Glad to have you along. Here we go it is, well, it's Tuesday. It's also a day number two of the My My Mountain broadcast. Up here. We got some stuff to talk about and some folks we're gonna talk to coming up here on the show, and I'll give you a little more a little more of a rundown as we get things, get things rolling this morning. But so I'm sitting here and I am oh, wait, hold on,
there you go. I am sitting here and, like many of you, just trying to figure out what exactly is happening over in Tehran, what is going on with the US, what kind of commitments we're making we're not making. Why Trump left the g set, Now, maybe he did it because he didn't want to be around a bunch of angry Canadians anymore. I don't know. There's a lot that we don't know, but we will try to get you the information that we have and what that may look like.
I was doing some reading about like some of the super mountain bunker sites that Tehran has that we believe and these are not new by the way, these were points of discussion. These were points of discussion with when we were sitting there and sorry, I'm just trying to
adjust my headphones there. When we were talking about this under Joe Biden, right because and even going back to the first Trump administration, there were these mountain sites where they were not allowing access to un inspectors and everyone's like, well, hold on, part of the deal is allowing access. And then I had to listen to a bunch of people explained to me right now, it's okay, I'm sure they're
not up to anything there. Well, clearly the Israelis, and I suspect Trump because he was making this point at the time, they think that there is a little something going on up there. It's my understanding though, that the types of weapons that would be necessary to actually get in and you know, the old bunker buster thing, I don't think Israel has those, so and I don't know,
like you can't. There's a certain complexity providing, especially when you start getting into our more badass weapons to other countries that are even allies, right, there's a geopolitical cost to that. So, as best I can tell, that seems to be the conversation they're having right now. Does the US provide these to Israel? Is it not a strike target. Does the US push the button themselves? Now the US is in this thing. There's a lot. Look, there's a lot to be concerned about, a lot to wonder about
exactly how this thing pans out. So I'll give you the very latest, because you know, we're dealing with two sides of the world right now. And while it's you know, bright and early in the morning, we're getting into getting into the afternoon evening over there in Iran, and everyone is just trying to get the hell out of Tehran for obvious reasons. Obviously with everything that we've seen, and
there's some some crazy videos emerging. Probably the one I think that made the rounds yesterday the most was this Iranian state TV propagandist reporter lady. So she's literally reporting as strikes are happening, and I want you to listen to this because at the end of this clip, they strike whatever building or sector she's in, and you see, you hear you know, you hear an explosion, you see debris like a dust cloud in there. She gets up and kind of scurries off, I guess for obvious reasons.
And yeah, so they struck the Iranian state TV station and listen.
To this.
Yappy. Sure she's saying nice things.
Now.
To be fair, our equipment does that like once a week.
Maybe, you know, I was about to say, we just keep doing the show.
Yeah yeah, yeah, she gets up like, no, I gotta leave now. Now. I had asked Ross to figure out what she's saying. Did you were you able to use groc or something to translate?
You asked me yesterday, like, could you please, you know, find a way to translate this? And you you're like.
The super Groc user, You're you're you're better at it.
So well I have I like, I pay for my for my account, right so I have like better access to gros features. So yeah, he wasn't able to translate it for me. Okay, all right, so that would be the second cut there, okay.
All right, well hold all right, So here here's whatever propaganda she's putting now at the time that the strike happens, just just so you have a little context. Here are the other green one. Right Okay, I'm sorry, I just scrambling screen this morning with some of our guest stuff.
So I have a chance to listen to this. You've got a lot going on with that mountain broadcast. So I mean, I've been trying to like pick up into the slash. You've been doing great, buddy, I appreciate it.
Man, no problem.
You want me to translate it, you got it, buddy.
Okay, all right, all right, So here is whatever she was jabbering about you. That's an Italian cuisation. Just to be just so I'm clear. You you ran it through, you translated, and what she was saying was authentic. Olive Garden is authentic Italian. Oh, I have a transcript here. I should have opened it, all right, So olive Garden is authentic Italian cuisine. It's where your family, the chefs are trained in Tuscany. And I'm sorry, what was the last thing she.
Should I believe the end is death to Carabas. That's what it sounded like. And then the whole studio blows up. Now I listen, the situation over there in the Middle East is really complex, and now sure we've added another layer to it. And I feel like, really confused because she's over there espousing you know, the love of olive Garden, and what she's saying is true. But at the same point, you know, in this conflict, I tend to side, you know, I side with Israel here. Yeah, I don't really know.
I mean it's complex, you know, well, it might be I can't believe I'm entertaining this. It might be like reverse psychology. Yes, right, right, because feels a lot more Iranian than Olive Garden, right, you would agree, I would think, so, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but one more, one more, the fact they would they would weaponize unlimited breadsticks for like kind of pro you know, propaganda. It's just it's it's sad man that it's come to this. This right here, just for in case you all missed it.
Here it is again according to Ross's work.
That's an Italian cuisine.
That's I mean, they're not going to be able to walk that back now the people at Carabas, you.
Know, right, okay, all right, well what's done is done. It's it is at least for that that building there. Why is everything death to everything? Do you remember when they were chanting death to America and Iran and we and everyone was like airing that video. They were having some big like rally and something.
And they were trying to be like, oh, well, they don't really mean death to America.
They mean death to the American political ideals or something. Right, it was some they don't actually mean death to America.
I'm like, I don't know. I think they sort of want us all dead. That's what it sounds like to me.
Well, it's are you Are you a linguist? Well, clearly you are right, you're able to translate the uh.
No, full disclosure GROC isn't always accurate, and sometimes it does come back with wrong answers. It is possible, So I don't know that could.
Have hold you to it? Yeah, yeah, okay, how do you do? Do we know how they feel about macaroni grill?
No?
No, I don't know.
I don't know if we can bring you, like a third person into this conflict. Can I think I should remain those two people, and I don't think another person should be involved in that. So let's do that.
Okay, all right? Thanks, thanks for doing the heavy lift there getting that translated for us. I really appreciate that. All right. Coming up on the show, hopefully nobody else wishes death to fast casual restaurant chain, but I guess we'll find out as as things unfold. Also, we're gonna we're gonna chat with a couple different people. One is the head of the Tourism Association, which I'll get his actual title here in front of me because I'm just
putting so putting something together here. But we're gonna chat with him about what it looks like when one of the North Carolina counties, because you know, each county in North Carolina has a legislatively, so the North Carolina Legislature, because the way that we do things here, they create essentially these entities. And so when you go stay anywhere, you go stay in Raleigh or Greensboro, or a cabin up in you know, Ash County, or you go to the Outer Banks or whatever it is, you know, you
stay in lodging, they have lodging tax. And each of these counties has these individual organizations that is a collective of all of the different businesses that you know, the tax people that are coming through for tourism, and then they utilize that money for a variety of things. But also they're kind of the collective gathering point for all of the folks in these various counties that are that are in you know, that are that are trying to
make a go of it within the tourism sector. And you know, obviously Bunkham County where Ashville sits, but the totality of it, so where all the cabins are and and everything else, is one of the largest in the state of North Carolina. And so leading an organization like that and having to collectively, you know, sit down and figure out how they're going to use because you know, one part of Buncombe County might be you know, it
wasn't hit as bad whereas other areas. I was down in what's called the River Arts District yesterday and I'm going to post a photo where they have where the water line was. And I'm telling you every time I have now seen something out here, whether it was going over by Chimney Rock and back Cave or what I saw yesterday where the height of the water is like twenty some feet off the road and the road is elevated above the traa the railroad tracks, and that's all elevated,
you know, off of the main river basin. So I it's if you ever been to New Orleans post Katrina and you've seen the water marks there, that's wild enough. In the French Quarter, this is twenty some feet in the air, and that's how high the water got there,
and so you know, those parts were harder hit. Built More Village was harder hit as you get where our radio station is up on top of the hill, right, So if you go just west of downtown Ashville, iHeartMedia Ashville, you drive all the way up because the radio station is up top where the radio towers are. They're literally right outside the window of the station here. And the entire slope of the trees hundreds of feet higher than where even the river is, the French Broad River down there.
