Do you want to be an American Indio.
News Radio seven WW Mike Allen in for Sloaney today, tomorrow, and a couple of days next week too. Well, I'll tell you what the beat goes on with the situation in Minnesota. It's this one thing after another with this and it grows daily. I mean it literally grows daily. Oh boy, I'll tell you. Yesterday a surge of federal officers from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.
They were deployed to Minnesota to investigate new allegations of fraud at the childcare centers, many operated by some Holly residents. I would probably change that from most operated by Somali residents. Cashptel and DHS Secretary Christy Knowam they announced that they are going to increase operations to quote dismantle large scale
fraud schemes exploiting federal programs. This follows an earlier federal prosecutor's allegation that up to half of the approximately eighteen billion dollars in federal funds allocated to Minnesota since twenty eighteen may have been stolen across various programs. That's probably the understatement of the decade this thing. Yeah, and we've talked about it a lot this week and probably continue to talk about it too. It's, without question the biggest
government victim. The government's the victim here fraud scheme that I've ever heard of, and probably the biggest in this country. You know, we're kind of standing pat here at nine billion, talking to people that have covered this journalist pretty closely. It's the general consensus that that's the tip of the iceberg and it's only going to go up from there. And you know, some people might be saying, well, who cares? You know, it's it's not my money, it's the taxpayers
of Minnesota. The overwhelming majority of this money is from federal sources, which means, guess what you and I are paying for it. I'll tell you what. I saw something late last night that just got my hair up in a wad and the hair on the back of my neck to stand up. And no surprise here, it's the New York Times. You know, you got people out there concerned about this. The mainstream media pretty much is just
taking a walk on it. And the New York Times probably has the biggest investigative force, if you will, of alleged journalist in the country. There is an article in Yesterday's New York Times that I printed out. I don't want to talk about a little bit. It's unbelievable. It is by Ken Benzinger and Nesto Londano. The headline is an intense White House response from a single viral video.
Just the first couple sentences, a video purporting to expose extensive fraud at childcare centers in Minnesota shows the relationship between the Trump administration and self described citizen journalist. So right from jump, you know where this thing is going. After reading that first sentence, I said, well, we'll see where this goes. I think I got a pretty good idea. They're pod because you got citizens out there are doing
the damn job that they were supposed to do. And again, a video purporting to expose extensive fraud and a childcare center in Minnesota or childcare centers plural is in Minnesota shows the relationship between the Trump administration and self described citizen journalist. Well, let me ask you, why is that a bad thing? Why is that a bad thing? You know, A young man with a cell phone, it took it
put together a forty two minute video. He did the job that The New York Times, the Washington Post, all of them couldn't do or wouldn't do, I think, more appropriately, wouldn't do. Why is that a bad thing for a citizen watchdog to keep an eye on the federal government. Well, it goes on. A forty three minute video posted online in the past week purporting to expose extensive fraud at a Somali run childcare center Somali run childcare centers in
Minnesota has been viewed by millions of people. It has also set off a suit of events that showed the symbiotic relationship between the Trump administration and self described citizen journalist and the Washington Post. They don't like that at all. No, they don't like it at all. Talking about of course, Nick Shirley. He put this forty three minute video together.
I watched it again last night. It's on YouTube. You can find it, and I'll tell you if you care about where your taxpayers money dollars are going, just watch it. It's only forty three minutes. It's really really it kind of gives you a good idea of where we're at. Anyway. It was posted two x and on YouTube the day after Christmas by Nick Shirley, a twenty three year old who's made a name for himself in the past two years by producing viral content. Are you ready for this?
That aligns with mega policies where we couldn't have that. In the video, mister Shirley is accompanied by a man known only as David, who claims to have uncovered fraud worse than anywhere else in history. And buddy, he's right about that, so he says. It goes on. The New York Times could not verify the claims made in the video. Okay, well, let me pose this question. Do they really want to Is that something that they want to get involved in? They didn't. They had the opportunity to do it, but
they're not covering it. They did cover it a little bit in the beginning. Anyway. Let me see who said top Republican officials said this. Oh, this is from the Vice President. I'll tell you what. He just kind of described this thing perfectly. This is from the Vice President
yesterday talking about Nick Shirley. This dude has done far more useful journalism than any of the winners of the twenty twenty four Pulitzer Prize Center Prizes He's absolutely right, absolutely right, twenty three years old with a cell phone camera. He did have another camera with him, cameraman, amateur dude. But I mean he did the job that The New York Times, the Washington Post, CBS, NBC, ABC should have been doing. And they're covering this now finally, I mean
they have to. But they were real slow, real slow to the dance on this. Well, the article goes on the scale of the reaction to mister Shirley's video has few precedents, but it highlights the way the White House seeds narratives about key issues and then rewards sympathetic creators who deliver viral content. Okay, again, I would pose the question, how is that a bad thing? And it goes on to say that the content need need not be new
or revelatory, or even particularly revelatory to succeed. Watch that forty three minute video and ask yourself, is this relevant? Is this revelatory? As the New York Times says, I think it is? I think it is. Well, where does the New York Times go, of course, to get so called expert comment on this? Where would you think they
would go? They would go to Darryl L. Linnville of the Media Forensics Hub whatever that is at Clemson University, who tracks how social media is used to disseminate propaganda. That's where you know, you'd figure they would go go to a college professor. I guarantee you he'll give it to you straight right down the line. There'll be no liberal bias there. It goes on to say this guy, Daryl Linnville, professor Lindeville, they all have goals that aligne
and they're all pointed in the same direction. And that is because again, you New York Times won't do your job, so citizens have to do it. And I know you don't like it because at some point, hopefully at least, it's going to put you out of business. They hate this well anyway, over the past, it goes on. Over the past two years, pro Trump content creators have covered dozens of protests, political rallies, and natural disasters, and they've
actually marched with are you ready anti Muslim activists? Oh no, and embedded with immigration officials on raids. How is that a bad thing?
You know?
Citizens ride with cops all the time.
Yeah.
Again, with the situation with Ice, what do they have to hide? Why wouldn't they want to do something like that. But again, this all boils down to New York Times won't do their job, not be because they can't. I mean, like I said, They've got investigative reporters out the wazoo, but man, they ain't touching this because guess what, it doesn't fit with their narrative. They could care less about the truth. They could care less about informing the public.
The story goes on to say in September, talking about mister Shirley, he confronted a group of men selling what appeared to be counterfeit watches in Lower Manhattan, calling them quote illegal scammers close quote. Less than a month later, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency arrested several of the same men in a targeted rate and New York Times let me ask you, how is that a bad thing? How is that a bad thing? You're not doing your job. Somebody has to step up and do it well. And
it goes on. Little has proved as viral as his portrayal of Somali's in Minnesota. Mister Shirley traveled to the state in July to cover what he called the quote rise of Islam close quote with on the street interviews with Somali Americans. Is there a problem there with that? He returned soon after. He returned soon after. Mister Trump, during a televised cabinet meeting early this month, called the members of the dysphoria garbage who had ripped off taxpayers.
You know, honestly, I don't know that I would have used that word garbage, but I don't have any problem with the President using it. Garbage who ripped off taxpayers. I'd say that's pretty accurate, isn't it? Nine billion dollars and counting. Mister Shirley's latest video appears to have been filmed on December seventeenth in and around Minneapolis, where he knocks on the doors of numerous childcare and autism centers.
In some cases, there is no answer. When someone does open up, Mister Shirley demand to see whether there are children inside, but has never shown any. That's why the New York Times, the Washington Post, ABCCBS, NBC, that's what they should be doing. That's what they should be doing. But this twenty three year old citizen journalist, if you will, has done more on this story than all of those
outfits combined. And it's not even close. That goes on to say prosecutors have exposed financial abuses in Minnesota's social safety Net program for years. They brought charges in twenty twenty two and have since said they believe that more than nine billion dollars was stolen across several of the programs. Okay, let me read this sentence to you for all of you that think you know this is just up piling
on blaming everything on the Smalley community. Again, I repeat, this is the New York Times reporting to date, ninety eight people have been charged, nearly all of them Somali Americans. Once again, to date, ninety eight people have been charged, nearly all of them Somali Americans. By the way, the specific count as I have it, there were ninety eight people charged, as they said, eighty five of them five
out of ninety eight are of Somali descent. So I think that's about the only accurate, only accurate thing that's in this New York Times story. They're quoting someone here. Who are they quoting. We don't know if children were or were not present at the time the video was taken. That's what the Department of Children, Youth and Families said. In a statement regarding the video, When our licensers have conducted visits to the buildings, it added, there have been
children present. Well again, take forty three minutes out of your day to watch Nick Shirley's forty three minute video. These guys he shows up, and Shirley does, He's got another guy with him. He shows up there, and there's some Maloy's milling around out there, and he said, hey, do people go to these schools? None of them can answer anything. Where are the kids? None of them can answer.
