Scott flowing back on seven hundred w WELW show. You're streaming, you're on your phone, you.
Got devices in the background. Things are going all. Everything's good. You're using all this data. And then one day one of those platforms you're on, or maybe all of them slow down. You get that spinning wheel of frustration. Well, what's going on? This thing sucks? It's broken. No, that's the AI boom. Okay, so we're all on our phone, we're all using stuff. AI comes along puts even more stress on the system. You may not think you're using AI.
You're using AI as we speak. So people in Mount orb in Maysville and Butler County and Wilmington for that matter, taking a hard look if they want them in their towns. So the City of Cincinnati is getting very proactive on this, putting a temporary moratorium on new data centers while they do a zoning stead of review. It's not a band,
it's just a pause. And she is part of the Housing and Growth Committee, and that would be council Member Mika d Owens and the D stands for data Meka, good morning, how are you.
That's the same. Well, that's a good one. That sounds great. Yes, I am doing well. Thank you so much for having me this morning. Very excited to be here.
Okay, so obviously major corporations need them, we get pg Kroger fifth or they require data infrastructure we have more demand. People in the city would often talk about the urban areas being a desert for connectivity when it comes to high speed that would help with this thing. So starting with the basics here, city doesn't even have a zoning
definition for data centers right now. So has there been any interest from the outside the facilities up to this point and what triggered this need for moratorium in the point where literally you want to vote on this today.
Yeah, Well, first of all, I think it's important that we recognize we are in an AI zone similar to I think the Internet, and so what that means that this technology is here, It's on your iPhone, it's everywhere, as you indicated, and so you know, this is not a question of whether or not just going to grow. It's how organizations, companies and cities jurisdictions get ready for this type of technology, revitalization or resolution, whatever you want
to call it. And so what this step is is really a pactive step that will help us to one define what data centers are and you know data center centers in terms of being able to run AI. It's all. Also the concern is the industry consumption that it is required to do that. So the first step is, let's pop to define this. Let's look at areas of the
city where this might occur. So we're looking at twenty two thousand parcels and what that will do is really healthy administration to get in to one get more educational understanding and create a framework around if somebody actually wants to come to the city and create one.
Okay, and that is probably sooner rather than later. Again, a pause, not a ban. But so let's say P and G or Kroger they're working on something. You know that they're always expanding, and you have a new CEO. Obviously Kroger, you've got there's a need to expand. If they need to expand their data infrastructure during this temporary period,
this this moratorium, are they grandfather? Then what do you what do you tell the biggest employers and some of the biggest companies in the world you can't have it.
Well, that's going to be a part of the engagement that the administration is going to have to do while they are getting all of the pieces on the administrative side by way of zoning and definition and the totity Court nation. They're going to do that over the next couple of months and hopefully we get to a point of better understanding so that we actually know what to do in a situation like that. We also know that
there are different types of data centers. You know, most people probably think of them as some large warehouse off of the side of the interstate, but they could also be a small room with with with servers. So we want to recognize with the landscape is. And so that's the work that's going to happen over the next couple
of months. And if we don't have and that also insos public engagement and so the pieces that are needed with you know, we don't have those in the next couple of months, they can also extend so that the work can continue until we get to a firmer place of having answers to these question.
Yeah, and you know, I think that makes sense in the Central Business District obviously, no go. But there's land all over the place in Cincinnati and also in Hambling County for that matter where you look at it, going, hey, there's what they need is they need they need electricity. We'll get to that in a second to power these things, but they also need water to cool everything off.
In the data centers.
We've got the Ohio River right there, you know, worried about in some of these counties, you know, like folks in Adams County or Butler County, masl Kentucky and elsewhere more of Wilmington, they're worried about taking all the groundwater out and that's a huge problem for those communities. You really don't have that with the plentiful water in the
Ohio River that gets pumped back in anyway. It's you know, in that you're also in proxi many of the big companies, but also the people and Cincinnati needs needs that infrastructure when it comes to data and when comes to the ability to get more products online and get people connected. And so it's a it's a beautiful fit I think for some of these cities. And you've got the you got the space, and you're not saying no, but I think just being near the Ohio River is a bonus here.
Oh well, absolutely, that is the attraction to the Midwest and specifically you know, Cincinnati and other jurisdictions, and so it is. It is all a part of the changing pollution in our environment and changing climates and changing temperature. The Midwest is going to be so attractive because we see the erosion that is happening on the coast right the West Coast Coast fire was all of those things. So just by that, you know, we have got to
get ready for folks who are coming to this network region. Yes, our natural water water source is a benefit, but it's also something that we need to protect. Again as we will look at data usage and energy consumption, and yes,
water is a part of that. So these are all the important elements, which is why the city is taking a step to say, hey, let's uncover all of this, because we are seeing this evolve over the news and around the world, and Cincinnati is no different than any other city in this country trying to innswer these questions. I think we're putting ourselves in a really great position by saying, hey, let's go ahead and do and overlay on a certain area of the city so that we
can actually get ready. Because the last thing we would want to do is to have one data centers just popping up all over the place, and then they're you know, taking a lot of good demands off of the bridge. And so because right everyone spects to come home and power their home and with on the lights and all of those things, and those that are using solo panels,
you know, that's also quite exciting. And so it becomes a moment where we can think about, one, how do we actually mitigate interview consumption by way of all of these things that could be incentives to help reduce demands. Yeah, you know, solar panels and.
All of the abolt.
Well, now's the time to look at this, and I'm glad you are, Mika Owens. You know, I was just thinking top of my head the Queen's Gate area, lower Price Hill, that area is in need of development, and the question is what to do after the New Brunch bench Bridge corridor projects done. Hell, we haven't started digging the holes yet, that that'd be a good time maybe to put the pipe in the like in at that point to get the water into the intake and outflow
from the Ohio River. I mean, just now's the time to be thinking about, Hey, where could we put one of these big plants in Cincinnati.
Absolutely. I mean Queens Queen's Gate, aliso A Mountains, the West End is a place that has so much promise considering what happened and what devastated that community. I seventy five and you know you had it was a plus storing place for black people in this city. You end up migrating in other spaces. We think about the Western it definitely has to include housing and you know, amenities
and syntheist as well. And so you know, somebody an exciting conversation to think about what that mix of things look like for the Western right.
Mika Owen's council person on the Scotsland Show on seven hundred WLWD city trying to fast track a temporary moratorium just a pause data centers coming to the City of Cincinnati and trying to get some policy together.
Uh.
But at the same time, I look at Columbus and Columbus is rolling out the red carpet for Meta and Amazon and Google Data. Why are we pumping the brakes If Columbus is moving forward, are we going to get left behind?
Well? And that's what we don't want, right and so I think what we need to do right now is define what data centers are, and maybe Columbus look ahead of us and doing that. We're currently in our code are learning, so we have no definition. So it's important for us to stop recognize what a data center might be, put that define to it so that the underlying zoning
is appropriate. So at the end of the day, and we're talking about character in a particular community and maintaining that esthetic and quality, all of those pieces have to
be built in at the base level. So you know, again, maybe Coumbus zoning UH is exponentially you know, moving moving quicker than ours, but we certainly want to to your point, this is a moment of revolution where we cannot be left behind, not only by way of policy and how we use this in the at the city, but also by way of attracting new businesses to the signal to the region.
Gotcha, gotcha? Mika Owens on the show, where are you at Kroger? What's going on?
You checking out?
What's going on?
Gosh? I started, I sent so funny. I am at a coffee shop in college tail. You know, a girl got many things to do in the morning. We could do model tacting, but I do want to say Scott just one thing about the small your as fictions and
the county at large. This is where you know, commissioners will have to tackle with this issue because when we think about land availability and we think about smollogiers, fictions that are not even set up with departments like planning and dealing with zoning reform, these are the questions that certainly we will have to wrestle with and be prepared for.
Has the city had or scheduled talks with Duke Energy to see if they are great our infrastructure locally can handle this or is that too.
Far out that that's the part of what what will happen over the next three months while you know, the administration is doing this work, so we're talking about the deep uh nitty gritty detail information that will be needed to to to make this viable, right and so uh, you know, engaging with with Duke is at the top of the list.
Uh.
And then you know, as it relates to how do we really coordinate energy and utility usage if someone wants to come here and open a data center, is the.
Three months moratorium a hard deadline? Because you know, personally I think it should be because too often in government and you've seen this Meka Owens where it's like, hey, give us three months, Well we need another three months. Well, next thing, you know, it's a year and no one's talking to anybody, and now the fruit is just withering on the vine and we're getting passed by. I mean, absolutely,
do the due diligence. I you know, you know the residents and other areas that are undergoing this.
You know, you should be.
Involved in your community and decide what's going on. There's no question about it in this case. I just wonder sometimes you go okay, and then we're onto the next thing, and next thing, you know, it's like P and G and Kroger are thinking about moving out because they need they need more more data and they can't get it because you're you're sitting on things.
So will this wrap up in three months?
We're hoping so. But I think what's what's key here is quality and not necessarily the speed of you know, the speed of getting there is really getting the right
answer to the question. And so while the administration is moving towards, you know, being doing this in three months, first of all, we still have to pass this today, but we are giving some flexibility for an extension if we don't uncover all of the things that we need to because at the end of the day, you have one not only the responsibility of cities to really do this and look at this and examine this thoroughly, but you also have concerns from citizens who some of us
don't even know what AI is or what it does. And so we're also in an environment where we all have to get educated on this revolution because again, it's in all of our lives right now and it's here to stay. And as I've been in AI conversation just with you know, some stakeholders in the city, one of the pieces is, yes, let's educate ourselves on how to use this as an everyday user as a resident. And so there's a lot that I think in the next.
Three months, no question about mick owens, the more times in place. It's going to go on for three months, hopefully not much longer than that, and we can't fall behind.
We know that already.
But at top of your mind, what are the most adverse in facts you're concerned about in your mind?
Is is it energy costs? Is for the environment? Is it noise? Is it traffic or something else?
The highest concern for me would be energy consumption. So if we can figure out the correct balance to that, that's going to be priority.
Again.
We have done so much work on the groups of NATI Plan and continuing to be responsible to our natural resources will always be the city highest priority.
Okay, obviously the city's behind moving forward with a data center somewhere, and I know that. I've talked to people before and said, well, it's difficult to build up with a huge data center. You know, we have some big empty buildings. It'd be great for that, but the problem is that the batteries waste much. It's about floor loading, and you just can't build a floor the cost. It's cost prohibited build upward because of the weight of these buildings,
so it has to be more expensive. Although there's some areas in other cities where they're doing smaller data centers as well, and maybe a number of smaller data centers versus a big one, but then of course there's that there's that cost issue for these big companies doing it. Whether it's it's good to put it in since.
