Iesus right, hell Y Saint America and Jerry Holly for regious dance for Nation God and.
This is 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.
It is sixteen minutes after six o'clock. Good morning, and welcome to Friday, January twenty fourth. I'm Gary David. Good to have you along. Christopher Thompson right alongside, well, separated by one studio. Good to have you along. Huh.
Yeah, you don't take either one of a sad of choice.
Well, I almost almost. You almost had to call me this morning. Well, oh, my alarm went off and I thought, why it's Saturday morning, Why is my alarm going off? And I shut it off and I thought, oh no, I guess it's not. No.
I woke up before mile alarms shut it off, and then they almost fell back a sleep. That's dangerous business, it is, it is. I shouldn't do that.
Now you're as your if your alarm is going off right now and you're hearing our voices, get up this Friday. Let's get this thing done.
Huh, let's go uh still a lot of uh delays and cancelations, well at least delays for schools around them.
You're probably like me. You've been out driving around the last couple of days, no worries, but using extreme caution.
Most of the roads are in great shape, but there are still a few which you know, you see patchy ice here and there, just you know, the roads that don't get any sun. Yeah, these these trees like my driveway exactly, these tree shaded roads, and you know, they just want to make absolutely certain it's safe for the kids to travel.
Yeah, I got I got no problems with that, because yeah, you're right, I've seen a couple of those spots too. So buying large though. Everything is back and normal and well it's still cold, not as cold as yesterday morning, but we're round in the middles and load of ben twenties right now to get the day started. But I'm just looking ahead here. By the time we get next Wednesday, get a load of this mostly sunny and high of sixty five. Wow. Yeah, bring some of that action on,
huh or feel good after this week? We deserve it, don't we. All Right, they'll run down the big story is the hot topics because there's some interesting stuff to get into today. Yeah, we'll start here at home, where George Kennedy the third is now Our former state auditor. Kennedy, caught in the middle all of this counting stuff and the missing one point eight billion dollars. It never really existed, so it wasn't really missing, called it a day yesterday. He resigned from his job.
Full confession. I had never heard of him before yesterday.
Full confession Part two. Neither had I.
I mean, I don't think our state spends a whole lot of time, you know, worrying about who the auditor is, until you get into moments like this.
Yeah, well he's he's been in that position since twenty fifteen, for ten years, and that that independent audit, that report from Alex Partners said that his office, Kenny's office, was was aware of the money. This is what's what's baffling about this. You know, it's just just crazy anyway. Yeah, so he calls it a day. Uh. Our our Treasurer Curtis Loftus pitting an op ed that ran on the Post and Courier yesterday with a headline committed to voters
and transparency. So we may get into some of his his comments there and what he's he's he's on the hot seat once again here with all this. I thought maybe I missed something here. Suddenly today, you know, looking at yesterday's news. Now now every outlet is talking about this, this move to to restart the VC Summer nuclear plant, the Santie Cooper chief calling for bids for somebody to take this thing over, And I thought, did I miss something?
Something happened now. I don't think we anything new here. I guess everybody was. All the outlets were just so caught up in the whole winter weather thing they didn't get a chance to talk about this one yet. But no, nothing nothing new here, although there are certainly those who are dead set against this this idea, And I quite honestly, I don't know how, you know, good luck. I don't know how you attract a private investor to take this thing over.
Tom Davis is one of the respected voices in the Senate and he's been pitching this now for almost a year.
Yeah, so he's we'll.
See if he can get anybody on board with him, and that includes, like you said, investors maybe probably want to avoid the negative publicity that comes with the summer.
That's a that's a tough sell man. Yeah. Nancy Mays continue to hint about a run for governor. Not much new here other than it's looking more and more by the day that she will, in fact sometime well, she says by March announced whether or not she'll run. More troubles at the Alvin Esklynd Detention Center, a twenty two year old charge with as salt and battery after stabbing
another detainee at the troubled Richland County lock up. Donald Trump making moves today, well moving today, He's making plenty of moves. But he's getting out of the White House and heading to a place that he says has been abandoned by Democrats, and that's the mountains of North Carolina. We still have folks who are living in tents. It's crazy, Helene, was what August? Right? Was it August? This is insane.
