Talkline | Oct. 27, 2025 - MetroNews Talkline

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
The government shut down now nearly a month old. The
impact that could have on West Virginia families. We'll get
into that. What about p E I, A changes and
a whole splew, A slew of sports to cover. We've
got a busy show. Let's not waste any time. Metro
News talk Line is underway, you are.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Surrounded radio turned off from the studios of w v
r C Media and the Metro News Radio and Television Network.
The voice of West Virginia comes the most powerful show
in West Virginia. This is Metrony Was talk Line with

(00:54):
Dave Wilson and d J Meadows Up.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Switch network control from Charleston to morning.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Stand by you, David, DJ, You're on Metronews. Talk Line
is presented by Encovia Insurance, encircling you with coverage to
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to learn more.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Good morning, Welcome into the program. Metro News talk Line
from the Encobe Insurance studios. Dave Wilson and Morgantown. TJ.
Meadows is in our Charleston bureau. Zach Carrolchick is running
the video stream this morning. Sophia Wassick handling the phones
eight hundred and seven to sixty five Talk eight hundred
seven sixty five eight two five five. That's the phone number.
You can text the show three or four talk three

(01:42):
oh four. Those are your two ways to weigh in
and participate in today's festivities coming up. Like I said,
got a busy show this morning. Could the Department of
Medical Services be more efficient as it must implement the
big beautiful Bill. We'll get into that discussion coming up
later this hour. Also, Dale Lee stops by co President

(02:05):
of Education West Virginia Joe Briccato. Sports getting busy, basketball
getting underway, Men's and women's mountaineers teams exhibitions yesterday, regionals,
and some state championships getting started this week. In fall sports,
it is a busy time of year. TJ. Meadows knows
that already. He's in our Charleston studios as usual. Good morning, sir,

(02:27):
Morning sir. The Dow up two hundred points, Dave. The
market likes this China framework. I guess we'll call it
for a trade deal. But you know, two hundred points, Yeah,
that's good. That's not exactly gangbusters. I think that's probably
cautious optimism from the street to see what happens later
this week when the President actually sits down with Jijingbing.
So we'll see what happens, but cautious optimism. They seem

(02:49):
like they like it. Good directional. Jared Halpern will join
a second hour. We'll get his take on the president's
trip to Asia. Was in Malaysia yesterday, China or excuse me,
Japan today, and has that summit with Jijingping coming up
a little bit later on as well. But first here
at home, well, the federal government shutdown continues. HOWSE speaker

(03:10):
Mike Johnson is having his daily ten am news conference.
Looks like Mad Mike is at the podium. But the
impact here is that SNAP benefits, Supplemental Nutritional Assistance program
benefits will not be issued on November first because of
the federal government shutdown. The USDA posted that notice on
its website. SNAP is ad minister by the States, but

(03:32):
is federally funded and the resources have run dry as
Senators remain at an impasse. Kelly Allen is the executive
director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy
and believes administration needs to find a way to make
certain this program is funded for however long this shutdown continues.
She joins us on Metro News talk Line this morning. Kelly,
good morning, Good morning. Appreciate you joining us. So put

(03:55):
into context, first of all, the impact if SNAP benefits
run out on November one, as the USDA say they
says they will, what's the impact here in West Virginia.

Speaker 4 (04:06):
Well, it'll be significant. SNAP is the most effective anti hunger,
anti poverty program in the United States. Here in West Virginia.
It helps one in six West Virginians put food on
the table. That includes nearly one hundred thousand children, lots
of seniors, lots of folks with disabilities, and working families.
It's also really an important economic driver for our grocers,

(04:28):
our retailers, our farmers. It brings in nearly fifty million dollars,
as you said, in all federal benefit funding into the
state each month. And that is money that while we've
seen a lot of folks stepping up restaurants, food pantries,
charitable individuals and churches, but they've also made clear that
they cannot put a dent in fifty million dollars in

(04:48):
lost food assistance. For every meal that a charitable food
pantry provides. SNAP provides twelve meals. So we're going to
see a lot of hunger and a lot of families
in crisis if those November benefits are not available on
November first.

Speaker 5 (05:03):
Kelly morning, thanks for being here. Good to see you.
In your opinion, what's more important SNAP or ACA?

Speaker 4 (05:11):
Oh, I cannot answer that question. I think both programs
are vitally important. Food impacts health. Obviously, medical care is
important for folks. Yeah, I don't want to pick a favorite.

Speaker 5 (05:26):
Yeah, So here's where I'm going with that. We could
vote today SNAP what habits funding will pick AC up separately?
To me, that would be a path forward to prevent
what happens on November the first.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
Well, I think that question is rooted in thinking that
the government Congress has to fund SNAP for it to continue.

Speaker 6 (05:46):
But the law is clear.

Speaker 4 (05:47):
The Trump administration and USDA have the funding, the authority,
and the legal requirement even during the shutdown to use
SNAP contingency funds and other funds that they have the
authority to transfer within USDA to fund SNAP benefits for
these households in November. So I want to be really clear,
the government does not have to be open for SNAP
benefits to go out in November. Just last month, on

(06:09):
September thirtieth, the USDA, which administer's SNAP, issued their own
shutdown plan that said Congressional intent is evident that SNAP
operations should continue since the program was provided with multi
year contingency funds that can be used to fund participate
benefits in the event elapse occurs. So this is a
separate question. Is the Trump administration and the USDA going

(06:31):
to use the funds that they have contingency emergency funds
to continue to fund SNAP in November regardless of what
Congress decides to do.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
It looks like, Kelly, the answer to that looks like
it's no. The USDA is saying it will not tap
into those contingency funds. How has past administrations handled this well?

Speaker 4 (06:49):
I mean, going back at least a decade, there was
a shut down in twenty thirteen, a shutdown in twenty
eight and twenty nineteen, and both you know, part administrations
from both parties, Republican and Democrats, have follow that historic
bipartisan agreement that SNAP should continue to be funded in
the event of a shutdown.

Speaker 6 (07:09):
That's why they have contingency funds.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
Available, That's why USDA has brought authority to transfer funds
within their within their scope, that's called Section thirty two funds.
So there was no interruption in SNAP benefits in the
twenty thirteen shutdown, in the twenty eighteen nineteen shutdown, and
the authority that existed back then to pull funds to
continue funding SNAP exists now. The only difference right now

(07:32):
is whether the Trump administration has a political will to
do what they need to do for families or if
they want to use this as a political cudgel to
force the government's reopen without requiring any negotiation on the
ACA and on other issues.

Speaker 5 (07:47):
Help me understand the source of these funds. Are some
of these funds rollover that had been previously administered to SNAP?
Is that all gone? Has that been used? And this
is just straight from the contingency fund I'm trying to
get my arms exactly where the money's come from.

Speaker 4 (08:02):
My understanding is each year Congress gives USDA about three
billion dollars in contingency funds, and they have two years
of that build up right now, so we estimate that
they have about six billion dollars in contingency funds. Monthly,
SNAP costs about eight billion dollars so they can fund
most of it through that. But just earlier this month,

(08:23):
the USDA and the Trump administration used their authority to
move funds around to fund Wick. So they've done this already.
They've established that they have authority to move other funds,
of which they have tens of billions of dollars on
top of the contingency funds that they could use to
fully fund SNAP in November. Or they could use that
six billion in contingency funds and just give everybody a
little bit less than the total benefit they're allotted for, so.

Speaker 6 (08:44):
That families at least get something in November.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
But this is very clearly a political choice, and a
political choice the Trump administration made earlier this month was
to move funds around to fund Wick.

Speaker 6 (08:54):
So I have to ask what the difference is.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
Now, what do you think the difference is.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
I mean, I saw the USDA's website this morning that said,
you know, it was pretty inflammatory. It made it clear
I think to me that the Trump administration is using
this as a political cudgel. It feels like, you know,
families who rely on SNAP are being used as ponds
in this political fight over the congressional negotiations.

Speaker 6 (09:20):
Whether to reopen, reopen the government or not.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
But I think the most important thing is that the
law requires that SNAP continue to be funded in a shutdown,
and USDA's own policies just a month ago said that. Now, interestingly,
that laps plan that I mentioned that was dated September thirtieth,
twenty twenty five, has now disappeared from their website, But
just a month ago they established an intent to continue
funding SNAP in the event of a shutdown.

Speaker 5 (09:45):
So if the monies aren't released and we start to
see difficulties, I'm curious if you've talked with organizations around
the state. I mean, you talked about the fact they
can't bear the brunt of it. If people want to help,
what do you do? You have any ideas or avenues
about the best way people can help if the moneyes
aren't released and there is that shortfall.

Speaker 4 (10:05):
Well, I think you know absolutely there are food pantries, churches,
charitable places in every community around the state, and they're
going to need help. They're going to need donations, they're
probably going to need volunteers. So folks are so if
they're so moved to to should.

Speaker 6 (10:20):
Definitely do that.

Speaker 4 (10:21):
But I think another thing people can do today if
they're interested in this is to contact all four of
West Virginia's members of Congress and to tell them that
they need to urge USDA in the Trump administration right
now to follow the law and to commit to releasing
November snap benefits for families. Two hundred and seventy thousand
West Virginians, including one hundred thousand children, should not be

(10:42):
political ponds in a fight.

Speaker 6 (10:45):
They need this food assistance.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
It's very critical and the path forward is clear. It
just involves the political will to do the right thing
over trying to score political points.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
They could pass the clean Sea are today and we
could all move forward. Well, I know more of a
stake than a question to you, But they know that
that is also an option on the table.

Speaker 4 (11:08):
It is, and you know President Trump is, you know,
a master deal maker. Right if if the Senate decides
they don't want to get rid of the filibuster and
they're going to need sixty votes, they need to go
to the table and.

Speaker 6 (11:18):
Find out what it's going to take to get those
additional votes that they need.