Of that or not.
It'd be nice if you guys go, hey, listen, we're going to set aside an area or a district or here's here's there's three different sites you can choose from. You'll pick one and we'll get you a deal on the property because it's being unused and it's going to add to the tax space. And so it's an opportunity for local government here to be forward thinking and get their arms around the problem we're all going to face at some point.
For sure.
Yeah, absolutely all of the above, which is why you know, creating this overlay district is important. And what we have asked the administration to also do is to consider policies that would helps supplement what they're going to be uncovering.
And so by way of yes, are there is their need for certain instances, is their need to uh look at things like you know cras and uh and other you know abatement strategies that will help to be not cost prohibited but actually helped to get projects across the finish line, right by which you know, we're making sure that one we are you know, energy consumption as it's popular with and that not being a at first impact.
Right.
You look at communities around and I'm sure at some point, if you haven't already make it you're going to talk to folks in more mount orb for example, where you get a small genets packed with people because they're worried about the data center coming in and what it's going to do to their community and quality of life, which
are reasonable concerns. Even if you come up with a plan for this too, I'd imagine there's gonna be sizeable backlash from people in the Cincinnati community that's simply regardless of how well thought out it is, simply don't want it.
How do you address those people?
Well, we ask the administration and in the you know, in this process which early outlines that you have to
do a public hearing on these things. But I think we want to go a buzz and beyond that because of the sensitivity of this, uh, this conversation around AI, and so what we're thinking is that this will look like you know, engagement that is not similar sometimes when we're kind of a directing some of these zoning issues to that point, so that we can address people's concerns upfront, because it's the moment where we're all learning, truly, and
the administration, uh, you know, acknowledges that, and so they're just going to have to take the time to do the right work, the quality work, to make sure we are moving in the right direction.
Well, coffee you're going with this morning at the coffee shop?
There?
What do you got?
Oh?
You know, sometimes I'm a lot taker to go grab it, but I love vanilla.
You like you like a grande. You a big one. You bring your own mug. What do you got work in Armica?
Oh? Well, you know, I always enjoyed turning out of the mud, so hopefully they have. But even if don't, you know, it's nice to be in a coffee with good people.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
And do you also have to get like a giant jug of water for that flower that you wear on your lapel?
Yes, I try to make Marty water me as well. I know one of these days, you know, someone might come up and try to smell it, and.
Yeah, well I'm afraid water is gonna shoot out at me though.
That's the thing I know, that gag.
Well, that's your hook and it works. It works for that thing is. It's awesome and it's good to talk to you, Mika. You have a great day. Okay, thanks again, all right, she's a council member. Mika Owens on the show on seven hunderd WW from easily the loudest coffee shop in Cincinnati. It was in CVG or something. I'm not quite sure, but Meek always a pleasure to talk to. And this is an issue that's gonna hit all of
us somewhere, no matter where you live. There's going to be the issue of bringing in AI data center in and it's something we demand. It's it's hard to vilify the companies that are doing this because it's me and you that are driving it. And that's the whole nimby thing. Anyway, News on the Way when a return on the show, we'll keep it at Cincinnata. Christy Samod's here from three CDC. All right, the convention center's open. They got ten point
one million for the naming rights. And now what about that big hotel? When can we get this whole thing done? News first though, on seven hundred WLW Scott's Loan Show, seven hundred WLW. So the area around the convention Center is it's starting to blow up. It's going to a lot different when you go down there for opening day, for sure, if you're down that way, it's open. Obviously
has a new sponsor and name. There's a new outdoor events area coming soon, the new hotel, which is a big question is how soon and when is that hotel.
Going to go down?
And when are we gonna open things up and also get the flow of money coming back downtown from the convention business. She has all the answers. And it's our friend Christy Samod from three CDC. She's the senior vice president of Events. Christy, welcome back. Haw's life great?
Great?
How's life for you?
Everything's pretty pretty good.
I am enjoyed by I'll tell you what. We're running around yesterday in our underwear. That's how warm it was outside. How about you? Oh my god?
Same? Please say you know it's bring happiness.
Yeah, walking around in a T shirt and shorts, shoveling the crap off the autumn of the driveway going it's like thirty degrees out it feels I'm sorry, it's fifty degrees.
It feels like it's ninety. It's insane. It's insane.
Ice yeah, yeah, the last week of the ice DN and so it's nice as the blood of people are just like skating with their T shirts on. It might be a little sloppy, but it's great all right night.
Yeah, so the rinks still still going until you shut that down. That's even late, I think by your standards if I'm mistaken, But again, that's part of the new outdoor events area conject right adjacent to the convention center. Yesterday the big press conference where they announced the name and uh, the it's no longer the Duke Energy Convention Center. It is now the Donald J. Trump First Financial Bank Convention Center.
That's right, right?
Was that an honor? That was an eye roll? This is what that one? His name's on everything? What his name's on every other building?
I just no, First Financial paid a lot of money to get the naming rights, right the like the next fifteen years, where does that money go.
It's gonna, you know, help with the convention center, and it's gonna pay pay down the debt. So you know, it's it's crazy. The corporate community in Cincinnati and it really makes Cincinnati, you know, vibe. Without our corporate community, we wouldn't be able to do all of the great things that we've been able to do. And so they really were able to make this deal happen.
Yeah, gotcha, And it's awesome because I haven't been in yet, didn't get a chance to go to Redsfest, but I'm sure in the coming year this was an event I wind up going to and being part of, So I can't wait to see it. But that aside, I mean to look spectacular for sure, and it was much much needed to try and get that convention business. But the other part of this is we've got to get that hotel done, and we're not going to have that for
what another twenty six months roughly. How do you how are you able to compete for convention business now with a new center no hotel.
Yeah, well, I mean I think you know, if you look at the proximity of how many hotels are surrounding our convention center, we we have that we have the rooms, we start to get creative, and I think it's how we sell the convention, how we pitch it to different cities, on what the our conventions that are bring that other
cities don't. And I think it's you know, when you walk out that door, the amount of you know, restaurants that you see that are all locally owned the right outside that doorstep, you know, you're embraced with you know, umcry Clasa that ice drink. Now it'll be a new event space. You've got Fifth Streets that's connecting the Fountain Square, so there's a ton of different amenities that you know, along with connecting all of these other hotels. I think
we're totally fine to your point. You know, it'll be construction will be complete, you know in Q three and twenty twenty eight approximately, but we're selling conventions, you know, up until twenty thirty.
Yeah, And what's a response been from people in conventions that you try to a book for them and they're aware it's a new convention center, they're excited to come to Cincineta, have been there in the past.
Just what's that relationship like, they're really excited.
And you know, our friends at Visissippi and Legends Global or are going to a ton of different trade shows. They're getting in front of all of these people, they're inviting them to see the space, and there's a lot
of excitement. And I think that even you know, the amenities within the convention center are you know, incredibly upgraded now, but even the exterior when you're walking down Fistreet, when you're looking at you know, I was walking the Salvo the Salzar the other night and the boat show is loading in and you could see everything happening within those walls, and.
Just the excitement, you know.
I mean last week we had Fear Fact and just all of the different things, all the activity that is bringing back to that neighborhood.
It's it's awesome. Yeah.
And this may be outside you because you're you're more events. I know that, Christy.
But first, financial span, like ten point one million over fifteen years, is some of that money or you mentioned going to pay down the debt. If the hotel performs better than projected and doesn't need get capital fund support, does that money go back into the general fund?
You know.
For the hotel that I don't know.
Okay, Yeah, that's fine because I was learning, like, well, you know people, I was like, well, what happens to the hotel doesn't fill up? It sounds like we're going to have a pretty long waiting list. I mean, just I can tell sense the excitement in your voice about how many new people or how many bodies and conventions are going to come to Cincinnati just for this, And I would if that's the case, you're probably going to be good for the next ten years or so I'll
be able to pay that debt down sizably. So I had not with this project, I'm not worried about it. Well, what if it underperforms the economy hits I mean that could happen, but an effect everywhere generally. I think when you're in the convention business, if you build something new and shiny and bright, a lot of people are going to want to come check it out.
Is that true?
That is?
And also I mean they've done a really good job on the capital stack of diversifying the different funds, so it's not just one source that needs to be you know, it's not just the performance of the hotel. There's a lot of different areas that need to succeed, and I think that that's helped spread the risk.
Out right, Christy samadrid on the next step downtown, and that is a brand new show piece hotel next to the convention center that's not going to be ready for another twenty six months roughly before we can start getting that connection together. It's not stopping, of course, the people booking events at the convention center, but moving forward, it's going to be a little while before we can get that going. I know, Portman Holdings is behind this. They're
the developer with the hotels. Do they have a what is their track convention hotels? And I'm sure you're expecting them to deliver by the second quarter of twenty twenty eight, and there's clauses and everything else to get the work done.
But have they done other convention projects?
Yeah?
Well, and I think that as you know, with our partnership with Portman, you know, we will be working hand in hand, as you know, managing that project with them, and so I think that we have a great track record on getting projects some time conventions that are being one of them, and so we feel really strong that it will be complete on time and it'll be at the US the hotel, Yeah, and it's a Marriotte property, so that's that's great, world class.
And Portman said they're gonna they're gonna buy another downtown hotel not yet named, not to be named. Why the secrecy behind that and and what's the strategy there if you can kind of take us by the curtain.
Yeah, I mean I think.
It's just you know, working on the financing, making sure that everything all the doctor in the role will row before we announce that, I think And make sure that everything's you know, tied up with a bow, and we can announce that a strategic plan forward.
Yeah, because we've got top of my head.
They've got the ac you've got the moxie, I think is their brand as well, the Renaissance. All of those are Marriot brands and you're adding another one. Are you worried about putting all your aids in one basket there or are you just afterwards let the market kind of.
Figure out itself.
Yeah.
I think that, you know, Mary has a really strong brand, and so I think in a lot of cities you see that, and so we feel really strong about moving towards this way.
All right, let's talk at Christy's AMoD a little bit about competition. Louisville just open there a new omni hotel connected to their convention center, and how big I guess the competition there. You don't want to say that, but there's competition. How do you pitch, like meeting planners who can lock in Louisville versus waiting on Cincinnati and the hotel in twenty twenty eight, how hard is that to book shows here?
