A very smart man once told me that Thursday's the new Friday, and that smart man is Scott Fitzgerald. I'm rolling with what you threw out there, dude, to me weeks ago, because it doesn't quite feel like a.
Friday yet, but we might speak it into existence. Yeah, it feels like a Friday when you wake up on Thursday. There's a different field to it. There's a different vibe to it.
You're down the stretch.
You are down the stretch. The weekends right around the corner, and it's time to rock and roll. Brother, it's gonna be a hot one today, Yes it is. It is gonna be hot here.
It is already hot as we get this thing started five h six here Kentucky had his morning news on news radio eight forty whas Coffee and Company. I'm nic Coffee, He's Scott Fitzgerald. We've got John Shannon alongside today. He'll give you his first newscast of the morning, at least within this show since we've got it rolling here around five thirty Radio. Rick Ryder, he is, he's he's here with us. Always great to hear your voice.
Rick, Well, thanks Rick.
They're a great way to get us started, and I'm sure everyone here in Kentucky and a completely agrees. Now I need to come clean about something because I I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been in this situation before. But I'm not sure if you gentlemen have been here before where you you lost something but you were of the belief that it didn't magically disappear, somebody took it, and then later you realized uh oh, I I mean, look, I was working on a real investigation.
I had narrowed it down to a few suspects as far as these headphones that are in my ear right now, Yeah, you got well, they're not new, they're new ish, they're new now because they've been gone for a long time. And I just assumed that these and by the way, those these are probably I mean, how I don't know how long ago it's been, but these are headphones that Apple gave you when the iPhone actually had the headphone jack, which I feel like that was a long time ago.
Maybe it wasn't quite as long ago as I'm thinking. So these are what I've used for years as far as just headphones while on the air, and I just assumed that I left them in either this studio or a different studio.
And I don't know if I'm sure you.
Can buy these, but like, these were these were special to me, not because they're they're not like a family heirloom, but like it's just what I've always worked with, and it's only what I only. I don't even think they make new devices anymore with the headphone jack in it. So anyways, I just assumed they were gone, somebody had them, and sure enough, I put on a pair of pants today that I have not worn in a while, they
were in my pocket. And just so you know, you guys were not included in the final list of suspects. I was able to. I was able to rule you guys out because not many people around here use imbuds. Most people use actual headphones, the big cans. As I say, so, I'm feeling guilty, and I may just track down who I thought for sure took them and let them know, Hey, you didn't know it, but.
I thought you were a thief.
I thought you had taken my headphones and lied to me about it, and I was wrong.
My wife and I do that all the time.
She'll accused me of taking stuff, and I'll do the same thing, and then I feel the same way you do. When I finally found it, I go and I do. That's one thing I've learned, at least over twenty five plus years in marriage is that I'm humble enough to go to her and say, look, I screwed up.
I didn't always do that, and now I have to know I'm with you.
I literally don't think my situation is any different than that. Now I will say we've hand up. I was going to try to do some mental gymnastics here to try to claim it's a two way street. But with my wife, I am much more. I'm much more likely to accuse her of moving something or losing something because I'm not
as organized as her. I'll leave something sitting around she at times It's been rare, but when she's just picking up, straightening up, she will take something that doesn't belong where I've left it, and she doesn't really know exactly where it goes, because honestly, I'm not organized to where it doesn't have a spot right. I just I don't know
where I want to put it. So I have accused her of time at times of losing something, and it's got to the point now where if I am looking for something, I don't even ask her because I know she's going to think that I'm that I'm insinuating that she took it or did something with it.
So yeah, I've been there. Brother.
I need to tell you, I need to follow your lead and just you know, realize once once you do get it wrong, let them know it can only.
Help right, and it doesn't take long and then it's over and then you get over it. But I'm glad you found your headphones, bro, because in fact, you're reminded me because I have. I've got to order one of those special jacks for the iPhone because I'm been able to listen to the headphones while I cut the grass. I'm doing it tomorrow and I miss that. Yeah, you forget how quiet it is out there. Absolutely, and you can use Bluetooth, but like I don't know, it's.
Just it's same. Yeah, it doesn't work. Yeah, so I got you.
Anyways, I apologize for assuming some of our workers things. Look, it's all about being comfortable, and for whatever reason, it's probably just in my head because these are what I've had in my ears for probably I don't know, ninety five percent of the shows I've done in the last
five year. Even though it's fine without them, I'm just more comfortable knowing that I've got these old headphones that I'm gonna I'm gonna use them until they until I lose them again and I cuse somebody of stealing them or or maybe you know, maybe when they stop working at some point. But on good way to start today again. Thursday's the new Friday. We're rolling with that today. All right, let's get too a quick update of traffic and weather.