They can't. And these buildings that they went to, these so called learning centers, they all have their windows blacked out, you know, with some kind of covering. So you me and a citizen that wants to help with respect to wasting tax dollars. He tries to go there. He can't see anything in there. I mean, everything's okay, though, you know, no reason to worry about it, no reason to get all riled up about this New York Times. Anyway, I watched the video again, forty three minutes. You know you
got New Year's even New Year's Day. It's worth your time, okay. In a statement, Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman said that quote, the country should be deeply appreciative to surely for shining a light on this issue. And here we go. The legacy media should have taken notes. And it looks like the New York Time has based on this article. But it's what you would expect. No support for the guy, no words of encouragement for the guy, you know, just criticism,
and they have. This is the New York Times article again in parentheses. Among the news organizations that have covered the issue extensively are the Minnesota Star Tribune, the Minnesota Reformer, Sahan Journey Journal, whatever the hell that is. Oh, and here's one this outfit's going to give it to you. They're gonna give it to you straight, with no bias. Minnesota Public Radio and they do have local television stations, some of which, it would appear, did some good reporting
on this. But you know, according to this New York Times article, we should all rest assured, not worry about it, and we don't need citizen journalists because the Minnesota Star Tribune, the Minnesota Reformer, Sahan Journal, and Minnesota Public Radio are all over it. They're all over it. Anyway. I could go on and on on this and if I had time, I would, but I want to hear what you have to say about this. I've been talking about this in the last two three days and people are really interested.
Seven four nine, seven thousand, eight hundred. The big one are the numbers. The lines will be open, so please call let me know what you're thinking. Mike Allen seven hundred WLW Hey, right back, Mike Allan, impoor sloany, seven hundred WLW Well. During the break, my very industrious producer Dave Keaton found a video that I guess was released
yesterday in Columbus, so all that anticipation was accurate. There is they are alleging something up there, and the Columbus Dispatch, I mean, you have to pay for it if you want to read their articles does have a headline Ohio GOP lawmakers seek daycare fraud investigation after viral claims. It goes about two and a half minutes. So David and I decided we're going to play it for you now I'm hearing it for the first time, as are you,
So Dave, could you please play that. It's Anthony Rubin from the muckraker who did this as a daycase saying by Somalias and.
Stuff like that.
Have you ever seen any kids in this place here?
No, not that I know.
I've just seen it the building itself. I've never seen nobody come out the building or go into building.
Ever seen anybody over there.
So right now we are in front of the Great Minds Learning Academy. This is one of the many daycare centers learning centers here in Columbus, Ohio that are associated with the Somali community.
As you know, Nick Shirley.
Put out a bomb show report about all these fraudulent daycare facilities in Minneapolis, Minnesota. So we wanted to come out to Columbus, Ohio and investigate what might be going on in the second largest Somali community in the United States of America.
So this place here is the first place.
We're gonna knock and we're gonna see if anybody picks up or answers the door.
Let's see.
So it's locked.
We're ringing the doorbellt here, knocking on the door. Nobody's picking up, so we're not sure what the hell's going on here, Bud. We're gonna we're gonna get out of here. Now there's somebody over there.
How you doing, sir.
I'm sure you see the reports over the weekend about all the daycare centers in Minnesota.
We just wanted to see what was going on. Did you you know anything about this place here?
It's a daycase center everybody some alliance and stuff like that.
Did you ever see any kids there?
Not?
Because they used the back door, so I won't to know if they is they used the back door.
Yeah, I've never seen nobody come in, but they used the back door.
But but have you ever seen any kid you live around here?
Yeah?
Yeah, in this building right here?
Hey, you're in this building. Yeah, you're in this building too. Let me ask you. Have you ever seen any kids in this place here?
No?
Not that I know.
If they used the back so I've never seen nobody come out the front. You've never seen anybody over there. I've just seen it the building itself. I've never seen nobody come out the building.
Or go into the building.
So it came to the back, just like those guys suggested. And there's nothing here. You know, we can keep poking around, but there's so many of these centers to go to.
We're just getting started, so we're gonna go around the city. We're gonna go to a few more of these places. We're gonna see if we can get anybody to talk to us.
Stay tuned. Well, there you go. I'm unbelievable. I mean, it seems to me that one. It's shorter, but it's worse than the one that Nick Shirley did. You know, no kids. I think he went to two of them, if I was listening to it correctly, No kids at the Great Minds Learning Academy. So I guess they went to a second one daycare center and they asked a guy. It sounded like he was just maybe kind of a bystander or something, who I guess has an office. And again I didn't see it. I just heard it for
the first time. Doesn't see any kids, and the kids use the back door. Now gee, why would that be? You know, I mean, this is unbelievable. Now, I wonder, I just wonder if the New York Times would be concerned about this, or they would send one of their liberal biased reporters to cover it. See, it doesn't fit their narrative, the narrative of Trump bad. No matter what, you know, we can't keep an eye on where our tax dollars go. Anything that has to do with Islam, race,
or anything along those lines, we ain't touching. We're not going to touch that because God forbid, somebody might call us an islamophobe or a racist. It stinks. It stinks billions of dollars of our tax money, and you gotta have citizen journalists go uncover it. They're the only ones in the journalism world. Except for the notable exception of The Epoch, Time and Janis Heisel, no other major media
outlets are truly covering this. ABC, NBC, and CBS. You know, I haven't seen the latest figures from the Media Research Center, but at the beginning of this thing, I think two out of those three gave them zero minutes of coverage. The other one I gave them like three. I just can't bring myself to watch any of those three stations. So there you have it once again. And I do believe I could be wrong about this. I think Governor
Dwine did make some kind of statement. I'm going to check that out, and if I'm wrong, I'll let you know. But you know, here we go again, And I know I sound like a broken record. I get it, I do. This is is sir, Tippitty Iceberg. It really is. Now you know what city is next?
Oh?
Maybe Springfield, Ohio. It has a very large, comparatively so Somali population. I guess we'll see. But darn it, we just ought to stop picking on those Somalis. We really should. It's not fair. I mean ninety or excuse me, eighty five of the ninety eight people charged so far happen to be of Somali descent. But hey, that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. You can raise the R word anytime you want, Jess, throw it on out there. You know, who cares if it's accurate, who cares if it's based
on any kind of facts at all. Let's just throw it out there. I'm telling you right now, you cannot have these people, and by these people, I mean these liberals. You cannot put them in charge of things like this. You just can't. You can't because they're not gonna watch
your backs, they're not gonna watch your money. They are more concerned, and they've proven this time and time and time again in for illegal immigrants, they're more concerned with them than they are you and I ordinary American citizens.
And I think people have had just about enough of it, and boy, this thing is just gonna drive the whole message home and drive the nail further into their coffin figuratively, I said, figuratively, I'll tell you what, I gotta take a short break or I'm gonna have a heart attack. Mike Allen seven hundred WLW nine fifty News Radio, seven hundred WLW Mike Allen in for Sloany on New Year's Eve and callers say, hey, wait a minute, it's New
Year's Eve. Y'all should be doing fluff stuff. And I hear you, But boy, I tell you what, when there's a story like this, you gotta do it now. I'm on tomorrow, and unless something blows up, I got a lot of good fluff stuff. It really is some kind of interesting stuff. You know, that Year in Review twenty twenty five, that kind of thing. So anyway, we'll do the fluff when there's not a big story that should
be covered, and honestly, just be honest about it. It really urinates me off for the New York Times on their freaking high horse say, oh, this citizen journalist, he didn't do this, he didn't do that, Well, why didn't you do it?
Then?
And you know they're not going to did have to make a correction, though, and I'm happy to do it. If I say something wrong, I want to be corrected. I said the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio. And you know, I think I've told you. I've been using AI quite a bit and I've found it to be accurate. So
I googled are there some Alians in Springfield, Ohio? AI came back, Yes, there are Somali's in Springfield, Ohio, though the community in that city is smaller and less prominent in public discussions compared to the much larger Haitian immigration population. So anyway, mistake made, Mistake corrected. Let's go to the phones here. Let's talk to Fred in Saint Petersburg. Hey, good morning, Fred. Are you there? We got Fred. I'm not hearing anything, so I guess Fred. Oh, there you go. Fred.
How you doing.
I'm doing fine.
Hey.
You mentioned the New York Times saying that the newspapers up in Minneapolis and there in those areas have been covering this. That's a lie. That is a bold based lie. They haven't been. They only started covering this in the last three or four months.
That doesn't surprise me. It does.
I'm serious. That's that's a bold faced lie. And another another thing, the Columbus mess. Now, Uh, there was a guy that up and uh got convicted for this rod up up there in Minnesota. And in the trial, I think it was he mentioned he bought with some of that money a restaurant in Columbus.
Oh.
I don't know where I heard this. It may have been you, I don't, I don't remember, but somebody was talking about these somalis were they would open the store, a little convenience store, and across the street or next door or something, they'd open a restaurant and the people with smiles would come in there and with their ev T cards buy a bunch of food, and then they'd taken over the restaurant and sell it. You heard about that?
I have not, But you know what, I'm serious. Nothing surprises me. Nothing surprises me. You know. I think you told me earlier in the week, Brad, that you heard something about something brewing in Columbus. A lot of people have heard that in Lo and behold here we go. Not a lot known yet. I don't know if you had a chance to listen to that video that I just played there but sounds like something very very similar to what's going on in Minnesota.
