News Radio 650 KENR. Amy DeVosky. The show starts now. Our lines are open at 907-522-0650. This is The Morning Drive on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Good morning. It is finally Friday, March 14th. Current time, 6.06 a.m. How was your drive to work today, Daryl? Slippery. That's the best answer I can give for you. Not too slippery, but slippery. Slippery. My drive home last night was beautiful. I got to tell you, the roads out here are fine.
You know, I could see my grass again last night. I mean, and I told you yesterday, my green grass, I totally fibbed. The grass is completely brown. It's not green at all. So you're saying the green grass doesn't grow all around, all around, all around. No. not apparently and not in march yet so you know i looked and i was like wait a minute the grass is brown it's not really green at all but but is there no snow at all in my yard uh by the time i got home last night so
Yeah, it was fine. You out there can't see the look I'm giving Amy right now because my yard – oh, no. I've got four to five inches of snow. Whole yard. Didn't pull the snowblower out because I'm literally, like, now boycotting the snowblower. Didn't get to use it all year. Yeah. So I literally got my arms crossed against it. Somebody came over yesterday and they're like, so you're not going to blow this? It's past your three-inch mark. I'm like, no, I refuse. So, yeah.
I will tell you, don't snowball it. Forget it. Don't give in. Don't give in to that pressure from Mother Nature. It is peer pressure. Trust me. The people I hang out with, all of them are snowblowers. Don't do it. And they literally are just like, you're not doing it. I'm like, no.
I'm not doing it. Now, when I say the roads are slippery, it's because in here, we had the freeze saw. We had all that snow on the roads. It was wet all night or all afternoon. Roads were in pretty good shape, just the water. And it definitely froze up because it's 29 degrees in here.
Yeah, I was going to say, it's 29 here in Palmer, too. It's just under freezing. So it definitely has the potential to be icy no matter where you are. Because it warmed up yesterday, right, just over freezing. And then overnight it dropped again almost everywhere. everywhere that I pulled is under freezing this morning. Kenai is 26, Big Lakes 27, Fairbanks 15. So it's a little warmer, actually, in Fairbanks, but it's still, you know, freezing temperatures.
Yeah, it'll definitely be a potential for ice, especially in those places where you've had some melt-off yesterday. But it's going to be pretty nice. I was looking at the high temperature today for Palmer. It's supposed to be 37.
We're creeping back up. I keep saying resistance is futile. Spring is here. I don't care what anybody, it's here, it's here, it's here. I'm going to keep saying it because I'm really trying to convince myself of it. That's that mantra when you're doing it to yourself. I've got a question for you. She's how you were a night owl last night. Did you get to see the eclipse of the moon? There was a nice blood moon last night.
I did not. But what time was it supposed to be? You know, I'm not sure exactly what time it was supposed to kick on. I walked outside a couple of times, and every time I looked up, it was completely cloud-covered. And I went out at midnight. I woke up and got up and put on my clothes. closing.
Went outside at midnight and it was still cloud covered. So I heard I think it was supposed to be about 10 p.m. is when it was supposed to fully hit. I was in front of my computer. I was in my office, so I wasn't looking. No, it was good last night. District 26 meeting for the Republican. party. Gotta tell you, my district don't play.
They do not play around. They literally show up. They're informed. People were telling me things yesterday. I was like, oh, what? What's that now? Like, they were really getting into some of the details, and I was like, oh, this is awesome.
