Talkline | Sept. 29, 2025

Ryan Schmelz, with Fox News, has the latest on the pending government shutdown. Dave & TJ weigh in on the new "Hope Coliseum." WV Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin drops by. WVU AD Wren Baker joins the show. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hope you had a great weekend. Lots to dive into today. Yes,
we will talk football begrudgingly. It's Metro News talk Line
and we are Underway Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Turned from the studios of w v RC Media and
the Metro News Radio and Television Network, the Voice of
West Virginia comes the most powerful show in West Virginia.
This is Metro News talk Line with Dave Wilson and
t J. Meadows.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Switch network control from Charles.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Stand By to David TJ. You're on Metro News talk
Line is presented by Kova Insurance, encircling you with coverage
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Speaker 1 (01:07):
Good morning, Welcome in Metro News talk Line from the
Encova Insurance studios Dave Wilson and Morgantown.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
TJ.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Meadows is in Charleston. Jake Link is our video producer,
and Sophia Wasasick is handling the audio side of things today.
Eight hundred seven to sixty five Talk eight hundred seven
sixty five eight two five five is the phone number
you can text the show at three oh four Talk
three oh four coming up. We're going to get into
the government shutdown in a mere matter of moments or

(01:36):
looming shutdown, I should say Ryan Smells will join us
from Washington, d C. A little bit later on. We
will discuss some of you are quite irritated over the
new name of the w Coliseum, the Hope Coliseum. Will
get into that, and we will talk football. It may
have been one of the worst football weekends in the
Mountain State, at least at the collegiate level. WU gets

(01:58):
walloped by Utah Marshall squanders a seventeen point lead. We'll
talk about all of that with Joe Briccatto coming up
later this hour, but first say good morning to TJ.
Meadows and you know what, we'll throw golf in there
as well as the USA blew it. I thought they
blew it, but you know because they were never in
it against Europe and the Ryder Cups, so you know
it aside from Cincinnati Reds and that toxic relationship continues.

(02:21):
TJ's that backed into the wild card. Not a stellar
sports weekend at least.

Speaker 5 (02:28):
I mean a good day for the US yesterday in
terms of singles matches, Cameron Young won, Justin Thomas won,
Deshambo Tide Scheffler won, Shaftley won, but and so on.
We had a couple others as well. But the problem
was the US just could not get it going on
Friday and Saturday. Europe just dominated and got out to
such an early lead. It was fun to watch, though,

(02:49):
you know, they mounted a comeback yesterday made it exciting.
I think one of the biggest stories is going to
be crowd behavior out of what happened at the Ryder Cup.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Dave.

Speaker 5 (02:59):
You know, let's just face Itt macuoriy. He didn't pull
any punches yesterday in his postgame press or he got
a little heated out on the course with some fans.
Although I will say one of the best lines, and
even Rory acknowledged it, he was buttoning his top button.
One of the fans says, hey, you don't need that
button to choke.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
That's pretty good.

Speaker 5 (03:17):
That was pretty good.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
That's pretty good. All right. We'll get into all of
that as the show unfolds today. Meanwhile, the deadline to
avoid a federal government shutdown now less than forty eight
hours away. There's a meeting plan for today between the
President and top congressional leaders. What might be the best
last chance to avoid the shutdown? Ryan Schmells is in
Washington with Fox News Radio, and we go to him

(03:41):
for the latest.

Speaker 6 (03:41):
Ryan, good morning, Good morning, gentlemen. How are we doing well?

Speaker 1 (03:46):
I mean, you heard us complaining about our sports weekend.
Did you have any better of a weekend?

Speaker 6 (03:51):
Well, you know, oh, miss, I think had one of
the best wins in a long time. You know, that
was a national statement that we made there, so that
was huge. But then you know the Ravens probably had
oh man, Okay, So like I I went, I went
into the game with like a thought in my head
of what the worst case scenario was, and I mean

(04:12):
like we exceeded that beyond whatever it could have been. Yeah,
have like a blowout loss, you know as the game
of the week. But then also to just to add
on to it, they like like all the I think
only two of the Pro bowlers from last year's team
are not hurt right now, so that includes the quarterbacks.

(04:35):
So I mean, like this is this is a pretty
bad right now. That's that's very concerning.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Sometimes it just ain't your season, So just chalk it
up to that. At least that's the theory I'm working with.
So Ryan, uh, speaking of blowout losses, I don't know
if anybody wins or if anybody loses with a government shutdown,
But as of today, where do we stay in this
meeting on cap or at the White House with President
Trump and congressional leaders. As I said, maybe the best

(05:00):
least chance to avoid a shutdown.

Speaker 6 (05:04):
It's probably likely that case. I mean, there's there's two
today that are going.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
To be key.

Speaker 6 (05:08):
Number One, you have this We didn't get the White House. Obviously,
it's been something that Schumer and Jeffards have been clamoring
for for some time. They're finally getting it, but it
doesn't seem like any side is truly willing to budge.
So certainly there could be something that comes out of there.
I don't think there's the chances are likely, but you know,
there's always hope, and then you factor and also the

(05:29):
the fact there's going to be another vote later today
on the initial plan that Republicans put on the floor
for the government shutdown to avoid it, that would extend
government funding until November. You know, there could be a
thought that in order to get to the sixty votes
they need, there might be some Democrats who are willing
to flip and uh and just vote for it because
you know, they don't want the shutdown to happen. So

(05:51):
those are the two big things to watch for today.

Speaker 5 (05:54):
So Ryan layout what the Dems won. I think there's
two key issues on the table for them.

Speaker 6 (05:59):
Yes, they I mean, mainly it's healthcare. That's kind of
what they decided to hang their hat on. There's these
Affordable Care Act tax subsidies that do they want to
see attached to this. They're set to expire at the
end of the year. You know, notices are going to
start going out soon informing people that their health insurance
premiums are going up. So Democrats want to make that
an issue here and want that as a bargaining chip.

(06:23):
But Republicans have said they think that that's an issue
that should be dealt with separate. There's a lot of
Republicans to support extending it, but Leader Thunis said that
the program needs significant reform. And this isn't exactly the
appropriate place to be discussing this.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Fox News Radio is Ryan Schmell's joining us. So is
there any inclination that Republicans could budge on this.

Speaker 6 (06:44):
I mean, the fact that they're having the meeting today
does suggest that they're at least willing to talk. But
whether or not they're going to go into actually Budge,
I don't know. I mean, Spigger Johnson has kind of
set the tone with the fact that he's not bringing
lawmakers back for votes this week. He pretty much canceled
votes this week. And that's part of a strategy where
you pretty much pass the bill and you say, all right, now,

(07:05):
we're gonna get out of town so you guys can
eat on the Senate to either vocal what's on the table,
or you're gonna have a government shutdown. So Speaker Johnson
has probably taken the most hard line stance here by
by doing that strategy.

Speaker 5 (07:17):
I've read in the New York Times this morning, and
perhaps they got this wrong. We all make mistakes. I
was kind of taken back. Perhaps it's correct reporting, but
they reported this is the first time that Trump and
Jefferies will set down face to face. Is that accurate?

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Do you know?

Speaker 6 (07:33):
Probably?

Speaker 7 (07:34):
Ever?

Speaker 6 (07:34):
I think so yes, because remember last time President Trump
was was in office, you know, Jaqem Jeffries was like
maybe like the fourth or fifth highest ranking Democrat. He
may not have even been there yet, so so he
I don't even think he may not even even have
been I have to look at his wikiped again. It
may he may never have been a member of leadership
back when during President Trump's first term. So yeah, uh,

(07:57):
that that I think that that's that seems accurate. And
this is the first time that he's meeting with Schumer
since since his new term began.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
Fox News Radios Ryan Schmels joining us. So Republicans would
need what eight Democrats to flip I saw yesterday Fetterman,
in a couple of interviews, Senator Fetterman from Pennsylvania says, Uh,
he's not going to vote to shut the government down.
So who are the other possibilities that could be on
the fence that they might be working hard or trying
to whip into voting for this.

Speaker 8 (08:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (08:27):
Of course the launcher decides to crank up their engine
as you start talking. So so you got John Fetterman. Uh,
he's been he's been pretty adamant that he would never
vote to shut the government down. So the Holae vote
to get them too that sixty vote threshold to proceed.
I would watch for some of the other ones who
are maybe retiring. You got Jeene Shakeen, She's one of
the people who voted for the last one. There's a

(08:49):
couple other ones as well. I think I think it
upwards of maybe five or so who voted on final passage,
you know. But but you know, Leader Schumer was one
of them, and he's not willing to do it this time,
at least as of right now. So the map is
going to have the map, And we don't know who
exactly is left on the table for a flip here.
But you know, there could be some swing district Democrats

(09:12):
maybe who decide they don't want to be attached to
this shutdown and whatnot. So there's definitely a lot of
different things to consider, a lot of people you could
look at too.

Speaker 5 (09:20):
I want to try to make it a bit tangible,
and I know it it's very confusing because it's deep
in code. But what programs, what offices would be at
risk if we actually go with a shutdown here? I mean,
what would immediately turn off? Do we have a sense
of that yet?

Speaker 6 (09:33):
Yeah, And anything that's considered to be non essential, So
if it's if if it's an office that is not
directly related to like some like national security something like that,
those workers are not going to be getting their paycheck
they're not going to be coming to work. The office
are going to be closing. So I mean, if you've
got people in West Virginia are coming down here for
an honor flight or just coming down here for vacation

(09:55):
in general, I mean, they're not gonna be able to
see the monuments, They're not gonna be able to go
to any of the museums. So, uh, you know, there's
that's that's the immediate ripple effect. But then you take
some of these other officers where the people aren't getting paid.
You know, eventually you know in recent government shutdowns at
aage and you know, they started not showing up to
work or they got fourload and that was a huge

(10:16):
problem because if if something like that happens, that's when
you know, the ripple effect really starts to hit everybody. Now,
they didn't really that, you know, that won't be the
case immediately, but it could be the case down the
road if they don't figure this out.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
What about Social Security? Will that still go out?