Trouble visit California as well, But first off is North Carolina. Again, towns in an area he says have been treated badly. Late September at least okay, I thought about that. That's not right, yeah, okay, late September. Thank you. More pardons from Trump in the meantime pardoning twenty three pro life activists yesterday. Okay, for example, you got folks who maybe they obstructed the entrance to an abortion clinic. There's a law about that, that's the face of Act, the Freedom
of access to clinic entrances. You know, you had folks who may have been sitting in the sidewalkers, standing there and praying, and they were carted off to prison for doing it. Well, these are the kind of folks that Trump has just pardoned. This They may be the poster kids of the overreach and the ridiculousness of the Democrat
administration that just departed Pennsylvania Avenue for example. You see protesters sitting in the middle of highways obstructing traffic, and maybe maybe they get a slap on the wrist, but boy, you try to do that outside of an abortion clinic, you're heading to prison. Many have and they've just got their partons, thankfully. And now it gets interesting. Although you know what, I took the bait on this story yesterday, but I'm still wondering if we'll ever see it or not.
Trump boarding, the release of the JFK, the RFK and the MLK assassination records, telling reporters everything will be revealed now. He tried to do this in his first term with JFK and then backed off of it. Will it happen this time or not? And what forces are out there hoping it doesn't happen. I'm gonna take a wait and see approach on this one. But boy, if this gets out there, it may be one of these things where you're like, you think, oh, this is and it's just kind of well, that was it.
I have a feeling it's going to be that. I mean, there are so many conspiracy theories out there, but to suggest that there's something else that happened in nineteen sixty three that we haven't heard about by now, I don't know.
Yeah, I'm thinking it may be a big build up to a big letdown. But we'll see. He's one step away. Pete Haggzeth clearing a procedure or hurdle yesterday for a final Senate vote that's expected to happen today. Here's what we know. Two Republicans will vote against it. Well, they claim to be Republicans, and this is of course Susan Collins and Lisa mccowski, who still claimed to be Republicans, but that's not enough to sink the nomination. So it
looks like Hegxeth will get confirmed. Today, John Ratcliffe becomes Trump's second Captainet member after he was confirmed to lead the CIA. And well, do we even want to bother to talk about Mazie Herono, the only lawmaker on the Senence Veteran Affairs Committee to oppose Doug Collins for that position, the only one, the one who doesn't bother to meet with people and asks every nominee have you ever sexually assaulted anyone? The Hawaiian senator is she's off for blocks.
We got immigration news to talk about. A judge or Reagan appointee temporary blocking Trump's birthright citizenship order. He calls this judge calls it blatantly unconstitutional. Really, well, we have a number of things to talk about, including the mayor of Denver who's now decided he'll cooperate with Ice. Is the mayor of Chicago listening, And well, a couple ex reporters from Politico talking about how their editors quashed or slow walked anything that had to do with the Biden's
Joe or the family. That will any kind of negative news. Yeah, they were told the Hunter laptop, for example, you don't write about that, or take your time and don't be any big hurry to get it out there. Okay, got that more coming up on this the Friday morning edition of Columbia's Morning News. Thanks so much for being long. We appreciate that when bringing a.
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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.
Morning. Good to have you along. It is six forty one Friday morning, January twenty fourth. It's something that we've said time and time again. Uh, and I think there's there's some folks that are setting themselves up for a great disappointment. Yeah, first couple of days in office, Donald Trump has made a lot of noise. We expect that he would, and he has. But I'm afraid there are way too many people out there who feel like, okay, Trump is back in, everything is going to be uh,
you know, coming up roses here. When it comes to the economy, it's like turning the Titanic around. Man, I mean we had we were just scraping that iceberg here under four years of Joe Biden. Some may say we actually hit it. Turning the thing around is not gonna happen quickly. Cases in point here. Last year, store closures in this country spiked and are expected to rise to about fifteen thousand this year. This is uh information from
a retail advisory group done as core site research. Yeah, at least in my neck of the woods, it appears like the only business that's taken off is uh these uh these warehouses. My goodness, the self storage. Yes, yeah, what we've become a nation of pack rats here, but we don't want to get rid of anything we do. We have too much stuff, man, they're everywhere. It used to be drug stores, you you can split it out hitting one. Now it's these uh, these self storage warehouses.
