on
one of those standardized tests?

Speaker 6 (42:04):
No?

Speaker 1 (42:04):
No, dude, do this my case? Those were days off anyway.
I mean, you showed up, you took the test, but
that was you know, some.

Speaker 6 (42:13):
Years ago, some years I'm just I'm just waiting on
the text line for someone to say, oh, he's anti education.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
I can tell you this though, Of the knuckleheads that
I ran around with, we didn't turn out too bad,
I will say that. But you know, there's everything from
orthopedic surgeons to lawyers to you know, blow hards on
the radio, to guys that are making great livings as mechanics,
as guys who work in the oil fields, guys who

(42:40):
work as water blasters, making great livings. They have great families,
they have nice lives. Hey, to me, that's the stand anyway.
I didn't mean to go down that rabbit. No, no,
but you're right.

Speaker 4 (42:50):
It's about finding the kids bent. We don't do that enough.

Speaker 6 (42:54):
We talk about you could be a doctor, a lawyer,
because everybody knows that, or what mom did, or a
teacher or what dad did.

Speaker 4 (43:00):
Are a teacher?

Speaker 1 (43:00):
How about this? To bring it full circle? Here Wall
Street Journal editorial yesterday to you, Jay Okay. The CEO
of Ford Motor Company, Jim Farley, told a podcast last
week that they cannot find enough skilled mechanics to run
their auto plants. Specifically, Ford cannot fill five thousand mechanic

(43:20):
jobs that pay one hundred and twenty thousand dollars a year.
That ain't bad, one hundred and twenty grand a year.
I said, We're in trouble in this country. We're not
talking about this enough. We have over a million openings
in critical jobs, emergency services, trucking, factory workers, plumbers, electricians,
and tradesmen. Ford is struggling to hire mechanics at salaries

(43:41):
that ivy leg grads would envy, says the editorial.

Speaker 6 (43:46):
I know plenty of people with master's degrees in various
fields that will never get close to making that.

Speaker 4 (43:53):
I'm not knocking education. I'm just telling you the economic fact.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
He went to high school with guys that are now
diesel mechanics, and they have very nice bass boats.

Speaker 4 (44:03):
There you go, three or.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
Four, talk three or four. That's the text line. Sorry
about the rabbit hole. We went in feet first. Back
to wrap up our number one and this is talk
line from the Encoba Insurance studios.

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Speaker 7 (44:47):
Some say he's a man of mystery. Others say he's
the holiday hit Maker. No one saw coming.

Speaker 14 (44:52):
It's showtime.

Speaker 20 (44:53):
The holiday hit maker walks the office halls with West
Virginia Lottery holiday scratch offs and an unstoppable spirit.

Speaker 4 (45:00):
What are you doing bringing the holiday hype here? Enjoy
scratch off?

Speaker 1 (45:04):
It's on me?

Speaker 2 (45:06):
Whoam ticket?

Speaker 1 (45:07):
My work here is done.

Speaker 7 (45:08):
Be the surprise hit maker. West Virginia Lottery games fun,
festive and full of flare. Please play responsibly.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
A couple of more texts before we hit the top
of the hour here. Bond County Delegate Geno Shirelli, going
to join us in studio, will dive into the audit
report with a not so glowing review of the state's
child welfare system. Texter says, thanks TJ. On homeschooling. My
wife taught in public schools and our kids thrived in

(45:52):
public schools. But parents are smarter than teachers'. Unions say,
and choice raises the bar for everyone. Every homeschool failure,
unions site there are also public school shortcomings. My dad
was a union organizer industry, not education. But he even
said the unions also need competition because competition benefits everyone.

Speaker 6 (46:14):
Yeah, I mean, I don't think you can throw the
baby out with the bathwater when it comes to that.
Are there poor outcomes in some instances?

Speaker 4 (46:22):
Yes? Are there great outcomes in others? Yes?

Speaker 1 (46:26):
I've seen it, I know it, I have it in
my family. Texter says, Hope is a mess. In addition
to training public schools, virtually no STDs for education, most
students are not well served. Much bigger issue than shifting funds.
I sent my kids to Montessori at significant expense prior
to Hope. Nothing prevented anyone from doing the same. It's
just now I pay for inadequate and inconsistent second rate

(46:48):
education for everyone else I get no choice. System is
set up to benefit Foe Christian and fly by night
online scams with no oversight. Larry may know where the
money went, but has no idea what is being taught. Uh.
Texter says, simply TJ is anti tait Okay want gay

(47:12):
County Delagate. Gino Shirelli will join us in the studio
coming up six minutes from now, maybe a special guest later.
This is talk Line on Metro News for forty years,
the voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 4 (47:29):
Metro News.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Talk Line is presented by Encova Insurance, Encircling you with
coverage to protect what you care about most. Visit encova
dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Second hour Metro neeers talk line from the Encoba Insurance
studios Dave Wilson and TJ Meadows, who is in Charleston,
Zach Carrol Check's a video producer and Ethan Collins is
handling the video side of the audio side of things
this morning, eight hundred and seven to sixty five. Talk
is the phone number. You can text the show at
three h four Talk three four. I got a special

(48:02):
guest coming up. Bottom of the hour, special surprise guest.
Will tell you about that in just a little bit.
Once again, say good morning, TJ. Meadows down in Charleston.
Internet working yet, TJ.

Speaker 6 (48:15):
I got Wi Fi off of my phone using it
as a hotspot. So that's how we're getting through. And
as as aught of that, I was able to read
the news during the break, President Trump said he will
not not support legislation to extend Expanded Affordable Care accepbsidies,
even as Senators are preparing to tea up a vote
on the issue. Trump said the only healthcare plan he

(48:37):
would support or to prove would be sending the money
directly back to the people. Instead of two insurance companies.

Speaker 4 (48:45):
So there you go.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
Well, John Thune only guaranteed a vote on the expanded
health care subsidies.