Yeah?
I mean again, like I said, I think that that our city has a lot to offer on you know what else the district has. I mean, there's been a ton of vestiment, there's a lot of movement. I think that while we don't have a conventions that are a proper hotel, that there's a lot of other Belgian whistles.
There's a lot of other hotels that can compile. We can work together, you know, visit since he has a great service team, that they can be the confires for that, you know, the client, to make sure that it's a seamless approach. And so I think that there's some competitive advantage there.
All right, so your spend how much does this spend on the WEX garage? It's like twenty eight million? Did I see that?
Yeah?
Okay, which is about what ten percent of the total costs of convention center. Why is it parking garage so expensive?
I mean, to do it right, I mean I think that you know, a lot of people say me myself, you.
Know, we're going into garages.
A lot of them are dark and dreary. I think that we want to do it right. We want to make sure that we renovate this where people want to park.
This will have a.
Skybridge to the convention Center, and so it will be a conduit to that for parking, and so really wanting to make sure that that's done done right.
So we're gonna it sounds like me, Chris, you're saying you're going to build a bougie ass parking garage is what we're.
Going to do.
That's pretty cool because normally you're right, they're kind of dark and dury and it seems like a I don't know, sometimes you're walking at night and I don't care what state it is and where it is, but it feels like you're looking over your shoulder. You're waiting for an assassin behind there, maybe the guy that you know, deep threat from the from watergates. So you're going to meet to have a colessed meeting, a car is going to come through and whack somebody.
Generally, parking garage are pretty dreary.
They are, and you know that was that garage Specifically. We're not building a new one, right, we're renovating money, but.
There's always work costs.
To that, and so as we're doing improvements to that, you know there will be valet from the Commntion Center hotel that will go in that. You know, we are looking.
We're being really.
Mindful of the entry that you know, how do you enter an exit to make sure that is you know, user friendly experience and looking all through all of that.
Yeah, I get it.
So each parking spot is going to have its own Starbucks and there's probably gonna be like a beer garden because I know millennials, they can't do anything out of beer garden, I know exactly.
And not to mention this, just to say, because I you're parking is a big, big thing, you know it is. We are keeping it open during construction as well, and so we wanted to make sure that there's still ample parking. And so as we're doing this construction project, you know, we're shifting as needed. And then you know, targeting to be complete by April twenty six.
Yeah, it's going to feel like Christy some odd The construction's going on for quite some time around there, and it's it's functioning right now, but it's hard because you know, you're putting a hotel in, you just finish a convention center.
It's ongoing projects for years.
So you got the outdoor terrace overlooking Fifth Street the convention center of the Wex Garage project twenty twenty eight, twenty third, twenty nine. You're in you're looking at this thing. What does that street level experience? What's First Street look like in the in those years?
Yeah, you know it's gonna look extremely different, especially when you are coming off that highway. You know, on your left you see this beautiful new thought, like the new conventions that are on your right. You're going to have the convention that a hotel.
It's going to be popping, you know.
I mean, there's going to be a bar that overlooks this street. There's going to be full service restaurant. There's gonna be a lot of event space. So even if it's not just convintions that are users, there's going to be other events that are there, so it will be incredibly populated. And then you've got this amazing new crush that it is going to be so boogy that.
It'll be great.
And then you come on Elk Street Plaza and that's a whole nother area where you know, it's where the Money hotel was and now it's a two acre two and a half acre space that will be activated four conventions. But if it's not activated by the convention user, we'll use it as a programming aspect to again just add some life to it and get people something to do while they're you know, ask convention and they're coming out
of it. And then you come and you know, the new pay s are just out there, reven cutting yesterday with paychecks. And on the ground floor you've got Slight Club, which is an often new entertainment concept.
You got cells Are which is.
A great new dinting experience, and then you've got I Do Headquarters it's above them with more office workers that are going to be there five days a week, with you know, plenty of office than in the Foundry. And then you follow to Fountain Square. So there's so much going on in this district corridor, the Fountain districts, and again like as we talk about competitive advantage, how are we selling this? This is this is that, this is excitement.
This is the pace that you've seen and you're like, dang, I want to come.
Back to the street.
Right, yeah, because from Fountain Square was like like an island, and now you're expanding, right you mentioned the Founder but also the Sacks building has been rebrided that that's going to be huge, and then it spills over to the convention Center. It's kind of growing out that way as well. All in, and let's say we start the new decade, Christy Samad twenty thirty coming up quick, quicker, sooner rather
than later. On the back half of this one, you start twenty thirty, everything's up and running right for quite some time. What are those revenue projections look like? I'm gonna talk about jobs and tax spase.
Yeah, I mean, I think that it's a huge opportunity for sins Anti. I think that, you know, as we look at then, we have all of this dempity. We've got more traffic, we have more people falling through. We're going to see more people moving downtown. We're going to see more people wanting to move their businesses downtown. So it's going to increase significantly.
Okay, I hope so, because I mean, let's face it, and I'll be critical for a second here, the banks were supposed to be transformative to the riverfront, and that's dragged on forever, and it looks like this thing right now is on track to get done far sooner than that, and we need something to get go through. Fruition be completed so you can move on to the next thing.
Exactly, and I think that you know, it's through.
To the mission.
You know, we want to make sure that you.
Know, under our leadership we've been pretty quick to finish projects. We want to make sure that we're being thorough, we want to be mindful, we want to be strategic. But I think you know, as long as meeting to hit those deadlines and continue to think that what's the next step. And so you know, do you say, was all the
convention Center and Sound District is booming, what's next? You know, it's looking at how do we continue to connect and while the banks will be getting finished, but like let's look north, how do we can continue to connect to over the Rhine things that you know, from Seventh Street to Central Parkway one of those opportunities that again you can continue to enhance, build on and bring more vibrancy.
To the urban core.
Well not only that, but also let's face it, we're starting, we have begun the Branch Spence Bridge Corridor project right now, and that is going to transform seventy five along that whole area of West End, kirk Queen's Gate and then back over again. And I'm sure you guys are looking at Hey, we're growing that way. Let's just keep pushing.
Yeah, yeah, I mean it gives us a lot of opportunity. There's a lot of exciting things.
And I think that at a.
Time where when you look at other cities and you know, maybe the momentum is not there and there is more of an urban spraad. There's things happening we are not. We are continuing to invest again. It's that corporate community aspect and you know the city that all of our different partners that are really thing. There's a lot of excitement.
That's happening now.
Christy Samad, she's VP of Events, she knows it all. Senior vice pro. I'm sorry you got promoted a senior vice president.
Chris, Christy.
Thanks for coming on the show there, Christy Samad and all the best. Thanks for answering some questions this morning.
Thanks for having me.
Yeah, got it.
So we need some good news, right, and yeah, progress is good news. I think it's it's it's nice to have something shiny. It's all been nicer to bring people in from out of town show off our town, right, and then they leave their money here and we get to spend it. So good, so good and they just got the naming rights done. It's the first financial bank convention. I'm sorry the Donald J. Trump First Financial. Sure, Donald J. Trump First Financial said we're just gonna put her name on everything.
Anyway.
iHeartMedia and seven hundred w WT salute Cincinnati's own Procter and gamble. If you got someone there you'd like for us to recognize on the air, just textas their name to five to one, eight eight one and be listening to the big one, the whole of the red, seven hundred w ol the nobody Cincinnati.
Here we go.
Slowly, seven hundred WLW Man, What isn't going on these days? What isn't going on these there is? And you know, I was often said criminals are stupid, and I think that the we'll get to the Nancy Guthrie abduction a second, because right now, whoever's doing that looks like they're may be smarter than the average bear. But again, what we know publicly and what the FBI and authorities know are two different things. UH could be enacting in arrest as
we speak. Who knows born that. In just a second, I will point out though that here in Cincinnati, we had a I don't think there's a substantial haul, almost two hundred and twenty two thousand dollars stolen from a Brinks armored car that was servicing a Kroger on Harrison Avenue. So the Brinks truck is there, and basically that Brinks truck is you know, we've seen enough movies, and that Brinks truck is a safe on wheels with armed guys
like in the in the truck itself. So two mass suspects, one of them of the gun, gets in, They grab the employees's holstered pistol. Partner takes the cassettes, which are the big boxes that go into the ATMs. They don't just sit there and load the cash in. It's taken somewhere else in the boxes. The cassettes as they were, are loaded into the ATMs. And so they get away
with it. I mean literally, you had two hundred and twenty two thousand dollars in your hands, which probably would have lasted these two knuckleheads easily four or five days. The box get away. So they get the getaway car and a black hooptee. It dies like they're pulling out of the parking lot with the money in the car
and the car dies. You can't make this up, you know, if you're planning something like this, and I can't imagine that you're looking at a brink truck going why don't we rob that truck right now?
Now there has to be some thought in it. I would think, maybe not. I don't know.
You gotta at least make sure your car works. Car dies in the parking lot like you forgot to get gas. So then they take the money to a second vehicle, which is a white four F one to fifty pickup truck. Now there's a lot of I have an F two to fifty, so it wasn't me but a white F one fifty.
Lots of them out there.
But they spotted the truck at North Bend police did they started to chase, they lost visual on it.
That truck gets a flat tire. They find it in Westwood, So now.
They bring the canines up and the canine tracks are sent from the abandoned truck. They find a plastic box and some cash along the route, saying well, people generally leave one hundred dollars bills laying around, and so they wind up finding the four empty money cassettes and inside
the cassettes were the fingerprints of Cavin Newbolt. Calvin Nubolt, thirty six years old to bond Hill, was subsequently arrested by US Marshalls got a cell phone left that in the disabled vehicle as well, charged with aggravated robbery and felony stupidity. I believe it's the formal charge. Felony dumb asid rate is what Calvin is charged with. Like, I mean, they think it was that close to think about that.