It is Top.
Sixteen here at Kentucky and his morning news Coffee and Company on News Radio eight forty whas NIT Coffee with you and you can take us with you wherever you go. Listen live on the iHeartRadio app. Also listen live at w h AS dot com. So I don't believe there is any traffic issues just yet out here in the UH, in the Kentucky and A roadways. I could be wrong, and I'm sure we will have some level of issue because we usually do.
But maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe maybe it's smooth sailing this morning. But either way, we know that Bobby Ellis will get us caught up. That's what you've come to know and expect here on news Radio eight forty WHS and his next updates coming your way in about three and a half minutes or so. But I do want to let you know that there's likely going to be a lot of traffic this weekend. So I sixty five is going to be closed in
downtown for a good chunk of the weekend. In fact, it starts at eight pm on Friday and will end at five am on Monday, and there'll be lane reduction that continues into next week through Wednesday. But it sounds like the closures and the traffic issues are more so just going to be an issue for the weekend, probably not quite as bad when you get into next week
up until Wednesday. So it's the left three lanes on I sixty five south of the Kennedy Bridge, so ramps from I sixty four East and West, as well as I seventy one South to I sixty five South. That's going to start at seven pm on Friday, so you'll be rerouted to I sixty four east, I sixty four West or I seventy one North to reconnect with I sixty five South. And what they're doing is they're replacing expansion joints, which sounds pretty important.
If the expansion joints.
If you tell me, hey, looks like we've got some shoddy expansion joints, I'm gonna say, yeah, close it down, let's get that fixed. Sounds dangerous to me. But this is apparently the uh, this is a let's see.
Make sure I have my numbers right here.
The affected area was part of a two point three billion dollar Ohio River Bridges project, which was put in place a decade ago. So, uh, this this has been a long time coming. It sounds like so again, expect some major delays. And if you if you were planning, uh to be you know, driving around through downtown Louisville this weekend, maybe don't, right, I mean I shouldn't. I shouldn't tell you to change your plans. But when I hear of this, I just assume the worst and hope.
For the best.
But I'm curious if if you hear of big time closures that are expected because of construction, not a rack, because that's something you just predict, but if you just know, hey, you got something like this going on where multiple aims and a very busy area of downtown Louisville on the Interstate is going to be closed. Would that impact what you do? Do you make plans based off that? Do
people pay attention to that kind of stuff? I'm curious you can let us know in the talkback feature within the iHeart Radio app if you'd like, because I probably should pay attention to those kind of things because I suffer from being very impatient, and I don't I mean, I don't think anybody likes traffic, right, But and I'll be honest with you, I've rarely hit really bad, nightmare type traffic where I'm stuck for a long long time,
and I don't know what I would do. I mean, again, you're pretty helpless whenever you end up just essentially being in a parking lot tailgating with other people when you're not moving at all. So I've been lucky to not be in a situation quite like that. But I mean, who likes traffic Nobody? Right, So if I did pay attention, then maybe I could reroute and make arrangements to make arrangements to not you know, not sitting that even if
it adds time. Like I'm somebody that if you tell me the time in your car, will be a little bit longer, but you will not be sitting for anything other than maybe the red light. But if you go the other route, you're gonna end up sitting a lot in traffic, but you'll be four or five minutes quicker. I kind of feel like, more often than not, I would take the route where I'm not sitting because I just get impatient. But maybe that's sim that's just me.
So again, I'll never forget this. He's on vacation this week, and if he was here, I would I would once again thank him because I now do this more often.
In fact, I never used to do it, but it makes total sense.
And it was one of those moments, and I've had many of them where I'm like, oh, yeah, that's that's that's really I'm like, why did not I think of doing that?
That makes total sense. I'm an idiot.
But John Olden, whenever he and I were working together in the afternoons, he would tell me that each day he would leave and he would put it in his GPS, but not because he didn't know how to get here, because he would see if there was any traffic issues that might make him want to go a different route, or maybe pick up pick up the pace a little bit because he's got some delay with traffic. And I never once thought of using GPS for that reason. I just use it if I'm lost and don't know where
I'm going. So anyways, we prepared this weekend, folks. You'll hear me mention that probably throughout the morning and tomorrow, just so people are aware. Making it my duty to make sure you guys are aware that if you're going to be out in downtown near the Kennedy Bridge again, maybe you don't want to be doing that. All right, we've got another update of tracking and weather coming your way, Bobby Ellis. We'll get a straightened out when it comes to the roadways. Also, we'll get a look at the
forecast from WLKWIS. Matt Melosovich and Scott will be in with sports. As we roll along here, it is Kentucky in his morning news coffee and company right here on news radioaight forty whas.