Speaker 19 (48:52):
That was it.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
That was all guaranteed, all right? You know, I was
reading another article this morning, the race, the race to
reform healthcare. Always in a race, tj As, always in
a race. We got to get it done now. The
deadline's coming up. If we don't get it now, millions
of people will die. Do we ever do anything deliberately anymore?
Take your time, try to find a good solution to

(49:13):
the problem.

Speaker 6 (49:14):
I know, because that wouldn't feed beast, that wouldn't be
politically expedient race, which is really what it's about, right,
It's about satisfying and calming people down or whatever. It's
not about whether or not the idea is good, whether
or not it'll work in the long term. And how
many times do we have to do the wrong thing?
I mean, we've messed up healthcare how many times in

(49:36):
this country? I think the cycle is about every twenty
five years.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
That's just long enough. We forget how we messed it
up the first time, and then we can mess it
up again. It's about twenty five year cycle. Probably we
need to get into Medicare for All. I was having
a debate some folks last night on that one. That'd
be a good one to talk about. What was it
you brought up the Medicare for All? Why Marjorie Taylor
Green is suddenly a genius? Yeah, you want to get
into all the fun subjects. J You know, Thanksgivings in

(50:03):
a week? All right, three or four talk, three or
four textlot.

Speaker 4 (50:08):
Give me something to talk about around the table with
your friends. Oh family, That's what I.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Want to bring up with Thanksgiving. So what do y'all
think of Marjorie Taylor Green? Talk amongst yourselves and just
sit back and see how it goes.

Speaker 4 (50:18):
Love it?

Speaker 1 (50:18):
All right? Three or four? Talk three or four is
the text line eight hundred and seven sixty five eight
two five five overt WV metroneers dot com. This morning,
we got a story. A federal audit says the State
Bureau of Social Services did not comply with intake, screening, assessment,
and investigation requirements for responding to reports of child abuse
and neglect. The Office of Inspector General in the US

(50:39):
Department of Health and Human Services ordered the audit after
the Kennedy Miller case as the Boone County teenager who
was starved to death at her home in twenty twenty four.
The audit report, posted on Friday said auditors reviewed one
hundred reports of child abuse and neglect and only nine
complied with all of the requirements. Joining us from the
Encove Insurance studios here in Morgantown is Montague County Delegate

(51:00):
and member of the House Health Committee, Gino Charelli. Gino,
good morning, Good to see you.

Speaker 14 (51:05):
Good morning, Dave TJ. Thanks for having me. As always, you've.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
Had a chance to look at the audit, You've read
the reports. What's your takeaway here.

Speaker 14 (51:12):
Well, it's not good. The initial read isn't good.

Speaker 21 (51:16):
It's unfortunately highlighting on a lot of the things that
I've had the displeasure of knowing about since twenty nineteen
when I initially worked for CPS. It was my very
first job out of college, and it really brought me
face to face with just how bad a lot of
the child welfare issues are in this state. And this
was long before I really had an interest in being
involved in politics. But there are some things where the

(51:39):
knee jerk reaction I think is anger and frustration, discontent.
But I think that we have to look at this
report as a blueprint, as a roadmap for how we
move forward, how we change the system, because we owe
it to these families and more importantly, we owe it
to these kids.

Speaker 4 (51:56):
Gino.

Speaker 6 (51:56):
The characterization out of the Morrisy administration with Secretary Mayor
is that the audit is a snapshot. It doesn't reflect
the positive changes that he has put into place.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
Would you agree with that?

Speaker 14 (52:09):
You know, it's it's tough.

Speaker 21 (52:10):
I can really only base this off of what my
experience was in Child Protective Services. I worked in CPS
and Marion County in twenty nineteen, and I can tell
you what my experience was after I got out of training.
They only give you a certain number of cases for
so long. They can only do that when you're done
with training. I'd had two cases per week for a

(52:32):
certain number of weeks, and as soon as I was done,
the supervisor said, oh, thank god, you're done with your training.
Your you know your training period. Here's ten cases. Some
of them are a year old. And you can't investigate
an allegation of a bruise on a child that's that's
a year old. So I'm hoping that some changes eventually

(52:54):
start to start to happen, But it seems like we've
been spinning our wheels on this for quite a while.
And I will say it's not for a lack of trying.
I know that there are a lot of There are
a lot of legislative members. There are a lot of
people that I work with and serve with that have
devoted almost their entire time in the legislature specifically to
this issue. They work very, very hard, They're very personally
invested in it. They give their heart and soul, and

(53:15):
I think that they've done a lot of good things
so far. But I think that there are a lot
of challenges that we will continue to face.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
Montague County delling at Gino Sharelli joining us here in
the Cove Insurance Studios. Some of the audit finding seventy
four of the hundred screened in families reports from the
sample did not maintain documentation in the system. Notification letters
were not sent out. Sixteen notification letters were not sent
to individual maltreater via certified mail. Seems like a lot

(53:41):
of this is and I'm not trying to minimize it,
but it's paperwork and It boils back to do we
have enough people in the system, because what do you do, gino,
do you investigate an abuse claim? Or do you do paperwork? Hey,
what does your priority become if you're the only one
in the office, I guess, and it comes back to people.

Speaker 4 (54:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 21 (54:02):
So in the report there was a mentioning that the
staffing shortages or caseloads isn't an excuse.

Speaker 14 (54:08):
For you know, short shortcomings.

Speaker 21 (54:10):
But however, I think that if you look at it,
to me, it seems like the workers that are there
are really prioritizing I need to be out in the field.

Speaker 14 (54:18):
I need to meet with these people. I'll get to
the paperwork later.

