It is six oh five here Kentucky and it's Morning News with Coffee and Company, Nick Coffee.
That's me, mister Radio.
Rick Ryder is alongside today filling in for John Olden. We'll have another update for you coming your way on traffic with Bobby Ellis and another look at Matt Melosavitch's forecast that's coming up here in about four and a half minutes. But obviously the big story not just here locally, but it is certainly a story nationally, and that is the sentencing yesterday for Brett Hankinson, who was sentenced to thirty three months in federal prison. And I get you
never know how everybody feels. It's impossible to be able to fully know how folks out here are viewing things. It's just, you know, it's impossible. But it did seem is if nobody really had a clue what to expect when it comes to the sentencing from the judge, because obviously the DOJ recommended just a one day sentence, and
that of course got a lot of reaction. But Judge Rebecca Grady, sorry Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings, she felt differently than the DOJ as she sentenced him the thirty three months in federal prison, three years supervisor release, and a one hundred dollars fine. He's barred from working in law enforcement or owning a gun, and he's going to voluntarily
surrender at a later date. So total, there were thirteen people that testified, six for Hankinson and seven for Taylor's family, and prior to, of course, the actual sentencing, it was a chaotic scene downtown as four people ended up being arrested. One of those was Breonna Taylor's aunt, Bianca Austin. And the visual that has made its way across the internet probably millions of views, I would imagine, on all different social media platforms, is the protester jumping on the front
of a Louisville Water Company vehicle. And L and PD did put out a statement emphasizing the respect for peaceful protest, but did condemn unsafe behavior. My comment here not theirs jumping on. Jumping in front of a vehicle in the middle of the road is unsafe behavior, I would.
Say, but again that's just my opinion.
Louis of Water did confirm that an employee was caught in that protest but safely exited the area. Curious to see if there's any action from the Louis of Water company moving forward with this employee. I don't I wouldn't expect it, but again I guess nothing would surprise me.
But one thing that I've been mentioning throughout the morning here for those just now joining us, if you are somebody that felt like Brett Hankerson was not deserving of this punishment thirty three months in federal prison, or you felt like, you know, he was just doing his job, he was a cop, and you know you're somebody that, And again, these things can be true. So I'm not
insinuating that people are making stuff up. But there's a lot of different ways to view this entire situation, which I think is the prime example as to why it became such a national story. But if you do just look at the actions of Hankers and that night and the previous history, and you remove Breonna Taylor completely from the situation. And I don't say that Dak likes she
doesn't matter. I want to reiterate that it's not like who cares, It's just if you're talking about him facing charges and being held accountable, I mean, what he did is now again I wouldn't know as far as why the charges are what they are, why they are what they are, meaning he was charged with violating her civil rights. But I feel like, if, I mean, why is it not like want endangerment? And that's probably a rare charge
for an officer to get. But if you look at the fact that he showed up and he fired ten shots and it was, you know, just fired blindly, I mean that's something that again, even if you don't hit anybody and you don't kill anybody, you can't do that. Now obviously, if you don't if you don't actually injure anybody along the way, it's a different situation. But that alone is just something that most people, I would assume would be held accountable for firing ten rounds blindly through
a covered, sliding glass door. Now, again, there was already gunfire that had taken place. And I won't pretend to know the type of training that goes into that. I'm sure it's extensive training, but I've not participated in said training.
So that alone is just something that you can't do.
And if you go back and look at previous situations with Hankerson where he was reprimanded for reckless conduct involving his firearm during other police incidents. In at least one other In one earlier case, he fired his weapon during a pursuit, and that raised concerns internally with his superiors. So I mean, I think I would say just that alone, meaning let's just look at what he showed up and
did that night. That's just something you would expect somebody to be held accountable for, right, But it's just such a such a contentious thing to where people have decided they've got a side, and they they don't they don't budge, and they may not even really look at it from any other perspective of what they believe they're supposed to just run with.
And look, you have every right to do that.