Our whole slope of trees is laying there in piles. Obviously, they've had guys come in and cut it up and they're you know, they're still pulling it out of there, but it just took it out. You would never expect that in a flooding situation because you're you're up, you're up high, and that's what we're looking at here. So we'll have a conversation about that a little. What's going
on from a Biltmore Village kind of area. That obviously is the you know, one of the big big draws when people come out to this part of the state. So that will that will be over the course of the show, and who knows. Maybe we'll get some my rainy and updates and can do a little translating. But a few other stories to get into as well. Let me do this. I'm going to hit a break come back at his six twenty Hang on, oh Boston, Paul
doesn't believe your translation. What a negative Nancy. By the way, I like carry new ownership group is destroying your baseball team. That's nice. Coming up on the show in thirty minutes, we're gonna chat with Matthew Layman, who is he's currently the vice chairman, but he is, he is the He's gonna be the next chairman when they roll over here in very short orderies the incoming chairman, I guess to be the term. So we're gonna chat with him at
seven oh five. And again, this is not just Ashville, but but rather this is whenever you go stay any around Ashville, Buncombe County, on the Blue Ridge, there, any of the rest. This is the organization who who collects. They're they're a creation of the North Carolina legislature from like back in the eighties or something, and they figure out how to best utilize and really manage the tourism
sector out here. In western North Carolina, and as you can imagine, for folks all across western North Carolina, this is this is very difficult. One, you got a lot of chiefs and these things. But two it's now you've got to figure out in a very non traditional way because so many of the folks and not just you know,
big hotels and things like that. But if you have if you if you do a vr verbo or VRB, I would say vrbo, airbnb, anything like that, you know, this is where the money's from, the taxes come in. And as you can imagine, there was a lot of
pivoting to get people back to where they are. And I threw that number out where they're about eighty five percent back, so which again looking at some of the different locations which I've scoped out here, is actually quite impressive how quickly they were able to get some of these rebuilding efforts underway. So we'll chat with him, and look, I'll we'll talk a little about that, but I want
to hear the stories. Man good. I mean, the anyone who's ever lived anywhere where there's flooding, and I know that a lot of these places in western North Carolina. You just don't think of his flooding places. But I lived adjacent to the Mississippi River for quite a few of the years that I lived in Minnesota, and we had couple big flooding incidents. And people think they know what's going to happen, because you know, there's historical records
of where flooding hit. It's it's very clear to me that however bad, however you know, down in the mouth negative people thought of what Helene was going to do. In no way, shape or form could anyone have speculated it would have been as bad as it was. So
imagine you're sitting there. You're one of the tens of thousands of people who have a financial investment, the hundreds of thousands of people who have an employment obligation within the tourism industry in western North Carolina, and every minute it keeps raining, and every news story that you see, you just realized this is getting worse and worse for you.
Whether it's an investment that you made in a business, a vacation rental property that you own or co owned that you ran out to people through one of these online services. Restaurants that sit adjacent to many of these areas where tourism flows. You're along the Blue Ridge Parkway somewhere and you see your future just slipping away, and that is a feeling I would not wish upon anybody. And literally half of our states that's what they were dealing with. So we'll get a little more insight on
that coming up here in just a few minutes. There's a crazy story in New York. I don't know if you saw this. Some lunatics showed up at one of the New York City courthouses, Manhattan Criminal Courts. So the big boy and you know, they got metal detectors and all that. You're not getting in there generally with a weapon, but that wasn't what his goal was. So you have these court officers who are there at the security checkpoint, and according to the reporting, this dude takes out a
a slashing weapon and just starts cutting people. Man ran into the lobby, this is pre security, pulls out this knife and then just starts swiping away on officers. He got three officers. Now here's why I'm telling you the story. He's an eighteen time loser, right, he is an eighteen time loser at the age by the way of thirty seven, so he's been a very productive guy in his thirty seven years on this planet. Eighteen time loser. There's not a single reason that this guy should be probably coming
back through court. And I'm not talking little stuff. I'm talking this ain't the first time he's cut people, and now you have multiples. Uh. And he he was targeting them, right. It wasn't just one of those things where he's maybe I'll get a knife in here and whatever. It was clear from the video according to the reporting here, he went in there with the intent to do harm to Basically,
the guy's running the uh, running the metal detectors in there. Uh. And uh, let's say he cut one of the officers twice on his face, slice the other on his neck, before shoving a third into a barrier in the main lobby and doing that you know that prison thing where he starts stabbing somebody at rapid speed. I think the guy had a vest on thankfully. Oh you know what, Ross, I just thought about this. If he's gonna go in there and cut up this dude's face, we need to
get William money on this. You know what I'm saying. That's what that's a that's what he does it's his special his specialty there from unforgived that was his character's name and unforgiven right, William Money.
Yeah, when he went into a big whiskey.
Yeah, I went into big whiskey because they cut up that chick's face. Yeah, because that might stop this, because who knows, this guy will probably get out again. Eighteen times eighteen time loser, eighteen time felony offender.
Mistakes happen, right.
You know they You're right, they do.
Maybe the next time. The next time is the charm, Okay.
So they if they get a handslap on this for slicing and dicing three police officers or court officers, you think he's learned his lesson.
Maybe, I mean, you ever make them the same mistake over and over and over again, and you're like, man, I'm not doing that again.
On a golf course, thinking that I can hit this green if I just swing harder, but that doesn't nobody gets cut with it. Well maybe if I if I shake it into somebody.
Yeah, I don't understand, like the you know, the court or the professor, you know, how do you let this guy go that many times? Like how does it even happen? You're like oh, maybe next time he'll be good.
Yeah, well, you know he's trying, he's turning his life around. But you ever tried to turn your life around? But you turn you turned it twice, so you're basically back in the same direction.
Because right, like I said, I've made you know in the past, I've made you know, several mistakes over and over again before I corrected them. Okay, And you're like, yeah, I'm never gonna drink again. I'm never gonna drink again. And it's like two days later, you're drinking again. You're like, what just happened?
And how many people got stabbed?
Zero?
Oh?
Okay, So some would argue that might be different a little little bit. I really I don't understand how this happens, Like how do they let the guy go? Like what's the point? I don't understand it. You know what's crazy is how many stories have we done where eighteen isn't even putting up real numbers, you know what I mean?
We had that one guy in Seattle right where he was like arrest h remember the guy that lived in a trash can I don't know that he lived I don't know that he.
Lived in a trash can, but they knew where to find him, and it was often in a trash can.
The police officers walked up to him and he was hanging out in his trash can and they were like, there he is again.
Hey Bill whatever. Yeah, he had been.
Rested like one hundred and forty times or something stupid.
Yeah, yeah, that was on that Seattle what was it called Seattle is Dying or something. It's a really good for local journalism. Is probably in the bag for most of these leftist policies or permissive policies in a lot of these cities. I think it was a very stark or a very good look at what's going on in Seattle. Right.
So by comparison the eighteen is that those are like rookie numbers.
Yeah, no, that's that's a very good point there. So we will see. Oh, speaking of people not being did you see what they charge this dude in Minnesota with? All right, let me let me do this, because I don't Minnesota has a couple unique murder type charges, like they have third degree murder, they have they even have one under that before you get into manslaughter. It's kind of weird. They have a couple of weird rules, but I've never seen anything like this, and I'll explain come
up next here on the CaCO Day radio program. I'm a little confused by this, and just you know, to be clear, we have federal and state charges, but specifically, why is everything a slog swear man? We have both federal and state charges, but I'm a little confused with the charges as they as you know, from what we know of the alleged crime and what you know people
were saying was happening. Specifically, we find out that not only did this dude allegedly go to these two different residences and shoot these two different couples, but he actually with his with his weird mission impossible mask, went to two other lawmakers homes that night. Who and Ross? You were asking this yesterday, You're like that that looks like a mask. Why would you open the door if you saw this dude? Right? Apparently the other he was unsuccessful
at the other homes. I don't know it's because they saw that's a dude in a mask, or they just I didn't answer, just not to answer or whatever. But so they've charged. Why would you change this story?
All?
Right?
Man?
To do do?
Do? Do? Do?
There?
We go all right, and by the way, they've whittled the list down too. I had seen where it said there was seventy different elected officials on there. It sounds like there was forty five elected officials, but the list may have included seventy individuals, so I guess some who were not elected officials. But anyway, so when it comes to the charges, they are I am so sorry this.
They have updated the story here, So now I'm questioning if what I was reading literally from CNN as well as w CCO, which is the local CBS affiliate up there, all right, I just can't. Yeah, here's the deal. We'll get back into it here in this few minutes because we have a guest guest coming up and the FED. It looks like the federal charges are going to be the really meaty ones. All right, here we go, Thank you.