Speaker 5 (11:21):
It's interesting you say that. I think it was Bram
Paul yesterday floated the idea of hey let's get what
three members of the Senate from each side and you know,
do the old fashioned deal like we have here in
West Virginia. Have a conference committee, hash the thing out,
figure out what we need to do. I mean it
doesn't work, Kelly, you know that it's broken. I meant

(11:45):
to sit down and figure this out. I mean, it
doesn't seem like it would be that hard if we
were willing to get beyond the politics. But maybe that's me.

Speaker 7 (11:52):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (11:53):
I agree one hundred percent.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
I think West Virginians and Americans want to see programs
and services that work. They don't care about political points.
People just families just need food on the table.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
Come November first, November one, snap Benefitts scheduled two run outs.
We'll see what happens in the next couple of days. Kelly,
appreciate the perspective as we always do. Thank you very much. Thanks,
Kelly Allen, EXECUTI Director, West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.
God to take a break. We're just getting rolling. This
is talk line from the in COVID Schurch Studios.

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Metro News talk Line is presented by Incova Insurance and
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Visit incova dot com. To learn more.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Text line is three or four Talk three oh four.
The phone number is eight hundred seven sixty five Talk
eight hundred seven sixty five eight two five five. Let's
get a quick call Dwayne and Morgantown. It's on your mind, Dwayne.

Speaker 12 (14:01):
Any guys.

Speaker 13 (14:02):
Two things.

Speaker 12 (14:02):
The first thing is forty there's forty two million people
on SNAP in our country. And I think the bigger
question is is we need to ask why aren't so
many people dependent on the government to be fed? How
many of those people are taking advantage of the system.
And I listening. I grew up, we needed we needed
food stands grown up. My mom and dad got separated

(14:25):
when I was really young, and if it wasn't for
that that program, we wouldn't have gotten back on our feet.
So I one hundred percent understand why this program's out there.
But the bigger, the bigger question is is why so
many people want it? And then the second thing, there's
over three million federal employees in our country. There's a
really quick way to put an end to this shutdown.

(14:46):
Everybody just needs to come together, walk out and say
we're not going anything at all until this until the
til Congress comes together, gets a balanced budget in place,
cuts wasteful spending, and does their job.

Speaker 13 (15:01):
You could you.

Speaker 12 (15:02):
Could literally put an into this within three four days
if everybody of them would just stick together and say
enough's enough. We've got such a small amount of people
that are controlling us, and we need to know that
we have a bigger voice than we think we do.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
Hey, Dwayne, appreciate the phone call. As always. I'd love
TJ if we could all get together and pass the
balanced budget, but we can't even get together and pass
a cr right now. I'm with you, Dwayne, I'm with you.
I wish we could. Unfortunately, just not going to happen.

Speaker 5 (15:29):
I wouldn't blame federal workers for walking out. I'd walk
out at the start because honestly, you're giving the federal
government alone. Federal employees that continue to work are giving
the federal government alone. That's sickening.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
Three or four talk three oh four is the text
line eight hundred seven and sixty five talk eight hundred
and seven to sixty five eight two five five, And
just a couple of thoughts there, TJ. On Kelly Allen's point,
the administration has the authority and the ability to release
these funds, these contingency funds through the us D and
I gotta lean on her side of this. He look,
we're talking about snap benefits and then we're talking You

(16:07):
can make whatever judgments you want to make there. There
are people who are working hard to make ends meet
and need this type of assistance. And it's not their
fault that politicians can't get their act together on Capitol Hill.
I understand the political calculus here. I don't like it.
I don't like the political calculus. This is what that
contingency fund is there for and there to be used for.
I gotta I think Kelly's got a point.

Speaker 5 (16:29):
I don't disagree. If you use those funds, you'll need
another Act of Congress to replenish them. Maybe the USDA
is concerned about that because there can be other issues
that pop up. I get that side of it too.
One of the reasons I asked Kelly question I did
about snapping ACA trying to drive home the point, Dave,
we can't afford everything. We're broke, Dude, we're broke thirty
eight trillion years.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
Brought that up once or twice.

Speaker 5 (16:50):
I've brought it up once or twice, and in my opinion,
when it comes to children, Snap's more important. Snap's more important.
And we can't fund everything. You've got a triage at
some point, and I'm just trying to get people to
understand we can't continue to fund everything, so prioritize, tell
me what you want, what you don't want.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
Let's get another called Deborah. What's on your mind, Deborah?

Speaker 14 (17:14):
Yes, go ahead.

Speaker 15 (17:16):
You was talking about this SNAP thing. There's a lot
of people here in West Virginia that's on that that
really need it, and they're not fudging the system or
anything like that. I mean, they're hardworking people. And I'm
on Social Security myself. And where I was living, I

(17:38):
was paying rent, electric, water, gas, sewage and all that.
I barely had enough to buy food. I had to
go to food banks. I went to the DHHR to
sign up for the food stamp thing, and you know what,
I got twenty three dollars. Twenty three dollars for the month.

(18:01):
And you tell me what that's going to buy?

Speaker 1 (18:03):
Not much, Debor.

Speaker 15 (18:04):
And then and then you know, coffee and stuff like
that is going up. It's ridiculous. And the people in Washington,
they need to get their heads together, get them out
of their asks and start doing their jobs.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Couldn't have put it better myself, Debraah, appreciate the phone call.
Best to you, by the way. See there's there's your
perfect example. Hard work, trying to make ends meet, and
because they can't get it together in Washington, Debrah and
people like her are going to end up facing the
consequences there. So, uh, we'll see November first, and look, hey,
they could pass the clean Sea Arts TJ. They could

(18:42):
pass the clean cr today, get this thing open and
re you know, reboot it and moving forward. But that's
probably not going to happen today either.

Speaker 5 (18:51):
No. No, I think it'll take much more. Unfortunately, especially
with the President being abroad. I mean that's going to
factor into this as well. He likes to be the
closer and these kinds of thing. So I think we'll
roll past November first. I don't like that, but I
think that's where we're heading.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
Three or four talk three or four is the text line,
eight hundred and seven to sixty five eight two five
five is the phone number. What are we doing to
fund snap to but build an unneeded three hundred and
fifty million dollar ballroom and accept an illegal four un
a million dollar jet from Cutter So and then pay
nine hundred million dollars to retro fit to Air Force
one standards. Guys, your last guest is a perfect representation

(19:28):
of why there is a thirty eight trillion dollar debt.
The federal government sent ninety three point eight billion in
direct payments for SNAP in twenty twenty four. Unbelievable, says
the Texter. Trump is in Asia signing another piece deal.
So how about all state Democrats contact Schumer's and Jeffrey's
office and demand they join John Fetterman, John Fetterman and

(19:48):
Rafael Warnock to pass the cr And what do any
of you Democrats have to say in response to all
of these videos posted by people saying they will steal
cartloads of food if they don't get their food stamps.
There has not been one word of condemnation from any Democrat.
I assumed all those you've seen these videos? Have you
seen these? I assumed they were AI.

Speaker 5 (20:07):
To be honest with you, I assume just about everything
is AI nowadays. I mean, yesterday I saw someone tackling
Bob Barker on stage and him whipping up on the
guy clearly AI. I mean, it's just every day. It's
something new.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
We have all of this technology, and this is what
we do with it. We create old videos of Bob Barker.
Let me see at the same time, Hang on, it
seems like there's part of that text missing. Let me
come back to that one. Why are so many people
on food stamps? Why is federal minimum wage seven to
twenty five power? Why do people have to work multiple jobs?
Why do most jobs pay below a surviving wage? Seems

(20:44):
like a financial priorities are focused on the upper class,
says the texter. Yep, we need to cut back, and
let's just do it on the back of the poor, poor,
the needy, the less fortunate, which in some ways is
ridiculous because they have the smallest voice, they have the
hardest time organizing and asking and getting services. This is nothing,
absolutely nothing but political posting and squeezing and squeezing the

(21:07):
lovely people of our country who voted for this pig
who is eating at your trough every day instead of you,
says why texter?

Speaker 5 (21:15):
Why is it fair to continue taxing the middle class
into oblivion? And those who have done well, I mean,
don't they pay enough taxes? Half this country doesn't pay
any tax that's my point, folks. It's got to be
a balancing act, and we're way out of whack. We're
thirty eight trillion dollars in debt. That should tell you something.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
Coming up, we'll talk about the Department of Medical Services
and could it be more efficient and implementing the big
Beautiful Bill. We'll get into that discussion. More of your
text and Sport's still to come as well. This is
talk line from the Cove Insurance Studios here on a
Monday morning on Metro News for forty years, the voice
of West Virginia. It is ten thirty and time to

(21:50):
get a news update. Let's check in on the Metro
News radio network. Find out what's happening in West Virginia.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Jeff Jenkins. Chargers are penning
against the driver who Beckley police say struck and killed
a man Saturday night the thirty six hundred block of
Robert Seabird Drive. Police say they found the vehicle and
identified the driver who did not stop after striking seventy
two year old Bill Clark at just before eight pm.
Clark died at a hospital shortly after the collision. The

(22:16):
Marion County municipality of Whitehall is growing and more space
is needed for city operations. The city has notified the
Valley Volunteer Fire Department that space the city leases to
the department for a substation will no longer be available
at least set the terminating in mid November. The fire
department is in search for new space, while the city
has scheduled a public workshop for next Monday to talk

(22:37):
about it. Whitehall Town Administrator Cindy Stover provided.

Speaker 16 (22:40):
This statement, As always, the residents and citizens of Whitehall
and the surrounding communities our first and foremost, our biggest concern,
and we will be discussing how we move forward with
this in mind.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
Food pantries across the state may see business pick up
if the federal government shutdown continues in the next weekend,
which could mean November one. Snap benefits are not available.
Putnam County Pastor Charlie May says they're serving an increasing
number of people who have jobs.

Speaker 17 (23:05):
We have seen that quite often here lately. They just
don't make enough to make kids beat. They are making
difficult decisions or whether to buy food or medicine, how
they could go at even shop anymore.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
You're listening to Metro News for forty years the voice
of West Virginia.