Oh yeah, I heard it. And you know what, that Shirley guy, he does a lot of videos, not just this right in the past, he's done videos about riots or whatever. I can't remember exactly, and he does a lot of shorts too. This Tribali things just just blowed up, you know. I mean, well, I think it's wonderful that this is coming out. And one more thing, Yeah, one more thing. What Trump has been doing trying to fix
all this in the last year. So there's one common denominator that boils down to all this problems we've had in his Democrats. You know, I hate to say that, but.
It's true everything.
I mean, you name one thing since Obamacare, back when Obama was president. Name one that's not the Democrats vault.
It's hard, anybody, it's hard to do that, Fred, and I agree with you, and I agree with you also. You hate to paint with a broad brush. Sometimes it's appropriate. Though, where are the Democrats in the House, the Senate wherever, screaming about this. I haven't heard any of them. If anything cries out for bipartisan support. It's fixing this stuff, but they won't do it. They sure won't do it in Minnesota because they don't want to lose that Somali vote. And that stinks. It stinks to high ebn.
Yes, and you know we need to start shunning Democrats.
Yep, I just shut them.
You know.
You look at things and I guess the for the mid terms in the House, it's about fifty to fifty. Fifty percent Republican support Republicans fifty percent support Democrats. I would never u strongly criticize someone in this country for their political positions. But what in the hell are they thinking? Yeah, you don't like Trump, we get it. He says things that make people angry that he doesn't have to say. We get that, But how can you not support what
he's doing. Just hold your nose, close your eyes, you know, and vote for the man. I don't understand that, and that's worrisome to me. You know.
I try to pay attention and a lot of people don't pay attention. I get that, But paying attention if you're a Democrat, I would be so embarrassed. I know, I'd hang my head in shame. I get it, and I wouldn't want to be seen in public.
But maybe Fred, maybe this is the thing that tips the scale. I mean, you just can't have this stuff. I appreciate the call, Fred as always, thank you, you know, and I really do wonder about that. How can someone you know, democrat, goes out, works every day, puts food on the table for his family. You know, kids go to school, wife probably works too. I mean, how can they look at what's going on in this country and say, gee, I want to vote for Nancy Pelosi. I want to
vote for you know, Chuck Schumer. I just I don't understand it. I respect the fact that I'm not always right. Conservatives aren't always right. However, in this situation and so many others, it is overwhelming. It really is overwhelming. And one thing about a liberal, and I've said this for years, over and over and over again, the main trait of liberalism is arrogance. Arrogance in that they can never admit when they're wrong. They will never listen to anyone else's
point of you. They are right by God, and don't try to tell them that they aren't. And because in their mind their cause is so just, they're allowed to do anything to further it. You know, you're an elected official in the state of Minnesota. You're the governor, you're the attorney general, and you're not going to comment on this thing or do anything about it. Of course, now Walt's oh, he's doing all these things because you are afraid that you might be labeled a racist or an
islamophobe fobe. That's bull, you know what it is. And the people in this country are getting darn tired of it. They really are. And you know, as I just said, this may be the thing that finally brings people together in that they say, We're not going to take this anymore. I work too hard for my money, you know, I don't want to see it nine billion in counter of it wasted on stuff like this, daycare centers that can't even spell learning. It was the leering LAA RNG center.
Daycare centers that don't have any kids, but they're getting millions of bucks. Daycare centers where they have to put black paper on the windows so you and I average citizens or citizen journalists, they can't look in and see what the heck's going on. At some point, you know, the center is just not going to hold for these people. It's not at some point, and you know what, I don't understand why we really haven't reached it a long time ago. But like I said, perhaps this is what
drives people over the edge. I guess we'll see. Hey, we got to take a break, but I do want to say that we will have open lines from ten thirty to eleven this morning. But when we come back at ten o'clock, we're going to talk to attorney and legal analyst Steve Gooden. There's a situation again Minnesota brewing up here. Maybe it's not just the executive branch up
there that has some problems with truthfulness and honesty. Perhaps it might be at least one judge, perhaps two more, and that is starting to come out now and Steve has looked at it. He's going to give us his opinion when we get back. Mike Allen in for Sloane, seven hundred WLW. I want to be an American idiot, Kenna Wait News Radio, seven hundred WLW. Mike Allen in
for Scott Sloan. But continuing with the narrative that is coming to play with respect to the Somali community in Minnesota, and now we find out in Columbus that's just starting to break the corruption in Minnesota may not be limited to the executive branch, to wit, Governor Tim Waltz and Attorney Keith I Love Louis Farrakahan Ellison. It may also, and I underline may, it may also bleed over to the judicial branch as well. Just bear with me here because I want to lay this out for you, and
then we're going to get Steve's take on it. This is from the Daily Mail. I think it lays it out pretty good. The story a judge in Minneapolis had sparked rage after she decided to overturn a taxpayer fraud conviction that saw a husband and wife go down for robbing seven point two million people seven point two million dollars from people. Guy by the name of him going to try to get this right. Ab Abdefada Yusuf. He's forty four, was found guilty of robbing innocent taxpayers through
a home healthcare company called Promise Health. In August, a jury found that he and his wife lu Ahmed rem a dec eful medicaid fraud scheme out of a mailbox. Like so many of these are at the so called medical company and use the money for lavish shopping sprees, including trips to name to name brand designers like Coach Canada, Goose, Nike, Michael Cors and to purchase high end cars. That's according
to prosecutors. But in a shocking twist of events, and months after Yusuf was found responsible for directing the massive scam, Judge Sarah West decided last week that the jury was all wrong and he should be let off the hook. And that's exactly what Judge West did. Here to talk about it is legal analyst Steve Gooden. Steve as you
know if you're a regular listener to this channel. He is a former state prosecutor, worked for me in the Prosecutor's office, former federal prosecutor for former Army Jack military prosecutor, and longtime criminal defense attorney with the law firm of port Wright where he handles complicated civil and criminal cases. Steve, sorry for taking your thunder there, but I just wanted to lay it out for people.
Well, it is complicated, and I'm glad you took the time to set it up because it really is. And again we don't know everything that's happened here, but just from a thirty thousand foot view, it really is outrageous.
Well not going to rupt you. I promise this'd be the only time. You have a hell of a lot of experience. You've been around a long time like me. How many times have you either been involved with or even heard of, a judge taking away a jury verdict after way after the fact. How many? And I'll tell you, I've been in the system in one way, shape or form for fifty one years. I've never seen it.
Well, I'm I'm in my twenty sixth year. I know of one case where it happened. It wasn't my case, and it was overturned on appeal, Okay, once out of the hut. I mean it was in a civil case and it was in a dispute over jury instructions. Never in a criminal case, and never ever ever in a
criminal case. I mean, occasionally you'll hear something like this happened once in a blue moon in a civil case, you know, a big dollar civil case where the jury instructions are complex, and then really deligation and appeal just moves to the jury instruction. To occasionally hear something like that, But then a criminal case. Never, And it's just absurd to me. I mean, I mean, what we really have, You've got a couple of different big things going on.
I would note this is an elected state court judge, and we know in that area, and I've been out to Minnesota. I've actually handled a couple of cases out there over the years. Of Minneapolis, you know, it's a city between that and Saint Paul. It's very much kind of like what we have here. Henhamton County is a lot like Hamilton County in.
A lot of ways.
But they have had this influx of Somali immigrants over the years, and they really have really flexed their political muscle in that area. You've seen sort of Governor Waltz cow howing to them and you know, bringing the Somali flag famously, you know, into the governor's mansion at one point. And you see that the mayor of Minneapolis absolutely chases those votes and goes to There's all these videos of them online dancing at Somali festivals and you and eating
Somali food and so forth. So it's a big voting block as well. So I you know, I don't want to cast dispersions on this judge about the politics of it, but it does as we see other elected officials really chasing the Somali vote in Hennipon County. You make sure wonder what's going on here, And also note that this judge, she's one of three. There are now three state court judges who have tossed some of these convictions on very
strange grounds. I mean, basically, all she says in her decision is that, well, there's a lot of circumstantial evidence here. And I'll tell you, having litigated financial crimes on both sides in criminal cases, I can tell you that they're almost always circumstantial crimes. I mean no, I mean, they're paper crimes. There's never like one witness. These are elaborate scams that play out over months and years at times. They are all driven by paperwork and false paperwork, and
that's just what they are, by their nature circumstantial. So I mean, you know, there's very rarely just one person in a room who sees it. You know, the difference of direct evidence, you know, for the circumstantial evidence. Direct evidence is there's a direct witness or an admission or something of that nature. Circumstantial is when you go back through and piece together what happened through documents and other things. And that's classic what they do here. In fact, I
love this. In Minneapolis, they call this we don't have this terminal Ohio, they call this theft by swindle. These guys were convicted of theft by sweaty. Yeah it is, and it's absolutely on point. I mean, you know, and I've seen these and I've worked on some of these cases. You know, you have tremendous amounts of federal dollars that go into different programs for home health care and trialcare
and things of that nature. The whole healthcare is a really big one right now because we have a lot of aging baby boomers who we're trying to stay in their homes, and they really just aren't enough government agencies to manage those funds, so they end up hiring these independent contractors. I went through this with my dad a few years ago, where he had someone coming in a few days a week.