Speaker 21 (54:21):
I think that it seems like that when it comes
to them setting their own personal schedules, their own priorities.
When it comes to these cases, getting into the field
and getting to be with these kids and these parents
face to face is taking priority. If I had to
have people pick between making sure their paperwork is is
in on time versus actually responding to something and getting
out there and getting eyes on a croud, I would

(54:41):
rather have them do that. But there are some back
end issues that need to be addressed. I also think
It's interesting that when it comes to the OIG recommendations,
three out of four of the major recommendations that I
saw revolved around supervisors and their capacities in the office.
I think that CPS is a very top down system.
I think about my time when I was a worker

(55:03):
and I was investigating the abuse cases. I was overwhelmed
with the number of cases that I had, and whenever
I would go into not my direct supervisor, but her
direct supervisor, it feels like every time I went into
the office, they were on their phone playing Candy Crush.
You know, we're out here drowning in this stuff, and
it seems like she just can't wait to retire until
so she can collect her collect her pension. We need

(55:25):
supervisors that are really, really invested into the work that
they're doing. And it's also a shame because it seems
like the pattern that happens is the very best workers
get out of the field and they focus on the
training so they can get to these new hires on
the way in and they say, this is how you
have to do it. We've seen the issues. We want
to try and set you up for success. But as
soon as these workers make it to their actual offices,
it completely goes away.

Speaker 4 (55:46):
Let's spitball a bit, Gino.

Speaker 6 (55:48):
If you think back to the last session you had
Mike Stewarts and others on the Senate side. I remember
it hearing where they were trying to bend over backwards
to get the Morrissey administration to take their help. I
remember Alex Mayer paraphrased saying, hey, I got this, we
got this. Basically, you know, thanks but no thanks in

(56:09):
a polite way. When it came to the resources that
Stuart wanted to offer, given that given this audit, should
we look at this as an opportunity. So maybe we
go back to the FEDS and we say, hey, we've
done ABCD, do another audit, look at another one hundred cases,
see if we've improved.

Speaker 4 (56:29):
Is that a good idea?

Speaker 14 (56:31):
I would say so.

Speaker 21 (56:31):
When it comes to these kinds of fields, this kind
of work, there is no such thing as not you know,
too much information, there's not enough. There's no such thing
as not too much perspective. And if we could come
back and we could revisit, do an additional independent audit
a year out from now, maybe we'll see that some
of the changes that are implemented by the current secretary.
Maybe they have taken place, maybe we are moving in

(56:53):
a good direction. But I also know that there are
a lot of things that we need to address now
that I think that could help in the future. Obviously,
there's no sing piece of legislation, there's no silver bullet
to this that's going to solve everything magically overnight. It
is a systemic problem. I think it's deeply ingrained in
the system itself. I'm not suggesting a total ground up revamp,
but data might show eventually that we need to start

(57:15):
looking a little bit deeper. You know, there are some
surface things that I think maybe the legislature could do
to help. But we want to be able to have
the conversations necessary in order to determine what we can
do and what we shouldn't do, because we don't want
to meddle if we don't have to. If this really
can be handled by the Secretary, we want to get
out of his way. But if it's something that we
need to offer our help on, we want to make
ourselves available. And I feel like every member has made

(57:36):
it a point to let them know that they.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
Are mess News did reach out to Secretary Alex Mayer
last night and he sent a very detailed statement. You
can read all of it at WV metro news dot com.
But he said since assuming office, Governor Morrissey and Dohs
leadership have launched an aggressive transformation of the child welfare system,
one that addresses the very issues highlighted in the report
and in many cases goes well beyond federal expectations. Again,

(58:00):
you can read the full statement over at WV metronews
dot com. Do we have how long do we give
the current administration to try to write the ship because
they inherited I mean, let's be honest, you know, they
inherited a mess and they have taken steps to try
to remedy the problems that exist. When do you need

(58:21):
to start seeing results?

Speaker 21 (58:23):
Well, when it comes to these matters, which are frankly,
this isn't an exaggeration. These are matters of life and
death in a lot of cases. I don't think that
there's I don't think there's any harm in following up
sooner rather than later. I think that we should be
having quarterly check ins with with agencies. What are you
doing to improve? Do you have any numbers? Do you
have any metrics to indicate that things are changing. Where
are the fallings, where is the falling through? Do we

(58:44):
need do we need a cape a case cap according
to you know the national standards that are out there.
What are other states doing to manage these caseloads. How
do we focus on retention of workers? How do we
focus on recruitment of workers? That was one of the
biggest things that was a big discussion, big talking point
when I got involved in the first place was I
was making fourteen dollars an hour and it was really

(59:05):
really disheartening to know that I was dealing with child
sexual abuse content in these cases when I could have
left that job and went down to Chick fil A
and made more money with a lot less stress. We
need high quality workers that need to be paid accordingly,
and we need supervisors that have skin in the game.

Speaker 4 (59:22):
Is privatization an answer, I don't, to.

Speaker 21 (59:26):
Be honest, I don't know that's something that I would
like to see. Maybe it is, maybe we'll have more
options available, but I can't comment on that.

Speaker 14 (59:35):
I couldn't tell you. I couldn't give you an answer.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
Is there a Is there anything you're working on? Anything
the legislature could start to put a tent in this
when we get back to Charleston in January.

Speaker 21 (59:47):
So one of the reasons why I ran in the
first place was because of some of the things that
I saw when I was working in child welfare in
my additional work as a substitute counselor, I think that
addiction in drugs are driving a ton of the problem.
If you look at the increase in the number of
cases between like twenty twelve and twenty twenty two, there's
an astronomical jump in the number of cases, and well

(01:00:09):
over ninety percent of them involve or revolve around drug
use in some kind. I don't think that you could
find a single policy area in this state. I don't
care if you're talking about foster care, childcare, economic development, labor.

Speaker 14 (01:00:20):
Force participation rates.

Speaker 21 (01:00:21):
I don't think you could talk about any of these
without understanding that it is not more than one or
two degrees of separation away from the addiction problem that
continues to ravage the state. So I think that focusing
on that that's my personal priority. There are people that
are very intimately involved with CPS.

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
There.

Speaker 21 (01:00:36):
We have members that are foster care parents and are
very involved in the system in that way, I think
that if everybody brings their own personal perspective when it
comes to this, I think that we'll be able to
do the best work. That's one of the beauties of
having a citizen driven legislature.

Speaker 6 (01:00:49):
Look, I agree with you. I think we spend a
lot of time on the symptoms, but it's getting harder
and harder I think to understand what the ailment is
versus the symptom. Is it economic development and loss of population?
Is it drug abuse? I'm not sure which is the
chick in the egg, which one we really should be
focusing on that gets us to a better state as

(01:01:13):
soon as possible.

