Talkline| Nov. 25, 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome inside the Tuesday edition of Metro News talk Line.
Let's Go.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Radio. Turned from the studios of w v r C
Media and the Metro News Radio and Television Network, the
Voice of West Virginia comes the most powerful show in
West Virginia. This is Metro News talk Line with Dave
Wilson and t J. Meadows.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
So it's new work control from.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Charles stand by to David t J.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
You're on.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Metro News. Talk Line is presented by Insurance, encircling you
with coverage to protect what you care about most. Visitingcovia
dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Again, a great Tuesday, Good morning to you all across
the great state of West Virginia. I'm TJ.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Meadows.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Excuse me, I hate when that happens. Dave Wilson is
on vacation today. He continues his vacation throughout the week.
Killy back coming up on Monday Big Show. Today, We're
going to talk with Brad and Macalhaney. Jim Justice back
in the news. Roughly a five million dollar settlement with
the irs. We'll get the complete story coming up from
Brad at eleven thirty three. Coming up at eleven six,

(01:40):
Joe Deacon of Deacon, and Deacon joins us. It was
a long time h insider inside the healthcare insurance industry,
knows the ins and outs. As we talk about what
the White House will do. The President has a plan,
will Republicans go with it? We talk about the possibility
of whether or not the ACA subsidies will be extended.

(02:00):
I want to get into the industry with Joe and
really understand what's driving prices, is it sustainable? What do
we need to do moving forward in this market? Is
health insurance really health insurance? I mean, is really a
pre pay plan? I mean, how does all this come together?
I want to talk with him. Coming up at eleven
oh six. We begin today, however, with the former state

(02:22):
health officer of the great state of West Virginia, now
in private practice, also I believe policy vice president correct
for Valley Health here in the state of West Virginia.
Doctor Matt Christiansen joins us.

Speaker 4 (02:36):
Doc, good morning, good morning, thanks for having me. Before
we go any further, you got a buck, I did.
I did a nice nine point. I've been stalking this
guy for a little while now.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
It was a big day.

Speaker 5 (02:45):
It's a big day.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
You've been chasing him with cameras and everything. You have
them set up or I.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
Have a handful out there. Yeah, and it's but it's
I got him with a bow, which is my first,
really my first big buck with a bow.

Speaker 5 (02:54):
So it was a monumental occasion.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
My boys.

Speaker 5 (02:56):
I've got twin six year old boys, and so they
were very excited to come out there and help me
with it.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Where'd you get him?

Speaker 4 (03:00):
Give us a DJ in Wayne County? So right out
across the Cabo County Wayne County line. I have a
piece of property out there and been working on it
for a while now and clearing some area and some
land and uh and so he kind of ran down
over the hill. I've been been out there for probably
probably six or seven days total. And it all happens
in a split second. That's that's the best part about it. Yeah,
you just you're under pressure under the gun and your

(03:21):
and your nervous as heck, and and it all happens,
you know, in the in the in the in the
blink of an eye.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well, it's a great looking deer. We put a picture
on the video stream. You can check that out at
wv metronews dot com. I mean even put it up
on my Facebook.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
If that's okay, feel free, feel free to share. I
got I got all the books of West Virginia the
Facebook page.

Speaker 5 (03:37):
So that's okay.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
So your braget's it?

Speaker 5 (03:38):
Yeah, Yeah, that's a feather in my cap for sure.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
I want to talk about an article that was in
the Wall Street Journal a while back. You're one of
the guys friends of the program here we go to
when we have healthcare issues, medical issues. Millions of kids
are on eighty HD pills. For many, it's the start
of a drug cascade. That was an article in the
Wall Street Journal about a week, week and a half back.
One of the stats really just leaps off the page.

(04:05):
About seven point one million American children ages three to
seventeen have an ADHD diagnosis. That according to an analysis
of a twenty twenty two federal data spread, about half
took ADHD medication for it that year, and the prescription
count is growing. I knew we had a problem, I

(04:25):
didn't know that it was that many kids.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
So sure, it is a lot of kids, and we
here in West Virginia have a disproportionate problem as well
to speak about. You know, our rates of ADHD and
kids are almost fifteen percent the last numbers that I
looked at, which is higher than the national average around
eight or nine percent.

Speaker 5 (04:42):
And it's really multifactorial.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
There's clearly a genetic basis for ADHD symptoms, but there's
also an important piece that we have to think about,
which is access to services, access to behavioral health, you know,
the therapy to other supportive services at school. And so
we have to think about these kids in in context
of their families, of their school systems, and and and

(05:03):
treat them, you know, as a as a as a physician,
have to treat the kid that's sitting in front of
me with the best tools that I have. And we
obviously would prefer to go to behavioral health treatments, intervention,
school based interventions, family based interventions first, but those things
aren't always available. And uh and once a family has
gotten into my office or into one of our child
psychiatrist's office or therapist's office with issues, it's oftentimes escalated

(05:25):
to disciplinary issues at school. It's escalated to behavioral issues
or pending suspensions where the school is really putting some
pressure on the family to make sure that that kid
can function well in the classroom setting.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
Sometimes there's a stigma that comes with having children on
these medications. But to your point, if you've tried other avenues,
I don't know that you have any of the choice.

Speaker 5 (05:44):
Frankly, yeah, And that's that's that's the challenging thing.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
You know.

Speaker 4 (05:47):
Again, for all of these issues, we always want to
do lifestyle and behavioral interventions first. That's that's that's almost
always first line for these types of mental health, behavioral health,
but even metabolic disorders obesity, diabetes, pretension, we always go
to the behavior health and lifestyle changes first. They're just
not always realistic in the context of the lives that
people are living today and the expectations that we have

(06:09):
for ourselves and for our kids to try to make
sure that we're controlling their symptoms keeping them functional in school.
One thing that we do know is that kids that
are untreated for ADHD have worse outcomes than kids that
are treated. And so when kids show difficulty with executive function,
ability to exhibit self control, to self regulate, it leads
to disciplinary issues both at school and at home. It

(06:30):
leads to isolation, it leads to depression long term, and
so it's not uncommon that if we don't treat kids
appropriately for ADHD and other behavior health symptoms early on,
that it can escalate to other types of disorders.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
What do you say to people who look back fondly nostalgic,
We didn't have that problem when we were growing up.
I don't know why we have it now. I mean,
it's just kids aren't disciplined enough.

Speaker 4 (06:50):
I mean I've heard that, sure, sure, yeah, And you know, again,
every kid is different, every family is different, Every family
has different expectations with regards to discipline. You know, certainly
disciplined in schools has changed. There's no debt, there's no
doubt about that. You know, I would argue for the better.
But I think that there's also a growing awareness of
the symptoms of ADHD, of an attentiveness of hyperactivity and

(07:11):
uh and but but but also things have changed with
regards to our diagnostic tools, our screening are our schools
are more likely to refer kids back to their to
their primary pediatrician or family medicine or psychiatry physician to
help them with those symptoms. So there is generally more
awareness now than there used to be. But these are
these are issues that have existed since, you know, since

(07:32):
the beginning of of of time, and you know, and
and and Adam and Eve. Really we are handling them
differently now because we know, we know more, we're screening more,
and the science is better at some level too.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
So the piece talks about I think some of the
drugs that we've all heard about, riddling adderall talks about
the fact that those drugs are mostly safe for most
young people. But the premise of the piece is that
these drugs can't can be a gateway to other psychiatric drugs.

(08:05):
Is that a problem in your mind? Is that a
danger that if you start with one you end up
on a whole host of things. Are you seeing that
in the science, in the in the clinical practice that
you have, and what are the downsides of that?

Speaker 4 (08:18):
Sure, it's a yeah, it's a good question, you know,
I don't. I don't see these drugs as gateway drugs
per se. With the premise that if you start one
of these drugs, you're more likely to start other drugs.
What I will say is that kids with ADHD who
are going to that are getting you know that that
probably also have other behavioral issues, other school issues, other
family issues that are going to a physician to get
those symptoms managed to help them be more functional. Are

(08:40):
also more likely to be screened for things like anxiety
or depression or bipolar disorder or other other other other
clinical entities, and if those things do screen positive, they'll
be they will be more likely to be treated. Versus
the kid who doesn't get screened for ADHD or who
gets suspended and who has behavioral health issues at home,
who isn't treated, is you know, is more likely to
go more down a disciplinary path where they might end up,

(09:03):
you know, potentially in the criminal justice system because they're
you know, they're lashing out, or they're or they're they're uh,
they're physically aggressive, or or have other symptoms.

Speaker 5 (09:10):
So you know, I think those things go along together.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
Kids that are that have ADHD uh yes, are more
likely to be involved in and potentially have other issues
as well that need to be addressed.

Speaker 6 (09:20):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
You know, this article does does pull out a couple
of anecdotal stories, a couple of narratives of people who
who did go down that pathway, who did feel like
they're they started with ADHD medication and then went to
other things. You know, all of the physicians that I
know that right, these medicines are very very sensitive to
those issues, and they want to make sure that they're
making that decision in conjunction with the family, to make

(09:41):
sure that this is the best decision for the kid,
and not just pushing medicine on someone just just because
it's because it's what we do. That's not that's not
anyone's goal that that I know in the medical field.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
I think the message here though, is don't be afraid
of that potential stigma. Go talk to your pediatrician. Understand
what's going on with your child. The worst thing you
can do is wait with anything. I think any diagnosis
is to try to justify it, put it off all.
They'll grow out of it all. I was like that
when their age and they'll get better.

Speaker 4 (10:11):
No go now, Yeah, absolutely, I mean I think that
there's these decisions are always made in a clinician's office,
that they're there. They're private discussions, their private decisions to
be made there in that in the office, with the
with the confidence of your healthcare provider, and so you
you have input into these decisions. You have the right
if they say, you know, I think that I think
my child should go on you know, a medicine, or

(10:32):
they meet the criteria for ADHD and because of these
behaviors and because of this rating scale that the teacher did.
You can disagree with that and say, you know, I
don't I don't really want to do that yet. Let's
try a few other things, or do you have other
options if you don't like that plan. So it should
always be a two way discussion, uh, with with your
healthcare provider to make sure that you're doing what's right
for the kid at that time of the point of care.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Interesting article again, it's titled millions of kids are on
ADHD pills for many, it's the start of a drug cascade.
You can read that in the Wall Street Journal. Doctor
Matthew Christiansen is with US former state health officer, now
at practicing physician and vice president with Valley Health. I
want to switch gears and talk about GLP ones. I
mean they're hot. Everybody talks about them. You've heard oh zempic,

(11:13):
we go V, you hear them on TV. But I'm
noticing in feeds social media, especially companies like what's the
one I saw the other day, they do all kinds
of differently. The sexual performance drugs hymns, I think is
the one they're doing ads of Hey, you know, lose
five to ten pounds, and I don't think that's what
these were necessarily designed to do. Is that becoming acceptable

(11:39):
that we're using these drugs to lose five, ten, fifteen pounds.

Speaker 5 (11:44):
So it's a really complicated issue.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
And it is that That's why I wanted to talk
to you about it. People.

