News Radio seven hundred WLW Mike Allen in for Willie Cunningham on New Year's Day, twenty twenty five, and it is not a happy one. I'll tell you what I don't know about you. But I went to bed last night, made it up a little past midnight, which is unusual for me. Everything's fine, looking forward to a day of football and subbing for Willie, and man, you wake up to this this morning and the story is rapidly changing,
which obviously is understandable, but it's not changing for the better. Seemingly, it's changing for the worse. I wanted to let you know. At one o'clock we will be talking to FOP President Ken Kober about this. And you know, I'm not going to ask Ken specific questions or anything like that, but I'm going to ask him some general questions about the investigation. And you know, do local police officers work well with federal police officers. I think the probable answer to that
will be not always. I know that's the way it used to be. But I thought it's getting better because I guess initially the local New Orleans Police department down there, local people said that this is terrorism. Well, the FBI spokesperson came out quickly and said, no, it's not. But now the latest I'm hearing is that the FBI has has changed on that. And part of the problem, I mean, as I see it, is this not just with this situation,
but with others too. People want answers and damn near want the thing solved literally within two or three hours. Well guess what, people in real life life, it doesn't work that way. It just doesn't. I mean, these are complex, complicated things, and the news media sometimes I think maybe they can be a little bit irresponsible too. There's nothing wrong with a reporter saying that, you know, guys, we
just don't have anything to tell you now. We're working on it, and when we do find something out, we'll get back to you. That's not realistic, though, It's just not in a twenty four to seven news cycle. It's not you know, one network's trying to outdo the other. And as usual for me, I'm watching Fox News and I got it on in front of me with the sound turndown, obviously, and they certainly seem to be on
top of it. The latest wrinkle in this thing. And I don't know if other news agencies networks are reporting this, but Fox is now reporting that the car or the truck I guess it was that the shooter, the killer was driving when he plowed into the cap crowd. I think it was a truck was seen crossing the border apparently earlier this week. It's got Texas plates. And I just heard as I was coming in here setting up that apparently it's one of those two ro cars that
you know, he can rent for a weekend whatever. So a lot of things to continually play out. And then Fox is also reporting too that I have not had a chance to even read anything about this, so I don't want to say too much. There were separate shootings down there as well, with multiple fatalities. Now having said that, I don't think that is all that unusual. Unfortunately for New Orleans. They it's just become a real rough place in Bourbon Street down there in the French Quarter, just awful,
you know. I got to tell you this is going back probably I don't know, about ten years or so, maybe a little bit more. My daughter went to school at spring Hill College, which is in Mobile, Alabama, only about an hour and a half two hours from New Orleans. We went down there for Marty Gras one time, and it was really cool, you know, to see all the floats and all that's so historic down there. However, Bourbon
Street just got completely out of hand. And I get it, it was Marty Gras the whole deal, but just completely out of hand. And you know, I follow the news and I think the shootings down there have really really gone through the roof. And that's a shame too, because it's just I'm sitting here looking at it now on Fox News. It's just a beautiful historic place to go. But as always, you got a certain segment of society that's hell bent on ruining good things for others. So
we'll see how that plays out. Again. Fox is reporting, and again I don't have any specifics that multiple people were killed in separate shootings that do not, at least at this point, appear to be related to the tragedy with the idiot driving into the crowd. Things will continue to play out on this thing, and we will keep you posted. We were told, and this is kind of the way it goes, that there was going to be a press conference at noon, so I shifted some guests around.
I had Ken Kobra coming on at noon, Ken is now going to come on at one, and they are now saying that the briefing, the news conference is going to come on at two o'clock. So I guess we shall see. But I'll tell you, folks, not a good way obviously to start the new year. And you know, I don't know what kind of weapon the dude had. I thought there are some outlet reporting that it is, quote, you know, a weapon of war or that was the description of other descriptions of it. To guess what, we
just don't know yet. And if it was, you know, something that is not illegal necessarily but heavily regulated, I'm sure we're going to hear the anti Second Amendment crowd coming out about it. And you know, here's the thing, and it's not really rocket science. I've said this from jump. That's not to say that you don't have reasonable restrictions on people that have guns. You have to have that, and I think we do have it, but there will
be some and our president maybe one of them. He's done it before, to use this tragedy as something that you know, that as a tool to get the political change that he wants. That has not happened yet, at least but it's still early. I hope that doesn't happen. I hope the time is spent, you know, taking care of the families of those people that died in this
horrible attack. And if you've ever been down there on Bourbon Street when it's just completely packed, really, I mean, I'm kind of thinking that it's a good thing that more were not seriously injured or killed. Again reporting now is ten killed, thirty five injured. Two police officers were shot at. Thankfully no police officers have died. I don't know the extent of their injuries yet. I get the feeling that they're not life threatening, obviously, I hope so.
But just a lot of jumble and everything else coming out on a day that, you know, people want to celebrate. There's some serious football on today too, with the Sugar Bowl being set in New Orleans. Not sure what time that one's set for, but there's some speculation I don't see how they could do it, but that they may not or may delay that game or something. I don't know. I mean, I'm not down there eight forty five tonight. I was just advised the Sugar Bowl, so I mean,
we shall see. I seriously doubt that they'll mess with that. Really, unless I don't know something. Obviously, there's a hell of a lot about this.
I don't know.
Perhaps the federal authorities and state authorities know some things that we do not know. We'll just have to see. We'll just have to see. And you know, initially too, and this is something I want to ask Ken Kobra about. Initially, it certainly seemed like the and the New Orleans PD were not on the same page because New Orleans PD put out pretty early on and they've had the chief on a couple of times. Seems like an elderly lady, but she sure seems to know what she's talking about.