Speaker 6 (10:33):
Well, you will still get checks that will still go out.
But keep in mind too that you also you know
some of those those officers, like you know, the customer
service lines, the people are processing new applicants, they're not
going to be working. So uh, you know, if you're
trying to get on Social Security or you're trying to
get a question answered, you know, there might be a
little bit of a delay compared to what you're used to, right.

Speaker 5 (10:56):
I think there's some misinformation out there, at least from
what I read on Social and this is reflective more
of a national audience, just not a West Virginia audience.
But I saw over the weekend people were like, oh no,
just reconciliation. They don't need sixty. That's not the case here.
This is discretionary spending. You've got to get to sixty.
Remind us of how that works.

Speaker 6 (11:14):
Yeah, yeah, the reconciliation process, the recisions process, those things
are our specific processes that allowed for a simple majority
with fifty votes right now, the way that it's written.
You know, with a with a government funding packages, you
need sixty votes to break the filibusters. So yes, this
is not a filibuster proof. Yeah, there's that they're going

(11:36):
to need sixty votes on this. That's not the case
with reconciliation. That's why reconciliation is so widely used by
multiple presidential administrations, especially the last couple of years or
last couple of presidencies, because that was the best way
to get as much of your agenda passed as possible
because you only need a fifty votes in the Senate.

(11:56):
But yep, government funding this is it's not the same thing.
So you have to make all sides happy in some.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Way, Ryan, at least publicly, both signs, both Democrats and
Republicans are saying it's going to be the other party's
fault if the government is shut down. But privately are
you hearing what rumblings? Are you hearing? Is one side
more confident than the other that the other one is
going to have to bear the responsibility?

Speaker 6 (12:23):
Well, this is a debate that was going on last
time as well, and Republicans do firmly believe that this
will be the first time in history that the media
blame somebody else that's not them for a government shutdown.
So I definitely think there are rumblings out there that
Republicans have confidence in what happens here. And you know,
the one thing you hear and I heard the schmit
dem operator about who long ago, there's this thought that

(12:46):
Republicans right now is really good with messaging or at
least being unified around one single message better than what
they've been before. And the message this time is to
just call this thing a Schumer shutdown and see if
it's sticks. And you know, Democrats don't really have a
name for the shutdown right now. I mean, I call
it the Trump shutdown and whatnot. But you know, we've
seen kind of a unified message around how they communicate

(13:08):
this thing out to the world, and so they think
that they can actually pull this off. And ultimately, Chuck
schumerg g explained for the shutdown, not them.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Fox and News Radios, Ryan Schmells will continue to watch
this Ryan as it unfolded over the next couple of days.
Appreciate it, buddy, Hey, thank you. Coming up next, the
Colosseum is now the Hope Colisseum, and that's got some
of you a little bit agitated. We'll talk about it
when we return. As talk line from the en Cove
Insurance Studios.

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Visit Encova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
Text line open three oh four Talk three oh four.
Phone number is eight hundred seven sixty five Talk eight
hundred and seven sixty five eight two five five. Aubrey
Sparks ACLU West Virginia will join us coming up at
the bottom of the hour over at wv metronews dot com.
This morning, TJ. Meadows has a commentary Colisseum naming rights
a reality check, mister Meadows.

Speaker 5 (15:19):
So you know, why not open the can right? Everybody's
talking about it. I heard it from Friday on when
it was announced, Dave. I we saw it on the
tax line. I heard it in conversations when I was
waiting for a coffee. It was all over social media.
It seems like there's two reasons people don't like this
number One, they like the old name. They like it
the WVU Coliseum or just the coliseum. Here's the problem

(15:41):
with that. Those days are over. You got to have money,
and this is a means WVU has found in order
to have money that they need to compete in this era.
So the question is what do you want to budge on?
Do you want to name the coliseum or do you
want to be out how many ever millions of dollars
a year that you could otherwise have if you had
naming rights on the competition? Are naming rights available in

(16:03):
the colosseum? So there's that issue, and I think you
need that money to stay relevant too. This idea that
Hope Gas should not be involved, their hope utilities should
not be involved because they're a public utility is a
croc in my mind. Oh why don't they lower our bill?
They should lower our bill instead of spending their money.
It's just that it's their money. This is from their profit.

(16:23):
This isn't going to show up on a bill. They're
not going to get rate recovery for this. What they
do and what shareholders do with the money that they
make that they put at risk. They're not guaranteed a profit.
And if you'd want to debate me on that, anybody
can call up. We can have a debate on that.
I'll go all day with you on that. Whether or
not utilities are guaranteed a profit. They are not. They
are not. That's not what the regulatory compact does. Their money,

(16:45):
they can spend it, they chose to invest it. Good
on them. If their shareholders don't like it, they'll answer
to their shareholders. It's just that easy.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
Everything you said's correct. However, sports fans are nostalgic. We
like Fenway Park and Stadium and Tiger Stadium, RFK Stadium.
We like those those sorts of things. We like the
way things were when we were kids. Really, so one,
you have that nostalgia factor in there, and that's part
of it. But secondly, I've always thought it's a bad
look for a utility provider to name to do these

(17:19):
sorts of things. When First Energy, I think First Energy
used to have the naming rights on the Cleveland Brown Stadium.
And it's a bad look because, especially in a regulated market,
I have no other option. If I want to heat
my home, if I want to have to be able
to cook, have hot water, I gotta go with Hope Gas.
They have exclusivity in the market. I have to go
with them. I have no other option, and I have

(17:41):
to pay whatever rate the PSC approves. I don't get
to shop around. I don't get to go to If
I don't like the McDonald's rates on it's Hamburgers, I'll
go to Wendy's. If I don't like Wendy's, I'll go
to burg King. I don't have that option. And also
there are two rate hikes pending with the PSC. It's
a bad look. People aren't going to take the time
and I don't blame them. I wouldn't either. I don't either,

(18:04):
and go, well, that's the profit, that's the company. They say, No,
you just rate or rated. My rate hike is going up.
My rates are going up, and now you're going to
name the stateium. It's a bad look. It's a bad
look for Hope Gas. Everything you said is true, it's
just a bad look in customers I think are justified
and being a little bit upset about it.

Speaker 5 (18:24):
Well, I mean, I would point out two things. Number One,
you do have a choice. There's thing called fuel switching.
You can go to electricity, you can go to propane.
A lot of people do that in markets outside West Virginia.

Speaker 1 (18:33):
No, you're right.

Speaker 5 (18:34):
They may have the franchise, but they also have to
serve customers that may not be profitable individually. That's part
of the obligation under the regulatory compact. But again this
it doesn't matter. Their rate of return is what their
rate of return is. Once that's profit, they can reinvest it.
And oh, by the way, the Commission's only going to
let them invest so much. You can't flood the zone

(18:56):
with infrastructure dollars just to get a return on them
and have to be used and useful and and investment.
There's that they can reinvest it in other vehicles, other utilities.
They can spend it on this. It's their profit and
as long as they're not over earning. Optics are optics
not debating that in my mind, they can do what
they want to with the money.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Well, and that's why the customers are upset. That's why
people are saying, wait a minute, you need a rate increase,
but you have this money too. It feels like that
you can just oh, what's the word, I'm blanking TJ
having a moment here, Sorry, but it feels like it's
the money's there to name this. Well, why do I

(19:35):
have to pay more for my services? That's what people
are asking here. Why do you have two rate hikes
pending in front of the PSC? If you have enough
funding to name a.

Speaker 5 (19:42):
Stadium because they're not earning their return. If the PSC
says you can earn, I don't know what it is
that you give off with their eyes. Hope, let's say
it's nine percent, I don't know what it is. If
they say you can have a nine percent return on
your equity. The reason you file a rate case is
if you're not getting a nine percent return on your equity,
you're under earning. Guess what if they over earned, they
would have to file a rate case and lower their rates.

(20:03):
The commission says, based on your investment. Again, this is
shareholder money. They're coming forward and risking that money putting
it into that utility in West Virginia. So they they're
owed to return what they do with that money once
they have it, it's up to them. But if they're
under earning, that's why you file a rate case. They're
not clearing all their costs and they're not making what

(20:23):
they were authorized to earn on their return. I get
the people are upset. I totally get that, and look,
it's harder than ever today. I think I think everyone
would agree. Sometimes there's not enough money to last the
month out right, inflations things. I talked about that in
the commentary. But I think that sometimes people don't really

(20:44):
understand and I get it's a complex business how utilities work.
And when we start to tell them what they can
do with their profit to me, to me, just me alone,
that's when I say, why am I investing in this jurisdiction?
Maybe I won't invest in it anymore.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Three or four Talk three or four is the text
line eight hundred seven to sixty five eight two five
five the phone number. By the way, Rin Baker going
to join us coming up an hour from now. We'll
talk to the w athletics director about the new naming rights,
where's the line, what other possibilities are out there? Plus
get into a couple of different topics with Wren. Who's
going to join us? Coming up bottom of the second hour.

(21:19):
On the other side of the news break, Aubrey Sparks
will join us ACLU of West Virginia. A little bit
later on, Joe Braccato will recap the weekend that was
in college and high school football around the state of
West Virginia. Three or four Talk three oh four and
eight hundred seven sixty five Talk. It's talk line from
the Encove Insurance Studios on Metro News. Metro News is
the voice of West Virginia. It's ten thirty times to

(21:43):
get a news update. Let's check in with the Metro
News radio network. Find out what's happening across the great
state of West Virginia.

Speaker 12 (21:50):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Jeff Chenkins. Group of House
of Deleugates Democrats scheduled to be in Morgantown tomorrow for
a kitchen table issues event. The minority party began the
meetings earlier this month, will continue them across the state
through early November. Oningay County Delicate Evan Hanson says they
heard residents express concerns about several day to day issues
in their first meeting.

Speaker 13 (22:08):
They're talking about why their electric rates are going up
so fast. They're talking about concerns about losing access to healthcare.
People are concerned about education, public education system and how
we can support that.

