I'm right, Jesus Sufry hell yeah, Saint of America and Jery falling for regious Yes, one nation and you're gone in.
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And yes it's wrong.
This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one O three point five FM and five sixty AM w VOC.
And good morning. It is sixteen minutes after six. It's Thursday, January twenty third. It's one of those mornings when you look go over the dog and say, you know what, You're on your own today, buddy, here's the door. Go out there and take care of your business. Try to slip and fall. I guess that's the advantage having four legs instead of two. Huh, Good morning and welcome to a frigid Thursday morning.
Never thought about it, but yeah, I guess you're right. Yeah, yeah, a little additional stability.
There doesn't hurt. Good morning to you, Sirry David, that there is Christopher toms Good morning. Yeah. Seventeen are here right now, Camden sixteen, Blythewood sixteen. We're uh, and we'll drop another degree or two probably for it's all said and done. If, as it usually happens, this time of year, this time of morning. So yeah, there were predictions last night that some spots could get down to as low
as maybe twelve. I don't know. I mean, can you really feel a difference between say, sixteen and seventeen and well twelve and thirteen? Can you?
Without a wind? Probably not? And we're lucky. There's not much of a breeze right now.
Ain't dead of truth? Huh? Matter of fact, wins at zero miles an hour right now here, So let's hope that stays that way. And again there are now and I had no issues at all coming other than getting out of my driveway. We kind of a steep driveway and the top of it is shielded by the house, so it still had you know, snow and ice on it.
Yeah, any place that has not gotten a lot of sun, you know, all these streets that have a lot of shade from mature trees, there's still lights there and depending on where it is. When I was going home yesterday, the some of the entrance and exit ramps from the highways were filled with cars and police, you know, patrol cars because there have been so many recks there because the sun just doesn't get to those areas.
Yeah, those certain spots. It's just it's still it's still very dangerous this morning. Yeah, not widespread, but just you know, in a few spots. So the cold weather Advisory remains in effect until ten o'clock this morning. Now, we're going to get a little warmer today than yesterday, but we're talking, you know, it's trying to mention low forties. But that's you know, that's that's better than yesterday at least. So hopefully some of these areas that haven't quite thought out
yet will today. We'll get the stuff off of there. National Weather Service urging folks to be careful for hazarded to hazardous travel conditions. Black ice is the is the big issue. The stuff you can see, Okay, you can avoid the black ice. Nobody sees it coming. They had a DOT warning us yesterday calling this unprecedented. Uh. They've continued to put salt on the roads and treat even though the snow was come and gone. And how much do we get, well, depending on where you were the airport.
The official airport snowfall total was what about an inch inch and a half. We had spots, you know, along the coastal areas around Myrtle Beach they got a lot more than that Conway. Conway got nearly seven inches of snow. Wow. Yeah, North Mertle got four and a half. So uh yeah, there are other places in the state they're having more problems than it. In Charleston, they've closed the the Isle of Palm's Connector and the Fowley Beach Bridge. Still yeah,
last night they were not going to open it up. Yeah, still still concerned about the driving conditions on those those Well in case you really call Ale of Palms Connector or a bridge necessarily though, it is.
When those bridges they worry not only about what's on the roadway, but they worry about what's up above melting and coming down.
Right, So it's another e learning day for districts across the state today as expected. I don't think we expected this a couple of days ago. We thought it'd be back to business. And there's even I know in sports you got another postponement thanks to the weather that we're dealing with.
But I mean there's you know, as we mentioned, especially in the rural road there's it's two hazardous for to put kids on a school bus this morning. Absolutely, they made the right decision. Absolutely, but give credit to DOT I mean they've done a great job. Oh yeah, I've been behind a couple of trucks the last couple of days, including one last night on the way home from basketball, and I mean they had everything covered by the time we all came in this morning.
