Good morning, Kentuckyana. Let's get the eight am hours started here. It is Kentucky INA's morning news on news radio eight forty. Whas nit coffee with you as we've now put three hours in the books here. And I mentioned at five o'clock that I was really alert and energetic to start the day because I had a cold shower, not by choice,
but my hot water was not working, which we were waiting. Well, I was waiting to see that I would know if it was fixed, because I believe I figured out what the issue was as to why I didn't have hot water this morning. And I've yet to hear from my wife, who by now has has started her day, and the fact that she hasn't, I feel like i'd know she would let me know if there was no hot water for her to start her day and get a nice shower,
So that's a good sign. But yeah, I just realized that I hadn't heard from her, So that's good news, good news for me. I'm sure none of you care at all, but a cold shower, I'm telling you, will
wake you up. I learned that this morning, and I don't know if I'll be signing up to to take more cold showers, but it actually benefited me, And I'm curious how many people actually, I mean, I'm sure there are reasons why you would take a cold shower because of you know, I remember being really really sun burnt one time thinking that a cold shower would feel good, and cold water, hot water, anything touching my skin didn't work.
But people do the ice tubs, and there's they've got like those those those uh, there's things you can like purchase for your home. It's not only just an ice tub, but it's like I guess it's like dry ice or something. And I'm sure those are really expensive, but there's got
to be a good benefit to it. And I don't know, I'm I know, I know my strengths here, meaning I'm not strong enough to take a cold shower every morning, but if that was one way to wake me up, so maybe if i'm if I'm really dragging to get the day started and I feel like it's gonna be tough, maybe I'll maybe that's when I'll tough it out and take a colder shower. But yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't by choice this morning, but it was a good way to get the morning started. We're gonna talk to Rory
o'eil coming up here at about eight thirty. We'll get the latest on the shooter in Idaho who lit a fire and then had and waited for firefighters to arrive, only to then ambush them. Two or dead. Of course, the suspect is also dead and one firefighters still fighting for his life. What we do know is that it's a twenty year old young man who apparently wanted to be a forest firefighter and he then was in this.
We don't know for sure, and we probably will never know as far as what led to it, but he was turned down for a job in that field, and who knows, maybe that had a factor. But again, Rory's going to join us, coming up a little bit later on. But we've got fourth of July just a few days away, So tomorrow's my last day of the week, and then I'll have a nice four day week and certainly looking
forward to that. And I have purchased zero fireworks. In fact, I think I can tell you in my many years here on Earth, I have never purchased a firework with my own money. I'm sure my parents bought me like some sparklers when I was a kid, maybe, but I've never and I'm not passing judgment. Look, people have got their things they're interested in. I've got things I'm interested in, And you know, we we live our lives and are just find knowing that there are things you enjoy and
I don't. But I just fireworks have never done it for me. But what really I just have a tough time relating to is how dangerous they are, but also like they're expensive and you're literally lighting money on fire. I mean that's kind of what you're doing right now. Again, if you enjoy it, is your money, knock yourself out. But last year, we had fourteen thousand and seven hundred people treated in the emergency room for a dramatic injury
due to fireworks on fourth of July. That was a fifty two percent increase from twenty twenty three, and the most common injury was burns at thirty seven percent, injuries to your hands and fingers thirty six percent, and then twenty two percent had injuries to their head, face, ear, and then sparklers. That led to seventeen hundred trips to
the er, which means about one third of sparkler injuries results. Yeah, yeah, one third of sparkler injuries resulted in hospitalization, which I think people just assume those are the safest ones, but clearly you can still hurt yourself. And also illegal fireworks those are still a thing, and I guess in certain states there are fireworks and I wouldn't know how to tell you which ones are, Like where do you get to a point with a firework to where it passes
the you know, from being legal to be legal? But fourteen percent of injuries are caused by fireworks that people technically shouldn't shouldn't even have. Yeah, legal fireworks have the highest hospitalization rate at fifty six percent. And reloadable shells I'm not even sure what that is, but it says that those also pose a really really high risk. I mean again, I can't relate not somebody that enjoys fireworks.
