And get the new and improved free iHeartRadio app today. iHeartRadio. Mike Porcaro. Behind the mic of your 50,000 watt blowtorch. News Radio 650. KENI. It's your news and information blowtorch Like having a conversation on your own It's 407, 42 in Anchorage, 40 in Palmer, 41 in Sobatna, 40 in Homer. Talkeetna is 39, Fairbanks 38, Prudhoe's 12 above.
Seattle and New York are both at 50. Acheron, New Zealand, 59. Pensacola, Florida, boy, did they have some rain and terrible weather yesterday. 60. Tampa, Florida, 68. Tifton, Georgia, 58. And Lake Havasu City. So, Crash, it's a Wednesday. How are you? Good, man. Is the doc on board? He is. All right. Well, let's get right to Dr. Bruce Kiesling. Doc, I hope you're feeling well.
I am. And you? I am as well. So, you know, it's a little overcast here. But, hey, most of the snow is all gone. So, you know, we're a month ahead of time, I think. All right, we've got some questions for you. This one, I've got to tell you, this one sounds like it's... out of a science fiction movie. Kim says, my sister-in-law in Canada told me about an almost unbelievable operation to restore sight.
She called it tooth-in-eye surgery. She said it will be a first for Canada. Have you ever heard of this procedure? It doesn't sound real. Well, that's the question, Kim. It's a first in Canada, but it's not a first. It's been around for 60 years, 6-0. In the early 60s, Strappelli, an ophthalmic surgeon in Italy, was a... but pioneered the procedure. He was the founder of memory of the International Intraocular Implant Society back in 1966. It's been around for decades.
but it's a first for Canada, and that's great for Canadian ophthalmology as well as for that patient. So you... You know, kudos out to them for that. But it's been around a while. It is a unique, obviously, procedure. It's known as osteodontokeratoprosthesis. Yeah, more easily known as the tooth and eye surgery. So this is how it goes. So first of all, let me just say it doesn't restore vision except. in the cases of severe corneal disease that can't be dealt with with corneal transplant.
Corneal transplants have come so far along and are so successful that, you know, very, very seldom do you have to consider this procedure. It is only an anterior eye. issue that this addresses. You have to have an intact retina. You have to have an intact atomic part of your brain working properly. So it's just the... really a corneal disease cure and addressing that. So what happens is it's a two-stage operation. The eye is opened up and the...
entire inner surface of the eyelids, the corneal surface, and all the scar tissues removed. Much of this corneal problem is due to somebody getting splashed acid on their corneas. either maliciously or accidentally, or an immunologic disease that has scarified the cornea.
So the eyes open up, the entire inner surface of the eyelids, the corneal surface, scar tissues remove the inner mucosal lining of the cheek. A portion of it is transplanted onto the new surface of the eye, a canine or premolar tooth. and part of the adjacent bone and ligaments are removed, and then a bolt-shaped structure is fashioned from the tooth bone complex. I should mention that after the tooth is removed, a longitudinal...
layer or lamina is cut from the tooth and a hole is drilled perpendicular to that strip and the hole is fitted with a cylindrical lens. Okay, then that is all transplanted. The tooth and bone cylinder complex is implanted into the patient's cheek in order to grow a new blood supply. So four months later, there's two procedures. The cheek mucosal lining over the eye is open.
The inner contents of the eye are removed. The tooth bone cylinder complex is removed from the cheek and inserted into the eye. And the mucosal cheek lining is replaced over the implant. And at the end of the procedure...
light can enter through that plastic cylinder, and the patient is able to see through this cylinder with fair vision, good enough to, you know, be able to drive legally 2200 or so. You're not going to get 2020. You're not going to get... A great peripheral vision, but you're going to get vision, which is, of course, marvelous.
The success rate varies according to the operator and the amount of experience they have, but it varies. And, you know, confounding situation on the overall health of the individual, 60%. maybe as high as 85% success rate, and restoring that degree of vision. It's pretty cool. Wow, I mean, it sounds amazing that somebody came up with this idea of using a tooth. Wouldn't you know it, Mike, if it was an Italian? Probably a lot of wine.
was consumed before he said, let's do that. I know that I've had corneal surgery. And that's nothing like this, but they still put a new lens in there. And it's just that in and of itself, Doc, as you know, it's just miraculous. Oh, it's fantastic. And no-stitch surgery now. In fact, my sister was one of the folks that really helped develop that no-stitch procedure. And it's, yeah, the ophthalmologic surgery is...
It's Star Wars stuff. It really is, and it's just so life-changing. I mean, you think, okay, and that doesn't take very long either. You know, that's the thing that amazes me about this. Well, yeah, the intraocular lens procedure doesn't take long. This particular one has several steps and a lot of things going on there.
But you're right about the intraocular lens. It's a godsend. It really is. All right, let's go to Jacob's question. He says, I have a skin rash, and I know that you always like to have people hold their arm up to the radio so you can get a good look. he says I have a skin rash with patches of scaly itchy skin on both elbows the areas are sometimes painful I'm going to my health clinic to have a checked could it be psoriasis
Yeah, Mike, I've got my Karnak turban on. Hold it up close to the microphone there. So, Jacob. You don't tell me how old you are. That could be helpful. And you give me some clues. But there's a couple of things that can be. And psoriasis is right up there near the top, if not at the top of the list.
Psoriasis on the elbow represents a raised, inflamed, scaly patch of the skin, and you described that. If it has defined edges rather than kind of feathered out into the rest of the skin, it's very defined. It's called sometimes a plaque. And it's often alongside another thing that happens on the elbow very frequently is eczema. And that causes less defined patches.
of dry, bumpy, rash-like skin, and more commonly on the inner creases of the elbow. When people talk about their elbow, they usually are talking about that bony prominence, and I think that's what you're talking about, Jacob. So I'm going to... I'm going to go with psoriasis more likely, but I'll describe both briefly here. So psoriasis is an immune-mediated disease. It causes inflammation actually a number of places in the body.
And it speeds up skin cell production. The skin cells build up. They manifest. There's a raised inflamed scaly patches of skin. And there's about 7.5 million adults have psoriasis in the United States. It can occur at any age. Typically, it begins between 15 and 25. And then eczema can occur at any age, including newborns.
That's an inflammatory skin condition that presents, again, dry, itchy skin rashes and blisters, and it can lead to skin infections. And there are so many, several types of eczema we will go into that. So I'm going to say that psoriasis is right up towards the top of the list. You can have contact dermatitis, but I doubt that because you're talking about...