I know you were playing basketball again. I didn't play, I just watched. Okay, so there were more than one of one hundred and twenty hundred thirty some odd flights canceled across the state yesterday. I just happened to notice over Columbia Metro, American Airlines has canceled a couple of planned departures this morning, one to Charlotte and one to d C. Aside from that, everything is running on time from Columbia Metro. It looks like for the remainder of
the day, at least as far as we go. Right now now, the Governor's office out defending the decision to keep state offices in original Lexington Counties open the other day. Been a lot of head scratching over this one. I'm wondering, well, why in the statement state government offices headquartered in the Midlands in the two counties. Weather forecast correctly predicted that the accumulation of precipitation would begin early Tuesday evening, after
normal workday hours. Governor believes shutting down government would have been premature and would have unnecessarily prevented South Carolinians in all counties from accessing critical state government services their tax dollars pay for.
This is all a part of this huge ego play, and Trey Walker started at the Governor's chief of staff when he got into it with Richland won when they prematurely shut down what was it last.
Year during the storm. It seems like it was.
Yeah, And they got into it on Twitter, and you know, you get the feeling the Governor's office was just poised and ready. As soon as Richland County said they were closing county offices early, you know, the Governor's office said, no, you're not so.
Governor Walker jumped down, all right, run down big stories, hot topics aside from the weather. Nancy Mace, as you heard Thomas mentioned of the update, says she is considering a run for governor. She'll make a decision by March. She says, Nancy Mace governor, I'm going to have to take a hard pass on that one. That's just me personally early opinion there on that one. But well we'll
see where it goes. Here we go sant Cooper looking for as for the abandoned nuclear reactors at the VC Summer Nuclear Plant, not to sell them, but seeking investors willing to acquire and finish these things off. Okay, well, it all depends on how the state House treats it this time around. There's been that talk for a couple of months now. As long as you don't hang the the risk on us tax as, taxpayers and ratepayers will Okay,
we know we need more energy production this state. We're going to continue to need it and then more after that. But boy, this this is this is one. Is Is it too soon? Yeah, there's still a lot of raw nerves over all that. Uh say, some good news here. This story from about a week or two back with this random stabbing of of a of a person at a at a Walgreens in Colombia, Well, uh, this this incident ended when a good Samari Carton, you know, kind of like a Daniel Penny type, stepped up and tackled
the suspect. Well that that man, Kennis Goodman, the good samaritan got to keep the city yesterday.
And good for us for celebrating his hours exactly exactly.
We didn't arrest him and throw him in jail and charge them with anything. We we celebrate him and thank you. Evan Brown's going to join us next hour. Okay, we know about the weather around here and what it left behind, but boy, there are other parts of the South that have got a lot more than we did and have a lot more issues. He'll be here to document some of that, matter of fact, not so much to the South so much you expect this from places like Texas
these days. But PJM Interconnection, which is operated the operators are the largest US grid from DC to Illinois. Issuing a Level one emergency alert yesterday. Cold weather and it's it's really cold in that part of the country, and they're concerned about the grid holding up A lot of time. Talk about today with Trump moves including ice racking up hundreds of arrests, the Department of Justice investigating these sanctuary
cities now that has begun, the ones that are resisting. Yeah, those in a word that the Trump White House is considering sending ten thousand troops to the border we'll get to that. Trump. By the way, his interview with Handy last night, among other things, saying, hey, we got back here just in the nicked time. And hey CNN, CNN's poster Harry Enton documenting what he called a massive shift in support for deportation of illegals in the past decade. Yes,
so we get to that. Stock markets rebounding and matter of fact, the S and P set a new record yesterday. So a lot of optimism with the Trump term kicking off. And look like CNN, we'll have a fewer folks to talk about the news here both CNN NBC report to be gett read of the lay off. More folk that and more coming up on this the Thursday edition of Columbia's Morning News. Pleasure to have you with us.
Give yourself an edge every morning with the info you can count on Columbia's Morning News. I gotta know what's happening on one O three point five FF on five sixty am dou w VOC. This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one O three point five FM and five sixty am w VOC.
It is six forty three. Good morning. It is well, dangerously cold outside. One could argue Timpson, the teens haven't gotten down to the low teens yet, but we still might a few spots seventeen here at WVOC right now. I don't think anybody's rasco. Yeah right, Sebo, that's about the sumter sixteen, Camden's sixteen. So that's kind of what we're dealing with here. This morning won't be as bad tomorrow morning. Hey, we'll welcome twenty two for a low
tomorrow morning. How about that? Yes, twenty two, But there is a warm up on the way, but there is there another cool down and the potential for another system down the road. What you're talking about, mister Gary, What you're talking about, willis I was just watching some guy on YouTube, mister Weatherman. It looks like he actually is a real real life weather man. Wait a minute, just got seve hundred thousand suscribers. Man must be doing something right, Okay, all right?