You got two or twenty one granted on the Brink truck, and I think that'd be the hardest part of the job, right is getting into the truck, getting the guards because they're trained and they you know they're they're armed as well, and you're able to overpower the two guards and take two hundred and twenty one thousand dollars. You'd think at that point, I that's pretty good. And you had had
a second vehicle ready to go. I don't know if that second vehicle was an accomplice or maybe the car jacket. It seems to me, based on the story, is that it was a second car. So maybe there's a friend in the area of some idol. But these two nuckles I mean literally it was. It was almost Bengal like in the way that this was the most Bengals criminal enterprise of all time. You had it won and then you lost it. You literally grasped the feet from the
jaws of victory. Well good, More dummies off the street, More dummies off the street. We also have the Savannah Guthrie cases I mentioned. Welly, now I should say now I keep saying Savannah's is her mom Nancy. We know that with you know, ties to local ties here. So the very latest on that's just want to update, I don't have anything. Wow, a little bit of new stuff here. So they found I get and this is after her latest video she's playing for the family that they want
to give him money. And I guess there's maybe some light activity in that bitcoin account that they had set up. But authorities raided a home yesterday just outside of Tucson, and they thought, okay, well, maybe this is the guy. A person of interest in the case is what they call him. It's a person of interest and they subsely have released this individual. It's about sixty miles away south of Tucon in a town called Rio Rico, and the
man is only identified as Carlos. He told the man, well, I hope they get the suspect, because I'm not it. He told that to the I believe the New York Times got a hold of this guy, said yeah, well what happens.
Apparently he was a he's a delivery driver.
And I think with the case is somebody or maybe video spotted him in the vicinity and they tracked him down to this house and said, well, yeah, good job checking it out. And they obviously went and searched his home at or warrant and came away with nothing and empty handed and released the guy.
So they got you know.
And I think the other thing too, is we've seen this in the past. Remember the Atlanta Park bomb in case in the ninety six Olympics, and it made a really great movie about this, and the security guard that you know, was falsely accused and it turns out that he was false skin and by then his reputation was ruined. And in this day and age where reputations get ruined and people get docked quite literally, and Julie Balks can actually be talking about that coming up as we talk
careers and jobs and stuff. Just how quickly someone can get the wrong name and just double down on stupid and ruin your life. That that could have happened in this case, I mean, it still happened at this case, but apparently they released him and said, yeah, he's not the guy, or just fall up on leads and as far as we know right now, there's no movement here. Now, you know, the other element of this thing, too is
what we know could literally fill a thimble. What the FBI knows is an entirely different thing, because I mean, think about it. You've got there was a camera on the outside of the house that they found. You wonder if that goes anywhere the obviously the ring doorbell and the account was deactivated, but it goes to show you in this digital age and this could should show be
sober up a little bit. Is okay, your accounts de activated, but it's still recording video and so they're able to go to ring I guess, and get some of this video that they weren't able to get earlier simply because it was they called it artifacts or something like that. But goes to show you, I mean, the camera's always recording. Just because you don't have your subscription paid up doesn't mean it's not working, and what do they do with
that data? Where does all that stuff go? That's pretty sobering, I think for all of us. And there's actually new I don't know if you saw.
This or not.
It kind of ties in. There's a Super Bowl commercial ring doorable. I have a ring doorbll maybe you do too, And there's a new technology that if your dog is lost, okay, it uses facial recognition basically, or maybe body recognition or dog breath recognition to identify the dog and hey, you upload images I guess maybe a front side profile view, aerial view, underview of the dog, and you put it
into the algorithm and it will connect. It'll go and search other ring doorbells in your neighborhood with an a radius and is actively looking for your dog. If your dog walks in front of your neighbor's door, maybe a few blocks away or whatever street over, the camera is networked. It recognizes the dog and says, hey, this looks like you know your dog. It's over here in this particular neighborhood, which is like, wow, that's pretty cool. My dog gets loose.
But if it could do with a dog, right, it should be able to do with people as well. And now we have facial recognition technology available for the home user, and we've had that for a while. I've got actually a garage door open a thing that you can have a setting on it that will recognize the person, let you know who's at the you know, at the door or whatever, which is pretty cool but also frightening at
the same time. So if that technoloy is out there that previously has only been available to those in law enforcement, one may ask, maybe it makes it easier to get
this captive. At the same time, it also makes if you're a you know, if you're not a fan of the Big Brother TV show, and even less of a fan of Big Brother and government this has cost for concern because that's in the private sector obviously, and you just wonder the FBI has access to all of the stuff and even more, how much information they really have
on what they're releasing are two different things. So you know, you want to feel like, oh my god, it's been what eleven twelve days now, this poor woman and you know, what's the state of her.
Breaking news.
By the way, TMZ has apparently received a note on the whereabouts of Nancy Guthrie again, this is unsubstantiated too, because they've got to confirm. We've seen hoaxes in the past. Someone is arrested because they falsely sent out a ransom notes and they had nothing to do with this. But that person's going to prison for a long time. And so TMZ gets a note on Nancy Guthrie and maybe her whereabouts and hopefully she can prove oc to her family.
But the story now gripping the nation. That's the very latest we note about this in the bitcoin account. You know, there's one in the ransom note. Apparently there's a little activity on as well, and certainly law enforcement is working diligently to bring her back home safely and repatriate her. But I can't imagine the family and what they've been going through for well over a week right now. So hopefully the FBI is figuring this stuff better than I think.
We talk about government agencies. Hopefully the f beyondr. Keshptel is doing a much much better job than the FAA under Sean Duffy. I don't know if you called this or not. It was kind of a brief story. This is the shoot first, asked question later part of our government here. Uh So the FAA earlier this morning, I'm just about to come in at nine o'clock and they announced that airspace around El Paso, Texas.
Now you know, you know, you've heard of l Paso. I know it's on the border.
I'm not quite sure exactly where it, but al pass it's a big Their sauce is pretty good. L Passo, old l Passo. Uh, it's going to be close to the next ten days.
Wait what.
L pass is not that big a city, but big enough to know what al Passo is. And that's going to be close for the next ten days because of what they called special security reasons. So all flights to and from El Paso, which is an international airport by the way, is shut down for the first time since nine eleven for ten days. And just the announcement comes out just out of the blue from the FAA, and everyone in the aviation sectors going what the you saw?
You know, Airline stock starts to blip a little bit. So all flights to and from l Passa are grounded, commercial cargo, general aviation. The whole airport, the whole field is shut down. Now I know that there is an army base there it's called Fort Bliss is in proximity of Al Paso. It's right there. So about an hour later, the FAA goes all clear, Wait what they said, there's
no threat to commercial aviation. Everything's back to normal. Now you shut it down for ten days, and then an hour later go that you know, we figured it out, We're good. It's like a fourteen year old kid, apparently he's in charge of the fa Like, I get their security threats and you want to err on the side
of caution for sure, one hundred percent. But again it goes to show for those people have their political ideologies set in stone that my side's always right, the other side's always wrong, and anti America regardless to what side you stand on. And this is simply it's patently felt. The problem is, hold on a second. You just shut down, You announce to the world that you're shutting an airport down for ten days, and then an hour later you go,
never mind my bed. So what really happened, Well, apparently and Mexican cartel drones breached the US airspace because it's on the border, and so they temporarily closed the airspace overall Passo and the Defense Department because well, four plusses right there put their anti drones and anti drone systems up. They're able to disable the drones. And at the same time, I guess they were also that the army was testing
their anti drone technology. So we're not sure if the brief airport closure is related to the presence of drones or if it was the technology or what it was, but it's pretty clearly a jump to go, hey, maybe you know, maybe you want to talk to another branch
of government to figure out what they're doing. If you shut this down because they're testing anti drone technology, which is good, especially along the border, which is even better, maybe you didn't want to jump out and go I was shutting it down for ten days because you're freaking people out for no reason in a day and age
where everyone's freaked out all the time. And the fact of the matter is, and I saw this tweet from a congressman went from El Paso and said, well, I didn't know what was going on, and you know, to act like that there's an incursion. A drone incursion is nothing new. There have been incursions from Mexico going back to as long as drones as existed. So was this something was this something unusual or part of the pattern here? So
there's nothing extraordinary about it, is what she said. Now, at the same time, I look at those comments and go, well, you know, if we got Mexican cartel drones over the United States, rather than going, ah, what happens all the time, no big deal, maybe you want to make it a big deal. So the other side of this is, you know, because the administration's doing it, you people going it's no
big deal, happens all the time. Well, why would you be complacent about drones from Mexican cartels flying over airspaces and Fort Bliss for them that matter? I mean, yeah, I am concerned. I don't know about you, but I am concerned about that, you know, putting the political nonsense aside and just using some common dash cut just the dash, just the dash of common sense. Here you look in and go, well, okay, well we got Mexican cartel drones here, Well we can't have that. I mean, how that's more
dangerous to me than illegals coming over the border. Most of the people crossing the border here just for a better life and trying to save their lives in the leves of their family make money. You know, there's probably some criminal swept up there for sure, but I think that's you know, is it overblong. We need to know what's coming across the border, for sure. But to me, the Mexican cartels find drones over airports and military bases,
that escalates way above all that other stuff. Would you agree, because that is a clear and present danger. They're being run by Mexican drug cartels, like legitimately the worst people
on the face of the world. So good, we have the technology knock these things down, but the comms was really bad on this, Like why would you just come out and blurt out we're shutting down the airspace rots an hour later go yeah, you know, never mind, we got it like that just and that's part of the problem here, is that, you know, there's just so quick,
shoot from the hip kind of attitude it is. I think that's why collectively as Americans were exhausted because every day something like this comes out, you go, it's the worst thing in the world, and it's like, go on, never mind, And we've got three or four five of those plates spinning just like that every single day in this country. And it gets it's so exhausting. I'm not saying we should not deal with you don't misunderstand me. The drones bad thing. I don't accept the fact that
it's normal to have Mexican drones across our border. That's our airspace, especially when you're talking about sensitive targets commercial and military aviation. You got to deal with that. But just jumping out and going ten days and I go, I never mind. It just it exhausts you, and then it also makes you distrustful of our leadership at this time. For sure, I'll get a news update and Julie Bouki
is here. We talk career related stuff, and speaking of getting docs, there's a great story involving that, and really it's it's kind of hopeless if you're a business, if you wind up on the receiving end of the stuff.
Any We'll get to that just ahead.
Right after news update, Scott's Loan Show continues on seven hundred w WELWD.
Giving you a vocational leg up on everyone else. Here's our career Julie Balki.
Julie Bouke is here from places unknown in the beautiful Southwest.
Good morning, how are you, Jules?
Good morning?
Just Dandy.
Are you on the scene in Tucson as a police look for Nancy Guthrie any ideas?
No, No, I'm in Phoenix. But that is quite an odd story.
Not odd, frightening is what this is.
Founding.
It is in the day and age in which we live, of course, with AI and you know, now Crypto and all these things. You wonder if they're successful in God, you hope they're not successful here. But if they are, if this just encourages more people to do what they did with Nancy Guthrie shuddered to think that that's the case. But it's probably true because crime criminals are pretty opportunistic if they see an opportunity to do this good, badter and different they're going to do in the future.