Speaker 18 (23:24):
What's the biggest myth about interscholastic performing arts that you
have to be the most talented or experienced to participate.
The truth is anyone can be a part of their
school's performing arts. There are countless opportunities for students to participate,
from theater, wire and band to speech and debate. The
bottom line, if you want to perform, there's a place

(23:46):
for you.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
This message presented by the NFHS and the WVSSAC.

Speaker 11 (23:54):
Hi.

Speaker 19 (23:54):
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survey practice lead in West Virginia. My journey with THEEC
started as a staff consultant in twenty fourteen. From surveys
to well pad design, CECS nurtured micro in twenty fifteen.
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At CEC, we engineer progress in the great state of
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Find out what CEC can do for you. Visit CECI Inc.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
Dot com and investigation is underway after a large fire
over the weekend in the community of Oregon Cave in
Greenbrier County. That fire was to a turkey storage facility.
Large fire there to a large turkey farm. No injuries reported.
Governor Patrick Morrisey has a new communications director, Lars del Saide.
Has worked with large organizations, including fifteen years with the

(24:45):
National Rifle Association, one of several appointments Morsey made in
recent days. From the Metro News anchor desk, I'm Jeff Jenkins.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
We'll get some more of your texts coming up at
three oh four Talk three oh four plus. TJ has
a commentary at wb metronews dot com this morning, the
rise of Republican socialism. Hmmm. We'll get into that coming
up next segment as well, three or four Talk three
or four of the text line and eight hundred seven
sixty five Talk eight hundred seven sixty five eight two

(25:37):
five five. That's the text line and the phone number.
Remember a couple of weeks ago, during interim committee meetings
down at the Capital, Cindy Bean, Commissioner of the West
Virginia Bureau for Medical Services addressed members of the Joint
Standing Committee on Finance to discuss the implementation of some
of the changes in the Big Beautiful Bill and the

(25:57):
cost associated with them, such as the Medicaid work requirements. Now,
she didn't have exact figures, but caution lawmakers there would
be a cost. But could that cost be mitigated through efficiencies? Well,
Jesse troyan of the Cardinal Institute, thinks so, and she
joins us this morning from the Charleston Studios. Jesse, good morning,
good morning.

Speaker 7 (26:18):
It's pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
Thank you for stopping by. So let's talk about this.
The Big Beautiful one, big beautiful Bill had these requirements
in these mandates in it, including the Medicaid work requirement,
there is going to be a cost implementing them? Or
does there have to be a cost to implement these changes?

Speaker 20 (26:34):
I think that the.

Speaker 7 (26:35):
Way the new requirements and the Big Beautiful Bill, particularly
as it relates to the Medicaid expansion population. And I
want to be clear to kind of detail that out
because a lot of the conversation, I think the full
Medicaid population versus the expansion, these numbers get conflated, so
it is a much smaller population that these new work requirements,

(26:58):
these new eligibility, the redeterminations going from once a year
to twice a year that they apply.

Speaker 5 (27:05):
To so they only apply to the expansion population.

Speaker 7 (27:09):
Correct, Okay, correct, So you've got that. And this is
the first time that a work requirement or as I
like to call it, a work expectation, has been implemented
for Medicaid programs, and these eligibility redeterminations, it's doubling the
amount of workload to it. So I think on a

(27:31):
certain level, yes, I think it's a little bit unavoidable
that just maintaining compliance with the work requirements, maintaining compliance
with the eligibility it's going to cost more just on
the shear just arithmetic of it, but that if we
continue to do things the way that we've always done them.

(27:52):
But I think in the same way, there's an opportunity
to rethink how we are running the back into these
programs from the administrative side, because I think, similarly to Medicaid,
SNAP is having new requirements implemented, and a lot of
folks who are participating in one of these programs are

(28:13):
probably participating in another. So why are we not leveraging
sort of these economies of scale in administration thinking about
making sure that people are complying with these work expectations.
Are we running the eligibility determinations that I think more
of that can be warehoused kind of across these different

(28:35):
programs that are here to help our fellow West Virginians
in hard times without saying, Okay, this program needs a
whole administrative staff, this one needs it. Bring these all
together because the administrative functions are not that different from
program to program.

Speaker 5 (28:54):
What about privatizing that.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
In what way? Do you mean?

Speaker 5 (28:58):
Outsource it to the secretord a contract with a company
that does this, that has those efficiencies of scale, take
it out that way.

Speaker 7 (29:04):
I think that that is an option that could be done,
but just from the sheer mechanics of it, to take
it away from Like Medicaid is running all the back
end administration, SNAP is running all the back end administration,
less of it For me personally, it's less of an
issue of.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
Who is doing it, but why why is.

Speaker 7 (29:24):
Each of these programs running a separate like administrative division.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Jesse Troyan is joining US director of Policy and Research
with the Cardinal Institute. Are there other states who have
already taken the approach you're talking about breaking down these
silos and kind of bringing everyone under one umbrella.

Speaker 7 (29:42):
Yes, absolutely, so, Utah is the gold standard for this,
and they've been running their operations like this since the nineties.
I believe it's nineteen ninety seven is when they brought
all of their programs together under what's called the Department
of Workforce Services. So you have your social safety net

(30:04):
programs and the workforce element of it. So it brings
everything together so that people who have hit hard times,
job seekers, employers and members of the community that can
provide these sort of wrap around services that are that
are administered with a little bit more of I guess

(30:25):
I would call it kind of a human touch, a
community touch, that it's all brought together under one roof,
so that when a person comes through the doors in
their time of trouble, the first question is hey, kind
of what's going on, Let's help you get reapplied for
a job, and also what else is going on?

Speaker 3 (30:46):
How can we help support you as you are.

Speaker 7 (30:49):
In this journey to re enter the workforce and really
kind of get get yourself back on stable ground.

Speaker 5 (30:56):
I'm with you. Efficiency, continuous improvement makes a ton of sense.
Is the view worth the climb? Are we going to
what kind of money are we going to have to
spend to get a system in place to do this?
Is there any study that says it's going to cost
X but the benefit is going to be Why?

Speaker 7 (31:10):
I have not seen a particular study that is going
to that's going to give us a really good idea
on what that's going to be from a cost perspective. Now,
to build off of what Dave was just asking here
earlier this year, Louisiana has made steps forward that their
legislature passed bipartisan bill to reorganize, integrate and really bring

(31:37):
that same one door model, that same one door ethos
to their state. They're in the early stages of implementation
on that, so my advice would be to keep close
tabs on what Louisiana is doing. They're facing They've got
kind of a similar demographic profile in terms of how
many people are participating in programs like medicaid and snap

(31:58):
poverty rates, low workforce participation rates, and I think we
could we could make some very educated guesses on what
the fiscal impact of that might be in a West
Virginia case looking at what Louisiana is taking on right now.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
Director of Policy and Research at the Cardinal Institute Jesse
Troy and joining us here on Metro News talk line.
So this would require some sort of legislative action or
is this something that could be done administratively through the
governor's office.

Speaker 7 (32:29):
I think it's a yes, and I think either direction
you could do it. Some states have gone through and
taken some of these measures through executive orders, through executive
branch action like I just mentioned, Louisiana went through and
kind of did it legislatively to really kind of cement

(32:51):
that as the will of the people. So it could
be done both ways. I am agnostics to which is better.
I just want to see us in West Virginia doing
a better job of taking care of our fellow West
Virginians when they're when they are hitting hard times, putting

(33:13):
them on a pathway back to stable ground self sufficiency,
and being mindful of the taxpayer dollar while we're doing it.

Speaker 5 (33:21):
Curious if Commissioner Being or anyone from the state has
reached out and say, hey, we're with you a good idea.

Speaker 7 (33:27):
Nobody has reached out to me yet on that front.
I've had some conversations with some legislators who have seen
the research that we've put out have seen the op
ed that I had in the gazette last week that
are interested in this, understand the implications that are coming
down the road for West Virginia and frankly for every

(33:48):
other state as a result of the big beautiful bill,
and our interested in finding solutions, finding good pathways forward
to be compliant and again be mindful of the taxpayer dollar.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Jessica Troy and Director of Policy and Research for Cardinal
Institute of West Virginia Policy Jesse, appreciate the perspective this morning.
Thank you very much, this interesting stuff. Thank you coming
up mister Meadows as a commentary over at wv metronews
dot com this morning from Washington to West Virginia. The
rise of Republican socialism. We'll get into that all right

(34:21):
after this.

Speaker 21 (34:23):
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Speaker 1 (34:37):
Plans that meet your needs.

Speaker 5 (34:38):
Log on to health plan dot org for more information.

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We are here.

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Speaker 2 (35:35):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Kova Insurance, encircling
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Visit Encova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
Coming up, Tabody R Daily will join us CO President
of Education West Virginia. We'll get his thoughts on the
proposed changes for Peia in twenty twenty six. If you've
got to WV Metro WV metronews dot com this morning,
mister Meadows has a commentary posted and it should grab
your attention just by the headline from Washington to West

(36:08):
Virginia The rise of Republican Socialism. Okay, would you care
to explain ToJ did you.

Speaker 5 (36:15):
Ever think the Party of Reagan would take a ten
percent steak and almost force Intel into taking a ten
percent steak when there are two other companies in Nvidia
and AMD that are rocking it and killing Intel in
the space. But we just had to go in and
give them money and own a part of the company.
I never knows the answer, but knows the answer. We
own fifteen percent of MP Materials, Rare Earth's Metals Company,

(36:38):
ten percent of Lithium Americans Corporation, ten percent of Trilogy Medals.
We have a golden share in US Steel. Looks like
more socialism than capitalism to me. I mean, when did
this happen? And I thought, Okay, maybe it's just a
Washington thing. Nope, we have Senator Brian Helton that wants
to tell private power companies when and how often to

(36:59):
run their power plant it sixty nine percent, even if
they're not cost effective. Central planning at its finest, my friend.
And this is conservative really no, But it's republican. Is
is that the new Republican? Exactly? I guess some call
it republican populism, but it's more than populism. I mean,
when you own shares in company, when you tell private

(37:21):
business what to do and you put mandates on how
they will operate their business. To me, that's owning or
controlling the means of production. I don't get it.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
Who did we bring this up with? Was it Steyirwalt?
Perhaps maybe Matt Lewis. Is this a symptom of Trump
changed the game? Right? President Trump changes the game by
coming in and saying, Okay, well, we're going to do
what you do. We're just going to do it better
and harder or more and harder. Right. Is this just

(37:52):
an outgrowth of that where you see this trickle down
into West Virginia politics, where you have some in the
Republican Party in the state legislation now proposing laws that
would seem like if it was nineteen ninety that would
be coming from the left side of the aisle.