I don't know. I shouldn't even say anything. I don't know the situation. But they got their wires crossed on whether it was an act of terrorism. Yet initially they said yeah, New Orleans PD said yes, FBI agreed with them. FBI then said no, it was not terrorism. Well now they're saying it is again. And guess what, folks, that's not unusual too. I mean, it's a fluid situation, it
really is. And you know, this press conference that's allegedly coming off at two, they're going to get fifty million questions and they're not going to know the answer to a lot of them. Again, with this twenty four to seven news cycle we have now people want answers now, not just on this thing, but on other tragedies and things of this nature. And yeah, I was a cop a long long time ago, not very long was I a police officer, and I was never an investigator, So
I don't know. I'm just kind of shooting from the hip here. It's very, very complicated these investigations. Now on this one, I mean, it's obvious who the suspect is, and you know, I almost want to say, folks, I'm not going to say he was killed, And I guess maybe a nice way of putting it is I ain't going to lose a hell of a lot of sleep
tonight about that. You know, your reap what's is so, But it is going to be interesting to see the background on this guy again if he were carrying and had a quote assault weapon close quote where there is really no definitive definition of the politics is going to start going through the ceiling again and you're going to get the anti Second Amendment crowd out there. And here's the thing about that too. And again this is only
my opinion. However, that situation with gun control, you know, you want to blame someone for all the guns in this country. Guess who you blame. You blame King George of England back in colonial times for the way he treated the colonists, taxation without representation, a lot of other things too. And those people they didn't like it, and they knew at some point that something was going to happen and they were going to do something about it, and they did. And we are, we were, we are
and we continue to be a well armed country. It's just the way it is. And you want to try to get that genie back in the bottle, forget it. Ain no way these people that complain about the so called weapons of mass destructure and I'm talking about firearms and other things. You know what, And I will say this for Gavin Newsom, he is the only one that I've heard calling for this. Guess what you do? You
amend or get rid of the Second Amendment. Now I'm not, obviously, I'm not advocating that, but you know what, if you're serious about all this stuff, why don't you do that? There are constitutional ways to do it. And stop nitpicking around. Well, they won't do that because it's just never going to happen in this country. And there again, it takes another arrow out of their quiver to forward the narrative that
they have. And you know, here I am talking about people shouldn't speculate, and I guess I'm speculating a little bit, but I guarantee you that's it's going to come out that way. If the weapon that he had was one that fits into those categories, I guess we'll just have to wait to see. You know, I guess I'm not that old. It wasn't too long ago that I can remember. You didn't have this stuff that often. You didn't have school shootings, you didn't have mass killings like this thing
late last night. I mean, yeah, you had them, but nothing like you have now. And we have just become such a crass, crass society, and leave violent society out of the way for a while. The way we talk to each other, the the lyrics to certain songs, what you see on TV. And again I'm not being, you know, the old man in the corner bitching about today's generation, but we certainly have gotten crass as a society. And in the long run that can, and I think sometimes
does lead into this type of thing. Maybe not this incident exactly, but just to kind of a thought that, hey, you know, we can do things like this. It's different. I got one thing here before I break, Thank you, Dave. I was just hand handed it from him. The New Orleans suspect is a guy by the name Well, here we go, sham sud Din Jabbar. Read into that what you want? Forty two years old, born and raised in Texas and was an army veteran. Multiple agencies on X
that's where my producer got this, Dave Keaton. Multiple outlets on X are reporting that. So we shall see. Now I'm sitting here looking at look like a live police briefing. Maybe not. They're calling for the briefing to be at two o'clock. Anyway, we got to take a break. We're going to get normal a little bit here when we come back from the break. Unless something really really important
breaks down in New Orleans. We're going to talk to iHeart aviation expert Jay Ratliffe about what's going on on that front, and we'll do that when we get back. Mike Allen in for Willie Cunningham seven hundred WLW, Twell thirty eight News Radio seven hundred WLW Mike Mike Allen in for Willie Cunningham on a somber New Year's Day. I'll tell you it's not something that we all thought we would wake up to. But life goes on, and so does the information we provide you. We're lucky to
have on the line with us. Jay Ratliffe, who is the iHeart Aviation specialist. Jay, thanks for joining us this morning.
Come back so if you work out, you know that.
I know that, and I really do appreciate it. Let me ask you first, Jay, the tragedy in New Orleans, will that in any way affect air travel? I was just sitting here thinking about that. Will that affect it in any way?
Behind the scenes, There'll be some things that will be taking place.
That we won't see.
We see this frequently when there's a threat of an attack or an actual attack. A lot of times we are from a security standpoint just a little bit more alert, thinking was that a distraction for something else.
Bigger that might be taking place?
So many times from a security standpoint, like if you have somebody that rushes through the TSA checkpoint that just runs through to try to avoid screening. Well, obviously you take care of that, but you're equally as concerned to make sure there's nothing else that.
May be going on.
Sure, the first thing is obviously the distraction, and you understand all about that given your long hosement background.
You just got to keep your.
Head on a swivel and anticipate things that could possibly take place. And that's what's going to happen.
Now.
The passengers at the airport will probably see an increased presence. Some of that's cosmetic, simply to try to let people know that everything's under control, everything's going to be okay. It's not necessarily in response to a threat per se. It's a lot like when we hit and we had after the attacks of nine to eleven, when travel resumed. Yeah, after the four days, we had the National Guard positioned at airports at the security checkpoint, which again, the attacks
weren't a result of a lack of security. There was no breakdown of security. The National Guard was there simply to try to reassure people that we're going to be traveling.
You know, I got to tell you, Jay, and I told you this earlier in the week and then I want to get into what your thoughts on the top aviation news of twenty twenty four. But I gotta tell you this because I think people need to know. About a week or so go, I traveled to Mexico Port of Artas specifically flight problem. Yeah, it's great. Second time there anyway, CVG two Houston, Houston to Port of Iarta and the same thing back. I can't to tell you TSA.
The job that they did was just phenomenal. You know, I'm thinking traveling during holidays, you know this is going to be awful. It was not. And you know what I do, and I think I did it at every time I went through. If they are courteous, I will tell them after everything's done. Hey, I just wanted to thank you for being so courteous, and they certainly seem
to appreciate that. I know they get a bad rap, so I just felt it was important to let people know I had a heck of a good encounter with them.
Well or spoiled to CVG, There's no doubt about it. I've had to work with a team there a few times on just questions and answer kind of thing and procedures and some other types of things, and they're great and they work with the airlines on an ongoing basis. They're constantly seeing what the load projections are to making sure they've got adequate staffing. And when you and I do talk about the top aviation story of twenty twenty four, the TSA will not be the topic every single time.
When we had record travel days of more than three million people a day traveling, not one time, not one time this past year did I ever have a segment on a breakdown to the TSA checkpoint. No lines out down the corner, around the corner, out down the street kind of thing. No massive backups at various airports. Now, sure it got congested at some airports on occasion, but no, they did a great job. And that's not by accident.
You know, we had other issues obviously, air traffic control and other kinds of things that gave us some challenges for the year. But Mike, the TSA did a good job, and I just if they do something that they shouldn't have done.
We're going to talk about it.
But believe me, I am very quick to always point out that the good job that that frontline team is doing. They had two and a half three million chances a day to make a mistake.
Oh geez. And when you.
Think about that and then the number of times that something happened. I mean, a story that I've not even talked about was some lady that was going through a security checkpoint and at eighty two restricted items in her carry on bag, so you know, eighty two please, It's like, hey, what's the record. I think I can beat it. But
you know, the TSA is doing a good job. And you know, the agency I'm not a big fan of because when they first got started, I thought, why are we creating another government branch Because it wasn't a breakdown in security that was the attacks of nine to eleven, but it was designed to, you know, create that sense
of calm. But all it did was give us another great, big, you know, government agency that I think two or three years after their creation, Mike, if I'm not mistaken, they held an annual banquet where they gave out lifetime.
At even awards.
They spent like five hundred grand on the party, and I'm thinking, I know we're in trouble if they're giving out lifetime achievement awards after three years.
That doesn't make sense, Hey, in our remaining time, I wanted to ask you your thoughts. Jay Ratliffe on the top aviation news of twenty twenty four, lots going on at your seems.
Like, Yeah, well we ended the year obviously with a flurry of aviation disaster. Yeah, making twenty twenty four the deadliest year of travel aviation commercial wise since twenty eighteen. And obviously that's the focus now as it needs to be and should be a lot of unanswered questions on that South Korean plane crash. In fact, the two black boxes that have been recovered are really going to provide
us a lot of information. We found out recently that the flight data recorder one of the two black boxes was damaged to such a degree that they're actually sending it back here to the United States with the NTSB team. They're gonna be able to extract that information here another cockpit voice recorder they're they're getting information from that. I suspect in the next couple of weeks we'll get an
initial idea of what their thoughts are. It's going to be eighteen months, sixteen months probably before the final report, but Mike, a lot of unanswered questions on that and the biggest one to me is why that landing gear wasn't deployed for exactly aircret.