Yeah, yeah, I just it's it's so and I know we'really, I know we're only getting part of the information to lot, but it's it's really something. Man to give me a hope.
They'll get caught. You only criminals are largely stupid. I was just talking in a story here about about these guys. They Robbie Brinks truck here in Cincinnati. They get away with almost two hundred and twenty three thousand dollars. They get the cassettes, which, as you know, the money is put in a cassette which is a big box that then goes into the ATM so you can get your money out if your cash money player like you. And so they got like four or five cassettes. They steal
two hundred and twenty three thousand dollars. They get in their getaway car, it dies getting out of the parking lot. They then get picked up by a four f one fifty that then gets a flat tire. They find the cassettes near the truck and it's got the guy's fingerprints all over. Oh god, Oh and he left his cell phone and he left his cell phone in the first.
Car that's there.
I want to hope that there's a little bit of that guy in the People Who Got Nancy Guthrie, because you kind of need the stupidity break here.
It's like, you know you're watching if you watch a dateline and up episode, after a while, you're like, don't buy the duct tape and the rope and the garbage bags and the shovel all the same.
Yeah, you know, you don't do it everything, don't do it?
Yeah, yeah, fingerprints and all that other stuff, and this is all has to do a lot of this is Nancy Guthri thing technology because of crypto enabling them to get money.
Uh.
But I also look at you know, AI look at data. I look at the fact that we live in a society now that's all pissed off over a thirteen minute free halftime Super Bowl show.
Uh.
In course, everyone's out to get everyone else online. And I think I brought this up a couple of weeks ago, but this guy in Clairemont Connie had to close his furniture store because of a case of stake and identity.
You see this, yes, yes, absolutely yeah. It started out of Clarksville, Tennessee, with a store there called the Furniture Connection, and this guy, the guy that owns it, his wife posted something really ugly, frankly on social media, and so the Keyboard Warriors went after her and by extension, went after him because they found out that they have a business. I don't know how involved she is in the business, but it doesn't matter, because the Keyboard Warriors said, we're
going to take him down, and they did. And then we have this poor guy in Claremont County with the furniture store by the same name, who gets splashed by this because the keyboard Warriors are insane and it ends up costing him his business. He had nothing to do with the one. The only thing he had in common with the one in Tennessee was the name. And the guy in Tennessee he went out there and made this public sort of this video saying that was my wife, that was not me. I do not agree with her.
Don't know if he does or not, but that's not the point. And so what are we doing here? I think the the we we call it docsing, but we are in this and are we so unhinged that we're going to go after We're not even you know, we're going to affect somebody several states away. Had nothing to do with this, even if we agree with what happened in Tennessee. I mean, it's it's over the top, and
it's both ways. It's both sides. You know, there's no there's no innocent ones here, and it's just I don't know. I don't know where it's going to end. And now you put AI in there. I watch things on AI now and if I look at things online, I can't It's like ill look at it and go, is this AI? Is it not? When you can make anybody say anything you can, and the AA is getting better and better.
It's hard to trust.
Go you kind of want to see something, Oh yeah it's A and then you think it, well, whatever the's AI or not, And that's the images and the like, but also any thing. Now, I just you, we don't trust anybody anymore, and I think this increases the division we have and just adds more fuel to that fire. It's like, well, you know, I got it wrong, but I don't care because you know, we can't. We can't
we're wrong anymore. And the real result is this guy in Tennessee nothing to do with what's going on in Clarmont County.
He had to have.
You know, it's furniture stores losing business because of the bad online reviews and it's just nasty, hateful comments and fake reviews and threats because the person who's doing that doesn't even bother to find out if this is indeed the same place or not, not even the same state. And that is to show you the level of stupidit that's out there in society today.
Yeah, yeah, it's scary, and I don't know. I don't know what is going to stop that or change it. I think it's sort of the wild West. I mean, even when you see something that's even if it's said, okay, you've got to put this is AI generated, you know, on everything you put out there, people won't do it. We make it. I'll see a thing and they'll think it doesn't sound like something So and so would say like, eh, you know, and I move on, But not everybody. We
want to believe what supports our position. We want to believe what shores up. Yeah. Yeah, and we all follow it. I don't care. I don't care who we are, what side we're on. We all follow it. And so, you know, I talk all the time about when you've got to be so careful anything you comment on. I mean I see people commenting on stuff with their real names. You go back and look, and people people will then I
don't like what they said. They go back and look, they find their social media is their social media accounts. They inform their employer, they inform their spouse, they inform their neighbors, they inform their church whatever it is, and and most of the time like why would you be so stupid? As to post that.
We also just kind of follow what's what's going on? A funny, funny story. My wife, my my my wife's parents are in their eighties and you know, they don't stay up late enough to watch the super Bowl.
Don't even care what the super Bowl is, but uh, it's talking.
My wife was talking yesterday and outrage because the super Bowl halftime show, and she's, well, did you see it? No, but everyone outlie says the worst thing in the history of the world, and there should be banned. I'm like,
now you're complaining about something you didn't even see. And I just wonder how many people are like that because someone told them or somebody, you know, taking her cue from I don't know Republicans for example, outrage about bad Bunny, and you know I get emails like well, Ane, The first complaint was it wasn't an English we didn't understand. The next day it was the follow awords that Bad
Bunny was saying. Well, if you don't understand, if you don't understand the words and your kids don't speak Spanish, then you don't know what he said in the first place.
You can't. But and I get it.
You know, if bad words are said in Spanish. According to the SEC it really doesn't matter. But I'll point out that the alternative this was the kid Rock Show, and if you see the song he's saying blah blahlah blah. If you look at the lyrics of that, they're pretty bad. They're pretty offensive lyrics. And also kids should probably shouldn't
be here about strippers and meth. So, you know, we just we feigned this ignorance and we already have our views not only made up, but also the people who influence, the influencers out there who we look to make their minds up when we just spout what they so we don't even think for ourselves anymore.
It's terrible, no, No. And I think too that sometimes when we're really frustrated, we're really upset, we're really angry, we're really feeling powerless. One of the ways that we combat that is by taking on power in ways that we feel like we can embrace. And so I might feel like my life is out of control, you know, it's like my bills are rising, this and this and this. I don't nobody listens to me anymore, and so I
lash out. I mean, just what your kids do? You know they'll come home and when they're teenagers, come home and complain about something. And I used to say when I was in HR, I'd get people coming in and complaining about, you know what color the walls were, the food and cafeteria, and I think, that's not really what you're complaining about. So I think a lot of times we direct our anger at things that we that feel safe, and when we're behind that screen on that keyboard, we
feel really anonymous, and we aren't. And so you know, I think you've got to just take a pause. Yep, do you want to post something? Really think about what's the worst thing that can happen after I post this? And can I live with this?
Fair?
You know?
Then if you want to post it and post it.
Speaking of posting stuff, this Pinterest story is just buck wild. You want to lay that out real quick. Here is really good by the way, Julie Balcaore career shu up are talking job related stuff even when it's not on the show.
So the CEO is Bill Ready.
Bill is the CEO of Pinterest, and he is going after staffers because they tracked. They came up with it was an app or a tool to track layoffs.
Yeah, yeah, so I.
Got an easy solution for it.
Yeah, I know.
So this is just, I mean, these of the things that make me just say, gosh, I've been around the block too many times at this point, because it's it's just it's the same problems that keep coming up again. So he's mad because his employees came up with an app or a tracking tool to track layoffs in the company. He found out about it, and he lost his ever eleven mind and he called them obstructionist. What you know that it's like the who's the guy in Princess Bride.
I do not think that word means what you think it means. It's not that's they're simply tracking what's going on. They're not stopping anything for simply reporting, creating transparency and reporting on what's happening in the company. And this is that CEO arrogance that says, I'm gonna do whatever I want. You clearly see what's happening. And you know, now that we have all these tools and all this technology, the rank and file employees can create transparency where they couldn't
in the past. And they're saying, yeah, we're gonna you know, let's let's show what's happening here. And I think if you if you're afraid of transparency as a leader, and obviously you're not going to publish everyone's salaries. There are
certain things that have privacy issues. But if you're having layoffs and you really think that people don't see what's going on and aren't talking about it, all they did was go one extra step and put it in create a tool to tract the layoffs, and that just hurt his whittle feeling.
Well, I mean, you know, companies expand and contract all the time. No one's putting a side up there because they're hiring. Now when people get let go and get got got as a case, when this contraction, you know, you got to take the lumps along with that. But it's not just pinterest, it's the tech sector is hammer good jobs right now. So you know, sometimes your skin is just I mean, you got to get thicker skin if you're CEO.
Yeah, that's right. And you know all the layoffs members that have crat the layoffs or the highest event since January of two than nine right now, and that was bad back then, and so yes, it is more bad news than good news. But if you're going to leave the company. That's part of why you're getting the big bucks is to take this lings and arrows and the dissatisfaction of your people. That's why you're paid well, that's
why you get the bonuses. Yes, your job the tenuous, but that's why you're paid so well.
Correct.
So yeah, and you've got to you can't as a CEO. You can't establish trust with your people through open communications and being willing to answer difficult questions. You know, if you're going to hold that role, you have to be just as well. Look at these are political representatives to go to town halls and they don't like the question, so they leave. Oh yeah, that and genders trust. So this is a part of that response. It's not just
the title in the big salery. You have to grow a thick skin and you have to look people in the eye. They may not always like your answers. You make it food, But that's part of holding the top job. That's part of what it is. That's part of the job description.
I'll push back a little bit at that CEO or the case of what you're talking about. A politician goes to a town hall, right and they're elected officials. They want no one force them to take this job. They campaigned for this job, so it's a different thing. But by at the same time, you know, you go to town hall and you're like, hey, listen, I know there's you've got questions, there's tough questions, and that person's being vilified.
But you know when people are actively booying you and everyone's yelling at the same time and shouting people down, I mean I get leaving at that point. It's like, well, if you want to have a conversation a dialogue, here, I'll talk and then I'll listen to your response and maybe we can come to common ground or we'll just disagree.
But I'm here to answer the questions.
But if you're gonna behave in a fashion much like the doctor of the Claremont County Furniture store, then you're wasting my time. So I don't blame somebody for walking off the stage at that point. If you're gonna have a respectful conversation, you want to know what I'm thinking. I'm trying to tell you, but you yelling at me and drowning me out with noise makers.
It's childish.