Speaker 5 (11:49):
You know, we struggle on one side of the of
the of the ile.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
We struggle with an obesity metabolic disease crisis where we've
got very high rates of people being overweight and obese,
people with diabetes, hypertension. And these drugs have been proven
to improve cardiovascar outcomes and reduce risk of heart attacks
and strokes in people who meet certain criteria. They're well tested. Uh,
they do have significant side effects, and they are not
a magic bullet, such as what are the side effects?

(12:15):
So they they cause a slowing of your entire gastro
intestinal system, so they can cause severe blockages there. They
can cause severe nougur and vomiting. So you know, if
people have been hospitalized and on a regular basis, it's
not uncommon for people to go on these medicines and
have severe side effects to the point of being hospitalized
for either bowel obstructions where their bowels get completely blocked

(12:35):
up or or intractable nogeen vomiting where they have to
go in and get ivy fluids for a period of times. Really,
this is these these are not a magic bullet. There's
there's a large proportion people have to stop these medicines
because they don't tolerate them because of those side effects.
But they for those people that can tolerate them, who

(12:56):
don't have severe side effects, there are some there are
some significant benefits, and so that's why it's really important
that you have a high quality screening, a high quality
in person physical and physician visit where you can go
through your symptoms, can talk about your goals. They're not
indicated for people who are normal BMI or just slightly
above normal on on the on the body mass index scale.

(13:18):
What is normal these days, Well, it's I mean, it's
it's it's it's always again. These drugs are really indicated
for overweight and people that are overweight and obedes and
so obese patients with other comorbidities a lot of times too,
and so depending on insurance coverage, so people who are
obese with diabetes, people are obese.

Speaker 5 (13:35):
With with other metabolic disorders.

Speaker 4 (13:37):
So as we think about the pros and cons and
drug all drugs have side effects, just like we talked
about stimulants on the on the previous piece. Uh, there's
there's no medication that we write that that doesn't have
some level of side effect or adverse reaction. We always
have to as clinicians balance the pros and the cons.
We have to balance the the active physical harms and
detriment of the status quo of not treating versus what

(13:58):
are the potential side effects with with treatment. What people
will find, especially those people that are taking these drugs
outside of of standard FDA guidelines and you know from
some of these low threshold telehealth programs, is that you
know they're going to be very expensive, they're going to
take them for a short period of time. Some people
are not going to be able to tolerate them because

(14:20):
of side effects, and when they stop the medicine, they're
going to gain weight most of the weight back. And
that's a problem with all weight loss drugs really that
they're again they're not a magic bullet. They don't change
the fundamental physiology underlying why you know why someone's one
hundred and twenty pounds or two hundred and twenty pounds.
So it's it requires people to learn and understand diet

(14:40):
and exercise changes as they lose weight, and then maintain
those once they stop the medication.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Is it problematic then, because I mean, like it would
be really easy. I went to the website. I was curious.
I mean, yes, I have to have a telehealth visit,
but they send me the vile the syringe right in
the gut. It there's no real heavy consultation there, I guess, doc,
is what I'm saying. So is that going to especially

(15:08):
with all the side effects you just talked about, is
that a public health concern?

Speaker 7 (15:12):
It?

Speaker 4 (15:13):
Sure, yes, it is absolutely, I mean, and and we
we see this with with a lot of other products
as well, just some you know, some of the you know,
with with hymns or hers. There's there's there's hormone products
you can get. There are there, uh you know, might
maybe I'll subscribed to this, but there are there are
products for hair loss, there are products for you know
now for but they all tend to go in these
in these in these in these for these clinical conditions

(15:36):
that also sort of overlap with our own personal image
and vanity to some extent, and our desire to not
age and not get older and not have you know,
not and not do the things that we should be
on Facebook with them not saying anything the.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
Guy's ripped and shredded and he's got the needle going
into the side of his gut. I mean, you know
they're staying something there.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
Yeah, sure, And I mean and I and I get
all I get all the ones for the for the
hair loss uh, for the hair loss products. Well, and
so they're they're they're they're targeting me somehow. So I feel,
you know, if I'll take that, I'll take that a
little personally.

Speaker 8 (16:04):
But no.

Speaker 4 (16:05):
But but I think that, you know, they are they
are marketing to an audience of people that to some
level of insecurities and have some level of insecurities about
these issues.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
And uh.

Speaker 4 (16:15):
And it's more of a marketing ploy than it is
a medical pitch to say this is the right thing
for you long term from a medical standpoint. Again, some
of these some of these online platforms will talk about,
you know, losing weight before a wedding, or they'll talk
about losing weight, uh, you know, for for a bikini season.

Speaker 5 (16:29):
Uh uh. And and you see a lot of these
influencers taking them who are already skinny.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
Uh and they want to lose an extra three pounds
or five pounds. That's that's unhealthy, that's not sustainable long term.

Speaker 9 (16:39):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (16:39):
And that certainly is a is a public health issue
that we need to be concerned about. And the FDA
is looking at these companies. I know, you know, just
just in the lay media, I've seen that there have
been some inquiries into these companies to make sure that
they're not inappropriately marketing their products or or making claims
that have not been proven or approved by the FDA.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
Got to leave it there up against the clock. Doctor
Matthew christians and former state health officer, now practicing physician
and vice president with Valley Health, thank you so much
for your expertise. Appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (17:07):
Thank you well.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Check in at the White House after this.

Speaker 10 (17:11):
A new episode of Live Healthy West Virginia is now
posted on the podcast center of wv metronews dot com
and the Metro News TV app.

Speaker 5 (17:18):
While there's no cure for COPD, patients can still have hope.

Speaker 10 (17:22):
There are a lot of newer medicines out there to
help manage and decrease the symptom burden, as well as
to help exacerbations to avoid progression of the disease. Listen
to Live Healthy West Virginia for candid conversations with insights
for improving your health and well being. Live Healthy West
Virginia is presented by WVU Medicine.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Some say he's a.

Speaker 11 (17:43):
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Speaker 1 (17:47):
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Speaker 11 (17:48):
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Speaker 12 (17:55):
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Speaker 2 (17:57):
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Enjoy scratch?

Speaker 2 (18:00):
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Speaker 11 (18:04):
B the Surprise hit Maker. West Virginia Lottery games fun, festive,
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Speaker 14 (18:10):
You're listening to Talkline on Metro News, the voice of West.

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Virginia Wvmetronews dot com the only website you need to
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(18:35):
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And visit wv metronews dot com first thing every morning
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Speaker 15 (19:00):
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Probably.

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Speaker 16 (19:46):
It's two hours of sports conversation to wrap up your weekend.
It's the City that Sunday Night Sports lone Hey, This
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Speaker 1 (20:39):
Let's go to Washington, DC, Ryan Schmells, Fox News Radio. Ryan,
are we going to extend the ACA credits the subsidies?

Speaker 17 (20:45):
I have no idea, No, I don't you know here's
the thing. I mean, yeah, I don't know if you
saw the MSN NOW report, but apparently Republicans were livid
by the idea of what the Trump administration was proposing,
and that's one of the reasons why the trumpdministration has
delayed extending the ACA subsidies. So I have no idea
when we're expecting this plan to come out.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
It will be interesting because, I mean, at this point,
the real budget hawks Ryan that are very focused on
budget all the time. You can't do it all man,
and we have a two trillion dollar deficit year after year.
The math ain't math, and I would think those people
are going to be very concerned about this.

Speaker 17 (21:21):
To your point, exactly, yes, And this was I mean,
like I was talking to the Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris,
and he pretty much said, if if, if you know,
this comes back with anything that extends, you know, people
beyond a certain income level, there's going to be a
lot of anger amongst the Republican side. So you know,
he's got a he's got a heck of a battle
care when it comes to this healthcare plan, especially when

(21:42):
it comes to getting something actually passed to the House
of Representatives.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
Double check me on this. I was reading under the plan,
I think it would be seven hundred percent of the
federal policy level, and for a family of five that
was like two hundred and forty two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars. I mean, that's that's pretty extensive. Man. That's
going to be hard just to kind of help people
understand what we're talking about here.

Speaker 17 (22:04):
That's simply not a high enough income cap, or that's
too high of an income cap for some Republicans. That's
that's some of the issues that they're going to run into.

Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, Shijinping was on the phone with the President Trump yesterday.
They were talking Taiwan.

Speaker 17 (22:18):
What was the outcome, Yeah, I mean they won them
for about an hour. According to Carolin Levitch, she said
it was a very productive call. But you know, Taiwan
of course became a topic. And according to the Chinese
Foreign Ministry, they got their lining there that they feel
that China should be under a Chinese control or China
should be in control of Taiwan, and of course that's
just not going to fly with the United States, and

(22:39):
it's never flown with the United States.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, the Taiwanese seemed happy that they took it as
they were off the table. If you read their side
of the of the transcript.

Speaker 17 (22:47):
Yeah and so yeah, you got two different sides telling
you two different things. There.

Speaker 1 (22:53):
What else is on your radar? Did they give me
thirty seconds on that?

Speaker 17 (22:56):
I've got the Turkey part in today, and I'm thankful
to have a giant hold and have so many people
demand of my attention. It's just a great time to
be alive.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Oh dude, I'm sorry. I can hear them that voice.

Speaker 17 (23:08):
In all seriousness, though, I'm very thankful to be alive
and to be here with you. You're one of the
most my favorite people that I call into when I
do these radio hits. So always great deal.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
Mom, brother, Well, hey, buddy, I appreciate that. Well, if
we don't talk tomorrow again, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
I hope you feel better. I hope you enjoyed time
with family. And take a picture or two of the
parton Turkey and pop it up on your X. We'll
be looking for that.

Speaker 17 (23:31):
I got you, and we'll do that. I'll probably be
in the back, so I probably won't have the best
view of it, but I'll do my best.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
I'll climb over some people for you appreciate it. Buddy,
Ryan schmails Fox News Radio Live from the White House
three oh four Talk three oh four is the text line.
You can also call the show eight hundred seven six
five eight two five five. We'll get to those texts
coming up as soon as we can. Talk line on
Metro News, the Voice of West Virginia. Let's head to

(23:56):
the news desk.

Speaker 13 (24:00):
Junia Metro News. I'm Jeff Jenkins US Center. Jim Justice
and wife Kathy Justice quickly agreeing to pay five point
one million dollars to the federal government in Bach Texas
after the DOJ filed a motion against them in federal
court on Monday. You can read more at wv metronews
dot com. The Mingo County man charged in the June

(24:22):
twenty twenty three shooting death a State Police sergeant, Corey Maynard,
is scheduled to be in court today for a change
of venue hearing. That's said in the case of Timothy Kennedy.
Right now, he's scheduled to go on trial December eighth,
a Tuesday. Departure for your Thanksgiving destination becoming more and
more popular. The Triple AZ Jim Garretty says it wouldn't
be a bad idea to take a quick maintenance look
at your vehicle this time.

Speaker 9 (24:42):
They're just do they have It's a different sort of
challenge for your vehicle, So you definitely want to check
the battery. You want to make sure they're they are
in the tires. You don't want to be one of
the maybe hundreds of thousands of people. The Triple is
going to come out and rescue.

Speaker 13 (24:54):
The West Virginia Parkway is authority projecting seven hundred and
forty thousand toll booth transactions between today and Sunday, soon
to be retired. Hatfield to McCoy Trail executive director Jeff
luss as, the trail system is strong, but it has
even better days ahead.