Speaker 12 (22:21):
Meetings are scheduled for Charleston, Fairmont, Wheeling, louis Berg, and Beckley.
The trial for a Boone County mother and grandmother in
connection with a teenage girl's death that remains on the
docket for early December. A pretrial hearing back on Friday
kept the trial date for Julie Miller and Donald Stone
for December second, their charge of causing the death of
fourteen year old Kennedy Miller. Miller was found in her
Morrisville home back in April twenty twenty four. Police say

(22:43):
she was emaciated in a skeletal state. The judge did
rule back on Friday that the grandfather, also originally charged,
is mentally incompetent to stand trial. One of the numbers
remaining steady in twenty twenty five in West Virginia has
been the decrease of overdose deaths West Virginia First Foundation
Executive Director Jonathan Board says, many deserve crist and that's.

Speaker 14 (23:00):
Something that I think we can celebrate all of our
providers across this state. But I think we're also very
mindful of the fact that in some areas addiction rates
have plateaued, some very limited areas, but some areas that
we've seen them go up.

Speaker 12 (23:14):
You're listening to Metro News for forty years the voice
of West Virginia.

Speaker 15 (23:18):
Governor Patrick Morrissey a set of very bold goal fifty
gigawatts of 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 base load power. Our families and businesses will be

(23:39):
able 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 to fifty is
a dynamic approach to economic development which will supercharge our
state's coal industry and broader economy. With Governor Morrissey's lead

(24:00):
ship and the action of the Legislature. West Virginia is
once again America's energy leader. Cold is Powering Progress. Cold
is Powering West Virginia. Brought to you by the West
Virginia Cold Association.

Speaker 12 (24:16):
Those at Vandelia Health, CMC Women and Children's Hospital and
Charleston celebrating their annual Nick You graduation on Sunday. David
Haynes had a son in the Nick You ten years ago.

Speaker 5 (24:26):
Stressful.

Speaker 16 (24:28):
Sometimes you just look and say, well, we got to
do it because we were there for him the whole time,
and very stressful time. But look back and actually really
thankful for the time and the connections and friendships of atha.

Speaker 12 (24:41):
Read more this morning at wv metronews dot com from
the Metro News anchor desk, I'm Jeff Jenkins.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Joe Ricado joining us about ten minutes from now. A
couple of texts three or four talk three oh four.
This is why we need to vote on PSC members,
not appoint them. College sports is nothing more than semi
pro sell the naming rights to the university as well.
Don't wu brought to you by Walmart just throwing it
out there. Uh, it's not Hope's money, it is our money.

(25:28):
If you think they are spending their money to advertise
your living under a rock. If I don't like Hope Gas,
what are my options? None, says the Texter. How are
they How are they under earning but making enough money
to name a stadium? Asks the Texter. We got more
of your texts coming up in just a bit three
or four talk three oh four and eight hundred seven

(25:49):
sixty five talk eight hundred seven sixty five eight two
five five. Last week we were talking to State Attorney
General JB. McCuskey about the legal battle that continues regarding
the state's compulsory vaccination laws and the religious exemption under
the governor's executive order. That case, of course working its
way through the courts in a couple of different counties.

(26:11):
There's the Raleigh County case. The Attorney General has asked
that we go to the Supreme Court and get a ruling.
Can the governor do this through the executive order? Does
the religious Exemption or the Religious Protection Act? Does that
go as far to protect and include religious exemptions for vaccinations?
All of that is working its way through the courts,

(26:32):
and during that conversation last week, the Attorney General at
least implied that it was curious that the ACLU of
West Virginia would be fighting for compulsory vaccinations, not for
religious liberties. I paraphrase a Ted joining us this morning
is Aubrey Sparks with ACLU West Virginia. Aubrey, good morning,
thanks for joining us on the program.

Speaker 4 (26:51):
Yeah, thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
So can you clarify where is the ACLU West Virginia
when it comes to vaccination laws, religious exemption and this
whole legal mess that we're currently in the middle of.

Speaker 4 (27:03):
Yeah, absolutely, Well, First, I love that you're calling it
a legal mess, because I think that's completely the situation
that we're in. It's not that the law isn't clear,
it's that the situation is a mess. The ACLU, I
think it's important to say, first off, you know, we
operate a law firm and we represent the interest of
our clients. And our clients here are parents who have
students who could be at risk or would be at

(27:25):
risk if vaccination rates were to drop, and that may
impact their ability to access public education services. So of
course that's priority number one. But if you're asking why
is the ACLU involved in this fight? Uh, priority number
two is that it's a question of rule of law.
This is a situation where the process wasn't followed correctly,
and I think that that's what's getting a little bit

(27:47):
lost in the sauce here. The Attorney General's Office says, well,
we need to know if EEPRA applies. We're not saying
EBRA doesn't apply. We're saying they're applying it wrong. We're
saying they're evading legislative review, that they are not doing
inappropriate review of applications for exemptions, that they have just
thrown aside all of the things that would allow EPRA
to be properly applied, just because it's more politically convenient

(28:11):
at this moment in time. And so if we're asking
why is this an ACLU issue, why is this a
case we chose to take on, it's for that reason.
It has to do with separation of powers and rule
of law, which is something that's important to enforce.

Speaker 5 (28:24):
Aubry, it seems like in the talking points, as you
refer to it, Apra, that the compelling interest is lost.
Apra notes that I'd like to understand what acl US
take is on whether or not vaccinations truly are a
compelling interest to citizens. As a whole in the state
as a whole.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
So I think that that's fundamentally the question that's before
the court and Guzman, and so that's what the Board
of Education is arguing against those plaintiffs. Can anyone get
a religious exemption from the vaccination law? Is there a
state compelling interest that means that no one can get
a religious vaccine a religious exemption? And that sort of
outside the scope of what are case is about, because

(29:01):
we're saying, even if you say that people can get
a religious exemption, you have to do that compelling interest
analysis for each person with respect to their belief and
the burden on their belief. And so you can't go
and say, because I like this policy that people can
get religious exemptions, will give one to anyone all the
time without any review of what that compelling interest is

(29:22):
or what that burden is. So EBRA inherently requires that
case by case analysis that the governments skick here.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
So what would a review look like or consist of
if we were doing a case by case analysis, Like
you say, what would that review consist of?

Speaker 4 (29:39):
So I think that there's two ways that this could
potentially work. One that is for sure, and one that's
a maybe, but I'll talk about it anyway. So the
first is EBRA gives people a right to bring a
claim in court. So if you are a person who
says I believe my religious rights have been burdened by
this law, you can go to your circuit court, just
like the Guzman plaintiffs did, and say I want an
exemption from this, and you end up with a court

(29:59):
order give you an exemption. That's option one, and that's
just plain as day in the law that you're allowed
to do that. Now, the second thing, which is maybe
a little more questionable, is maybe individual agencies would be
able to establish processes to grant people exemptions, like what
the Bureau of Public Health is saying they did here.
The problem is, if you're granting people a right, you
have to have standards. Those standards need to be promulgated

(30:22):
by rule. That means that they need to have legislative oversight,
and all of those steps were skipped here, and so
that means that we're wrong on both fronts. We're trying
to give people an exemption without having them apply and
getting the judicial review, but we also don't have the
review on the administrative end. And even if they did
it hadn't went through the proper process to be legally applicable.

(30:43):
And so what that means is that we just have
some unnamed government bureaucrat saying, yes, you get it, no
you don't. Yes you get it, no you don't, and
there's no over like, there's no oversight as to what
the standards are that applies. Now, maybe that's a policy
that the executive branch likes right now with respect to vaccines,
because they want everyone to get a vaccine exception. But

(31:05):
what they're arguing is that you don't just get to a
vaccine exemption on the basis of religion. You also get
it on the basis of a philosophical or a conscientious belief,
and you can get it without this sort of review,
any sort of review, just get it automatically. And the
problem is the state can't say we want this policy
everyone gets it automatically for any reason when it comes
to vaccines, and not say that when people seek exemptions

(31:28):
to other laws. And so if they're going to have
this open door policy, then that does sort of create
an anarchy to a certain degree of saying anyone, for
any reason should be able to go through this same
process with respect to any other generally applicable law. And
so I think that the state here has worked themselves
into a corner where what they're asking for is not functional.

(31:51):
It's counter to the fundamental concept of a rule of law.
And I'll say too, I think that at this point
the purpose is to obscure that because they're asking the
Supreme Court to rule on does EBRA apply? Like I said,
we're not arguing about that. That's not the question. The
question is are you applying EBRA correctly? And what's the
result when you do apply it correctly? And so this

(32:12):
question that they're asking the Supreme Court wouldn't even resolve it.
And I think that it speaks to the fact that
what is happening here is wrong on so many different
levels that it's really pretty far removed from the way
the system is supposed to work.

Speaker 5 (32:27):
Given your stance and the aclus stance on this, then
should the Supreme Court not certify the question and not
answer it and just let the trial process continue in
the circuit courts?

Speaker 4 (32:38):
You know, I think that it's important to see the
history of this case. So we filed this case initially
in Kanal County, and the state came in and said, no,
it's not an emergency, and we said, well, parents need
to know right away. It's difficult for them to be
in the stance of uncertainty. And the state argued against it,
and that's one of the reasons why the case was
thrown out on this procedural issue the first time. Then

(32:58):
we file again and the case the state makes the
same argument, saying it's not an emergency, it's not an emergency,
and the court rules against them and the case is
permitted to proceed. Now the state turns ound and says, well,
it's such an emergency that we need to do this
as quickly as we can. And I think anytime a
party's taking in about face like that, you have to wonder, well,
why did you change your tune? And I think the

(33:19):
answer is that this question that they're looking to ask
the Supreme Court is not really the fundamental question here,
and so I think that the question is drafted would
not help the resolution of this case, and in fact,
would only stand to complicate it further by you know, uh,
muddying the waters even more.

Speaker 17 (33:39):
So.

Speaker 4 (33:39):
Yeah, at this point, we would say that it would
not be helpful for that question to be resolved because
that's not the question that's appropriately before the court.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Talking with Aubrey, Sparks ACLU West Virginia, Aubrey, if let's
play the hypothetical game, Sure, why not if the legislature
comes back in January at the regular session passes a
vaccine exemption law, does everything you just talked about? Does
that clear this up? Or does this legal battle continue
to kind of hang over us? Even if to say,
the legislature comes back and passes a law that grants

(34:08):
religious exemptions to vaccinations.