Paul Miles reports, it.
Is Kentucky in his morning news with coffee and company here a news radio eight forty whas Nick Coffee. That's me Radio Rick Rider, mister Radio Rick, or I should say alongside Rick, you want to go back in time once again, back to the days of you cutting your teeth in the radio business, when you were a young stallion, back in the fall of nineteen seventy. Sure, I've got
some more, some more facts for you. The number one song around that time in the fall, it looks like there's three here in the mix, War by Edwin Starr.
Do you know that one?
Yes? I do.
What about Ain't no Mountain high en? If everybody knows that.
One, that's right, okay? And then Cracklin' Rosie by Neil Diamond.
Yeah, you know that that song was about a bottle of wine.
Okay, Crackling rose Nice, I get it now, many people knew that.
But that's the knowledge you provide, Rick.
It's where you, it's where you, it's why, what's why they pay the big bucks around here? Right? Oh?
Yeah.
So we're taking you up till nine o'clock, which means we've got a lot more time to go. So stick around, hang out, let us be a part of your morning. You could take us with you wherever you go again. Listen live on the iHeart Radio app. Also listen live at w h AS dot com. So this story is disturb and honestly hard to believe. And it's one of those conspiracy theories that I was just too naive to
assume there was any validity to it. But we now have legitimate confirmation that it's not just the conspiracy theory, and it's a story that of course is getting national news, maybe worldwide news right here in Louisville. So a US House subcommittee they're looking into some real issues with an organ donation system and its focus is on a Louisville
based nonprofit company. So federal investigation started into Network for Hope, which has recently merged with CODA, and they looked at about three hundred and fifty ish cases and found nearly seventy patients who should have been ruled out as organ donors due to serious neurological problems, but weren't. So this is all when I mentioned the conspiracy theory that's out there.
It's those that just assume, well, yeah, you have your preference as far as what you want to do with your organs, and your family is just going to be told whatever they are expected to be told, and what actually happens with your organs, who really knows. I mean again, I just would have. I just would assume that there's day nobody would do that. I mean, that's that's in humane. That's again hard to believe, but sure enough there are you have a legitimate apology that that came down from
the Yeah, this is from Scott. This is from Secretary Secretary Kennedy says, our findings that hospitals allowed the organ procurement process to begin when patients showed signs of life, and this is horrifying. The organ procurement organizations that coordinate access to transplants will be held accountable and the entire.
System must be six so must be fixed.
So there's reform here as far as just this whole thing, which clearly that that's needed given the fact that this happened. I mean, it's insane if you think about it. So there's this story. So the story there's a specific patient that this really I shouldn't say that this is why the investigation happened, because I don't know that, but it wouldn't shock me if this was a real spark.
But there's a guy by the name of TJ.
Hoover who was waking up fighting off staff while being prepared dad his organs donated. I mean, it sounds like something from a movie, right, You're waking up as they're trying to remove your organs to donate because they assume you're dead, or they think you're dead, or maybe they're trying to kill you. So not only is it not from a movie or ripped from a Reddit thread, it's now part of I mean, it's part of congressional record here. So if you were already suspicious about the system, this
does not help. And it confirms what a lot of people have believed for years, is that they'll do whatever they want with your organs and you'll never know. And the black market is a lucrative market when it comes to reselling organs and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I mean, that's one of the those things that I just would And it's not that I sit around thinking about it a whole lot, but it's a conspiracy theory that has had enough traction over the years that you've
probably heard somebody reference it. And I don't know, maybe I am becoming less naive as I get older, or there's just been enough proof that I shouldn't just take everything at face value and assume that there aren't people out here doing things that are just unthinkable, and you know this actually is it's honestly hard to believe.
So just be prepared.
And I would imagine even when there is a new system in place, which they're expected to be soon, I would imagine that, you know, people are still going to be weary because it's just you just take people at their word that they're not that they're going to do what you're supposed to do, because I don't guess I have such a fear of doing anything to you know,
get myself in trouble. But like when you were making this decision to I guess, you know, start in some way hustling organs on the black market that weren't technically supposed to be made available to the person who died. I mean, don't you chalk up sort of the risk reward there as far as what could.
End up happening to you?