Man, it just shows you the power, but my district last night took up the whole discussion of SB 92, which is, you know, Rob Young's... tax bill on Hill Corp and unanimously without hesitation I mean people are actually angry over this bill they're very frustrated and the general sentiment I think is
You know, why in the heck are you going to tax an oil and gas partner that comes to Alaska when nobody else would, and they're investing hundreds of millions of dollars in our state? They've already made the BP fields more productive than BP did. And at the end of the day, there was a big sentiment that they felt like this was going to...
deter investment into Alaska, and it was counter to what the governor and the president are attempting to do with energy development in Alaska. And that's exactly it. little bit of where he wants to try and find to get resources you know money into the coffers but this is not the right way to do it this this is this is again this is like you're taxing the people that are out there trying to help you and the reason they were brought in is because they were trying to
help you it would be kind of like telling people to come to alaska and you know help us build our state and then after they get up here say yeah you know all those things we told you we were going to give you not anymore sorry Yeah, the playing field that we agreed to, now once you're here and you've invested a few hundred million dollars, now all of a sudden we're going to change the playing field. And I think that was the general sentiment.
I'm going to tell you, they weren't playing. I mean, people were not playing. Hold on one second. Hold on one second. Oh, he didn't play that. Exactly. Exactly. So. District 26 did pass a resolution last night opposing SB 92 and calling on all elected Republicans to do the same. So there you have it.
uh you know but that's that's part of the reason why i was i was so late coming to uh coming home last night is because we had we had work to do so we did it and it was it was a lot of fun i always love to go into those meetings and You know, then I turn around and I look and I'm like, okay, it's not snowing, so that's good. I get home and I'm like, yeah, little joys. As soon as I get done with all my party business, then I...
Then I turn around and I'm like, okay, I better do show prep. So, you know, finally when I like to be in bed by like 9 o'clock, it's like 11 o'clock by the time I'm like, okay, everything's done for the day. Now I can think about going to bed. You know, there we go. We made it. You thought about going to bed. Did you actually go to bed? Well, you know, then I took a shower and then I got ready for bed. And then I finally... It was late. Let's just say it was late. Amy is a little...
I'm a little tired this morning, but that's okay. We shall. We shall do it. As the Democrats keep saying, we shall overcome, right? That's what they were singing in the well before. Oh, that was so bad. Yeah, that was so bad. Yeah, with Al Green Censure. They were singing We Shall Work. That was a bad dig. Sorry, sorry. It was a bad dig. All right.
Let's get to some of our community announcements. There's actually not very many at all this morning. For the Matsuboro, the only thing noticed is a Sunday meeting. At 3 p.m., the North Lakes Community Council Road and Traffic Safety Committee is going to be meeting at the Boys and Girls Club off of Bogard Road. If you need more information, just go to matsugov.us. And the other announcement that's coming up, it will be effective starting on Monday.
A notice of seasonal weight restrictions starting Monday, March 17th at 12.01 a.m. until further notice, 50% legal axle load for the core area extending to the Little Susitna River Bridge on the Parks Highway. and the Chickaloon River Bridge on the Glen Highway. Core area restrictions may also be enforced on city-maintained roads in the city of Palmer, Wasilla, and Houston.
If you have any questions, you can always look at the Matt Sue Burroughs webpage. But northern areas beyond the Little Sioux Bridge, on the Parks Highway, and beyond the Chickaloon River Bridge are 100% no overloads, it says. Spring's coming right there. With this notice, that tells you spring is actually coming. Yeah, the other thing that tells you is spring is actually coming. On Homer, they have this, and Daryl, you brought this up to me a couple days ago, but Homer has it on their website.
Early fire season has been declared. State burn permits are required starting March 17th, so that's Monday. Due to warm temperatures and low snowpack, the Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection has declared an early start to the fire season for much of South Central and Southeast Alaska, including Kenai Peninsula, Mat-Su, the Anchorage area. I mean, there's a huge swath as I'm looking at it. Pretty much...
anything south of Cantwell, I would say, is in the area that we see right here. I mean, it's huge right now. So it says if you live out, this one is, again, from Homer, but, again, And let's just say, everybody, this is an earlier date than normal because typically burn type thing is usually April 1st. So this is a couple weeks earlier. We've been saying this consistently. We're concerned that this is going to be a significant fire.
season because of the lack of snow we had which means a lack of moisture so it could potentially be a big one Well, the description of your yard that you gave just a few minutes ago is the exact reason why. What you've got on your yard right now, literally, I've watched them, and in the Valley, there's been some pretty bad grass fires over the years. That stuff...