Speaker 4 (34:10):
So I think that if the legislature were to pass
law that grants religious exemptions, I hesitate to say it
would resolve all the issues, because of course it would
depend on the law. But I think then this question
of epra's application would not be nearly as important. But
that gets to the overarching issue of the way you
interpret EPRA in one place is the same way you're
going to interpret in all of the other places. And

(34:32):
so that's why this question would remain important because people
would seek religious exemptions or philosophical exemptions to other laws
that aren't the vaccination law. And so when this case
establishes what's the right way to do it, how do
people seek these exemptions. How does the government respond when
they get these requests. That's going to be the process
that's used across all other areas of law, and so

(34:54):
that will remain important.

Speaker 5 (34:56):
I want to transition to what the Water Development Authority
did in awarding the Stupenville based College of Saint Joseph
the worker funds last year. It was roughly five million dollars.
Kanawha County judge ruled, I believe it was last week
that the WDA grant to an out of state religious
school was unconstitutional. Your thoughts on that ruling.

Speaker 4 (35:16):
Yeah, so we got an initial ruling that it was unconstitutional,
and then the judge gave them an opportunity to sort
of update, clean it up, clarify where it's being spent.
And one of the things that the judge specified was
that money can't be spent on education, money can't be
spent on religious education. And our reading that's something that
was not clear in the initial grant application or the

(35:39):
initial award of the grant. And so we're very happy
with the result that the court took the position of
protecting the separation of church and state. That case is
now over, and well, you know, I think that there
are probably some people who are disappointed from a policy
perspective that the money still is going to the college,
though with these additional restrictions about how they can use it.

(36:01):
We're still happy to see that the government the court
said that there has to be the separation between government
and religion.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
Aubrey Sparks, Legal director with ACLU West Virginia, will continue
to follow these cases as they move forward. Thank you, Aubrey,
appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (36:16):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Coming up or if you the weekend was in college
and high school football. Joe Braccado mention new sports joins us. Next,
we are.

Speaker 18 (36:25):
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We are here.

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Speaker 2 (37:36):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Incova Insurance and
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Visit encova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
A couple of texts three or four Talk three oh four.
You said they're using profits for naming rights. Are they
making profits then they don't need a rate height Dave
and TJ. Hope gas makes sense. West Virginia is a
mineral based state. It's not a bad look. Pay your bill.
The public does have a choice from the coliseum. They
can boycotts the games, says the Texter. Get in some

(38:10):
more of your text in a little bit three or
four Talk three or four. N Baker Wad will join
us eleven thirty three. Mike Pushkin, State Democrat Party Chair.
At eleven six, we are halfway. Some teams are at
least halfway through the high school football season. Week five
in the books Week six coming up. WDVU took it
on the chin on Saturday, Marshall blew a seventeen point lead.

(38:32):
We bring in Metro New Sports Joe Bricconna to review
the weekend that was in football. Joe, good morning, Good
morning guys. Let's start WVU Utah anything anything to take
away from that game?

Speaker 20 (38:46):
Utah is probably pretty good and they've played maybe one
bad quarter of football in the first five games of
the season, and that came against Texas Tech. From the
West Virginia side. There's lots of questions and very few
answers at this point. They're going to hit the halfway
point of the season Friday when they visited BYU, and

(39:07):
you know, the coaching staff is looking for for a
number of answers to questions that are are pretty hard
to find at this point.

Speaker 5 (39:14):
Did we do anything well? Is there anything to take
away an atta boy? If you're the Mountaineers, well, I think.

Speaker 20 (39:21):
You have to be encouraged with the play of Khalil Wilkins.
And the coaching staff was pretty adamant about the fact
that they thought they had five quarterbacks that they could
go to and and you know, compete in games with
and Wilkins had his first extended opportunity to do so,
and by large against Utah in the second half he
did very well. Utah made some substitutions defensively late in

(39:44):
the game, but for the most part, you know, Wilkins's
two touchdown drives that you led were against a mix
of Utah as the starters and reserve players, So I
think you played with poise. Showed some explosiveness in the
running game where that leads to the decision as to
who will get the first snap against me y you
on Friday. We probably won't find out until late Friday
night when they kick off in provo, but Wilkins at

(40:05):
least throws his hat into the mix as a guy
who maybe could be next up to leave this mouth
to your offense if Nico Marciol is unable to return,
if Jalalen Henderson is not viewed as the guy going
forward to lead the offense.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
The uniforms look good. There's that, Dave.

Speaker 20 (40:24):
My position on uniforms is quite consistent, and I'm I
don't care. I'm sorry, Yes, it looks good.

Speaker 7 (40:32):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 20 (40:32):
You can't get me to care about uniforms. I'm sorry.
I try I did my best to.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
Try match the new sports Joe Braccado High School Football
Week five of the books. Many teams are already halfway
through their schedule, Joe. What stands out to you through
five weeks of the season.

Speaker 20 (40:47):
A couple of results. A good prove it victory for
the Morgantown Mohegans twenty one to nothing victory at Spring Mills,
the Spring Mills team that played in the Class Claude
championship team a year ago. So that gets Morgantown to
the halfway point of the season at five and zero.
And then there's only two unbeaten teams right now in
Quada and the Large School classification. That's Morgantown and that's GW.

(41:09):
GW also had a very good victory at Barnesville, Ohio,
a team that had a forty two game regular season
winning streak going into that game, and GW picked up
a three point victory. So I think if you're looking
at some potential challengers for Huntington and Martinsburg at the
top of Class Quaida, Morgantown and GW may have arrived
at that point certainly in two weeks time. But Morgantown

(41:31):
visits Martinsburg. That'll be an excellent contest next Friday night,
and one that again gives Morgantown approving ground to see
if they're in the conversation for state championship contendercy.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
The next two weeks will prove it. Joe Wheeling Park
at home for Morgantown Martinsburg next week. The next two
weeks are huge for the Mohegans and to find out
what this team's really made of.

Speaker 20 (41:53):
Yeah, no question about it. I mean, Wheeling Park had
that one, the stumble that they had against musselm And
a couple weeks ago, but Wheeling Park has played good
football to start the season. So yeah, I think it's
a very difficult stretch for this Morgantown team, but they
pass all their tests so far, and by pretty wide margins.
So I really said of the preseason that Sean Buiser,

(42:16):
I think wyat he had a pretty good confidence about
not only how his team would performed, but how his
lines on both sides of the football would perform. And
like I said, to this point, they've passed every challenge
very well.

Speaker 21 (42:29):
I have any time to watch the Ryder Cup, you know,
as a matter of fact, I did, and I'm still
trying to figure out how an injury withdrawal to Victor
Hobblin gives Europe a half a point.

Speaker 20 (42:40):
That you, I mean, that's that's a I mean, I
understand tradition and this is the way that rules have
been in place, but I never understood why the Ryder
Cup never had an alternate, you know, a thirteenth player
if needed, and that player could only come in if
there's an injury situation. But for a while there it
looked like if the US was going to complete this comeback. Hey,

(43:02):
you know, Europe is gifted a half point just by
showing up. No disrespect to Victor Hoblin if he had
an injury, that's understandable, But I can't understand how Europe
is gifted a half point. Sorry, he got me to
go high.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
No, I'm with you.

Speaker 5 (43:15):
I mean other than ridicule. Other than ridicule, what would
have stopped the entire European team from saying they were injured,
getting a half point and winning the thing on Saturday?

Speaker 1 (43:24):
Nothing?

Speaker 20 (43:24):
I mean, I mean the champaign in the club house already.
They could have just you know, gone about the process
of enjoying the champagne much earlier.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
If that's the case, well you know, Joe, I nominate
you for Ryder Cup captain next year.

Speaker 20 (43:39):
Well here's the thing, Keithan Bradley was in a tough
situation and obviously everybody's now wondering, you know, should he
have been played as well as had his role as captain.
That's a difficult decision for him. Credit the US for
making it interesting on Sunday, but man, it is it
is difficult to understand how the US, with the players
that they have fare so poorly on Friday and Saturday

(44:01):
during this competition every year. They finally tech to come
back on Sunday in the singles format. That's a lot
better for him. But man, the deficits that the US
has dug in the last couple of Ryder Cups over
the first two days are just mind bottle.

Speaker 5 (44:13):
It's cause it's different. Match play golf is just different,
and these guys are wired for single stroke play golf.
I mean, I think that's what it boils down to.
Maybe I'm too simplistic, Joe.

Speaker 20 (44:22):
Maybe we need more matchplay events on tour or team
events on tour. I know there's one in New Orleans
every year, but maybe I don't know, that's just thinking
out loud.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Metro News Sports Joe Brocado. You can find his work,
of course, over at the website WDV Metronews dot com.
Joe always appreciated, buddy.

Speaker 7 (44:42):
Thanks guys, We're back.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
In a moment. This is talk line from the Cove
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Speaker 1 (46:30):
Tex line three or four TC three O four Joe
is cranky today. Those uniforms did look good. Boo Joe
take a day off, says the text. Probably deserves a
day off.

Speaker 5 (46:42):
He's one of the hardest working.

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ninety seven million, So go ahead play today. Mike Pushkin,
State Democratic Party Chair, joins us in the studio next
Brint Baker at eleven thirty three. It's talk line on
Metro News for forty years. The voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Encova Insurance, encircling
you with coverage to protect what you care about most.
Visit incova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
Second hour of Metro News talk Line here on a Monday.
The show emanates from the Encoba Insurance Studios, Dave Wilson
in the Miller Building in Morgantown, TJ. Meadows at the
Radio Ranch in Charleston. Our audio producer Sophia Wasick and
Jakelink handles the video stream over on the Metro News
TV app. Three or four Talk three or four is

(47:55):
the text line and the phone number is eight hundred
and seven to sixty five Talk eight hundred seven sixty
five eight two five five. Those are the two ways
to become interactive with this program. We'll get some of
your texts coming up in just a bit written Baker
will join us at the bottom of the hour. The
w Athletics director once again say good morning to TJ.
Meadows from Charleston.