And can I ask you this, Jay, And I don't mean, I'm just so curious about this. When you see the thing land the belly landing, you know, I'm the first time I saw, Man, this is great. These guys are gonna make it. It didn't look like they had a lot of runway left. Why would that building that they crashed into be that close in proximity to the runway or Am I missing a question?
Well you're not.
In fact, it was the most idiotic acidine thing I'd ever seen. You put a concrete barrier up at the end of an overrun section at a commercial airport that could stop a tank, and it was made of concrete, and it just if it's bricked, if it's cinder, if
it's something. Most of the time when you're traveling, no, all the time when we travel and we look at the end of the runway, we see those ils antenna and they're there, and they normally are secured in such a way that they can break away if there's impact with an aircraft. This wall, I mean, yeah, the aircraft landed fast, it landed long, it was going too fast.
But typically what would have happened was that aircraft would have just continued because it wasn't breaking, it wasn't catching on fire, and it would have kept going until it stopped, and then everybody would have got off and we would have had minor injuries, regardless of the mechanical and or crew air things that took place during that initial part. The crew brought it down, the wings were level, and they did everything from that standpoint that they should have. Now, again,
the flaps weren't at forty degrees. We don't know why the reverse engines, thrusters apparently weren't engaged. We don't know why the landing gear wasn't down. We don't know why a bird strike and an engine normally doesn't call a hydraulic failure of the undercarriage systems and things like that. So plus you can drop the landing gear manually with a very quick pull of some things located right behind
the first officer seat on that seven thirty seven. So I don't know what was going on, and that's why the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder is going to give us the information we need, Mike, I will tell you this. In the thirty three years I've been doing this, we have had occasions rare or flight crews have forgotten to drop a laney.
Oh my goodness.
Now I don't know that that was the case here. We could have had a pilot with a medical episode at the worst possible moment.
Wow, we could have had them.
Rushing through a checklist because they were fearful that they were going to lose power in the one good engine they had. It could have been another series of mechanical problems that were totally unaware of at this point. So
it could go in any direction. But I can tell you that the NTSB and that assisting the main investigation in South Korea, they're going to be looking at just a long list of things, and they'll allow the evidence to dictate the course of the investigation against something you're very familiar with, right, And they're not gonna have any pre drowne conclusions. They're going to go in and see where the evidence leads.
That's the way to do it. We've got we've got about six minutes left other.
Mike, I will say real quick, we will honor hopefully the lives of those that were lost by making sure every airport in the world does not have a concrete stop anything.
It can at the end of a runway.
Again, that's I know that we will at least see that. So those lives that were lost one hundred and seventy nine are going to make commercial aviation safer for other people around the world.
That's a good way to look at it, Jay Ratliffe. Okay, what else went on in twenty twenty four Boeing?
I mean it was the year of Boeing last year at this time. Actually it was the last week of December twenty twenty three. Boeing sent out a memo to airlines saying that some airline mechanics had reported loose and missing bolts and nuts on some of the rudder control systems of the Boeing seven thirty seven aircraft. Now, this caught a lot of a soft guard because they're like, wait a minute, how can you have what's called undertree hardware or loose bolts, nuts, what have you at different
places of a rudder control system. Remember, that's what keeps allows the pilots to fly the airplane, the rudder control system. And we thought, uh, oh, are we going back to the Boeing of five years ago when they were rushing planes through production trying to keep up with the air bus. No, that that couldn't be the case, because they fired the CEO. They promised that they were going to change their ways, they were going to become the Boeing of old blah
blah blah. And then we get that memo at the end of last year. Mike were thinking, oh, no, here we go again. Are they back to rushing things or did they ever stop? Two weeks later, the Alaska Airlines
door plug falls out. Thank god nobody died in that situation. Yeah, And then all of a sudden what took place was we started to find out yep thirty two whistle blow or whatever it is that came forward talking about parts that were rejected being used on aircraft to keep the aircraft going through the production line, people being rushed, parts being forced, those types of things, just a lot of things that required the FAA to basically blow the whistle and say time out.
So Boeing had to stop.
Delivering aircraft as this investigation was ongoing, and that meant airlines around the world that we're waiting for these new aircraft weren't getting them, so you had passengers affected, airlines affected since we had fewer seats in certain markets that meant higher fares as.
Well, all driven by Boeing. This this year.
Now, there were a lot of other, I think, big stories, but I think the one that impacted us the most in twenty twenty four was Boeing. Because it's going to spill over into twenty twenty five and perhaps twenty twenty six. It's going to be really interesting to see how soon Boeing's going to be able to get back to a full production And Mike, if we can even trust them they're saying now that they're going to do But I don't believe I believed them five years ago, and I
was an idiot, Jaycob. I never should have believed them when they gave us these paragraphs of promise on how they were going to do better after two Boeing airplanes crash, killing three hundred and forty some people.
Let me ask you this, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong. They were for years and years and years Boeing the gold standard with that kind of thing. Obviously, you just laid out the problems. Are they ever going to fully recover from this. Do you think you're right?
They used to be the standard. Nobody came close. They were the ones that led the world in safety. Other companies, even outside aviation, said we need to do things as well as Boeing because they were led by engineers, engineers who looked at safety being the number one priority at a talking point. Well, then it was taken over by being counters that started taking shortcuts. And since nothing happened tragically, human nature being what it is, people get complacent.
Hey, we can keep making the ort cut. And this part, even.
Though it failed an inspection, it's almost as good as a good part.
So let's put it on. And the idea you send employees.
To a scrap bend to pick out the best failed part to put on an aircraft because you don't want to slow down the production so you can try to keep up with your European competitor, air Bus. I mean, Mike, that's criminal to me. That and nobody went to jail. Boeing got the little slaps on the fine and all that other kind of guards, wasn't it.
Well I wish I would, but you know, they.
Avoided all of the going to court by settling everything out right. The fact that they've got billions of dollars in defense contracts probably helped that to take place. But you know, asked me in five years, ask me in ten years if Boeing turned it around, because we're never going to know it, because you have people right now that are ex and current Boeing employees that are saying they're scared to get on their aircraft because so many things are put on there that shouldn't be and it
scares them. And Mike, this is the last year was the only year I can ever that I've ever seen where people get to hold of me saying Jay, I'm avoiding a Boeing itinerary. I'm flying air Bus. I will fly whatever airlines I can, and I will I will make create my travel itinerary around, you know, just so I'm flying Airbus and Airbus only, or Airbus and Embryer or Bombardier. I'm not going to get on a Boeing
aircraft because I don't trust them. And initially, when that happened after the last airline situation, I thought, now, okay, that's normal, it happens. But it kept going weeks and months and months after people kept saying the same thing, and they said, I was booked on an as aircraft. I get to the gate, they did an aircraft swap.
It was Boeing.