Yeah, it's a way of expressing your dissatisfaction. It is and it is. It is not saying it's appropriate, but it is. It is frustration of not it's the frustration of not being heard and having to get to that point where you're taking to the streets where you're yelling.
I mean, it is an expression of frustration that you don't think the normal ways of that you already feel unheard, and we see that everywhere, and it's going to get worse because the younger generations, unlike us older folks, are not afraid, not afraid to express what they think, they believe, they have an opinion that needs to be heard.
And because that's how we raise that's how we raise that generation as you were, you know, to not coin a term here, but the snowflake thing is true larger because it's like, we talked to you. You're special and you're different like everybody else, and your what you have, you have you have the ability to be heard, and you want to be seen, and you have agency and all these things. And we lift people up like that. It's like, well that's how they're going to act when they're at alls.
Yeah, yeah, for sure. There's a lot of stuff that we see with gen Z. I know so many wonderful younger people work for but there's for sure there is a little bit of the chickens coming home to roost and from the participation in Trophy generation.
Yeah, it's what we raise. You know, you can't blame them for the way they were raised. And we all have a hand that dad's our vault, but people don't want to admit that, right. Julie Boucair Career Shup on The Scotsland Show on seven hundred WLW, talking career related
stuff from this case. Yeah, the takeaway if you're if you you know, you don't have to be a CEO, but at the same time, if you run a company, if you're a manager, whatever I think they take away with the Pinterest guy is you know, there's gonna be times where've got to deliver bad news and people are going to be hurt, they're gonna be angry, they're going to be emotional about it, and you have to deal
with that. You have to be above the fray and deal with that in a calm, collected way and say, listen, I don't no one likes to lay people off, you know, And if you feel you've got to track the You just you've got to let that go.
That's the downside of the job.
Yes, it's absolutely part of it, that's right. And if you aren't built for that, fine, then don't take that job. Yeah, but that's that's why again, that's why. That's part of the reason that people get paid so much more at the higher levels because you're expected, you're more visible, You're expected to handle conflict, you're expected to deliver the bad news, you're expected to handle difficult situations and issues that arise
in an eight fun and nobody loves it. But that's part of you know, pulling up a big girl and big boy pants as a senior leader.
Yeah, and you know, I've worked for people were the same thing. It was like they're more worried about what the opinion of the organization was outside the facility than they were inside. To make well, if you address the inside stuff, you don't have to worry about the outside stuff as much.
Right, So true, it's so true.
Like if that doesn't get out there, well, why don't you do something to fix that? And then you know the people wouldn't be complaint And I don't know it works, but whatever, I don't know My time here is short, and so is yours. Julie Bouki our career shirt on the Scott Sloan Show, The Balki Group dot com b a uk e is how you spell her name, Bucky Group dot com career coaching consultant in Cincinnati, and she has boots on the ground helping in the search for
uh Nancy Guthrie. I believe why did you go? Do you know you got time in your hand? Why don't you go help a little bit?
Why do you do so? Why do you help some people? Help this poor family?
Take about two hours down the road, walk around.
You know you could say.
Let me know.
Yeah, it'd be a stringer force. Would you get on. We don't need more reporters out there. We need people fixing, helping you get this woman back? Can you do that for us?
I'm on it.
Yeah, let's get this Julie Bouki not only our career shrip, but our detective, our chief investigator in the Scots Loan Show, News on the Way in five, very latest on the story is again we've had someone in custody, a person of interest, and that person's come outs that ain't me So I mean we don't know where it's going right now. There's a lot more information out there than that they have that we don't. I'm talking about the FBI here, So hopefully this single'll come to fruition before it goes
onto two weeks, god forbid. We'll talk about healthcare reform with Terry Wilcox. She's a patient advocate, the patient side of the battle in Washington. What progress is being done. We have Trump our ex out and some our x as the website. We'll talk about that and also what's really being done in Washington, if anything, to try and bring in the costs of healthcare. We're worried about things happening outside the continental United States. We fight over Super
Bowl halftime shows. How about fighting over healthcare and get this fixed? What do you say that's next? After news on the Home of the Red seven hundred WWT, Cincinnati, Scott a film show seven hundred WLW. While we fight over halftime shows, bridges to Canada, Iran, Venezuela, whatever. Our healthcare system continues to unravel. So we have insurance companies that are exploiting ACA subsidies. We have a hospital consolidation that drives up cost It decreases access for those in
rural communities. You have administrative blowed. I could go on and on and on, and we need some remedy here. Terry Wilcox is the co founder chief mission offer at Patients Rising. That's an adovcacy organization for patients, which seemingly we don't care about in America.
Terry, welcome, welcome, Thank you for having me, Scott, I appreciate it.
Yeah, no, prayer right now. I mean the Trump administration is moving forward with the Trump our X thing. I looked at this and said, oh, there's some some deep discounts here. But at the same time, I also have a good RX card, which is a free market company that goes that basically gets reduced call for over the counters or not over the counts, I should say, for a prescription medicine, and a lot of the Good RX
scripts are actually cheaper than Trump RX. It's always good to add more into the mix to get a better deal. But you know, again, it feels to be like, hey, we're going to do something that's already being done and take credit for it rather than just fix the system.
No, someone, I do agree with you on that. I think to your point, the more you put out in the system and the more options that are available, the better look. A lot of those medications on trump rx do have generic counterparts. You can find them on Cost plus Drugs, mark Cusan's Cost plus Drugs and other places. Like you said, good rx you can find a generic version. You can also, you know, find the name brand versions. And I think that's what trump rx is linking to
for the most part. And I think it's just one other narrative and one other way for us to insert something into the system, to show prices, to give patients options. Right right, If you want the name brand drug and you can't find it anywhere else, you can link here. Just going to be side system manufacturers have created for their name brand a lot of their name brands that like I just said, I already have generic.
Yeah.
One of the other areas I want to get into is a hospital consolidation. I think that is like one of the unspoken things who often fight over the ACA and subsidies and we're going to kill the ACA and people are going to get loft off and not have health insurance, but all that money goes to insurance anyway. Hospital consolidation to me is a huge river cost right now.
And so what does that look like on the ground for a patient trying to get care in Cincinnati or Columbus or Indianapolis or Dayton or Louisville.
Well, basically, when you have hospital consolidation and a certain hospital system owns an entire area or in entire region or in some cases and entire states, there is no competition. And when there is no competition, there is no way for you know, patients just have to go where they're tools. So there's no price shopping, there's no looking, Oh i'd rather have this doctor that I think this place would
be better for what I need. Oh, I can save more on my copay if I go here, or we could save money and pay for it out of our AHSA if we go here. There's no there's nothing for the patient to be able to think about. They're just sort of forced through. They're given, you know, a bill. Much later, I just went through this with my point. You're given a bill, you have no idea what the structure has costs when you go in, and then you're given you know what what your portion is, but there's
no real conversation about what any of that is. And I think what we have to look at now is, Yes, insurance is made for emergency care, right, I mean it should be. I mean that's why you haven't you will help you from financial harm, whether it's home insurance, car insurance help, that's what it's supposed to do. And die introduce, you know. And what we have is this sort of healthcare card, right, and it just sort of pushes us
through a system. And I experienced that here in Northern Virginia with the you know, folks that are in our network and patients, patients don't have any have any choices or options, and they run up against a lot of denials if they want something that the insurance company doesn't want in the hospitals do control all the pricing, so, you know, and they are One of the things that I say about the hospital lobby is the hospital lobby there is a hospital in every district in America America,
so every every congressional member of Congress has a hospital in their district, right, and so it is a much tougher if it's a tough lobby to break, but it's one we need to break because it is it is monopolizing the system and the prices of the system, and they're not transparent and they're not accountable to the prices that they're charging.
Yeah, the statistic is stunning as well. Hospitals are hiring ten administrators or every one doctor.
Is that true?
It is true from what I'm I mean, I've read the same studies you have. I Yeah, it's the administrative bloat to the map. And the truth is, we need more doctors and we need more healthcare professionals. We don't need more people pushing papers. You and I both know that we don't. And it's a disservice to access for patients. Yeah, facing shortages.
That seems untembleed. So what's our tist. You're hiring that many more administrators, what's the point?
Well, I you know why they hire that many more administrators. I think they created a system with a lot more paperwork, right, And that may not just be on the hospitals. I think a lot of that has to do.
With well Medicare and government demand.
Medicare and government medicare and government's.
Yeah, you go into your typical doctor's office, there's there's eight people working there. One of them is a nurse, the other seven are like medical coders and uh Medicare specialists.
That's the problem. Get the get government out of our health care.
It's all in the coding. And that is why, that is why many doctors, especially general practitioner or general practice doctors are leaving Medicare and Medicaid and all insurance altogether. And it's like, look, you can pay me a monthly fee and I'll be your doctor. It's called ther ext primary care because I can charge you a lot less and see you a lot more and give you a lot more of my attention if I don't have to worry about all the take of work and I'm not
going yeah, yeah, and there. You know, it's really, you know, a fantastic system if you can even find one. My husband to find one. And the waiting lists are really long.
You know, people who use it tend to because the the reviews of those who are on the Affordable Care Act enjoy enjoy it. It gets very very favable reviews, which is gonna be toughly tough to undue because it is popular with people who use Obamacare, there's no question about it. However, it's the root cause the problem of course, it's subsidy is that people are paying for something, and a lot more money is being wasted because you are basically giving people about your coupon groupon if you well
for their healthcare. It's not a cost savings may save you personally, and you don't care about everybody else obviously, because it's your healthcare and it's cheaper, but it's it's subsidies. The problem here, how do we eliminate all that. It's almost impossible to eliminate subsidy, isn't it.
Well, I think, well, first of all, we have subsidies on top of subsidies. We just didn't approve one round of subsidies, which everyone is calling the COVID subsidies, but it is still like heavily subsidized. It is still subsized for anybody who thinks that the subsidies, that was just another layer of subsidies. So I think that you know, a lot of people will often say, oh, let's repeal Obamacare, and I actually don't think at this point that is the answer. I think the answer is to put forth
other ideas and create more opportunity for patients. And that's why I'm a part of a program club Fund the Patient and giving those more, giving more opportunities I think will open up the options for patients and perhaps Obamacare, which Obamasair was created, and I as the founder of Patients Rising, we have many patients who need insurance like Obamacare that's no pre existing conditions, all of those things, and it's you know, they they they love their Obamacare,
they love their aciation, and they don't want to They don't want to have that go away because if there was a time in their life when they couldn't qualify for insurance, so you completely understand that that they still want that. And I do think that there's going to come to come a moment when we're going to need to really think about how we're going to take care of the most vulnerable in our systems, that need medications, that need health insurance on a monthly basis, not just
an annual basis. Right what are what are those high risk schools look like? And is that some form of Obamacare? I don't know, right, I don't know yet. I think we don't have enough options right now. Our options are employer spocket plans, which is most people in the country, you know, our employer squonsor plants, but even employers are getting completed you know, even they're covering less and people are paying more out of the patient for their health insurance.