So it almost doesn't seem real, but I promise you it is real. All Right, we got another update of traving the weather coming your way right here, right now, we'll get the latest forecast from at Melosa.
Bitch a WLK.
Why Bobby Ellison get us caught up on how traffic is looking to get this Thursday started, and Roy O'Neil of NBC News he set the joints coming up in about four and a half minutes right here on news radio wait to wait forty whas Nick coffee. That's me and we've got Rory O'Neil alongside this morning. Rory, what can you tell us on the latest from the Gallup poll any results that are believed to be surprising here?
Well, look, there's this couple of Gallup surveys coming out and it's a little bit confusing, especially for the radio purposes when.
You don't have this list in front of you, gotcha.
But essentially Gallup asked the people about how they felt on twenty different moral issues, everything from birth control to pre marital sex, to pornography to animal cloning. You know where does this fall? What is morally acceptable? What is not? These days, birth control, divorce, and premarital sex all seem to be much more morally acceptable. But on the other end of the spectrum, sex between teenagers, gender changes, and pornography are much more considered morally wrong. And right in
the middle, we've got some divided views. Abortion and medical testing on animals are two of the issues that are almost a toss up among voters.
So do these things, I mean, have you noticed this fluctuate over years?
And I don't know.
And again I don't want to make you sound like a dinosaur, Rory, but I'm sure these things have been People have had opinions on this stuff for a long long time, and I'm just curious as it fluctuated a lot over the years.
Yeah, you know, we do see some of these numbers change because they do ask you know, they have the age breakdown of the people taking part in some of the surveys, so that's where you do see some of the changes. And the older the participants, the less likely they are to consider things morally acceptable. I guess is the standard rule of thumb. But we haven't seen big swings in recent years. In some of these numbers, they're
relatively flat. We do notice big divides though, in party affiliation, so they are very different views on things like abortion or changing gender depending on whether or not people identify as Democrats or Republicans.
Rory on Neale NBC News is our guest joining us here on news Radio eight forty whas so the sentencing of Brian Koberger, who was the murderer who killed four Idaho college students that happened in twenty twenty two. What can you tell us as far as just the overall reaction to the sentencing. Obviously there's nothing that's going to probably do much for the family of these victims in the moment, but maybe the court of public opinion, does it seem as folks feel like this this sentence was fair.
Well, Look, Colberger took a plead deal to avoid the death penalty in Idaho, and the prosecutors there have taken some heat for allowing this. Heck, even President Trump, or at least his spokesperson at the White House, said that President Trump wanted to see this case go to trial, wanted to see the ultimate punishment imposed here. But the prosecution said, look, things can happen at trial with evidence. We didn't want to risk it. We also didn't want
the expense. Okay they didn't say that out loud, but that's a big part of it. And then they also said that this really could bring up some very troubling memories and re traumatize the community if there's some eight week trial that has to unfold there in Idaho. So they thought it was best for everyone involved to essentially throw coburger in jail and throw away the key.
This case, this story specifically, really became a national thing. When you have Amazon, Prime, Peacock, Paramount, plus HBO Max. They all did specific true crime docuseries in regards to this, to this story.
Have you noticed, you.
Know, obviously there's that true crime is a very popular genre and it's only getting more popular. I feel like that's clearly a big factor in why this you know, this plea agreement that he reached. And of course the sentencing, I mean, it's it seems like appointment viewing for a lot of people.
Well, right, and you know, I think all the networks, the cable news networks carried the sentencing hearing live for more than two hours yesterday. There's obviously been intense interest, as you said, in the true crime genre. The podcast groups all about these Idaho student murders. Let's face it, they're all very photogetic for good looking kids in their twenties. That also increased the appeal here. And it's just an
absolute tragedy. And look, there were some emotional messages that came from these families, the families of the victims who were able to look Coldberger square in the eye and finally tell him how how they've felt. So it was gripping television.
No doubt.
And he seemed pretty lifeless over there. And he's somebody that clearly had an interest in it as well. He studied criminology before he went down the path of becoming an awful human being who murdered four people. So yeah, some of a lot of folks that don't probably considers that even if they get no reaction, he just sits there just being able to have that experience. It's heavy, I'm sure for the victims family, but part of closure, no doubt. But Rory is always we appreciate your time.
Enjoyed the rest of your day. We'll talk to my friend.
Thanks. Nick touching tomorrow.
Alrighty, that is Rory O'Neal NBC News. Let's get an updated look at the roadways from Bobby Ellis with a check on the traffic, and we'll take a look at this forecast. It's going to be hot today. Stick around right here on News Radio forty whas