Speaker 5 (48:16):
Morning, sir, good morning watching the White House. Ellipsis as
Trump said to welcome net Yahoo to the White House
this morning. So that going on amid the budget to
shutdown or the budget crunch that could lead to a
government shut down if we can't get a deal. All
that happening as we speak.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
Meanwhile, House Democrats here in West Virginia are on a
kitchen table tour of the state. Tour will stop in
Morgantown tomorrow evening. Also plan stops Charleston, Wheeling, Fairmont, Beckley
coming up among others in October. Mike Pushkin is a
Canawha County delegate. He serves as chairman of the West
Rginian Democratic Party. Friend of the show, He joins us
on Metro News talk line from the Charleston studios to

(48:54):
the immediate right of mister Meadows.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
Mike, good morning, Good morning to you, Dave, and it's
good to be here.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Glad you can join us, so we'll get to the
tour of the moment. But you guys, did you guys?
The Democrat Party sent out a press release this morning.
You've released the speakers for the twenty twenty five Roosevelt
Kennedy Dinner, which will be coming up this weekend. Correct.

Speaker 3 (49:14):
Yeah, we're going to have We're doing something a little
different this year. Instead of having one great speaker, we're
going to have two featured speakers. And one is a
newly elected Congressman, James Walkinshaw, who represents parts of Northern
Virginia in Congress, just recently elected in a special election,
and also the newly elected mayor of Tulsa, Mayor Monroe Nichols,

(49:38):
who happened to be the first black mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
So they're both going to be joining us this Saturday
here in Charleston at the Charleston Convention Center. Tickets are
going fast, but they're still available at wvdemocrats dot com
slash RK. And I would also like to add to
add a touch of class to the event, we also

(50:00):
have one of the greatest musicians, if not the greatest
musician in West Virginia, Bob Thompson, will be will be
providing music for the event. As well, So we welcome everybody.

Speaker 5 (50:10):
If is a quartet with him, as he bring in
his group, it's just gonna be Bob on the piano, okay,
which is stellar. Yeah, I mean Bob is very talented.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 5 (50:17):
Does he still do the holiday concert?

Speaker 1 (50:19):
Do you know?

Speaker 3 (50:19):
Yes? He does.

Speaker 5 (50:20):
Yeah, that's something if people haven't seen it all enjoy
to the world.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
Does that? Yeah, he does a Christmas show every year.
We're very happy to have him joining it. Since the
Roosevelt Kennedy dinner. Now I want to ask you to
a year on Saturday. You ever been to Tulsa. I've
never been to great town. I know they have a
great music scene as well.

Speaker 5 (50:34):
They do. And can we learn anything from the mayor? Well,
he's here, you think.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
I believe so, I mean he's he's already, you know,
hit the ground running as mayor as far as you know,
you know, providing a safe person foremost safety for the
citizens down there, you know, protecting voting rights, a lot
of things that he has really focused on. And his
election was historic considering the history of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to

(51:00):
be the first black mayor there.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
Mike Pushkin joining us at Kanawa County Delegate Westerni and
Democratic Party Chair Mike wr Did the idea for the
Kitchen Table Tour come from?

Speaker 3 (51:10):
Well, that came from the Democratic Caucus in the House.
We were hearing from a lot of constituents that they
wanted to have town hall meetings. I think that came
from you know, people are watching on TV some of
these town hall meetings that members of Congress are having,
and people got tired of holding their breath and waiting
on Congressman Miller or Congressman Riley Moore or you know

(51:33):
or or you know, Senator's Capitol or Justice to hold
any type of that type of unscripted town hall event.
And they also weren't getting it from the Republicans in
the legislature. They are few and far between when you
see the Republicans and the Legislature go out and hold
these types of town hall events. And we've decided to
call it the kitchen Table Tour because we found that

(51:54):
that's what people are most concerned about the issues that
they talk about around the kitchen table. It's about access
to health health care, especially with you know, with the
state workers seeing another round of premium increases and retirees
who are living on fixed incomes who are or effectively
taking a pay cut because of the failure of the
Republican led legislature to address p E I A. They're

(52:16):
also talking about education, especially I imagine when we get
to the central part of this state, you're gonna be
hearing a lot of talking about school consolidation while we're
sending funds meant for public education out of state in
the form of the Hope Voucher. That's the type of
type of issues that people are talking about. So what

(52:36):
we're what we've We've had two stops already. The first
one was in Huntington. We had a packed house there
in Huntington, very good crowd, great questions. Our second one
was in Martinsburg where we had well over one hundred
people in attendance there, packed house again. Tomorrow night, as
you've announced we're going to be near Morgantown, we're not
in Morgantown. We're actually at the Clinton Volunteer Fire Department

(53:00):
on Grafton Road. And then next week, I believe October seventh,
we're here in Charleston and we might, you know, if
things are going well, hopefully we can add some stops
to the tour. We can't be everywhere, but we're trying
to go into places that don't necessarily have a democratic
representation as well as the places of you know, we're
going to Charleston, We're going to the Morgantown area that
We're going to the part of that that is represented

(53:22):
by a Republican in the seventy eighth district. But we're
trying to go to places that don't have democratic representation,
maybe to show them what representation should look like, and
it means getting out and hearing from our constituents.

Speaker 5 (53:35):
Let's talk school consolidation, because I'm not sure that you
and I or maybe you and Dave have I'm not
sure we've ever talked to that here on the show.
How do we fix that? Because schools buying large part
are funded by local property taxes and a lot of
these counties, I mean, I was talking about GDP numbers
last week. I don't have a lot of money to
cover the nut. There's just not a lot of economic
activity going on there. How do we fix that? How
do we keep closing those schools?

Speaker 3 (53:56):
Prior to the last regular session, there was a lot
of lip service paid to looking into the school aid formula.
We need you know, And I said, then school aid
formula is not something you could do during the regular session.
It eats a special session. And that's what we wish.
What we should be talking about having a special session
for is looking into the school aid formula. Possibly it's

(54:16):
been this, you know, it's been in place the way
it has been for quite some time. It is outdated.
It needs to be waited for certain things like, you know,
areas that need a little bit more help, area where
you have, you know, higher rates of poverty, things like that.
It's not weighted in those regards, so you're seeing a
disproportionate it's more of a have and have not type formula.

(54:38):
So you're seeing in areas of the state, many areas
of the state where they're their community schools are closing.
That means kids are expected to ride sometimes an hour
on the school bus each way to get inchool. Long
trips on a school bus, and it destroys communities when
they lose their community school like that. So it's something
that we should prioritize, and I look, I understand unfortunately,

(55:00):
West Virginia seems to be losing population at a rate
greater than any other state. I think a lot of
that has to do with the policies of the Republican
Party that have been imposed on us over the past decade.
That's a whole other show, guys. But but what we're
getting from that as school consulted, and what's not helping
this problem at all is as we're seeing money go

(55:22):
out of state in the form of this hope voucher.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
Mike Pushkin joining us SO Knawa County Delegate, Westgia Democratic
Party Chair Mike, I think you would get agreement from
your colleagues on the other side of the aisle that
the school aid formula needs to be revamped, free worked.
I've heard of them talking about it.

Speaker 3 (55:38):
Well, they do a lot of talking, but they haven't
done anything. That's the thing. They have super majorities in
both in both the House and the Senate, they have
the governor's office. But yeah, that's all you've heard is
them talking about it. We actually have to have a
special session and do something about it. Governor has to
make that call, right yeah, or we can call ourselves in,
which is very rare for the legislature to call itself

(55:58):
in for as beouton. But either way, it's not something
that could be done dur In my opinion, it's not
something you can just do during a committee meeting during
the regular session. It is extremely complicated and you change
just you can't just know, whittle away at the edges
of You change one part of the formula and it
affects the entire formula.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
Let's talk about pei A for a second. That's a
big topic up here in the Mortgatown area. Lots of
folks who work for the University on PIA, obviously, teachers,
school personnel. It seems through the conversations we've had on
this show and off the air as well, Mike with
lawmakers that the biggest trouble is the rising cost of
health care for PIA and that's not something Republicans or

(56:37):
Democrats in the state legislature are going to be able
to get a handle on. So where do you what's
broke that needs to be fixed or what's the problem
to address that we can get a handle on pei A.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
Well, you're right, a lot of it has to do
at the rising cost of health care and something that
needs to be addressed on a national level. I think
that's instead of addressing it, they're making matters worse with
their failure to extend the tax for example, failure to
extend the tax credits for those who are in the marketplace.
That's a whole other issue. But what we're not seeing

(57:09):
in West Virginia is is it being a priority. You
had Senate built two sixty eight, pass I'd leave in
twenty twenty three. Since then, you've seen three premium increases
at the tune of about a fifty percent increase. That's
a pay cut for our teachers, for our first responders,
for folks that we so badly need in child protective services,
if we so badly need incorrections, not to mention our

(57:31):
retirees who are living on fixed incomes that are seeing
yet another pay cut. So it has to be a priority,
and it just hasn't been. There's been a failure to
act from the Republican supermajority and Governor Morrissey because you know,
I think that this is the plan. The plan is
you just sweep it under the rug and people make
less money. Unfortunately, since that bill pass Senate built two

(57:55):
sixty eight, that no Democrats in the House voted for it.
I'm proud to say that we've seen three rate increases,
three premium increases. So that's on. That's and you know,
we need to attract people to these important jobs. We
have a shortage of teachers, we have a shortage of
child protective service workers. And the plan that they're putting
forth is kicking more people off, kicking spouses off, kicking

(58:18):
off the non state workers. Those are our cops and
our firefighters, and many of our municipalities and counties that
rely on PEIA to help their employees get coverage. None
of that seems that word You're gonna be shrinking the
pool and making it even even more expensive for folks.