Both elbows, unless you're leaning both elbows on the thing that you are allergic to and have a contact allergy causing this, I find that very unlikely. I'm going to go, Jacob, probably with psoriasis. There's a distinct possibility. Your doc won't have any trouble making the diagnosis. If he chooses, he might to really confirm it, to take a biopsy of it. And we have wonderful treatments.
for psoriasis, and you've probably seen them if you watch TV at all or advertise all the time, and they are really extremely good making the quote-unquote heartbreak of psoriasis. which it is for people that have it in many parts of their body and conspicuous and really unattractive cosmetically. We have great medicines for psoriasis and great medicine.
to help with eczema as well. So once you get it sorted out, thanks for the question, though, Jacob. And once you get it sorted out, it will be good news getting it under control. All right. Alan has a question. He says, there are numerous stories about fentanyl being smuggled into the United States. Does this drug have a medical use, and how dangerous is this drug?
Well, it's incredibly dangerous, Alan, but let me give you a little background. The company Janssen Pharmaceuticals developed fentanyl in 1959. It was used as an anesthetic and pain reliever for medical purposes. During the 60s, fentanyl started to be used as an IV anesthetic, and it was called sublimates. And then in the mid-1990s, they developed a fentanyl patch. And that was introduced, and that could be used in the treatment of chronic pain.
It's a synthetic opioid, which I'll go into a little bit more later. But where does it come from in regards to its illicit use? The most illicit sources of fentanyl in the United States comes from China.
China isn't where fentanyl originated, but because of the lack of regulation from the pharmaceutical industry there, the country is a very large distributor of drugs and chemicals that are illegal in other countries. China exports many different types of fentanyl products, including raw fentanyl.
Fentanyl analogs and counterfeit prescription drugs like oxycodone that are laced with fentanyl. And while some of the fentanyl comes directly from China, many of the shipments will enter the United States through Mexico, some of it through Canada. And there are many different ways that smugglers can get fentanyl in the United States.
Let me just say that fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. It's 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. A speck of fentanyl, an amount smaller than a raindrop or a few grains of salt. can literally kill you. And fentanyl is sneaky. You can't see, taste, or smell it. Fentanyl is an opioid. Now, many pills or powders sold as illicit drugs may contain fentanyl, even if they're sold as something else.
Fentanyl laces a lot of these illicit drugs and makes fentanyl makes illicit drugs much more dangerous than they've ever been. So there's party drugs like MDMA, cocaine, fake Adderall. But we've seen fentanyl pop up in legitimate prescription drugs that look like Xanax and Oxycodone. And unless a medication is prescribed by a clinician and administered by a pharmacist, you cannot trust it.
In California, for instance, drug overdose is a leading cause of death among 25 to 54-year-olds. So let me just mention while we're on the subject of fentanyl. Naloxone, N-A-L-O-X-O-N-E, should be part of everyone's first aid kit. It means you're prepared to help save a life. It doesn't say anything about you and whether you use drugs or what you think about drug use.
You think of it as a first aid kit or you're knowing how to do CPR. Naloxone, carrying it means you're prepared to respond to overdoses by providing immediate aid. is so important. Forty percent of overdose deaths in California, there was a bystander was present. And those are deaths that could have been prevented if a bystander knew.
when and how to help, and naloxone will do it. And naloxone only works to reverse an overdose when someone has opioids in their system, not just fentanyl, but opioids in general. And you can give it to somebody if you're worried about their breathing. Is it slowing down or is it stopping? Because naloxone won't harm someone if they don't have opioids on board.
It can be used, and you won't harm anybody, and you could possibly save a life if it's an opioid overdose that you're looking at. You can have folks who do illicit drugs. Take advantage of fentanyl test strips to detect the presence of fentanyl in their drugs. They can give you a simple yes or no. But the problem with testing whatever you've got is that... The fentanyl can be mixed with drugs, but it's never mixed evenly. And you have to think about how it's being mixed.
I've read where it says, think of it like a chocolate chip cookie. Some cookies have lots of chips. Some might have a few. Some cookies and chips are on one side, not on the other. You take a bite of a piece of cookie, you get a piece of without chips or something with it. And that's the case similarly with the... Drugs, the powder from one side of a baggie or the edge of a pressed pill. And I want to stress, fentanyl has been laced in some of these very legitimate-looking pressed pills.
If you take a piece of it and you test it, it may have no fentanyl in it, yet the other side of the pill might contain a deadly dose. So I know in this audience I'm not worried about the audience getting into illicit drugs. But thanks for the question. That's a little bit of the background, Alan. All right. And for the Naloxone, Doc, do you need to get a prescription for that? Oh, thank you. Oh, gosh, what a shill you are. That's fantastic. Thank you very much. Naloxone.
is available for purchase over-the-counter, and you do not need a prescription. Thank you, Mike, for reminding me of that. Okay. Barbara writes a question. She says, we are planning a trip to visit family in Texas. I'm concerned about the measles outbreak there. My family has been vaccinated, but some of our Texas kin are not. Do you have any advice? Yeah, Barbara, tell your Texas team to wise up, first of all.
But then let's get into you and your concern for yourself. And that's a great question. Of course, the best defense against measles is vaccination. And the vast majority, I mean, I think it's like 80, 90 percent of the. people getting sick in Texas are unvaccinated. That child who died was unvaccinated. The measles vaccine is safe and highly effective. So, Barbara, you've been vaccinated.
But let's just talk about that. If you've been vaccinated with two doses of vaccine, as is the routine, you have a 95% chance of being completely protected. So you don't have to worry about it if you receive two doses. But there are some adults who should consider getting revaccinated, and that includes older adults who were born after 1957 and were vaccinated before 1968. That's because early versions of the measles vaccine were made from an end vaccine.
inactivated or killed virus, which didn't work particularly well. And so that's why the CDC recommends that anyone vaccinated before 1968 get at least one dose of the live attenuated vaccine, which is what we use now, and there's two doses. Before the measles vaccines were developed in the 60s, people like Mike and I, we got the disease during childhood. So people born before 1957 are assumed to have natural immunity.
If you're not sure of your immunity, there's no harm in getting a shot, Barbara. If you were vaccinated between 68 and 89, you likely received just one dose of the measles vaccine because that was what was done then instead of two doses. that have been standard since 1989. One dose alone is highly effective for most people, but there's no harm in getting a booster, particularly if you're going into a high-risk area.
And there are several situations in which the CDC recommends, and I agree, an additional dose of measles vaccine who are considered at high risk. So if you're traveling someone where there's an active outbreak, okay. Where is the active operate? It's West Texas. But it's very contagious. So we don't know how quickly it will go to other parts of the state, and I don't know where your family lives. So if you're not sure that you got two doses, it's not crazy to get a second dose.