I wanted to go to the actual website, the prosecutor's website, all right, So he is charged with stalking both Hortman and Senator Hoffman. The the the internet right now or these stories right now. I have have gone to three different versions of this, and it keeps asking me for money to access this, even though I was reading these damn articles yesterday and send them to myself so that I would have them this morning. All right, So six
charges in federal court, including stocking and murder. That's via an FBI press conference that they held. However, he is in Hennepin County, which is where Minneapolis is, and Brooklyn Center Brooklyn Park, Champlain, where the actual attacks took place. He's charged with two counts of second degree murder without intent. How does that work? And then two counts of second degree attempted murder also without intent? And I don't know,
and I'm not a lawyer. I don't know if that's because there's elements of the crime at this point that they had to charge him, and maybe they'll adjust the charges later, which I guess is possible. But if Ross, if you create a mission impossible mess, you get a police knockoff cruiser, you get a police looking uniform with kit so that you look official, and you create a list of people who you think need murdering. Does that sound like you might have intent? Again? Ross is not a.
Lawyer either, right, We are not I checked? Okay, yeah, I used Ross. We are not lawyers. No, this dude, there's so many things about this case or this this it's all sus it's so weird.
This is how you get super conspiracies out here, exactly. Oh, he didn't mean to pretend to be a cop, create a murder list and you know, go up and do the murdering.
Right, and then it just it was an accident and them decided not to release the manifesto. It's like adding to the conspiracies as well.
Yeah, it would be one thing. Look, it would be one thing if they were wholly consistent on manifestos, right, if if the policy you know how some news outlets won't say the name anymore of people who do it, and they're consistent on it, right, they're like, we're not going to put the name. Well not, we're not going to put the name because we want to d incentivize people who may do things like this, whether it's for political reasons or just because you know, they want to
be Internet famous. We're not going to feed that beast. I understand that. So when it comes then to law enforcement in the way that they handle stuff, and you want to d incentivize people wanting to do it, right, that should be the goal of law enforcement. That should be the goal then you got to be consistent. And yes, I understand that you're talking about things that happen in different states and all of that, but ultimately these manifestos
get out there. Remember, as hard as they tried with the the Nashville right, the shooter who went into her old school or his old school or whatever who went in there, there's still was it was it o'keef. Now one of them got remember like eight pages. Some guy got fired over that. And then we finally got the meat of this thing, and you realize that it was politics at play why they didn't want to put this
thing out there. But the guy who shot up the mosque in New Zealand that had like Tucker Carlson's name among the thousand pages because he watched something from him and a couple others. They they bound and they were gonna they printed that thing in a minute.
Right, We do see a track record with that where if you're on a certain side of the political aisle and you read a manifesto and they read it, they're like, oh, we have to release this. But if you're on the other side, they're like, no, it's too dangerous.
Now I think that they should release manifestos. I think so too, because like I want to understand or attempt to understand what's going on.
You've got a guy, like you said, mission impossible, mask, fake cop car, dressed up like a cop. He's got a big house in wife and kids, but he's living with some Papa John's guy weirdly who calls the president Jim Biden. But then he writes a manifesto and we could read it and be like, Okay, well now I understand what's going on because you know, I read the manifesto and I understand why he did what he did.
But they saw it's all crazy, yeah right, and you're just like, wow, what a lunatic.
Yeah, he's a crazy loon. But we can't read it now. And they say, well, you can't read it's too dangerous, and that's how conspiracies grow.
Yeah, well it's part of a larger concept. Get a way. It's just like the we live in an era right now where information is too dangerous and you know what, that's the dark ages, continued storms. We'll chat with Ray's stagic that of course coming up seven forty five from the Weather Channel. To get a sense of what you can expect but we're chatting with a lot of folks this morning, and as previously identified, I am spending the week up in western North Carolina. The goal to you know,
talk about there's a little bit of it. I wanted to see this for myself. We saw the pictures and the videos, but also I you know, I have a lot of folks that over the years that I've developed relationships with because I've rented cabins from them. It's a restaurant that I like to stop at, a hotel, I like to stay at, whatever it is. And I'm sure for so many of you in the try it and triangle you got your spot it maybe in the mountains
and maybe at the beach. And with what we saw in Western North Carolina and understanding how important tourism is and the vacation homes and the Gulf and what you do with the kids, to really be able to give you, you know, the straight dope on what you can expect and why you should not put off the opportunity if you want to do that mountain trip this year to come up here.
Because while I'm seeing things that are crazy, I mean just watching what seeing what back Cave and that area look like watching the slope near our radio station on the top of the hill have the trees peeled off of It helps you to really understand what our friends in western North Carolina we're putting up with with Helene post Aleene and now, and I want you to have an accurate picture so that you don't do what I heard a couple of people talking about this here and go, well,
maybe we'll take a year off from the mountain trip. They need it, they need you up here and to help me talk about it. We're going to chat now with Matthew Layman. He is the incoming chairman of the Bunkhobe County Tourism which of course is Asheville, but the surrounding area Tourism Development Authorities. So when you pay your lodging taxes, this is an organization and group that is set up in these counties by the North Carolina legislature.
They got to figure out, Okay, how are we going to spend the money, how are we going to invest and and build this up? And the curveball that they've been thrown is a complex one. Matthew, thank you very much for coming on the show today. How you doing.
I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
I now hearing me talk about that. How many people have you had that first person conversation with where they hadn't come and seen what Buncom County or any of the western state looks like since Helene, and what they thought they'd see versus what you actually see. How do those conversations go for you as somebody who's really in charge of, you know, making sure that everybody in this tourism sector in Buncom County is attempting to get back on their feet.
Well, there's two kinds of conversations with that regard is So one is people that lived in the area locally that solved the devastation for themselves. They are truly impressed with how much Asheville and Bunkett County and the surrounding
areas have recovered. So it's nice to see that these conversations had shifted from that earlier conversation of the conversation you're having about being here the first time and seeing the hills that has all the down trees, seeing some of the degrees still being cleared from some of the lesser streams and rivers. But for those who were more local to the area. That conversation has turned much more positive. As of Layton, we're really excited about that.
Walk me through this is this is the mindset if I grew I didn't grow up next to a big river, but I lived in the Twin Cities right on the Mississippi River for years, and I remember a couple of significant flooding events, and they had a pretty good beat
on what they thought was going to happen. But when I was down in the River Arts District yesterday, there's a building where they have a water line mark there on one of the studios that blew me away because that's twenty feet over my head or whatever it is. When you saw, as you're sitting here and you're watching what's happening, how much worse was it then you thought it was going to be with the predictions you were hearing as the storm was raging, how much worse was
it for you? And over what period of time did you just have to watch basically your industry take this beating.
You know, the period of time was surprisingly short. I managed our hotel here locally, and we were here throughout the storm thinking we could just put up some sandbags if it gets to be the worst storm ever, like everyone's claiming, and we'll be fine. And within an hour and a half we went from let's get the sand bags ready to let's abandon the floor and go upstairs.
And then it was about twelve hours of watching the devastation, but the waters were seated quickly, and I'm you know, what instantly happened was our community come together and look at each other for support and recovery. And that continues
to this day. You know, we are much more excited to talk about what's open and talk about how we're back than to talk about what happened, because you know, the more we talk about that storm, the more we give people the idea that it's not ready yet, or it's not trying to visit, or we'll give the mountains another year. And I'm here to tell you that the mountains are open, and more importantly, the people of this region are are once again ready to welcome visitors.
Yeah, and and I promise I'm not going to dwell, but because I want to turn this corner, because I think that this is this is what it was so impressive to me. So after you you make that decision Hey, we got to get out of here and then you watch what transpires. Then you have to scope out what happened, and then you got to get back to it. You
got to get back to work right away. And that's what's so impressive because we saw the videos out there of homes with eight feet of mud in them and what happened in the Biltmore Village area and the River Arts District in Ashville and up towards Banner Elk and to me, I look at it and I go, how do you even attempt to recover? And what I have seen over the last few days is miraculous. I just I want to commend you guys, and that makes everyone
pulling together. So what was the first step there? Obviously you've got to deal with the government stuff. But as a community, how are you guys able to kick it into such high years so quickly?
Well? Community is really the word. I mean, what makes this area special? Yes, it's beautiful, and yet there's so many diverse offerings for people a little enjoyable they're here, But what makes it truly special is the people. It's a it's a resilient people, it's a caring people, and it's it's one step at a time, you know. The first the first effort is how do we get a hold of everyone and make sure everyone's okay and find
as many people as we can. And then it's how do we get people the immediate resources they need to survive? And then it becomes well, how do we start digging out from this and how do we do it together so that we can all come out of this better at the end. And that's that's something we're really excited about, is because so many people didn't just say, how do
I put it back the way it was? But now the time to invest because we know it's a place worth staying in, a place worth rebuilding, and let's rebuild to a degree that those people that like yourself that do come back will be impressed with what they find because it's better than it's ever been.
I have some stats here that we shared with me by your tourism organization. Eighty five percent of Ashville's hospitality and tours businesses were open downtown Ashville on Sunday when I arrived with Father's Day and everything else. Every restaurant was full.