Speaker 5 (58:33):
Think about it in terms of this, is there ever
a time because Democrat, Republican, Independent, I personally just my
two cents, I don't care who's in the governor's chair,
who controls the legislature, You're not going to be able
to do anything about medical inflation at a state level.
I think we're always going to struggle, no matter who's
in leadership, to keep up with that. I wonder, given that,
would it be prudent for the state to do a

(58:55):
high deductible plan, some kind of plan. I don't want
to call it a last resort, but a bare bones
high deductible plan, which most of us here in the
private sector, that's what we have, and at the same
time focus on taking some of that money and increasing
salaries something that we probably do have a better chance
of keeping up with inflation with.

Speaker 3 (59:12):
Is that an answer, That's something that we should be
We should be willing to look at every idea right now,
but unfortunately we're not looking at any of them. But
when people enter the public sector, and these are important jobs,
and these are positions that are very hard to fill.
If you don't believe me, look at the Department of
Education website and see how many vacancies we have right
now in the classrooms. See how many long term subs

(59:32):
you have teaching right now in the classrooms. And we're
not going to fill those positions if we don't keep
our end of the deal when we said, you know,
you're not going to get great pay if you work
in the public sector, but your benefits will be good. Well,
the benefits are no longer good, and they haven't been
a priority, and instead of instead of addressing it, they
passed this bill two sixty eight that was really just

(59:52):
aimed at covering the providers, making sure that their reimbursement
rate went up, and that's fair, I agree with that,
but what without you know, addressing the other end of it.
You've only we've only seen premiums. It's just been taking
it out on our state workers that are that are
harder and harder to find, and it's making it even harder.
It's it's making a problem that we had even worse.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
We could always increase salaries make up for it goodly.

Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
Well, yeah, if you had the political will of the
Republican Party to actually do that, but you don't. They
they haven't increased salaries to keep up with it, and
that's been that's the problem. And then they, you know
what they they always fail to address unfortunately, and who
really gets the short end of the stick are retirees
who do They don't get pay raises, but they haven't
addressed the cost of living adjustment for our retirees as well.

Speaker 5 (01:00:40):
I'm looking at a post here from John Williams, one
of your colleagues in the House, says, if Congress does
not extend these credits, talking about the ACA credits, sixty
eight thousand, excuse me, sixty seven thousand West Virginians will
see their health insurance premiums increase by an average of
one hundred and thirty three percent, or fourteen hundred dollars annually.
I think we're in an errow where you can't have

(01:01:00):
it all. What's more important these ACA credits are the
Medicaid issues that the Democrats are trying to negotiate in Washington.

Speaker 3 (01:01:07):
I think they're negotiating both. I think you can walk
in che Gus.

Speaker 5 (01:01:10):
What do you pick if you have to pick one,
I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
I mean I want to pick you sure on. I
think everybody should have access to health care. About that,
I'm not going to pick one citizen over the other.
But with those tax credits, which is what you're talking
about right now, Yes, with as far as this Continuing
Resolution goes, it's very important and they shouldn't wait until
the last minute. Something they need to address now. So
I'm glad that the Democrats in the Senate are using

(01:01:34):
every tool at their disposal to address this, because the
notices are going out right now or people are going
to get these huge rate increases. It's a tax increase
really when you fail to extend this tax credit for
folks that are in the marketplace, and these are people
who are job creators. These are we're talking about entrepreneurs here.
You're talking about small business owners who are the greatest
employer in our entire country. You're talking about independent contractors.

(01:01:57):
That's who we're talking about here. That's who. That's sixty
six thousand West Virginians, that's who we're talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
Mike Bushkin joining US Westregian Democratic Party Chairman Kanawha County Delegate.
How are our recruiting efforts going to get candidates out
for the upcoming election in twenty six.

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
It's going quite well because I think there are a
lot of people who are just really upset with the
status quo and the way things are going. And we're
hearing from more and more folks that are stepping up
from the top of the ticket to the bottom to
give voters choices. And I think that it's you know,
the Republicans decided to close their primaries and tell the

(01:02:31):
independence and unaffiliated voters that they don't want them vote
in their primaries. Well, you know what, we want those
voters voting in our primaries, and we plan to provide
them choices in those primaries.

Speaker 5 (01:02:41):
Moderate Democrats, is that an okay thing? If an independent.
Would you go that far?

Speaker 3 (01:02:44):
We said we want everybody voting in our primary. Yes,
any moderate Democrats, conservative Democrats, Progressive Democrats, independents, unaffiliated voters. Yes,
you're all welcome in the Democratic Party.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
Mike Plugg the Kitchen Table Tour one more time. You're
going to be in the Morgantown area. You're right. Clifton
VFD is outside Clifton.

Speaker 3 (01:03:03):
Volunteer the Clifton Volunteer Fire Department on Grafton Road Tomorrow
night at six pm. And I will again mention Saturday
night here in Charleston at the Convention Center is the
Roosevelt Kennedy Dinner. Our speakers are Congressman James Walkinshaw from
Virginia and newly elected Mayor Monroe Nichols, Tulsa, Oklahoma. And
music provided by Bob Thompson. And you can get those

(01:03:25):
tickets at Wvdemocrats dot com slash rk and.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
May I be so bold to assume I can also
find dates and times for the other stops at the
Kitchen Table Tour at the website as well. Correct.

Speaker 3 (01:03:37):
Yeah, that's also on the WV Democrats dot com and
it's also on the House Democrats social media but this
is I think three out of out of twelve so far.
And the first stops we had, Huntington and Martinsburg were
standing room only, and we had great questions and we
sat in there for two hours until everybody had their

(01:03:57):
questions addressed.

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
All right again, that come up tomorrow night, Clifton Volunteer
Fire Department. That's on the Grafton Road near Morgantown. And uh,
the Roosevelt Kennedy dinner coming up Saturday night. And Charleston, Mike,
appreciate you stopping. Bye.

Speaker 3 (01:04:10):
Uh, good to talk to you again, Buddy, Hey, good
talk to you too.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
Coming up we'll get some of your texts three oh
four Talk, three oh four phone calls welcome as well.
Eight hundred seven to sixty five Talk eight hundred and
seven sixty five eight two five five. Ren Baker joins
this bottom of the hour. We are there for you
to care for you at the Health Plan.

Speaker 18 (01:04:31):
The health Plan is still growing, giving you a large
network of doctors, friendly and helpful customer service representatives, and competitive,
flexible pricing.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
Plans that meet your needs.

Speaker 5 (01:04:41):
Log on to health plan dot org for more information.

Speaker 19 (01:04:44):
We are there for you to care for you plan.

Speaker 11 (01:04:50):
We are here.

Speaker 22 (01:04:56):
Rafters along the Lower Gully have reported sightings of a
pirate on the room. Apparently he's throwing gold coins to
every boat it passes back to you carry I Play.

Speaker 23 (01:05:06):
West Virginia's new online lottery app is here and the
games are full of characters. Start playing today at wb
lottery dot com or download the official West Virginia Lottery
app and discover even more ways to win with play
on our new rewards program.

Speaker 19 (01:05:19):
So join the cast of characters today with.

Speaker 23 (01:05:20):
I Play from the West Virginia Lottery eighteen plus to
play play responsibly.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
Doublew Athletics director Rind Baker are going to join us
a couple of minutes from now. Three or four. Talk
three or four is the text line. Send it that
fiber is expanding across West Virginia from basics to blazing
fast ten gig speeds. They have a plan for you.
Plus their new app lets you control your Wi Fi
and sept Brettal controls with the Please go local, Go
citty Net, visit citynet dot net. Today. Texter asks, if

(01:06:05):
we are all welcome to vote on the Democratics primary,
can we vote for the least likely to win and
help Republicans do whatever you want. I guess I'm going
to stop you.

Speaker 5 (01:06:17):
I think the I think Mike was deficient in pointing
out you do have to be an independent. I need
to take the Democratic ballot. You can't be a Republican
and take the Democratic primary.

Speaker 1 (01:06:27):
Doubt you could be an independent and do that.

Speaker 5 (01:06:29):
You could be an independent and do that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:31):
Uh, texter says, my retired principal wife pays fifty dollars
a month and one hundred and seventy nine Medicaid Part
B while I pay seven hundred and eighty three and
one hundred seventy nine Medicaid Part B per month. Can't
get her insurance and she doesn't want mine, says the Texter.
Thank you for having Mike Pushkin on today three or
four Talk three oh four. Pushkin is the world's worst

(01:06:54):
at leaving out details. He never says that the money
follows the child. No one does. They act like money
is just taken from the schools. It's not. If a
student no longer attends that school, the school doesn't get
the money for that kid, at least they shouldn't, but
they figure out a way to get it by fudging numbers.
We are all giving money to an entity in Ohio
that will use it to establish a school in West Virginia.

(01:07:16):
Pushkin knows that we do that with businesses all the time.
Not telling the whole truth is also a lie, says
the Texter, Dave, can.

Speaker 5 (01:07:23):
I pose a question and I think I'm confident on this,
Maybe you can help my clarification. That's been the rule
for a long time, way before Hope. If you went
to a private school, that money went back to Charleston,
the county didn't keep it. It went back to Charleston
and somehow reallocate it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:37):
So I mean textures on with that, right, I'd have
to double check that, Yes, I believe you are correct,
but I'd have to double check that it didn't follow the.

Speaker 5 (01:07:50):
Kid though, right, so it doesn't follow the kid y.

Speaker 1 (01:07:54):
Yeah, it would go back because your school aid formula
is part. Part of that is you know students, student.

Speaker 5 (01:07:59):
County loses it and it would go back to somewhere
in Charleston. Now what happened to it once it went
back to Charleston, I do not know.