It shoots across. I mean, it burns so fast, and it shoots across these fields so fast and gets into the woods. And once it gets into the black spruce, yeah, not good. Yeah, then it's going to go. It says here, remember, 100% of spring fires responded to by the Division of Forestry are human-caused and preventable.
Do your part to protect our communities and make it easier for our first responders. The burn permit requirement helps minimize the number of human-caused wildfires in Alaska by providing guidelines to permit holders related to the size of burn piles. may be burned and other safe burning requirements that reduce the chances of a fire escaping burn permits are free and they're available at the state forestry offices and that can also be printed online you can just go to dnr.alaska.gov slash burn
and you can get your burn permits there. So this is something that I'm passionate about. So you'll hear me talk about burn permits a lot and what you can and can't burn. And I always like to remind people in Anchorage, pretty much burning almost always is... usually not allowed. You can't even use burn barrels in Anchorage. Burn barrels are banned in Anchorage. You can't use those. So you can have a first-class city that has different, more restrictive rules than DNR.
And so you definitely want to check if you think you're going to be doing some yard cleanup and having a little brush pile. You'll want to check with your local government or the state DNR in order to see. See if it's a burn day, if it's allowable. So there you go. Those are my PSAs for the day. The only other one that I wanted to bring up.
Today, the only real meeting that has happened, or thing that's starting to open up, if you're in Homer, their comprehensive public comment period is open until today so if you're somebody who um wanted to comment on the comprehensive plan uh you need to you need to get your comments in today because after today they close so you can just go to city of homer and on the front page they have a comprehensive plan public comment
widget, just click on it and it will bring you to their comprehensive plan. And if you have a comment on it, you can get that comment in today. If you have any questions, you can call Ryan Foster, who's the city planner down there. His number is 29985.
All right, we're going to go ahead and take our first break in the morning. It is Free Forum Friday, so we have stories, yes, but we will talk about whatever you want to talk about. All you have to do is give us a call. The number to call, 522-0650.
Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this Friday morning. Some flurries can't be ruled out for the first part of your Friday. We are on the drier side with some overcast skies to start off the day. Some afternoon breaks in the clouds will arrive with some peaks of sunshine. Temperatures today warming into the mid. For Alaska's weather source, I'm meteorologist Aaron Morrison. 628 Mornings on News Radio 650, KENI. Call now, 907-522-0650. Welcome back, Current Times.
623 on this Friday morning. Well, one of the topics of discussion, and I had to come back and pull the bill because I heard about it yesterday. You know, Daryl, I think you brought it up maybe to me off air, I think during a commercial break. We were talking about Senator L.B. Gray Jackson introduced a bill. It's called the Homeless Bill of Rights, basically, is what people are calling it.
And I thought, well, you know, basically the first conversation was, you know, it basically gives homeless people the right to camp in any public space, right? That was our initial conversation. And now then...
You know, I go to District 26 meeting last night, and then they're talking about it in more detail. They're like, oh, no, it's not just that. It's this and that. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. So I came home, and I pulled the bill. It's actually really short. It's only a page and a half long. It's very short. short for a bill it's very short I'm going to go through it right here so it is Senate bill 119 a bill for an active title an act relating to fundamental rights
That's what it says. It says, fundamental rights, a person may not deny another person based on race, religion, color, national origin, age, physical, or mental disability, sex, gender, marital status, pregnancy, parenthood, or housing status the following. access to and use of public spaces in a manner allowed by law, medical and dental care, gainful employment to support independence and community living.