And if you live in a community, if you're visiting a community, if it's in order to make sure you're protected, because adults over 20... are much more likely to develop extreme complications from measles that include pneumonia, brain swelling, encephalitis. And for children, of course, one in 20 kids with measles will get pneumonia. That's a lot. And one out of a thousand will develop encephalitis. It's horrible. I've seen it.
like pouring porridge out of their brain during an autopsy. That visual is still stuck in my mind. And kids, it can lead to deafness, intellectual disabilities. Now, what's going on here with... Let's talk about herd immunity for a moment. Kindergarten vaccination rates have fallen below 95% threshold that the CDC says is needed to prevent community outbreaks or herd immunity. 95%. That's a high percentage. But that's because in the case of measles,
that is so contagious, you have to have that degree of compliance. But we have a perfect way to provide it, and that's with the vaccinations. In some parts of the United States, including Gaines County, Texas, which is the epicenter of the state's outbreak, that vaccination rate there is only 80%. So, I'm sorry, so thanks for the question, and just consider...
whether you got two of the immunizations. If you did two of the vaccinations, then you're in tall cotton. But if you didn't, you're not going to hurt yourself getting a booster. Just really good advice. I mean, measles is, as I recall as a young lad, measles was not the most fun thing to get over. That was not fun. Oh, those kids are miserable.
They're absolutely miserable. Yeah, and I think my mother was more miserable than I was because I kept asking for things, and she was getting a little miffed at me. She goes, get better. Oh, you did, Mike. You did. You really followed your mother's advice. You got better. I know I did. We've got a couple minutes, and you sent me an article on...
The shortage of doctors in America and a number of states are now trying to make it easier for doctors who are trained in other countries to get medical licenses. And I thought this was an interesting subject, and I don't know if we have time for you to address it, but it certainly seems like something that I think people should talk about, and certainly are we doing that here in our society?
Not in our state yet. There's about nine states that are doing it and another dozen that are thinking about it. I mean, you know, you have certain criteria. You decide that the criteria are necessary to... achieve a level of excellence and that you can, as a population, have confidence in the training and professionalism, all of that. And then when you change that and you...
So you change those standards, and some people will argue that you lower the standards, and that's what's happened, for instance, in a shortage of primary care physicians. Well, let's just... Let's just crank out a lot of nurse practitioners. Well, let's just crank out a bunch of nurse practitioners who've had no clinical experience, who are getting their degrees online. And I've had a number of programs on my radio program.
about the dangers of that and how people need to vet their mid-level if they're going to see a mid-level. Where did they get trained? And who did they actually have clinical experience? And, you know, of course the person. can decide that they could be truthful about it or not. In the case of the physician, it's about repeating their residency. Now, if we're talking about, because I did some of my training in Britain, so if you have somebody coming from Western Europe,
or from Australia, New Zealand, Canada. Those medical schools and those residency programs are excellent. And so they come into the States, and they really just need to, in some cases, and I don't think Canadian doctors have to do much at all, to pass some of the regulations and some of the board exams that we have to pass at every stage along the way.
But that's the point, is that they're lessening, and what they have required from a lot of the foreign medical graduates is they actually have to repeat the whole residency. That whole residency can be three years, or in the case of my son, seven, eight years. You know, if you're going to be a neurosurgeon, but so that...
And I'm not saying my son got his degree in the States, but I'm just saying if you come in from another country, you have to complete that residency in many instances. And the point being that maybe they don't need to do that. They're able, if they pass all of the board exams, maybe they can be proctored and mentored and they can be supervised for a period of time. But that's problematic, and it really is the devil in the details. Who's going to proctor them?
And the people that do it, how are they going to be compensated for the degree of diligence and the time required to make sure that this person is a competent physician? So it's not a solution. Also, when you change the rules because you're trying to fill in, for instance, this case, rural.
the availability of physicians in rural areas. These people, just like the mid-levels, sure, they get their licenses to practice autonomously, but they want to live in populated areas. They don't go to rural areas. So some of the states where they're lowering the requirements for foreign medical graduates,
They're actually requiring them to go to rural areas, but I don't know for how long. And then the foreign medical graduate, when I come into the States, they can then petition and say, well, that's, you know, restraint of trade and restraint of...
freedom that's guaranteed by a constitution and they should be able to practice whatever they want. So there's a lot of factors to take into consideration but the crux issue are these people the same level of competence that you can be confident of, of those who are U.S.-trained, U.S.-educated medical schools, and U.S. residencies.
That has a lot of sorting out to be done, but these states are acting on it kind of in a knee-jerk fashion to some extent. I don't want to say that it's not something that can't be accomplished with a lot of diligence. All right. Well, Doc, thank you for that. I think that's an important subject as we look down the road, and we need doctors.
We need nurses. The medical profession is something that's extremely important, especially now that the boomers are getting older. Well, 26% of the doctors are practicing in the United States, Mike. were born outside the United States. So we have a lot of folks that have come over, but they sometimes come over and...
They get their medical education. They burn elsewhere. But, yeah, there's a potential here for sure. Yeah, there absolutely is. Well, Doc, listen, you have a great rest of the week, and we will catch you on Wednesday. We'll be there. All right. Thank you. Take care. Bye now. Bye. It is 432 and a half crash. We'll be right back. This is NewsRadio 650, KENI. Anchorage. Look at it. Almost 100 minutes. And President Trump, I think, basically...
put America on notice in a good way. 76% of the people that watched the speech, according to CBS News, liked it, which says a lot. I watched the speech, and I watched the Democrats, and I've got to tell you, they are a party of nothing. They have no answers. They have no momentum. They have no bench. They have no players. They have nothing.
They are completely devoid of answers, and they are completely devoid of human emotion. That's just what I saw. That's my opinion. That's what I saw last night. There's a couple of things that I wanted to talk about regarding the speech, and certainly I'd be happy to have your thoughts as well. President Trump once again highlighted Alaska. In his speech, he said, beautiful Alaska. And he talked about the LNG line. Crash wrote it.
is also working on a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska among the largest in the world where Japan South Korea and other nations want to be our partner with Investments of trillions of dollars each has never been anything like that one. It will be truly spectacular. It's all set to go. The permitting has gotten. And so once again, President Trump has. put Alaska front and center as the energy storehouse for our country.
He also talked about more oil and natural resources and minerals and all of those things that will make America great or has made America great as well. Also, he got a letter from Woldemir Zelensky, who basically, according to Mr. Trump, wants to come back and he wants to... make nice and get peace at least gets talks going for a ceasefire and also wants to talk about doing this mineral deal Trump announced that yesterday
And he also, as he was making the announcement, looked to the Democrat side of the audience and had a little jibe for Pocahontas. Crash, go ahead. The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine's defense with no security. Do you want to keep it going for another five years? Yeah, you would say Pocahontas says yes.
2,000 people are being killed every single week. More than that. With no end in sight, the United States has sent hundreds... That's it, it just repeated again. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, that was the clip. And, of course, you got Pocahontas. And they panned to Elizabeth Warren, Senator Warren, for messages. The look on her face is worth looking up the video itself.