Through his Medicaid.
And there's nothing wrong with it unless you have some fly by night company that is dummying the time sheets or not even providing the services and just getting the Medicaid which dollars, which is.
What happened here.
And I will note the Trump administration apparently yesterday suspended all payments to the state of Minnesota, the whole state until they can get a better handle on this, because what they're saying, you know, the one the one report that's come out is that this could be in the billions of dollars. But these these Somali groups who've kind of figured out that these programs are not being properly
monitored at the state level. It's federal dollars, but the state administers them and then passes them on down to these independent businesses, and it's a major loophole to swindle the taxpayers. So, you know, it's a really bad thing and I cannot, for the life we understand why this judge did this absent political pressure.
Let me let me do this, Steve, if I may. I've got quotes from two of the jurors that I want to read to you and get your thoughts on it. Okay, this is reporting out of Fox News. A guy by the name of Ben Walfoot, he apparently was the jury for person in Usef's case, said that the decision to convict wasn't a complicated one. And I'm quoting the jury for person here. Quote. It was not a difficult decision.
What'so the deliberations took probably four hours at most. Based off the state's evidence that was presented, it was beyond a reasonable doubt. I am shocked. I'm shocked because all of the evidence that was presented to us in the obvious guilt that we saw based off the based off the said evidence. Okay, then one more, I've got this. This is out of Daily Mail. I don't think there's again, No,
there's not a name attached to this one. Another juror on the case echoed Walflet's we just read his thing, stanced telling the outlet, telling the Daily Mail quote. We didn't take our job lightly. We went through a lot of evidence and discussed a lot. Took our time, but we all came to an agreement pretty easily. Now, question, why would a judge ignore twelve citizens who you know, were subject of we're dire questions and everything else, ignore that and submit her own judgment on this. I don't.
I don't know that there's an answer, do you know?
I don't.
I mean, the only thing that I think she glancingly mentioned sort of in her decision is I guess there was something. There was some thought that the guy's brother could have been involved in the scam in some way, but again that was for his attorneys to flesh out. And one of the things I think is really disgusting, and this is this isn't just in this case or in this judge. This is a trend right now, particularly among a lot of younger judges. And we see it
here in Cincinnati two. Which is this disregard for the jury system. Yes, and we saw this in the in this we were talking earlier this week about Elwood Jones and what happened. It's, you know, somewhere lost in that, you know, is this decision, you know, in the decision to clear Elwood Jones, is the idea that twelve people spent weeks in a room curing the evidence and made
a decision and that's all just been wiped out. And it is infuriating if you were a juror and you take time off work, and a lot of places don't even really pay you for the time off. You sit there, you do your civic duty, you do the stressful thing. You sit there for eight nine hours a day, listen to evidence, make a decision. You know, really, you know, put your heart and soul into these cases, as most jurors do, and then just to have it wiped out with a stroke of a pen and to really have
no good explanations for why that happened. I mean, it really does kind of strike at the heart of the system.
I mean, I'm a big believer in juries.
I mean, I think if you can't.
Explain, particularly in a criminal case, if you can't explain what happened and why it was criminal to twelve average citizens with no real legal background, then.
You shouldn't convict them. I mean, you know, it's that simple.
Like, you know, it has to it doesn't just need to be a crime that's written in a law book somewhere, but it has to be something that actually offends, you know, the conscience of the community. It's why the founding fathers, you know, put the jury system right at the heart of our system. So yeah, that is kind of this trend among these more progressive judges right now, is that well, the juries were just misled or kind of dumb or I don't know what they're thinking here, but I mean
I think it's a really bad thing. It's such a terrible precedent, and hopefully there's some pushback here, but it does make you wonder, and I think it makes jurisynical if you're going to go and put all this time and effort into something like this, and again, take all this time, make sacrifices in terms of childcare and work or whatever else you got going in your life, and then just be told by some judge for political reasons it doesn't mean anything. I mean, that's a bad day.
It really is. And you know you touched on this, Steve, and even the judge, mistakenly, I believe, said this criticizing circumstantial evidence. As you know from all the cases you've tried, as I know for all the cases I've tried. In many cases, circumstantial evidence is the strongest evidence. And you're correct, Steve. In a white collar case, that's pretty much all you have. And it's not bad evidence. More often than not, it's strong evidence.
Well, well, of course it is.
I mean, I mean, you know, half the time, people are always you know, going through these, you know, thousands of emails thinking there's going to be some perfect email where someone you know, among the co conspirators where they say, hey, we're this is the precise crime we're going to create there, and this is how we're going to do this scheme and broad it doesn't work that way. That's not how human beings do these things. And there tend not to be documents. There tend not to be the of the
precise scam. You have to piece it together after the fact. I mean, that's just what it is. And it's that you know that classic thing that we always used to use in Void Hier I guess you know in the office of our former colleague day prem used to use it so much we actually asked them not to.
About the cookie jar. Yeah, I mean, do you need to see.
Somebody actually if you if you come home and you had a cookie jar and the cookie jar is empty, there's crumbs everywhere, and there's cookie crumbs on your kid's face and chocolate on his face. Do you need to have actually seen him get into the cookie jar to prove that he ate the cookies. No, you can use your common sense and make inferences from That's the classic circumstantial evidence, you know, example that is used to explain
it to Jerry. So, yeah, when you see these payments flowing in, when you see a mailbox set up to accept them, when you see money going out in personal spending, that these folks don't have. And when you see no services being provided by this dummy company that was set up, that's circumstantial evidence of a massive fraud. So you know, I don't know. You don't need a confession at that point. There is no DNA evidence in a case like this.
It is by its very nature circumstantial. And if you're going to say you can't make these cases circumstantially, you can't make them at all, You may as well just quit. The Attorney general out in I was handling this out in Minnesota is apparently furious as well. I mean, they're all they're all Democrats, but at this point they've actually turned on each other. And I know they're trying to appeal what the judge did here, and I think that's very appropriate under the circumstance.
We shall see, we shall see. Hey, we only got about a minute and a half left legal issues aside. Just globally, Steve, what are your thoughts on this whole thing. I'll tell you, I've never seen anything like it. I think it's probably it's headed to be the worst scandal financially in this country's history. But what's your your thousand foot view on this? Thing.
Well, I think it's about to come home because you know, there is as you mentioned at the top of this segment, that there is a very large Somali population also in Columbus, and I know there's a lot of folks who are you know, who are starting to look there to see if this is a part of a pattern that these guys did. I would note though, I mean, this isn't really limited to the Somali immigrants. I mean, in one way, it shows that you know, this kind of corruption, this
kind of swindle is unfortunately very American as well. I think the bigger issue is that we have so many dollars flowing into this sector that are just not properly monitored. You know that the opportunities for what theyways called freight fraud, waste and abuse are are are massive. You have a lot of very small companies getting a lot of dollars with just kind of based on their handwritten timesheets in some instances. So we need to be taking a huge look at how we do this. And I know we
set aside a lot of money. Again, we have a very aging the baby boobier population is huge. It's a lot of money flowing there and a lot of it is going through these very small companies, so we're going to have to take a huge look at this otherwise. But I would I would get ready to see what's going on in Columbus.
I mean the I mean, I know that there's a.
Lot of a lot of attention being paid there. I think outside of Minneapolis, Columbus is the second bigest group of Somali immigrants in the US. So we'll a wait and see what's going on there.
A guy by the name of Anthony Rubin, I guess we found out at the top of the show and we actually played it dropped about a two and a half minute video similar to the one that was dropped in Minnesota. So we'll see what happens from there. But really appreciate your take on this, Steve, very very helpful.
Hey anytime, Mike, Happy New Year location.
You too, Thank you. All right, Hey, we got to take a break. Button we get back your calls. Seven four nine, seven thousand, one eight hundred. The big one are the numbers. Mike Allen in for Slowney seven hundred WLW and we're back Mike Allen in for Sloaney. On New Year's Eve, we're going to take some calls here. Our friend Bobby g or Jay, I'm sorry, Hey Bobby, Happy New Year, buddy.
Happy new year to you, my friend, faith, Flag, family and collective bargaining. I'm glad they brought in the A team today.
Thank you. That's kind of you to say thank you.
But hey, I tell you what, reflecting on twenty twenty five, you know, I hate to be this way, but we have hid it ninety five percent of the time. So do you have anything in the Cristal ball coming up for twenty six?
Boy? Who knows? I mean, it's gonna be an interesting year. I think this Minnesota thing that I've been talking about for the last three days, that's gonna be a big, big, big part of it. Of course, at the end of the year, we're gonna have the midterms, which we'll tell the tale as to whether Donald Trump is truly a lame duck if we lose either one of the two Senate or House. I think the answer to that is yes. So that's kind of what I see, Bobby, What do you see?
I see We're going to go ahead and extend the cultural a little bit more that I've discussed this summer I think will be hot and coming into South America. We're going to take more attention off Venezuela and put it down into Ecuador.
You know, I tell you that way, I'm sorry, going to have.