I said, no, thank you, please put me on another flight and another part of the day the airline accommodated me.
But that's how serious I was.
Now, I'm not saying take it quite that far, but I'm saying that's the fear in the traveling public with a lot of people because of the fact that they don't trust Boeing anymore. And the problem is Airbus right now has like nine thousand airplanes in back order. I'm rounding up a bit, so they really can't jump in and take the slack away for any future orders. Boeing has five or six thousand planes on back order. There's
no real competition in that industry. So it would be nice if people could say, forget Boeing, I'm going to go elsewhere. But they're kind of stuck. Yeah, right, people like Southwest that only fly the Boweing seven thirty seven aircraft.
Well, I'll tell you what I mean. Hopefully they get their act together. We got a couple minutes left here and this I'm just going to get selfish here. This is nothing more than my curiosity a story I think earlier in the week or last week where tragically a person died in the wheel well of aircraft. What the heck was the deal on that? If you know?
Oh well, now it was a story that I was following because anytime I see that, it tells me how the heck did somebody walk across the tarmac at one of the world's busiest airports in Chicago, approach an aircraft, get into the aircraft well, and stay there without anybody ever seeing them.
Now, we're spending billions.
Of dollars on security inside an airport, and yet we have somebody who can easily access an aircraft. What if they just wanted to put something on that airplane and leave? So that was that's my first because I always think security. And then obviously my heart breaks for the individual who thought they could hitch a ride because they figured they can get on these airplanes, not knowing that when those suckers are at altitude it's fifty degrees below zero hypothermia.
Oh yeah, by the way, there may not be enough room for you, and that wheel retracts and you might get crushed. And you know, we have a situation every so often where somebody attempts to do this. The fatality rates about seventy eight percent over the last fifty years when people have tried this, and it's just a horrific situation.
But it's also to me such an alarming situation because we're spending billions of dollars on security inside the airport and yet it can all be circumvented by an end of the jewel that walks out to an airplane and gets on it from the ramp and nobody sees it.
I couldn't believe it, and I'm glad I got to answer ask you the question. Hey, we're out of time, Jay Ratlift, I would suggest people go to your aviation blog, Jay Ratliffe, Man, it's got everything in their top commercial aviation news stories twenty twenty four. As always, Jay, really appreciated and we will be talking a time brother, Okay, thanks all right, Jay ratlif Boy. Lots going on aviation wise in twenty twenty four. And you know, the hits just keep on coming for Boeing and who knows if
they'll ever recover. Hey, we got to take a break. But when we get back, We're going to talk to Ken Cober FOP President. I'm gonna ask Ken some general questions about the tragedy in New Orleans, which is obviously still playing out, but I know Ken will have an interesting and informative outlook on it. We'll do that when we get back. Mike Allen and for Willy's seven hundred WLW New's Radio seven hundred WLW. Mike Allen in for Willie Cunningham on a sad and somber New Year's Day.
You know, we've been talking about it all morning. And by the way, they are supposed to be having in New Orleans two PM update on what happened. They're supposed they were supposed to do it at noon, so I wouldn't be shocked at off it doesn't come off at two, but that's the plan. Anyway, Here to talk about it is FOP President, Lodge sixty nine, Ken Cobra. I just
want to ask Ken some general questions about this. Obviously, as a police officer, he's got some good input to it, and Ken, thanks for sharing part of your holiday with us.
Mike, thanks for having me.
Hey, just in general, Ken and I'll have some specific questions but in general, your thoughts on this, I'm sure you're like me. You wake up this morning and boom, there is your thoughts as a veteran police officer on this.
You know, it's somebody that has worked many, many of these large scale events in Cincinnati. It's this is absolute just officer's worst nightmare that's something like this happens.
And if their worst nightmare, I would think plural police officers in planning something like this and policing something like this, I mean, my goodness. Well then you look at Times Square last night. I mean, I don't know how law enforcement is able to kind of look over that. But back to New Orleans, I mean, how does that happen? They know it's going to happen, not the tragedy, but they know that the parade and all that stuff's gonna happen. How they plan for that?
Well, you know, like here in Cincinnati, we have our Special Events Unit that's comprised of about seven officers between officers, sergeants, and a lieutenant that they do threat assessments. They do these risk assessments one that plan these events. They they will actually look at, you know, wherever the footprint is and kind of go through, well where are we vulnerable
and what can we do to mitigate those vulnerabilities? And here in Cincinnati may do an absolutely fantastic job, which is probably knock on wood, why something like this hasn't happened in since Anti sure?
And I guess one point of contention down there already is, uh, you know, FBI and local police, is it terrorism or is it not? At first the local people, uh, New Orleans PD said yes, then FBI said yeah, FBI said no, then they flip that back again. I've always wondered this at something like that Ken Kober, who decides not necessarily that tag of terrorism, but who decides who's in charge and who's going to run the investigation?
Well that's you know, that's the anomaly with some of these things, is you know, something.
Of this scale and you know whatever. You know, the New Orleans.
Police Department when they found their initially is probably why they ended up calling the FBI to come in, because this is more than just you know, some drunk that ran through a barricade and you know, hit some people. They realized it was much much more than that. And you know, with the FBI, they just have more resources. You know than a local police department would have.
And then do they then become quote unquote in charge of the investigation at that point?
Yeah, typically typically speaking yes, you know, if if you call in for other resources, then they kind of hand an investigation over to them and they will work hand in hand. But you know, once you call in, you know, the FBI, they're the ones that are gonna are going to be the ones that take the lead on this. And then you know, of course New Orleans will just be there for whatever they need to assist with.
Let me ask you this, and I know back in the day, the answer to this was no, they don't play well together. But it seems like it's gotten better. Local police officers and not only have the high secret Service, federal agencies and even different police officers. Do they play well together now or I guess it's maybe an individual circumstance because back in the day they didn't. I mean, there was jealousy and rivalry and is that still the situation today?
I think for the most.
Part, they you know, they get along.
You know.
I spent four and a half years in our fugitive unit where we worked with the US Marshalls and it was a great It was a great relationship because they had resources that we didn't necessarily have access to, and then they would use us because well we're from Cincinnati.
We know, you know, the neighborhoods and whatnot. So it worked well.
You know, you look at like we of now our Crime Gun Intelligence Center, you know where they have FBI ATS DEA, that all these agencies that all work together, that build these relationships. So you know, the you know, the Indians per se all get together. It's sometimes the chiefs that don't necessarily see eye to eye, but the ones that are you boots on the ground doing the work typically do get along together.
Sure, let me ask you what kind of training do officers go through for something like this? And I guess I'm more talking about the street coppers, the guys that are down there, some on duties, some probably work in details. How do you train for something like that?
Ken, Well, the biggest thing, especially with large scale events, you know, there will be threat assessments. Like I said, we have people that are assigned to the FBI that will do these threat assessments and whatever information that they get, you know, they will certainly pass on to us at roll calls and say hey, look there's you know, there could be this potential event that could occur, or look,
we don't have anything right now. Plus we have our real time Crime Center that is constantly going through social media and doing things like that to make sure that if there is something that could come up, they can give it in real time information to us. That way we could be on the lookout for you know whatever, you know, potential threat there could be.