Because you can tell she's trying not to be affected by it because she's trying to portray the idea that, oh, it's funny, doesn't really bother me, but you can tell it bothered her. Yeah, and I mean, that's just devastating. Well, the best, too, is J.D. Vance behind him. And I think it's, is that Mike Johnson? Mike Johnson. Sitting behind him on the other side? How they both erupt.
into laughter immediately. I mean, it was obviously unscripted because by the looks on both their faces, they didn't know that this was coming. And when he said it, they both just lost it. J.D. Vance is a little bit more deliberate in his reaction. Ha ha, and you, I mean... short of pointing right at her and laughing at her face.
But Mike Johnson, he looks surprised and amused but afraid to belly laugh at the whole thing. And the camera immediately goes to her and she's clapping and she's smiling. But it's a very disingenuous look of joy. If you go watch the video. Trump looks very proud of himself. Well, he did a heck of a job last night. There's some other stuff on there. They had one incident.
With Representative Al Green of Houston, he got up and shook his cane at Trump, and he was mad that he said Trump was going to get rid of Medicaid. Not true. I don't know what Al Green is thinking, but... Green refused to sit down. He refused to stay in order. Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, said, look, we've got to retain decorum here. Don't do it. Sit down. He didn't do it, so he had the Sergeant of Arms.
come and remove him. I've never seen that before. I didn't see the video or anything. I just read the headline that Al Green was upset with Trump's speech. I thought they were referring to the soul singer. No, it's not the same. I thought it was the singer. I'm like, why do we care if some R&B singer doesn't like Trump's speech? I wasn't aware it was another elected official.
Anyway, he was unruly. He said he'll face whatever punishment is meted out. And I have a feeling they'll just rebuke the guy. I mean, you know, what are they going to do? He made an ass of himself. And that's all you can say. If he had understood that Trump was not doing anything with Medicaid, he probably would have come up with something else to be upset about.
But this is kind of where things are. The other things that got me watching this was Trump had a number of people in the gallery last night. And usually politicians do this, Democrats and Republicans. They invite people in to talk about some of the things that they've done and some of the things that Americans, just regular Americans, have gone through. And so Trump had a number of regular folks in the audience last night talking about some of the things that had happened to them.
He had Lake and Riley's mother and sister there. He had Mr. Camporatore's wife. two daughters there. He was the gentleman who was killed in Butler, Pennsylvania. He was a fire captain and he protected his wife and daughter from gunfire. And what was interesting is none of the Democrats stood to acknowledge these people, to acknowledge the pain that they had gone through, just as ordinary Americans.
I found that to be heartless. But the one that got everybody was this little guy named DJ Daniels, 13 years old. Six years ago, he was... diagnosed with brain cancer and all he wanted to do is he wanted to be a police officer and so there are several jurisdictions around the country that have made him honorary and honorary officer so last night
He was there with his father, and Trump called on him and mentioned the story. And the upshot of it was that he was made an honorary sergeant in the Secret Service. And the look on this little guy's face was amazing as he hugged at the director of the Secret Service. I don't think there was a dry eye in the place except for the Democrats. And I'm thinking to myself, if you can't...
Stand up and applaud and celebrate this child who's had cancer and has survived it and then got a dream of his fulfilled. What is wrong with you people? We'll be right back. The Mike Percaro Show with Crash on News Radio 650. K-E-N-I. Looking at your Alaska night to your Thursday, otherwise staying on the warm side in the 30s. For Alaska's weather source, I'm meteorologist Aaron Morrison. Report traffic problems.
We are back. It is 4.51. Let's go to Tom. Hi, Tom. You're on. Hey, Mike. Thanks for taking my call. Yeah, the speech of the Democrats were so childish. The only time that they... applauded was when he pointed out that Biden's administration gave Ukraine billions. And when he brought up the fact that, you know, the Pocahontas...
She's clapping and said, you betcha. We gave it to them. Europe loaned Ukraine the money. And they're clapping for giving all that billions away. And then that little kid... After the one kid was given a West Point appointment, that kid that was appointed at Secret Service, honorary Secret Service, he goes over and hugs the kid, gives him the handshake for the appointment. The Democrats, and then...
All the women dressed in pink, a couple days before, they all voted no as far as keeping men from going to women's sports. And now they're dressed in pink in solidarity for women? The whole thing was absurdity by the Democrats. It's a clown show with these people. They have no answers. They have no heart. They have no soul. There was a time in this country where there was something called a loyal opposition.
You know, you could be a Democrat or a Republican. You had differing opinions, but you still loved the country, and you still showed respect for each other. That's gone. At least I can tell you that I have never been so... disgusted by a group of individuals watching that. I mean, I don't agree with the Democrats, but at least I would expect them to act as Americans. And they did not last night.
The greatest generation was our dads and moms. They went to World War II, came back, rolled up their sleeves, and said, how can I help to build America? Right now... They're all rolling over in their graves with all the crap. They were mostly Democrats. Yeah, they were. They wouldn't be Democrats now. No, they wouldn't be. But Democrats used to be for the little guy. Democrats were for law and order. Democrats were for balanced budgets. Democrats were for all the things that Republicans are for.
The Republicans were the party of the rich. The Democrats were the party of the middle class. That's gone now. The Republicans are the party of, I think, sanity. The Democrats move so far over to the left that I don't even think a lot of good Democrats that I know even recognize the party that they once belonged to. Right. And they're so brainwashed by the media. The media, you know, they made Elon a Nazi because he raised his hand in 45 degrees instead of straight up.
And there's people out there that believe it. He's got death threats against him. He's doing it for free. He's doing all of this for free, and he's stealing from us. The sign said, Bus Steals. They're absolutely crazy. We need, the elephant in the room is, we need term limits, period. Get rid of, there's so much corruption on both sides of the aisle. And as far as Zielinski, he got filthy rich on this.
On this war. They're not a democracy. He won't allow an election. Yeah. No, I have a feeling. Zelensky got a dose of reality last Friday, and I think... If we can stop the killing over there and make some sort of a deal, I think we're all miles ahead, and so is he. And if he doesn't take that deal, then he's just not thinking very clearly.
I think he went back home and he got a mouthful or an earful from everybody. And even his representative there had her face in her hands because she was embarrassed by him. Well, the Democrats had a meeting with him prior to the meeting he had with Trump and Vance. So I have a feeling there was some skullduggery afoot.
So it ended up not going well. Yeah, he campaigned for Kamala because he knew it was going to be a free lunch after she got elected. Right. Well, now it's a question you've got to pay for your lunch there, Vladimir. All right, well, we've got to scoot. I appreciate the call, Tom. Thank you. All right, 5-2-2-0-6-50 is our phone number. When we come back, there's lots more of the Trump speech. There's a great editorial.
in the New York Post today, Michael Goodwin. And it's really well done. So we'll read some of it to you. And it's about the speech and more so about the Democrats in America. And if the Democrats don't change... They may never win another election. And that doesn't break my heart. All right, we'll be right back. Stay with us. That feeling of owning your first Mercedes-Benz is hard to...