To support the no, no, no, we have to support the Ecuador and president. We've had contractors down there, I know, since first March, you know. And that way we got the bottom end of Columbian we have the top end also.
Okay, you know what, And I've heard some people grumbling about Trump's attention to South America, but it's all about the Monroe Doctrine and that part of the world has been so ignored by us for so long that I think it's a wise move that he's doing that. And also Red China, they're making a play for a lot of those countries down there too, So we got to do it. I mean, the bottom line is he's doing what other presidents should have been doing but didn't want to do.
Well.
We have to protect the Western hemisphere. And if you go into the Monroe and it also says that we will stay out of European affairs.
Yeah, well, I don't know. Yesterday, I don't know if you were listening. I had a guest on that was talking about just that, the situation with the strategic plan that was just released not too long ago. Where in the past years it's been eurocentric, this one. Yeah, still concerns about Europe, but it's not the whole ball of wax though.
Well, it will hurt us more if we ever have to deal with an embargo around Taiwan. Yeah, and their landing crafts have been completed yet almost a year now, and the three factories that they were building them in they went ahead and done other things with them. Oh.
Really, they're prepared. They're prepared, and that's interesting.
Yeah, and all they have to do is the embargo around it, and they don't have to do any aerial or attacks or anything like that. The embargo will take care of it. And within seventy two hours, I guarantee you the world will feel the impact because of the CHIP, no.
Question about it. And you know, Trump, unlike some other presidents, stood firm with Taiwan and make no mistake about it. And I know you really realize this, Bobby. The Chinese want Taiwan back, and they've wanted that, wanted it back ever since Chang Kai Shek was chased by Mao over to for most of Taiwan, and they believe strongly that that is a part of Red China. They want to do it. I also heard just I think it was yesterday, maybe the day before, that the Chinese jets are doing
some very provocative flyovers, very very close to Taiwan. So he's spoiling for a fight. You know, I thought, and I said this more than once. I thought for sure that that president she would make a play for Taiwan during the Biden administration. You know, he's got to know if he drives out with Trump, Trump's going to respond. Biden probably wouldn't have.
I see, it's going to be a hot summer. Yeah, that's the best way I can put it. You can call it a black Swan event or whatever you want to. And I tell people all the time, be prepared for the seventy two hour window. Yeah, they said, what are you talking about? And I said, you don't even have enough water in your home or anything. Provisions to go ahead and take care of it, because if you're not prepared for the first seventy two hours, it'll be very difficult to get prepared for.
No question about it. And you know, had you said something like that about ten years ago, I'd say, well, maybe that's a little bit of an overreaction, not now, because who knows what in the heck is going to happen, And I think people be wise to be prepared. And obviously no real patriot wants that, but in this world, who knows. But hey, I appreciate the call. I appreciate you looking into the future too.
The next year, Bobby, Well, God bless you your family and all your friends this new holiday season.
So you too, you too, thank you. Yeah, you know that Taiwan thing, I mean, that is just so close to blowing. But you know, I think President she good chance he'll sit on his hands until Trump is finished, and then, I mean hopefully we get JD. Vans, and I believe that he would continue the president's policy for strong support for Taiwan. I mean, that's the way it's been since nineteen forty eight, and we can't welsh on our promises. So oh, it's an interesting and dangerous world
we're living in. Let me talk to Mike in Claremont County. Hey, good morning, Mike.
Hey before I forget, happy New year, classmate, And did I hear you correctly on the Saturday Show that you're a new grandparent.
Yes, sir, I am, I am. I got a little granddaughter and I am so happy. Her name is Estelle, but we're going to call her Stella and it's been a long time coming from me. And I know who this mic is. This is a mit not only my high school class mate, but grade school class make correct all the way back. Yes, sir, there you go. Brother spent thirty three years, I believe in the Navy, the overwhelming majority of that on a submarine. Am I right?
Yes, sir, power the deep and we had our own ways to celebrate. I was out one time under underway and but once again, let's never forget our armed forces that are out there standing to watch during this difficult time and separation from their families.
You are so right, you know. I had a caller the other day talk about the how China is really rebooting their navy and building warships. Is that something that you pay attention to, Mike, And do you have any take on it?
Absolutely?
I retired to No. Three, but even then, pretty much the Pacific is covered by our bases in Pearl Harbor and San Diego, but we saw the threat even in the late nineties early two thousands to where we now have five deployed submarines in even one of our ssgns. Those are the old missile carrion boats that are fully loaded with Tomahawks. They're now home based in Guam, so
that cuts down that travel time. So that has always been on the radar, and as well as we've had bases in Yakuska, Japan, all all the way back into the seventies, so we are definitely monitoring the situation, no doubt.
Well in Japan is re arming too, and in my opinion that's a good thing. I mean, they need to start holding up their end of the thing too, and apparently they're in a big rebuilding program.
Absolutely, And one thing that's just tremendous. It was at the beginning of this year and actually got started in a last administration to where but unprecedented, to where our Australian Navy counterparts we are actually building the new Virginia class fat attack thumbornes and they will get the exact copy of what we have. So that shows that trust with that alliance and once again realizing Holen pull and that part of the Pacific Ocean is are they going.
To name one of those things after you, Mike? I think they should.
We'll call it the USS Panther or the USS outdr How about that?
There you go, brother, Hey, listeny real quick, Yeah, sure, go ahead.
Real quick on Minnesota if I may.
You know, I'm as outraged as you are, but not surprised because this is where all the pushback came from DOGE when they started banging up USA. I d it's not about the kids, it's about people that were losing their cash cow. And the one video that I just loved because obviously Minnesota gets a lot more snow than we do, so a little two or three in snowfall
is not going to stop any operations up there. But that wonderful reporter that went to one of those learning centers or excuse me leering right, Not only was the the parking lot not plowed, there was not one car track, not one footprint, and he went back a couple of days. So you know, Inspector KLUSA could have figured that one out.
Yeah.
So I think our good auditor, mister Faber, I don't think he'll be celebrating tonight. He better be cracking the books open because I think, once again, to quote a famous American being yourself, this is just a tip of the Iceberg and Columbus.
Amen.
Brother.
I don't know if you saw or not or heard at the top of the show. My producer was able to find that thing in Columbus, so it's going to break up there. But really appreciate the call, Mike, and happy I hear to you.
Happy New Year, sir.
Okay, brother, thank you. Yeah. Thirty three years in the United States Navy and most of them on submarines. I'll tell you what, that's a hell of a service record. Hey, let's do this. Let's take a short break and we'll come back and maybe just maybe even do a little bit of fluff until we have our guest, Kevin Burton at eleven o'clock. And boy, that's going to be interesting too. We're going to play an end of the year political
game lightning Round. What's going to happen is I'm going to read a political question, JI ask Kevin a political question. He has to come up with a one word answer, and I think it'll be fun. Hey, we will be back Mike Allen in for Sloaney seven hundred WLW ten to fifty four News Radio seven hundred WLW, Mike Allen in four Scott Sloan on New Year's Eve be here tomorrow too, and tomorrow we will do a substantial amount of what was referred to as fluff, and it kind
of is. But let's get a little preview of that now. CNN Believe It or Not has what looks to be a pretty straightforward and pretty unbiased Believe It or Not twenty twenty five. In review fast Facts starting with January, the first appropriately enough sad story. Fourteen people are killed in dozens injured. Oh man, I remember this when a driver rams's pickup truck into a crowd during a New Year's Eve celebration on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The
FBI described the event as an act of terrorism. The driver who was killed in the shootout with police was identified as Shamsud didn Jabbar. Imagine that forty two year old Army veteran from Texas who just happened to have an ISIS flag in his truck. And I remember watching that. I mean, that was really bad. And you know, I'm loath to criticize cops in any way, shape or form, But the New Orleans Police Department, I think, starting with the chief, had some real problems down there, not just that,
but other things too. I guess the big one on that one was you know those things, those barriers that you have that supposedly we'll keep a car from going somewhere that the police don't want them to go. I guess either it didn't work or they didn't have it, but hopefully they got that situation taken care of. I'll tell you just a personal story with respect to New Orleans. This wasn't. This one on January first was not the
big one. Marty Gras I took with buddy. My daughter went to school at spring Hill College, which is close to New Orleans. Anyway, my buddy and I took the train to New Orleans to see Marty Gras spend some time with my daughter. It's not something i'd ever do again. It was cool, I mean it really was just the pageantry and everything else. But Bourbon Street is absolutely crazy, I mean stupid, crazy, dangerous crazy, and from what I understand,
it hasn't gotten any better. I have been to New Orleans a couple times after that, not during Marty Gras. It's a really cool place. But anyway, it's moved right along here in the fluff department. January seventh of this year, wildfire. Oh, this is horrible. Wildfire swept through Los Angeles. Dozens are killed in more than sixteen thousand structures, You're damaged. Over thirty thousand acres are burned in the Eton and Palisades fires. The Eaton and Palisades fires rank as the second and
third most destructive wildfires in Southern California history. That was just awful, And if I'm not mistaken, I didn't really pay that much attention to it. I think there's a report out on that that just came out maybe this week that a lot of people don't seem to be happy with and don't seem to think that it was really comprehensive enough. Maybe I'll take a look at that
and we can talk about that later. January seventh, same day, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta will adjust its content review policies on Facebook and Instagram. Uh yeah, I remember this, getting rid of fact checkers and replacing them with user generated community notes, similar to Elon Musk's at Well, you know, the thing with fact checkers are and if you follow me this stuff nine times out of ten with alleged
fact checkers. The Conservatives get the short end of the stick on that, so they're not really the majority, not really unbiased fact checkers. So that doesn't break my heart that they got rid of them. Ah, here's one. And you know, it's just so hard to believe that this
is only one year ago. Okay. January tenth, former President Donald Trump is sentenced to unconditional discharge for his conviction last year on thirty four charges of business fraud related to a hush money payment two Stormy alleged hush money. It doesn't say that, I'm gonna put it in there, alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels. This means he will not be in prison, No, I don't think so, find or face probation. But his conviction still stands, and
he will enter office as a convicted felon. And now you know what, I said something at the very beginning, it looked like it was straightforward. It looked like it was down the middle. But I take that back. Yeah, that could be written a lot better and a lot more accurately. January twentieth, Before leaving office, President Joe Biden issues a slate of preemptive pardons. Yeah, quite a few for prominent critics of President elect Trump. Now see now
they're making up for it by being fair. Later, he issues pardons for members of his family to wit the Biden crime family. Hey, we got to leave it here because we got to break for the news. But when we get back, we're gonna be talking to Kevin Burton. We're gonna have the end of the year political game show, the Lightning Round. I think it'll be fun. Mike Allen in for Slowey seven hundred WLW.