I was going to say, where did you discover this guy?
I just popped up. I don't know. Let's not even go there, all right. Uh reports now I s TV with this report that some over the State House are of the mindset that current state law isn't tough enough when it comes to holding bars and restaurants accountable for overserving their customers. Now, we know that establishments that are guilty of doing this civilly have paid enormous amounts of money.
Are they deciding this in conjunction with all the problems that these bars and restaurants are having in paying their liquor license insurance?
This is why why I bring this up. Now, I've got absolutely no issue with the idea that any establishment that overserves an individual shouldn't be held accountable. I don't have a problem with that that. This is where I get confused by this. This report here that the Senate Judiciary Committee has taken up a bill that would allow bars and restaurants to be sued if they serve alcohol
to someone who is visibly intoxicated. Knew that customer would become then more intoxicated, and then the person left and heard or killed somebody else or damage your property. Well, that already happens right right all the time, I think, So I'm not really sure what the what the aim here is of this.
I mean, one of the issues that at least I've read about that these bars are facing is the fact that one bar can be targeted rather than all the bars if someone's bouncing around from place to place and then winds up injuring.
Something, and typically that's going to happen when attorney was okay, which one can can really afford the biggest payout at deep pocket. Yeah, so I'm not real sure how this changes anything, but yeah, this is this is the issue when we've had some of these establishments just shutter their doors because of the the the liability insurance and how much they're having to pay.
They're having trouble paying it, and in some cases the carriers have left the state. Are you going to get more insurance coverage by telling these bars they're going to be more likely to be sued, You're gonna get less, I would think. So I'm not sure how this fixes anything.
I don't either. And remember it was the state House originally getting involved in all this a couple of sessions back that that led to the issue we're having right now right with with with these insurance companies and the outrageous premiums these establishments are having to pay. So yeah, I don't know. I'm not really sure what the point these places already being sued When these sorts of things happen. I don't know if it makes it easier or close
some loopholes or what have you. But uh again, I am not one iota against any establishment that overserved somebody being held accountable, but I think, yeah, you pass a bill to somehow strengthen that whatever that is. Combined with the issues we're having from the insurance standpoint, it's gonna make it very difficult on some of the thatablishments to
to stay open anyway. So this is that's that. I don't know if you call the silly season or not, but you get all kind of bills introduced, all kinds of things talked about right now, and suddenly you're like, okay, then wait, wait, wait, what happened to the big ticket items that we were talking about that there's work on that too. But you know, all sorts of things get thrown in the next.
You're listening to Columbia's Morning News on one oh three point five FM and five sixty am w VOC. Once again, here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson.
Seven sixteen on a bitterly cold Thursday morning. It's the twenty third day of January. Good morning, and welcome to it. Yeah at temps middle teens, upper teens across the Midlands right now. Those thought that it could get even colder than that. Maybe we'll get lucky. I don't know, you know, if we drop a degree or two right now to make it that much of a difference, probably not. Actually I'm gonna go on a limit, say no, absolutely not. If you can tell a difference between seventeen in fifteen
or fourteen, you're hypersensitive. It's just cold, just cold. Yeah. Again. Cold Weather Advisory remains in effect until ten o'clock this morning. As Tyler just mentioned, will warm up, for lack of a better word, a little more than yesterday. But we're talking low forties of the most I for one, and you probably all of us are not looking forward to seeing our next electricity bill, no wow, or water bill
or water bill for that matter. You know, hopefully you're leaving that drip going overnight again on the faucets that are always the kitchen. The kitchen fosces seem to be always on an outside wall. If you got a bathroom foster on an outside wall, yeah, leave that drip. If you got a guest bathroom interior, the plumbers tell us you don't worry really about that so much. Okay, but yeah,
electricity usage. Matter of fact, saw this this morning. PJM Interconnection. Uh, this is the operator of the largest US grid, stretches from Washington, d C. To Illinois yesterday issuing a Level one emergency alert because of excessive demand. They say they expect energy usage to near record levels that were set almost a decade ago. Well, it's yes, it's it's really really cold here. Boy. You head further up north and it's just ridiculously cold, I mean, very dangerously cold. What
we didn't here was Texas having issues. That's right. They usually have the grid problems. Remember, Texas is this weird thing where you know, they don't cooperate with other states, and that's don't know how this works. You know, if South Carolina needs more electricity and North Carolina is doing or okay, we can actually borrow electricity from them, however that works. Texas does do that. They're that independent place, you know. But they have not had any great issues
that I'm aware of. But moving forward, this is a discussion We've had plenty here on the program, and as being discussed plenty of the state House. We have growing needs for more energy production. That plant they're talking about building the low Country very controversial, but it doesn't hold a candle to this one. And that is the talk that ramped up again here in the last couple of months.