Yeah, no question, And it's hitting. It's all tens, all hard. And the problem is it's like there's no impetus for Congress to do anything. I mean, I mentioned what we focus on, what the national attention is right now, and it's all, you know, feel good nonsense. What are you
doing about healthcare? And I think that people like like Green for example, she is upset that we're not focusing on the people's opposed to foreign intervention, which makes a lot of sense because that's not what Trump campaigned on. For sure, a lot of Maggie is starting to look at it go a wait, what about us? What about making America great again? I hear all this nonsense from other countries and it just a lot of it is confusing.
For sure.
In the core of this whole thing for all of us is healthcare. There's a lot of things we can focus on with our wallets, but healthcare impacts all of us. And you know, certainly Obamacare, as many people like it, it doesn't work because it's predicated on young people buying insurance that can't afford it. So they're not going to buy it because they're not using it, So that weakens the system. When we got to subsidize it, it was broken from the minute they signed this in the law.
And now we're also the other end of this thing too, when it comes to those in Congress who aren't doing anything about this, is the fact that the lobby groups are getting to them and paying them off. I mean, we could do a widespread direct primary care, which I love. Direct pric cameric care means, you know, you cut the insurance companies out of it and you just pay your doctor directly, and it's much much cheaper because all the
fat is taken out. So if you know, borring some sort of serious critical, debilitating illness, catastrophic illness, you simply go to your doctor for I don't know, it's like fifty bucks a month, and you get prescriptions. You get pretty much care when you want it. Everyone's happened. The doctor gets cash, you pay out of pocket. And yet that's being blocked, isn't it.
It's absolutely being blocked. I mean there's people don't want patients to have control of these dollars. Look, we spend more than any country in the world on healthcare. The problem isn't underfunding. It's that money flows through layers of institutions and middlemen before it ever gets to the patient, and that this is turning that on its head. And this was in President Trump's Great American health Care Plan.
It's what fund the patients cans for. It's like, let's get rid of that and let's try something a different way. Let's give money directly to patients and let them make decisions for their health care, whether it's direct primary care, whether it's whatever it is that they want to want to do what's best for their family, what's best in their region. I always say healthcare is local. It's actually
not an action. I mean, generally we take care of a lot of it, but it's actually a local it's your health care practice, in your where you can go to receive health care. It's all local. So you know, right now, patients are locked out of the system. Healthcare is the only major purchase in America where the person paying and the person receiving the service often have no idea what anything costs. Right now, that's not a market, Scott,
that's a main right. So we need to patients need to become the CEO of their healthcare loof, We've had a very passive system for a while. Right, For a long time, it was like you remember this, you could get your health insurance and you would go to the counter at the pharmacy country and be like five bucks for generic, twenty five bucks for pre game brand. Well,
we're not there anymore. First of all, innovation has transformed in the types of medications and the degree of medications that we you know, the biologics and all the things that come on the market. They're much more expensive than the you know, main brands of the nineties, right a lot of times, so I think we really have to put patients back and chalk and that's you know right now, we've got consolidation, like we talked about early with possibles
crushing competition. Yeah, there's a lot to be done, and there's a lot of Congress can do just by opening up the ability to have choice. She is do anything drastic?
Yeah, right, Yeah, choice reduces price. But as much as in this case Republicans scream about it or Democrats with the Obamacare, which is a really choice, nothing is getting done. So Terry Wilcox with fund the Patient Patient advocacy grew up're talking about, obviously, the healthcare crisis that Republicans and Democrats don't seem to be addressing. Now, Trump did come out and roll out trump a RAX and there's some other things. Does that really move the needle all that much?
I mean, the idea that we're going to use our HSA cards going, yeah, we're gonna put money in your HSA account and you can go out and shop. But does that actually alleviate where we're talking about You're just going to wind up because if it's so bloated and inflated, you're just going to take the little money you have and continue to throw it into companies that have a lot of waste, fraud abuse.
I mean, it's a good question, what you know. I think one of the things that we have to think about is you can't just then say your only option
is this one kind of plan. I think one of the things that has to be done is not just not dismantling Obamacare, in my opinions, but creating other options so that there's other types of plans out there that there are actually you know, catastrophic plans of yesteryear that are beyond a few months right, that people can make that choice, that people can, like you said, get direct primary care, other types of health care that they deal
is best for their families and make those decisions. I think one patients are in control of their healthcare dollar orders, that that will open up more competition. I don't think we know the full answer to what that is, and I think we have to, you know, step out a little bit and trust the people. Even if it's the pilot program. We're going to try this. Let's see how this moves the needle. Yeah, I don't think that you don't get something that's floated over decades and change it over.
And we all know anything having to do with government is not going to change overnight, right, So how can we take steps to move in the right direction to give patients more agency?
And I don't know if we will, because Alan said the easiest thing to do is your Congress will go Look from now on, you can't you know, employer can't give you healthcare, and now we all people who have it less seemingly like it. I know ours is great
and I certainly won't want to give it up. But the only way to wipe all this stuff out is say you know, government's out of outside of medicaid, but you know, government insurance companies go buy it like you buy your homeowners, your car insurance and everything else in the free market. Uh, And there'll be enough savings left over from the bloat to fly people who can't afford that. And the system is private because you're going to buy it with your own money. But then there's subsidy for
those folks who can't. And that would seemingly work, but the problem is that the administrative state continues to grow.
And I mentioned lobbyists though.
And you know, it's the reason why they won't allow direct primary care is because the insurance lobby is so so fat and happy throwing money at politicians who don't want to change in it. And I don't care if you're a Democrat or Republican. That's what it feels like to me. And meanwhile, it's like, oh, here's some money for ahs. Ain't great. I'm getting fifty bucks a month, but the price of insurance has costing me like three hundred dollars a month. The math does a math for working people well.
And I also think that I do think employers are at a breaking point. I do actually think that the employers, even the big, even the large ones. I mean, if you basically said, let's take you know, a portion of that many because like, look, the average family of cod at a corporation is paying it's twenty seven thousand dollars a year for their employee and their thousands to kiss or whatever the pat is. Right, that's a lot of money.
You know, that's a lot of wage money. So what if they took that and said, Okay, we're going to put this amount of money into a some kind of special employer HSA or employer account where you you go choose it. Because I do always I am a firm believer that the healthcare plan, whatever it is, should follow the patient. I do not think that my I do not want my employer in charge of what plan I pick or what it is, how much it costs. I would rather have the money and shop. And it's because
prices are hidden from patient. It's because patients don't have to say that the pricing is so bloated and out of control.
Great, I think, and I think there's another important point here.
I'll leave it at this Terry, and that is that now we live in a gig economy. You know, people are are side hustle and side hustle to become main hustles, and the side hustles have side hustles. Now, imagine if you could get your own insurance and do all that, I mean what the economy would explode because people aren't tied to one job now where they get an or one spouse gets health insurance. If you could take it with you, uh, the gig economy would be on steroids.
It would totally reinvent the American economy. But again, it's all that lobby money, the insurance money, the hospital money that's keeping us where we are and keeping it stagnant. Terry Wilcox the founder, co founder, in chief mission officer and Patients Rising. They're an advocacy organization for patients. Great to chat with this morning. Terry, thanks again, thank you. You want to hope it changes, but the reality is is it really going to change? News is on the
way next. Not to leave you depressed, because we'll living up a little bit. Sara at least jumps in from the Kid Chris Show. It's the Snort Report. We'll talk sports next seven hundred w W Scotts Lunch. All right, shut up with this crap. Nobody cares about the pig. Nobody cares about this shut up.
You know what.
She's been making the headlines too. I guess she has a deaf brother.
Now, yeah, okay, I don't care. Jimmy is shut up their chef.
More importantly, Chef Jimmy is here from Governor's house. Some of the best Italian I've ever had. He's going to be a marty graph for homeless kids. Next Fat Tuesday, by the way, at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center, Sarah, put those balls in your mouth and you give me a rating.
Let's go.
He's over there, you weirdo. Okay, wait, can you explain this this meatball real quick?
All right, So, chef, he's brought food for years, he's been at the Governor's house and they brought and it's if you can get to company. It's fantastic. You brought the mushroom Mazota, which is notoriously difficult to travel.
You did a good job on that one.
I did it this morning.
And he's got the meatballs going and Sarah's about to give us a review.
Oh yeah, good good.
Next good mix was born?
I put too much garlic, and you know there's not too much of anything. People cry about garlic.
I as as you can.
You gotta have the garlic start.
To smell real good in this room.
All that garlic, and you got the beef. He's got short room, a little veal in there. It's nicey nice, some bread crumbs, perfect, sir.
This is a delicious What's about?
What if you're to have one thing on the many, what would it be?
Actually the short rib? I love the short rib. Still cook it for about nine hours. We serve it over meshed potatoes, homemade, and then finish it with honey glazed carrots. Had a red wine demi over the top of that. My second favorite does the poor shank also boco. We slow cooked that for eight hours. We served that over risotto parmesan, and then we finished that with a white wine vegetable chutney with ben shat.
So you know what you're doing, because very very few places are gonna do an also buco or a virgili. We're talking about if you're a telling you know bil, nobody does brigil No one does.
Know the only place I had it it was no good side. This is that is my great, great grandmother's.
Resting, all right, I gotta get my mama shout because she's the one that taught me how to make it though. Okay, So I passed on a few of my dishes into the restaurants.
So I like the sauce sauce.
That's her family sauce as well. So what I do is I do a wag oose skirt steams. We pound it out, then we we uh we stuff it with persudo guda, permisan cheese, su herbs and spice it. We slow cook it for about six and a half hours, and we serve it like a meatball. We treated just like a meatball. They're an appetizer on top of post.
That's all the brazing and slow cooking six hours. You start cooking for Wednesday service on point Sunday.
Yeah before before, Yeah, we have a We have a girl and she doesn't want her names Kelly.
She does of our prepping.
She keeps everything consistent and she's in every morning at five am.