I don't want to ask you this too. In the military they call it an after action report. They probably do in law enforcement as well, to look at a situation. I remember the great Gene Ferrara, a former CPD GUYE terrorism expert, said, the most important part about it is the after action report because cops can learn at the academy in service training or whatever. They don't do it to assess blame necessarily, but they do it so they can train cops better. Is that accurate?
Oh, it absolutely is.
And like I said, our Special Events unit that they run october Fest tastes the Cincinnati Flying Pig, all these major events, and they will actually tell the officers that are working the detail afterwards, if you see something that we could do better. You see something that you could be of vulnerability or something that we can make this
event safer. Please email to let us know, because they do after action reports for every major event and we're always trying to find ways to get better the gate vulnerabilities so we can make sure that these events are as safe as they can possibly be.
Gotcha last question, and I'll let you go. There is a hue and cry literally minutes after these things get on the air. Let's all that how did this happen? Why did that happen? Why did the cops do this? Why did they do that? Do police officers get frustrated by that that the media seems to demand instant answers to these things, Well.
Yeah, there's no doubt, you know.
I mean, obviously we don't know what happened in New Orleans, but you know this, this culture has been created of.
You know, we need to know right now.
Yep, we absolutely have to know right now. And you've got a police department that has two of their officers that were shot in this event, plus you have this massive crime scene, you have this you know, this is world news going on, and they want to know absolutely right now. And what officers want to do is they want to make sure that they get this right. Share to find out exactly why these things occurred. You'll gather all the evidence they can so they give out accurate information.
And I understand sometimes the media is like, hey, we want to have it right now right, You're just like this press conference getting pushed out. Yeah, this takes time, you know, we want to do things right.
This isn't you know, this isn't some you.
Know, law and order TV show where they saw the crime in forty five minutes.
Yep.
And the cops people need to be patient.
They want to get it right too. So hey, listen, I really really appreciate this, Ken Kemper, and we'll continue to watch the situation.
Sure, yeah, thanks for having me my pleasure.
Thank you. All right. That was Ken Cobra, President FOP Lodge sixty nine. And you know, I really did want to ask him that last question because I can imagine cops that get frustrated with you know, we need to know now, we need to know this, We need to know that. Anyway, we are waiting on that two o'clock press conference. I guess we shall see if it happens. I'm just going to take a short break here and
then we'll come back. Mike Allen in for Willie seven hundred WLW one twenty one News Radio, seven hundred Wow. Mike Allen in for Willie Cunningham. New Year's Day, twenty twenty five, And as I said, it's a sad and somber New Year's Day due to what happened in the French Quarter, New Orleans yesterday actually last night. And we are waiting on an alleged two pm press conference by
the law enforcement groups down there. I'm presuming the FBI, New Orleans Police and other agencies will be taking part in it. We shall see. And you know what, if they had the postponent, I don't have a problem with it. I mean, I'd like to hear it and talk about it. However, if they're not ready, they're not ready, and you're not going to solve the damn thing in six hours. It's just not going to happen. And I get it. I know the media is only doing their jobs, but man,
let the cops do their jobs too. I mean, it was great talking to Ken Kemper FOP president, just talk to him about it. Yeah, and I asked him about training and obviously, as Ken said they trained hard for something like this, But I think just kind of as an outsider looking in because I haven't been involved in law enforcement for a long long time other than you know, being a prosecutor. But it seems to me now, you know, going back from when I was on, cops are better
trained now than ever. I mean, they're constantly doing in service training. Obviously, they get very good training at the police Academy. Again, you know, going back to the dark ages when I was on a long time ago, I think the police academy there, CPD's academy was one of the best rank ones in the country and they may still be. But they're better trained. Sorry, they're better equipped. I mean, cops are better equipped than they ever were. I mean, we had a thirty eight revolver and a
night stick and a can of Maze. That's about it. They have better equipment now, what with tasers and things like that body cam that police officers have now, some of them don't like it, and you know what, if they hit it when I was on, I don't think I would have either. However, I have seen this on more than one occasion in cases that I've had, they tend to help cops if Mickey the momo is accusing a cop of beating him up or something like that
and the cop didn't get the body cam. So anyway, my point is they're better trained, they're better equipped, and they're better paid than ever too. I don't know what the starting pay for CPD is now, but I know it's pretty darn good. Plus with overtime and off duty details, you can make a good living with that, and that says it should be now. Having said all of that, they still can't find people now that want to be police officers. And that just boggles my mind because keep
on going back to the dark ages. But that's my only point of reference. You know what, I took the test, and we had to take it twice because we got laid off. It was done at the convention center. I'm not exaggerating, asked somebody that was there. There were twenty five hundred, three thousand people taking a test for I don't know, sixty seventy eighty jobs. Tops. That ain't the
way it is now. They actually got to go out and find them, and I think that's in large part for the way that police officers are treated these days and the job they have to do, you know. And then I talked to Ken Kober about this about a week or so, a couple of weeks ago, not on subject to the tragedy in New Orleans, but on subject
as to why you can't get cops. There is a group of wackos in the state of Ohio that are going around and I guess the Secretary of State signed off on the ballot language going around with petition trying to get on the ballot a constitutional an Ohio constitutional amendment to take away qualified immunity for police officers. Qualified immunity, just very briefly, is the immunity that a police officer has when he or she has to make a split
second decision. And I'm not talking about two or three or four seconds, a split second decision on whether the u force or something of that nature. And I'm sure there are other examples too. They want to take that away. There are four states in this country. I don't have them in front of me that have already done that. Listen, you take that protection away from police officers, they will have to expose themselves to civil suits from disgruntled members
of the community who think they were wrong. If somebody let's just say it's a bad shooting, a bad officer involved homicide shooting. If it was wrong the way it is now, they can sue the city. The city's the one with the deep pockets, not the cop. But these idiots want to change that to a situation where you can sue the cop personally. That's not right. I mean, that's not right. What cop would want to get involved in that. I mean, you know, you take the job.
You get on the job, maybe you make a mistake, or you make you do something that is inaccurately and unjustly perceived as a mistake. You could lose your house, you could lose your savings. You know, you could lose the money that you set aside for junior's college fund. It is just a horrible, horrible idea. You know, I've already talked about it quite a bit on my show. I'm going to continue to do so because it is
a bad, bad, bad idea. I don't have the name of the group in front of me that's passing around these petitions, but I'll get it out either tomorrow. I'm on tomorrow Tomorrow Friday for Slowany and then of course my Saturday show. But I guess that's just a long way of saying they're not getting people who want to be cops anymore because there's too much BS and frankly, too much risk to the officer. If a situation gets questionable, first thing they'll do, especially in the city of Cincinnati,
they'll throw the copper under the bus. And that's just the way it goes. Unfortunately, again, we didn't have a problem long time ago getting the police officers, but boy they do now Again. We are waiting on a two pm press conference from the New Orleans Police Department, and I think I got something new here.