Maybe we go back to Jenkinsville and try to do it all over again, that VC Summer Plant nuclear nuclear plant expansion that you know, rate payers are still paying for and will for some time to come. And yeah, they're talking about trying to finish it. Well, hopefully they've
learned a couple of lessons here. Number one. Remember this was always the analogy used back in the day when this thing ran into problems, although the untilia kept telling us things were going stunningly well and they kept collecting their big bonuses, and then some went to jail over it. You were trying to put a square peg into a round hole. It was a faulty design from Westinghouse to
begin with. But now we're that Santi Cooper, the state owned electric cooperative, is looking for investors that would be willing to acquire and to finish those two partially built reactors. The CEO of Santi Cooper last last week telling lawmakers that they would solicit proposals from prospective buyers in order to help meet the demand for electricity in our state, saying now, well, actually this was a while back when
he was talking to lawmakers. Is back over the summer when he said that santagu But is not planned to be the owner, nor do we intend to be the operator.
Meaning the state doesn't plan to be the owner or the operator. This has got to be explained, is is how this is a benefit and if if it is, if it is, because you know we already have you know, at least part of the infrastructure built out. You know,
we we bought all those parts. Somebody needs to make it make sense to to all of us who are going to wind up paying for it, well and for all of us who are going to have to depend on that for energy as opposed to you know, building something else, say like another coal burning plan someplace.
Yeah, well again, I'm all for this as long as the risk sits with these investors and you know we we don't look at another Baseload Review Act REDO, which appears not to be the case.
If you're talking about investors, I mean, they're going to examine it from from every side. They won't invest unless they see there's profit to be made.
I think it's a tough sell man, tell you the truth. I'm all for it as long as you know rate payers and taxpayers aren't involved in footing the bill in any way, shape or form, and certainly not being left holding the bag if it if it doesn't come to fruition again. I mean, nine billion dollars was put into that thing and they just walked away from it. Nine
billion dollars. And you know, at the time they thought it was a good idea of the State House to just shield then Scanner and UH and the electric cooperatives from from from any downside risk here. That's how desperate they were. Well we're still we're more desperate now for energy then we were back then. So something has to be done. I can't imagine for the life of me that there's anybody in the State House that would have the stomach to say, yeah, we'll kind of help you
out with this thing. Now. If it's just again investors and other companies that want to come in, make the investment, finish it off, and then reap the profits, I'm fine with that. I'm all good with that. Just don't don't hose us again. And I don't think that'll be the issue. I would hope not. I wouldn't think so.
The world is calling Mexico, Ukraine, Russia, United States, and we'll take you there.
At a critical time in our world's history.
One O three point five FM and five sixty AM WVOC. This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one O three point five FM and five sixty AM w VOC, the.
Seven forty And yeah, it is cold, uh so much like this here right now airport. Yeah, eighteen seventeen, still seventeen here at WVOC. And again, as Tydler mentioned, be careful black ice. This is the problem this morning for US National Weather Service extending the cold weather advisory until ten o'clock this morning. Well, we got to done somewhere to the state time. We've got a lot of snow on the coastal areas up towards on North Myrtle. Myrtle,
Conway picked up a bunch of snow. But man, some other parts of the South that aren't used to this just got hammered yesterday Fox as Eben Brown now joined us with a bit of a recap where things are and where they're going. Eppening, Good morning, sir, Good morning to talk to you again. Man. We saw some crazy images the last couple of days out of the.