Speaker 18 (25:07):
This is an economic development project that uses tourism associated
with ATVs to bring folks here, and we have literally
had over a hundred businesses open up around the trails.

Speaker 13 (25:19):
Lusk is stepping down after twenty years on the job.
You're listening to Metro News for forty years. The Voice
of West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
Now showing on Metro News Television, Peak Health. Your doctor's
built it, your neighbors love it, and your Friends at
Hope Gas present episode four of State of Minds. Hoppy
Kerchible visits with Academy Award nominated filmmakery Lane McMillian Sheldon.

Speaker 10 (25:39):
I just felt really a firm.

Speaker 19 (25:41):
I was like, whatever I've done up until this point,
I'm glad it's letting me hear because this is such
an incredible moment.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
State of Minds Episode four now available on Metro News TV,
presented by Hope Gas and Peak Health with support from
Career Industries, only on the Metro News Television app.

Speaker 20 (25:56):
With Steel batteries are included this holiday season, give a
gift that's ready to go, right out of the box
for everything from cleaning up the yard to cutting up firewood.

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Happy Holidays from Steel offer ved for a limited time
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Speaker 13 (26:25):
The State Public Service Commission has issued a clarification connected
to a recent order if flout about utility poles and
attachments for broadband. The PSC says it wants to be clear.
Its ruling says, if utility poor is red tagged, meaning
it's impoort condition and needs to be replaced with that's
the responsibility of the utility that owns the pole, but
it's the responsibility of those hooking broadband to those poles

(26:47):
to pay for what it costs for those attachments. From
the Metro News anchored desk, I'm Jeff Jenkins talk line

(27:12):
on Metro News. Eight hundred seven six five eight two
five five is the number. Feel free if you want
to call. Everybody texts nowadays. I like the old phone call,
so pick up the phone. If you have something to say,
we'll work it in. Or if you want a text,
that's cool too. Three oh four Talk three oh four
is the text line. We talk all the time about
the fact that people leave the state of West Virginia.
We don't always talk about it when they come back,

(27:34):
and I think we need to do a better job
of talking about it when they come back. There was
recently a piece in the West Virginia Chamber of magazine
talking about three people, professionals who decided to come back
to the state of West Virginia.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
They're from here and they decided to come back to
the state, and you know, why did they do that?
We need to understand why they did that so that
we can talk to other people about doing it. I'm
joined in the Charleston studio by Ed Ryan and good enough.
On the phone with us is Chris Michael all three
who came back to West Virginia. Ladies first, So we'll

(28:08):
start with you, Wendy. Why did you come back to
West Virginia. I think that I was provided with Hang
on one second, here go now.

Speaker 21 (28:19):
I came back for a couple of reasons. I came
back for a family.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
My dad was not well.

Speaker 21 (28:25):
He is now eighty nine, so I say he duped
to me. That was a lot of years ago. But
I had a unique opportunity. I'm an attorney by trade,
and I was in private practice. I was a divorce lawyer,
and I was on that course, you know, bill and
hours and making partner and firm kind of thing. And
I was presented with an opportunity to build a business,
to start from the ground up. And I'm also an entrepreneur,

(28:45):
which is really what I am at heart. And that
brought me back, that lure of being able to come
back and be part of a business from the ground
up and built that business, and lightning struck twice for me.
I built another business in twenty fifteen, which is a
technology company that I own now. So that brought me
back that idea of being able to start something at home.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
And you've been back for how long?

Speaker 21 (29:05):
I came back in nineteen ninety nine, twenty six years?

Speaker 1 (29:08):
So twenty six years, and I want to talk about
your story a bit. We can get to why you
came back, but why did you leave?

Speaker 22 (29:16):
I left for academic pursuits. I got really into international
trade in international affairs in my studies at Marshall. The
opportunities to continue in those studies within the state just
weren't there. So I was looking for a master's to

(29:36):
get program and then to kind of launch into a
career around international trade and tariffs and imports. So I
needed to, you know, go to a school that offered that.
So I headed down to Washington, d C. Studied down there,
and then got picked up by US Customs to kind
of start my federal career.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
And you've been back for how long? We've been back
for three years now? Okay, Yeah, So why what happened?
Three years ago that you said, all right, time to
come back. Yeah, I was.

Speaker 22 (30:05):
I was working for Amazon at the time and kind
of jumped into corporate America after my time in service.
We brought the kids back for kind of family Thanksgiving.
I think we were up at Stonewall, Jackson. It was
one of those weird kind of warm days. The lake
was all dried up, so all the kids were out
playing in the mud, and we were driving back home

(30:27):
to fly out from Charleston, and the kids were just like,
we want to we want to move home, you know,
we want to be here. We want to be with
our cousins and our grandparents, and my wife and I
just kind of looked at each other and let's go,
you know, check out some houses before we before we
leave town. And uh, you know, one thing led to
another and we came home.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Where were you at again, we were in d C.
If you were in d C and so you came
back from d C. Was it was is your wife
from here?

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (30:54):
Both born and Okay, so you guys were used to
Was it any culture shock for your kids? Actually, when
they got back.

Speaker 22 (30:58):
We tried to prepare the kids. It's my so we
could Yeah, not living in a bubble anymore. But now
it's great, you know it was. It was wonderful to
be able to, you know, bring family back in their lives.
Just the beauty of the state, you know, the warmness
of people. It's not transactional and everybody, yeah, just loves

(31:18):
loves the state, loves being here, and just to be
able to pass that on to the kids.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Let's bring Chris Weichael into the conversation. Chris, unless I
have this wrong, I believe you grew up in Winfield,
started your career here. You worked for Governor Tomlin, as
I recall, an attorney by trade. Why did you leave?

Speaker 23 (31:37):
Yeah, I mean I left a little bit because my
wife had an opportunity to uh to teach down in Texas,
and luckily enough, my company was based in the same
area where she got a job teaching. So I kind
of I came down to a little bit for her,
but also I felt like I needed to to grab
that next rung on kind of the corporate ladder, thinking

(31:57):
that that would give me fulfillment, that would be the
next day that I wanted. But you know, once I
reached out and grabbed that and accomplished that goal, that
there was just that hole there, that there was something missing,
that fulfillment wasn't there from simply achieving the title, simply
becoming quote unquote more important than your company because of
the title you have. So it didn't take us long

(32:19):
to kind of realize that we wanted to come back.
And luckily enough, I worked for a wonderful company, Expand Energy.
They gave me an opportunity to come back home, and
I mean, I've only been home four months, but it's
been some of the happiest I've been in in quite
some time, just because I mean, being home, there's nothing

(32:40):
different than There's nothing quite like being in West Virginia.
The mountain surround you, the people embrace you, and it's
just a feeling that you can't get anywhere else. And
anyone out there listening, I kind of want to throw
it out there. You talked about it to start TJ.
We talked about people leaving all the time. Don't highlight
the positives like this kind of the three amigos here

(33:00):
kind of coming back. I mean, if you get the opportunity,
if you want to come back, it's so wonderful and
you're going to be so enriched by not only the
people that you're with, but the four seasons that you're
going to get to experience, it might be a little
cold for me. I moved back to West Virginia from Houston,
so it's already a little chilly for me. The warm
weather definitely changed my blood, I'll say, but we're getting

(33:22):
used to it. But it's just been it's been so
wonderful being back. It's a feeling that you can't replicate
anywhere else, and I'm so happy that I was given
the opportunities to do it.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
You feel like you've given anything up coming back from
a big city like Houston back to smaller place in
West Virginia.

Speaker 23 (33:39):
Yeah, I mean I've given up some food options. The
text mech down here is absolutely exquisite. My wife and
I went and enjoyed some last night. We're actually back
down here visiting the in laws. But I mean, other
than that, the opportunities that you have in West Virginia.
You may not have as many different places for your
kids to play soccer, you may not have as many

(33:59):
places is to go out to eat or to do
something on a Saturday, but sometimes that's the charm of it.
I mean down here or when we were in Houston,
there was so much it was almost overwhelming, all the
things that you could do, whereas here you're going to
go to the you're gonna go to the park, the festival,
and you're going to see the people in your community.
You're going to recognize people when you go out to dinner,

(34:20):
You're going to say hello, You're going to get to
know your neighbors. And all of the things that we
left in Houston were things that I think it was
okay to leave. And all the things that we got
coming back to West Virginia or all the things that
we should have been seeking out. Being closer to family,
being closer to your community, being tied to something more
than just the individuality of yourself. It's really something that, like,

(34:42):
like I said, it can't be replicated. In West Virginia
is such a special place.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
So, Wendy, I think you've been back the longest I
heard you say ninety nine, Yep, that you came back.

Speaker 2 (34:52):
How do you.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
How do you entice other people to do what you've done,
because obviously you liked it being back, or you would
have went elsewhere. I mean, clearly you built a business.
You can do that in a lot of places. Many
people would argue it's easier to build a business in
other states because of some of the regulation and different
things that we may have in West Virginia that we're
working on. But how do you attract people? How do

(35:15):
we start to have these conversations with folks like the
three of you who are teetering about coming back and
get them because we need them. We need more people period.

Speaker 21 (35:25):
Well, I mean, I think it starts by telling your story.
You have people who've had wonderful experiences here telling their stories.
And I think that the three of us, this is
the third time we've been together, and what I'm hearing
from all three of business, we get to really be
ourselves here, like we feel like we're really ourselves and
one of these mountains. My daughter chose to come back here,
which is very interesting. We're both graduates of the Ohio

(35:47):
State University College of Law.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Oh you go the Ohio area, it's it's a big week.

Speaker 21 (35:51):
At the Ohio State University. We played that team up north.
But I think there's opportunity here to really be yourself,
to really craft your own vision. You know, I'm a lawyer,
but I'm an entrepreneur and I've been given a great
amount of support here, the people here, I will put
up against anybody. I'm my friend, one of my friends,
we just had a big surprise party for her this weekend,
and she said, I can look out in this crowd

(36:13):
and I can see my life. I can see all
the people who have been here for so many chapters
of my life. And I've said that too. You know,
every important chapter of my life has been lived in
these mountains. And why not if you're going to build
something and do something, do it in the place that
supported you, that made you, that helped build you. One
of the quotes that I had said at the when

(36:34):
we did the summit, the business summit, was I had
heard a quote that said, you came from the mountains,
you can move mountains. And I love that, And I
told you I just I love that quote, that grit,
that drive, that imagery of the mountains. And I think
we all kind of feel like probably now we're kind
of standing on top of the mountain. And whether that

(36:55):
means success, financial success, personal success, whatever that means. The
vision we have now on the life we've lived of
these mountains. In this place, it's just special and you
can put your energy anywhere? Why not put it here?
Why not put it in a place that needs you,
that supports you, that's beautiful, and live your life with people,
all these chapters of your life with some really great people.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
I'm gonna put all three of you on the spot
a little bit, and when do you I'll start with
you again. Ladies first, good or bad? Ladies first?

Speaker 21 (37:23):
Thank you?

Speaker 1 (37:25):
Give me one word that pops into your mind when
I say West Virginia, genuine ed you circle back? I'll
circle back. He'll take a pass. Chris, home is always

(37:46):
at home?