Well, i'd argue car washes or cli well first second.
Close second. Yeah, every time something out Laxton starts to get built and you're thinking, well, maybe it's something I really could could use. Oh it's another mini warehouse. Great, and they're they're putting them on some pretty expensive pieces of land too.
What's up with that? They wouldn't be going up if they weren't profitable.
They must be right well, anyway, aside from that, uh, there's a stark divide here, they say between retailers they are gaining share. Those would be places like Walmart and Costco and others who are filing for bankruptcy like my big lots. So you look at major retailers, Party City, Macy's somehow, the Macy's at what do you call it now, Columbia Columbia Center, Columbia Place, wee place, okay, yes, yeah,
Columbia placey oh, Columbia Mall. Somehow that one didn't escape a chopping block with the latest Macy's closing announcement.
But you can buy your perfume there at least one more year.
Least one more year, I guess. Yeah. But major retailers have closed more than seven thousand stores last year alone, more than seven thousand. That is the biggest jump since retailer started closing stores back when the pandemic began twenty twenty ten. So all right, you had the pandemic to blame for that, But what do you got to blame for this bid nomics. So yeah, they expect that some
fifteen thousand stores this year we'll shut their doors. And there's a spike in bankruptcies to go along with this as well, fifty one retail bankruptcies last year. The year before it was twenty five, so it doubled. This is not something you can change overnight. And then there's this news from the Philadelphia feder Reserve Bank. In the third quarter of twenty twenty four, nearly eleven percent of active credit card accounts paid only the minimum balance. That's the
highest rate in a dozen years. Now, we already know, and we've seen the data and talked about it last year, the incredible rise of the amount of money being put on these credit cards. Not people spending frivolously, people just trying to survive and at a you know, so you get the perfect storm of a bad economy and ridiculously high interest rates colliding and people just can't they they'll they'll never get it paid off. Yet still, lending Tree research shows that one in three of us took on
more holiday debt with credit cards. Uh last month or before? Oh yeah, last month. It's not quite February yeah, in December, which is you know, not unusual, I guess, but it's just putting a lot of people further and further behind the eight ball here. Uh So, again, these are situations that the Trump administration is going to try their best to address, but it's going to take a bet. You know, when Ronald Reagan took office, as much as he is remembered for a lot of things, but but for one,
his success in dealing with the economy. Here. You remember when when Reagan took office, we were coming off the air boil embargo, gas lines, gas lines, gas rationing that. You know, it took a while to turn that around too, I mean the first you know, his first term. You know, Reagan's policies when it came to the economy, trickle down economics was not at all popular. It was a rocky road, but eventually it paid off. So folks, just we have
to be patient here. We're going to continue to see stories like this well into this year and maybe even in the next. It won't happen overnight. And I just I've I've got concerns that a lot of people out there are expecting miracles here when it comes to this and it's just not possible.
That may be one reason why. I mean, there's there's been a lot of smoking mirrors here. I mean, we didn't we didn't vote for Donald Trump, for the JFK papers, or for you know, a lot of the things he's thrown out there early. That may be why he's doing what he's doing. It's been such a flurry of activity that, you know, there hasn't been quite the focus yet, the laser focus yet on the economy and the border that we expected. Now he's done somethings.
I would disagree on the border.
Well, he's done some things there, but I think there's been so much done that he's probably thinking, okay, let's you know, let's make a big show until we can show progress in the two main areas.
People voted for and for. We voted for change, didn't we changes? Changes come? Mm hmm. Okay, so we just got we just got to be patient here. Okay, it's going to take time. Go to take time.
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.
Fifteen minutes after seven o'clock at morning and welcome into a Friday. It's the twenty fourth of January. We appreciate you being here. Fall out, another victim of the missing to Oh excuse me, one point eight billion dollars. It really wasn't missing, It never existed.
Uh.
If you're like us, you're probably totally unaware who George Kennedy. The third is, don't feel bad because it was established last hour that neither mister Thompson nor I hadn't really haven't heard this name before.
Well, I'm not sure I knew we had a state auditor to begin with.