You sure have, haven't you. It's like the end of the world is coming or something. When there's eight inches of snow in Pensacola, Florida. That's eight inch, it's a very rare thing. Now, snow can sometimes happen in North Florida along the Panhandle. There was one I remember when it was maybe ten ten years ago. There's actually my boss at the time here at Fox after you know, years of me kind of laughing at him for, you know, freezing in New York while it was very warm here.
You know, when there was a blizzard in Pensacola. He made me go and and I think that was punishment and I learned my lesson. But I didn't go for this one. But the uh anyhow, the the point is is that even eight inches of snow there is is unheard of, and it's it's actually quite dangerous for a couple of reasons. One, and this is kind of true all along the Gulf Coast. Not many people really have home heating in the sense that you guys might have it.
Central air can run backwards as a heat pump, and that can work. But the idea of a of a boiler in your home that you know, that's powered by oil and you know, has baseboard radiators, Yeah, like I don't have that myeout.
No, we don't have that here in South Carolina. But yeah, a lot of places further north through yes, absolutely.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So anyhow, it's a you know, places, other places made for the north, you know, we'll have you know that kind of stuff. But down in the South it's really it becomes more and more rare, especially as you get towards like the Gulf Coast, which is kind of as far as south as you can go in some cases. The other issue, of course, is things like black ice, which most drivers along the Gulf Coast probably don't have much experience with, especially if it's dark
out right. So I tend, which is a major Gulf Coast route, I think a big hunk of it is still closed from the Alabama lines to Tallahassee. It's like two hundred and something miles. Wow, and that's a big closure. So and yesterday it was yesterday or maybe the day before. But Ron de Sanders had to say, don't worry, we actually do have snowplows, because there was talk about like
which can plow the road? We have them here and apparently we have some, you know, and and you know, they were able to get a hold of some others through some mutual aid compacts. But but but you know, most people here don't own an ice scraper for a windshield or something. Where would you even get one?
Right, I discovered that. I discovered that yesterday. I thought I had one, but apparently I don't. So there you go, Yeah, you go over the credit card or whatever. And we're talking about yeah, shutdowns of you know, a major interstate at I ten. Just just again the think about the back roads and how much worse those conditions are still this morning.
Yes it's still and it is still like that, and and there's it's that way really all the way to
like Houston. I mean Houston had snow and ice, which is unheard of, right, so there are still a lot of district school districts that are closed or delayed opening, which again, you know, a snow day in Florida's you don't really have those, right, So I grew up up you know, the northeast in New York, where you know, in the middle of winter you put the radio on real early just to pray your pray that for some reason it's snowed by your school and they closed it.
But we don't really have that phenomenon here in the you know, in the southeast, and so you know, so that that's something that's been happening. Schools have been closed, businesses have closed, government offices have closed, just to keep people off the roadway, and there's just been the general warning, you know, if you don't have to go out, don't go out because it's dangerous. We're not going to get
things cleared very quickly. And as it as it stays cold, that nice white, beautiful snow gets crunchy and icy and dirty, and now it's not fun anymore.
We are lucky here. Some parts of South Carolina got you know, Conway got six point eight inches of snow out of this system, but we didn't have very much eyes and we didn't have much wind blowing. So I know, I checked yesterday morning, and I think our one of our main electricity providers here was a statewide reporting twenty one power outages, So we dodge a bottle on that one.
But how is the how is the power grid holding up in some of these spots, and there's still a lot of folks that are still waiting to get it back on.
Uh there has I think there have been some some isolated outages.
You know.
The big concern that we really have in the South with regard to cold as in Texas, the Texas electric grid is not connected to the rest of the country, and a few years ago there was a deep freeze in much of Texas and so many people lost power. There were debts, people freezing. It was a catastrophe that so far has not happened.
So Ted Cruz didn't have to go to Cancun this time.