Speaker 23 (37:47):
Yes, Yes, their home.

Speaker 22 (37:49):
Yeah, I'd say strength. I think the one thing that's
been really a revelation for me is how much stronger
I've become as a person coming home, how much stronger
my families? But you know, coming home, how much healthier
you know, just life is in all aspects. I think
when you're living in a place like Houston or Columbus

(38:11):
or DC, just the pace of life can be really unhealthy.
And to be able to come back here and recoup
and reconnect with family and grow stronger, you know, and
your faith in your community, it's just it's amazing.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
Thanks to all three of you for being here. I
appreciate you coming back to West Virginia and appreciate your story,
and let's let's tell it more and inspire other people
to hopefully come back to I wish all three of
you are happy Thanksgiving.

Speaker 21 (38:37):
Thank you so much, and I think I speak for
all three of us when I say there's nowhere else
would rather be.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
We'll end it there. Jim, hang on the line. I'll
get to you coming up. Also check some text set
three oh four talk three oh four after the break,
King Tight.

Speaker 24 (38:51):
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(39:12):
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Speaker 14 (39:49):
You're listening to Talkline on Metro News, The Voice of
West Virginia.

Speaker 25 (39:57):
Listen. I'm a West Virginian through and through, grew up.
I've been Bridgeport thirty five years in the Charleston area,
rooted for the Mountaineers since well, let's not talk ages.
You won't find a bigger fan of our teams, but
they get called out when they deserve it. Metro News
Hotline the same for everything, movies, music, local happenings, my
inside knowledge and occasional rants meet Coop's sharp humor, guaranteed

(40:18):
to spark good talk radio. Think you can keep up?
We're your afternoon anecdote to the ordinary. On weekdays three
to six on Metro News, The Voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 14 (40:29):
Hi, this is Dave Wilson along with TJ Meadows.

Speaker 26 (40:31):
Join us weekdays at ten o six for Metro News
talk Line on this Metro news radio station.

Speaker 7 (40:36):
TJ.

Speaker 26 (40:36):
The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
That's right, Dave. We'll continue to examine and discuss issues
important to West Virginia, hold elected officials accountable, and make
certain you have a forum to make your voice.

Speaker 26 (40:48):
Arny new host, Same talk line. Join us weekdays at
ten oh six on this Metro News radio station and
the Metro News TV AD.

Speaker 27 (40:57):
It's the time of the year when Friday nights are special,
and that's because Friday Night's are reserved for high school football.
This is Fred Pursinger inviting you will join Dave Jeckton
and me every Friday night through November twenty eighth for
year number twenty four of Game Night. Every Friday night,
We'll bring you all the stores and stories from around
the state US. We'll take your phone calls and talk
about your favorite team. It's Game Night presented by match

(41:20):
a Mountain State Assessment of Trends and Community Health Survey.
Visit wvmatchsurvey dot org.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
Metro News Midday with thirteen News and Tonight Live anchor
Amanda Barron and Metro News is Dave Allen.

Speaker 28 (41:33):
I'll deliver live, up to the minute news, spotlighting people
and communities and covering breaking news stories as they happen.

Speaker 29 (41:40):
Join us as we interview newsmakers from around the state
and world. Have provided a platform for your voice to
be heard statewide.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
Metro News Midday presented by Soulango Law from noon to
three on this Metro News radio station. Metro News talk

(42:09):
Line is presented by Incovia Insurance and circling you with
coverage to protect what you care about most. Visitandcovia dot
com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
Talkline on Metro News. Jim in Morgantown wants to talk
about ADHD drugs. Let's go to Jim. Good morning, sir.

Speaker 6 (42:26):
Hey, yeah, Jny. I wanted to give you a story
about my daughter who for three or four years straight
in grade school was being told that she had some
attention issues and just doing our research, we found out
that if there's a mutation have you ever heard of
the mt h f R gene, I have not, So

(42:47):
if you have a and it's very common, or if
you have a gene mutation with that within that that gene,
it can keep you from being able to process bulleic
acid and metal full eight, which is the natural version
of that. And one of the things that we did
she wasn't old enough to. She wouldn't give blood, she
wouldn't do the blood work because she was scared of

(43:08):
the needle it. So we just limited all synthetic folate
out of her diet, which is anything that says enriched
or fortified, which is just about everything that you buy
and that has that synthetic version of that on there.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
So what that did.

Speaker 6 (43:22):
It got hurt to where she was able to concentrate better.
Then she got a little older, I think she was
twelve or thirteen, we'd actually had some blood work done
and she actually has that gene mutation. I mean it
can cause lack of energy, anxiety, brain fog. Forty percent
of the population has this mutation in that gene, and

(43:44):
probably most of that forty can't process full of acid,
which is that synthetic version of methofol eate. We have
her on a B a methopolate B vitamin that she
takes and it's made a big difference. And it's kind
of probably off topic. There's a lot of parents out
there that probably don't want to be that are struggling
and putting their kid on a medication. You get that.

(44:05):
It's called men say one more time, it's mt F
r and if you can get that test done to
see if there's a mutation in that gene. Just fixing
the food and the diet might be something that fixes
the attention and disorder.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
How is your daughter doing.

Speaker 6 (44:20):
Now, honorable student? She's she still has a hard time
concentrating a little bit, but most kids put them at
like the traditional education system, putting a child at a
desk for seven hours and teaching to them and expecting
them to pay attention. I'd have a hard time doing
that most people, most adults can't sit at a desk
for seven hours and be taught, So no, I can't. Yeah,

(44:45):
that's another topic. Japan does it better. Japan gets their
kids up every twenty or thirty minutes and has them
do some sort of an exercise to keep their brains functioning.
But yeah, so's she's honorable student. She's she's flourishing, and
she's she's pretty pretty smart girl.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Thank you so much for your call. I appreciate it.
I hope you and your family have a happy Thanksgiving. Sir,
take care, And that illustrates an excellent point. I'm so glad.
Jim called two things to reiterate. Number one, this stigma
and whether we want to talk about it or not.
I see it around ADHD. I see it around the treatments.

(45:26):
Don't let that stop you, because the sooner these things
are identified by a professional who understands them, the sooner
they can be corrected, and the sooner your child can
start to overcome that. The gene he talked about, I'm
not familiar with that. I'll look it up at the
forty percent. That's staggering in and of itself, and I

(45:51):
think we have gotten better with the science in terms
of being able to understand a lot of these things
that have already always been there. So don't shy away
from that. I also think the point he talked about
with the course of treatment that he's taken with his daughter.
We're all different, and that's why you need to have

(46:12):
an open and honest conversation with your physician understand if
it's one of the ADHD drugs that will work for you.
I was talking with someone this morning that told me
about a story about how their children benefited from it.
It was just beginning to be understood and the change
was like a light going on. That may not work
for everybody. Maybe it's a course of treatment like Jim

(46:32):
just talked about I don't know, but don't be afraid
to talk about it. Uh three h four three zho
four TJ. Be honest. You say Dave is hunting, but
he's really working on an in depth story about the
White House Ballroom.

Speaker 15 (46:46):
Right.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
There's anything that man hates talking about, it is the
White House Ballroom. In my opinion, all advertising for unregulated medicines, gambling, alcohol,
and nicotine products should be made illegal. Some would say
First Amendment violation, blah blah blah. To that, I say
First Amendment rights and where speech causes harm, all those

(47:10):
products are harmful. I can understand that way of thinking.
I would not agree with it necessarily, but I can
understand that way of thinking. I would say buyer beware.
I would say, be skeptical of someone who is trying
to sell you something. In the case of the golp one,

(47:34):
I was talking about that the ad that came my way.
Here's a guy that is shredded already, looks like he's
on roids, and he's got the little golp one violin.
He's taking his medicine. He's right in the side of
the stomach there, Hey, you could lose five to ten pounds.
Come on, that's not a guy that needed to lose
five or ten pounds. Number one, Number two. Golps don't

(47:55):
do that. They help you lose some weight, they don't
build muscle. So you gotta look through all of these
things a bit too. More texts coming up, three or
four talk three oh four eight hundred and seven six
five eight two five five wrap up our number one
after the break to care for you at the HOA.

Speaker 15 (48:16):
We are here.

Speaker 30 (48:19):
From all of us here at the Health Plan. We
want to make your season bright. Whether you're wrapping gifts
are planning next year's goals, we're here for you. Happy
holidays and merry Christmas. From our family to yours, we
are here.

Speaker 11 (48:41):
Some say he's a man of mystery.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
Others say he's the holiday hit maker.

Speaker 11 (48:44):
No one saw coming.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
It's showtime.

Speaker 11 (48:47):
The holiday hit Maker walks the office halls with West
Virginia Lottery holiday scratch offs and an unstoppable spirit.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
What are you doing bringing the holiday hype here? Enjoy
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Speaker 2 (49:00):
My work here is done?

Speaker 11 (49:02):
Be the surprise hit maker. West Virginia Lottery games fun,
festive and full of flare. Please play responsibly.

Speaker 14 (49:08):
You're listening to talk Line on Metro News, the voice
of West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
West Virginia Outdoors is the Mountain states only hook and
bullet radio show dedicated to the more than quarter million
hunters and anglers across the state. Award winning host Chris
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more than twenty five years.

Speaker 31 (49:30):
In a stream or a river, they really like to
have a mud bank and they like to have a
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Speaker 12 (49:39):
That's correct.

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You.

Speaker 1 (49:42):
They have to evade predators.

Speaker 13 (49:44):
Now, some prayers will chase them. They're a maker and author, obviously,
but they can they can avoid the coyotes, the hosts,
the bobcats, the owls, and the hawks. And that's really
the ones that probably take the most up.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
Whether it's hunting and fishing news or just compelling stories
about the enjoyment of the great outdoors. West Virginia Outdoors
covers it all Saturday mornings at seven oh six am
and for your daily fix, Outdoors Today brings you two
and a half minutes of news and notes from the
woods and water every weekday morning on Metro News. The
voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
I'm Kyle Wiggs, I'm Greg Hunter, and I'm Brad Howe,
and we welcome.

Speaker 31 (50:20):
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As always, will dive deep into mountaineer athletics.

Speaker 12 (50:27):
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It's the City Net state Wide Sports Line on Metro News.

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(51:07):
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(51:32):
oh four talk three oh four. Textra says I'm on
the Roman Health. It's I can never pronounce the exact
word for it. It's Cialis. The generic name for cialis
daily Gummy. Anybody takes it away from me, I will
go berserk. What an absolute game changer.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
I mean, look, yeah, I mean all these companies market
that you can't turn on social media, you can't scroll
on a website without some kind of ad for these things.
And I'm not saying telehealth is bad. I'm not saying
being able to procure these products by having a telehealth

(52:08):
visit with a nurse practitioner, a doctor whomever it might
be that can write the prescription. I'm not saying that's bad.
But the drug you're talking about, that drug was manufactured
for a very specific reason. It does what it's supposed
to do. It's not like GLP ones that were designed
for one thing had an ancillary benefit, which is people

(52:31):
who are a beast can lose a lot of weight
and give them a fresh start, versus what it's become,
which is that steroid picture guy I'm talking about with
the needle going in his side, he's already ripped, and like,
you can lose five to ten pounds with this and
firm up for bikini season. As the Good Doctor said,
that's completely different. And then when you hear those side effects,

(52:52):
and doctor Chris Christiansen talked about most people may not
be able to process these bowel obstructions, all the gastro issues.
You don't see that in the ad, do you. I haven't.
I see some guy that's ripped. It's putting the needle
in his side and he's you know, I'm thinking, oh,
I could be that way too, when nah, you really can't.