Yeah, oh we did.
Uh, yeah, I assume that's standard operate. You're a business guy, that's I assume that standard operating procedure. But it just seems like that's You've got a treasure. You've got a controller general, you meet as a group with the governor and the House Ways and Means Committee chairman and the Finance Committee chairman.
You got an auditor.
You have to jesus hire an outside order firm to that's a lot of stops. How how does all this still happen? How do we go? How do we lose you know, billions of dollars and then think we have billions of dollars with all those backstops in place.
It's a good question to which I have no good answer. Well, the outside order from Alex Partners in their report, they said that Kennedy's office, the state auditor's office, was aware of that listing in the books, even though most of it did not exist.
And then we use, sorry, we use an outside auditor too, in addition to the outside auditing agency that we hired well to do this particular investigation, but we use an outside auditor for other stuff.
Also, Oh sure, So why do we need an auditor's office? You can't see if mister Thompson is throwing his arms up in the area.
You tell me again, you've you've got more business background than I do. But it just this seems like overkill. Well yeah, until, of course, you make a multi billion dollar mistake. Yeah, and so now and then you're like, why doesn't the system work?
And now we're talking about hiring another outside firm to oversee the folks that we've elected to do this to begin with.
Uh yeah, but we're doing that to make sure our credit rating stays where it should be.
Uh yeah.
So this is so it's window dressing.
Yeah, and I don't know that it helps at this particular point in time. Well, Kennedy State Auditor resigning yesterday. He's been in that role now for well only ten years, since October of twenty fifteen.
Always better to resign than to be fired. And his is not an elected position.
No, And that office, the Auditor's office, to just do on a bunch of different names of avinities there, Yeah, that that office reports to the State Fiscal Accountability Authority, which is a group composed of that the Governor, the treasure of, the Controller General, the senidate financi Chairman of the Houseways of Means chairman exactly. So yeah, right, how did how did all this happen? And how did he
go for so long without being known? Okay, well, so what back in twenty twenty three, Richard Extrom resigned as Controller General. Now George Kennedy of the third resigns the state Auditor, and that leaves well, of course, the treasure of Curtis loftis now loftis.
Who is much more popular than either one of the two people who have stepped down so far.
Mm hmm loftest pin and op ed that ran of the posting courier, and I usually don't do this, but I want to read word for words some of what he said, because I don't want to, you know, leave anything out or add anything to it. He writes that one point eight billion dollar conversion entry was a shared responsibility amongst several agencies, not an isolated failure in the
state Treasurer's office. He writes, the Controller General, as the state's accountant, the state auditor, and the state's outside audit firm. We're all aware of the entry from the moment concerns arose. My team acted swiftly and within legal parameters to address them. To suggest otherwise ignores the collaborative nature of state financial
oversight and unfairly assigns blamed for systemic issues. Okay, well, but just me talking right the pressing issue that we're all Wait a minute, didn't Curtis Loft to say that that money had been invested and it made us, I think was the number was two hundred million.
Dollars, to which the outside auditing firm said, that's impossible.
Because the money was never there to begin with. Right. Well, he addresses that, and again I go back to his op ed regarding the discussion of potential investment earnings. I want to set the record straight. The statement arose during a subcommittee hearing with legislators were questioning us about the existence of the one point eight billion dollars and whether it was cash. At that time, the state auditor, the Comptroller General, and the state's outside audit firm had issued
professional opinions that those funds represented general fund cash. Considering that information, our office examined how much one point eight billion dollars would have earned based on the daily available interest rate. As a reminder, the state Treasurer's office pools and invests all available cash in its custody.
So so he's saying, we were told it was there, so we just essentially threw out some numbers, saying, okay, well, if it is here, here's what we're making on it.
Right, is we invest all cash, all general funds cash, we invest all of it. So, yeah, if that money's there, this is how much it would have earned. So I think that sheds a little more. Okay, now you start to understand lawts us a point here. In other words, he's arguing, no, I never said we invested that money and made two hundred million dollars. The money didn't exist, but had it, it would have earned two hundred million dollars. So that that that clears that up, because that was
a that was a sticking point for me. Uh. He goes on to write that because of our suggestions that the governor should appoint a treasure rather than have it the treasurer elected as it has been, he says, it's misguided, and you would expect this from somebody who's an elected treasure sure, you know, no, no, no, keep us to keep it on the because he's been there since twenty ten, fifteen years in this in this position, and every four years the voters send him back, and as I recall,
the last couple of times, it hasn't even been close. He makes the argument in this op ed that a state treasurer appointed by the governor would enter the special interest not directly to the people. Okay, well, so it's a there's.