Yeah, that was that was that one. Yeah. The the something that's called URKAT, the Electronic Reliability Council of Texas, I think it's what it stands for, has been reporting that things have been holding up, They've been able to meet the demand. Everything is working, things are in good enough repair. So we're not having that kind of catastrophe. Good but uh uh, you know, as opposed to that that incident a few years back. But again, this this
puts everything to the test. You know, this is an extreme condition, uh in a part of the country that doesn't you know, often get it. And so the you know, while we're we're very good or we've gotten better at hardening for things like tropical storms and hurricanes. You know, how how good is our infrastructure dealing with freezing persistent freezing temperatures and precipitation. That's a that's a different animal.
So again we're being put to the test. But so far, you know, it's it's you know, we've not heard of major catastrophes. But I'm gonna kind of knock on the wood here.
Yeah, let's do that, all right, Evan Evan Brown, thanks as always, my friend, and stay stay warm, stay safe. All right, we'll do okay, we'll do yeah, Evan Brown from Fox News Radio. Yeah. What Florida's old record was four inches. They've more than doubled it in a few spots like around Pensacola Beach. Crazy.
You're listening to Columbia's Morning News on one oh three point and five sixty AM w VOC. Once again, here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson.
It's fifteen after eight. You know, one of the more shocking things. I think for some people about about Donald Trump, as was just mentioned, is it unlike And you know, I still I still shy away from calling Trump a politician, because you know, politicians when they're running for office, we're just so used to the idea that they're gonna tell us all they can tell us everything we want to hear.
I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that. I mean, they've researched it, they've they've they've focused tested it, all this stuff, and this is exactly what they're gonna do. And then once they take office, somehow they've just forgotten all of that. Well, Donald Trump, that ain't him, okay, and I don't. I would bet good money that Donald Trump has never focused tested an issue. He's just coming from the gut on this. And I was looking over I actually, you know, because you know me, I'm not
the environmentally friendly type. Heck, I only been recycled trash. I actually printed out an article this morning with the headline what has Trump done so far? Extensive list of the executive orders he's signed? And I printed that. It's like nine pages, Okay, I mean I'm not going to sit here and read them. All to you. But it's it's it's like nine pages long. Look at that, mister Thompson's it's a small book. So uh, let's run through some of the things that have happened in the first now,
what two and a half days in office. Well, let's start with illegal immigration and maybe we'll just stay there. ICE is already out there, but no Immigrations and Customs of Forcement ICE. Just the first couple of days there have been closing it now on five hundred arrests of illegals, including those with criminal histories that include sexual assault, domestic violence, drugs,
and weapons crimes. Between midnight, well at twelve one am Wednesday morning and nine am yesterday, they had made over four hundred and sixty arrests Illinois, Utah, California, Minnesota, New York, Florida, Maryland. At the same time, they issued more than four hundred and twenty detainers. These are again requests that ICE be notified when a suspect one of these illegals is released
from custody. This is the thing that remember, you've got the the sanctuary cities refusing to do so, let's talk about that for a second. The Trump administration now is criminally criminally investigating sanctuary jurisdictions. The DOJ has established even though we don't have a leader yet, Pam Bondi hasn't been fully voted in yet, but still the DOJ has
established a Sanctuary citi's Enforcement Working Group. They are tasked with identifying state and local laws or policies that are inconsistent with federal immigration initiatives, when necessary, challenging those laws in court. But also again, might this be a criminal investigation? Why wouldn't it be? Quite honestly, you're breaking the law. So the gauntlet has there's been held for so long, is now being tossed. Are you listening Chicago? Are you listening?
San Diego? Are you listening? Los Angeles?
If they're not listening to what's going on, they should be listening to their constituents. Now, I know there are a lot of liberal folks who live in California, But nonetheless, the national polls show that everyone, what not everyone, but almost everyone, A majority of Americans are on board with this policy.
Yeah, let's see here. We had a New York Times poll found that fifty five percent supported deportation.
Marquette had sixty six four percent. The Markette Pole.