(53:14):
You got to hit the gym to do that the
old fashioned way. It's not steroids. So yeah, I'm not
saying shut it down. I'm just saying buy or beware.
It's out there. These are some of the things that
can happen if you take these drugs. Passing along the information,
I'm gonna talk healthcare, premiums, the insurance industry, what it
all means, how we price it, et cetera, et cetera
talk line on Metro News, the Voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Incova Insurance, encircling
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Visit Incova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
He's on vacation, and he returns to the show coming
up on Monday. Eight hundred and seven sixty five eight
two five five is the telephone number. Three oh four
Talk three oh four is the text line. Let's sneak
one in Texter says West Virginia is woefully lacking in
adequate medical and behavioral health support for special needs kids
in our classrooms. There needs to be more Damus Centers,

(54:20):
a successful but limited time program for students in kanauc County.
And don't say these kids can go to private or
Catholic schools. They don't want them. Our children experience this
lack of support attending Montessori, Catholic and public schools in
state from pre k through second grade. There are not
enough teachers, aids, or social support staffers to help children

(54:42):
and families. Meds are not a fix all. We'll break
some of that down coming up in just a minute.
I want to talk about a topic that everyone is
talking about, everyone has an opinion on. I'm not sure
that we all yours truly included, really understand what is

(55:03):
happening and what is driving the market. I'm talking about
healthcare costs, premiums. Yes, we know the subsidies are going away,
the ACA subsidies. That has caused prices that are quoted
in the exchange to go up. Yes, we know per
reports that President Trump is talking about extending those subsidies

(55:23):
for two years. We also know that Mike Johnson and
others have said, hang on, don't know that we have
the votes for that. Don't know that we can get
that done, mister president. It expires. I believe in about
a month those subsidies finally go away. I wanted to
go to an old friend who knows this industry and

(55:44):
can talk to us about the business metrics, the economics,
what's really driving it. Let's get away from the politics.
Let's really understand what's going on, and if we understand
what's going on, maybe we can fix it. Joe, Deacon
of Deacon and Deacon here in Charleston, joins us. Joe,
good to see again, buddy, DJ. Thank you so much.

Speaker 32 (55:58):
It's great to see you as well.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
Yeah, what what is the problem here? What what is
the problem. I'll just leave it at that and let
you go to start. Thank you well, great, great question.

Speaker 32 (56:11):
There are so many variables that play into the high
cost of health care, which which then leads to the
high cost of health insurance. You love West Virginia. This
is this is our home. This is where we're going
to live and going to raise our family where we're
not leaving. But obviously I think we all know that
the West Virginia, Uh, we have our challenges that we're

(56:33):
trying to overcome. Right from a health standpoint. Uh, you know,
we have a rural population. You know, we have a
very proud and hard working population. We you know, the
statistics do show and there, and I think they're getting
better over time. But uh, you know, we we do
have challenges in terms of utilization of health care. So

(56:53):
you know, if you look at the if you look
at the overall market, and I'm going to focus you know,
only on the A c A. The affordable care or
the marketplace arena. Today, we don't we only have two insurers, right.
The premiums have continued to go up, but that has
been masked by the enhanced subsidies that that up until

(57:17):
you know, the end of this year, and we're going
to assume that no changes are going to be made.
I do hope that that something does occur, because this
really is hitting you know, a lot of people very
very hard. But in terms of the cost going up,
you know, healthcare is is just one of those. From

(57:39):
an economic standpoint, it's unlike any other industry, it's it's
very opaque. It's very tough to put your finger on
what is really driving the overall costs. What I really
do day to day is manage self insured or self
funded plans. In managing those plans, I'm able to really

(58:04):
from an analytics standpoint, I'm able to see what's going on.
And in terms of being able to do that, I
can then you know, this is on a micro level,
right an employer group, you know, it could be this employer,
but we were with with this plan, you know, I
would be able to see, Okay, where is the plan

(58:25):
spending money? How can we potentially do better through transparency
for the people that are on that plan and also
the company that is sponsoring the plan and typically paying
the lion share. So when you talk about this, so
going back to the individual and family market ACA market,
you we really can't see that. We just have to
rely on well, you know, medical trend, medical inflation's going up.

(58:48):
But I go back to the to the first point
I made the sticker shock that that people are experiencing
is a direct result of the going back to the
I believe the twenty twenty one low COVID.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
Yeah, yeah, we had them pass. And so I don't
I don't want to overcharacterize or under characterize, but somebody,
and that somebody's the federal government, was paying the cost
to bring that down correct, and that cost structure hasn't changed,
It's only increased through medical inflation and different things. Those

(59:25):
those subsidies are going away. Are we trying to do
something here that really economically can't be done? And let
me tell you what I'm asking. So I remember weird example.
I remember a long time ago in the industry that
I came from, which was energy. You know power plants.

(59:46):
You have things happen all the time. You have a
thing called a tublak takes the power plan off. Happens
a lot. And I just asked the question, could we
not ensure against that? Would someone write a coverage policy
for that and ensure against something like that happened? And
someone looked back at me and said, oh, I had
that thought a long time ago. It happens too often.
No one wants to take that risk. No one can

(01:00:07):
mitigate that. Given where we are today in this country
with our personal healthcare, A lot of us are obese,
a lot of us are we have this challenge with that.
You know, there's a lot of ailments out there. Are
we trying to ensure something with a typical mechanism financially
that just can't do what we wanted to do?

Speaker 32 (01:00:29):
That's a great question. I mean in the typical sett
excuse me, in the current setup where we've got the
insurance companies, we have hospitals, we have big pharma, we
have you know, intermediaries or you know, middle middle people,
middle men in the system. You know, I just I

(01:00:50):
liken it to spokes on a bicycle tire. There are
a lot of them. And I know that's a really
basic response, but it's true. And I use the phrase
a lot when when I'm talking to clients or just
talking to people. There are a lot of hands in
the cookie jar. I mean, you look at the amount,
or I guess the percentage of the gross domestic product
in this country, and you look at what healthcare you know,

(01:01:13):
is relative to that. I mean it's pushing twenty percent,
maybe over twenty percent. I spend all my time trying
to help my clients. I don't know the exact figure,
but you know, and you and I were chatting briefly
before we get started here. You know, a long time ago,
health insurance was designed for those catastrophic risks. But you know,

(01:01:37):
it's almost you look at it now and it's it's
a financing mechanism. But again, there's a lot of opacity
there the average consumer. They don't have time to try
to understand why. They don't really care at the end
of the day, why the rates are going up.

Speaker 1 (01:01:54):
But is it almost like a prepaid plan, Joe. You
know certain things are going to happen, So you're putting
money into a premium and into a plan, and you
know you're gonna have to have this procedure at some point.
Odds are you're gonna need this done, that done. And
that's how it's kind of looked at.

Speaker 32 (01:02:08):
I mean, I think so. I mean that that's the
big fear. I mean, you know, and I look at
our personal expenditures throughout a given year, and you know,
thankfully we're in good health today. I mean, someday that's
going to change. I can't say, No one can say
when that's going to be for the most part, you know,

(01:02:30):
other than you know, planned procedures that that you might
know you have coming up a knee replacement or something
of that to that effect. But but again the big
fear is, well, Okay, if I go uncovered or uninsured
and then something catastrophic happens, then I lose everything, you know,
because at that point, if you know, if you're an
insurance company of one, then you have to be involved

(01:02:53):
and negotiate and and you know, a lot of people
are fearful of that. So, you know, is it a
prepaid plan in a way. In a way it is,
but it's a pre payment plan where you know, you
know what your cost is on a monthly basis, and
then you know what you're deductible and your you know
your maximum exposure is. But to a lot of people,

(01:03:14):
it's just again without those subsidies, for the citizens that
were relying on those, it's just it's creating a situation
where it's it's just you know, desperation because there are
not you know, absent an employer plan that they might
be able to take advantage of and participate in, you know,
if you're self employed or if you if your if

(01:03:38):
your job does not offer employer coverage.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
You know, the marketplace was really.

Speaker 32 (01:03:43):
That lifeline that that allowed a lot of people in
West Virginia to have reasonably priced health care.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
And that's because of the way that the subsidies.

Speaker 32 (01:03:52):
Were calculated after the changes were made, where they looked
at a percentage of someone's total household adjusted gross income.
So when you and that percentage was around eight and
a half percent, So when you looked at the you know,
i'll call it the raw premium, the unsubsidized premium, those
premium rates are astronomical. So the change to the calculation, again,

(01:04:16):
it really benefited a lot of people in West Virginia. Now,
again the sub seats are not going away, but for
all intents and purposes, they are for a lot of people,
the sub seats are going back to their original, the
original calculation, if you will, which has a cliff as
they call it. If you're a single filer, you could
make roughly fifty thousand dollars, but if you made one
penny above that, you received nothing, And then it was

(01:04:36):
a sliding scale going backwards, and then a full a
family was around I think, you know a little over
maybe one hundred one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Again,
I was very, very involved in that market.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
So I was reading this last night on the AP
and nothing is final out of the White House, but
you know how Washington is, things start to leak out.
So I read this on the AP and I forget
what other site I was on, but they confirmed the
president was floating and that's fluid was seven hundred percent
of the poverty level. Okay, well, what's that really mean?

(01:05:09):
So I looked at the numbers, and obviously the poverty
level depends on how many people you have in the household.
So I did some quick looking online. For a family
of five at seven hundred percent of the poverty level,
it's something like two hundred and forty and fifty thousand dollars,
right right, that's a heck of a good income.

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
Yes, it is.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
And we're going to specialize forgim Yeah, and we're going
to subsidize that. I just don't know that we can
do it all, because you and I are numbers guys.
When I look at this, here's what I see. I
see it two trillion dollar deficit every year. I see
social Security, Medicaid, Medicare that we have to pay for.
I see debt service that is already higher than what

(01:05:48):
we spend on national defense. I see all of these
things that we have to do, and no one wanting
to triage and pick and choose, and I'm just like,
we can't keep this up, folks. We can't keep running
a two brillion dollars a year deficity. I mean, because
people that work hard, they're going to see all of
their savings devalued, because that's the only way the government's

(01:06:09):
going to be able to pay this off is to
be able to devalue the currency in some fashion to
make it cheaper to pay off that thirty eight trillion
forty trillion wherever we finally land before we get smart.
So I just don't have the math. Maths, I guess
at that point, and then I look at the exchange
and you tell me. Against social media, everybody's talking about this.

(01:06:29):
There was one post in particular, someone was talking about
the fact their plan was going up but they were
still on a PPO. I didn't even know you could
still get a PPO. Maybe I misread that, but that's okay.

Speaker 32 (01:06:40):
I mean again, it's not your business.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
Yeah, not involved in it. Every day? The plans from.