Speaker 5 (38:05):
Yeah. I guess to the President, if he wants to
continue to dabble in private business, then go back to
the Trump organization and buy shares and intel and do
it that way. That's totally appropriate, and he may look
I'm not knocking him as a businessman. I'm just saying,
when you enter government, you have to check that at
the door. Mergers and acquisitions are no longer a thing

(38:26):
because the government shouldn't own private business, period, and I
think he's forgotten that. And yes, to answer your question,
I think that makes it more acceptable in state houses
for those who seek to emulate the president to start
talking about telling a private company how to run their
power plants or two private companies in this instance in
the state.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
And to bring that back home to what you're talking about,
that the energy policy. We had this debate or you
had the debate. I just kind of sat back and
watched there, but about a month ago with the senator
it was kind of fun. I enjoyed it. But to
bring it back home there, what's the difference ToJ posing
that a power plants power plants be required to run coal?
Was it sixty percent of the time sixt or requiring

(39:06):
them to requiring power companies to generate x amount x
percentage amount of power from alternatives? What's the difference between
the Green New Deal and what the Senator Helton would
be proposing, says he's going to propose during the twenty
six legislative session.

Speaker 5 (39:21):
You hit it, man, it's picking winners and losers either way.
In this instance, it's really not going to be renewables
that suffer from that plan, it's going to be natural gas,
based on my professional experience and doing that for twenty
odds some years. That's who's going to suffer out of this.
It's not going to be solar, it's not going to
be wind because gas sets the market most of the time.
And the other you know, let's just face it, the

(39:42):
other reality. West Virginians who already struggled, we just talked
about it, they're going to be, you know, even more
hard pressed to pay power bills that they can barely afford. Now,
how is that good? And let me ask you this, TJ.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
We were talking about this before the show, and it's
done on a original thought by me. I heard another
commentator bring this up at the federal level. Let me
bring it down to the state level. This energy policy
that Senator Helton is proposing, that this is significant, This
would have a very meaningful impact on the state.

Speaker 5 (40:13):
Agreed, absolutely, one hundred percent. It would be maybe some
of the most profound energy policy that this state has
passed in the last fifty years.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
In my humble opinion, I was under the impression, and
maybe this is my naivete, my ignorance speaking, when did
freshman lawmakers become so influential to propose such meaningful, impactful
legislation that very well could get taken up and passed
through the Senate this year. I mean, there's a few

(40:42):
people that we've done this job longer than they've had
their job, and that's he's one of them. We hosted
this show longer than he's been in the Senate, and
I just found that curious. And we see this at
the federal level too. People who have just been elected,
who haven't spent much time there seem to have outsized
influence on the direction either one and this is on
both sides out I believe outsized influence in the direction

(41:03):
their parties are going.

Speaker 5 (41:05):
I think what you're saying there is no your role.
Is that some of all kind of what you're saying
know your role, and uh, this goes for all legislators. Look,
energy is extremely complex. Energy wholesale markets are very complex.
That's the way it is. I can't do anything about that.
You got to dive in more before you start these

(41:26):
kinds of initiatives because the unintended consequences are just unbelievable.
So your point is well taken. You better be sure
what you're going to do before you do it. And
my counter on that has been Okay, if this is
the greatest thing since sliced bread, then let the state
be on the hook for the difference. If coal ends
up more expensive because you ran those plants when they're

(41:47):
not in the money, quote unquote, take the difference out
of the Rainy Day Fund because the utilities are just
going to pass it along as they should to the
rate payers. So Toby and Edith get to pay for it.
Let the stay pay for and you know what, if
that puts more coal miners back to work, we'll have
more tax revenue, more severns tax revenue. You'll be able
to make up the difference and replenish the Rainy Day Fund.

(42:09):
Just do that.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
We'll get a couple of text in three or four
Talk three or four you can read the comments.

Speaker 14 (42:13):
Arry.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
Go to wv metro news dot com. It's over on
the right hand side. We'll get your texts coming up.
Tell you what's coming up our number two. This is
talk line from the Cove Insurance Studios.

Speaker 21 (42:23):
Governor Patrick Morrissey has set a very bold goal fifty
gigawats a new energy capacity by twenty fifty thanks to
house build twenty fourteen, West Virginia's coal plans will be
upgraded to run longer, stronger, and more efficiently, thus delivering reliable,
affordable baseload power. Our families and businesses will be able

(42:44):
to count on. West Virginia Coal Association President Chris Hamilton
stated Governor Morrissey's plan to grow West Virginia's energy generation
capacity to fifty gigawatts by twenty fifty is a dynamic
approach to economic development which will supercharge our state's coal
industry and broader economy. With Governor Morrisy's leadership and the

(43:05):
action of the legislature, West Virginia is once again America's
energy leader. Cold is powering progress. Cole is powering West Virginia.
Brought to you by the West Virginia Coal Association.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
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(44:01):
Mega Million's jack pot is up to seven hundred and
fourteen million, So go ahead play today. Dale Lee coming
up top of the hour. We'll talk to him about
the premium increase proposed for Peia and what about that
spousal surcharge. We'll get his take. Chared Halpern will join us.
Joe Ricado, we'll stop by as well. Three or four
talk three oh four. Come on, guys, Trump is not Republican.

(44:23):
He's anti Democrat. There's something to that. There's something to
what the texter said there, because I don't know if
it was you or a texter now, sorry, I throw
you into the textures there. TJ. Is Trump conservative?

Speaker 5 (44:35):
No?

Speaker 1 (44:36):
No is the answer. I don't think he's ever been.
Has he been anti Democrat?

Speaker 5 (44:40):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (44:40):
And I think there are a lot of Republicans. Well,
I don't know a lot, TJ. There are a number,
how's that for a generic wide paint brush, A number
of Republicans who are simply anti Democrat at this point,
and look that goes both ways. There are Democrats who
are just simply anti Republican. At this point.

Speaker 5 (44:57):
Trump's about Trump and can do to bolster his ratings.
He is not a conservative, nor has he ever been
a conservative.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
No, no, no, you can't wrap that around democrats. This
is the first time the government has owned parts of
private business. DIM programs offer send money and incentives, not
direct ownership. TJ. You should buy shares and electricity, water,
natural gas. You better believe a government entity is going
to tell you how to run your business because they

(45:28):
are public utilities. TJ. You have no clue what socialism is.
It is when workers own the means of production. This
Republican stuff is authoritarianism, where the government controls what you do,
when you do it, how you do it.

Speaker 5 (45:44):
Call it whatever you like. I don't care. I don't
like it. I mean the government owning a share in
a private business. Come on, come on, sorry, not sorry.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
Texter says, Hey, fellows, remember that Trump used to be
a Democrat. He's no conservative. Three or four talk three
zero four. S should come as no surprise that the
current Republican elliot print supports socialist ideas, since he was
recently registered socialist. Republican socialism isn't new, It's been around
for decades, says the text three h four talk three

(46:17):
oh four is the text line, let me see TJ.
Contracting on the surface makes sense because they pay real
money and get production, but they still pay using our budget.
Look at military lots of contracts that make millionaires, says
the text. Back to your idea to contract out that
medical services. I mean you have to pay them, but

(46:38):
are they more efficient? And if you're getting efficiency even
if you're paying them, then that's a good trade off
in my mind. All right, Coming up, we'll talk to
tail Lee. We'll talk it a little Peia premium rate
increase for twenty twenty six plus an additional search charge.
We'll get into that conversation. Joe Ricado stops by. We'll
talk a little sports boy. If you're a college football

(46:59):
coach and you're not winning every game by forty, you
might be in trouble this year. We'll get into sports.
Coming up, BoNT of the Hour with Joe Briccado your
text as well three or four Talk three four and
phone calls eight hundred and seven to sixty five Talk
brisk first hour, Go get you a croissant. Come back
for hour number two. This is talk Line Metro News
for forty years, the voice of West Virginia Metro News.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
Talk Line is presented by Encova Insurance, encircling you with
coverage to protect what you care about most. Visit incova
dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Metro News talk line already in progress here on Monday
morning from the Encova Insurance Studios Dave Wilson and Morgantown
TJ's in Charleston. Zach Carrol Chick, Man of the People
is on our video stream. If you're watching on the
Metro News TV app. Sophia wasse handling the audio side
of things. If you're listening in on one of our
great affiliates across the state of West Virginia, Joe Riccatto.

(48:02):
Bottom of the hour, we'll get an update on Mountaineer basketball.
Couple of exhibition games yesterday, men and women tuning up
for their season openers next weekend of course, Mountaineer's fall
at home on homecoming to TCU, A slew of high
school games, and we're starting to get to the postseason
of high school fall sports. Joe Riccato will join us
to talk about all of that. Jared Halpern on the

(48:23):
President's trip to Asia as well. Good morning, mister Meadows.

Speaker 5 (48:27):
Good morning. It's tough for me to feel bad for
Brian Kelly, if I'm being honest with you, fifty million
dollars fifty four million?

Speaker 21 (48:34):
Right?

Speaker 5 (48:35):
I was it fifty four Okay?

Speaker 1 (48:36):
Well, it was a part of that story that I
did not understand. He's owed fifty four million in the
macal and the press release said that they were negotiating
the terms of the of the departure. I was like, what, man,
if I get fired, what's to negotiate pay me?