Here in Anchorage 39 in Palmer 38 in Soldotny 39 in Homer Talkeetna is 38, Fairbanks 37, Prudhoe Bay 12 above, Seattle 47, New York 52, Akaroa, New Zealand 60, Pensacola, Florida 55, Tampa, Florida 65, Tifton, Georgia 52, and Lake Havasu City down in Arizona is 66. All right, let's go to Chuck. Hi, Chuck, you're on. Hey, Mike, how are you doing today? I'm good, thanks.
I was going to say about last night, you know, there's like a couple of disgusting moments. There's one when he gave that 12-year-old girl a park named after her that got tortured and waited for two hours. And they didn't even applaud that. I know. And then... And then some of the Democrats had this nerve to say that he was just parading around a cancer kid. Not at all. That was just unbelievable.
Oh, it was disgusting. I mean, you see that little kid's eyes and the hug he gave that secret service agent? Yeah, that was pure joy. Yeah, he was just, I mean, he was thrilled to get that. He didn't expect to get it. His eyes were just... It was huge, man. He was just bugged. And he was just happy. And the Dem just sat there. It was just like, it was just, I mean, you're like, really? You guys are that petty.
You guys are that disgusting. And that Earl Green getting thrown out. He's like, oh, I'm going to get thrown out for what I believe in. Well, believe in the sanctity of your party and shut the hell up and sit down. You know? It was just like, these guys were just, it was just so petty, you know, to see their faces, you know. But one thing I did love Trump every time he would talk bad about, you know.
What happened in the country, he'd look over at the Democrats and point over that way. I was loving that. Yeah, well, he really, he was really triggering them. I mean, you knew what he was doing. Go ahead. It was just so disgusting, and he was just, like you said, he was triggering them, and he knew what he was doing, and it was just so disgusting to see.
A group of people that couldn't even stand for a 13-year-old cancer kid. The guy could stand long enough to yell at Trump, but nobody else could stand. Well, they had their little paddles. what that was about what are they going to play ping pong later or something I that was just insane and then you had all these women
who were in pink talking about women. They're going to protect women. And meanwhile, the day before, they voted against women in terms of letting men play women's sports. They wouldn't let the bill get to the floor. What sort of derangement do we have over here? You know, and if you look at the polls, I mean, even the liberal polls are saying
Last night, 7 out of 10 people agree with what Trump said, and 8 out of 10 think that the country's going in the right direction. That's even the liberal post. That's even like NBC and CBS and all that crap. People are not buying what the Democrats are selling, and they showed their asses last night in front of everybody in the world. Yep, well, because they have nothing to sell, and that's the problem.
Well, you know, they've got less to sell now. All right, Chuck, thank you. You have a wonderful day, Mike. You too. Let's go to Jay. Hi, Jay. Hi, Mike. My ears are perked up. In that 110-minute speech when Trump said that there was a gas line in the offing, perhaps. Yes. So if they started today, it would be seven years into 2032.
Something like that. I'll be 87 years old, and I probably wouldn't benefit from it. But my question to you is, do you think between now and the gas line, that Instar and the people who own it, are going to start their rate increases again to perhaps meet the new supply. And the next question would be...
The people of the state of Alaska, rather than having their resources shipped overseas, I think they should get a break on it before it leaves the state of Alaska. And what do you think about that? Well, I think we should get something because we own the resource. I mean, I realize that the oil companies and the gas companies are exploring, and they're spending a ton of money to do that, and they deserve a profit. There's no question.
With NSTAR, it's a utility, and so they're regulated, but they're guaranteed a rate of return. But, no, I mean, I think we're certainly entitled to a royalty. Yes, and there's one more quickie here. The federal government has a program called LIHEAP, L-I-H-E-A-P, Low Income Heating Assistance Plan. Why is the state of Alaska... LIHEAP when they have so much gas here that available that they shouldn't need a federal program for LIHEAP or low-income heating assistance.
I don't have an answer to that one, Jay. You know, the federal government with Doge should look into that and say, hey, you guys have got enough gas up here that we don't need to subsidize your gas problem. Yeah, you guys should be able to absorb all the low-income people's heating bills with no problem whatsoever.
Well, if you let us get the gas and the oil out, that's something we could probably take care of. Yeah, and I think before they ship it all out, the people who own this stuff ought to get a break on it. But thanks, Mike, for the air. You bet. Thank you, Jay. 5-2-2-0-6-50. Let's go to Pat. Hi, Pat. Hello, Mr. Crow. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. You know, just an observation about last night's spectacle.
About a week ago, so many of the Democrat congressmen, senators, all the rest of them, were in absolute uproar over their perceived disrespect of President Zelensky. Yes! Yeah, I know where you're going to go with this. You're right. On national television, they disrespect their own president. Yeah, of course. And the ridiculousness of this is just off the charts. I don't know how many other people caught on to that, but to me it's just amazing.
Well, I think that they should have a new slogan, hypocrisy is us. And, you know, maybe that would be a little more honest. Absolute madness. Unbelievable. Thanks for taking my call. Have a nice day. You bet. Thanks, Pat. All right, it's 515. Let's take a break. We'll come back. The Mike Porcaro Show with Crash on NewsRadio 650.
K-E-N-I. Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this Wednesday evening. Traffic has picked up on the outbound lanes of the Glen Highway. Starting right there at Airport Heights and 5th Avenue. That traffic is backing up almost to the 5th-6th Avenue split. Also a bit of a backup going down Air. Port Heights. From the Swickard Chevrolet Anchorage Traffic Studios, I'm Daryl Dean.
see the potential for some light accumulation with some wintry mix overnight to your Thursday. Otherwise, staying on the warm side in the 30s. For Alaska's weather source, I'm meteorologist Aaron Morrison. Hey, how's it going, Mike? Crash? Going well. Going well, thank you. Well, this is a good relief. Last time I talked to you, this time it felt like I was three miles under the ice in Antarctica. It was so dark. So this is a good feeling.
My drive home from work is now light. But anyway, lovely conversation. Oh, it's great, man. I'm looking forward to it. This is part of the reason why I live here is most of the year it's climatic. perfect temperatures and you know 50 is perfect for me so um anyways you know i don't know if this is too much of a radical idea to think now or not but we see all this party dividends you know we got republicans that are
You know, labeled rhinos because they vote the other way, they support the other side. We got very few Democrats that support the Republican side, but there might be a couple of those. Maybe they're called dinos. I don't know. But is now the time to think about maybe abolishing the party dividends in the federal government? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I think it would be more equal and fair for the people to see.