Speaker 32 (01:06:45):
One of the two carriers have always been a PPO
preferred provider. Again, you have in network and out of
network benefits. Yeah, with that particular carrier, and almost all
providers are in network. There is a second carrier that,
to the best of my knowledge, only offers HMO coverage,
which the main difference is with HMO you must stay
in the network. If you do not, you know, you're

(01:07:07):
kind of on your own if you will. Now that plan,
uh again from a from a cost standpoint, and initially
that plan was a little less. Uh So that's just
a basic education of a PPO versus an HMO. And
that's only that only pertains to like the network of providers.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Yeah, and but but like an HSA option. I mean,
I've used one of those for a long time, just
the way I'm kind of wired. Sure, and you self
insure up to a point, up to your deductible and
then you know what your total out of pocket is.
But I hear that even HSA plans in the exchange
are skyrocketing when they used to be very affordable. I mean,

(01:07:47):
is that a fact? Is that accurate?

Speaker 32 (01:07:49):
That's extremely accurate. Prior to the passage of the Affordable
Care Act, there there was a pretty decent delta between
the costs of what I call a traditional Copey style
plan versus is a qualified high deductible health plan which
is compatible with an HSA or a health savings account.
So again, this is prior to the passage of the ACA,

(01:08:10):
we had plenty of employer group plans where there was
a significant difference in the cost, and that significant difference
allowed many of them to fund the HSAP and go
to their employees and say, hey, folks, we're dropping in
X amount of dollars on an annual basis. You too
can contribute if you want, and you're gonna be able
to uros correct. Yeah, it's it's kind of you know,

(01:08:31):
it has a lot of similarities to a retirement account
where the the money goes in, grows tax deferred, and
then is taken out tax free when used for medical expenses.
But today, which is what we're talking about, You're right,
there's not a huge spread or difference on the premium,
so it's not as much. Well, it goes back to

(01:08:51):
the rating methodology that the Affordable Care Act and the
eight hundred pages. You know, it was a massive, massive
piece of legislation.

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
No one read. You're not wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:09:03):
I've read.

Speaker 32 (01:09:04):
I've read a good bit of it, but I'm not
going to sit here until you I've read the entire thing.
Laker read well exactly, But again, you know that's ancient history.

Speaker 1 (01:09:12):
That's me saying that, Joe.

Speaker 32 (01:09:15):
It's true though, but it compressed the rates in terms
of the effect. Again, it just sort of like leveled
the playing field. And look, like any legislation, it helps
some people, it hurt other people, you know, but it did.
You know, after the ACA passed, the cost advantage you know,

(01:09:35):
kind of evaporated. And I'll say too that, look a
lot of people have gone into those plans out of necessity,
which you know, the idea of the premise is good
in a true free market, it makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
And I get that.

Speaker 32 (01:09:50):
Okay, you know, we'll play, we'll pro con it here.
You have your max out of pocket, right, you know
where your your stop loss limit is. But what you
really don't know, I mean, you have no bargaining power
because essentially you're buying, to your point, a prepaid contract.
You're buying these discounts, but you don't know what they are.

(01:10:11):
But again, I mean, you know, I'm capped out at
you know, ten K or whatever the total out of
pocket is for your particular plan. But you know, you're
just sort of subject to the terms of the of
the legal contract, which is effectively what it is.

Speaker 1 (01:10:26):
But you didn't.

Speaker 32 (01:10:27):
You know, it's not like you were able to negotiate
any of that. So you know, again, all the things
that are occurring internally, the even people like me, it's opaque.
And so I'm a big proponent of transparency. I think,
you know, building on what you mentioned on the HSA,
I know there's been talk of well, hey, let's just
give people money and they can use it at it's

(01:10:51):
core philosophically, I love that idea, but absent a way
to get true price.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
I'll tell you a quick story. One of our fortune
I got thirty seconds. I'm up against the break.

Speaker 32 (01:11:02):
Okay, I gotcha. I tried to negotiate at an emergency room.
One of our sons. He's fine, but he took he
took a fall, and so they they were willing to talk,
but it's going to take some time, and I said, hey,
look just run it through. My planet's fine. But we're
getting closer I think to being able to have a
little bit more transparency, and that again, that's something that

(01:11:25):
has lacked been lacking for a long time.

Speaker 1 (01:11:27):
I'm with you, Joe, Deacon, deacon of a deacon, a
deacon and deacon here in Charleston, wealth of knowledge. We
need to have you back. I could talk to you
for an hour about this likewise, and I still feel
like I don't even know anything. But anyway, I appreciate
you shedding a little light and we'll continue to follow
this and see what happens. More texts coming up next.

Speaker 8 (01:11:50):
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and resilience, these folks supply their communities with a safe
and reliable product. And the West Virginia Farm Bureau, well,
we are right there with them as the voice of
agriculture in West Virginia. Join us today as we build

(01:12:10):
a better future for all of us. To learn more,
visit us at wvfarm dot org.

Speaker 12 (01:12:17):
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(01:12:39):
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Speaker 14 (01:12:47):
You're listening to Talkline on Metro News, the voice of
West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
Metro News this morning, the biggest stories from around the
state of West Virginia when you want them. Chris Lauren
at the anchor desk, we are ready to.

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
Get the bay going with all the information you need.

Speaker 2 (01:13:03):
In the Mountain State, Jeff Jenkins brings you the day's headlines.

Speaker 13 (01:13:07):
Not enough votes in the US senator pass a bill
for some of the federal workers who are currently working
without pay during the federal government shut down to receive pay.
You're Senator Chatty more Capito says enough Democrats would not
agree with the pay bill on Thursday.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
I just think that we would do better to open
the government.

Speaker 17 (01:13:22):
We've tried to get appropriations bills going.

Speaker 23 (01:13:24):
They will not do that.

Speaker 9 (01:13:25):
So we're stuck in the mud here because it does
take sixty votes.

Speaker 13 (01:13:28):
Capitol says she is not in favor of eliminating the
required sixty vote threshold.

Speaker 2 (01:13:33):
Luke Wiggs at a sports desk from the NBA.

Speaker 33 (01:13:36):
Last night, the Thunder a one forty one to one
thirty five winner over the Pacers in double overtime and
just one overtime. The Warriors beat the Nuggets one thirty
seven to two one thirty one.

Speaker 1 (01:13:43):
The Chargers.

Speaker 33 (01:13:44):
On Thursday Night football beat Minnesota thirty seven to ten.

Speaker 2 (01:13:47):
Metro News This Morning Listen Where you get your favorite
podcasts and online at wbmetro news dot com.

Speaker 25 (01:13:54):
Hither Dave weekly Here from metro News Hotline. We don't
just talk sports or talk news. We mix it up
fast and fun coops. In the booth with me every
weekday three to six on Metro News. You'll get everything
from wild interroud debates, to movie reviews, fantasy sports tips,
even beer talk.

Speaker 1 (01:14:09):
On Fridays, we.

Speaker 25 (01:14:10):
Hit the high notes and the hilarious ones too, real conversations,
big opinions and plenty elapse. So fire us up on
your drive home weekdays three to six on Metro News,
It's two.

Speaker 16 (01:14:22):
Hours of sports conversation to wrap up your weekend. It's
the City Net Sunday Night Sports Line. Hey, this is
Travis Shows joining myself and Greg Hunter every Sunday night
from six oh six until eight o'clock as we wrap
up the sports weekend, we talk Mountaineers, High School, Mountain
East Conference, and the latest in the national scene. The
Sunday Sports Line is listener interactive. You could call or
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(01:14:45):
It's a perfect weekend sports wrap up on your favorite
metro news aphilia or watch the show at wb metronews
dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:15:11):
Yeah, it makes your headspin. It absolutely makes your headspin.
And there is no transparency in the market. If you
go buy a car today, you're going to set down
with a dealer. They're going to walk you through an
invoice of what you're buying. You're going to understand what
you are buying. You're going to understand your finance and costs.

(01:15:32):
You're going to be able to look at that and
make a holistic decision. Go to a healthcare provider and
try to find something. It's just tough. And I'm not
blaming healthcare providers, but it's just it's tough. And then
you get this explanation of benefits, so understanding what your
plan pays, understanding what your plan is actually paying the
healthcare provider. It's extremely complex, and these premiums are going

(01:15:58):
through the roof. I mean, how many many conversations do
you see? How many conversations do you overhear just folks
chatting at lunch, Folks that typically don't talk about how
hard it is. Right, we all know some folks that
they're typically roll up your sleeves, get it done. My
healthcare premiums are going up twenty two hundred bucks a

(01:16:18):
month for a HSA plan, And to Joe's point, there
used to be that real cost delta in that plan,
and I don't know that the risk profiles have changed.
So how do we get back to that? How do
we get back to the point where an HSA plan
truly is a catastrophic plan and you can get some
of the premiums down because you're only ensuring the catastrophic event.

(01:16:43):
You can fund your HSA back in the day, those
are really good plans, and I don't understand where they've went.
We could do a whole segment on that. Why PPO
pricing now matches HSA pricing and there's no cost delta?
As Joe talked about, Trump have the votes ken Republicans
muster the votes to get these extensions done for two years.

(01:17:05):
The way he's floating, got a month to do it,
got Thanksgiving, got Christmas, got everything in there, got another
government shutdown coming What at the end of January? Are
we going to end up right back in this vote?
Seems like we're trending that way. Coming up, we'll talk
with Brad McIlheney, a Senator Justice. Back in the news
has a settlement with the IRS or fly five million

(01:17:26):
dollars in back taxes. Brad has the story at wv
metronews dot com. We'll check in with him. Coming up next.
Metro News is the voice of West Virginia eleven thirty.
Let's go to the news desk.

Speaker 13 (01:17:41):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Jeff Jenkins. AS civil lawsuit
claiming defamation is on the books in Montingay County.

Speaker 34 (01:17:47):
In Morgantown, Metro Properties developer David BA Four has filed
a one point twenty five million dollar defamation lawsuit against
Morgantown Deputy Mayor Brian Butcher. A suit alleged the elected
official made slander statements motivated by his anti capitalist desire
to wrect the reputation of B four and Metro Properties.
In the filings in mont County Circuit Court, Butcher denies

(01:18:10):
purposefully using slanderous or anti capitalist language. No trial dates
been set. The city of Morgantown's not been named. The
North Central West Virginia Business Association is listed as an
interested party. Mike Nolting for wv Metronews dot com.

Speaker 13 (01:18:28):
The Cavil Huntington Health Department Need to Exchange program has
lasted longer than most all others. It's been around for
ten years, but it's day's renowned number because of federal
funding shortages. Huntington councilwoman and Harm Reduction Advisory Council member
Holly Smith Mount says she knows firsthand the effectiveness of
the program.

Speaker 6 (01:18:44):
I left through the program myself and so before and
it was just really eye opening and I got to
see all the amazing work being done right here in
our own community.

Speaker 13 (01:18:52):
She's concerned about the possible spread of disease with the
program going away. A man has died in connection with
a stabbing in Logan County, twenty nine year old John
for Tuna. A man identified as forty nine year old
Brent Compton is charged with murder. You're listening to Metro
news for forty years. The Voice of West Virginia with.

Speaker 20 (01:19:09):
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that's ready to go right out of the box for
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Speaker 23 (01:19:38):
Hi.