Documentation to meet voter eligibility requirements. Clean, safe, and sanitary living conditions, including access to a trash receptacle, toilet, and shower. Medical privacy as provided by law.
reasonable privacy and autonomy, including the right to give informed consent, reasonable accommodation in the interest of family unity and support when applicable and appropriate, equal treatment without harassment, blah blah blah um the ability to accept offer and eat food in a public space so that is panhandling basically right like begging for stuff
Access to and participation or non-participation in religious community of involved choosing. Occupation of a legally parked vehicle. So, you know. Basically, you can go into city parks and park your car in and just live there. It says a legally parked vehicle, legally anchored, moored, stored watercraft. That's what it says, and it goes on to say the ability to rest or seek shelter from the elements in a public space if doing so does not obstruct pedestrian or vehicular traffic. So...
I can go into City Hall and lay down on the bench. I can go into the library and decide I'm just going to sleep there. I'm going to live there. So effectively what this would do... is it would say that if you're homeless, you are now legally entitled to not only medical and dental care that we're going to have to pay for, right? You're also going to be eligible for sanitary living conditions, including access to a trash receptacle, toilet, and shower. So now it's going to be government.
housing it's going to be government medical and dental care I mean this how you gonna pay for it this is my first question with every single bill how you gonna pay for it Here's the thing. On 13, the last one you read, look at its B clause. Okay. The ability to rest or seek shelter from the elements in a public space, if doing so does not obstruct pedestrian or vehicular traffic, B, in a civil action for violation of the section,
The court may award prevailing plaintiff injunctive and declaratory relief, actual damages, and attorney's fees and costs. Yeah, that doesn't surprise me at all. But what they're saying basically is the homeless person can sue you and their attorney. Attorney's fees will be paid for, which I guarantee you ACLU and a bunch of these other groups will jump on that, stack up the attorney's fees, actual damages. I mean, this is ridiculous. Yeah, of course.
Every single bill that comes forward, I don't care if it's brought forward by a Republican, a Democrat, Green Party member, it doesn't matter to me. Every single one. What is your fiscal note? How are you going to pay for it? Did you see what the title of this bill was? Yeah, I read it. I read it. An Act Relating to Fundamental Rights. Okay, that is not okay.
That's why I say, when I look at it, I'm like, hmm. It was referred to state affairs and judiciary in the Senate. And so, look, here's the thing. I just, I don't see the governor signing this bill. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Weirder things have happened. But again, this is a bill that significantly expands the responsibility, the cost.
and where people can be in public places. Look, can you imagine? So for my friends in South Anchorage, they're like, oh, you know, not a big deal. What if somebody decided to set up homeless camps in Kincade Park? Right? That's not allowed now. But if they have a fundamental right to be in any public space, right, we're talking, you know, the library, they could just move in there? right they could just move in
If they have a fundamental right to be in any public space and seek, you know, basically comfort from the elements, so you can't kick them out when the library closes, they have to stay there. What about Sullivan Arena? Benboki. Sullivan Arena, Benboki, City Hall, the LIO. Yeah, it's a public space.
Our building. Does this also cover state public spaces? Because that's very vague. Yeah, it would. Because if it does, now you've got all the parks up there. I mean, we're talking Valley of the Moon. I mean, all these places. Yeah, all of them.
This is codifying exactly what we're trying to get away from, which was that court decision. I get something from Oregon. I'm forgetting the name of the decision where they said, no, we were under it for 10 years of being forced to do things. Now she's just trying to codify it. Well, this is what it comes down to. As I look at it, and I think, you know, it gets to the point, look, I get some people recognize, look, it's not a crime to be homeless.
But there does come a point for public safety, and in the interest of public safety, And frankly, just a civil society, you can't just do whatever you want, wherever you want, just because you're saying, oh, it's a public space. I mean, there comes a point where you're like, okay.
I mean, somebody just drive by, you know, Mountain View. You know, the park over there. What is the name of that park over there? Oh, it's just escaping me right now. It literally just jumped out of my head. Yeah, it's okay. It's over there by Lions Park. What did you say? I said Blank Park. Lions Park is the main one over there, and then there's another one.