It was.
Really amazing in the downtown area. Is that an abnor malady because it was Father's Day or have you guys really been blistering back this season in certain segments And what are the segments that could use more people visiting.
Well, I think people don't realize Ashville as the city is actually built on a hotel and so the effect of the storm was the interruption of the quotable water supply to downtown. But in terms of storm damage there was almost none and so downtown town Onst. Water was restored as recovered very quickly. I know a lot of us locals have been joking we've been eating out more than we ever had because we want to support all our friends and neighbors restaurants. But yeah, no, that that's
not atypical. Downtown is very busy. Downtown is rebounding, and we could certainly enjoy more people visiting. The area is still recovering. Our areas you talked about that are you know, the smaller populations. They may have just a singular attraction that brings people here, be it tubing on the river or be it ziplining or hiking in certain areas, and
those areas could certainly use a little more attention. But we have found that those visitors that come to Asheville, even if they're staying downtown, Uh, they spread out, they explore the area, they explore the region. Uh. And and when you get a a greater influx of people, all those minor areas get the benefit of the visitors and their dollars as well.
Have you had to pivot what your organization that you're soon to be chair of, You guys have to pivot how you use those funds because I don't think a lot of people understand one. North Carolina is weird where the legislature kind of has to like set things up locally. It's just it's the way our government works. How have you had to pivot the way that the dollars collected from lodging taxes are used? And was that an easy process with the legislature?
Well, with all due respect to our legislature, I've never been involved in a legislative process that's easy.
So that's fair, that's fair.
Yeah, And it's a it's a great point that in our state, the way these tax revenues are to be dispersed and spent, it's very strictly controlled at the state level. And so yeah, there are challenges when you would like to use funds for other things that don't comply and you can't. And so what we've done is less pivot how we how we allocate those resources, but pivot how
we send messages out to people. You know, there's we have a great set of core values and a great set of guiding strategic pillars in terms of how we want to market Ashville and what we want people to know about our region and the kind of visitors we want to bring here and what we want those visitors to know when they get here. And so what's changed and where that pivot comes from is in the messaging. You know, at first to say, you know, we could use some help, and now we could say you know,
we're back and we're we're excited to welcome you. Southern hospitality is a thing, and people really do feel rewarded when we get to be part of creating an experience that becomes a memory someone has forever. And so that's the message we want to get out now, is that we're here and we're ready. And if you want to be a part of that recovery, the best way to do it is to just beat us like you always have and just.
Yeah, be back and be normal and get fat eating all the good food which has been my problem the last few days, and make it happen. And oh, by the way, it's slightly cooler and less humid up here, which is a very good thing considering what Raleigh and Greensboro are going to be today. Matt Layman or Matthew Layman from the Buncom County Tourism Development Authority, I appreciate you joining with us this morning.
Okay, thanks, thanks again for havings. Appreciate your visit me.
All right, and it is seven eighteen. Hang on, So it looks like the NCGOP decided to officially call for the resignation of the assembly woman who decided to post a video and then an actual still photo. In it, you see severed heads. One of them clearly looks like it's Donald Trump's. This was photos and video from one of the No King's rally And obviously it is dicey times out there right now. As it pertains to politics,
political violence, the double standard that people think exists. Ironically, they think it exists in reverse or right, depending on which side of the aisle you're on. But everyone seems to agree that there's no place for this, but nobody seems to agree if in fact that she was calling for any Now do I think she was calling for the execution of Donald Trump? No? Do I think she was sticking a quarter in the partisan machine? Yes? But once you post something we talked about this yesterday, it
doesn't matter if you actually want somebody guillotined. It's what will people do with that information? Then that's where your responsibility lies.
Now.
Lunatics abound, man. I gotta tell you, I've been able to do this show for fifteen issue, well more than that if you count both markets years without calling for the execution of a political person that I disagree with. It's crazy. I've wanted some child molesters fed into wood chippers. I'm only half joking with some of the really horrendous stories out there. You saw this story. There was this
story of the two the couple who adopted. They just got one hundred years in prison without the possibility of paroles. So they're going away for life. Zachary and William Zulok, who pleaded guilty in August to six counts of aggravated sodomy three counts. Just all the horribleness you can think of. Basically, they got a tip that they had adopted these boys. There's two boys, and then a significant pattern of child abuse submerged, and then they found out that they were
making videos with them. They had seven terabytes of they literally had adopted the actors for their own horrific home videos that they were sharing with people. It's just awful. I'm not even gonna read all of it. All right, at that point, bring in the wood Sheppard. You know what I'm saying, Like I, I would hope as a society we have no patience for this. And then I saw I saw somebody write this line in one of
the stories about it, and it set me off. It said, the worst part is that this is going to make it even harder for queer people to adopt. Is that the worst part of that.
It's the Norm McDonald meme.
It's the meaning to Norm mcdonaldyb Yes with the Bill Cotty's talking about Bill cosby the World's most visited museum. Ross. When I say the world's most visited, most famous museum, what do you what do you immediately think.
Of the museum in this story? Yes, Yeah, that's the Louver.
The Louver that's it. Now we can look. If people want to argue, is it the most famous museum? Oh, have your argument, I think if it's not, If you don't think it's the most famous, it's top three, and it's not even close.
Like the Louver Smithsonian, and like that one from from not at the museum, that one where where all these animals along.
It's not real really where Robin Williams comes to me.
I saw it.
How many did you see though? Just one?
Three of them?
Oh wow, that's so it's triples sourced, all right, Well that must be correct. So anyway, the look. But it's the Louver, all right. And so what happens when you go to the Louver? It's busy, it is. If you guys ever been to pay it's busy, man. But you know, versive is busy, the Loves busy, the various events that are on the banks of the same they're busy. Champsalise, which I know I'm butchering, but I don't care, the big shopping thing, the art, the Triumph, the you know,
these are all busy areas. You know what you're getting, but apparently if you work there, you don't like what you're getting. So check this out, the world's most visited museum, the global symbol of art, beauty, endurance, and and the Holy Grail. Right, we learned that was brought to a halt Monday by the staff who went on strike because there's too much tourism.
I saw this headline yesterday and it made me so angry.
Why you don't want to leave the country. Why would you care?
But in a humorous way, because I get the love. Dude, you should be like, look at all these people coming to the world famous museum, Like that's what what do you want? You you want to limit it with only like ten people at a time. I can come through the museum.
This is a growing thing. I remember we did the story in Barcelona where like they squirt tourists with squirt guns, and here's the thing, And let me just if I could for a moment, because we've covered this on the show. This is what most of Europe refuses to accept. You guys are Epcot.
That the only thing that Europe has going is its history and that's what brings into tourism. Right, there's nothing new really going on there. It's all old castles and museums, and it's all old.
And it's great for it. It's and it's great for it. I love traveling. I love traveling. I even with all this stuff that can get really annoying, like Rome is just they're constantly, constantly like bilking you. And that's before the pickpockets hit you. But it's amazing. And then to go over the Vatican, I don't you don't have to be Catholic. It's amazing to see the ceiling of the chapel. It's amazing and and and it is what it is. What drives people there are their industries and businesses and
big companies. Some some you know, you get big companies like Nokia and whatnot up but you know in the Norwegian areas and and like those exist in London is a financial center. But when people go to London, do they go to see the the you know, the financial center of London in mass No. They go because they want to see Big ben and they want to see if they can make one of the beef eaters laugh and and you know, maybe they can go on the more modern that big ferris wheel there.
That's why they're going, Buckingham Palace, diagonal, that sort of stuff.
Yeah, they want to go see they want to do the Jack the Ripper tour, Like that's why people are going there for the history. And it's not to say that people don't do history vacation stuff in the US. Smith So it is about history. There's so much history, revolutionary war history, civil war history. Of course, North Carolina is chock full of this stuff, just amazing areas to go. But it's still it's a it's it's a a pittance in time compared to what you're going over to see
when you go to Europe and other parts of the world. Man. And so when you go in there and you go into the louver, you want to go see the Mona Lisa. You want to go see that they have. You know, they have entire wings of artwork there, the pre dates the United States existing now.
No.
Sometimes the tourists obviously can be annoying.
You saw what happened with the Picasso chair the other.
Day, Like it's this Picasso chair made out of like a bagillion it's the official number, like a bajillion sort of cow crystal whatever they are. And this this Fatrisco it's made of crisco. Guy whom I'm only assuming is probably an American I saw and I was like, please, don't please.
No, dude, that same reaction. I'm just like, don't be American, don't be American. And then you hear like and I'm like, if you hear an Australian accent, you cheer.