Yeah, hey, Mike, sorry to break in here, but we are now getting reports from multiple sources that they are going to be postponing the Sugar Bowl game. Betweet Notre Dame and Georgia. It's going to be pushed off until tomorrow. The New Orleans Superdome is now under lockdown after this morning what's being investigated as a terror attack. So no official announcement yet from the Sugar Bowl Committee. They tweeted out about an hour ago that they were going to
be having these kind of discussions about what to do. Sure, but there are multiple atlets who are reporting that the game is going to be postponed until tomorrow, So I know our matt Ree is gonna have the latest and everything that's going down here in about sixty seconds or so.
I appreciate that. Thank you, thank you for that news. Wow, you know I thought there would be a chance of that. I didn't think it would happen. You know what that tells me? And again, like everybody else, I guess I'm just speculating. That tells me that there's more to this than what we know already, or they might just be doing it in an abundance of caution so they can sweep it and be ready to play the game tomorrow.
That's our society today. You know, one Yahoo can affect literally thousands and thousands and thousands of lives and their daily plans, not to mention the obvious ten people dead, thirty five injured, including two police officers. Hey, we got to take a break. Button. When we get back, we are going to talk sports with Moegger and obviously this will probably be the first thing we talk about. We'll do that when we get back. Mike Allen in for
Willie seven hundred WLW. Hey, we're back, Mike, Allen in for Willie Cunningham on a New Year's Day that I don't think a lot of people are going to forget. People woke up in the morning, like myself, like you, I'm sure, and did not expect to see what we've seen. What appears to be a very very serious attack. Obviously a very very serious incident of terrorism, they are saying now down in New Orleans in the French Quarter, and
I don't know. We are going to monitor at the two o'clock press conference that they said they were going to have has now been moved to be determined, So we'll see and if anything happens, we'll break in. But in the meantime, Hey, a lot of sports going on, a lot of football, and we're going to talk to our friend Moe Egger about it.
Mo.
Thank you so much for taking time out of your.
Day, of course, Mike, how are you happy to do year?
You too, buddy? Thank you. Hey, I got to ask you. I'm sure you already heard. The Notre Dame versus Georgia game set for eight forty five, the Sugar Bowl, No, yeah, that's the Peach Bowl, I guess has been postponed till tomorrow. Have you ever seen something like that happen before.
Not for circumstances like this. No, I don't think any of us have. I mean, obviously, you know after nine to eleven, everything got shut down. We didn't have sports for about a week and a half. We've had the weather related issues. I can't recall anything like this. I'm interested in knowing or finding out if they believe and we're all speculating here, if there was a credible threat to the Superdome tonight, to the game itself. But no, I can't recall anything like this, and I'm interested in
finding out more. It's obviously a terrible.
Situation, absolutely, and one that obviously no one expects. I'm just I'm shooting from the hip here, mo. But it seems to me that if they wanted to take that step something, they've got something that they know. And yeah, they wanted to have the twenty four hours or so to clear it out, but we shall see. I gotta tell you, man, that's that's a game I was really looking forward too. We've got Texas versus Arizona State on. Texas is up fourteen to three six twenty nine in
the first quarter. It looks like I'm sure you're monitoring that one as well.
I am. Yeah, Texas is imposing itself offensively against Arizona State. Arizona State got the ball first, there was a big special team's mistake which allowed the Sun Devils to length. And there there's a game opening drive obviously settled for a field goal, and then Texas got the ball in the two play score a touchdown. This game had an eleven and a half point spread, and so far in the first half of the first quarter you could you could see why.
Yeah, yeah, just a little bit that I've been watching. I agree with you. Big one, big, big, big one. At five o'clock today, Rose Bowl, Ohio State versus Oregon, I think this is going to I'm gonna watch them all, but this is going to be one that you really want watch. What do you think?
I think so?
I think the.
Winner of this game is going to win the national championship. You know, this is a rematch of one of the best games of the season, won by Oregon by a point over Ohio State. You know, if you were paying attention to the game last night when Penn State beat Boise State and frankly overmatched him, you see the inherent
flaw in the system. Right, Penn State was seated sixth, they get a chance to play a higher seeded team in Boise State that was seated where it was because they give the top four seats to the top four highest ranked conference champions, and so the Big Ten runner up gets, frankly, an easier opponent in the quarterfinal than the Big Ten champ. Right, who is Oregon? And they
play an Ohio State team. If you look at the four teams that won in the first round, I think the Buckeyes were head and shoulders the most impressive of the four. Their defense all season long has been terrific. What offense do we see today? Do we see the offense that had its way early on and late in the game again Tennessee. Or do we see the offense that, you know, frankly, looked like it was not very aggressive and kind of manhandled itself by Michigan in the in
the regular season finale. I can't wait to find out today. I do think the two teams whoever emerges from this one in Pasadena is going to win the national title. And of the four games today and I was like you looking forward to a notre Dame Georgia, because I think that game is really interesting. But the marquee of the four for the Buckeyes.
And Ducks, Yep, no question about it. Let me ask you this, and excuse my ignorance with it. Is there a chance if Ohio State wins and Notre Dame wins, that you have a national championship game with Ohio State and Notre Dame. With respect to the brackets, which I'm just not all that familiar with.
Yeah, so Notre Dame is playing as the seventh seed. They are playing the two seed Georgia, and Ohio State's playing the top seed. They do not It's not like the NFL playoffs where they reseed after every round. So if Notre Dame were to win the game of the Sugar Bowl Game, the Fighting Iris would play in the semifinals and the Buckeyes would advance to the semifinals. And if those two teams won their respective semifinal games, those two schools would meet on January the twentieth, and at
least in this part of the country. I'm not sure if they would care on the coasts, but in this part of the country that would be pretty massive.
I tend would give you a.
Great storyline because Marcus Freeman, the head coach of Notre Dame, is a former.
Ohio State Buckeye.
That's right, that's right. I'll tell you what. It's gonna divide the family. In the Allen family, my son Mike Junior, heard here on the Big One Sunday Nights, is a rabid Ohio State fan. I love Notre Dame, so that'll be a fun one for us, if, in fact, it comes off. I think you already answered this moment. I'm gonna ask you again. I didn't ask it this way last time. But the college playoff system as it is
now first year. Yeah, their flaws, as you have accurately pointed out, But overall, Mough, do you think it has been good? Are you glad they went to it? Or is it something that should be scrapped.
No.
I think it's been a positive for one simple reason, and it has its imperfections, and they're going to tweak it. I think you'll see it doing a way of how they see the top four teams. I think they should take a good hard look at you know, in the first round games they were played on campus sites. I think they should take a good hard look at maybe making something like that possible in the in the quarterfinals.
But what it has done more than anything else is I think it has given college football fans, more college football fans a belief that their program, their team has access to the national championship, right And I think the way obviously the way we did it in the DCS and the way we did it in the first decade of the college Football Playoff, with you know, a maximum of four teams, you had a lot of fans who felt like your team truly didn't have access to the
national championship. And now I think everybody looks at the playoff as attainable. It's not unlike the NCAA Tournament in basketball, where every fan of every program in the country feels like our team can make the tournament. Now not every team is, you know, in the NCAA tournament has a legitimate chance to win the whole thing, and I think you have something similar here. You know, I don't think anybody looked at Indiana as a team that was going
to win four games, but at least they're in. And so it's got imperfections, It's got some things that I think need to be looked at. I balked at the suggestion that they should expand to sixteen, because then I do feel like you water it down a little bit too much. And I do think you've had a devaluing of things like conference championship games, putting two teams that
each are going to make the playoff. But at the end of the day, I think you have more fans who feel like thirteam has a chance to be in the postseason, and I think that's a good thing for the sport.