Davis Park. Thank you. There we go. Yeah, yeah. Anyone come to me. I told you. No coffee yet. Davis Park. So if you just drive by Davis Park, and I'll tell you. I mean, it looks like a crap hole, to be honest with you. It's just, and I know, like, I've driven by there. That was really nice of you to say it. That was nice. It is bad. It's terrible. So, and I've driven by, and I know they just did a big cleanup there, but it's going to take them five minutes.
minutes and it's going to be just like it was two weeks ago. I mean, they go through Davis Park weekly cleaning up trash, right? And it still looks like a hole. And so that's what you're going to have. I mean, you pass laws like this. It's just like the...
pedestrian, you know, the roadway law, where they said that everybody can be in the roadway, whether you're a car or you're a bike. Everybody has the same rights to the roads. Then what happens? You get a lot of people that get hit by cars. The common sense prevails. here.
You start telling them they have a right to be in any single public place, and it's a fundamental right. And then we're going to pay for their medical, their dental. We're going to pay for their housing. At the end of the day, you know what you're going to have? absolute crap hole that looks like downtown Seattle, looks like San Francisco where they're pooping on the sidewalks. It's going to look, I mean, there comes a point where you got to use a little tough love.
And, you know, you've got to elicit a little bit of pressure to direct people to the services they need. Because some people, you know, if you make it too easy for them, they're simply not going to do it. So there comes a point where it's like, no. you know town square park no let's not have a homeless camp right next to the pack right in the middle of downtown anchorage huh let's not maybe maybe let's not do that
And I think this bill would absolutely lead to that. And it would cost the taxpayers. I can't even quantify the amount of money it would cost the taxpayers. There's no fiscal note at all. I checked for all fiscal notes, amendments, everything. Nothing there on it. And literally. You can't quantify the cost on this because it is so vague on what it allows. Yeah, exactly, exactly.
All right, well, I suppose I should take another break. I can't believe it's already another segment. So let's go ahead and take a quick break. If you'd like to call in, be part of the conversation, 522-0650. This is News Radio 650, KENI, Anchorage. A man is lucky to be alive after falling nearly 60 feet into an icy crevasse while riding a snow machine near Gakona Glacier. Alaska's news source reports the man was riding north of Paxson on Saturday when he tumbled into a glacial crevasse.
We'll be right back. the total snowfall for december january and february combined the last time anchorage saw this much snow was november 15th of last year and the 2025 dina games are underway in fairbanks hosted by the world eskimo indian olympics this year's dina games were scheduled to begin it
noon at the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center. Competitions feature games that are popular in Alaskan native culture and even derive from survival skills for the Alaskan bush. The Dina games run through Sunday and admission is free. That's the latest. I'm John Fink. News Radio 650 KENI, your pipeline to the world. Looking at your Alaska Total Traffic cameras on this Friday morning. 522-0650. That's 907-522-0650. It's Amy Demboski on NewsRadio 650 KENI.
Welcome back. Current time, 638. All right, Daryl, you're going to have to get on deck because we haven't done this in a couple of weeks. I got off schedule when I left and I took that day off. But we're going to have to do Daryl's story of the week today. So get ready for it. I'm sorting between a couple of them right now. I'm sorting between a couple of them. I'm torn at which one I want to be the story of the week or the missed story of the week. I do want to ask you one thing, though.
Sure. What day of the week do chickens dislike most? I don't know. What day? Friday. I was trying to be pithy, and I was trying to think of it, and I thought, okay, I'll come up with it. I didn't. A lot of times I can guess the punchline. She actually really does, because you guys don't realize it, but I... I batter her with... Pepper, you're the nice word. I literally batter you with puns and bad jokes in the breaks here. I mean, she suffers through my humor.
And she guesses a lot of them, like, halfway through, and it's weird, like, man, you are good. Okay, Joe, you've got to know this one. What do you call a moose with no name? You don't call it? Late for dinner? Nope. Nope. Anonymous. Oh. Oh, wow. Oh, that is so bad. You're welcome. You're welcome. Why don't Democrats laugh a lot? I don't know why. Because they have no sense of Schumer. That's a good little segue. I will tell you, Schumer is not making them happy right now at all.