Yeah. CBS News poll fifty seven percent. ABC News poll fifty six percent. This is a massive shift. You go back to twenty fifteen. Let's let's face it. Youah, twenty fifteen when the Trump came down the escalator and this was his big this was his big selling point and everybody went okay. In twenty fifteen, and this ABC News poll, for example, deporting illegal aliens, criminals or otherwise, forty two percent of Americans agree with it. It's now fifty six percent.
He has brought this issue to the forefront and people who never thought and I say it was forty two percent then because a lot of folks, unless you lived on the border, you probably were paying a whole lot of attention to it. You know, it wasn't something that came up in everyday conversation, maybe never conversation at all.
Of course, you know, not only Trump bringing you to the forefront eight years ago, but other things have happened since then too, you know, I mean fentanyl, Lake and Riley, which thankfully the Senate has passed that piece of legislation. Dramatic shift. So you're right, sanctuary city bosses, if you don't want to listen to the White House, Listen to the folks that put you there, because now a majority
of them are not in favor of this. Now there are also reports that the White House is considering sending as many as ten thousand soldiers to the US Mexico border. Yesterday, Caroline Levitt, the White House Press Secretary. You get used to that name, Caroline Levitt, but is she's like twenty eight years old. She's young, crazy, and as far as we know, I don't think I've ever seen her actually look down and read her whatever she's saying off of
a page. KJP. Levitt told told reporters that Trump had had signed another executive order deploying fifteen hundred troops to the southern border. We already have twenty five hundred there. Texas and other states have also deployed national Guard over the years, of course, but an internal Customs and Border Protection memo dated January twenty one indicates that, yeah, there's a planet dispatch ten thousand soldiers to the southern border.
Serious business. And of course Trump has will now labeled these cartels as terrorist groups. So how did the New York Times respond to that? Well, they basically said that this could hurt the economy. Okay, So somehow labeling these
cartels terrorists could hurt our economy. Suggestion by these writers in The New York Times that American companies fearing sanctions might think twice about doing business south of the border, especially with terrorists at various levels and supposedly legal industries from avocado farming to uh to tourism. Okay, So so that they tried, they tried their best to make the case that because Trump has now labeling the terrorists organizations,
it's going to hurt our economics. Okay, fine, it's not going to hurt anymore, and it's hurting it right now. Crazy Okay. So yeah, and it's not just this, it's energy policy. It's all sorts of things. The tee, I think, what what's the deadline now? Friday? Not not on di I but on on efficiency Friday. I think five o'clock the deadline to get all federal workers back into the office.
Elon Musk has a long list. I mean he's already started, you know, tweeting out things that he's planning to do or programs that he's planning to take a look at. I saw a great quote the other day that it said. The thing that's driving Democrats the most crazy about what happened in November, it's not the politics. It's not that they lost on politics. It's that they clearly are out of step with American values, totally out of touch. That's what's driving they did that morality you know that they
have always played as their trump card. They're completely out of step with the American people.
Absolutely hear about it. We've had multiple Democrats politicians talk about it. Threven people and incited violence.
One O three point five FM and five sixty AM w VOC. This is Columbia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one O three point five FM and five sixty AM w VOC.
It was eight forty one. All right, our final thoughts here on a Thursday, a frigid Thursday morning with Timpston on the teens. I think, oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah yeah. A couple of spots. We've got it for twenty now you got a two in front of that instead of one. That's better. Well, let's follow up on the rash thought this morning. Something we had the stack all morning long,
just haven't a chance to get to it yet. So So this interview with the Associated Press in which Nancy Mace says she is seriously considering a run for governor of South Carolina, that she'll make her final decision in the coming weeks, that by she'll make a decision by March, she told the AP. Uh, Now, no one can formally file for another year. Yeah, but let's let's face it. I mean, the the posturing is is already begune again.
And Mace mentioned this in an interview that folks like Alan Wilson and Pamela Avitt, folks that are mulling their own bids. Yeah, Nancy Mace is kind of like the shiny new object. Sometimes he's no longer new, but but she continues to be shiny.
You know.
Nancy Mace has has a way of of getting national attention for herself, and that's where she's made her Hey, Yeah, which is why I'm kind of surprised she would consider running for governor of South Krell. Well, let's put it this way. I mean it's a pretty in Republican circles. I mean that's being governor of South Carolina does carry some weight, sure, Okay.