Do you want to be an American?
Hey, we're back. Mike Allen in for Slowey seven hundred WLW. Be in for him tomorrow as well. Wanted to tell you at we are talking Ohio State versus Miami, which you will be able to hear tonight on the big one, big big game, and I'm gonna be talking to talking about it with I'm gonna make it his surprise. But this dude knows his Ohio State football, so that'll be fun. We'll do that at eleven thirty. But in the meantime, I think this is gonna be fun. We're gonna talk
to independent political analyst. We talked to him quite a bit, Kevin Burton. But we're gonna do it kind of in a fun way. So Kevin, thank you so much for calling and participating in this today.
Mike, thank you for having me.
Okay, if you're ready, I'm ready.
I'm ready.
Okay, here we go. This is kind of, I think a fun idea for you know, kind of an end of the year. It's gonna be a political lightning round. So I'm gonna mention something to Kevin, a political event or something that happened, and he has to describe that with one word. Of course, we can expound on it later. Okay, let's start off with this, Kevin, pretty general, what is one word that you would use to describe politics this year?
Dumpster fire?
I'm sorry, dumpster fire. Well, I'll tell you what it's It's hard to disagree with that, But tell me why you say that.
I mean, I just think you look locally, I think you look nationally. We had stories both sides of the aisles of just what the heck are they doing? Can we think of any major legislation that was passed?
No?
No, And it's it's all for clicks. And all for attention. I just can't think of any milestones that were passed, you know, that are helping the American people. So my word would be dumpster fire.
Okay, okay, you know what, I'd have to agree with that, all right, moving right along, This is a good one too, boy, This could be a lot of people who had the worst week in politics this year. Your thoughts on that, Kevin Burton.
So I'll do one local than one national, Okay, I think local. It has to be Victoria Parks for her comments of they deserved it after the fight. I think that was the worst week in politics, stand for everything.
That you didn't like, yep.
And then Nashally, I'm gonna go with Elon Musk. His fall has been pretty substantial. You know, he's not the Golden Boy anymore, his fallout with Trump, his you know, the stock prices of Tesla going down.
So those would be my two answers.
You know, yeah, I agree with both a little bit more with Victoria Parks. And you know, I don't know her, I had never met or don't know anything about her, but my goodness, what a horrible thing to say. And that whole thing is still going on Kevin Is. I'm sure you probably know. I guess they extended the time for Frost Brown the law firm to try to find something that she did wrong to give the city a Cincinnati a basis for firing her.
As we know, Billibool hours are undefeated, especially between Christmas and Thanksgiving. So I mean, good for UFBT, good for you with those hours.
That's pretty good. And you're not even a lawyer, but you do get the drill man. That's pretty good. All right, all right, moving right along, which political story made you see what? Wait? No, I'm sorry, wait what. I'm waiting to hear what you say about this one.
Uh, I'm gonna have to go with our mayor and the repo that well, you know, you know, there's a lot of things that as political consultants you can try to stop try to plan for. Getting a car repossessed is not one of them, you know, So that that would be my weight what Yeah, he took a beating on that one. My my national one would probably be Golf of Mexico. I still I'm just like, I wait, what but that is a less serious one.
The Golf of America. Now, I don't know, I mean when they're making new maps and things. Since Trump did that, are people actually like putting in the golf of America or Yeah? I don't know. I mean I don't obviously he does any other power to change what people think. But I kind of scratched my head on that. I think it was a play to americanized things.
I guess, yeah, yeah, but it's it's silly. I don't think it's a real issue. Call it what you want.
It, I get it.
What issue are people pretending to care about? That's a good one. I want to know what you think.
Civility now that's good Ken.
Do you think do you think people really don't care about that? Because man, I sure hear a lot of people saying, and I'm one of them, it would be nice if we could just have a little bit of bipartisanship, a little bit of civility. But now you're you're pretty grizzled, I guess, and jaded is a political consultant, But you really you really don't think people care about that?
I mean, I just go back to Okay, whenever we have a controversy or anything, the same people who want praise for bringing the community together will pare it apart, people keep voting Congress the exact same, They keep voting the exact same. Right, if people wanted real change, they would actually show with their ballot box. So until that happens, that would be my word. And you know, me and Mike we didn't plan this where this is just all rapid fire.
So no, and I get it too. And you make a good point. If people really felt that way, perhaps there'd be more crossover voting, which is I understand it. There is very little, if any of that, So I get it. I get it. Okay, moving right along here. What issue do people actually care about? But politicians ignore.
Campaign finance? Campaign limits?
You know?
You look, people want constitutional limits on Congress people, but guess who makes the laws they do? So that's what why we won't ever see it. You know, I think almost universally we all agree that you shouldn't be in there for sixty years.
Yeah, but they don't.
Do anything at that well, because they're the one who make the walls. The only time Democrats and Republicans work together is when it's the benefit themselves or insider trading. Yeah, insider trading. Your job is to do it for the is to be there for the public not to get wealthy.
No, I get that, Thank you very much, Nancy Pelosi. All right, moving along here, one local project, boy, I know what mine is on this one one local project you hear about constantly, but still don't totally understand your pick.
I'm gonna go with the banks.
What are we doing? Yeah, there's still there's still you know, beams coming out of it. I mean, objectively, the Banks has not been what we thought it was going to be. You know, we always hear about it. It's the gateway to you know, with the city for a lot of entry ways, and you know, it's our entertainment section, and it just hasn't done what it was supposed to do. How many times have we seen bars close, their restaurants close,
their incidents happen at Stale Park. I just think objectively, the Banks has been a failure.
Well you know what I mean, It's one of those deals where if you get too much crime down there, which I think we probably have now, like you said, people are just going to stop coming. And boy, what a shame that would be because so much money was dumped in there. And really I've been down there a couple times this summer for different things. It's I mean, it really is kind of a show place. But I guess we'll see. Okay, my answer to this one. And
I'm just volunteering this. I know this is your game. One local project you hear about constantly but still don't totally understand. Well, actually it would be two. The first one, on a micro level would be the Western Hills Viaduct. You know, we've been being a good West Sider. You knew i'd do that. We've been hearing about that damn thing supposedly getting fixed for years and years and years. I had Bill Sites on when Bill was still in the High Legislature. Bill was the guy that kind of
han showed that thing. And this is like two years ago. And Bill said, and I'm not criticizing him at all, but for Bill Sites it wouldn't have gotten done. But I got the impression that it was gonna be like right now. Well, we had an announcement not too long ago that well, now, okay, you know, because of inflation, instead of three lanes each way, we're knocking it down to two. Oh and by the way, I think it's
twenty twenty nine. Now they're looking at SO and the other one on the on the macro level would have to be in you're a Kentucky guy, I think you can. You can relate to this the Brent Spence Bridge replacing that thing. Oh, you know it's gonna be. I'm gonna be dead and in my grave for a long long time when that thing is finally finished. If it is, you know, Kentucky and Ohio finally got together on the
damn thing. And I don't know, it just doesn't seem like any grounds getting moved or any progress is being made. Do you have any perspective on that? Being Northern Kentuckian.
Well, someone went to house in Heathern, Kentucky. I'm willing to put my house up when they start the construction, really because it's going to be it's going to be a nightmare. I know that they have started to close out. If you go into like long Worth Haul, they show where they're gonna show do the demolition and things like that. You know, if you've been to Lolsbo or Columbus at all, you know what it's like to drive through traffic for
the last ten years. And unfortunately that's going to be Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky for the next ten years.