It's just I try to see things from from you know, from the middle. But again, this is a big story here locally and uh certainly a national story as well. All Right, let's get an update of traffic and weather. Bobby Ellis will get us caught up on the roadways as we were getting this Tuesday started. Also, we'll take a look at Mat Melosovich's forecast from w LKY right here on News Radio eight to forty WHAS team here Kentucky at This Morning News Coffee and Company Nick Coffee.
That's me getting your Tuesday started. Don't forget. You can take us with you anywhere you go. Listen live on the iHeartRadio app. Also listen live at WHAS dot com. And we have some talkback comments that we'll get to
coming up here before too long. Folks sharing their thoughts on the sentencing for Bratt Hankerson yesterday, and I've already gotten one that I'm eager to share with you and respond to as far as why they were there, meaning why law enforcement showed up, and again you've already made it your mind, I believe as far as just this whole thing, because even if they even if they were there and everything about the warrant was on the up and up and done the right way, which wasn't I mean,
does that excuse just firing ten shots blindly that clearly could have killed other people that had nothing to do with this.
Anyways, Well, we'll get to that, but I do want to share this.
I'm sure you've heard it in the last couple of days here locally, and obviously it's been mentioned by John Shannon in the newscast from earlier this morning. But if you have a Dodge vehicle, be prepared because people.
Want to steal your car.
So LMPD has warned of a real surge here of car thefts across Louisville break ins as well, and Dodge vehicles are specifically being targeted. Theft reports have jumped from fifty to ninety in just one month. So my thought is, what is it about it? No offense to Dodge. Dodge has a variety of great vehicles. I just to me, that's you know, if you're out there stealing Mercedes and Lexus and clearly you know higher, higher value vehicles, that
would make a little bit more sense. However, it does appear that these Dodge vehicles, a lot of them have a good resale value, and that matters if you're going to steal a car, try to flip it. I mean, you want to get one that you can get more money for. So the Dodge, it looks as if the types of Dodge vehicles that are being targeted more than others. You've got the Charger and let's see Challenger, and then
there's certain types of those specific vehicles hellcap models. Those are the high performance muscle cars that Dodge has, and those are the ones I guess that retain a really high resale value and they're in high demand on the black market. So I guess if you're in that business, that's what you do. You steal stuff and.
You sell it.
You know what has good value, and that's what you go after. And it looks as if these are it's these these Dodge vehicles now. Uh. And one of the other factors as to why maybe the Dodge is getting targeted more than others, other than just the fact that they have good resale value, is that apparently there have been some uh some.
They're easier to break into.
Weak factor weak factory security is also mentioned as a factor here, as critics have said Dodge did not implement aggressive enough anti theft protections with some of these vehicles compared to other brands. They use encrypted keys, kill switches, motion sensors, where I guess these vehicles are a little bit easier to in fact to in fact steal. So again,
just uh, just be prepared. If you have one of those Dodge vehicles, you may you may be somebody they're looking for to uh to try to steal, to try to steal their car. So again, be prepared. And I'm looking at other the Yeah, it looks as if the l MPD statement is that these thefts and break ins UH in Louisville have taken place in specific hotspots. We're talking Dixie Highway, Cedar Creek near Barstown Road in Jaytown, which I'm very familiar with that area. So again, lock
your vehicles every night. Don't leave valuables in your vehicle. And this is one thing that I had a scare one time that was enough for me to never do this again. But I left my vehicle unlocked one night and somebody just ransacked it, and it was just looking
for something that was valuable and it wasn't. I mean, there was nothing there valuable, so they just they just threw everything from my center console, my glove compartment and didn't find anything, so they just left it in a mess, which I'm happy they didn't damage the car or find anything of value and steal it. But I felt a level of being violated that I just had never experienced before.
But I realized because I left my vehicle out of the garage and the garage door opener was in the vehicle while it was unlocked, just the thought of them being able to if they wanted to in the middle of the night enter my home because my dumb ass left the garage door open. Are in there with it unlocked.
I'll never do that again, So be safe. I mean again, thieves are going to do what they do, steal stuff, but you can make it a little more difficult on them if you pay attention to these kind of things hard. Let's get an update on traffic from Bobby Ellis. We'll get the latest forecast from a Melosavich WKY. Thank you very much, John Shannon. It is six thirty six here at Kentucky and it's Morning News with Coffee and Company, Nick Coffee. That's me taking you up till nine o'clock.