There's the argument against that that says that if something like this happened, the governor could immediately clean house if it's appointed rather than elected.
Right, although the legislature could and there's already been you know, articles of impeachment brought up. Heather Bauer about a week or two back, already brought that that that that idea up.
Well, that's that's a lot harder to do, though, even with the strength of the State House. That's a lot harder to do, sure than the governor's simplic saying you're fired.
Right, And I suspect members of the State House would not be real key. They don't want the governor have any more power than the governor's position already has. They want to keep that position tamp down. So interesting stuff there. But again still it's you know, I would think, you know, our credit rating is just going to take a hit. I don't care if you bring in some outside as leriy Groom's called a babysitter to overlook the people that we've elected or put into these places to take care
of this. I don't think that. I think that only strengthens the idea that well, they got problems in South Carolina, and I don't see how our credit rating survives. You really don't, which makes things that much more expensive and winds up costing taxpayers in this state more money in the long run. Your world happens here.
But let me be clear and updated accordingly.
Are you having no doubt.
Buncle, your seat belts one on three point five FM and five sixty am w VOC. You're listening to Columbia's More News on one oh three point five FM and five sixty am WVOC. Once again, here's Gary David and Christopher Thompson.
All right, seven forty one. So everybody got excited yesterday with the news that Trump has ordered the release of thousands of classified government documents about the assassination of JFK. That same executive order that he signed yesterday also has the intent to declassify the remaining federal records relating to the assassinations of his brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and of the Reverend Martin Luther King Junior. Trump telling reporters
everything will be revealed. Now. This is during the campaign. This was a promise he made.
Well, he made it the last time around, too.
He did in his first administration. He pledged he would do the same thing. And remember we wound up getting a little bit right of JFK.
Some redacted stuff, he says. Mike Pompeo talked him out of it. Yeah, well, because it would do too much damage.
Yeah. Well, Also, the FBI and the CIA, Yeah, talked him out of it too. Interestingly enough, the AP article that those three letters, in particular CIA show up a lot in this article. Yeah, I bet a lot. So. The order directs the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General to come up with a plan within fifteen days to at lease the remaining AFK documents. And there are millions of these records relating to the assassination of JFK.
Well, a lot of them are just going to show, you know, the wild goose chases we were on as a country investigating. I guess the relevant documents will be you know, what really happened and and are we really going to be all that shocked? I mean, there are so many conspiracy theories out there that center on you know, either Cuba or the mafia or some combination or the CIA.
Are we really going to be all that shocked? I mean, unless it's a UFO that came down and zapped him, I don't think there's going to be anything all that surprising. It's it would be I guess stunning that a country assassinated some own president of a branch of the government. But again, that's that's been a theory that's been out there for years.
But but if if these documents were to show, for example, speaking purely hypothetically here, that the CIA was responsible, and you actually saw it in black and white, what can you do about it? Now? True? But that's that's that's pretty earth shattering.
Oh it is, you know, it would be a lot more worth shattering though if we hadn't thought that at least, oh for years. Do you do you have to turn? If that's true, can the Kennedy family then sue the government?
I mean I would think they would would probably do just that. Yeah, I don't know.
Well, I'm not that not that they don't have any money anyway, But it's true. And the interesting component here is the fact that RFK Junior is, you know, about to become a member of the cabinet and he has, you know, for years, made his opinion known that you know, it wasn't Oswald and sir Han, Sir Han shot a bunch of shots and never hit his dad, that his dad was shot from behind. We know the King family, at least some members of the King family never thought James Earl Ray was responsible.
So the boy, what what if these documents eventually do come out? You get the trifecta here that in all three of these cases what we've been led to believe all these years is not what really happened. Then in not one, not two, but all three cases.