Speaker 1 (01:08:05):
Texter, says Pushkin. Everyone has access to healthcare, it is
not everyone else's responsibility to pay for it. Difference, exclamation mark, uh,
three or four Talk three or four. Your guest failed
to say his party was in power for almost eighty years.
See where that got us in this state? Three or
four Talk three or four. Mike doesn't seem to even

(01:08:26):
want to offer any ideas, simply blame boring interview, says
the Texter. All right, we'll try to do better with
the next one. Coming up. WU Athletics director Rin Baker
is going to join us. We'll talk to him about
naming rights, sponsorships, expectations, all the above. That's coming up
a couple of seconds from now, well, a couple of minutes.
A couple of minutes from now. Seconds is over selling

(01:08:47):
it just to Tad and we'll get some more of
your texts coming in before we clear the way at
the top of the hour at noon three or four
Talk three or four is the text line eight hundred
and seven six five eight two five five, the phone
number talk line on Metro News for four years, the
voice of West Virginia. It is eleven thirty and time
to get a news update. Let's check in with the

(01:09:08):
Metro News radio network find out what's happening across the
Great State of West Virginia.

Speaker 24 (01:09:13):
West Virginia Metro and neu ZIM Chris Lawrence. Developers of
the mid Atlantic Regional Link or MARL Transmission line may
have a route they're ready to build, but they don't
appear to have one over very many supporters. The companies
planning to build that line from southeastern Pennsylvania to northern
Virginia putting out their proposed route last week. Already, the
PSC has eight hundred and seventy seven comments on the proposal,

(01:09:35):
which is awaiting approval from the Commission, and exactly zero
of those are in favor. All had some level of opposition,
many seeing the line offers little to no benefit to
West Virginia. Developers disagree and say it actually ensures electrical reliability.

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
Sunday was a special.

Speaker 24 (01:09:51):
Day for nurses and staffers who run the Neo natal
ICU at CAMC Women's and Children's Hospital. Bendelia Health, the
parent company of CAMC, held a nick You graduation party
to welcome back all those babies who spent their first days, weeks,
and even months of life and the care of those staffers.
Callie Pruitt Shober is one of those. She's the mother
of twins who's been forty five days, and then nick

(01:10:13):
you when they were born prebent toured just a few
months ago.

Speaker 8 (01:10:16):
It's one of the most jarring experiences to go from
seeing someone so intensely every single day, you know, we're
there for eight hours a day potentially, and then to
seeing them not at all. And so it's been it's
been kind of hard to view without them. So this
event is seeing them. It's overwhelming.

Speaker 24 (01:10:35):
Some children attending the event have been nick You patients
at birth and are now several years old doing well.
You're listening to matrenews for forty years. The boys of
West Virginia.

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
What are you doing out there?

Speaker 25 (01:10:46):
Come on, I saw you at the game the other night. Yeah,
you up there getting mad, acting like we're all out
there making a million a game. Let me be real
with you. This isn't the pros. It's school sports and
it's a game, our game, So please let us play
school sports.

Speaker 15 (01:11:04):
Fans, remember when you cheer for your team, make noise
for the right reasons.

Speaker 5 (01:11:08):
This message presented by the NFHS and the NI Triple.

Speaker 25 (01:11:11):
A and all student athletes in West Virginia.

Speaker 15 (01:11:15):
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 metro News 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.

(01:11:36):
Twenty twenty five Metro News Power Rankings are presented by
Tutors Biscuit World. Start your day the homemade way. Visit
them at Tudors Biscuit World dot com.

Speaker 24 (01:11:46):
Longtime journalist Jim Reader has died.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
He was eighty one.

Speaker 24 (01:11:49):
Worked for all three of the Charleston Huntington Market TV
stations during his career and served as a news director
at two of them. He was inducted into the West
Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame in twenty twelve, and after
leaving TV, spent more than twenty years in public relations.
Federal Judge John Cobenhabor celebrating his one hundredth birthday today.
Cobenhavor appointed to the bench by President of fort in

(01:12:09):
nineteen seventy six and took senior status in twenty eighteen
from the Metro News anchored Ask Guy. I'm Chris Lawrence.

(01:12:35):
More of your text.

Speaker 1 (01:12:36):
At three oh four Talk three oh four Phone numbers
eight hundred seven sixty five Talk eight hundred seven sixty five,
eight two five five. Joining us now on Metro News
talk Line as athletics director for West Virginia University, Rin
Baker Wrin, Good morning, Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 7 (01:12:51):
Well, it's good to be with you, guys.

Speaker 1 (01:12:53):
Appreciate you coming on a lot of things we want
to get to. But let's start with the new name
of the View Coliseum. It would be the Hope Coliseum. Bren.
You had said previously that you were going to explore
these areas to maximize revenues for the athletics department. It's just,
you know, a reality of UH college athletics these days.
So what made Hope Gas a good partner for the

(01:13:15):
coliseum naming rights?

Speaker 7 (01:13:17):
Yeah? I think as we as we entered into to
really trying to explore every avenue to grow our revenue
so that we can continue to remain competitive in this
new UH and changing landscape and college athletics, you know,
are some of our venues and naming those with a
corporate name is something that we really identified early started

(01:13:38):
trying to explore make sure we understood what the what
the value is and the market for those. And then
you know, if we were going to marry our brand,
uh with with another company's brand, we wanted to make
sure it's a company that, you know, in a perfect world,
holds some of our same values and and you know,
we would have considered a national brand, but if it

(01:13:58):
was a West Virginia company, Andy, that's something that really
resonated with us. And so early on we entered into
some discussions with with Hope Gas and I would guess
those have been probably ongoing over a year now, and
you know, they have a lot of the same goals
for for West Virginia and West Virginia's as we do.

(01:14:20):
And so I think it just made a lot of
sense for us to go down this path, Wren.

Speaker 5 (01:14:27):
Some aren't happy, they don't want any name on the coliseum.
I can I can understand that, but practically, I just
don't think that's an option. Maybe give us a sense
of the landscape in the Big twelve alone. I mean,
I doubt we're the first to do this. Everybody's doing it.
It has to be done today, am I right?

Speaker 7 (01:14:42):
Yeah, that's right. And and you know, if if you
when I first got here, so it was before House settlement,
NIL was just becoming a real difference maker before the
revenue share was allowed. But one of the first assessments
I did was, where's our budge relatives are big twelve peers?
Because I know that we expect to compete, you know,

(01:15:04):
on that top of quarter quartile of the league, but
we weren't funded there. We were funded in the bottom quartile.
And and so then you know, it really became what
are the levers that we can pull to get our
operating budget up? And then when how settlement went through,
we got a little derailed in the conversation around around

(01:15:27):
the operating budget because it became very clear to be
competitive in this new landscape you were going to need
to be at that full rev share. So that's a
twenty and a half million dollar expense dumped on and
already you know, really overtaxed operating budget. And I know
people at home they see our overall budget and they
think that's a lot of money, and it is a

(01:15:47):
lot of money, but it doesn't so much matter what
you have. It's it's what those peer institutions, particularly in
your conference and in your region have, and so you know,
we really see the need to be able to get
ourselves in that, you know, top tier of the Big
twelve in terms of funding that, and I think we
can compete at a very high level when we do that.

(01:16:10):
I know that changes are hard for folks to digest.
I do feel like the name Hope, especially when you're
talking about an iconic building on a university's campus. And
I think you know here in this state, the higher
education institutions don't just represent a better education, they represent
a key to a better quality of life. And so

(01:16:32):
you could you could argue that WU and w Athletics
for many represents Hope. And so this made made a
ton of sense. If if Hope hadn't been interested, would
we have shopped at to other entities? We certainly would.
And I understand the consternation that some people have, but
I think our coaches and student athletes deserve an opportunity

(01:16:54):
to compete, and it takes resources to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:16:57):
Talking to Ren Baker, w athletics director, what other areas
was are Is West Virginia University deficient? And when it
comes to revenue generation compared to other Big twelve institutions.

Speaker 7 (01:17:09):
Yeah, when we have done a fairly thorough assessment of
all of our revenue streams, and there are many of
them where we are competitive. But if you look at
the lack of premium seating in the Colisseum and at
Mylin push Car Stadium, that's two areas where we rank

(01:17:30):
adder near the bottom of the Big twelve. And it's
not just that you're missing out on those premium s
based in terms of the dollars for selling the tickets,
but many times those require an additional donation contribution, so
it hurts you in your in your donations, and then
not having those really hurt your ability to attract outside events,

(01:17:50):
concerts and and you know, pro wrestling and all of
those different things, because they need those premium seat opportunities
to make their situation viable when they look at venues,
and so it really cuts you off from a lot
of different incremental revenues. So that's something I've talked about
and we're actively working on how can we bring some

(01:18:11):
premium opportunities into the Coliseum and and into Pushcar Stadium.
And we're still looking at at you know, our venues
to see if there's if there's further opportunities there as
as vendor agreements come up, you know, whether that's pouring
rights or our parallel agreement with which is currently with Nike.
I think all of those you have to look at

(01:18:31):
and you have to say, Okay, what is our best
opportunity here to make sure we're getting the best baying
for our buck and maximize our revenues.

Speaker 5 (01:18:41):
Rin can you describe some of the details of the deal.
I think it's a ten year deal. Can you tell
us the value on it? And can you tell us
how that money may be spent? Would it be spent
in facility upgrades or are there other line items you
want to knock out with this money? How do you
plan to spend the proceeds that you get from the
naming rights of the coliseum.

Speaker 7 (01:18:58):
Yeah, we we haven't released the details of the exact
details of the deal yet. We we will coming up.
But there's been reports out there that I think are
fairly accurate in in in the overall value it it is, uh,
it is significant. It's it's seven figures annually. It does
escalate a little bit each year, and and initially those revenues.

(01:19:22):
They're not ear marked for anything other than and than
you know, the priorities of the Athletic Department, which right
now is funding that full rev share. And so you
know the way that that when you get a twenty
million dollar expense is kind of dumped in your lap
with really kind of a year's notice. You know that
that is a lot of money to come up with,

(01:19:43):
and we we've uh, you know, tried to come at
that from several several different angles and and and these
opportunities are one of them, so that that money really
will go at least initially into helping fund in our
REP share. So it's not just you knowv revenue sports
that take part in that. All of our ticketed sports

(01:20:04):
including volleyball, men and women's soccer. You know, uh menuis basketball, football, wrestling,
all those sports, take baseball, they all they all get
some revenue revenue share dollars. And then we'll we'll announce
here in the near future the addition of scholarships as well,
because of the house settlement allows you to add scholarships
and that's a significant expense that that the money helps

(01:20:27):
fund as well, and those are be spread across all
of our sports portfolio.