Speaker 21 (01:01:14):
It's one of those vicious cycle things where because there
is no opportunity in a lot of places, people look
towards other methods of personal fulfillment, things like addiction. But
because we can't get anything there, they don't have anything
to look forward to. They don't have anything to look
forward to, so we can't bring anything there. We don't
have population in a lot of places, We don't have
the geography in a lot of places that can sustain

(01:01:34):
the kind of work in economic development that would potentially
really help. So it really is a difficult problem to attack. Attack,
but we need to walk, chew, gum and juggle all
at the same time. Here we have big challenges on
our plate. But I think that if we really really
focus on the issues that actually matter and we stop
getting we stop getting caught up in the social media stuff.

(01:01:55):
We stop getting caught up in the frivolous stuff, the
grand standing and the show pony stuff. I think if
we get away from those kinds of things, if we
really tackle the issues that matter, I think we would
be amazed at the kinds of things that we could accomplish.

Speaker 14 (01:02:09):
We just have to focus.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Modigue County Delling at Gino SHIRRELLI, Hey, got a couple
of months here before I let you go. I heard
you were on with Mike Nolten on Wajar great Flagship
in Morgantown. What were you doing?

Speaker 4 (01:02:19):
You were in Portugal?

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
What were you doing in Portugal?

Speaker 3 (01:02:21):
I was.

Speaker 21 (01:02:22):
I was in Lisbon with a few other members from
the House. We were at the web Summit, which is
a very large web tech AI company gathering. It happens
in Lisbon every year. There was over seventy thousand people
in attendance. But the reason why we were there is.
We were looking for startup companies that have moved past
the concept stage. They have moved past the whiteboard stage,

(01:02:43):
and they have a product that they have created, they
have a service that they're offering. We were looking for
these companies that may want to come to the United States.
We were looking at how we can help them come
find a home here in West Virginia. Whether it's through manufacturing,
whether it's through changes to rural healthcare delivery. We had
some of our members were looking into general manufacturing. We
had some members that were looking into fintech. We had
people looking into how we can attract venture capitalists. We

(01:03:05):
are looking for ways that we can bring economic drivers
here back home to West Virginia. There's a lot of
really cool stuff. We met with a lot of really
cool people. I can't go into all the details yet, unfortunately,
but we have some very very exciting things. We have
a debrief later today. We're going to work on networking
with other people, other players around the state. Because, again,
when I think about tackling the big issues TJ.

Speaker 14 (01:03:27):
You mentioned it earlier.

Speaker 21 (01:03:28):
If people don't have something to wake up in the
morning for, if they don't have a reason to get
up out of bed, get in their car and go
to work. Of course they're going to look into other
methods of personal fulfillment, and of course I think that
the families are.

Speaker 14 (01:03:39):
Going to struggle.

Speaker 21 (01:03:39):
So we have a lot of potentially really really cool
things and I can't wait to talk about it more.

Speaker 4 (01:03:44):
Ink a deal, brother, get it done, bring it home.

Speaker 14 (01:03:47):
That's the plan.

Speaker 21 (01:03:48):
We had a very very focused team. I mean everywhere
you turned around and looked, you met somebody with some
really really cool idea, really cool pieces of technology. We
found a young lady from Taiwan at one point and
when we told her that we were from West Virginia,
she says, oh my gosh, I went to Marshall. So
that really really reinforced how small the world is. And

(01:04:08):
we were very very well received. I say, because West
Virginia there were people that knew us from video games.
From Fallout seventy six. People would sing us country Roads
as soon as we know about it. So people on
the global stage know about West Virginia. We were just
there to help them figure out how they can get here.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
Have you been watching either to the NFL Games in
Europe the last couple of weeks they're singing country every
single game, Madrid, Germany, England, Ireland, doesn't matter. They're singing
country roads.

Speaker 21 (01:04:36):
So we were there to help them find those country
roads home, how they can set up shop here in
West Virginia.

Speaker 6 (01:04:42):
It is amazing though, the last time we were abroad,
it was a Thursday night. We were out to dinner.
We were in Croatia and the band outdoors. They had
no clue anyone from West Virginia was there country Roads.

Speaker 21 (01:04:52):
One of us was wearing a flying WV at one point,
and someone from America recognized us. We really are a
cultural phenomenon that spans borders, continents, empires. It was really
really an honor to represent West Virginia on the global
stage like that. And I can't I can't wait to
get into more some of this work.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
Monigue County Delegate Geno Sharelli. The results of the audits
and the response with Alex Mayor is at WV Metro
news dot com. I'm told he'll also join David Amanda
later this afternoon at one o six on Metro News
Midday on many of these same Metro News radio stations.
Thanks Gui, appreciate you stop, Bye buddy. Thanks guys take
a break back in the moment. This is talk line
from the Cove Insurance Studios.

Speaker 7 (01:05:32):
Some say he's a man of mystery. Others say he's
the holiday hit maker. No one saw coming.

Speaker 14 (01:05:37):
It's showtime.

Speaker 20 (01:05:38):
The holiday hit Maker walks the office halls with West
Virginia Lottery holiday scratch offs and an unstoppable spirit.

Speaker 2 (01:05:45):
What are you doing.

Speaker 4 (01:05:46):
Bringing the holiday hi here? Enjoy scratch off?

Speaker 14 (01:05:49):
It's on me?

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
Whoa ticket?

Speaker 1 (01:05:52):
My work here is done?

Speaker 7 (01:05:53):
Be the surprise hit maker. West Virginia Lottery games fun,
festive and full of flare. Please play responsibly.

Speaker 15 (01:06:01):
Governor Patrick Morrissey a set of very bold goal fifty
gigawatts a 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 baseload power. Our families and businesses will be able

(01:06:23):
to count on. West Virginia Coal Association President Chris Hamilton
stated Governor Morrissey's plan to grow West Virginia's energy generation
capacity to fifty gigawatts by twenty fifteen is a dynamic
approach to economic development, which will supercharge our state's coal
industry and broader economy. With Governor Morrissey's leadership and the

(01:06:43):
action of the legislature, West Virginia is once again America's
energy leader.