It's this big, fat ass, right who looks like he's from like a well off obviously, you know, Western country, and he's like got his socks pulled up to his knees and he's wearing like George or something, and he's got the fanny pack and he's holding the camera with the the handle down and he's like sits down on him Babbo's backwards. That broke this work Upso.
Chair Yeah, yeah, that was a bad look. Man, it was a bad look. But that being said, you're the you're the loop, You're the louver dude. You want to you want to get annoyed. Listen to a French person pronounced croissant after getting irritated at you for saying croissant.
I can only it's like.
Carlonlissant or something. I think that's pretty accurate, maybe a little over, but you're see video of the French girl trying to say burger yeah, yeah, yeah, with the with the duelingo thing or whatever.
Yeah, they can't say because.
Of she's at least adorable about it. The loup people are like, what is your problem? It was an almost unthinkable site, the home to works by Leonardo da Vinci, the Millennia of Civilization's greatest treasures, paralyzed by the very people tasked by the way speaking of the treasures, so do you know do you? I I did not realize this. Uh so do you know that they have tout in common stuff at Biltmore right now or I don't know if it's right now, was coming up that stuff is cursed?
So really, what do you I don't think it's actually him. I think it's uh hold on, I'll figure it out. So you think it's cursed and I shouldn't go over there.
I mean when they opened up, when they originally opened up King Tut's tomb, there's like a well, sure, yeah, there's a track record of the people involved had like really bad endings.
Well, but they were also people who went to really hostile places and places you know, pre being able to get a yellow fever shot. You know what I'm saying. They were like travelers to really remote places.
So and they've got the one tablet. Now once again that museum we mentioned in Chicago where at night the pharaohs come alive.
With the tablet, right, okay, well, I don't think they have that over at the Yeah. Here it is a king tootin comment at Biltmore. So that is, let's see if it's actually him or what's all in there? I think it is as sarcophagus though, right, no I should I wait, hold on, okay, all right, thank goodness, No it's not so yeah, no, you'll be fine. You'll be fine. They get over a thousand pieces, though I think a lot of these are replicas. But still, oh, this is
a very cool picture. Okay, so the actually they have a replica of the tomb, not the cursed tomb.
Okay, it is that's a relief because this this state has had enough problems. We don't need to have that course there.
Right, but everyone going up and all of a sudden they break out in boils, right, yeah, we don't need any of that. All right, Remember I told you the last time I went over there, they had the dresses of Dalton Abbey, which I'm like, uh, how did I not read? See this was here, This would be much cooler.
Did you not, and maybe I'm I'm remembering incorrectly. Didn't you have like a girlfriend that wanted to bring you, like, wanted you to go and see the dresses of correct?
Yeah, the girl was dating at the time. I know, I didn't know about the dresses. She wanted to go to Biltmore, So you did go. I went. I went to Biltmore. I was When I arrived, they hand you the thing when you go through the gate and whatnot, and then we get up there because you could do the parking is it's a whole process, but it's not bad. So we get up over there and then she's like, oh and they have all the dresses from Dalton Abbey and I'm.
Like, what is she dope? Yes, yes, diabola.
It don't get me wrong. It's really cool to look at all the stuff that's hand from the house. But I don't care about Downtown Abbey or whatever that show is.
That's like Hannibal Elector type like manipulation.
Yeah. Actually I was impressed.
I mean that's it.
I got got man, what are you gonna do?
So?
Uh anyway, yeah, they got the toot in comments. So anyway, back to the Louver real quick. Uh, they're they're very upset and they're like they want tourists to go away. How do you think that works out? What do you what do you think happens? It's your job at the Louver if you dip tourism. By the way, anti tourism protests have swept across Europe, including Mellorca. Mellorca, I can ever pronounce that, Venice, Lisbon, I've talked about in uh
in Spain. There in Barcelona, like they run around they squirt tourists with squirt guns and tell them to go away. Not not everybody, and to be clear, probably not everybody in France either or even connected with the Louver, but enough that they were able to shut it down. You take and already you're standing in line everywhere you go.
I mean, it'd be catistrophic to take tourism away from some of these European countries. It would like destroy their GDP. Now, I like Germany might be able to survive because obviously they have a lot of like you know, so they do have a lot of industry for you, Yeah, but like the rest of them, like, why else are you going to France. But for the tourism, it's it.
But also like people fly, cause you might have to pick a day where you get a ticket a day because that's how they manage it. So like imagine you flew from Los Angeles or whatever, flew from North Carolina, go over there, this is your day at the Louver. Right, you've been looking forward to this. Maybe you're a bit of an arc guy or gal, and you're super excited. You want to see just how small the Mona Lisa actually is. By the way, it's a lot smaller than
you think. But that's fine, that's cool. And then no, you just nope, don't get to do it. And you know, you got your ticket, you got your travelers, nothing you can do about it. You think you're ever going to go back to France again? Feeling that burned? Yeah, that's it's not that's not a good idea. All right, Well here's a good idea. Let's get raced agic from the weather channel to uh make things warmer or something, because
that's what I need. Yeah, how about it. Apparently that's what we asked for because that's what you did, so I did it. Thanks. Yeah, you're welcome, you're welcome.
Yeah, and some of the same areas that got hit Sunday Sunday night got hit again yesterday and overnight with a heavy rainfall.
So still that apartment building in West Virginia.
Not I did not, but that was with the flesh flooding there.
Yeah, yeah, google that.
Holy yeah, I know there's been some floodings. Really, I mean it's it's been a catastrophe. I mean that might be a strong word to use, but we've had multiple deaths on West Virginia. I think I think Ohio, San Antonio last week, I think we were up to ten or eleven. Unfortunately, this is one of the things flash flooding can be a kill or it's just crazy how much rain you can get in a short period of time.
And that's what we've had over the last twenty four hours. Again, two inches around carry point four to nine at Walnut Creek and point seven two Walnut Creek South, even up towards the north northern side of town and Raleigh point sixty six inches. Have a little bit less out in the triad, but still they had some showers thunder showers yesterday, amounting to some decent totals almost two inches is Ryan Creek.
That was one area that got hit in North Buffalo Creek at Westover Terrace in Greensborough one point one seven and the showers luckily this morning, continuing to push on off toward the east and diminishing heading out near Greenville. But more maybe coming. Not a great chance today, just
had mid stuff this afternoon. But the heat and humidities with us as we get to the low nineties, upper eighties for the Triad, feeling like the mid upper nineties, maybe as hot as one hundred, and then tomorrow sunshine, little bit nineties, heat into seas that are above one hundred. Then we'll get back to some showers and thunder showers. On Thursday, I temperatures load to mid nineties again the
heat and close to one hundred or over. Then we're really gonna crank it up Friday, maybe only near ninety, and then Saturday, Sunday, Monday hot humid, mid nineties, maybe some upper nineties. I think it's Friday night that summer officially arrives at right on time. At this big Remuda high coming in. Some of us will see you heat into see's dangerous heat getting well over one hundred.
Oh oh summer is not here yet. Is that the game you're running? Okay, well, officially it's not. It's meteorological summer.
I think it's Friday night. I gotta look that up for next time.
OHO update us, Update us in an hour? Okay, well right, very good. All right, there you go, raced AJ from the Weather Channel. All right, seven forty eight. Hang on, we're gonna be uh, we're gonna be chatting a little more specific. I was just mentioning, uh, the toot and common thing. Ross wants some curse swags, so I'll see what I can do about that. You want curse scepter or a cursed crown? Do you have a do you have a cursed preference? I can only pick one because
I need the set. I would think, right, what do you need the double scepters like on his tomb or?
I mean I would, I mean I could compromise and just go with one scepter, but if you could give me like a sceptor for each hand, they'd be better. I would.
Okay, but you also want the crown, because now we're getting a little greedy. I do, but they're cursed.
What does that mean?
Like?
Am I like? Do I wield the curse or would I be cursed all.
Like in the Mummy? Yeah? Or is it the Mummy?
No?
What's the one with the rock Scorpion King? You want to be Scorpion King? Was that the rock in Scorpion? I think that was okay because that was a little there's a little cursing going on there, and then there's the Mummy, but there's the like what Brendan Fraser mummy or Tom Cruise mummy and I don't think you want that? Or like in Suicide Squad, that was a problem too, right, some cursing going on there. Brother and sister, If you've.
Been listening to this show for a while, you're pretty much much like an Egyptologists at this point. Like the wisdom and the knowledge we pass out involving these sort of topics like the black sarcophagus that they found were once again, if you find a bone juice, open it and you drink the bone juice. We've gone over this numerous times, so we really do offer a big service to the audience when it comes to knowledge like this.