Speaker 35 (01:19:39):
I'm Chris Waddell, Principal and office lead for Martinsburg for CEC.
After serving in the military, I found my home in
Martinsburg traveling across the states. I've always wanted to serve
my community. At CEC, I get to do just that.
Our core values clients first, and we own it resonate
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(01:20:01):
progress in the great state of West Virginia.

Speaker 1 (01:20:03):
Find out what CEC can do for you. Visit CECI
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Speaker 13 (01:20:08):
Attorneys for a Q's Murderer Timothy Kennedy will seek a
change of venue during a hearing later today in Mingo County.
Kennedy is charged with the June twenty twenty three shooting
death of State Police Sergeant Corey Maynard. Kennedy is currently
scheduled to go on trial next month in Williamson. There
are reports out of Washington, d C. That the Trump
administration is preparing a plan that would extend Obamacare premium

(01:20:28):
subsidies for another two years, but change who is eligible
for those subsidies. From the Metro News anchored ask, I'm
Jeff Jenkins three oh four Talk three four is the

(01:21:00):
text line? This texture says, when you go to buy
a car or a pair of pants, you're using your
own money, so you care.

Speaker 1 (01:21:08):
But when you have insurance, you just don't care. You
go there as often as you want because the insurance
is picking up most of the tab. And it kind
of goes back to using cash versus a credit card.
Doesn't It hurts you a little bit to pull cash
out of the wallet, not as much to use a
credit card. Thing to remember, and I don't disagree with

(01:21:28):
your point. I think it's spot on is you're paying
for it through increased premiums the following year. But that
dissonance gets you. There's definitely enough blame to go around here, consumers, providers,
insurance companies, PBM. I mean, look, as Joe said, everybody's
got their hand in the cookie jar. And I don't
blame folks for that. I mean, everybody has to make

(01:21:50):
a living. But affordability, Can you truly afford it? Or
have you outpriced the market? I think we're getting there.
Brett McElhinney has been following a story involved thing Senator
Jim Justice broke yesterday. Involves a payment to the IRS
for back taxes. I should say, let's bring Brad in. Brad,
good morning, sir, oh hi.

Speaker 3 (01:22:12):
Good morning, and speaking of it hurts to pull out
your wallet.

Speaker 1 (01:22:17):
Yeah, how about that? Give us the deats at five million,
five point one million? What was the final tally there?

Speaker 3 (01:22:23):
He was counting, so you knows. Month news entities, including ours,
reported that the IRS had issued leans in Greenborough County
against Senator Justice and his wife Kathy for unpaid property

(01:22:43):
taxes for three different years and nine twenty seventeen. In
twenty twenty two, that added up to about eight million dollars.
That is one that would have made me, you know,
loose sleep and feel sick every day if I were
in that situation. The Senator Justice did not appear to be,

(01:23:08):
you know, super concerned. It's just a way of life. Yesterday, however,
the US Department of Justice took it a step further
and filed a complaint in federal court in the US
District for the Southern District of West Virginia, claiming five
million of that specifically for the two thousand and nine

(01:23:31):
tax period. That was another shot across the bow. I
think my take is that the Justice Department was ratcheting
up the pressure and the potential consequences, and by end
of day, the Justices, through their attorney, had entered into
an agreement with the US Department Justice, an agreement to pay.

(01:23:54):
I don't take it that they have paid, but an
agreement to pay the five million.

Speaker 1 (01:23:59):
Do we have any specifics about how that will be paid?
Is that a payment plan? Is that a lump any
details on how it'll be satisfied?

Speaker 3 (01:24:07):
You may be getting ahead of yourself. How about if
it will be paid?

Speaker 1 (01:24:13):
I mean, and.

Speaker 3 (01:24:16):
Senator Justice may pay, But history will show you that
that these things do get ratcheted up these disagreements. The
Justice family has been in this kind of hot water
on other obligations with the federal government before. There have
been prior agreements to pay, and usually the pattern has

(01:24:39):
been that the federal government has to come back around
after a few months down the road and say, look,
you haven't met your obligation, you haven't paid yet. We're
back in court, so it's possible it could be a
payment plan right now. There is not a lot of detail.
It's just a joint motion that an agreement has been

(01:25:00):
reached that the government the justices are agreeing to pay.

Speaker 1 (01:25:04):
So forgive me if I got this wrong. But that
federal government intervention that you talked about, that's primarily been
other agencies, other fees of the means, hasn't really been
the I r S. This is really a new thing
for the I R S. Do I have that right
in terms of the depth they've they've gone to here
with the Senator, I.

Speaker 3 (01:25:26):
Am pausing because these kinds of stories have rolled out
over a period of a decade. Yeah, and they kind
of co mingle in my brain at this point me too.
There have been other instances where US attorneys gone to
federal court. And so for instances, for instance, the justices

(01:25:47):
have had fines related to their their mind operations, and
the Federal Court, the federal attorneys have said, look, you
got to pay. The justices have gone forward with these
kinds of payment plans. I don't remember the i r
S specifically before. It's been like Department of the Interior

(01:26:09):
or Department of Labor, that kind of thing, other agencies
of the federal government. But this is indeed the i
R S. It's personal income taxes for Jim and Kathy.

Speaker 2 (01:26:22):
Why.

Speaker 1 (01:26:25):
I mean, look, I don't think this has an effect
politically in West Virginia. It hasn't yet should we expect
anything different now?

Speaker 3 (01:26:35):
You know one thing that to reiterate the point, and
your reporters have covered this kind of story for a
decade now. He is a new entity in Washington, d C.
And you know, when he went there, a lot of
us said, oh, those professional, aggressive members of the DC

(01:26:58):
Press Corps are really going to go after him. He's
really going to feel the pressure. Now, I would submit
to you that's not what has happened. There's been a
lot of coverage of his cute dog and not a
lot of scrutiny of Senator Justice's financial situation. I noticed
more of that kind of scrutiny last night. Bloomberg Law

(01:27:21):
covered this issue. I believe ABC News other entities also
covered it. But the Lean's issue was covered in Politico
a month ago, So there may be more scrutiny of
the finances and less tickling of the dog's belly in Washington,
d C. From here on out.

Speaker 1 (01:27:40):
Yeah, I wonder to what extent he can still claim
that this is politically motivated. I believe I've heard the
Senator talk about that in the past, that many of
these things have been politically motivated. You know, I'm running
for the Senate in West Virginia and Jim Justice and
the Republicans, so the Dems are going to go after

(01:28:01):
me like this irs is part of the Trump administration.
I don't know that you can claim that this is
political retribution anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:28:11):
The senator spoke about these debts last month during a
briefing with Westerviginia reporters, and he raised a couple of issues.
One is that the debts go back to two thousand
and nine, and like many taxpayers, he has a disagreement
about what he owes and in fact thinks the IRS
owes him. So that was one aspectivus, But the one

(01:28:33):
you're getting at is, yeah, he said it was political
at the time, and that was hard to configure in
my head because the Trump administration, and it has been
for almost a year now. What he was saying is
that dating back to two thousand and nine, the IRS
has been taking a look at this family tax obligations

(01:28:58):
and he believes that it ratcheted up the Biden administration.
Well maybe that's so, I don't know, but the Trump
administration has now had eleven months to take a look
at this and they decided yesterday a court.

Speaker 1 (01:29:20):
I I want to give him this due because if
I was contesting what the IRIS said I owed, I
didn't believe I owed it. I don't know that I
would want to pay it either. I would want to
settle to the dispute, take it through the court process.

(01:29:41):
So look, I wouldn't cut a check either, if I'm
being honest, if I didn't think I owed them and
I had a strong case. Now, people go through these
disputes all the time, so I think there's that element
of it, But it almost feels like groundhog day. It's
over and over. We've become desensitized to it. And if

(01:30:04):
you can get away with it. And I'm not saying
that that's what the Senator is doing, but I mean,
if that's the course of business and people buy into it,
I don't know that anything ever really happens. I mean,
I mean, I don't think there's any political calculus here.
Greg Thomas was on the local show this morning. He
said something I thought really stood out. Jim Justice was
set there to support the Trump agenda. That's what he's doing.
The voters are happy with that, this doesn't matter, and

(01:30:26):
maybe that's the case.

Speaker 3 (01:30:30):
Well, and he's I mean, he's not up for election
again for another five years. Yeah, so that's a lot
of time for people to forget. You know, who knows
what happens between a very prominent taxpayer and the irs.
There may be ongoing discussions between attorneys for the justices

(01:30:51):
or accountants for the justices and the irs. That's not
going to pop up into public view. How are am
I reaction to having leans filed against me might have
been very different, and I think I would have made
a more public effort to try to clear that up
before it ratcheted to the next level of having a

(01:31:14):
complaint filed against me in federal court. That's just me
trying to sleep at night.

Speaker 1 (01:31:21):
I hear you, man, I hear you. Uh full story
at wv metronews dot com. Uh. You cooking Thanksgiving dinner?
You doing the turkey? I mean, you've got big plans
with what's going on.

Speaker 3 (01:31:32):
Oh, my specialty is spinach balls. You're more of an appetizer. Uh,
And so I will be preparing and supplying the spinach
balls for you know, the Thanksgiving warm up period where
everybody's mingling and watching the Macy parade and the dog show.

Speaker 1 (01:31:52):
I forgot about the dog show that's on after the parade.

Speaker 3 (01:31:55):
About the dog show.

Speaker 1 (01:31:56):
I'm not a pat guy, Brad. I mean, I have
to admit it. I mean I take a lot of
flak for it around here. I can barely take care
of myself. I'm just not a pet guy.

Speaker 2 (01:32:04):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:32:05):
I'm just not going there. Sorry.

Speaker 3 (01:32:08):
That's where you're applying to scrutiny, to cenative justice. You're
not a namberg of the pet.

Speaker 1 (01:32:16):
I'm just asking questions. And like I said, if I
if I didn't think I owed him, I probably wouldn't
pay either, because we both know once you cut Uncle
Sam a check, you're not gonna get it back. So
if you think you don't know him, I don't blame
him for that. Oh see, that's gonna stick, Brad, that's
gonna stick. You canna have people saying I hate dogs now?

Speaker 3 (01:32:38):
Uh you know, I mean, all you gonna do is
watch the dog show. It's just going to the background.
It's dogs. You'll admire how well behaved they are. It'll
be good.

Speaker 1 (01:32:47):
Oh good. Well, if I don't talk to you, you
never know what tomorrow holds. But if I don't talk
to you, I hope you and the rest of the
Klan have a very h happy Thanksgiving.

Speaker 3 (01:32:56):
Sir, you have a great one too.

Speaker 1 (01:32:59):
Take care. More texts coming up three oh four talk
three h four. We'll get through as many of them
as we can. Coming up next.

Speaker 36 (01:33:06):
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Speaker 14 (01:34:08):
You're listening to Talkline on Metro News, the voice of
West Virginia.