Then then I think, you know, everything else is up for grabs. You know that that moon landing that the government swears I you.
Know, UFOs, dogs and cats living together.
At that point, what can you trust the government's word on? Well, yes, if all three were some kind of sinister plot behind the scenes instead of assassins.
Yeah, yeah, Well, I'm of the mind that this is going to be a nothing burger.
I think you're probably right.
It's going to be. You know, so they'll there'll be people that will pour over millions of documents when it relates to JFK looking for you know, the smoking gun, and maybe they find it. Maybe maybe it's there somewhere.
With all the investigations and all the people who have studied that since nineteen sixty three, and a lot of the participants are dead now gone. Yeah, it's just it's hard to imagine that we could find out anything new other than a plot behind the scenes.
I'm just, uh, I'm not getting too excited about it. Yeah, I'm thinking there's a lot of smoke but no fire. That could be wrong, but there's there's there's a reason why. And as I mentioned in this ap article, the CIA is mentioned in all three of these repeatedly. There's a reason why last time around, when Trump wanted to declassify these files, he got such pushback from the FBI and
the CIA. Why would that be If it's if it's if they feel like it's not in the national interest for us to know, then it sure leads a lot of people to believe that, Okay, yeah, you were involved. Yeah, well you know, I mean, there's no other explanation for that.
That would be deeply damaging news to find out a government took out its own leader, an American government, wella government. It happens in other plaes, it does. Well, now we'll we'll again the fact that they were brazen enough to do it at noon, you know, in the middle of the streets of Dallas, Texas.
I mean, that's that's out there. Yeah, So fifteen days to come up with a plan to release the remaining JFK documents, and forty five days for RFK Junior and for MLK JR. We'll see what trickles out. But that's just to come up with a plan when we actually see them, if we ever do well. Interesting stuff though, Now more.
Of Colombia's Morning News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson right here on one oh three point five FM and five sixty AM w VOC like.
John and good morning to you at sixteen after eight. It's Friday, January twenty fourth, and is expected. As much as we be like to think that Congress and the President can control what happens to this country when it comes to the laws and such, you know, it sure seems sometimes like not them at all. It's these judges
in these courts. So to no one's great surprise, once Trump took office, and once Trump started to you know, signing executive orders to get this immigration issue under control, well the courts get involved, the lawsuits get filed, and yesterday a federal judge who I believe was a Reagan appointee, issued a at least temporarily blocking Trump's order against birthright citizenship.
This is again the practice of people who are not citizens of the country coming here, whether it's legally or not, to obtain a U S citizenship for a child born in this country, the judge saying births cannot be paused while the court considers this case. Okay, but he called it. He called this order blatantly unconstitutional, saying in his four decades of being a judge, He's never seen a case where an order was as clearly unconstitutional as this one.
I maybe I'm missing something here. Do constitutional rights granted to US citizens extend to anybody else just because they happen to be able to find their way here? Yeah? They do? Okay? Is that right? Should it be? No? You get certain, you know, rights to being protected from from harm and this and that. But my goodness, So this what is expected again, anything Trump tries to do,
lawsuits will get thrown up, Courts will get involved. And this again goes back to again maybe the most important thing that a president really can do, and that is a point judges of the bench, and Trump had a very good success with that first time around. But here's what is happening. The number of people trying to cross the border is dropping precipitously, and yes, not coincidentally happened
when Trump was wanted office. On Wednesday, the number of illegal immigrant encounters the border patrol reported was under a thousand. At its height during the Biden Harris administration, it had got as high as fourteen thousand a day, So under a thousand on Wednesday. It's the Trump effect. Give to him in a little credit too. Yeah, I mean he's yeah, he's talking tough, but he's he's following up.
He is.