I agree with you. I mean, so far, I think it's gone pretty well, and I guess we'll just have to keep watching. Let me shift gears real quick. The NFL no games today, I don't think that I know of. But the biggie for us at least Bengals Steelers tomorrow at eight o'clock. And obviously I know the Bengals have to win out. Can you for myself and I think other people too, MO just go through what has to happen for the Bengals to win. I'm sorry to make
the playoffs. What has to happen with the other teams? If you can let us know, that would help.
Sure you know it's gone from something that was almost impossible to articulate for folks is something that I think has become pretty easy to articulate for folks and something that I look. The odds are not in the bengals favor, But you know, four weeks ago we thought, God, they need about seventeen different things to happen. Well, now they need three. The first of which is, obviously Bengals have to win on Saturday night. If they don't, their season
is over. If they do, we're gonna be watching two games very closely, both of them in the four o'clock window on Sunday. The first one is Kansas City versus Denver. If Denver wins that game, the Broncos are going to be in the playoffs and the Bengals will be eliminated. The interesting dynamic there is, obviously, the Chiefs have sealed the top overall seeds, right, and so they have nothing to play for. They're probably not going to play their
main guys. But I do think not playing your starters doesn't have to mean that the players who play aren't gonna play hard, right, So I do genuinely think that the Chiefs players who are in the game are are going to play as hard as they can. Are going to put forth good effort.
We'll see, We'll see if.
That adds up to a victory. The game is in Denver. The Broncos nearly beat Kansas City sixteen to fourteen a number of weeks ago, and so even a full strength Kansas City team may struggle with Denver. But the Bengals are going to need the Chiefs back to pull off the upset. And then they're gonna need the Miami Dolphins to lose to the New York Jets. And you know, Miami quite friends the Browns was not very impressive on Sunday. The Jets, who have nothing to play for against the
Buffalo Bills, looked like a team that had quit. I'm actually more concerned as a Bengals fan. I'm more concerned about what the Jets do than the Chiefs because the Chiefs. Chiefs are a good team. Good teams have good backups. Those backups will play hard. The Jets are a bad team that looks like it's quit. If that continues on Sunday, that's not a good proposition. But it's basically this. You
need the Bengals to win on Saturday. You need the New York Jets to beat the Miami Dolphins, and you need the Kansas City Chiefs to beat the Denver Broncos. And if those three things happened, this team will be playing in Buffalo next weekend.
We who would have thought, I guess five six weeks ago that that would even be a possibility. And obviously I don't follow it like you do, but I sure wasn't thinking playoffs at all. Mean that would really salvage the season, wouldn't it.
You think, well, I think what's fun about it is if they were to get in. I don't think it's inconceivable to suggest that they could advance.
In the postseason.
You know, we talk about oftentimes in the playoffs, you know, teams you don't want to play. I think the Bengals are the quintessential team you don't want to play. If the Buffalo Bills are sitting there is the two seed. The last guy in the world I want to see is a quarterback who is coming too my building in the postseason and won, and that's Joe Burrow. The last thing I want to see as a quarterback who has legitimate MVP bona fides, as Josh Allen of the Bills
does as well. I don't know that that's what I want to see. So to me, that's really the fun thing. It's not like, boy, if they got in, that'd be a neat story and then they'd get destroyed. I think they'd have a chance to do some damage. And the Buffalo Bills do not have a very good defense. We've seen what the Bengals have done on offense the last few weeks. And then if you can win that game, and we're getting a little ahead of ourselves, they go
to Kansas City. And if you're a Chiefs fan, the one thing you know about Joe Burrow is that's the guy who's coming to your building in the postseason and won, and he nearly pulled off of victory Week two in Kansas City this year, And so I think the fun thing is to think about what they could do if they did get in. But in order to get in, they need help fight.
Right, you mentioned Joe Burrow. I mean again, I'm not I don't follow it that much, but how can that guy not be the most valuable player. I mean, he's leading the league in passing ours four six hundred and forty one. The guy's right behind him. I forget whose name is as close to that, but I don't know your thoughts on that. Will he be the NFL MVP.
He's probably not going to be, and that doesn't mean that he shouldn't be. But you know, Number one, there hasn't been a playoff or there hasn't been an MVP from a non playoff team since OJ Simpson in nineteen seventy three. His team went nine and five. We didn't have the expanded playoffs we do now, and so you know, you have to go back a half century to find the last time a guy won an MVP without appearing
in the postseason. So history works against Joe Burrow. If you look at the recent history of of the award, the last eleven years, that's gone to a quarterback, and the quarterback who has won the award has typically been on an eleven win team, or a twelve win team, or a thirteen win team. And so what's gonna work against Joe is the other two leading contenders, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, are just on better football teams, or
at least are on teams that have better records. Lamar Jackson has won the head to head matchups against Joe Burrow and against Josh Allen, so that plays in his favor. But I think if you're looking at Joe number one statistically this season, he's had no peer. I think if you're looking for the player who has had to overcome the most, nothing against Josh Allen, who's a marvelous player on a Bill team that doesn't have a great defense. Nothing against Lamar Jackson, who is a two time MVP
and a tremendous player. Joe Burrow is playing on a team where, offensively, I think takes the field every week knowing two things. A. I've got to prop up a bad defense and B I'm gonna get hit a lot or I'm at least going to be chased a lot because I don't play behind a very good offensive line, and so I think it's bad. I think it's also the moments he has come up big in, including obviously
Saturday night in that game against Denver. I don't think he's going to win it, but the fact that you could, because I don't think we've ever done this before. I don't think we've ever looked at a player on a five hundred team and legitimately made his MVP case. The fact that you can for Joe does two things tells you how great he's been. Also tells you how the Bengals are on the verge of wasting that greatness this year if they don't get into the postseason.
Yep, you know, I tell you, I got to answer you this question. Its apropos and nothing mo. But you think the Cleveland Browns are having some heartburn about Baker Mayfield giving up on him too early Given what he's doing. I think he's like third in passing yards.
He's been, to me, one of the really neat success to the NFL, because not only you know, not only did he get bounced by the Browns, he went to Carolina, didn't work out there, they got rid of him, girding the season two years ago, went to Los Angeles, had a cup of coffee with the Rams, and now he's proven to be the worthy successor to Tom Brady and Tampa Bay. He's got a nine figure contract, he's on the verge of getting the Buccaneers into the postseason for
the second consecutive year. And you know, the Browns. The word out of Cleveland was, well, they wanted an adult in the room. Maybe but I watched the Bucks, and those guys on their offense seem to love playing with him. They've been very fun to watch. There's lots of reasons to kick yourself if you're a Cleveland brownsan Baker Mayfield has given him another reason.
Yeah, I know. I mean, they just can't win at quarterback. It seems like no matter what they do, it doesn't work out. And they're the Browns. So frankly, I don't really care. Hey, got a couple of minutes here, I want to just ask you about the Reds a little bit. Obviously, big big change, Terry Francona coming in as the new manager. Man, what a great get that was for the Reds. Would you agree?