You know, honest elections, caps on contributions, like no corporate contributions at all, personal caps, you know, a thousand bucks a person or something. And these people run on the basis of serving the people instead of serving themselves. I'm sick and tired of every single person that gets elected all of a sudden ends up with no mortgage and extra property and private jets and all this while we sit here and, you know, we're explained like, oh, we got to take your PFT. We got to.
Taxi more. We've got to do this. And, you know, I think the party dividends, it's a problem now. And here's why I say that. Not too long ago, and I don't want people to take this offensive, Donald Trump was a Democrat. He was pumping money into the Democratic Party, supported Democrats, and then, you know, the Democrat Party got so gross that...
hey, I'm not a Democrat no more and we're allowed to switch parties. But I think that's part of the problem. The confusing part with people like myself who aren't like political scholars and got bachelor's or master's degree in political science. We just look at, you know, the card has given to us, and we don't necessarily know everything about everybody. And, you know, it's unfortunate that we've come to this point, but I'm just looking for solutions, and solutions...
I think, come with community, unity, but also honesty. And from what I see, there's not much of our government left that's honest. And I'm wondering if now would be a pretty good time for maybe the full bill. push a bill forward, you're not allowed to declare a political party. I mean, we do it in local elections, and we demand that with some of our city governments, but...
You know, I don't know. I'm just confused because there's people I like on one side. There's really nobody I like on the other side, but it seems like the other side has... 49% control of everything that happens. And I don't like that. It's not one versus the other. It's us versus everybody. And I think we need to get back to unity, and I think this would be a good way.
All right. Well, Eric, thanks very much for your call. I appreciate that. Thanks, Mike. 524. There's a great piece today in the New York Post from Michael Goodwin. And he was starting out by asking, you know, the big question was, how are the Democrats going to react to Trump in his speech, right? And he said, how many would boycott? How many would dress alike? Would they hoot? Would they holler? What would they do? He said, but in the end, it didn't matter.
They were a sad, shrunken presence, especially after one of their main stooges, this is from Mr. Goodwin, Representative Al Green of Texas got himself ejected. In fact, he got kicked out, actually. He was the lucky one, says Mr. Goodwin. Those Democrats who stayed were like fish out of water, waving their silly little paddles and representing nothing except resistance to whatever Trump said or did.
Calling them a clown show is an insult to clowns. They've earned their trip to the political wilderness, and Tuesday proved they are not yet ready to emerge as a constructive opposition party. Remember what I said, a loyal opposition? That's gone. Meanwhile, the president they love to hate put on a show for the ages. No commander-in-chief in modern times has seized the reins of power with such gusto and delivered such immediate results.
True to form, Trump wasn't shy about saying so. Watching him recount the success, especially on the border, and mix it with touching tributes to widows and families who lost loved ones to crime, I couldn't help but think... This was a Tom Wolfe novel, A Man in Full. We are witnessing a president on the top of his game, clear-eyed and confident about himself and his agenda.
He put on a master class in presidential leadership in what was a speech for the ages. Most times, a political address of 90 minutes would feel like an eternity. In the hands of Trump, it felt like well-placed adventure through dreams, hopes, and tragedies of people inhabiting the most important nation on this earth. The Trump on stage isn't just the dominant figure in American life. In six short weeks, he has put our nation at the center of the world and made America important again.
To be sure, this is not how the lefty media would describe it. They came with their knives out and will knit and pick at every loose thread and call him a liar and worse. They will carve up everything he said and everything he didn't say. Doesn't matter. The train has left the station and the dogs can bark all they want. Reflecting what I regard as a different president from his first term, Trump acknowledged that the tariffs he's imposing will cause some rough spots. Bear with me, he said.
An appeal that stuck with me is both proper and necessary because trade wars can be messy. He was gracious about the feud with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, because Zelensky, according to a message he sent Tuesday, seems to have come to his senses and realized that his country doesn't have a prayer if it loses American support.
in the war with Russia. Europe is a nice second level of support, but can't match America's power. The entire episode is a clear example of Trump sticking to his guns despite the political fallout. It is a stupid idea that no one had the basis for when they were talking about the Russia hoax. Remember that? For one thing, Trump campaigned on ending the war, and it was not about to fall in line with Joe Biden's policy, which Trump correctly called a formula for endless bloodshed without a winner.
For another, the deal Trump was offering Ukraine would have, if fully implemented, led to a ceasefire, perhaps a permanent peace. Zelensky, egged on by such Dems as Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, almost blew it by refusing to sign the terms. He now says he will and Trump seems prepared to move forward.
As for Democrats, they are at the moment where it seemed to me they were especially embarrassed. Trump recounted how Biden and Senate Dems insisted that new legislation was needed to shut the border. But with Trump in deadpan fashion, he said, it turns out that all we needed was a new president. Half the room rose in applause. The other half had no answer. The other half had no answer so far. Their accomplishments have been kept to all of their congressional members on one reservation.
That injects a bit of drama in the House, especially where the GOP margin is so thin. But while having a period of being in opposition is pretty much par for political life, rarely do we see an entire party desperately searching for relevance. That's the key. That's where the Dems are. They are irrelevant because they stand for nothing except they are against Trump. And they are against everything that Trump is for.
There's no future in that. And the sad performance Tuesday proved they have also learned nothing. We'll be back. Michelle Phillips is leading the Iditarod on day number three, leaving the fourth checkpoint in first place. The 2025 Yukon Quest 450 champion now leading this year's version of the Iditarod, her 13th running and leaving the fourth checkpoint in first place.
A former teacher and foster parents, a teacher at high schools and middle schools, 33-year-old Skylar Evans is now facing charges of sexually abusing a minor. Alaska's news source says the 33-year-old is facing three counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor in foster care.
child in his custody. And Sitka is looking at a community-wide internet outage starting Friday and lasting for up to 10 days. GCI users will lose internet service, though we'll still have mobile phone calls and text messages. as crews perform emergency maintenance on the undersea fiber optic cables. That's the latest. I'm Jack Cronin.
Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this Wednesday evening. There is now steady traffic all around the Anchors Bowl. A few slowdowns out there. Currently, it looks like C Street's backing up. Start at Dowling Road. All right. Welcome back, everybody. We are here. And there's an interesting article today in the Anchorage Daily News. And who wrote the thing? Sean McGuire. And...
And it's crashing. It's almost like we were, you know, looking to the future. Remember the other day we had, it was Monday actually, it was Monday or was it? Yeah, it was Monday. We talked about the permanent fund and we had Mike Kronk on. Remember Senator Cronk? And he had come up with a bill last year that wanted to give people the option to essentially take a payout and be done with a permanent fund. Remember that?
I do, and it's a great idea. Yeah, as it turns out, we talked about that. And we said there is no way in the world that, you know, you're going to see this permanent fund in 20 years. giving you a $1,000 dividend. So basically what I'm saying, and this is maybe a crude way of saying it, take the money and run, because there isn't going to be any money.