And again, as we talked about a few days ago, more military order to the border and troops started arriving in El Paso and San Diego yesterday last night. Fifteen hundred active duty troops, thousand Army, five hundred Marines from Camp Pendleton. This is a sixty percent increase in activity ground forces since Trump was worn on Monday. We already had about twenty five hundred service members at the southern border,
but fifteen hundred more there. And there's been I've seen articles saying that I could see as much as ten thousand. It's it's a war, it is. And as far I'm trying to make sure I get this right. This was I believe in Boston. I don't have the article right in front of me right now, but a situation where an illegal, matter of fact, member of the MS thirteen gang from El Salvador, who had been detained in Boston
on a weapons charge MS thirteen gang member. Now Boston continuing their sanctuary city policy letting this gang member out and not notifying ICE. This is a this is a member of one of the most but notorious gangs around. You had to be in custody on a weapons charge. He should be deported from the country. You let him out, you don't notify ICE. Now. Fortunately, in this case, ICE caught wind of it and they're able to track this
guy down. And guess what. While they tracked him down there, he was in an apartment with an associate that they weren't looking for. But now they've got that person, they're gone too. That was Boston. Now Denver, another sanctuary city, things are happening. The mayor there, who has been vowing to stop any deportation efforts well interview two days ago, changing his tune, now says that Denver would cooperate with
ICE in certain circumstances. He says, if we have somebody in custody that ICE is looking for, they could reach out to us and we can release them to ICE. But he still goes on to claim that Denver's hands are tied by a state sanctuary law. Yeah, it's not our fault. It's Colorado's blame. The state, don't blame me. Well, guess what, there's something bigger than the state. That's the federal law.
It is still stunning that you have these mayors out there who are saying, not only are these folks in the country illegally, so they've broken laws just to get here, but now they've broken laws once they're here, and still they're being protected.
Yeah, we want to shield them still. So that's of Mike Johnston, the Dinver mayor Chicago. Brandon Johnson, the mayor there, he's not backing down. There's the day of reckoning coming for the Wendy City. It's just a question of what
it's going to be. Tom Holman has declared Chicago would be ground zero for mass deportation, but the mayor there continues to double down and what will probably be his one and only term his mayor because the citizens of the Wendy City are none too happy with all of this.
Maybe he's afraid if deportation happens, then people will start paying attention to all the violence in his city.
Oh yeah, Oh, that's a good point. And some of it perpetrated by these same people who he wants to shield some of it at least so. But things are happening, all right. Border crossings are dropping, more active military being sent to the border, and again case of Denver starting to back off a little bit here on the resistance. Chicago.
No.
Oh, by the way, Huntington Beach, California City Council unanimously passing a resolution this was earlier this week, to declare the suburb a non sanctuary city. Now, this is an area that's not been real thrilled with all this anyway to begin with. But they patted Memory, California to the sanctuary state. Hunting the b says not not not us, not us a three hour hour.
I'd like to stay inform everything you need to stay informed. One O three point five FM at five sixty am, doub VOC. This is Columbia's morning News with Gary David and Christopher Thompson on one on three point five FM and five sixty am w VOC.
All right, So final thoughts here on a Friday morning, it is eight forty now, good morning to you. Yeah, we talked about this a couple of days ago, and suddenly all the papers, all the TV stations, everybody's talking about the you know, this idea of restarting the VC Summer Nuclear plant. This idea is not new. It's been
around there for a while. And I think mister Thompson, you point out early this morning when we briefly mentioned it that well you got Tom Davis for example, but talk about this for a better part of a year or more.
Well, I we all know we need more energy. That we know, if for nothing else than all these data forms that are popping up and AI is just requiring more and more power.
What was that figure we had the other day. By next year, Uh, these data warehouses are going to suck up nationally about six percent of all energy consumed. That's incredible. And we're talking about that's some twenty five, twenty six hundred of these places. I think it is Yeah, I think Tom is crazy.
I think Larry Ellison from Oracle said yesterday or the day before at that Stargate Stargate meeting, I think he said he had ten centers under construction in Texas right right now?
Yeah, Well, uh, again the idea here, and you know we talked about this a couple of days back. I guess everybody else in the media got transfixed with the weather and all that and now getting around to it. But yeah, Santie Cooper is seeking, you know, proposals for some you know, private company to come in and finish this thing off. Hey again, I'm of the mind that, yeah, if you leave us out of it, sure, go ahead.
I mean, there's obviously a fix to what we were trying to do because they then went and built two that work in Georgia, the Votal Plan.
Yeah, which which took a lot longer, and yeah, they always do. But so there's a fix. It's a fix. But I don't know because I if can you actually go in there, and again I'm no expert on this, but can you go in there right now and pick up where it was left off and go because remember the problem was it was a faulty design.