They are not happy with Schumer right now. AOC is going apoplectic. So yesterday, one of our callers said, do you think there's going to be a shutdown? I said, yeah, probably. Right now, Democrats are saying... You know, that they're not going to be voting. They're absolutely not going to be voting for this Republican continuing resolution to fund the government passed today, Friday.
And in the Senate there's a procedural vote called cloture, right? So what it requires is before something can actually come forward for a vote, you actually need 60 votes to put it in front of the Senate in order for them to vote on it. Once it gets to the Senate, it can pass with 51. But you have to get 60 senators to say, yeah, let's go ahead and basically close debate on this item and go ahead and bring it to a vote.
And the Democrats were saying all week long that they are not going to vote for it. They're not going to vote for it. Well, then Fetterman comes out. And Fetterman says, yep. I'm going to vote for it because, you know, at the end of the day, we've been saying for years, it's terrible to shut down the government. It's going to impact thousands of people. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, Fetterman was the one who kind of started the Democrat divide. Shall we say?
And, you know, we played that montage yesterday of all the different Democrats that were saying for years that have said over and over again, it's irresponsible to shut down the government. You're hurting people. You're hurting families. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So they go on and on and on.
So then last night, you know, Chuck Schumer all week long has been saying, we are not voting for it. It's a leverage point, right? They're trying to force the Republicans to come to the table, to have a discussion, to basically... cancel DOGE and say, you can't shut down these programs, you can't this, you can't that. Well, then last night, Chucky Schumer steps out and Chucky Schumer now is starting to say he's going to vote for cloture.
So Breitbart, a lot of places have the article, but this one is coming from Breitbart that I'm going to refer to right now. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer caved on supporting a Republican spending bill that would keep the government from shutting down and will be...
voting for cloture according to a recent report the founder of punch bowl news jake sherman wrote in a post that schumer will vote for cloture and that he needs six more democrats to follow him according to the website for the united states senate the senate adopted cloture in nineteen seventeen It's a rule to allow a two-thirds majority to end a filibuster procedure known as cloture.
The Senate tradition of unlimited debate has allowed for the use of filibuster, a loosely defined term up for action designed to prolong debate and delay or prevent a vote on a bill resolution or amendment. So again, That's the whole point of the 60-vote rule for the Senate. Remember, there's 100 senators. So in order to get the debate basically ended on something, you have to have 60 votes. Schumer has said he will vote for it.
You know, and I said this is not going to play well for Democrats because there's too many of them on the record for so long that have fought against government shutdowns in any sort of fashion. We have that montage. Yeah, we had that montage. Do you have it up again?
Actually, it'll take me just a second. I just remembered as you were talking, I was like, wait, we have that montage of all the Democrats. Yeah, you don't have to play it again. We played it yesterday. It's fine. But, you know, that's my point is, though, I figured the Democrats, if they didn't vote... for it they're not going to hold out very long they can't
Because they have too many constituencies, too many union workers, too many people who they have been fighting, fighting, fighting for over the years, saying, oh, we can't, this is going to hurt so many civilian workers, this is going to hurt so many. So many people. This is going to be so bad.
This has been their mantra for 10 years, basically, for them to then turn around. The Republicans passed in a bill to fund the government, passed the House. Well, a bill, continuing resolution, really. It's a resolution. And then they have all the Republicans, except for Rand Paul. I should say that because we haven't said that yet. Rand Paul has said he's not going to vote for it. Right.
which doesn't surprise me. Rand Paul is very libertarian, and, you know, for him it's a principled position, and he's like, no, it's too big of a, you know, basically we need to do our job and pass a budget, which I don't disagree with him in that. I do think, you know, in this case, especially being Trump and a new president, give them the tools to close the border. Because that's really, well, there's a lot of funding in here for border security. So I think that's important.