Speaker 1 (01:20:32):
Is there anything off limits or is everything up for sale?
So to speak?

Speaker 7 (01:20:37):
I you know, I think there's consideration of everything. It
doesn't mean that all of it makes sense. You know,
there's a certain aspect of of of tradition and history
that you don't you know, you don't want to touch,
especially if it's not as very very significant. So we're
not going to go and you know, sell something that

(01:20:58):
we see is kind of sacred. And you know, I'll
take one tradition for instance. You know, we sing country
roads after wins at all of our venues. There's not
a dollar figure somebody could attach to get us to
sing a different song after win, right, Like, that's a
that's a tradition that I think I would be run

(01:21:19):
out of town very quickly if I tried to try
to change that one. So there are certain things that
that are sacred and you're not going to touch. But
but there are, you know, are a lot of other
things that we have to look at as sports, as
college sports becomes more professionalized, And I know a lot
of people are uncomfortable with that. Listen that at times

(01:21:39):
there are things that that are hard for me to digest.
But the reality is we have to look at how
professional sports manages the revenues and expenses and and they
don't miss many opportunities to to take in the revenue
if there's an opportunity there. And so I don't know
that that we're going to be quite as a great

(01:22:00):
said as all pro sports franchises, but but you'll definitely
see us be more aggressive and exploring opportunities.

Speaker 5 (01:22:07):
The Dave and TJ blimp flying around the coliseum, that
might be nice.

Speaker 1 (01:22:11):
I like it.

Speaker 7 (01:22:12):
H I don't know who's gonna fly that blimp, but
maybe Hopey can do in his retirement.

Speaker 5 (01:22:17):
Yeah, tough game on Saturday. Utah is a good tea.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
It is.

Speaker 7 (01:22:23):
And you know when you bring in new coaches and
there's so much there's already such a transient nature to rosters,
and then you know that that gets greatly, greatly enhanced
and you got to replace eighty new players and you
have to you're trying to bring in a staff to
do it. And yes, they have been evaluating the portal.

(01:22:46):
Like I told, I told somebody the other day, They're like, well,
you know when the coaches start evaluating the portal, And
I said, our our staff has watched video all summer long.
They have they have watched and graded every underclassman in
the country at Division one and probably many at at
Division two and junior college as well. And so because

(01:23:07):
by the time a kid goes into portal many times
you know they already have their have it whittled down
to where where they want to go. And so when
you bring new coaches in, they really are behind the
eight ball in terms of getting their feet on the
ground and the and the more that they have to
go see, the more diluted your your your budget is

(01:23:29):
for player acquisition and retention, and and the more that
you're you're not able to be as targeted on on
what your needs are. And so when you look at Utah,
they really I thought, were able to take control of
the game up front on both sides of the ball.
And they had some transfers in that mix, but most

(01:23:49):
of those uh of those kids were kids that they
had had in their program for some time and developed.
And so that's that's what you're trying to do. As
as coach Rodriguez and his staff really gets on feet
on the ground here and year one underneath them, you're
going to start try and retain the talent that you
need to retain, and you're going to try and bring
in high school kids that you can grow and develop

(01:24:11):
and supplement that with Portal kids. You know, people want
it to be a straight ascension to the top, but
it takes some time. I think, you know, we're seeing
Marshall have some similar, you know, challenges as they onboard
a new staff. It just takes a little bit of time,
and people don't want to hear that, and you know,
people will point to the instant success they had in Indiana,

(01:24:32):
But if you go and look at the big twelve
coaches that have come into the league since twenty three
when when Portal and NIL really became a massive factor,
I think most of those have won either three or
four games their first year. Because it does take some time.
And so I think our team's going to continue to
work hard, and I know our coaches will and they'll

(01:24:53):
get better. And you see moments like to win against
Pitt where we show progress and then you know, you
get setbacks like like we've had these last couple of games,
but you just keep fighting and try and get better,
and you're much better positioned from a financial standpoint in
terms of your budget and from an evaluation standpoint and

(01:25:14):
being ahead of the game for that next portal class.

Speaker 1 (01:25:17):
W A. D. Rinn Baker joining us on Metro News
talk line. How do you feel about the new portal rules,
just the one window coming up instead of having multiple
portal windows? You good with that? Is that in the
net positive?

Speaker 3 (01:25:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:25:30):
I think that was That's very important because you know
it's I'm all, you know, I understand that that coaches
can leave and ads can leave. Now there's a penalty
for us if we could leave, but you can negotiate
that in a student athletes contract potentially as well. And
so I'm all for of people having opportunities to find

(01:25:51):
situations that fit them. But you know, a situation where
you could acquire a student athlete in the December portal,
have an agreement on what what things were going to
look like in terms of their revenue share, and then
they turn around and re enter the portal to try
and get a better deal three or four months later

(01:26:13):
in the spring. You just can't build a roster that way,
and it's not a sustainable model. And you know that's
the word I keep I've using when people ask me
about the future college athletics. The totally unregulated nature that
we've had last couple of years is just not sustainable
when you have schools like Ohio State, who wins the

(01:26:33):
football National Championship but has a thirty forty million dollars
budget deficit because they're they're trying to chase a number
that there's no there's no any kind of guardrails or
restrictions on, or regulations or rules. So getting that portal
period to one portal period still gives a student athlete

(01:26:55):
a chance to find another place that might fit them better,
but it doesn't. It allows you to lock in on
your roster after that initial portal period and really be
able to focus in on getting the players that are
on your team better.

Speaker 1 (01:27:09):
Rin Baker, w athletics Director. Always a fun conversation. Glad
you could join us, Rin.

Speaker 7 (01:27:14):
I appreciate it, gentlemen, and you guys have a great
week you as well.

Speaker 1 (01:27:18):
Coming up, we'll get some textab'll wrap things up for Monday.
This is talk line from the Encove Insurance Studios.

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Speaker 26 (01:27:53):
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Speaker 26 (01:28:14):
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Speaker 2 (01:28:35):
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Speaker 1 (01:28:46):
Three oh four Talk three oh four West Virginia needs
to run for the Big twelve tea leaves indicate that
they are exploring that ACC is a nice fit. ACC
didn't want West Virginia. Don't forget didn't want them. Please
ask Grenn if we're officially switching back to the old
Golden I think I believe that's just a special throwback uniform.

(01:29:06):
Of course in college football now, I mean you get
a different uniform every week if you're Oregon.

Speaker 5 (01:29:12):
Isn't the TV contract for the ACC kind of terrible too?

Speaker 6 (01:29:16):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:29:16):
There's a lot of things terrible about the ACC right now.
Not a fan, not a big ACC fan. Can you
ask rin? WW needs a P four opponent next year
to meet Big twelve guidelines? How will WW handle this?
Ask the sports line guys, that would be my recommendation. Uh,

(01:29:37):
Texter says, I'd like to point out that if everyone
has access to healthcare, but we should all have to
pay for it, well, we do in the long run
because those people do not pay those bills, but we
do subsidize the hospitals to make up for it. Hey, guys,
no mention about American agriculture today or the bailout coming
to farmers from the Trump administration. Farmers, corporate executives, corporate

(01:29:59):
board members, bank and probably a lot of other industry
people vote to give themselves subsidies and bailouts, so it
only it would be only fair and playing the rules
of the game is student loan borrowers voted people in
who would use some of that subsidy and bail out
money to help student loans. Uh Texter says, the money

(01:30:21):
technically followed doesn't technically follow the kid, but through the
Hope Scholarship, it quote follows the kid. But you are correct.
If a child stops going to a particular school, the
money goes back to Charleston. Great minds tj.

Speaker 2 (01:30:37):
U.

Speaker 1 (01:30:37):
I already read that one. You have to be an independent.
We were went over that text, all right, got to
take our final break. We'll squeeze in a couple more
text say what's coming up tomorrow and later today on
this Metro news radio network. It's talk line from the
Encove Insurance Studios. Back to wrap it up after this.

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Mega Million's jackpot is four hundred and ninety seven millions,
So go ahead play today. Texter says, if Steamer Lease
was a person, it would be Mike Pushkin.

Speaker 5 (01:32:50):
Maybe you take that a couple of ways, right, I.

Speaker 1 (01:32:53):
Mean, however you want to take that, Mike. Congrats to
Hoppy for his great article last week. He is our
check into keeping all things reasonable. Dave and TJ. Do
legislators get peia? If so, why do they enroll in
a state pension plan? If so, why we'd need turn limits.
These benefits are for public career employees. I think they're eligible,

(01:33:17):
but I would have to check that.

Speaker 5 (01:33:19):
I believe you're correct, but I believe they have to
pay an actuarial rate that probably is higher, may not be,
I don't know, but.

Speaker 1 (01:33:26):
They have to cover the cost. Put it that way,
Uh three or four? Talk three oh four. The bigger
issue is keeping ACA tax credits, says the Texter. Uh
we did that one.

Speaker 4 (01:33:41):
No, that was lawy.

Speaker 1 (01:33:42):
If you're not going to read that one, just a thought.
Just because Hope Gas has the naming rights does not
mean you can't call it the Colisseum. I think most
Mountaineer fans still call the stadium Mountaineer Field. You can
call it whatever you want, but officially it'll be known
as the Hope Coliseum. Niko is going to be redshirted,
then enter the portal and move on next year. Probably

(01:34:03):
probably so. The idea for the show taken on the road.
For festivals that have Friday events, you could even let
folks line up to Steam. That could be interesting. Live Steam.
Just set a microphone up in front of the table.
Let it go. It could be interesting. You have to
be quick on the eight second delay.

Speaker 7 (01:34:22):
There.

Speaker 1 (01:34:22):
I have a feeling all right coming up. Many of
these same Metro news radio stations. Metro News Midday Dave Allen,
Amanda Baron will take you through three o'clock. Then it's
Hotline and sports line. Keep up with the news of
the day at the website WDV metronews dot com. This
is a talk line on Metro News for forty years,
the Voice of West Virginia