Speaker 5 (48:51):
Yeah? Okay, I don't know. I mean, is that one
of these things where you try to bring up well, all,
you know, coach, you did this, and that might have
been a I don't know to me. The university has
no leverage to your point, I fired him. I wouldn't think.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
Maybe that's something. Maybe that's a question for Brad Howe. Oh,
I think the three guys are going to be in
later today. We'll ask I'll ask him off the air
or I know, I don't have a buyout, so I
know George could walk down here right now and send
me home, and you know, it's it's pretty much as
to it. Well, I know they're in meetings this morning.
He's not listened right now. I can say that, Okay,

(49:30):
three or four Talk three or four is the tax
line at eight hundred and seven to sixty five, Talk
is the phone number. Last week, the pei A Finance
Board rolled out its first proposal for health insurance plans
for next year for state employees that included a three
percent premium increase, aggregate increase, and a two hundred dollars
increase to the spousal sir charge. Dale Lee's co president

(49:50):
of Education West Virginia. He's had some time to digest
those proposed changes, and he joins us on Metro News
talk line this morning. Dale, good morning, good to talk
to you again.

Speaker 13 (50:00):
Talk to you and you got to get a better agent.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
Working. Well, you're retiring? Are you going to be available soon?

Speaker 13 (50:10):
I get seven dollars in twenty seven cents if they
make me leave before my time.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Shop Well, Dale, you've seen the proposed changes now that
the eighty twenty split with the state government is back
in balance. Is this kind of what you expected with
these three percent proposed premium increases?

Speaker 13 (50:31):
Really, with the year that PEI had and in the
year in the positive, I wasn't sure what to expect,
whether there would be no increase at all or small increase.
What I would rather see is is small increases over
time rather than no increase, no increase, no increase, huge increase.

(50:54):
But it's about what I expected. What I didn't expect
is the search oars to continue to arize. And you
know last month that the Finance Board, meaning I advocated
that that be put on a percentage basis, so that
the custodian making twenty five thousand dollars a year spouse

(51:15):
works at gomart pays a percentage rather than the same
price that the superintendent making one hundred and eighty thousand pays.

Speaker 5 (51:24):
So back up on that, that is what the policy
is now.

Speaker 13 (51:28):
The policy the statute says that you have to pay
the actuarial value, which that everybody pays the same amount,
and that's one of the areas that we will be
looking at in this legislative session to change that so
that you can do it like the premiums, that it
be in aggregate actuarial value, so that it's a more

(51:50):
fair system.

Speaker 5 (51:52):
I'll be honest with you, it kind of surprises me.
Surprises me. It's not like that already because to your point,
that's how the premiums are. The more you make, the
more you pay. Kind of surprised the spousal was not
like that already. If I'm completely candid.

Speaker 13 (52:03):
With you, it's I questioned that, and they had to
legal people look at the statutes and are convinced that
it has to be a tatorial change before we can
do it that way.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
So that would Dale, that would require a legislative action.

Speaker 13 (52:21):
Yes, it will. And again that's that's easy to do.
And you can adopt this plan, make the legislative changes necessary,
and even add additional money to it, and come back
out in the spring with another plan. We've done that before.
Because this plan doesn't go into effect until July one six,

(52:42):
how do.

Speaker 5 (52:43):
I know what a spouse makes? I mean, there has
to be some kind of mechanism to verify that.

Speaker 13 (52:46):
I would think, Well, if they work in West Virginia
in the tax department.

Speaker 7 (52:52):
Know.

Speaker 5 (52:54):
That's fair point.

Speaker 1 (52:55):
Well, we're assuming that these departments all talk to each
other day. We had just had a conversation about that earlier.
There's that's a pretty broad assumption that these departments are
working to in cohesion with each other.

Speaker 13 (53:08):
No, that's that's above my pay grade.

Speaker 5 (53:12):
Go ahead, Dale said, you're retiring soon, man, Just let
it go.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
That's the freedom. You have Dale Lee joining us COP.

Speaker 13 (53:20):
That's one of the problems with government though, is that
we really don't have the discussion so that you need
to have Dale Lee.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
Joining US co president of Education at West Virginia, the
Teachers Union, the a f T, and the dody v
e A officially combining a couple of months ago. Dale,
we had all of this talk all summer long about
the possibility of a special session. We were going to
get together and fix p e i A. That never materialized.
Let me pose the question to you, do we know

(53:49):
what's broken with p e i A to fix it?

Speaker 13 (53:54):
Uh? You know, healthcare is a national issue and there
are some fake is that need to be made. One
that high cost of prescription drugs. I counted the other night.
I was watching the baseball game, and in the first
three innings, which covered bought maybe forty five minutes, I

(54:17):
counted at least four drug commercials. You know, those things
are costly, and that's an issue. When you can go
to Canada and pay to go to Canada and buy
drugs cheaper than you can buy them here, prescription drugs
cheaper than you can buy them here, that's an issue.
So that's one area. The second is that having everybody

(54:39):
come to table and everyone having some skin in the game.

Speaker 5 (54:45):
Talk to me about this proposed conversion of the Plan
D options. So I understand that's a lower premium plan
that requires members to be West Virginia residents one and
you have to receive all services in West Virginia except
for emergency care or specific procedures that aren't covered in
the states. I'd like to know what your opinion, what

(55:07):
the organization's opinion is of that plan.

Speaker 13 (55:09):
Well, basically, we have that plan available now, it's the
Plan D. One of the differences is we're adding a
health savings account to that in the state's pain I
think in this proposal five hundred dollars court. So if
you are young and healthy, Plan A may not be

(55:29):
the best plan for you, may not be financially the
best plan for you. And that's what we're going to
do in this next enrollment period is to do a
much better job of educating our members on the differences
of the plans, the cost of the plan and the
savings that you could see.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
How many people are choosing that Plan D option. Do
you have a do we have a rough estimate, or
do that have accurate numbers.

Speaker 13 (55:58):
They have accurate numbers. I don't. I'm guessing more than
eighty percent of the people are in Plan A because
when you sign your contract, that's what most of the
HR people in the county say is, well, most people
are in Plan A, so that's what you mean to do.
And for younger people who are healthy and don't go

(56:21):
to the doctor, that may not be the best plan.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
You know, Dale, I'm just thinking about when I was
twenty two, twenty three years old coming out of college.
There's a lot of things you don't know, and when
you're in the room with the HR person, they say,
this is the plan most people take. That's probably the
box that I would check without giving it as much thought.

Speaker 13 (56:39):
There there's no question in the box that most people
take because at twenty two I knew very little. At
sixty eight, I know very little. But you know, it's
that you do what it suggested, and when most people
are doing that, that's what you take. That's why we've
asked PIA, and it's going to be the goal with

(57:01):
a new organization to do a better job of educating
our members on what the different plans are.

Speaker 5 (57:09):
I'm going to spitball something with you, and I'm not
even sure how I feel about it. I'll caveat that.
But should there come a time, given the financial constraints
that we have that when we onboard new people, or
when we have re enrollment every year based on health status.
To your point, if someone is relatively healthy and they

(57:30):
don't have conditions that maybe a PPO would warrant, should
we persuade or even mandate force them into a high
deductible plan.

Speaker 13 (57:41):
I don't know forcing them is the answer. I think
educating them is a better answer and letting people make
their decisions from that. But the big part of that
is educating it that you just don't know what you
don't know, and so I'm an advocate for that. We
have that, and the organization advocated to the last couple

(58:04):
PI Finance BORT meetings, and that's one of our goals
for this spring.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
There will be public reviews of the proposed plan for
pei A, in fact, starting November third, up in Wheeling
November sixth, and Beckley November tenth, Martinsburg, so on and
so on. From there, there'll be town halls all over
the state, including the virtual town hall later this month
on the proposed changes to pei A. We'll keep a
close eye on that.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
Dale.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
Always appreciate you coming on, buddy, Thank you very much.

Speaker 13 (58:34):
Thank you guys, absolutely and work on that agent for
that bio clause.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
We're going to get on that next time around. Daily.
Co President of Education West Virginia coming up a couple
of your text Jared Halper will check in as the
President visits Asia. This is talk line from the Encove
Insurance Studios.

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Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
We'll get to some of your texts coming up at
three or four Talk three oh four. You can always
give us a call at eight hundred and seven sixty
five Talk eight hundred and seven sixty five, eight two
five five. That's is the phone number. President Trump is
traveling in Asia. He made a stop in Malaysia on
to Japan today, then we'll be in South Korea and
is scheduled to meet with Chinese leader Xijing Ping this

(01:00:36):
week as well. Jared Halpern Fox News Radio is keeping
up with the president, joins us on Metro News talk
Line this morning. Jared, good morning, Good morning. So President
Trump and Jijingping will be meeting later this week, and
I guess there's optimism of a trade deal. There's a
framework in place. What do we know so far?

Speaker 14 (01:00:56):
Yeah, that's what Scott Besson, the Treasury Secretary, has said.
Actually China would agree to purchase US soybeans. Keep in mind,
Beijing those companies have boycotted US soybeans this entire growing season.
It has been, as some Swabean farmers have described the
Fox radio, a bloodbath for them. They have been putting

(01:01:17):
all of these soybeans in storage. China the number one
buyer of American soybeans, and they have gone elsewhere this year.
That has been in recaliation to some of the tariffs
that President Trump has imposed. This framework agreement essentially would
see China make those purchases of US soybeans. The Trump
administration back away from a one hundred percent hike on

(01:01:39):
existing Chinese goods beginning next week. President Trump, speaking of
reporters on Air Force One, said he thinks we will
have a successful transaction for both countries. Also said that
a final deal on TikTok could be reached. But it's
also notable that in these remarks to reporters, the President

(01:02:00):
left open the possibility that all of this could fall apart.
He was basically like, sometimes things told and then we
get in the room and they are different. So let's
see how this goes over the next couple of days.
But at least right now, there is strong signals from
Scott Besson that this escalating tariff war may have a

(01:02:22):
bit of a cease fire as both sides kind of
push back a little bit from what had been expected
to be unsustainable level of cares. I mean, even President
Trump said one hundred and fifty five percent tariff is
not sustainable and he hoped they wouldn't have to be imposed.
So both countries certainly have been looking for an off ramp.