Do you know why, because someday somebody in our audience will find themselves presented with one of these choices, right all. Look, and it's not just us people. Ross. Let's say you found yourself in an ancient tomb with an immortal knights templar. Okay, and there's fifty there's fifty chalices, and you have to pick one as the cup of Christ. Do you feel like you now have enough information to make the correct selection?
You do?
And I don't like people putting limits on me. So what I would do is I would grab two of them. I would double fist the goblets there and I would yeah, yeah, I would just pour them down my gullet. I would drink immediately, probably like the nicest, most bejeweled one I could find to go to go with my double scepter and my crown.
Yeah, and go with that one. How about this? How about this box? Should you stare into it? This very ornate box with the angels on it?
And is it good for the skin? Is it?
It is? It is? You will if you have acne, it'll clear it right up, so you'd get like a good tan from it, Get us something? Yeah? Absolutely. Now we're here to help you all make better choices, that's all. And you know we'll continue. Let's say you're thinking of taking a little vac to Tehran or something. Right, maybe that's on your list. I'm here to tell you probably shouldn't do that, especially if you planned with the fam after you check into your hotel, of going and eating
it like Carabas or something. Don't worry if you have no idea what the heck I'm just talking about, we will fill you in the hour number three. It is day two of our week long broadcast up in western North Carolina. And a conversation and continue and not even just about cursed gold and artifacts from the Tuton Common Exhibit.
Over at Builtmore Asheville, in the city of Asheville. There's there's really and I'm gonna get corrected probably here in a moment, but there's there's several key areas where things happen. There's you know, you got downtown. Of course, you've got as soon as the rad they like to call, but that's the arts district there, both upper and lower. And you have Builtmore village because of course Builtmore. That's the reason for the season for so many people who come
to visit this part of the world. And the village area Builtmore Village area was among the hardest hit with the with the flooding from Helene. So we're gonna chat now with Kara Roni, who's the PR director for the association. They're good morning to you. How are you doing?
Good morning, I'm doing all right.
How are you so well? I'm good because I went over and I got to go eat over at Hillman's Brewery there, one of like seventy two thousand breweries in that in that part there, So that makes me happy absolutely. How happy are the tourists they're coming back over there and what can they expect now versus let's say the last time they were here was two years ago.
Sure, I think that people's experience coming back to visit Asheville right now is very positive, but there's some mixed things that they're experiencing. So they're coming back into the city while we're still in multi phase recovery. And as you mentioned, Biltmore Village was one of the areas that was heavily hit by the storm. But I think that the big thing that people are recognizing when they get back to Ashville is that Ashville is totally open. You know,
downtown is great. Most places still look like what they did before the storm, and people are very happy to have them back. And so there's a very warm embrace of visitors to our area that I think is very special for everyone that lives here because we love to share what this special place is here in the mountains and what it has to offer. And it's just nice to have people coming and enjoying that again.
And I don't I don't want to dwell on the bad because there's so much good to talk about. But the thing I got to tell you, it was very emotional coming up and not just here, but coming up through the Back Cave, Chimney Rock area and an area down by Lake Leure where I've spent a lot of time, which it doesn't look like it.
Used to it does not.
That was definitely hit very hard and they're working hard to rebuild that.
Yeah. So when when you see that it because I saw pictures and videos and we talked to numerous guests, but you got to lay eyes on it. Yeah, you really have to see how things have changed. But then you also have to see how when when when you see these areas, how hard people are working to get them back to where they need to be. And well they may not look exactly the same when you get here. Well, you know, there's a lot of businesses that are just
going to be in a different spot. So as you're watching this, as you know, the PR director there and you're watching this storm. And I asked this question earlier of our other guests, how bad did you think it would be versus how bad it really was.
Yeah, we Builtmore village has experienced rain events in the past that have definitely you know, caused flooding and things like that. Very common for historic areas. They're normally built along waterways traditionally, and you know, people were sandbagging their front doors, moving things up onto countertops. We've had this experience before, especially twenty years ago we had two hurricanes that came through and put about four and a half
feet of water throughout the village. I don't think that anyone really was prepared for the scale and the scope of what happened with Helene, and everybody was pretty staggered, you know, I have to say, but with the people who operate in the Biltmore Village District especially, there is a very clear determination and dedication to maintaining, preserving There's a lot of responsibility that goes into being part of the historic Builtmore Village area, and you know, people were
right out there. As soon as the rain cleared and the water levels went down, people were out there in muck boots get mad at already. So it was staggering and it didn't change in people's response. It just probably motivated people more.
Honestly, the number I've been provided is eighty five percent back. Does that go for Biltmore Village or is that the city of Ashville? And what's the best way. What would you tell somebody who's on the fence about coming back because they go, well, let's give them some more time to get fixed. How should they scope it out to make sure? Because people a lot of people have repetitive experiences as families that they love, right sure, every year
we do this, The kids love this. I mean, just just call the people you used to talk to them or call you guys.
Absolutely absolutely, I think that most people are very happy to talk about what the situation is right now. I would say, don't has to take There's so much to experience in this area all across western North Carolina, not just Ashville. And the next phase of recovery that everyone is in right now is the economic recovery phase. And so keeping people working, keeping bills paid is so important
to maintaining the special nature of our community here. And I would say that if you have special things that you've done every single year, you know, wonderful family traditions, call somebody up. Make sure that your hiking path is open, right, make sure trails are accessible, you know, make sure that you can access things in a safe way. And if not, everyone has a recommendation of what to do instead.
So for you to do something that you hadn't done before.
And then you all of a sudden have a new family tradition, you know, that becomes the next level of experience when you come visit the mountains.
Yeah, and it's funny you mentioned I So one of my favorite things to do every year was to go camping at Price outside of Blowing Rock there and one year they had like they had to close the section of it on the lake side. Yeah, and it forced me to go camp at Mount Mitchell, which I never would have thought to do. By the way, it's kind of cold up there at night, but it was a
really awesome experience. So the in the taking lemons and making lemonade phase, which is kind of what this is now, has it allowed you to do something different because you're you know, you were in that rebuilding phase that maybe you guys had wanted to do with the village. That's going to be a long term improvement.
Yeah, you know, I think that with the village, especially when you talk about the historic section of Biltmore Village, the cottage district there, really it's about sustainability and maintaining and preserving what's already there. And the big difference between how Builtmore Village was affected versus how say, the River Arts District was affected, is that the historic buildings are naturally very resilient.
They're built with solid.
Timber frames, materials that were sourced one hundred and thirty years ago that are still very solid, and so they didn't get wiped out the way that modern buildings actually did in some of the path of the water that
came through. And so I think that we are focused mostly on getting those buildings back up and running, getting the electrical, the dry wall, all of that stuff that was impacted, getting that fixed and ready to go so that people can open their doors again as soon as possible, and looking down, you know, a year, two years down the road to how can we you know, work with public partners, nonprofits, foundations to actually build resiliency and look forward to how do we mitigate things like this in
the future.
So, if people like to make Ashville or specifically your district kind of their base of operations, and of course, you know right across the street there's a really big house with a really nice garden and all of those things, what would you tell people that you should be on their radar? That's maybe kind of I don't know, within a thirty mile radius of Asheville that most tourists don't think about, but probably should this year. Do you have any recommendations?
Yeah, you know, that's a really interesting question. There are so many things to explore in our area, and you can go, you know, in any direction outside of Ashville and find really unique things. Black Mountain is an incredible place that's only you know, fifteen to twenty minutes outside of Asheville, Weaverville, Waynesville, everywhere.
Has a barbecue joint in Waynesville, Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, the Heywood over there, Yeah amazing.
Yeah, I hit that up so and I think that, you know, it just depends on what you're looking for. There's art galleries, everywhere there's live music. The music scene here is incredible. You know, the food, all of the nature, the natural things are still very much accessible and open. So I think that one thing that I've noticed that when people come back to visit Ashville is they're actually surprised at how much it hasn't changed changed in certain areas.
You know.
I know, sometimes when we have an event like this, it's really easy for all of the images that you see coming out of it to be just the most catastrophic parts of that piece, which is very natural, totally human nature to want to see what that is. But not everywhere looks like that, and so I think that
people are often surprised at how normal it looks. You know, we're still have leaves and plants growing in builtmore village and even though you know, some areas were under fifteen eighteen feet of water, everything still looks pretty good, other than you know, supplywood in some of the windows of people building back right now.