Anytime you can get a manager who's going to be in the Hall of Fame, who has won big markets, small markets, he's one with a big payroll a smaller payroll. That's a good thing. I don't know that there's anybody in the sport who feels like he's more universally beloved, more universally respected. He has managed veteran players, he has managed younger players. I legitimately, as a diehard baseball fan as you are, Mike I've never heard anybody say anything
negative about Terry Francona, Yep, the manager. I think though that in the two two and a half months subsequent to firing, to finding out that Terry Francona was going to be the manager, I think if you're a Reds fan and you're growing a little bit impatient with you know, what are they going to do to make the team better? Ye,
I think that's completely fair. I like the acquisition of Brady Singer, a picture they got from the Kansas City Royals, because they needed and I think still need starting pitchers who have gotten through a full season without having to go on the injured list. But this team wasn't very good offensively last year, Mike, as you well know. And yeah, they're going to get some guys back who you know didn't play much or didn't play at all last season,
and that's going to help. Still feel like they need a bat in the outfield, and they's still time to go get one. But I think a lot of us in early October thought at least by the time the calendar flips the twenty twenty five, they will have gotten that bet. And we're still waiting to see what Nick carl does.
I guess you know. I mean, they did address some of their needs. The pitching, I think they addressed pretty well. Power hitting. You just talked about that. I mean, I don't know. I guess there's just nobody out there also, Mo. This will be the last question. The defense I checked last week when I was talking to Yiddy about it. The red I think are twenty seventh out of thirty in team defense. A guy like Terry Francona, he's going to crack the whip early on on, that, isn't he.
I think so, because you know defense, it's not just measured in errors, right, That's a pretty basic way to evaluate a defense. I think sometimes it's thrown the ball to the right base, right, not giving up an extra base because the ball was misplayed, making the routine play, holding players accountable when they don't make the routine play. This team, I think you're exactly right. If you were to talk about last season, the part of the year that didn't get talked about nearly enough was it was
a bad defensive team. And I think if you are likely to see an immediate impact made by a manager, it's there, It's right there, it's in that part of the team, not giving up extra outs, not giving up extra bases, making the routine play and again, and Terry Frankconer has talked about this, holding players accountable when they don't.
Yep, all right, Moe really appreciates you taking time out of your New Year's Day to talk to us. Really do appreciate.
It anytime, Mike, thanks for having me.
Okay, thank you, all right, mo Eger giving us the rundown on the bowl games, and of course now we have one Notre Dame Georgia, the Sugar Bowl, which has moved to tomorrow. Am I right about that, Dave? Yeah, same time tomorrow. That'd be eight forty five, So I know what I'm doing tomorrow. Hey, we got to take a break, but we'll be back. Not sure what we're going to have, still waiting on that police briefing, which now they're saying again is going to be two o'clock,
but I'll believe it when I see it. Whatever we do when we come back from the news, I guarantee you it'll be interesting. Mike Allen in for Willie seven hundred WLW.
Hey, we're back.
Mike Allen in for Willie Cunningham. Just for a few more minutes with me. Is the guy that's coming in after me, Dan Carroll?
Dan, What a.
Morning, Mike.
You know, I want to say Happy New Year, but this is not the way the new year should start.
It's not it's you know, so we can't have nice things. Man went to bed last night thinking, Hey, New Year tomorrow morning, woke up. Was not expecting this, you know. I was singing to myself.
And one of the first things that occurred to me when I heard about this was that this is New Orleans.
I know you've been there.
I've never I've never been to the French Quarter, so I don't have that sort of situational awareness of how it's all laid out there. But I was thinking to myself, in New Orleans, they do this all the time. When you talk about having thousands of people walking around the streets, especially Marti grow when we do this in Cincinnati. Think about what happens in Cincinnati when we have the Opening Day Parade, when we have Tastes of Cincinnati, when we
have Octoberfest. It is a nightmare trying to drive around downtown because there is no access to those streets right where those events are taking place. And if we can do that here in Cincinnati, it seems to me they ought to be able to do the same thing in New Orleans and prevent something like this from taking place.
Well, you know me, I'm loath to criticize cops. However, the New Orleans Police Department does not have a real good reputation.
No, they don't.
I'm just putting that out there.
I don't.
And I've got Ken Kober coming up talk about this after the news of the earlierpective. Yeah, well that's good because you and with all the information we just got from the news conference there, and I think when you listen to what Senator Kennedy had to say, I think he's really given people a lot to read between the lines there, that there's a lot more to this than meets the eye.
Right Well, and also throwing the gauntlet down with the FBI. Hey, you know, I'm gonna support you. I'm going to support you for now. There is such a distrust among people, mainly Republicblicans of the FBI.
Isn't that terrible? That's where we are in this country right now. You know, I don't want I criticize. I have criticized Alejandro may Orcus, the head of Homeland Security, from from one side to the other. I mean, up and down all day, every day. And I hate it that I do that. And Kennedy was taking a shot at me Orcus right there. He said, I've spoken with the head of Homeland Security, and he said, I tell I told him he's got to tell the American people
the truth. Why because he hasn't been telling the truth the whole time he's been.
The head of that organization.
You know, when I was coming up in law enforcement, Dan, I know, I got a few years on you. The FBI was the top of the mountain, the peak, the pinnacle. And if anyone would have said, well, you know what, they might get political. They were so completely a political, so well respected and and the line guys still are. But the leadership, it's just a damn shame. And hopefully hopefully they can bring that back.
Well.
I think a lot of that started with Komy when he was unable to when you're in a position like that, Mike, and I've been saying this for years now, when you are in a position like like where he was ahead of the FBI, and you have the occasion to speak directly to the president of the United States. You have to give the President of the United States unvarnished information that he can use to make that decision. Your politics has to take It can't even be in the rear
very mirror. You have to totally divorce yourself from politics because your your duty to the country is far more important than any political considerations you might have.
And he let himself because that's right. And prior to all that nonsense, they were and the same with DJ too, And I got a feeling Trump is going to do a deep, deep, deep cleaning on both of them and he needs to.
Well, people are listening to us right now, Sougar Hoover, what about that? Well, you know I'm talking about you know, relative current history here. I'm not you know, I'm not going all the way back there because the issues that we have, what and you saw reflected in that news conference that we just watched, are based on what was happening when when Comber was in there and the FBI brought all this distrust upon themselves.
Yep, got no one to think but themselves. Cash Ptel is an interesting choice for FBI director. However, having said that, I think he's going to go in there and kick ass. And I think Trump's going to back him.
I hope so, yeah, And I think he and he should do it in the right way. And this this whole idea that well, when Trump gets in, you know, we should just move forward and move past all this.
Well, whatever happened to the idea of justice.
You do something wrong, there's no statute of limitations on murdering things like that.
And I know, Daisy Lnas, we gotta go. Okay, all right, Mike Allen in for Willie Cunningham. Thanks Willy for letting me do this. I'm in at nine o'clock tomorrow, nine o'clock Friday after me Dan Carroll and he's here and he's ready to go right to rock Baby seven hundred wl Abia