It's a I tell this story all the time. It's relevant. My father was a civil engineer and he was on some board. It wasn't OKAYI but this is like in the mid fifties, I guess. And he tells the story that when they were talking about the Brent Spence Bridge and building it, he and all of the professionals, the engineers, said, no way, no way, no way. Three lanes is not going to be big enough. You can't do it. It's
going to be obsolete the day it opens. And I think he and the other experts were kind of their point of view certainly was the appropriate one. But I guess we shall see. But I sure ain't holding my breath on that one at all. Okay, moving right along what local political debate feels way bigger online? Ah, this is good, way bigger online than in real life. Boy, that could be anything.
It was the fight the Democrats swept. They got asked, I've got eighty percent.
Of the vote.
Yeah, it was all the Charter, on the media and everything, but the voters didn't care. So we're doing like electoral has to be that issue.
No question, no question, you know. And I was one I mean, there was some pretty uh I think, pretty good Republican candidates for city council. Of course, a Christopher Smitheman comes to mind, Liz Keating and others too, Steve Gooden, Dondree House. But boy, at the end of the day, what a whooping. And I've made this bold prediction. Uh, you know, I don't want it to be true, but I think it's going to be. We're not going to see a Republican elected mayor or council in the rest
of my lifetime. I mean, what a butt whipping that was. Let me ask you, Kevin, you always shoot straight. Did you think it was going to be that bad for the Republicans?
I thought I thought the Democrats were going to win at least seven, if not eight, of the these. I thought Liz and Snetherman were really the best chance. But ironically, of having a dree House and all these legacy names, they actually split the vote between themselves and the Democratic ticket just I mean, you saw it. They voted ninety
eight percent together. And that's the machine. And that's a compliment to folks like Eddie Davenport, Alex Lindsner, the chair who's built just the machine over there, no.
Question about it. I mean, obviously wasn't what I wanted to see, but it was impressive and well, even going back to my term as chairman of the Republican Party in the mid nineties, Democrats always had their act together. The slate card as strong as the Republicans used to be and still are, I think, county wide. But it is an impressive operation to watch. I have to admit that one thing though, this is kind of off the point.
You know, when I was chairman of the Republican Party, Tim Burke was chairman of the Democrat Party and that right, well, thank you. I agree with that greatest of all time.
That man.
Love him tail off, and right when he leaves, that's when things, you know, kind of start to turn around. I hope people in the Democratic Party are giving him his props because he certainly deserves him. And as an adversary, he was absolutely great to work with. You know a lot of times on issues, you know, judicial races and things like that, Tim and I go out and get a cup of coffee or lunch or something and just discuss it and kind of come to an agreement on things.
But I'm sure that doesn't happen anymore. But anyway, I just wanted to throw that out last question. Will next year be crazier?
Yes?
Yes?
Or absolutely yes?
Absolutely yes. It's the midterm years. The whole Tim Waltz scandal is just getting It's like an onion right now. It's going to dive deeper and deeper in next year will be crazy. It's midterms, so every single issue is going to be amplified. City stuff will probably be less quiet because there's not an election national and state. You got governors races. It's gonna fill a lot of radio slots, so advertisers better pay up.
Yeah, the station loves that time of year.
Man.
You know what, this was really fun. I think it was uh yeah, I think it was enlightening and entertaining too. And I'm gonna let my listeners know that at ten o'clock tomorrow morning, we're gonna do something similar the end of the year political awards, Winner of the Year, Loser of the Year, Worst Week award, and you know what, I'll be ready for that one, Kevin. I'll have some picks on that too, But really appreciate you doing this and hope we can make it an annual thing.
I hope so too.
I hope the listeners enjoyed it and everyone have a safe, happy New Year's.
Okay, but you too, all right, Kevin Burton, Boy, that was fun, you know, and the guy's tuned in, he really is, and I love you know what. It's just like a regular interview or something like this, because you do get that other perspective, and I think it's important to do that. Hey, we got to take a break, but we'll be back, Dave, do I have any time coming back? Or we'll go right to news. Okay, We're gonna go right to news, and then when we get back,
we're talking Ohio State Miami. And we'll do that one where you turn Mike Allen in for Slowey seven hundred WLW. It is eleven thirty seven News Radio, seven hundred WLW, Mike Allen in for Sloany on New Year's Eve. Well, I'll tell you what I think I know where a lot of people on one of them is going to be about seven thirty tonight, and that is watching the game the Cotton Bowl Ohio State Buckeyes twelve and one, that heartbreaking loss to Indiana versus the Miami Hurricanes. They
are eleven and two. Buck guys are rated number two in the country and the Hurricanes are number ten. This is going to be a great game here to talk about it is a guy that I think knows more about Ohio State football, probably just about anybody else in this city. He just happens to be my son. Mike Allen Junior, heard here Sunday Nights on the Big One. Mike, thanks so much for joining us.
Hey, thanks a lot. Dan, happy to be talking to you.
Okay, Well, let me you know I got you know, I gotta tell the story. Growing up, Mike and I kind of split our allegiance between Ohio State and Notre Dame, and we got the ancient sweatshirts to prove it. Mike kind of segued pretty strongly some years back to Ohio State. Before we begin the questioning here, Mike, tell us all why you did that.
I think it was when I was able to buy my own.
Clothing that I stopped buying or cheering for. I don't remember cheering for a Notre Dame.
I do remember you buying me the stuff in encouraging me to wear, and I'll put it that way.
Well, just being a West Side Catholic boy, I guess I figured it. Oh yeah, but you know what, I love Ohio State too. My father, your grandfather, graduated through there, so we're behind him now. But let me ask you, and I know, I know how strongly you follow these guys. What do you think I guess stylistically, what are you looking at tonight? How do you think it's going to be high scoring? Low scoring? What do you think?
So Ohio State wants structure.
This is about, you know, chaos versus control, so to speak. And Ohio State wants controlled. They want to win the line of scrimmage, they want to control the tempo, they want to play clean. I hate to say this almost boring.
What do you hate? Esque football?
Yep?
And make Miami earn out absolutely everything.
Now.
Miami is gonna want disruption. They're gonna be really emotional. They're gonna be hoping for big plays, sudden changes, momentum swings. It boils down to it because Ohio State just has a more talented team. If they keep this calm and methodical and like I said, boring, I think this turns into the type of game they want now and if Miami comes out and they start playing fast and loose
and emotional with turnovers. That's where you know, an even more talented football team can feel really uncomfortable really quickly. And that's something Miami is really good at is getting people off schedule with their defensive line. I mean, they're they're their front guys are unbelievable. But I think whoever dictates the style early is going to be is going to be who dictates the whole night.
Really and you know, yeah, ask you this question. You think the game is more about the buck guys offense, you know, making plays or their defense setting the tone. But before he answered that, I mean they're pretty even. It looks like in the quarterback department for yeah, buck eyes, Yeah, Julian saying, listen to this man, he's got three and twenty three yards. Then Carson Beck OSU He's at three thousand seventy five. So they're about even. I guess, yeah.
And the thing that that Julian saying doesn't do that Carson Beck tends to do is is Beck will trust. I mean, he's got a cannon. He'll make you pay if you're late on anything. But he gets a little he gambles. So Ohio State, especially with a guy like Caleb Downs playing safety.
He's he's the guy.
He's the glue that holds them all together back there, and he's what allows Ohio State to blitz their corners a lot.
Caleb Downs is going to try.
To make is going to try to force Carson Beck into mistakes. Marvel Reeves as well, the linebacker for Ohio State, he's the guy that that gives you control. This is going to be about Ohio State's defense setting the tone. And those two guys as well, Caleb Downs and linebacker r. L. Reech, they those are two folks that they that people want to see in Cincinnati next year. Those are two guys that are going to go in the first round. And I know a lot of Bengals fans, especially Caleb Downs,
they really like that. And I think the other thing too that storyline is Brian Hartline, the Buckey's offensive coordinator, is now in Florida. He's gone, and that was I think a lot of the issue with with Ohio State not putting a lot of points up against Indiana was that now Ryan Day is going to go back to calling the plays tonight, and there's been mixed results with that. But what I will say is when when he's got extra time to prepare. I mean, they haven't played a football game in a month.
It feels like.
He usually does pretty well. So but if I had to say this, I mean, Ohio State's defense is the most important unit on the field tonight. I mean, they're gonna be the ones that determine if Carson Beck is going to chuck it to that freshman receiver all day or if this is going to be a slow grind for for Miami.
You know, and that makes for a good game too. Let me ask you this, I mean, when you look at Miami, you know, Ohio States favored, I think by a fair amount. I don't get the whole betting deal lot anyway, they are favored. But when you look at Miami, I mean, what do you think their realistic path to pulling.
This off is momentum? I mean that's that's the one thing they can.
Do is get on Ohio State early and try to force you know, an early turnover to keep maybe take Ohio State's crowd out of it, but keep Ohio State off schedule.
You know they're gonna.
Want explosive big plays, short fields, emotional swings and again getting getting on Ohio State quickly. And that's going to start with Carson Beck being comfortable. They got a heck of a running back to Mark Fletcher. He'll keep them on schedule. And then that, like I said, the freshman on the outside malachay TONI and and force one turnover.