And it could be a launching point at her age to something bigger.
But I would think that Mace would be maybe more interested in considering I don't know, well a senate run, Lindsey Graham's gonna run again. We know that Tim Scott says who he's done, right, He's not? Or is he? Yeah? It may mays know something that we don't know. And I was trying to think it.
Could there be somebody that she's heard that may marry her, which is why she wants to look like she's interested in a different race.
I don't know, she's the only she She's She's in the only swing district in the state, and it's less swing than it was before. I don't know, you know, I look at Nancy Mace as a governor kind of similar to what we had with the Mark Sandford governor, you know, kind of a lot of flash and I don't know.
I sand I give Sandford credit regardless of what do you think about his personal life. I mean he was committed to his ideals. I mean he I know that.
Yeah, you know, bringing I'm thinking I'm thinking more about the pig bringing the pig at the state House, the pooping pigs. Yeah, but you're right, I mean his his and you wonder sometimes is Nancy Mace really committed to hers I don't know.
She just seems to want to get on TV a lot.
Yeah, So I mean this this for me, this is a tough sell.
I would I would think she would do better and want to be, you know, continue to be kind of in Trump's orbit. Yeah, I would think she would do much better on the national stage. You know, she's she's got the eye and the ear of Fox News. She's on all the time. I'm not sure why she wants to come back here unless you know, she either sees it as her next launching point, or unless she knows she's about to be primaried by somebody she can't beat down in Charleston.
Well, and as Jonathan Kelly pointed out, I mean she she says she's going to seek the blessing of Trump. But you know what, well, you know, folks like Alan Wilson have pretty good relationships with with Trump too, and uh, that's gonna be that's gonna be tough to sever that.
So okay, well, time will tell, wont it. Our current governor his office is trying to explain away why the governor ordered offices state offices in election in Richland County the other day to stay open when the snow was coming in, and that meant that well, places like USC had to stay open too, although they didn't let go early. But the statement from the Governor's office is that well, the weather forecast correctly predicted the accumulation of precipitation would
begin early Tuesday evening, after normal workday hours. The governor believes that shutting down government Tuesday would have been premature and would have unnecessarily prevented South carol Indians in all forty six counties from accessing the critical state services their tax dollars pay for.
Okay, this never would have happened with say Charleston County or Buford County or Greenville. This is an issue between the Governor's office and the folks who run Richland County, and mainly the Governor's chief of staff and those who run Richland County because he's been outspoken. Trey Walker has about them shutting the doors every time it looks like it might rain. And now I guess that's been carried over into the latest weather battle.
Seems as though it has stocks s and P five hundred hitting a fresh all time high yesterday. You know, part of this is probably just something to do well, it has something to do with Trump. But also the you know, the Stargate announcement was was was a big one. You had tech shares rallying yesterday, Oracle Nvidia on the
optimism around artificial intelligence, the Stargate project. Although Elon Musk is trying to throw a little shade its way, he kind of thought that might be coming because you got his own ideas when it comes to that. So, yeah, fresh all time high for the S and P five hundred, You got a four oh one k. It mostly most closely follows that index. So that's good news. But bad news continues for the media. Reports that CNN and to a lesser extent, NBC are set to fire quite a
number of workers. CNBC reported this yesterday. CNN ly will fire hundreds, like so many other things. I mean, the business model they have is, let's face this, yesterday's business model. They are trending more towards the digital world away from traditional broadcast media. This has been going on for a while now.
This is not new, and it's not just about their viewpoints. Although their views they're not helping. They're not in line with most American voters.
And let's mention this again too good news. A Good Samaritans name is Kennis Goodman. This is the guy who, what about two weeks ago, I guess it was give or take, tackled a suspect that had randomly stabbed a man at Walgreens on Divine Street. This was back January fourteenth. Now this has been New York City. He might have been arrested, you know, for assaulting this guy, might have
been given the Daniel Penny treatment. Who knows, But not here. Goodman, the Good Samaritan awarded a key to the City of Columbia by by Mayor Rickaman yesterday. That's the way we're doing around here.
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