Speaker 7 (01:34:14):
Wvmetronews dot com, the only website you need to stay
informed in the Mountain State. Get the latest news and
sports story, information on the great outdoors, and never miss
an episode of your favorite Metro news programs and podcast
including Talkline, Hotline, sports Line, and Three Guys Before the Game.
Make a bookmark now and visit wv metronews dot com

(01:34:36):
first thing every morning to find out what's happening all
across the state. Wvmetronews dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:34:43):
West Virginia Outdoors is the Mountain States only hook and
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Speaker 15 (01:34:57):
I'll go out on a limb because people won't like
my answer.

Speaker 5 (01:35:00):
Probably.

Speaker 15 (01:35:01):
I think there's fewer coyotes than most people imagine. Really
because when number one, when you hear a family group
of them this time of year.

Speaker 1 (01:35:10):
The pups are very vocal.

Speaker 15 (01:35:12):
The coyotes are getting They've been kind of shut mouthed
during the spring when they're young, and it's like a
bunch of teenagers. When they get to September, Mom, dad
can't keep their mouths shut anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:35:23):
Whether it's hunting and fishing news or just compelling stories
about the enjoyment of the great outdoors. West Virginia Outdoors
covers it all Saturday mornings at seven oh six am
and for your daily fix, Outdoors Today brings you two
and a half minutes of news and notes from the
woods and water every weekday morning on Metro News, the
Voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 16 (01:35:43):
It's two hours of sports conversation to wrap up your weekend.
It's the City that Sunday Night Sports Lot. Hey this
Travis Jowes joined myself and Greg Hunter every Sunday night
from six oh six until eight o'clock as we wrap
up the sports weekend, we talk Mountaineers, high School, Mountain
East Conference, and the latest in the NASH we'll see.
The Sunday Sports Line is listener interactive. You could call

(01:36:03):
or text the show at three oh four Talk three
oh four. It's a perfect weekend sports wrap up on
your favorite Metro News Ahilly or watch the show at
wb Metronews dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:36:26):
Metro News Talk Line is presented by Incova Insurance and
circling you with coverage to protect what you care about most.
Visit encova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (01:36:37):
Jackpots are growing in West Virginia. Jackpots are on the
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(01:36:59):
Millions Jackpot seventy million, So go ahead play today, Texter says.
Anyone who doesn't like dogs be leery of them. Dog
spelled backwards is god. It didn't take long. Why don't
the justices go to jail like normal people, says the texture.

(01:37:20):
Remember they hired more IRS agents to catch people who
weren't paying their taxes. Maybe they really are going back
after people. I'll tell you one of the reasons this
doesn't stick, especially with the IRS. Who are you going
to root for? Anyone going to root for the IRS?

Speaker 8 (01:37:35):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:37:36):
Do we need an IRS? Yes? Anyone going to root
for them?

Speaker 26 (01:37:39):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:37:42):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:37:42):
The working class and those trying to be healthy are
being punished by those expecting the government to take care
of them, says the text. Hey TJ, what do you
say to people who say healthcare is a right? Technically
healthcare is made up of doctors, nurses, and staff, So
if they think it's a right, that would be indentured

(01:38:03):
servitude your logic aside. I think if someone is in
an accident, say a vehicle accident, being able to go
to the emergency room being treated, I think that should
be covered. There's your right. Elective treatments, experimental treatments, beyond

(01:38:26):
what has been proven. No, at some point we have
to go back to our roots here, and we are
a country that is founded on roll up your sleeves, earn,
get after it, pay your way. That's what our system is.
Our system is not socialist, and we continue to flirt

(01:38:46):
with ideas and we continue to run two trillion dollar
deficits because we want to have social security, more and
more Medicare, Medicaid benefits. We have to have a defense
because we're the world's cop. If we don't do it,
other countries won't do it. That's why they can spend
their money on free healthcare and everything else, because they

(01:39:08):
don't have to do what we have to do to
keep the world in check. At the same time, we
continue to spend on all kinds of other things, to
the point where our debt service is now higher than
what we spend on defense. At some point we're going
to have to say, look, get in a room in triage.
We can't do it all. If we do, we're going
to go bankrupt and the whole thing is over. So

(01:39:33):
you want to take care of kids or do you
want to have free health care? Do you want to
focus on this? Do you want to focus on that
six CEOs of health insurance companies made one hundred and
sixty million dollars in twenty twenty four. That comes from
premiums we and our employers pay. US has at best
subpar healthcare when compared to countries with single payer or
universal care. No other country is looking at us saying

(01:39:56):
that should be the model we follow. Our country does
not value health. I disagree. When's the last time anyone
wanted to go to Mexico for a late saving heart surgery?
Or Russia? Russia has universal health care. When's the last
time someone said, Hey, let's go to Moscow and get
the latest operation here to cure my brain cancer. I
just no, no, that doesn't hold water. Here's your big

(01:40:18):
weight loss drug. Listen to tog line for an hour
and a half on the treadmill, been doing it three years,
sixty pounds down later. It works like a charm, minimal
side effects except occasional yelling at a radio guest, to
which I say, very good, madam or sirer, congratulations on
your loss. Love that I've seen online that people get

(01:40:40):
expensive medical bills but then request an itemized bill and
the cost goes down significantly. Is there any truth to that. Yeah,
I've seen those two where your coach to never pay
the first bill, always challenge it, always demand a reconciliation.
I've seen enough of those two. Whether or not it
holds true all the time, whether or not it lasts out,
I don't know. But I'll tell you one thing. Who

(01:41:03):
would pay for something that they don't have a detailed
explanation of what they've gotten or what their insurance covered
that they can understand the answer is most of us,
because we do that in this country. We do it
with healthcare, we do it with financial services, everything else.
We want a complete reckoning of what we're paying for.
But for some reason, those two commodities we just hand

(01:41:25):
it over. Eight hundred and seven sixty five eight two
fixt five is the telephone number. Three oh four Talk
three oh four is the text line, So coming up,
we'll get more texts in. Meanwhile, when it comes to cybersecurity,
city Net, as you covered, they're expert team monitors, detects
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(01:41:48):
protects and perfects. Talk line continues next.

Speaker 27 (01:41:53):
Coal based generation remains the backbone of West Virginia's energy portfolio,
ensuring reliability, security, and affordable electricity throughout the region. Our
coal plants are engineered for performance, designed to run most
efficiently at or near a seventy percent capacity factor.

Speaker 1 (01:42:10):
This level of operation is not arbitrary.

Speaker 27 (01:42:12):
It's based on sound engineering principles, scientific analysis, and has
been formally adopted by the West Virginia Legislature as a
reasonable target for optimal performance. When our coal fleet operates
near that benchmark, it provides stable power to the grid,
maintains cost efficiency, and supports thousands of good paying jobs
across our state. Coal generation also drives ivesul tax revenue

(01:42:34):
that sustain schools, infrastructure, and community services. Working in partnership
with state leaders and the Trump Administration, we're ensuring that
our coal fleet remains modern, efficient, and ready to power
West Virginia and beyond for decades to come. This message
brought to you by the West Virginia Coal Association and
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Speaker 1 (01:42:54):
We are arguing to Chefoo email at the hub.

Speaker 15 (01:43:01):
We are here.

Speaker 30 (01:43:03):
From all of us, here at the Health Plan. We
want to make your season bright. Whether you're wrapping gifts
are planning next year's goals.

Speaker 1 (01:43:11):
We're here for you.

Speaker 30 (01:43:13):
Happy holidays and Merry Christmas. From our family to.

Speaker 1 (01:43:16):
Yours, we.

Speaker 18 (01:43:19):
Are here.

Speaker 14 (01:43:23):
You're listening to talk Line on Metro News, the Voice
of West Virginia.

Speaker 25 (01:43:31):
Listen.

Speaker 1 (01:43:31):
I'm a West Virginian through and through.

Speaker 25 (01:43:33):
Grew up in Bridgeport, thirty five years in the Charleston area,
rooted for the Mountaineers. Since well, let's not talk ages.
You won't find a bigger fan of our teams, but
they get called out when they deserve it.

Speaker 1 (01:43:43):
Metro News Hotline the.

Speaker 25 (01:43:44):
Same for everything, movies, music, local happenings, My inside knowledge
and occasional rants meet Coop's sharp humor, guaranteed to spark
good talk radio. Think you can keep up? We're your
afternoon anecdote to the ordinary on weekdays three.

Speaker 1 (01:43:57):
To six on Metro News, The Voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 14 (01:44:02):
Hi, this is Dave Wilson along with TJ.

Speaker 3 (01:44:04):
Meadows.

Speaker 26 (01:44:05):
Join us weekdays at ten oh six for Metro News
Talkline on this Metro news radio station.

Speaker 7 (01:44:09):
TJ.

Speaker 26 (01:44:10):
The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Speaker 1 (01:44:13):
That's right, Dave. We'll continue to examine and discuss issues
important to West Virginia. Hold elective officials accountable and make
certain you have a forum to make your voice.

Speaker 26 (01:44:22):
Ery new host, same talkline. Join us weekdays at ten
oh six on this Metro News radio station and Metro
News TV app.

Speaker 27 (01:44:30):
It's the time of the year when Friday nights are special,
and that's because Friday nights are reserved for high school football.
This is Fred Pursinger inviting you to join Dave jeking
in me every Friday night through November twenty eighth, for
year number twenty four of Game Night. Every Friday night,
We'll bring you all the scores and stories from around
the state US. We'll take your phone calls and talk

(01:44:50):
about your favorite team. It's Game Night presented by match
a Mountain State Assessment of Trends and community health Survey.
Visit wvmatchsurvey dot org.

Speaker 2 (01:45:00):
Metro News Midday with thirteen News and Tonight Live anchor
Amanda barn and Metro News is Dave Alan.

Speaker 28 (01:45:07):
I'll deliver live, up to the minute news, spotlighting people
and communities and covering breaking news stories as they happen.

Speaker 29 (01:45:13):
Join us as we interview newsmakers from around the state
and world. Have provided a platform for your voice to
be heard.

Speaker 2 (01:45:19):
Statewide Metro News Midday presented by Solango Law from noon
to three on this Metro news radio station.

Speaker 1 (01:45:45):
Jackpots are growing, They're on the rise in West Virginia.
Every week power Ball hits Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Mega
Millions lights up Tuesdays and Fridays. That's five chances a
week to get in on life changing jackpines. Play in
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Jackpot six hundred and eighty one million dollars, Mega Millions

(01:46:05):
seventy millions, So go ahead and play today. Texter says,
Then there are those of us who chose West Virginia.
We're not born here. I was a military brat and
lived all over and this is the place I chose.
Wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Yeah, we got to
tell our story. We got to tell our story. Chris
Wichael talked about having to move away to feel like

(01:46:28):
he needed to move up in his company. I come
from corporate America. I get that I had that pressure
many times, was able to avoid it. Brad and Elie
Smith are onto something with a send and he's the
right guy, well positioned within the fortune five hundred to
make other companies understand why remote work is a good
thing when some folks are questioning it. I like that

(01:46:50):
more than anything that we do, frankly, because it brings
someone here with their job. So whether they're new to
the state and they're coming here for a reason, whether
they're coming back with their job, I would put state
money into that all day long, proven success. Just go
look at the website and see what they're doing, and

(01:47:11):
I'll wrap it up. Dave Allen Amanda Baron coming up
with Metro News midday next. This is talk Line on
Metro News. For over forty years, Metro News has been
the voice of West Virginia.