So, according to Sean McGuire in the Daily News, the permanent fund has a serious risk of failing to fund state services and the permanent fund dividend in the next decade. according to projections by the nonpartisan legislative finance division the board has long urged lawmakers to convert the funds to account structure into an endowment model to ensure its long-term stability.
sustainability legislators have started discussing amendments to the Alaska Constitution to follow the board's recommendation you know I mean I don't trust them Okay, I just don't. In 2018, the legislature approved Senate Bill 26 that established a 5% draw. Now, it's just another statute that they may or may not... essentially obey we also have something on the books that talks about giving us a dividend based upon a formula have you seen that one lately I haven't so
Having a bill or having a law passed by the legislature, in many cases, isn't even worth the paper it's printed on. Now, does that sound harsh? Yes. Is it true? Yes. Now, a constitutional amendment, will that solve some problems? Yeah, it will. Is it hard to do? Yes, and it should be. Okay, so where does that leave us? That leaves us with a very interesting situation. The reality of the situation is the legislature is rapacious. They cannot stop eating money.
The more they get, the more they want. Do they spend it properly? I don't know. Maybe they do sometimes. Maybe they don't sometimes. But I would much rather spend my money than have them spend my money. And the real problem is they're not going to honor the permanent fund dividend anymore. You can see it. It's happening. Look around. So I think the best way of doing this...
is to follow Mr. Cronk and also follow Mr. Mackey back in 2001 when he came up with this idea of saying, let's just do a cash out. We're done. No more permanent fund dividend. Take your cash and go. That's it. And then let the legislature come back to the people and ask us what we want to do. With the rest of the money. That's what I'd like to see. That's the power.
So I don't know, Crash. I think it's a great idea. The idea that it would be a voluntary situation works just right for me because you don't have to do it. You want to stay in the permanent fund situation? Go ahead. And we talked about it earlier this week. We were using the time frame of 20 years. Now it looks like it's probably closer to 10. Right.
So the speed bump here is convincing the legislature, the people that would have to vote on this, to do it. Because you'd have to convince them that if they don't do it, it could be bad for them. You know what I'm saying? Right. They've been given carte blanche by the Supreme Court to do whatever they want with the money. So the best way to do this would bring it up in a year where a lot of them are running for re-election. You know what I mean? We have to give them a reason.
to get behind this because I'm so far past the point of having any faith in the people in Juneau as to doing the right thing by their constituents. There has to be something in it for them. Most, most of them, not all of them, but I would say. most of them they're either you got to figure out a way to make it uh appealing to them other than it's the right thing to do because we've been shown time and time again they don't give
a rip about the right thing to do. If they, if they cared about the right thing to do, the money wouldn't be cut every year anyways, because there's plenty of money there. We'd get the statutory payout. Yeah. If they were worried about doing the right thing and doing what the people wanted as opposed to them, you know,
running these radio and television ads saying i talked to every single person in my district and they'd you know rather have a new handrail on the sidewalk than they would a statutory pat when we all know that that's just charlie brown's teacher talking that's nothing it doesn't mean anything and it's
not true so we'd have to figure out a way to make them think they're getting something out of this as well when in reality they would be because they'd be getting the money for forever in perpetuity as far as the people that that concern that decided to opt in to the buyout thing. And if you didn't want to do it, you can just roll the dice and take your chances if the checks are going to keep coming. But between you, me, and the fence post, they're not.
I mean, like I said, we were being a little bit generous when we used 20 years as a guideline, where this article you just read said it's probably closer to 10, and in reality, it could be even sooner than that. So what would happen is the money that would be used for the permanent fund dividend, if enough of us got out of it, well, we'd take the money and there might not be very much left.
And then the legislature is going to be stuck. What they're going to be stuck with is whatever the permanent fund corpus spins off. And that's the rub for them because they can't touch the corpus. So the next step would be for them to figure out how to touch the corpus. And that's where they have to come back to us. Right. We have to allow them to do it. It's one of the few. instances where we have a little bit of power there.
Right. So I don't know. But like we talked about earlier this week, it makes too much sense for it to happen. I'm cautiously optimistic. I would love to see something like this happen for a number of reasons. Don't get me wrong. The money come in handy. A family of four, that'd be a chunk of change right there. You know, the way the economy.
is right now everything costs more nobody's making you know uh money that's relative to the cost of living increases this could get a lot of people out of a big big huge hole and the lion's share that money is going right back into the local economy anyway so it's kind of one nine times
through the economy. Right, and it's win-win for everybody except for, in certain instances, the people that would put the wheels in motion. So the problem with any real change is the rules have been set up by those people to benefit them, not to benefit you.
or or any of us and they're the ones that can make the change and they're the ones that set the rules in the first place and again they set these rules and these guidelines to benefit them so we have to figure out a way to convince them that doing this would also benefit
benefit them in the short and the long term that's that's the speed bump here because like i said the only people that can affect real change are the people that made the rules in the first place and they made those rules for their own benefit not yours so if we could figure out a way to make it work i think it would be the way
to go because again this isn't going to be around for very long if you're worried about saving this for your kids and your kids kids that's a pipe dream that ship has sailed this is going to be gone sooner rather than later so we need to do this uh like right now and get the elephant out of the room because i'm sure everybody the
Legislature, everybody's just tired of hearing about it all the time. Let's just rip that Band-Aid off and be done with it. Well, yeah, and especially if your kid is five years old. Right and the settlement is you know 30,000 40 whatever the heck it happens to be on or pick a number That kid now has that money Right. It's in trust with the parents, but hopefully the parents don't blow it, you know.
And that's the next thing you've got to hear. Well, the parents could blow it. Well, that's the parents. They're the parents. I mean, the parents can, yeah. That's life, you know. I said it earlier a week ago on the show. Like, I mean, I probably needed braces when I was a kid, but my parents put in a wet bar. Well, that's probably helped out. Right. I mean, the other thing that I heard from people is, well, the taxes.
You're going to have to pay taxes on anything you get. Any PFD you get, whether it's $1,000, $40,000, or $4,000, you're going to have to pay taxes on it. And let's say that because a couple of years ago when they brought this up, the buyout for all eligible Alaskans was about $40,000.
give or take. Right. The fund is healthier now than it was then. Right. 82 million. Yeah. 82 billion. There's going to be some people that decide not to opt into that. So the payout might be a little bit larger for you. So we'll go 45, 50,000. Just throw that arbitrary number out there.