But I've been here for a while. I've been here since five am. So if you've been with us, thank you. We appreciate it. But as you could expect, we've talked a lot about the big news yesterday, as Brett Hankinson was sentenced to thirty three months in federal prison, and as you heard there during John's newscast, the mother of Breonna Taylor, stating that she believes that the judge did the best as far as what she had to work with.
And I still think that it just and again I have no way to prove this, but it did feel that leading up to yesterday, nobody really knew what to expect as far as what the actual decision would be from the judge. But again, thirty three months is the decision. We'll let you hear what some folks in the community, some listeners have to say about this is. I'm waiting to get a few more in as far as just
comments on the talkback feature. We've got a couple, but we'll do that at seven o'clock as we kind of rapid fire and just and share with you what a lot of folks have decided to share with us as far as their thoughts on this decision from the judge yesterday. And if you don't know what the talkback feature is,
I'll be glad to tell you. If you listen to this show on the iHeartRadio app, if you'll see it, it's right there, a microphone and you click on it and you'll be prompted to allow iHeart to let you record up to thirty seconds. And then as soon as you do that, we have it right here in front of us to play. So the option is there if you want want to give it a shot. All right, So some sad news from yesterday The Cosby Show. The star Malcolm Jamal Warner passed away at fifty four. He,
of course, was theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show. He drowned while swimming at a Costa Rican resort and fifty four years old. And I feel like the Cosby's. It's a little bit. I remember the Cosby's as a kid, but I believe at the time, Rick, you would know putting Rick Ryder on the spot here, what year was did the Cosby's end?
You have any clue?
I'm I'm gonna look it up real quick because Cosby's was on all the time when.
I was a kid. But I feel like it was probably reruns. All are you talking about when it actually when it came to an end?
I'll say ninety two?
Are you kidding me? Nineteen ninety two? Look at this guy? What a great memory? Yes, you're right.
The final episode aired in April of nineteen ninety two, So yeah, it just ended. I guess when I was old enough to remember watching television. And of course it's a legendary, legendary show, and I think, what And I'm sure there are some that are younger than me. There are some that are older than me that the TV show that was a part of their childhood that they
tuned into, you know, different different eras of television. But when you really get hooked on a sitcom like that, and I do those exist?
They do. I suppose, It's just it's not not on my radar at all.
I know that the folks like CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox, they're still cranking out sitcoms. But I just now we have access to so much content, so many other shows, to where I can't tell you the last time I started to watch a network sitcom. I mean, again, I think they still exist. It's just not really on my radar.
But anyways, when you get really into a show like The Cosby's and you don't have to be a kid this, you could be an adult, you kind of at times get lost within the show and like, you know, you know, you're not part of the family, but the show was specifically about a family dynamic, and it you know, it becomes I don't want to say it becomes part of you, but I think you know what I mean. Right, for me, when I was growing up, the show Family Matters.
I love that show a full house like.
Those were shows that became really popular when I was a young kid, and at the time, we didn't have the internet just yet, and I watched those shows every week and I loved them. And again, I didn't feel like I was a part of their family, but I was with them every week, right, And again, it's television, it's not real. So obviously just sad news there as he's just fifty four years old. And again I know that there are probably people who again, that show was
on from eighty four to ninety two. I'm not sure where I think how things have played out for Bill Cosby certainly has had a factor in how people remember that show. Not to say that they didn't enjoy it, But when you think of Cosby in any way, I think you think of the wild scenario that played out with the ending of his I mean the Latin mean, we all know what's going on with Bill Cosby as far as what he what he did, and why he's
in prison. But nonetheless, yeah, sad news. Which this is not a great way to transition to this, but it is just awkward timing. There's a list I want to take a look at it in the seven o'clock hour that tells us the most disliked sitcom TV characters of all time. Some of them are obvious, somehow was surprised by. We'll get to that a little bit later on. Let's get to another update of traffic out there. Bobby Ellis will
tell us how the roadways are looking. We'll get Mam Milosa Bitch's forecast from WLKY, and also we've got another sports update coming your way before no before, within the next fifteen minutes, So stick around right here on news RADIOATIONE six forty six here at Kentucky and his morning news coffee and company, Nick Coffee.