Speaker 4 (01:06:49):
Coal is Powering Progress.

Speaker 15 (01:06:51):
Cole is Powering West Virginia, brought to you by the
West Virginia Coal Association.

Speaker 1 (01:07:16):
When it comes to cybersecurity, citty net has you covered.
Their expert team monitors, detects, and protects your network twenty
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cyber suite solutions, citting Net Connects, protects, and perfects three
h four Talk three fours. The text line let's get

(01:07:37):
in a couple of texts tell you about a special
guest coming up at the bottom of the hour. I
know it's not Steam release, but I'm tired of being
the cause of everything that is bothering. Michelle Obama says,
the Texter save it for Friday calls back quite the
burden to bear there. Uh, you make light of standardized testing,

(01:07:59):
and I agree with you. All students learn differently, and
when I taught critical thinking and things relevant to my
students learning disabled middle school, my principal did not like
it because I was not teaching to the test. In reality,
most of my students felt like you, Now your next
show will be about teacher pay increase for those that
prove results on the test. I love my job, but

(01:08:21):
I retired because I was constantly being called in for
not teaching things my students would never need, says the
Texter again, what this will be the third rabbit hole
We've gone down here? And this goes back to what
I said in the first hour about education. Boy, there's
only twenty seconds. Education being hard to quantify the results.

(01:08:41):
We want to reward good teachers, get rid of the
bad ones, right fair? How do again, this goes back,
how do we quantify that? How do we evaluate that?
Because it could be different from every other for every student.
Just a mini rabbit hole because we got to hit
the news break. Special guests coming up next, David TJ
from the Cove Insurance Studios. This is talk Line on

(01:09:02):
Metro News for forty years, the voice of West Virginia.
It's eleven thirty. Let's check in with the Metro News
radio network. Find out what's happening all across the great
state of West Virginia.

Speaker 8 (01:09:18):
West Virginia Metro newsheim Chris Lawrence and Logan County a
longtime elementary school, it could be done for good. The
Board of Education meets tonight at Chief Logan State Park
to hear public comment on a school closing plan for
Verdonville Elementary. They would permanently send the students there to
Omar Elementary. That's how things are right now. After a
mudslide behind the Verdonville school occurred earlier this year, State

(01:09:40):
Superintendent of School's Michelle Blatt says it's been determined it's
just not worth it to fix the hillside.

Speaker 18 (01:09:45):
Superintendent Huffman at that time worked with the department made
the decision that before we invested six hundred thousand dollars
into this school, that we would need to do an
analysis of the building as a whole to determine if
there were things over the next couple of years that
we're going to have to be done to that school
to decide if it was worth the investment on that hillside.

Speaker 8 (01:10:07):
And she says it was not. The school has been
in the community for nearly seventy years. She hopes the
public will get a better understanding of the proposal tonight.
Big announcement from Toyota today, The Putnam County plant will
add eighty new jobs part of a nine hundred and
twelve million dollar investment in its US operations. The company
says four hundred and fifty three million of that investment
will be into the Buffalo factory. In a press release,

(01:10:28):
the company said it will increase the assembly of four
cylinder hybrid compatible engines, six generation hybrid transaxles, and rear
motor staters. The expansion is due to be completed and
ready for production in twenty twenty seven. Toyota says it
has a response to increased demand for hybrid vehicles. You're
listening to Metro News for forty years. The Boys of
West Virginia.

Speaker 22 (01:10:48):
Well High School football Playoffs are here. Four classes, sixty
four teams. Four champions will be crowned. Download the Metro
News Television app to watch all the postseason's most exciting
matchup and some of the state's top players.

Speaker 4 (01:11:01):
Each week.

Speaker 22 (01:11:02):
The West Virginia High School football Playoffs are brought to
you by the Thrasher Group, Marshall University, and the Mountaineer
Challenge Academy.

Speaker 4 (01:11:08):
Stream the action live on Metro News Television.

Speaker 22 (01:11:11):
Available on mobile, Roku, fire TV, smart TVs and online
at WV Metro newstv dot com.

Speaker 15 (01:11:18):
Attention high school football fans. If you're wondering where your
team ranks each week, check out the Tutors Biscuit World
Power Rankings at WV metronews dot com. Each Tuesday morning,
metro Neews will update the power rankings for all four classes,
and to find out where your favorite team ranks, simply
go to WV metronews dot com, click on the high
School Sports tab, and then the high School Power Rankings.

(01:11:39):
Twenty twenty five Metro News Power Rankings are presented by
Tudors Biscuit World. Start your day the home made way.
Visit them at Tudors Biscuit World dot com.

Speaker 8 (01:11:49):
Blimville State today announcing it will not renew the contract
of football coach Mike Keller. The Pioneers finished six and
five this season, tied for third place in the Mountain East.
It's Keller's seventh season. He finishes his tenure at Glenville
with a record of thirty six and thirty two. Nobody
hit the powerball jackpipe Monday night, but somebody in West
Virginia did match five numbers to win a million dollars.

(01:12:10):
The numbers were seven thirty three, fifty fifty seven sixty
six and the power ball was twenty three. From the
Metro News anchored desk, I'm Chris Lawrence.

Speaker 1 (01:12:37):
Get to your text coming up three or four Talk
three oh four. The phone number eight hundred seven sixty
five Talk eight hundred seven sixty five eight two five
to five. That's the phone number, that's the text line.
Those are the two ways you can weigh in on
any number of topics. We'll do some open lines next segment.
This morning, at Mullins Elementary School, they were having an assembly.