(01:02:43):
That appears that they are closed. We'll see how that
goes to President Trump from President she when they meet Thursday.
It's Thursday our time in South Korea.

Speaker 5 (01:02:56):
Share with Besson's comments, I mean, the market liked it.
They rally this morning. Are those comments also directly to
the Chinese as well, to say, hey, we're trying to
come in here with good faith and try to set
the right tone, at least publicly.

Speaker 14 (01:03:08):
No, they follow negotiations that happened in Malaysia. So economic
teams from both sides have been meeting over the last
several weeks ahead of this meeting between the two presidents.

Speaker 13 (01:03:19):
The idea usually is that by the.

Speaker 14 (01:03:22):
Time the leaders get into the room together, an awful
lot of stuff has been agreed to, and they really
just have to be the closers, and so that's always
been the hope. So these comments from Veston actually followed
would have been weeks of negotiations, including some pretty high
level talks that involved the US trade representatives. Greer in

(01:03:44):
Malaysia with his Chinese counterparts a few days.

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
Ago talking to Jared Halpern Fox News Radio, the President
traveling in Asia this week, sets meet with Chinese leader
Xijingping later this week as part of that trip. So
where do well, where does access to rare earth minerals
fit into these talks?

Speaker 14 (01:04:05):
That will certainly be part of what they discuss. Recalled
one of the issues that President Trump has had with
China is these export controls that basically limited the rare earths,
the critical minerals that China would export out of the country. Now,
China has kind of pushed back on that and said
that this is a misinterpretation, a misrepresentation of what it

(01:04:28):
is that they were trying to do. They had hoped
that these talks would maybe better being said the US,
the Trump administration has been trying over the last several
months to really diversify the supply chain here for these
rare earths. You've seen these projects get quickly, for mining
projects in Alaska. You have seen the US sign these

(01:04:52):
critical mineral deals with Australia, with its believes Indonesia could
be a part of that, certainly Ukraine, and so that
is a big part of the US China relationship, but
the United States is hoping it becomes a less important
part of the US China relationship in the years ahead.

Speaker 5 (01:05:15):
So deal on soybean's some kind of framework on rare
earth potentially. Let's talk about the other side of the transaction.
What are we giving the Chinese.

Speaker 14 (01:05:24):
Well, the big thing would be not imposing one hundred
and fifty five percent tariff rates on all of their imports. Right,
that's a massive tax, and a lot of that's going
to be paid by American consumers obviously, but an awful
lot of that also, at least if history is our guide,
has kind of been covered by the Chinese government. Remember,

(01:05:45):
their economy is much more state controlled than ours, and
so they've been trying to eat some of that cost
companies for their exporters. So that would be one of
the big one of the big concessions from China or
to China would be continuing to buy Chinese products because

(01:06:05):
there's those tariffs hit, you know, massive levels, record levels.
US buyers, US companies are going to go elsewhere, right,
and so that was always been the issue for China
is how sustainable those types of tariffs would be for
its economy.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
Box News Radios Jared Halpern as President Trump travels in
Asia this week. Jared, always appreciate the uptick, Thank you
very much, sure thing, take care absolutely three or four
talk three or four is the text line eight hundred
and seven six five eight two five five. You see
how it was nice there, TJ. And did not bring
up the Dallas Cowboys yesterday. That's nice to Jared.

Speaker 5 (01:06:45):
I was watching it. Yeah, you know, yeah, man, Denver
just ran over. But you know, Denver dropped some passes
yesterday that were just like gimmes. The score would have
been a lot higher. I don't know if you caught
any of those, but I mean they had some issues
yesterday too. But it's nice as you. I did not
save Dave Allen, by the way, I probably n you

(01:07:07):
know he doesn't.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
I'll tell you this, that game looked good because Denver
was in the old Orange crush uniforms. The John Elway
watch Crush uniforms. Dallas has the classic look. As much
as I hate it, it was a very, very esthetically
pleasing game to watch, unlike the Sunday night game. Those Steelers,
I know, there's a reason they get. They did not

(01:07:28):
continue wearing those uniforms throughout the entire history of the franchise.
Leave them in the past. Those were terrible. Not to
mention that it was terrible in that game as well.

Speaker 5 (01:07:38):
I didn't watch that one, but.

Speaker 1 (01:07:40):
You didn't miss much. And the Packers wore white helmet.
That was as good as that Denver Dallas game looked
a couple of classic looks, looked like professional football, looked
like I was watching, you know, some high school game
out of Western PA yesterday and the Sunday night.

Speaker 5 (01:07:56):
You watch every game on Sundays. It was like your
veg out day and you turn it on.

Speaker 1 (01:08:00):
So it just depends on what I'm doing and how
busy I am. And usually usually NFL's on his kind
of background noise, to be honest, and a lot of
times I'm traveling on Sundays, where I'm coming back from wherever,
you know, whatever college game wherever Marshall is playing on Saturday,
so sure don't catch a lot of it all the time.
All right, coming up, Joe Bricado, who does not care
about uniforms, will join us. We'll talk about the Mountaineers

(01:08:22):
game against TCU, basketball getting started, and fall sports in
high school athletics is starting to head into postseason play
as well. Joe will get us updated on all of
the above when he joins US. Plus, we'll get to
your text messages three or four talk three oh four.
We're going to do an open segment where you can
give us a call at eight hundred seven six five
Talk eight hundred and seven to sixty five eight two

(01:08:44):
five five. That's the phone number. The text line once
again is three or four Talk three oh four. Joe
Bricatto metch new Sport's going to join US Basket. It's
hard to believe it's basketball season already, men's and women's
teams for the Mountaineers holding an exhibition over the weekend.
They'll be tipping off UH in a week. Oh can
the boy this year is flying by Joe Bricado joins

(01:09:05):
US next. This is talk Line on Metro News for
forty years, the Voice of West Virginia. It is eleven
thirty and time to get a news update. Let's check
in on the Metro News radio network find out what's
happening across the great state of West Virginia.

Speaker 23 (01:09:20):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Chris Lawrence. A four year
old murder case in Kenawa County is finally going to
trial today.

Speaker 24 (01:09:27):
Michael Wayne Smith faces several charges, which include first degree
murder and concealment of a dead body. Smith is accused
of killing thirty five year old Cheyenne Johnson back in
twenty twenty one and disposing of her body in a well.
Johnson was reported missing from the Cottageville area of Jackson
County on April twenty ninth of twenty twenty one. Her
body was recovered a few days later in a well
near Sisamville. Involved in the murder was Virginia Smith, who

(01:09:50):
has agreed to testify against Michael Smith. Virginia Smith plead
a guilty to first degree murder, concealment of a dead body,
and using a firearm during a felony in twenty twenty three.
The two are not related. I'm Aaron Parker, wv Metronews
dot Com.

Speaker 23 (01:10:04):
Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court being asked to
appoint a three judge panel to hear evidence in a
bid to remove Marshall County Assessor Eric Buzzard from office.
Buzzard is facing charges of embezzlement of more than one
hundred thousand dollars. His bond was revoked Friday when he
violated a no contact stipulation of his bond agreement. He
was arrested in neighboring Ohio and his jail there awaiting extradition.

(01:10:25):
A Jefferson County woman has headed to prison for a
conviction of forging public documents and an effort to fraudulently
create a new business. Fifty three year old Dana Phillips
pleaded guilty to forgree and she was sentenced in September.
Berkeley County Shows Deputy Dennis Jenkins said an employee of
the Jefferson Security Bank tipped off investigators of the potential fraud.
You're listening to Metro News for forty years the Voice

(01:10:47):
of West Virginia.

Speaker 9 (01:10:49):
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.

Speaker 10 (01:10:55):
App Peak Advantage twenty twenty six is bigger and better
with new benefits like the Aging WEL program.

Speaker 11 (01:11:01):
It could be yoga classes, it's exercise classes, it could
be different programs like We're going to have the FBI
involved to help out with like scams.

Speaker 9 (01:11:10):
Listen to Live Healthy West Virginia for candid conversations with
insights for improving your health and wellbeing. Live Healthy West
Virginia is presented by WVU Medicine.

Speaker 21 (01:11:19):
Attention high school football fans. If you're wondering where your
team ranks each week, check out the Tutors Biscuit World
Power Rankings at wv metronews dot com. Each Tuesday morning,
Metro News will update the power rankings for all four classes,
and to find out where your favorite team ranks, simply
go to wv metronews dot com, click on the high
School Sports tab, and then the high School Power Rankings.

(01:11:41):
Twenty twenty five. Metro News Power Rankings are presented by
Tutors Biscuit World. Start your day the homemade way. Visit
them at tutorsbiscuit World dot com.

Speaker 23 (01:11:50):
Families in some cases are struggling to make ends meet,
and they're relying a lot more on food pantries to
help get meals, and the government shutdowns only making it worse.
With the snapman fits about to dry up, Winfield Methodist
Church minister Charlie Mays says the times are reflected at
their food pantry.

Speaker 17 (01:12:08):
We're seeing a lot of people come out for food.
Help with utility bills. We're seeing people we haven't seed
ever covered out.

Speaker 5 (01:12:18):
From the Metro News anchored desk.

Speaker 23 (01:12:20):
Guy, I'm Chris Lawrence.