I mean I don't mind them as far as like on Fourth of July night, I'm ptty sure our neighborhood's going to probably have a good little setup to where there'll be a few houses throughout the neighborhood that'll that'll spend their money and burn their money for us to enjoy. So thank you. My kids will enjoy it, and then you know, it'll probably be a thing to where they're
just gonna stay. They're gonna want to stay out there all night and watch and hey, if there's one night to do it, it would be on fourth of July. But are you is your neighborhood You've been in your house for a few years now, John, are they Is it been a common thing where the neighbor the neighborhood? Uh? They did? They go all out. There's people lightening fireworks off last weekend, which oh, I mean people have been lighting them off all all week long and last week
here and there. But on the night of it, like, is it a big deal or oh yes, yes, definitely. The dogs hate it and that's just you know, par for the course, but you got to deal with it. This is our third year in our house where we're at now. I think the first year we're actually out of town. But last year I realized that there are many in my neighborhood that really go all out, and so much so that people just show up and like,
park this and take it in. So stay safe, everybody, because again, uh, a fifty two percent increase in er visits due to fireworks last year. Let's hope that goes down this year. All right, we've got an update of traffic and weather coming your way right here right now
and news radio waight forty WHS. I would imagine that those that were in a position of influence when it comes to sports betting becoming legal in many many states here in America, they were well aware that with this you're going to have, I mean it was it's inevitable that you will have some level of misuse, meaning players
betting on their own games. And we've had many stories throughout the early years here of the sport, because when I go back to twenty sixteen, that's when I first started working at iHeart here on the sports side of things and sports gambling. At that point, I don't think it was legal in many places other than like Las Vegas. And then within a few years it started to become legal in certain states, and then Indiana of course had
it first. But what I'm getting at is it used to be something that just the you wouldn't even mention it like it was. It was viewed as just, you know, so morally wrong. And now it's it's within the content of sports. Banduel has their own network that you watch NBA in Major League Baseball games on the big leagues here in sports are in bed with these sports betting companies. And I'm not complaining. I love bet I love sports betting.
But what I'm getting at is they just had to realize that there was going to be some people that don't follow rules, and you have to know that going in when you make the decision, Yes, we're going to make it legal, and we're also going to you know, it's not going to be against the rules for pro sports teams to be in business with the sports books. In fact, you can bet on sports while at stadiums now.
I mean, that's it exploded in recent years. So anybody thinking that there would be no one that abuses this is just insanely naives. So I bring that up to say that it had to come down to, okay, holding those accountable that do in fact break the law and
of course compromise the integrity of sports. And I think the best example of that thus far is John say Porter, the NBA player who was clearly in bed with a gambling ring, and he had a gambling addiction, and he was he was knowing what his player props were set at and trying to cook the books and make money. So that's a course. Now he'll go to federal prison. He's been banned from the NBA for life. Like that
is the example. That's an example that should remind these professional athletes that if you do this, you'll get caught and it'll ruin your life and your livelihood. And I even if there wasn't an example of that, meaning Johntay Porter, I just don't. I've done many dumb things in my life, and I'm sure I'll do more dumb things moving forward. I'll do some dumb things today, but I can't think of a stupider decision to compromise everything you have over
maybe winning a parlay. Now it does seem as if the NBA players who do who you know? Because the latest is that Malik Beasley, who is coming off a pretty good season with the Pistons, he is now being investigated for when he was in Milwaukee with the Bucks and he's being federally investigated by the US District Attorney's office for gambling on NBA games and prop bets that
he played in that featured him. So it happened in January of twenty twenty four, and I mean it's wild to go back and see people pull the video clips of these games and it's not direct proof, but yeah, seems to check out that he knew he needed one more point, he knew his team needed four points two minutes left, and he's playing with desperation that nobody else has. Because I mean, again, there's no proof, but it certainly looks suspicious in a major way. So I don't know.
I just maybe he's got money issues, because oftentimes there are athletes that that simply just don't know how to use their money. And maybe these guys are gambling because they see that as a way to make up for money that they've blown, because they realize that, you know, when you make a lot of money in the NBA, Uncle Sam's gonna get a lot of that, your agent's gonna get a lot of that if you've got child
support situation. So again, regardless even if that's the case, like how you've you potentially lose your ability to bring in high level revenue to potentially get yourself out of a financial jam because you know you're gonna end up in federal prison. I just I cannot think of a dumber thing that. I mean, again, I guess there it's not violent crime, but it's just so it's such a
self sabotage. I mean, it is just so self destructive of your entire life, and it's so avoidable, and the I guess risk reward is just it's very much, so it's just not worth it. But again, I think sometimes when these stories and they're not good stories, trust me,
it's not a good look. But I think the risk was worth taking as far as saying, yeah, let's let's bring sports gambling into being a billion dollar industry and we'll know there'll be some bad stories along the way, but we just hold those accountable and it still ends up being in that positive And I still am there.