(01:12:59):
State School prin Tinda Michelle Blatt was there to recognize
the twenty twenty five Exemplary School Award, so the assembly
was already on q Third and fourth grade math teacher
Brooke Bailey thought it was another assembly. You know, you've
got your responsibilities and your duties, but she was surprised
when she was announced as the twenty twenty five Milkin

(01:13:21):
Educator of the Year. She won the Milkin Educator Award
and was presented with twenty five thousand dollars. Joining us
on Metro News talk Line this morning, the Milkin Award winner,
third and fourth grade math teacher, Mullins Elementary School in Wyoming,
Kenty Brook Bailey, Congratulations.

Speaker 23 (01:13:37):
Good morning, thank you, good morning.

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
Appreciate you coming on. So, okay, let's set the scene.
It's another school assembly. You've got your responsibility. He's got
to get the kids in, got to make sure they're
paying attention. So what's gone through your mind? When? When
did you know something wasn't right?

Speaker 23 (01:13:56):
Well, like you said, I just thought it was a
continuation of our exemplary practice school assembly that we had,
or our award that we received last year. I kind
of knew something was a little different when I walked
in the gym and saw all of the important people here.
I honestly did obviously didn't know it was anything about me,

(01:14:19):
But once they started talking and I knew that someone
at our school was receiving an award, I knew it
was something different. Totally shocked that they announced my name.
I honestly do not feel I'm deserving of it, obviously,
but so surprised and so honored and just thankful that

(01:14:39):
I received this award.

Speaker 1 (01:14:42):
About you.

Speaker 6 (01:14:43):
You're deserving of it. Let me take that off the
table right now. You are totally deserving.

Speaker 23 (01:14:47):
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:14:48):
What do you want to do with the twenty five
thousand dollars?

Speaker 23 (01:14:52):
Oh my gosh, I don't even know. I'm still complete shocked.
Just I have no idea. Honestly, I've known it's Christmas season.
I have three kids, so I'm sure that will be
a big help to me for that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:04):
So we're talking to Brooke Bailey. She is the winner
of the Milk and Educator Award. She was presented with
that this morning, and if you're watching on the Metro
News TV app, we've got video of the presentation. You
look like you're in disbelief, Brooke, you.

Speaker 23 (01:15:17):
Can't believe it, complete disbelief.

Speaker 5 (01:15:20):
There.

Speaker 23 (01:15:21):
Every teacher in this building is deserving of that award.
So I will always say that I feel undeserving. Everyone
here works so hard, we work such as a team.
Our principal, my sister and mis Shoemate just runs a
great a great school here, and anybody at this school
could receive that award. I'm just very thankful and honored

(01:15:45):
that I was chosen. God's truly gave me a gift
of teaching, and I so much enjoy it and it
is I put in a lot of work and a
lot of time. And I love these kids, so it
does feel great to be honored and receive it.

Speaker 6 (01:15:59):
How do you make math interesting for your students, because
that's tough and it is I'm wondering how you do that,
And obviously you've done it well or we wouldn't be
talking to you, So tell us your secret.

Speaker 23 (01:16:14):
I just try to make it relatable and fun. We know,
you know, our kids these days are not going to
set it a seat, you know, in in rows of
deaths like you know we used to do when we
were younger in school. We are we are upmoving all
the time. We are hands on, we are writing on
our tables, we are writing on our walls and our windows.
We're collaborating together just to try to find things that

(01:16:37):
make it relatable to them and interesting to them to
where they are excited about it. We, like I said,
just something you know, away from the traditional rows and
of death. We we have the whiteboard tables, we have
you know, we utilize building, taking classrooms with Peter lil

(01:16:57):
ad A a lot in our in our schools, in
the school, in our classrooms, just making it something fun
for them to constantly be engaged and that's not an
easy task. Keep an engagement for ninety minutes with you know,
nine and ten year olds is not for the week sometimes.
And I don't do it flawlessly for sure, but I
do put a lot of time and effort into making

(01:17:19):
sure that they are consistently engaged in enjoying the math,
and I think the learning comes secondary to that once
they enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (01:17:28):
Talking to Brooke Bailey, she was awarded with the Milk
and Educator Award this morning, math teacher at Mullins Elementary
School in Wyoming County. That's one of thirty that are
going to be awarded nationwide in twenty five and twenty six.
Brook why teach?

Speaker 4 (01:17:47):
That?

Speaker 23 (01:17:47):
Honestly is the only thing that I have ever considered doing.
Like I said, God truly gave me a gift of teaching.
It's something that I just enjoy. I'm with kids at school,
I teach children's the ministries at my church, I'm with
kids there, I coach, I am the president of our
little league in our county or in our city. I'm

(01:18:07):
just always with kids. It's just something that I enjoy,
something that I love doing daily. And that's that's just
what I've always wanted to be nothing. I have never
considered anything different.

Speaker 6 (01:18:17):
When I look at your resume, I think it was
three bachelor's degrees that you have in various areas of teaching.
You could go anywhere. You could go south, you could
go west. Why have you stayed in West Virginia.

Speaker 23 (01:18:34):
I honestly love our little small town in All's West Virginia.
It really is like no other I haven't ever really
branched out lived anywhere else. Even when I went to college,
I lived at home and drove to Concord University. It's
just something I just I just love this place. I
love the community feel. I have three personal kids of

(01:18:56):
my own. My husband and I are always involved in
all of the sportings, the sporting events that my kids
have and that we have in the county and in
our community. And I just love this small town. I
love the small feel. My kids give me the title
of school mom. I'm just with them, you know, all
the time. Like I said at the sports it's just
something that that that I love and then I want

(01:19:18):
to keep around. H I love teaching, I love being
The small community makes the pitch.

Speaker 1 (01:19:23):
We were talking about this earlier in the show trying
to find. We need more teachers, we need more staff.
If if there are, you know, students out there who
are considering education as a career, make the pitch why
it's fulfilling, Why it's something that you have such a
passion for.