That's me.
We'll have another sports update with Scott Fitzgerald coming up in about ten minutes or so. And my previous life where I was a sports host for over ten years before making the move here to News Radio eight forty whas.
One of the things that I would say was talked about rather consistently throughout those ten plus years was conference realignment within college sports, and I at times have As a Louisville fan myself, I've always been grateful I think of Louisville being able to have a seat at the table in the power conferences. But I've also at times been willing to acknowledge that I'm underwhelmed by the ACC. I think the league has taken substantial steps back when
it comes to basketball. Maybe they get back here soon. Clearly they'll be better than they were in recent years, but they've fallen in hoops, no doubt.
And then in football.
I mean, clearly the league's not the best of the conferences, but it's more of a popularity contest I think these days than anything, which is one of the reasons why
at times get so frustrated with college football. But nonetheless, yesterday was a as a Louisville fan where I really appreciated Louisville's invite to the ACC that came over ten years ago because it could be where she could be Memphis, and I think there was a time, a good stretch of Louisville athletics existence where they were viewed as peers
to programs like Cincinnati and Memphis. I think maybe I'm biased that Louisville has the edge in the major sports as far as just success and history compared to those two but similar programs as far as just city schools, not a humongous fan base and whatnot. And honestly, they were in the same conference for many, many years in different conferences. And Memphis they've always been the one that
just got left out. Cincinnati got left behind when Louisville made the jump to the ACC and the Big East fell apart. But now they're in the Big Twelve and Memphis never got the invite. And Memphis took a swing yesterday and it was a miss. And this is this is just flat out bold and desperate. But Memphis, they've put up two hundred million dollars as an offer to try to join the Big Twelve and to get out of the American Conference. So twohundred million was raised in
sponsorship money, and it just wasn't enough. The Big Twelve is simply just not interested. So they proposed a massive deal that would have included the corporate sponsorships and giving up their share of TV revenue potentially worth over two
hundred million dollars to secure that spot. So not only were they going to pay their way in, they raised money to say we won't even take any of the TV revenue at the start, because we understand, we got to know earn our keep or whatnot, and they had enough fundraising and by the way, FedEx is where they get their money, so that's probably where a lot of that came from. And yet they still were not an
attractive addition for the Big Twelve. So I mean, this is unheard of as far as what they were wanting to do to just get in and get a seat because there's gonna be more conference re alignment I'm sure down the line, and they would have a tough time I think existing in the top tier leagues even if they were in the Big Twelve, but it's going to be even harder if they remain in the American Conference.
So I do this has to be this has to be intentionally humor right, because this of course became a big story because you don't often see it somebody offering to buy their way into a league and just be so desperate to get in. And honestly it's understandable, Like I don't really fault them for doing it, I just as a tough look. But the Memphis social media pages, I think it was the Twitter account for Memphis yesterday put out just a.
Graphic that talked about how.
Proud they were to be in the American Conference, which they did that on the day that it was clear they were trying to buy their way out in a really desperate way. So nothing would shock me anymore when it comes to college sports now, when when you look at the revenue sharing that's going on, football matters more than anything. We've always known that. But one thing that's really going to be interesting to see is that when you now it's gonna be public, we're going to see
which schools prioritize which sports the most. In Kentucky, there was some news yesterday that they may be spending way more of their revenue share towards basketball than anybody else and really making it clear, we know we're a basketball school and football we could invest a lot of money and we probably will never be above third tier.
So, like I understand it from that standpoint.
But if there ever is a big game of musical chairs once again when it comes to conference realignment, if you're out there looking like you don't give a damn about football, that doesn't look good for you. Now with that said, I have a hard time seeing Kentucky ever being completely left out.
But who knows.
Nothing would shock me when it comes to what college sports looks like in five years, let.
Alone four months.
That's just the way that I mean the sport, The world of college athletics, I should say, really went unchanged for generations because of the NCAA's archaic amateurism model, and now in the last five years, it is changed into an entirely different world