To stress your point too, I was when I was in the rad district yesterday. There's two there's really there's two, there's upper and lower. And I was chatting with some people there and they were mentioning that you know, the word was getting out. Hey, the rad district is just devastated. People in the upper district like, no, we're open, We're open. It is lower and then they're all banding together. I saw the signs and everything they were doing yesterday, which
was really great. So it's really important that if you have a question, you ask and don't just assume because you saw a picture of what happened. You know, going back to back Cavin Chimney Rock, that there's not opportunity over there or Lake Lure. I mean Lake Loure is one of the most famous destinations in North Carolina. Absolutely, it's got a movie connection, but it's iconic in the same way that my favorite thing about Biltmore was when
it was used as the evil Lair in Annible. Yeah, it was the Hannibal or Red Dragon, whatever one of the follow ups was. And I love seeing that. I've only lived in North Carolina about fifteen years, but now I see that and it's fun to be proud of them.
Yeah.
Absolutely, So what a task you have over there too, just considering the historic nature of everything going on, give me a timeline. When do you think you're going to be where you want to be one hundred percent.
Yeah, so right now, we do have businesses that have been open for the last couple of months, which is pretty amazing. We had two openings just in the last week. We are seeing businesses really getting going now with being able to start rebuilding projects and insurance money is coming in and things like that are kind of coming together to help out.
So we are looking at the end of the.
Year to probably have seventy five to eighty five percent of the village back at least.
Okay, yeah, all right, last question anyone in tourism of promotions, I always ask this, not your own stuff, where's your favorite place in western North Carolina if you've got to sneak away.
I am a big fan of Brevard. I love Brevard, North Carolina, Oscar Blues Brewing. It's fantastic, the food there. It's a gorgeous area. That and Silva are two of my favorite spots to visit.
Yeah, yeah, okay, Well, hey, Cara, I really appreciate this. Cara Ronnie with the Biltmore Village Association, thank you for coming up to the station.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Yeah, absolutely, and we will be right back hang on. Thank you. To Carr there for Kara Joan. I knew I was going to do that. Sorry about that, but from the Biltmore Village there really giving us a scope. She told me something off the air, and I wish she would have said it on the air, so I'm going to repeat it. I kind of asked her. I'm like, so I was asking her about some of the different
restaurants in the area. And if you guys ever been over by Biltmore Village, they have a McDonald's that it looks like the Biltmore the way just the facade of the building is very you know, because it's got to blend into what's going on there. And she said, she said, like one of the calls she gets the most is people wanting to know if the fancy McDonald's is going to reopen. And that's what I'm talking about. Like, you
get and we've had this conversation on the show. You get these these these stop off points, these places you got to hit, you know, the place the kids get really excited about before you take the trip. And you know, it could be the fancy McDonald's, it could be pagros in Ross's family, it's now BUCkies. If they see a Bucky's. I think they're legally obligated to stop at the Bucks.
Can you imagine if you had a BUCkies that looked like the Biltmore That'd be incredible.
Oh, that would be amazing, wouldn't it. Can you imagine the bathrooms there? We have like a butler in there and nicer than our house man. Yeah, that's a good point right there. You know what, maybe I'll text her and be like, hey, got an idea for you.
And with the mountains, it could be a multi layered BUCkies see.
Uh huh yeah, yeah absolutely. And he's stick of fancy McDonald's right next to it. Oh man, everybody everybody love that thing so or if it's the place you get taffy or whatever it is. And it's just interesting because like I don't care about a fancy McDonald's. I mean, I've don't have anything against McDonald's. You want to go
to McDonald's, go to McDonald's. I'll go there occasionally, but like you know, people are like, ah, the fancy McDonald's, Whereas you know, I'm like, hey, is that brewery gonna how's that brewery doing? That's why I went down there to check, and they were doing just fine yesterday one of the ones I like. So that's why, that's why we do this stuff, and and and that's why again. I also asked her that question, like where do you go? Where do you like to go? And it's very interesting
to hear hear people's answers on all that stuff. All right, so, oh, you know what, I would have to push this into the next segment so I have enough time. There's a couple of videos that went viral. Let me just give you a little setup that we're going to talk about. One is an interaction in Los Angeles with a driver who they may have already been arrested. They're probably gonna
get charged. And it's interesting to see how Florida versus California deals with when you have these protesters surrounding all these cars. And so they had an incident and this chick got her foot or her leg run over, although I don't think it's broken because then she got up on it or her friends are just idiots and probably injured her more. But that's one of those things where it makes that's one of the things that makes me so nervous about where we're at with all this protesting
stuff because believe it or not. I don't want people to get run over, whether I agree or disagree with them or not. But also I understand why drivers after watching Reginald Denny videos what happened to that old man in the white car up in Minneapolis, ahead of the Floyd stuff and some of these other incidents, the shooting on the freeway in Denver when they were having protests, like, I understand why people are freaking out and going you
know what, I got my kids in the car. There's no way in hell I'm allowing myself to get surrounded. A couple viralish videos one you've seen various iterations of this. You have a group of protesters, they surrounded a vehicles, they had they had an incident in Burnsville where clearly there was an argument between two people politically and then one got in a vehicle. That's not what this is. This is somebody who's just trying to go to just
trying to go wherever they're trying to go. I don't know if they're trying to go to work like that lady in New York was where mister Manbun was dressing her down, or remember the lady who unfortunately is now out of her car screaming my babies are in the car.
My babies are in the car, and it leads it leads to these incidents where sometimes people go, they go you saw you probably saw that big ranch truck with the ten horse trailer behind it where they decided to move and the person standing in front of and by the way, one of the first things you learn growing up in Wyoming is don't stand in front of giant one ton duly pickup trucks haul and ten horse trailers. It's not a good idea, and in fact, it shouldn't
just be a Wyoming thing. Ross When you were growing up in New York, did you think it was a good idea or a bad idea to stand in front of a giant pickup truck hauling a giant trailer full of livestock?
Yeah?
I probably wouldn't do that.
Okay, so that's a no from the Schenectady area. Yeah, you don't do that. And here's the other thing too, what you One of the things you don't realize if you don't know anything about agriculture is it's not even just whoever's driving the truck. It's that if if you torment animals in a in a trailer, sometimes they'll they'll wig out on their own man, and it's very dangerous. We we we have not had one that had to be put down, but a friend of mine had a
horse that jumped over a gate. Because there's like partition gates. You can as you put the horses in these gates swing out like shutters, how to describe it to you. And this horse got freaked out about out something when they were toning it on the highway, and you could feel it freaking out, and it literally got itself over and it hung itself. So animals don't if you ever stood next to a cattle truck and they get a little weird, well, now, so you're surrounded by people screaming
at it. And so I don't know what he was hauling. I couldn't tell in that video. But if he's got cattle back there, he's got horse, he's got whatever. There's also there's a probability that you could freak those animals out to the point where they injure themselves, kill themselves, destroy the trailer and get out. And if they're hauling a bull of good luck with you man.
That was like you said, I was born you know, and raised city as you can be, and it's like, you don't want to spook the animals. So it's like common sense, right.
No, And if you're if you claim to be a compassionate person, you should you should recognize that they don't do well. You want to you want to irritate a beef rancher, do anything to cause his cows to want to move faster. What you want are you want your cows to be the laziest pieces of garbage on the planet. Okay, because you don't want them taking weight off because weight is all that matters. That's all that matters in the
grand scheme of things. What's the weight of that cow when you turn it back and sell it to the slaughterhouses so that they can feeder it for eighteen months? You know, I learned a lot about this process, strangely enough, by learning about Temple Grand and you know, severely autistic, and she she did a lot in the cattle industry. She specifically to calm the cattle.
She invented a way so they wouldn't get spooked when they were like moving around, like like a way to corral them. So, yeah, you don't want to. And we've told the story before about how easily you know, horses can be like spooked, like with Clint Eastwood when he's on set. We tell the story before that A lot of actors when they first meet Clint Eastwood or work with him, they're surprised because when he says action, he doesn't yell action. He whispers it, and he whispers a lot.
And that's because the first show he was on, right, it was the first show. Is that western show he was on, uh.
Or not Bonanza?
Yeah?
I can't remember what the exact but but on the show they worked with the horses and he's rifleman, right, but he wouldn't. He learned quickly. You know, you don't do that because if he yelled, was gonna spook them, So he'd be quiet around him. So when he says action action like that.
Yeah, yeah, you got to. And it's also why people would come out west and get injured. I think it's a wagon train. It was a wagon train. Yeah, no, I think you are right. Well here look it up right here. People are gonna start calling, oh no, raw Hide. Yeah, he was on raw Hide. It was rowdy, yates. But you should check out all three of those shows. Yeah, yeah, hey man, look I love I love old Western shows.