Okay, you pay taxes off that. Say it's 50 grand. You pay taxes off that, you're going to end up with a little over $30,000. That's 30 years of $1,000 PFDs that you've already paid your tax on. Even then you're coming out ahead. So I don't want to hear...
that we need to save it for future generations. It's not going to be here. I don't want to hear about the, well, I don't want to pay taxes on it. You've got to pay taxes on any PFDA, get big or small. Let's just get this over with and get everybody paid and we can move on. Because ever since Walker...
cut that pfd it's just been hanging over the head it's it's you hear the legislature say all the time we're so preoccupied to the pfd we don't get other things done which we all know is just bs but it's just something that they say take away the excuse for them to get yeah take away the excuse they don't have that
anymore to say, well, we couldn't get to this because we were dealing with all you freeloaders and you guys looking for the government handout. Let's get it over with and be done with it and move on with our lives. Here's what's interesting. It's your money when they're running and it's a tax grant. It's a money grab when they're in office. Absolutely. How quickly things change.
I don't know. It makes sense to me. I know it makes sense to you, Crash. I don't know if it makes sense to the folks listening to us out there, but I think if the... If the number, you know, obviously you've got to know what the number is. Yeah, I have no idea what it is. Just throw in 50 grand if there's an arbitrary number. But even if it's less than that, I don't want to hear about the tax ramifications. Because even if you end up with 20 grand in your pocket after it's all said and done,
That's 20 years of $1,000 PFDs. That's not going to happen the way that things are right now. You know, and for your family, you know, I got 60K there. Well, you know, say it ends up 20, 30 grand after we pay our taxes on it. My daughter's 14 years old. We have invested that money. Her college is paid for. Or clown college or whatever she decides to do after she gets out of her seven years of high school. She'll be set.
That's right. But she'll be beating you because you went eight. Exactly. I've set the bar so low that I'm easy to beat. If you can get out of high school in a decade, you beat your old man. That's like the old joke. I went to high school for 17 years. Why? I didn't want to pass my father. There you go. I once told that joke on the air.
back in the east coast when i was on radio back there and my dad happened to hear it and oh my gosh he goes that's not funny that's not even that's not even remotely funny right Why do you make me the butt of your jokes? I said, because I love you, Pop. Well, I mean, it's just...
It comes with the territory. My son, he's 22. He's turning 22 in 10 days. And he listens to the program every once in a while on his way off work. And I'll never forget, he told me that, and his friend's parents listen too. aside and gave him a hard time about missing the toilet. And he said, Dad!
I think it was Benedict. Benedict's dad was giving me a hard time about peeing on the floor. Stop talking about it on the radio. And my response was, we'll stop peeing on the floor and I'll stop talking about it. All right. It is 547. We'll be back. Back to the Mike Porcaro Show with Crash on NewsRadio 650.
Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this Wednesday evening. There is now steady traffic all around the Anchorage Bowl. A few slowdowns out there. Currently, it looks like C Street's backing up. Start at Dowling Road. That traffic is backing up past Raspberry. If you see traffic problems on the road, dial pound 250.
on your cell say total traffic from the swickard chevrolet anchorage traffic studios i'm daryl dean this report is sponsored by compassion international every day a child in poverty waits for a sponsor is another day of hopelessness there are thousands
of kids who've been waiting temperatures dropping near freezing we will see the potential for some light accumulation with some wintry mix overnight to your thursday otherwise staying on the warm side in the 30s for alaska's weather source i'm meteorologist Aaron Morrison. Welcome back, everybody. It is 552-522-0650. And there's a great piece today. written by a number of people who I think are good, solid conservatives. Glenn Beagle, Portia Erikson, Bob Griffin.
And they're talking about, there's another side to the education funding argument. Just the beginning of it says, South Anchorage residents, we feel compelled to respond and provide another perspective on the commentary piece entitled South Anchorage Families, Your Schools Need You Now, published on the 11th in ADN for all the kids. who are failing in our current system it's important to clarify a few key points about the ongoing debate over education funding says first piece mentions cuts
This is simply false in our opinion. The term cuts in education are used in the same context. There's never a fair analysis of policy. No actual cuts are being proposed by the governor or the state. Further, not a single elected official, including Rep. Julie Colombe, has stated that they wouldn't provide a funding increase to school districts, such as the Anchorage School District.
What many legislators are saying is the new dollars for school districts should be accompanied by prudent reforms to ensure dollars are being used effectively to improve Alaska's dismal educational outcomes. And it goes on from there, and it's in the Anchorage Daily News, and I commend it to your attention. Also, there's an editorial from Governor Don Levy.
who talks about the idea of having a Department of Agriculture. And I think that's a really good idea. One of the things we worry about up here is food security. And I know Senator Shelley Hughes up in the valley, that's a burning issue with her, and she's done great work on it. and has had a number of workshops, et cetera. It's a great idea because if the Port of Seattle closes, and it almost did during the pandemic, we are in a heap of trouble.
So food security is important. And why shouldn't we be working and helping our farmers and coming up with the very best techniques we can? to grow as much food as we can and be able to store it and preserve it and eat it and use it. I mean, it's ours. And we've got some of the greatest farmland in the world here. So I think that makes a lot of sense, and I commend the Anchorage Daily News for putting those two opinion pieces in their publication.
I may need analysis, but good for them. I think that's a great idea. I'm glad that they're at least allowing that kind of stuff to be seen and heard, because we certainly do here on this show. All right, it is 5.55 in 30 seconds, Crash. Time pretty much for us to go. Anything that you wanted to say as a parting shot to anybody? No. Okay. That was some mulling. That's exactly what that sound was. The sound of mulling. The sound of mulling. All right.
Okay, it is time to say goodbye until tomorrow. And tomorrow, Crash, is Thursday. Yeah, because today is Wednesday. Right. Well done. And usually I think it's Friday. Well, it's not. But doesn't usually tomorrow feel like Friday? I don't know. You should get yourself checked out. Maybe it's wishful. I don't know. All right. Tomorrow is Thursday. Two more days. We will see you then. Take care. Being a foster grandparent has definitely given me a purpose in life.
I'm a best student because of her. Foster grandparents are role models, tutors, and friends to children with exceptional needs. So we go into the classroom and work with those children who are not quite up to their grade level. The best part of being a foster grandparent volunteer, watching the light light up in the kids' eyes. And you can see their success, and it's really rewarding. I am so proud of the work that I do here.
It is the best feeling in the world. She helps me with reading sometimes. I love Grandma Lydia. Thank you, Grandma. Thank you, Grandma Carol. Thanks, Grandma Jen, for helping me. I'm living again. And the foster grandparent did that for me. It's the best part of my life. To learn more about how to become a foster grandparent and help children in need, call 1-800-942-2677 or visit Senior Corps at Nationalservice.gov. Think fast. Now breathe. Think slow.
Here's something to think about from the Alzheimer's Association. New research shows that regular exercise and a heart-healthy diet may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease. at ALZ.org for more ways to maintain your brain. ALZ.org. Thinking ahead today might make all the difference tomorrow. He's back. The O'Reilly Update with Bill O'Reilly. Only on NewsRadio 650 KD&I. Are you a business owner, CEO, or responsible for marketing?
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