To start with, and you're going to be doing it with technology and equipment that maybe outdated at this point. You don't know, I mean.
This, maybe you can't go go in there and just you know, remodel the house. You got to tear it down and start over from scratch. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that the same issues with the faulty design that that's they first had, that that led to it just going belly up. If if you can fix that or not, I don't know.
I don't mind the state exploring the idea if they can find somebody, you know, somebody, somebody from the outside, it's going to have to be profitable for them to do it.
Trump yesterday are shuing some more pardons and the left melting down. Well, these pardons, twenty three pro life activists. You know, the Department Justice under Joe biden Man, the number of political and ideological prosecutions they embarked upon just just crazy. These all dated back to the Face Act, the freedom of access to clinic interrances that the DOJ
used to prosecute these twenty three pro life activists. What did they do well in most all these cases, did they actually try to keep somebody from getting in the front door of a Planned Parenthood or whatever or abortion clinic? Do they actually physically try to restrain them? Well, they have gotten their way. Oh and they prayed or maybe held a sign, and for that they were sent to federal lockup, federal prison as if they were hardened criminals.
And you had grandmother it's going to federal prison. Okay, what about all those people that you know, lock arms and sit in the middle of freeways, any of them people go to federal prison. I don't think So.
That's a peaceful demonstration. Gary, Oh, that's right, that's a peaceful demonstration. Yeah, it's people exercising their rights to free speech.
But that only goes one way. That only went one way with the Biden administration. One way and one way only. All right, Well, I will I will add this. You can't.
You can't pardon a bunch of people who committed violence against police and then not pardon people who weren't violent in their demonstrations.
Procedural hurdle cleared, Pete Hagsath one step closer to becoming the the next Defense Secretary. That vote in the Senate yesterday inclaring the final hurdle for a what will be chance but plan for today? I think right, it should happen today, a final Senate vote. And they've got the numbers. They've got the numbers.
The uh.
The motion yesterday passed fifty one forty nine. Yeah, there were two Republicans who voted no. I like it when the media well as one article says here, two Republicans say they'll vote against Pete hagsth and they voted against yesterday the procedural vote. Both are women. Well, okay, now they're both. They don't even they don't even qualify to be rhinos. Actually, we're talking about Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkoatowski of Alaska. Yeah, okay, nobody, nobody has
ever mistaken those two individuals as Republicans. Okay, not even not even rhinos. They're well left to that. So this is no big surprise. But they've got the numbers. So fifty one to forty nine vote yesterday. Yeah, Mitch mcconough vote yes. Only Collins and Murkowski only Republicans to vote against this, and don't forget Jade Vance if needed as the tie breaking vote. So looks like by the end of the day to day, Pete Hegseath will in fact
be the Defense Secretary. Okay, there's that. John Ratcliffe was confirmed to leave the CIA that to vote yesterday. So Trump's got two in and that final vote was seventy four to twenty five. You had no votes on the on the left, of course, there's someone vote no no for everything. Matter of fact, while we're on it, Doug Collins, the former congressman from Georgia, who is the Trump nominee
to head up the Department of Veterans Affairs. In the committee vote, Maizie Herono was the only lawmaker on the Sentenced Veteran's Affairs Committee to oppose him, the only one. And what was her rationale? Well, he's a Republican. Okay, you know I mean that? That really was it. Remember this is this is Maizie Herono who refused to meet with Pam Bondy and thankfully Bondie called her out on
it during her confirmation hearing. And she's the same one the Hawaiian senator who asks, doesn't matter who you are, have you ever sexually assaulted anybody? Has anybody yet asked Maisie Herono if she's sexually assaulted anybody? I gotta tell you I I would. That's if I were up there on the confirmation stand and she asked me that question. I turned, have you you can't do that? Well, I guess you could. She can do it. But she's asking people that there's never been even a sintilla of a
nobody else. So and so has no, and she keeps answering the question. And hey, here here to this the news that uh Kamala Harris is reportedly huddling up with Hillary Clinton and asking her for advice on what to do next Losers Club. Yeah, y'all keep up with that. You can get some stellar advice there, Kamala