He can't go wrong there. But you know, it's also where people get it wrong, they get it twisted, where they think you can shoot off horses. I explained this on the radio, like the conversation that I used to have with anyone. It was coming out west to you know, hunt on our property or other property where we may have you know, done some guide services there is if you're using horses, which by the way, are your largest insurance costs in an outfitting operation. It's not the firearms,
it's the horses. Man, that's where the injuries happen. And you tell people, I don't want you shooting off the horse while you're sitting on it. I don't want you laying your rifle across the horse's saddle as a rest. I don't want you obviously shooting in the direction of the horses. And if you are going to fire your weapon,
try to move as far away as possible. And it's not just because you might spook the horse and the horse you get injured, but also if you take a shot or you're let's say you're trying to get in a prone position near the horse, and the horse doesn't
know what you're doing. The horse may make a bunch of noise, and inevitably, every year some jackass will think he's in a Western and you know, he'll get flung off the thing, or he'll get kicked, or something else will happen where the horse will take off, and then I got to spend the afternoon try to find the
damn horse. So not understanding that is, you know, these are the things that I'm talking about with that with that trailer, Well, there's no horses going on with this video, unless I guess you want to be insulting to some of the people involved. There's just an idiot stand in front of this car and now it's getting surrounded by lunatics and this driver's like, I'm not having them. They
said some stuff. And what's even crazier is this is going on and like it's if the one element of modern day protesting that seems to become a thing where you don't obstruct traffic were removed, I think that I think this would be such a smooth process because I feel like that's ninety percent of where people and I'm not talking about the people who are the counter protesters, yelling across at each other. You know, do what you're gonna do it. And if you guys are all just verbal whatever,
nobody cares do your thing. But once you start obstructing people, you corner people or they feel like they're trapped. Now you got a problem, man, Now you got a problem. All right. So that's one of two videos. The second video, and maybe you've seen this, is this amazing little piece of footage where one of the Iranian state TV propagandist
newscasters whatever you want to call this woman. She's sitting there and she's rambling on about whatever she's rambling on about, and then all of a sudden, you hear this giant boom. There's debris and like dust flying everywhere. You see her get up from her desk and scurry out of there. They just they just got hit with an Israeli strike. Man. Listen to this, which, by the way, I would point out, this is basically what Arc Whitman does on a near
weekly basis. So it's like it wouldn't even Ross doesn't even get up even.
Lying it actually happened, well, not to this extent this morning, and it's been happening every morning when I'm recording commercials, at like four in the morning, the alarms in the building have just started going off and like like like clockwork, four o'clock and flashes like you're in an apocalypse now, and it's loud and you can't record it. At this point, I'm just like, I don't even care. I don't even care if it's burning down. This is my extinction event. I don't care.
Yeah, yeah, I hear you there, man, all right, So here's here's by the way, what what that event sounded like?
Yeah, happys oni.
Fas it sounds by the way, that explosion sounds almost comical, does it. It sounds like somebody overdubbed a sound effect. They didn't. Now, we were trying to figure out what she's saying, right, I'd be very interested to see what she's saying. So I did task Ross with using because he's got that he pays for the Twitter and so he's got the groc tools. Were you able to come up with the translations?
And you've been doing so much there in western North Carolina, and I'll pick up this slack and do the translation for you. So I put it through groc So, yeah, we have translated it. Okay, all right, So here's what here's what she was talking about just before the.
Explosion. They're in the building. Listen to this.
That's Italian cuisine.
I'm sorry. So she said at Olive Garden, we treat you like family. The breadsticks are unlimited, the chefs are chained in tusky. I'm looking at the transcript here, which I now have questions about. And what was the last thing she said.
I think she said death to Carabas. Now listen, I've heard this before numerous times. I've heard that. But listen, listen, man, the situation over there is very complex.
It's completing. It is it's a tribal part of the world, and it has been since, you know, forever.
And now we're seeing breadsticks used as propaganda, which you hate to see, but I mean, it just adds another layer to this. Like I'm confused now, I don't know which restaurant to eat on because I'm like, I'm more you, I'm pro Israel.
So I have no idea what she said death to Carabas.
I don't know. Like I'm now, I'm conflicted, But I think both these countries need to sit down for a delicious meal together.
That's what I think Carabas or Olive Garden at Olive Gard. But they can't even agree on that. What if it's reverse psychology, A big part could be okay, all right, but that's an interesting translation there. Groc isn't always accurate, so it could be wrong. So but you didn't the question it. You just put it right up there. You went, yep, must be right. Yeah, okay, all right, raced agic who's mostly right all the time, he's here, Go ahead, right sir, okay, right away, yeah, go ahead.
Yeah.
I think some people have started complaining about the heat and humidity, and I'm just gonna give them all nichols worth of free advice. Don't complain about this, complain about
what is on the way. First time I've said Bermuda high, and that's going to be big time heat toward the weekend, first couple of days of summer, with summertime officially coming in at ten forty two Friday night temperatures in and around the Triangle over the weekend early next week, mid upper nineties going to push the heat in next well over one hundred gonna be that air you can wear very uncomfortable, air masks, very hot, very dangerous, especially for
the elderly and the young kids and the pets. So get ready for the ac isn't tuned up yet. I do it no real treat though. The next couple of days it stays humid, upper eighties. Try it load nineties triangle today with a few shower storms. Tomorrow we actually escape with very little wet weather. A few showers thunderstorms are possible up eighties to the little bit nineties, and even tomorrow we could see the heat and next close to one hundred. A Thursday, maybe a shower thunder shower
near or above ninety. The heat in next close to one hundred. I think Friday, the airmiss may be a little less humid, but still warm, as we're on either side of ninety. But then the weekend it's going to start to build. The heat's coming. It looks like it's going to stick around for quite a few days.
All right, thank you, sir. We'll talk tomorrow. Okay, all right, man, and we'll be right back with Jeff Bellinger. Hang on to what's going on. Good morning.
Case had some games on the stock market yesterday, but investors are unsettled again after a warning from Israel's military to residents of Tehran. Stock market futures are lower, oil prices are rising. Israel advised more than three hundred thousand Iranians to evacuate the capital city. Overall retail sales came in weaker than last month. The government reports sales fell nine tenths percent in May. Autos and gasoline accounted for much of the decline, and with those categories excluded, sales
were up three tenths percent. Sales for a closely watched control group of sales were also up three tenths percent. A big promise today from craft Hinds. The food maker announced all of the products it sells and the US will be free of synthetic dies by the end of twenty twenty seven. Craft Heines is the largest American packaged food company to make such a commitment so far. It's become common for the workday to encroach on workers downtime.
Microsoft analyzed the use of its business applications for its annual work Trend study. It found increases in the number of meetings that start after eight pm and in the number of users who monitor their work in boxes until ten PM or later. About a fifth of users are actively working on weekends, and don't be surprised if you're called.
Into a meeting today.
Tuesday is the most common day for meetings. President Trump's family is launching a new business venture. It's a mobile phone operation that will offer handsets made in America and Casey, Artificial intelligence will be used to create advertisements for Facebook and Instagram. The parent company Meta Platforms is testing an AI powered image to video tool that can turn still pictures into multi scene video ads.
Casey, I don't know that stuff. Some of that stuff seems a little nightmares to me with some of these ads they're coming up with. So yeah, hopefully they get the kinks worked out.
Man.
All right, Jeff, have yourself a good one, sir. Appreciate you too, Talk to you tomorrow. Yeah, there you go, Jeff Bellinger, Bloomberg News.
Man.
I think they're rushing this whole. Let's have AI create all our ads. I don't know about you, guys. Some of the examples are not good, not good at all. All right, real quick, I want to leave you with this story today. Ross, what is the explanation whenever they talk about immigration and for surrounding agricultural production. What do you always hear people say?
Yeah, they'll say, you know, well, Americans want to take those jobs, right, yeah, yeah, Oh.
You don't want lettuce. You don't like lettuce for under one hundred dollars ahead. So NBC News had to be beside themselves putting this story together. Omaha, Nebraska was home to one of the largest work site immigration raids thus far, a company called Glen Valley Foods. So they came in and let's see how many do they actually take out of their sixty five I think during a single rate, sixty three there it is, all right, so sixty three, Oh no, it's actually I'm sorry, seventy five. A dozen
had already been deported to transferred out of state. Sixty three others take it. So seventy five workers at this place, they should just devastate it right now. They're not going to be able to do anything. Here's the first line of the story NBC News. Every seat in the waiting area of Glen Valley Foods was occupied with people filling out job applications. Two days after the meat packing plant became the center of the largest work site immigration rate in the state, of Nebraska thus far.
Well, that's weird. So they got rid of those jobs and then Americans came for those jobs. That's what happened, correct, Yes, and they're acting like it's a bad thing.
No, it's a good thing, absolutely, But it's like, I bet they hated writing it right there.