That's the man. As if if.
Miami can get Julian Saying to make a mistake, maybe get lucky on a fumble, maybe maybe pull something off on special teams, those momentum swings again, they'll make the more talented team uncomfortable. And I think that, you know, if they can get on them early and maybe you know, if Ohio State gets a long drive at the beginning, force hold them to a field goal. You know, I
think that would be the way they do it. But it's gonna have to be you know, they're gonna have to get a turnover here and there.
They're gonna have to.
Hit big plays because if Ohio State is allowed to just play old school Ohio State football against Miami, I don't think Miami's really got a shot. So I will say this though Miami defensive line is unbelievable. I mean, there they've got a cast of characters that are just disruptive.
But but yeah, I mean.
If Ohio State can find a way to keep their defensive line and check and run the ball, I think I think they'll be in good hands. And if if Miami can force a shootout, you know, Ohio State might have to worry a little bit.
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. Now if you're an Ohio State fan, which you obviously are, and you kind of just covered this, but what worries you most about Miami being an Ohio State fan, especially if you like boil it down to individual players and matchups and things like that.
Yeah, And like I said, Carson Beck, I mean I think this might be his third or fourth team he's played with, so he's seen it all in multiple conferences. What worries me is if Miami, you know, when plays break down, he's so good that if he gets that extra second or has to roll out a little bit, he's gonna punish you if you're just a little late.
And again, that running back Fletcher, you know he can keep them and you know, second and manageable third and rational downs all night, not you know, keep my Another thing for Miami too is keeping it in second and third and normal not not you know, losses on first down and just trying to find a way to stay on track.
But yeah, Carson Beck worries me.
And again Ruben Bain Junior is the guy for Miami that just terrifies you. He is disruptive up up front. He's going to force Ohio States offensive line to move quickly, you know. And and if he starts getting after Julian saying.
And their D line starts getting after.
Ohio States offensive line, this game is gonna feel a lot tighter.
You know.
Miami is is dangerous when it turns to you know, they they have a way of making really solid, fundamentally sound football teams uncomfortable and you know, get out of wax, so to speak.
So I'll be.
Honest with you.
I think the two you know, higher state pion two in Miami being ten, that's that's a little bit deceiving here.
I mean that they're they're a good matchup against the Buckeyes. So it's gonna be a heck of a game.
It sure looks like it. And as you point out, the quarterback situation is almost even one more question, well almost one more, and you've kind of addressed this already. When it's all said and done, what do you think, bottom line, what do you think is going to decide this game?
Turnovers and tempo.
Man if if Ohio State can play clean football, you know, control the run game, and that's that's someone else that that we got to mention Bo Jackson, I mean Ohio State.
It feels like every single year just has a horse, I mean a guy that you can give the ball to over and over again, especially late in games, that'll just churn the clock out and for all to talk about, you know, Ohio State, you know in the air raid offense, so to speak, chucking the ball and how it's nothing like Jim Dressel and what he hayes if if people remember that first couple of drives when things kind of got off the rails against Michigan, Ohio State just started saying,
you know what, We're gonna line up and we're just gonna run it down your throat. We're bigger, we're stronger, we're meaner. And I think if Ohio State can do that, especially early, settle the nerves a little bit and just say hey we are the number two team and aar the number ten team We're just bigger, meaner, stronger, and faster than them.
I think they'll be okay.
But man, if Miami gets an early turnover, you know, they get a big play early to get get them emotionally hyped up and take take Ohio State's crowd and possibly the players out of it. Anything can happen, man, I mean, that's the beauty of college is I mean any I hate to say it, rub it in my buddy's face, my Michigan fan buddies, but even an appolass and State can go into.
The big House and be Michigan.
I mean literally, anything can happen. So that's the beauty of it. I'll be honest these games, I don't really enjoy watching them. I'm just it on pre dere life. But hopefully it gets boring for the Buckeye fans at the end.
We shall see a two part or an easy one if you care to venture. A final score number one and number two. And I think I know the answer to this. Where are you going to be watching the game?
Man, I'll be sitting in my living room with my infiant.
That's what I thought. That's what I thought.
Yeah, tanged knipers, Well, what I will say, man, is I think, I honestly think it's going to be kind of boring.
I think twenty one seventeen Ohio State.
There you go.
I think I think Ohio State runs the ball.
I think I think Miami hangs on.
But I don't think it'll be as close as that two thousand and one game.
Man, that was something else.
That really was I remember that. Hey, thanks so much for doing this, and uh, I'll like that. Reconnoiter with you tomorrow and we'll talk about it.
Hell yeah, take it easy, man, Okay.
Thank you, all right, bye bye bye bye. All Right, Mike Allen, ju're giving us his take on the Ohio State Miami game tonight. And I told you, man, he knows Ohio State football cold. So we shall see what happens. Hey, I'm going to take a real short break and then we'll come back and I'll give you kind of a preview of what we're going to do tomorrow on the show. Mike Allen in for Sloaney seven hundred WLW. Hey, we're back, Mike Allen in for Slow seven hundred WLW. Well that
was really cool. That's the first time I've ever interviewed my son on the air, and I'll tell you what, for a dad, that's a big deal. And he did mention that he's going to be watching the game from home tonight because brand new father just a couple of weeks ago. I'm a brand new grandfather, little girl, And I'll tell you what, there ain't nothing like it, you know. I kind of have a theory with respect to Christmas.
Christmas is fun when you are a kid, it's fun when you have kids, and then I think it's going to be fun again with grandkids. So looking forward to that. Yeah, I mean, if your kids are grown up and they're out of the house and it's Christmas, it's kind of like, man, when is this going to be over? You know? But I think it's going to be different now and I'm obviously enjoying it now and looking forward to it. Got
a great show for you tomorrow. We are going to be doing, as one of the callers stated today, we are going to be doing a lot of fluff stuff, which is appropriate for the end of the year. You know who did this in twenty twenty five? Who did that? So looking forward to that. Also, we got some good guests lined up too. Attorney James Bogan, James. He keeps up on stuff with respect to you know, boys and girls'
sports and other things like that. We'll talk to James about those issues, what happened with that kind of stuff in the previous year. And also Kevin Burton. Kevin's coming back again. We are going to do another political game Top Political Stories of the Year, So I'm looking forward to that and back and clean up at eleven thirty tomorrow.
Man by the name of Judd Dunning, I've had him on before, really really a great guest, and he's going to be speaking on what I feel is a very very important topic and probably appropriate to close out the year with it standing with Israel moral clarity in an age of manufactured confusion. And boy, i'll tell you what. He hits that right on the head. A big story, uh this year obviously with Israel and the raids and how they kind of put the arm on Hamas. Finally, yeah,
i'll tell you. I'm reading a book now, the first book out by and I forget his name. I just started the book. One of the hostages that was taken hostage over there. Thankfully he was released in good health now and it's just it's unbelievable. What happened to those people, what Hamas did to those people. And for these people that want to talk about you know, uh, let's march on campus with the Palestinian flag. They it is. It's
not a big book, it's kind of thin. They ought to take some time and read that, because I think would bring some reality to the debate there. But we shall see. But I'm looking forward to talking to him about that. So we'll have plenty to do. Getting the Year in review will do that, you know what. I think I will continue on with CNN because they think they did it pretty fairly. And just looking at it now, a couple things here January twenty third, and so much
of this is about the Democrats. Law fair on President Trump. They're the ones that started it, they're the ones that perfected it, and they're getting it back, you know. And I said at the time, it's a shame it has to happen. It really does. It's inappropriate, but you know what, the political world is dog eat dog, and if somebody,
if your opponent, does it, you're gonna do it. So Democrats should stop crying about it and thank themselves for the phenomena of this kind of thing the warfare we have now with the legal system and judges and everything else. But all right. January twenty third, a federal judge says that President Trump's executive order ending birthright constitutions birthright citizenship is blatantly unconstitutional, and that judge issued a tro temporary
restraining order to block it. On July tenth, US District Judge Joseph Leplant certainly probably a either Obama or Biden appointee, probably shouldn't say that, I don't know for sure, he agrees to issue a new nationwide block against the executive order. Everything Trump tries to do with respect to immigration, especially everything else has to end up in federal court. You know, it never used to be like that. It really didn't. But oh boy, here's a sorry story. I remember this too.
January twenty ninth, sixty seven people are dead after an American the Airline's regional jet on approach to Reagan National Airport, New DC, collides with a US Army black Hawk helicopter in mid air, sending both aircraft into the Potomac River below.
Sixty four people on board on the plane and three soldiers on the Army helicopter now, I don't know if the NTSB, National Transportation Safety Board, or any other organization has come to a conclusion as to fault there, But I think one thing that the experts can agree on is that's a busy, busy airport, and you got military craft like helicopters flying and out of it too. So you know, it's a situation where hopefully they get that thing,
they get that thing fixed. One last thing here, February third, Elon Musk reveals President Trump as signed off on shutting downs. One of the best things he did shut and one of the first things shutting down the USA Agency for International Development. That's it. I'll see you tomorrow. Mike Allen in for Sloaney seven hundred WLW