Speaker 23 (01:19:41):
I'm not gonna lie. It's hard. I mean, it's you know,
it's the emotional told and mental told that it does
take on you. But gosh, there's no there's nothing like it.
There's no reward like it when you see your kids succeed,
not just on an assignment, but in life. I taught
high school for ten years before I can to elementary
school and just still seeing those kids and now telling

(01:20:05):
my age a little bit, and I'm not real, real old.
I started teaching when high school when I was twenty one,
so some of those seniors were just a couple of
years younger than me, and I have some of their
kids in class now, and just seeing the success that
they have, I just love to see them successful. There's
nothing like that reward. It is, like I said, it
is tough, but just seeing them being successful in their life,

(01:20:27):
in school, in sports, and just having that relationship with them,
I just love.

Speaker 6 (01:20:32):
You were talking about your involvement in your church. You
were talking about your faith. How does that shape how
you're a teacher? Does it make you a better teacher?

Speaker 23 (01:20:43):
Absolutely? I pray for these kids all the time. It's
something that's important to me. Like I said, I do
the I do a lot of the children's ministries at church.
Just showing them, you know, trying to be in a
good example to them, treating them with kindness, praying for
them is so important to me. And just bringing that

(01:21:03):
into my classroom is super important. And I hope that
they know how much I love them and that I
obviously fail daily, but just shoving them God's love and
how much I love them when I'm teaching them and
when I'm not teaching them, just when I'm around them
in school and in the community. I hope they see that.

Speaker 1 (01:21:24):
Brook Bailey, math teacher at Mullins Elementary School in Wyoming County,
surprised with the Milk and Educator Award this morning. Hey Brook, congratulations,
keep up the good work and thanks for sharing a
few minutes with us this morning.

Speaker 23 (01:21:39):
Thank you so much. I greatly appreciate you having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
Absolutely, Brooke Bailey winner of the Milk and Educator Award
twenty five thousand dollars Award. There see TJ. We talked
a lot about education this morning. There are still a
lot of things going right in public schools, and that
was a great example of the things that are going
well are going right in our public schools. I turned
it down. Hang hurt.

Speaker 6 (01:22:02):
Sorry, sorry, it turns you your You're fine. In the
back of my mind as she was speaking, I couldn't
help but think, you know what, people like that. That's
why we're going to be okay. Yeah, people like that.
That's why we're going to be okay.

Speaker 1 (01:22:18):
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Speaker 1 (01:23:53):
Three or four talk three ah four is the text
line eight hundred and seven sixty five eight two five five.
That is the phone number. Let's see where do we
leave off on the text line three or four talk
three oh four. Hey, guys, as a young lad had
the Funk and Wagnall's encyclopedia set everything you needed to know,

(01:24:16):
but we're afraid to ask, says the texter.

Speaker 4 (01:24:24):
Don't you love it when they take you right to
the cliff and then they leave it up to you.

Speaker 1 (01:24:27):
Yep, yes I do. Fun let me see, our treasurer
did not mention any of the numerous deficits that Sullivan
named and explained in detail in her op ed. My opinion,
mister Pack did the same thing that Speaker Mike Johnson

(01:24:48):
just did. The Epstein file release not address the real problems,
says the Texter, Oh, were you getting ready to say something?

Speaker 6 (01:24:56):
I was just gonna say. I don't think I asked him.
Did you ask to comment on that? I didn't ask
him to.

Speaker 4 (01:25:01):
Comment on that.

Speaker 1 (01:25:02):
No, But well, we had several things there we wanted
to talk about, and we could do a deep dive
on Hope and I there may be something that comes up.
I don't know, And look, I'm not saying I have
any inside information. I don't on this. I could see
a bill something to add some sort of guardrails to
Hope scholarship. Whether that gets through or not, probably not,
but I could see that coming up during the January

(01:25:23):
legislave session. At some point. You may need it, TJ.
Because look, the state is not made of infinite money.
You're going to have this liability here. You've got these
liabilities over there, do you need to eventually add some
sort of guard rails. Possibly it's a conversation. Look, most
conversations are at least worth having on whether or not
you needed So I'm just saying.

Speaker 6 (01:25:44):
Yeah, I mean, there's nothing wrong with a little competitive
prioritizing of where the funds should go. It goes right
back to the conversation we were talking about about where
to put our infrastructure money. Where do you know, do
you put it into counties that are growing that can
you know, bring you tenfold ex return? Or did you
put it elsewhere? I mean, it's just the hard reality.
I will say this is some of these comments, and
he addressed it about oh, he's the treasurer, he shouldn't be,

(01:26:06):
you know, setting priorities or putting these legislative priorities out
or he's just getting ready to run for governor.

Speaker 4 (01:26:11):
That one is getting thrown around.

Speaker 5 (01:26:13):
Two.

Speaker 6 (01:26:14):
Look, the guy's also a member of the Board of
Public Works. I have no problem with the treasure the
ag Secretary of State. Go work the legislature. If you've
got something, go lobby them, get something done. Guy like that,
with his business experience, I want to know what he
has to say three or four talk three or four.

(01:26:35):
What happened to the idea that Republicans have a personal responsibility.
Nobody's going to come to your front door and give
you a job. Maybe you have to move somewhere where
there is a job.

Speaker 1 (01:26:45):
Says the Texter.

Speaker 6 (01:26:46):
It's not nineteen eighty anymore, and we're all populists now,
and I don't think for the better.

Speaker 15 (01:26:52):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:26:53):
You hit the nail on the head there. The answer
is education, and education takes money. Our natural resources, Timber
and Cole have been taken and from us with no
return to the state. Take a stand on natural gas
and keep this money in the state. I think they're
taking steps to do that. TJ. You can probably speak
to this better than I can. With the development of
natural gas fired power plants, trying to keep the gas

(01:27:15):
that's coming out of the ground, say in Doddridge County
pumping it to Harrison County and firing I'm just using
that as a hypothetical example sort of, you know, trying
to keep that in the state. That's we're taking steps
to do that. It seems.

Speaker 6 (01:27:30):
I was just having a conversation with someone in the
building this morning who brought up the fact that I'm
going to fudge the dates a little bit. Date, But
wasn't it like nineteen seventy five that Charleston, West Virginia
and Charlotte, North Carolina had the same population, or actually
Charleston was just a little bit more than Charlotte.