Speaker 1 (01:12:41):
Three or four. Talk three or four is the text line,
eight hundred and seven to sixty five. Talk. That's the
phone number. Pittsburgh uniforms last night were still better than
those jailbreak uniforms, says the Texter. Yeah, but they were
still bad. Pittsburgh's got a classic look. Green Bay's got
a classic look. You don't need a with it. Just play,

(01:13:02):
just play. I know, I know you want to sell
jerseys and memorabilia. I get the game. But such a
classic look, no need to ruin it Over at WV
Metronews dot com. This morning, the Tutor's Biscuit World High
school football power rankings are out, as voted upon by
the highly esteemed broadcasters across the state. Class four A
Huntington remains number one. Actually, no change through the top

(01:13:24):
eight teams. You've got Martinsburg, Morgantown University, George Washington your
top four. Triple A Bridgeport still number one, Double A
Frankfurt has overtaken Independence after independence loss to Princeton, and
in Class single A Mohamma remains number one. See the
full rankings at WDV metronews dot com. To discuss that
and more, please welcome to the program, Metro News Sports.

(01:13:45):
Joe Braccado. Joe, good to talk to.

Speaker 25 (01:13:47):
You, Dave, your opinion about the White House renovations last
week matches mine about football uniforms.

Speaker 1 (01:13:56):
I do not care, Amen, brother, I understand, I understand
ten where you're coming from.

Speaker 5 (01:14:01):
Man, But do you care about the White House renovation? Joe?

Speaker 25 (01:14:07):
Anyway, Yes, as you were saying, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:14:11):
Let's start with some hoops men's and women's exhibition games
yesterday as the Mountaineers tune up for the regular season
to begin in just about a week.

Speaker 25 (01:14:18):
Yeah, we're entering the overlap season where basketball starts and
football kind of hits the stretch run. But the Mate
men's and women's basketball teams both hosting a double header
of exhibition games with the Coliseum. Yesterday the Bat's Near
Men with a comfortable twenty six point victory over Wheeling.
Honestly good performance from Wheeling. I think they're a team
that in the Mountain East Conference probably has some potential

(01:14:41):
ad some good things this year. But for West Virginia,
this was Ross Hodge's first chance to step out of
the coliseum lights and see how his team would do.
I think shooting the ball, he probably could have asked
for a little bit of a better performance, maybe something
closer to what he got in the closed scrimmage against
Maryland the previous weekend, but still performance where lots of
guys got to play and you got them under the

(01:15:03):
Colisseeam lights for the first time. And then the Man's
Year Women in the second half of the doubleheader, defeating
paramunt States pretty handily. It was a kind of a foulfest.
There were twenty nine fouls called on both teams, so
it was a parade to the free throw line for
a lot of the contest. But you know, Mark Kellogg's
got a squad that he likes, number one through eleven

(01:15:24):
on the roster, and it's a team that's probably going
to be a deeper squad than the one that he
had last year that won twenty five games.

Speaker 5 (01:15:32):
Who stood out yesterday On the men's.

Speaker 25 (01:15:33):
Side, I think Harlan Obioha, the seven foot center now.
Granted going up against a Division two team, that was
an obvious matchup advantage that the Mountaineers had, and Obioha
certainly took advantage of that, nearing a double double. And
brand Laurian had some good minutes as well, so I
think he was certainly a standout. I think for the

(01:15:55):
w women, probably the best performance team from Sydney. Woodley,
a bench player last year that didn't contribute a great deal,
but sheet could likely work her way into starting the lineupcase.
She scored fifteen points for the Matts years yesterday. So
you know, it's just good to see some basketball and
to kind of the offseason is so long and you
project so much about which players might be able to

(01:16:17):
do this or how teams are going to look. It's
going to be good when we get the regular season
started next week for both of those teams to kind
of put it into practice and see what we'll have.

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
Basketball will get the season started about a week from today.
Over on the football Field Joe Mountaineers taking on TCU
on homecoming. TCU gets the early lead, maintains that comes
away with a twenty three seventeen victory. I know, I
know there are no moral victories in sports, but if
you were the Mountaineers, you're rich Ron Riguez. What's the

(01:16:47):
positives to take away from Saturday?

Speaker 25 (01:16:49):
Well, you can look at a couple of things, and
certainly the effort. I think the energy was better throughout
the game, and you know, it just was not there
coming out of the off week at UCF. Griguez comment
that the team looked flat and just didn't have the
level of intensity that they needed. That was there against
TCU and the crowd that was pretty strong to watch

(01:17:11):
a two and five football team branded you always get
a bump with homecoming, But I do think the energy
was better. Defensively, the mount Tiers stood up pretty well
against the TCU offense that came in averaging thirty six
points per game, and they held them to twenty three.
So you have to consider that a success. And I
think you have to be encouraged with what Scotty Fox
was able to do from the quarterback position late in

(01:17:33):
the game, leading a drive that got West Virginia within
a score late had a chance. If the defense could
have come up with the turnover and gotten a stop
in the final two minutes, that Fox might have had
a chance to pull out a victory. But unfortunately for
the Mountaineers, they fall to zero to five and Big
twelve play and they get into a month of November. Now, guys,

(01:17:53):
where they're two and six overall, and they're going to
be playing three of the better teams in the comp
friends in Houston, Arizona State, and Texas. Colorado is in
there as well. They'll come to Morgantown next weekend. But
it's a very difficult stretch to close out the season
for the Mountaineers.

Speaker 5 (01:18:12):
So it's tough to win when you go three for
fourteen on third down, you only run forty one yards
the whole game, and.

Speaker 25 (01:18:18):
That was one of the first things that Rodriguez mentioned.
You know, they can't run the ball for forty yards
and expect to win a game. Now, they were able
to overcome that with some good players in the passing game,
but this is not when Rodriguez and the Mountiers are
able to get this thing crank back up the way
that he wanted. The running game is going to lead
the way that is the way that Rodriguez teams have
been built, and then you you know, kind of sprinkle

(01:18:40):
everything around it. It's just not there right now. And
it's a combination of injuries in the backfield, the youth
in the backfield, and an offensive line that has performed
below expectations. But yeah, as you said, TJ's it's a
tough road to hoe when you're not able to take
a little bit of pressure off quarterback with helping him

(01:19:01):
out with.

Speaker 14 (01:19:01):
A good running game.

Speaker 1 (01:19:02):
Interesting sports, Joe Arcado joining us. We've got highlights, recaps
photos from the Mountain Air basketball and football games over
at wv metronews dot com. High school football enters week
number ten. This week, Joe, let's put a bow on
week number nine. What stood out last Friday night?

Speaker 25 (01:19:18):
Well, Martinsburg is still good and anybody who wrote them
off after their ower and two start, I think, well, okay,
nobody did that, let's be honest, good or nobody should
have done that. But Martinsburg with a forty two to
nothing victory over Spring Mills in a rematch of the
Quade title game from a year ago. And I think
because Martinsburg team has really built throughout the course of
the season, particularly with many more options in their running game,

(01:19:42):
and you knew that Martinsburg was going to catch their
stride at some point, and certainly they appear to have
done that. I think that was one of the biggest performances.
Have to take your cap to Frankfurt. They won their
twenty third consecutive game and they're a double A team.
That Hoover about the final of thirty seven to twenty five.
And he also had a battle of unbeaten teams in
Princeton where Princeton knocked off Independence to move to eight

(01:20:05):
and zero on the year. Independence playing up against the
Triple A opponent there double a squat, So I think
John Lilly probably leaves that game pretty hardened with what
his Independence team was able to do against an unbeaten
Triple A team. But those are some of the significant
results from week nine.

Speaker 5 (01:20:23):
I want to circle back to college ball for a second.
This story about McAfee stepping up and bailing out whoever
he built out. I'm not interested in knowing who it is,
but I want to talk about that dynamic. I mean,
that's new for WVU, right I mean, they got a
payroll now they have to meet. Liquidity is a real thing.
That's just one more thing in this ever changing landscape
of college football that you have to account for.

Speaker 25 (01:20:44):
And it does raise the issue of you know, certainly
money comes in in various forms from donors, but there's
a difference between money in hand and money that is
pledged or anticipated to be there. And apparently, from McAfee's
comments on game day, that's a situation where they needed
to fill a gap. And yeah, you're talking about this

(01:21:07):
brave new world of college sports, and not just football,
but other sports as well are getting into and you know,
it calls to mind and brings a focus on how
much more schools now have to bring to the table
in terms of not only name, image and likeness opportunities,
but to be competitive with their conference schools, their neighboring

(01:21:29):
schools when it comes to revenue sharing. And West Virginia
has said that they are going to fund at or
near the limit and appear to be at the limit
of twenty and a half million dollars and that number
will go percentage wise up in the coming years. But yeah,
you're talking about things that you twenty years ago would

(01:21:50):
never even have to fathom that are into the college
sports landscape, and now they're front and center with the
players that you're trying to bring in.

Speaker 5 (01:21:58):
Joe got about it at a line of credit.

Speaker 1 (01:22:01):
Joe got about a minute to go here, buddy, give
us a Rundown high school football enters Week ten this week.
But a lot of fall sports are into their postseason.
What's coming up?

Speaker 25 (01:22:10):
Yeah, we tend of the high school football seasons, so
there's two weeks left. It could be the end for
some teams if they're by week is week eleven with
the playoff picture now coming into focus for a number
of teams. You've also got a number of other sports
that are getting into put the latter stages of postseason play.
You've got the state cross country Championships at Tavil Midland
High School coming up this Saturday. That's the first four

(01:22:30):
class edition of that. You've got regional finals in state
high school soccer, so teams will not punch their ticket,
but they will scan their ticket to get to the
state soccer tournament later this week. And you've also got
regional volleyball playoffs starting as well later this week. So
lots of brackets and a pretty good timing year.

Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
From a sports fan in the state, Joe Broccano, He's
the hardest working man in sports media. Always appreciate it.
Thank you, Joe.

Speaker 25 (01:22:55):
You didn't appreciate my punch the ticket versus school ticket.
I thought that was I was rich.

Speaker 1 (01:23:00):
Buddy, I was grinting. I'm so proud of you. I'm speechless,
so proud. Thank you, Joe. Yeah, Metro New Sports Joe Bracado,
he knows, he understands. There are no tickets being punched.
Let's talk line from the Incovie search.