But I think, you know, if you are somebody dumb enough to do this kind of stuff, gonna you're gonna be made an example of, and it probably won't even be looked at as an example, it'll just be that's what happens when you do something like this. All right, we've got trafficking weather coming up, another update on sports, and then Royo O'Neal of NBC News set to join us at eight thirty Right here on News Radio eight forty whs. We're wrapping things up here on Kentucky Anda's
Morning News on news Radio eight forty whas. I was expecting a very very small crew in the office today because if you've got some vacation to use, this is a good week to use it, because of course the fourth of July holiday on Friday. But we've got a full crew here. Mister Terry Miners is in the studio early this morning because he's here going to be joining Billy Rutledge on his show. So maybe I now know that if I throw an invitation to Terry, he may
come in. Although he's also here from three to six. He's actually here a lot longer than that doing his show. But anyway, it's always nice to see mister Terry Miners. And we were discussing during the break there something that we brought up earlier in the show. I'm not sure if you guys were with us at that time, but that was through an open records request and this was from WKYT in Lexington. They obtained Vince Merrill's resignation to
the University of Kentucky, which came via text message. And the more I think about it, I think quitting your job, and I guess resigning of your position. I guess that's kind of the same thing, but it's probably still a rare thing. I mean, I think you could even like you could even you could even leave on bad terms, and I just think it wouldn't even be of thought to say, Okay, this is me saying I'm quitting because I'm text messaging. So I don't know, maybe maybe I'm
out of touch. I've never I mean i've left jobs before. Most of most jobs I've left. In fact, I think every job I've left was on was on good terms for the most part, and it wasn't through. I mean, if you resigned via text message, doesn't that mean you're not honoring any kind of two week notice? And clearly, with Vince Marrow's role, I mean, that's not a typical
job where you would honor any kind of notice. And it's also it's all there's no great way to depart there unless you're retiring and writing off into the sunset. Marrow left to take a job at the rival school, so text message. He could have sent a letter, he could have emailed, he could have done the face to face. It still would have been received. With probably the same type of reaction that it was received with I lied.
Not every job have I left on good terms or at least left with a formal hey, I'm letting you know that I'm leaving that kind of thing. It was my first job. Do you remember the story John, wasn't it with finish Line? I worked a finish line for a while and that was a good gig. I left there on good terms. But it was Hollister Hollister. Okay, yes, so my first job. When people ask me my first job, I rarely ever think of this because I only worked
there for a few hours because I got hired. And I remember it was really awkward because I just stood and folded shirts and then would unfold them and fold them and just stand there as people would walk in, and I had to ask, have you heard how good our genes fit? And at that point I did it
for maybe an hour an hour and a half. It took a long bathroom break because I was avoiding having to do it because it was just awkward, very cringe and I remember I got my break and I called my mom and I called my mom and said, hey, you know, can I quit? And she was like it's your first job, you just started, And somehow I was able to convince her to allow me to leave, and I never came back. And what I don't know is if anybody ever actually took me up on it and said, actually, no,
I don't know how great your genes fit. Can you tell me? I don't know what I would have said, but I said it to two different people, and then after the second, the second person I said it to just kind of like walk by. I'm like, yeah, I'm not doing this. So then I ended up at another retail position where I worked at finish line, which was which was better not great. Retail wasn't fun for me, But yeah, have you I don't And I don't even know how good the genes fit there. What was your first job?
Construction?
Of course you're a blue collar man.
I almost blew up fifteen people with dynamite. Well, I taught myself on fire and I fell off a scaffolding.
Did they fire stories?
No, because I was still alive.
Uh.
But yes, I had an adventure, you know, I worre construction. First time out. I was I was pumping water out of this place they needed water out over onto Uh dinamite. You know, ID drill those holes and the water. The water can set the caps off, which can set the dynamite off. How old were you seventeen?
Yeah? I bet that was an experience to say the least. I mean I'm thinking like, what if you to what if you had hurt yoursel? I mean like it's oh, yes, well I fell off a scaffold.
The scaffold fell on top of me, and my foreman was a former World War Two sergeant, and instead of going are you okay? Do we need to call ambulance? He goes, you dumb stuff, blahah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
Did how long did you work there? A little like half a year?
Then I went to college.
That made you realize you wanted to give college a trial? Right? You do it?
Because I looked out we were raking gravel, and I looked into the guy and he asked me how old it was. I said seventeen. I thought he was sixty. He goes, I'm thirty eight, and he looked sixty. And that's when my brain went, oh, ain't I ain't working outside?
So I I realize just now. I never actually got my paycheck for the two and a half hours I worked. You think I showed up today and say, hey, you owe me money. I wonder if they I doubt they have it. Oh, there's some old dude out here that says we only money. I mean it was really do you know what Hollister is? Yes? It was very loud, and are they still open?
Didn't they isn't at the place where the guys would stand out there shirtless and spray.
People with you to go shirtless? But I had the long blonde hair.
Would you have gone shirtless back then?
Yes? Yes, I mean absolutely, Uh, but you know I had to just stand there awkwardly. And have you heard how good jeans fit? I mean, how cringe is that you should buy it? But it never dawned on me that if somebody would have said, well, actually, no, I'm interested to hear how do they fit? I don't know what I would have said. They didn't. So that's why I quite it was im they didn't train me properly.
Right, Well, it's something weird about telling another guy that he looks good in jeans?
Oh it was. It was It was guys and girls it didn't matter. I mean, next, we up, Next, we're late. See you