Speaker 4 (01:27:48):
What do we not have here? That's always been our burden.

Speaker 6 (01:27:51):
We don't have flat land that's big enough for these
manufacturing sites, for these developments. We struggle to find ten
acres of flat land where you can actually build something.

Speaker 4 (01:28:01):
So you gotta dance with hu brunya, buddy.

Speaker 6 (01:28:04):
If a power plant is there, and they're gonna build
a power plant and we can use our gas in
that power plant, yes, some of the energy, maybe all
the energy is going to go outside the state. That's
still better than what we have now, which is just
shipping the gas out of state for somebody else to
use it for power generation in their neck of the woods.

Speaker 1 (01:28:24):
Three oh four, sok, three oh four? What'd you say,
dance with the You gotta dance with who brunya. I mean,
it's just it's common sense.

Speaker 6 (01:28:33):
And look, I would love to see manufacturing facilities show
me two hundred acres of flat land where you can
get utilities, where you can.

Speaker 4 (01:28:42):
It's hard to find, my friend, it is very hard
to find in this state.

Speaker 1 (01:28:47):
It's along the rivers up and down there. I can
tell you what. Along the Ohio River you have that
mm hm, you have it in the eastern Panhanna. When
you go on the other side of the mountains, it
starts to level off when you get down into the valley.

Speaker 4 (01:29:00):
There you got that court.

Speaker 1 (01:29:01):
You're in the Shenandoah Valley, so you've got you've got
some flat land there. Otherwise, I mean, the train is
what the train is.

Speaker 6 (01:29:09):
Yeah, but it's not contiguous. I mean that's the other thing.
You go to a lot of other states, and I'm
not trying to pick on us. I'm just telling you
the reality. You could go to the Carolinas and flying
plot by plot by plot right there together. You're not
gonna find that in West Virginia for the most part.

Speaker 4 (01:29:26):
Makes it tough.

Speaker 1 (01:29:28):
You're not gonna find that anywhere in West most part,
Like I said, maybe in the Ohio River Valley. Maybe
ove in the Shenandoah Valley somewhere, uh three or four
talk three oh four. Trump wants to send money to
people for his health care policy. Trump wants to send
money to people because he is unpopular and his policies
are unpopular and they aren't working. Trump is trying to
buy a support. Boy, no politicians ever tried that before.

Speaker 6 (01:29:53):
Come on, Trump's buying a legacy and those two thousand
dollars payouts that we can't afford that we don't have
the money, where if we did, we ought to pay
down the national debt.

Speaker 4 (01:30:02):
It's a farce. It is a farce. Who for people
who are gullible enough to believe it.

Speaker 1 (01:30:08):
I wonder if Henk's not wearing that or not reading
that one. Uh, the state will do whatever T Boone
Pickens says when it comes to natural gas.

Speaker 4 (01:30:21):
I thought t boone had passed. I thought I was
a big Ta Boon fan back of the day, but
I thought it passed.

Speaker 1 (01:30:28):
I M glad you said it, because I was thinking
the exact same thing.

Speaker 4 (01:30:31):
I'm checking.

Speaker 1 (01:30:32):
Maybe I'm wrong, all right? Effort that Oh I wasn't
supposed to use as a verb. Uh see if you
can find the answer to that, we'll take a break.
We'll come back and wrap things up. This is talk
line from the ing Cove Insurance Studios.

Speaker 6 (01:30:46):
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The Mega Millions jackpot is fifty millions, so go ahead
plays today. Some breaking news this morning. This from the
Western Indian National Guard. The Western National Guard, under the
command of adjuent General Major General Jim Seward, is extending
support to President Trump's DC Safe and Beautiful Mission through
December thirty first. Governor Morrissey has authorized National Guard members

(01:32:44):
to volunteer for continued service in the nation's capital and
support of President Trump's initiative, and will re evaluate extending
the mission every quarter through the end of fiscal year
twenty twenty six. That just released this morning from the
West Virginia National Guard. Three or four talk three or four?
All right, we have confirmed in fact T. Boone Pickens

(01:33:05):
has passed.

Speaker 4 (01:33:06):
Away with twenty nineteen twenty nineteen.

Speaker 1 (01:33:10):
We should probably keep up to date on such things.

Speaker 4 (01:33:14):
Boone Pickens was fun though. I used to love to
watch his videos back in the day.

Speaker 6 (01:33:17):
You know, he'd go up to the whiteboard and start
I mean, he was the original whiteboarding kind of guy.

Speaker 1 (01:33:23):
Uh three or four talk three oh four? Hey, Dave,
can you give an effort could you effort to give
us an update on the white house ballroom. Please, I
still don't care. Uh no stimulus checks, says the Texter.
Big no, oh, let's do didn't we learn Golly, it's

(01:33:43):
only been what six four years? We haven't learned our
lesson from four years ago, five years ago.

Speaker 23 (01:33:49):
Whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:33:49):
Let's run the deficit up again and inflate to everything again.
Why the heck not? I mean, let's let's pay ten
dollars for a gallon of milk. Sure, let's do that.

Speaker 1 (01:33:57):
What's a couple billion dollars between friends? There's plenty of
flat land on mountaintop removal jobs, but there's no workforce.
It's not just a flat land TJ. It's flat land
but also accessibility to it. So yes, you could have
Let's you've got a mountaintop flattened out, But if it's
not accessible, it's hard to get to. It costs more

(01:34:17):
to get your trucks to and from it to get
your goods out.

Speaker 4 (01:34:20):
It's still not a viable option, Bingo.

Speaker 1 (01:34:24):
But maybe you could put a data center there, Bingo.

Speaker 6 (01:34:27):
You already have the electric cookup in many instances have
that interconnection possibility?

Speaker 4 (01:34:32):
You gotta dance with who brung ye? All right?

Speaker 1 (01:34:35):
Cover Relax Show Today We're a little bit all over
the place, kind of fine. I like it all right, Uh,
David Amanda coming up Metro News midday, many of these
same metro news radio stations. This is Taklana Metro News,
the Voice of West Virginia.

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