Speaker 26 (01:23:14):
Studios days, evenings, weekends and holidays. You can't predict when
you'll get sick or heard, but WVU Medicine Urgent Care
is prepared to help when you do. Our team treats
minor illnesses and injuries and perform services like on site
lab and imaging, vaccinations, and sports physicals. WVU Medicine is

(01:23:35):
ready to assist you and your family when life happens.
To find the closest location near you, visit Wvumedicine dot
org slash Urgent Care.

Speaker 27 (01:23:49):
The West Virginia farmer from dawn until dusk. Through hard work, dedication,
and resilience, these folks supply their communities with a safe
and reliable product. West Virginia Farm Bureau, while we are
right there with them as the voice of agriculture in
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(01:24:10):
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Speaker 2 (01:24:28):
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Speaker 1 (01:24:38):
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(01:24:58):
Mega Millions jackpot is seven hundred and fourteen million, So so
go ahead play today. I was watching College Game Day.
I don't get a chance to really watch it much again,
usually somewhere covering Marshall with the radio broadcasts for the
Thundering Herd, but this was a rare occasion. Set of homes,
drinking some coffee watching college game day. And I heard
McAfee make that statement on Saturday TJ. And I don't

(01:25:21):
think he really meant much, but he was trying to
illustrate the point that how much donors and money have
so much influence these days with all the coaches that
have been fired, and of course Brian Kelly got canned
this weekend as well. But when he said, you know,
there was a donor and he pulled his money, and
I got a call, and I I got whoa, hoa?
What what was that? Who pulled their money? Why did
they pull their money? What's going on there? Why didn't

(01:25:42):
Pat McAfee get a deal where he calls the first
ten plays every game. You know, all of those questions.
And I don't think he meant to bring all that up.
He was just trying to illustrate a point. But he
certainly caught people's attention around here.

Speaker 5 (01:25:54):
I don't think he meant to either. But I gotta
tell you that's one of these nuances of this whole
new paradigm that we're in, because you know, you got
to make payroll, Dave, And whose fault is that? Is
that the athlete the athletes know. If somebody doesn't pay contractually,

(01:26:14):
can WV go app I don't know. I don't know
how those deals are structured. I don't know if there's
any kind of written, formal agreement between donors and the university.
But I'll tell you what you don't want. You don't
want any kind of issues or rumors of liquidity issues
and problems to get out there, because if guys are
looking at the transfer portal, they're not going to jump

(01:26:35):
into portal for people who have trouble making payroll. I'm
not saying WVU does, but look, you get a reserve,
you get a line of credit. I don't even know.
Can the athletic department go in debt if they need
to get a line of credit to cover it. I
have no clue.

Speaker 1 (01:26:49):
Donors have always had influence, and you, honestly, it probably should.
If you're going to donate millions of dollars to a program,
you oughts have a little bit of influence in there.
But it's magnified now because of the NIL deals, because
of the payroll structures that you have to have it.
It's magnified. And we've talked about this with Brad Howe
and Hoppey previously four to five years. It used to

(01:27:12):
be four to five years to build a program. If
you were a new head coach, you were going to
get a grace period there. That four to five is
two to three, and boy, if you're in the SEC
or the Big ten, that's probably maybe one to two.
You better have things turned around and you better be competing.
Look what Brian Kelly's done in his career and at
LSU LS she's not competing for an SEC title. You're

(01:27:34):
out the door. It's time to That was a weird
fit anyway. That never made any sense to me. But
that's beside the point. But you're seeing the song.

Speaker 5 (01:27:42):
Yeah, his age helped. But Saban may be the smartest
man in college football. I mean, he saw what this
was gonna be and he's like, I opt out, No,
thank you?

Speaker 1 (01:27:48):
How about this? We Would you have believed me twenty
years ago if I'd told you we'd be talking about name,
image and likeness paying college athletes? Would you have believed that?
Or if I said Nick Saban and Pat McAfee will
both be on college game Day every weekend? Would you
which one would you believe?

Speaker 5 (01:28:05):
Is neither an option?

Speaker 1 (01:28:07):
I'm sure why not? Why not?

Speaker 5 (01:28:09):
Now you do think it's entertaining McAfee and Sabing. You
got you got the guy that's crazy, and you got
the guy that's just so straight laced. Even during the commercials.
He just sets here.

Speaker 1 (01:28:17):
They're perfect compliments to each other. Oh did you see
the kid? Text or brought this up? Did you see
the kid kick the field goal with his socks on?

Speaker 5 (01:28:25):
I did not see that live. I heard about that. Yeah,
how do you do that?

Speaker 1 (01:28:31):
Five hundred thousand? I think five hundred thousand for that
kick McAfee gave him. So he's not a bad not
a bad morning down there for the student at Vanderbilt.

Speaker 5 (01:28:40):
I ain't afraid to spend it.

Speaker 1 (01:28:41):
I'll give him that, No, he said, Well, look at
his statement. He said when coach called him, he's like, okay, sure,
didn't even think about it. Just send him the money.

Speaker 5 (01:28:50):
Do you run that by the missus, Steve? I mean,
do you go, hey, honey, rich call and he needs
a million?

Speaker 1 (01:28:55):
Five? Is that one where you come in the kitchen
and go heyh so yeah, just you know, just you know,
just gave some money. It's okay, It's cool though, it's
cool it's cool, We're fine, it's coo cool, It's cool.
Pocket change three at four to talk three or four
is the text line eight hundred and seven and sixty
five eight two five five the phone number back to
wrap it up fun on Monday morning right after this.

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We are.

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To care for you, and.

Speaker 1 (01:30:14):
We are here. Text line is three oh four Talk

(01:30:39):
three oh four. Phone numbers eight hundred seven sixty five
talk eight hundred seven six five eight two five five
A couple of texts here talking about p E I A.
I personally know of physicians who make six figure salaries
who have had p e i A for decades on
their teacher spouse policy. Simply make them sign an F

(01:31:00):
for David verifying their earnings, says the Texter. Very few
people watch commercials, watching commercials about medication and then go
ask their provider for that medication. Pharmaceugical companies advertised way
of keeping news networks from criticizing them. You'll never bite
the hand that feeds you.

Speaker 2 (01:31:18):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:31:18):
Look, marketing works. You know this DJ They look. Everybody
thinks they're immune to marketing, and then the marketers still
get to you. You still end up going to place
as buying these products. Marketing works. We all like to
think we're smarter than that, but it works.

Speaker 5 (01:31:35):
Hey, doc, I heard about this drug on TV. Will
go Vie or something says it will help me lose weight.
Can you tell me about that? Tell me that conversation
hasn't happened millions of times.

Speaker 1 (01:31:42):
What's this so zimbic thing? I heard? There was something
that could treat this is it? Yeah? Oh yeah, yeah,
it works, sure does, uh Texter says McDowell County is
a picture of what communist programs do to society. Uh wow,
when a conservative develops a heart like you call it socialism,
Get real, says the Texter. Guys, be fair. We can

(01:32:06):
also not afford the three trillion dollar tax reduction that
was mostly for the very wealthy. But you never say
this be balanced, says the Texter. H three or four
talk three oh four. The more on that thinks Trump
cann't can't be a conservative because he was once a
Democrat fails to remember that the most conservative person of
my lifetime, the late Great Ronald Reagan, was also once

(01:32:27):
a Democrat. Oh, by the way Obama looked took over
General Motors, doesn't that illustrate your point? TJ.

Speaker 5 (01:32:34):
Yeah, I didn't like that either. It's not like I,
oh yeah, Obama did it. I'm gonna like it now,
come on, No, I didn't like the GM Dell either.

Speaker 1 (01:32:41):
Some of the same This sounds so cliche. I can't
believe I'm going to say it, but I'm going to
some of the very same people who were outraged over
the GM bailouts. Remember the two big to fail bailouts
of eight. Yep, not hear a peep out of him
over some of the things that you've brought up this morning.

Speaker 5 (01:32:58):
No, so, and I'm I'm sorry. Donald Trump is not
Ronald Reagan. Please don't go there.

Speaker 1 (01:33:06):
Uh, come on, TJ. The current Republican Party isn't about policy.
It's the party of hate and racism. No. I don't
think that's fair at all. I do we are? I
don't know if we're seeing a shift. Will what will
politics look like in tenure? Is this a blip? TJ?
Is this anomaly? Will the Trump era be its own

(01:33:27):
unique part of history? I guess we'll just have to
wait to see how politics plays itself out in a
post Trump era, which we're still several years away from.

Speaker 5 (01:33:36):
Obviously, So you asked that. This morning, I saw a
clip of Tucker Carlson and Rachel Maddow from twenty years
ago having a civil conversation on each other's show, just talking.
Can you imagine that today?

Speaker 1 (01:33:47):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:33:49):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:33:49):
But gee, well, nobody'd watch it, wouldn't go viral, TJ, wouldn't.

Speaker 5 (01:33:52):
Go exactly outrage cells.

Speaker 1 (01:33:55):
So people are outraged, speaking of which that three ound
of million in private funds is going to the White
House ballroom. Yet have no problem at all with five
hundred eight hundred and fifty million in private funds going
toward Obama's presidential library. Told you, I don't care about
the ballroom. Snap over corporate welfare, says the Texter. All right,
not bad for a Monday, if I do say so myself.

Speaker 5 (01:34:17):
Pretty decent.

Speaker 1 (01:34:18):
Hopefully we haven't peaked early this week.

Speaker 5 (01:34:22):
They get better every day, Dave.

Speaker 1 (01:34:23):
Well, you know, Jim Stallings once told me the best
part about this job, the late great Jim Stallings, was
every day is another chance to be a little bit
better than the day before.

Speaker 5 (01:34:32):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (01:34:32):
I always thought he was right. All Right, we're done
Metro News Middays coming up, Man Baron. Dave Allen will
be with you, Dave weekly a little bit later on
on Metro News Hotline on many of these same Metro
News radio stations. This is talk Line on Metro News
for forty years, the voice of West Virginia.

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