Yeah, cooks it.
So you don't have to get it at five A usually today I do it today.
To the woman to handle the meat the right way.
Yes, Sarah, no stranger.
I love cooking. I think it's therapeutic.
Yeah, I love it. I love it.
I get my buddies are like what you you know, like I like that. I like cooking. I like trying different things.
We got on the grill last night. I'm like, it's sixty degrees outside. You gotta get out.
Yeah, alright, go see Chef Jimmy and his team at Governor. So they're going to be at Mariograph for homeless seem on Tuesday.
What are you cooking for that we're doing.
We're doing short rib over mashed potatoes. Oh my god, we're.
Doing a wild mushroom. I'm sorry, we're doing it over risotta. My apologies. Okay, we're doing a wild mushroom risotta and the short room. I wanted to do something different than we did ourn you're bringing up.
And here's the thing is, I know you guys do this on the arm, so it's you know, it's for the cause. And I really appreciate you and all the other restauranteurs for coming in and volunteering and doing that.
Giving your night up first. Yeah, support this clause.
I think we've got over fifty restaurants from the tri stage showing up fifty.
It's an amazing event.
I bet this year is gonna better last. I think it's gonna be the biggest one.
Yes, I know you guys are taking a hit on Tuesday, but I appreciate you, Jimmy, thanks for coming in, buddy, appreciate go to Governor says.
I'm telling you, this is some of the best Italian I've had my life.
It is delicious. That's thank you.
All right.
Have you ever gotten in trouble on your day off the boss calls you up, like, hey, you can't be doing that.
We'll get back to that in.
Just a moment you're talking about.
But we got to give credit to Miami University. The men's basketball team is the loan undefeated team when it comes to basketball in this country. Absolutely, Arizona getting the big l the other night and they got Yep, They've got a big one on Friday night against.
Oh You, Tom Brenneman's Oh You against my alma mater.
It's gonna be big at my Letts. I think it's going to be even a It's going to be a bigger crowd than it was.
I know that Miami is still undefeated. Sarah was wearing the Miami hat with the tag still I've had.
This thing since I graduated. We don't need to.
It's a pretty old hat.
Yeah, it's a black and white.
They want to make hats in color.
When I also got an Indian on it.
I can confidently say that I graduated as a Red Hawk.
The thing that I hate the most is like, oh, you were there with ben O.
I was.
We did not cross paths.
You didn't run into No, I did not.
But justin Viive and I our captain with the Sincinnty Cyclones. We did go to Miami together and honor yes, captain of the Cyclones.
Very cool.
Rick is a superstar in the NHL.
Was yeah, okay, So we were just talking about getting a call on your day off. So Ellie de la Cruz is trending on social media because he was out, well, not exactly riding dirt bikes, but his pictures and videos were trending on social media of him and his buddies on dirt bikes. So the reds GM Brad Mehta calls. He's like a thinking, Ellie, what are you doing? So brad Mehta reported back to media and he goes, I
talked to Ellie. He told me that he wasn't riding it, he was doing it just for the video.
Sure he was.
Can you imagine that conversation though, between Brad Mehta and Ellie de la Cruz, like, hey, buddy.
What you're doing? Ellie's like.
Rember, He's ride his motorcycle and he cur himself, and.
I think that went through Brad's head, like, uh oh, this is risky. So do you think that Ellie was just feeding him line? Was he just doing it for the gram or was he actually out and about on his bike?
Jimmy, you got any right motorcycles?
You look like a few, my dad.
I gotta, I gotta, I go, I go jeeping mostly I got a four wheel drive.
Yeah.
I put this in the same sphere as my people going out and drinking the night before Valentine's Day. That's there, okay, got oh yeah, I go actually walk around the square and make sure they're not around and let them know that I know what they're doing.
I better not see what Molly Malone's on February thirteen.
Until you guys are sold out this week after booked Friday and Saturday, we're all booked up.
Nothing more romantic than Italian.
The only ones let is that occasional guy that calls up and starts crying on the phone.
I got a table next to the dumpster.
Actually, can we get in? These are really good.
You gotta put a table cut on the grease trap cover and that's where you can sit next to the bat for dumb ass.
Wait in the last minute, what do you think We hope Alli is staying off those dirt bikes.
What else you got?
All right?
Well, today is the first workout for pictures and catchers. How exciting. Just over forty days to go until opening day. But this Valentine's Day, speaking of, it's a big one because all hands on deck. Everybody's reporting to camp. If they haven't already, let's see us already there, good good vibes. Only love Ito Suarez, and I guess the entire team.
According to Tito last night on the Hot Stove.
League, they were all very excited to see him. Gotcha, that's kind of the face of the team right now, don't you think.
Well, I think it was kind of like this unexpected push and the guy no one's looking forward to get out to Arizona.
Oh yeah, I'd be smiling too. If I got his contract, that's a nice contact.
Paid a little bit and hopefully can produce for us here. And now there's hope in Red's Land, is what you're saying. Opening day at the Grail should be a hot I think.
Oh yeah, that' should be a good one. I think he really turned everything around. He's going to get people in the seats. Also, someone having a good week, Tyler Stevenson because he won his arbitration case yesterday, getting a cool six point eight million dollars meatballs. Oh yeah, you can get a lot of meat with that.
Tyler Stevenson. If you're not in Arizona and you are listening, you are longing to go in, spend your money and coming. Yeah, how many meatballs can you get for that?
Math lifetime meatballs?
He comes in by me, all right, let's go. Dode Sloane and I get the same treatment. Absolutely no.
We get charged in. We get the bill.
You guys get double.
I opened up the check and it's a it's his bill too. I was like, that's great charge, Spenser, Like you got in too.
Everybody has to know, I know, except for Tyler Seeds.
He comes in, he's on my List had a story that said, there's a guy in college just got his ninth year of eligibility.
A you're familiar with, Well, now what's going on?
I don't know.
How dumb are you? You need nine years?
What's he doing?
I don't know.
Stack years.
It took me thirty years to get through, for God's ake, that's a problem there. I don't know, all right.
I remember those bush tree people in the super Bowl.
It was only Sunday. I mean, I'm not that old, and I'm gonna forget. I don't know, almighty Sunday. I was like, yeah, I just yeah, with super Bowl on Sunday.
Yet, do you know those trees that were in the halftime performance?
Those were little people. Hundreds of people in those.
Trees, all small people. Not little people.
No, they had to be between five seven and six foot tall. So bad Bunny released this thing like a couple of weeks.
Before, probably had the day out.
That's why Jack was gone.
Yeah, so he goes, look, I can't say what's going on, but I am looking for people on this specific height range, and so they could be in those trees and you saw them like walk out onto the field and then they just stood there for the entire fifteen minutes that Bad Bonnie were forming. They did get paid for that. What do you think that they got paid to be trees?
I heard it.
I heard it, so you know, then shut up. You brought it up.
I didn't say it.
Then you can't guess what do you think they got paid to be trees? It's actually way lower than I thought.
I'll just say three.
No, No, that's la money though.
Well, no, it's like a hundred ticket you get to come.
That's true.
This was an hourly thing, like an hourly rate.
They got eighteen dollars and seventy cents an hour.
What trees?
What it was like thirteen undred dollars. Well, they put in seventy hours of work. It's total to be thirteen oh nine.
Okay, okay, okay, okay, that's that's again.
They got a little bit more than they got to practice being trees.
Yeah, to a tree.
It's a lot of trouble. Then, you know, you get the police. Canine takes a week on you.
You got problem, You got problem.
Start eating the grass. The dog starts eating grass and puke and that's a thing. That's a whole big thing.
It's a risk to be a tree.
Yeah, it's very risky.
I thought that was interesting on social media.
Like third grade, Oliver, I was the tree in the back row. There is a picture of me at the super Bowl.
Hey, and you never know where anything being a tree in third grade is going to get you. I would be performing with Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl.
My wife has eyes like like a hawk or an owl, and she said from the jump, she goes, those are people behind there.
I'm like, what, what the hell are you looking at him?
Like?
They look like I couldn't see.
Well, it's funny.
Those people are really capitalizing on TikTok because all the tree people are getting on their pages and making videos about.
Being a tree in that performance.
And they wore this like green suit and like little shoes and they're just you know, fuzzy.
All right, it's just funny.
I don't know.
I wonder how quickly. I was like, how are they gonna get all that stuff out of there? It's easy if the tree moves by itself. Yeah, yeah, I like it exactly.
And earlier today we were talking about that angry congressman in Tennessee.
His name is Andy O. Goles. He was not happy with the halftime performance.
So he's requesting a formal congressional inquiry into the NICA and NBC for the prior knowledge of approval of this halftime show.
What what was the offense?
He said, it was pure smut.
Were forced to endure displays of gay sexual acts. Women were gyrating provocatively, and he was really uncomfortable with Bad Bunny grabbing his crotch while dry pumping the air.
Everybody, everything is a microaggression with people.
Now, it's a it was thirteen minutes.
Just stop. And honestly, I thought it was very conservative.
It was all right.
I mean the women dancing was like, I, we can the cheerleaders dress more scantily in dancing.
Go to an NBA game, We get that for no matter what kind of performance you're watching, people took the well, you don't understand.
It wasn't an English are now offended by the lyrics they couldn't understand in the first place.
And that's what I saying. Is not happy with the lyrics.
He's a this is a clear violation of FCC guidelines.
And meanwhile, it's like then tune of the All American One where Kid Rock is singing blah blah ball, which if you look at the lyrics of that, you.
Had to take a deep dive into that. He was busted for sinking he wasn't actually singing.
Surprised, I'll tell you, if you have never seen Kid Rock, that's a great show.
I've never seen him before about half dozen times. I'm not against it, but but you know what the.
Saying is, I'm not offended by Kid Rock or Bad Bunny for that matter. It's like whatever, No, they're.
Both entertainers, you know, killing it in their own department. You want to go into the game. I thought they show was awesome. I thought it was fun.
It was something dish I understood by Spanish better. But you're to kitchen Spanish.
Spanish? What did you think of the performance? Did you like it? I mean it was good, it was.
Good, all right?
All right, see Shift Jimmy Comedy. He'll be at uh, He'll be at our event on Fat Tuesday.
They're still available for that. So if you're looking for something to get for your valandie.
Fantastic anally there's more food than you can eat there. Marty Grout twenty twenty six, Dot our Jimmie, thanks for coming to appreciate you brother. Sarah, appreciate you brother, Thank you, Sister seven hundred, all the time,