But the Democrats are going to cave. They're going to cave so fast. I mean, I just never thought, I thought that it was possible, it was likely that they might close the government for a couple of days. You know, it's a Friday. So you close down the government until Monday, Tuesday? Okay. You know, okay. Not the end of the world in my opinion. But I don't think if a close down happens, I do not think it's going to be a long one.
I don't think it's going to be 17 days. I don't think it's going to be any, I just don't think it's going to be very long at all. I think they will cave faster than anything. And the proof of that is Chuck Schumer was talking tough at the beginning of the week.
It's Friday, and it's Thursday. Let's just start there. It was Thursday, and he's already like, okay, I'm going to vote for cloture. Yeah, you know why? Because he started getting phone calls. He started probably getting phone calls from, I'm sure, some union leadership. I'm sure he started getting phone calls from some of the people in his district. I'm sure his phones were flooded.
By the same people he's been saying for years and years and years and years, we're going to fight to make sure they don't shut down the government. And now the Democrats are the only ones standing in the way to shut down the government. Well, also, you got to remember that they're fighting Trump's.
closure of certain parts of it and getting rid of people. And if they shut down the government themselves. Thank you. Thank you for the help. Exactly. It's like, oh, so you proved we don't need this, this and this. Awesome. Now, don't even bother coming back. And so that's one of the nightmares out there.
Well, this is one of the biggest tests in politics. I think oftentimes people can't get out of their own way or they don't see the forest through the trees. And oftentimes they make short-term decisions that have long-term... consequences and they don't
they don't play the long game. You've got to play the short game and the long game if you're going to be really, really good. And I just, you know, so I wasn't surprised to see Schumer Cave at all. The question is, who else is going to join them? Because you need, you know, Because there's 53 Republicans in the Senate. One of them has already said he's not going to vote for it. So that means you need eight Democrats to join you.
So you have two. You have Fetterman and you have Schumer. But AOC is losing her mind because now the basic leader of their party is basically going to team up with Republicans to keep the government open. That's her argument, right? I mean, that's got to be, like, you're mad? Because the thing you guys say is so important, keeping the government open, is now he's going to help.
keep the government open I mean their arguments just don't they don't hold water and it's simply because of their past arguments I mean that's why I say if it wasn't for double standards Democrats would have no standards at all I mean They flip-flop faster. They flip-flop faster than Gavin Newsom on a bad hair day. I mean, I've got to be honest with you. This is crazy. I thought you were going to say they flip-flop faster than a silver salmon on the side of a river.
Oh, that's a good one. That's a good Alaska analogy. Everybody knows what that looks like. Exactly, exactly. All right, well, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. If you'd like to call in and be part of the show, 522-0650. Look at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this Friday.
Friday morning, roads are a bit slippery out there. Roads had thawed yesterday, now they've frozen back up, so be ready for that ice on the way in. Watch out on those corners and on the on-ramps and off-ramps and intersections. From the Swickard Chevrolet Anchorage Traffic Studio, I'm Daryl Dean. by Compassion International. Every day a child in poverty waits for a sponsor is another day of hopelessness. And be a part of the show on News Radio 650 KENI.
Welcome back. Current Time 651. Well, Palmer voters are going to have a big decision. Suzanne Downing has the story up in Must Street, Alaska. Palmer voters will decide on whether to recall the mayor. Voters in Palmer will decide in a special election if Palmer Mayor Steve Carrington should be recalled. He is accused of exceeding his authority. in the handling of a separation agreement for the controversial former city manager Steven Jelly.
The recall proponents say Carrington's decision to hire an outside attorney to draft an agreement for Jelly's departure without first consulting with the city council was improper. The recall proponents say the agreement had, quote, the city of Palmer, including a $75,000 severance payout.
And a non-disclosure clause that limits what Palmer officials can share with Jelly's future potential employers. In addition, a clause in the agreement prevents Jelly from suing Palmer and prohibits the city from suing Jelly, who lasted less. than two months in the row before being embroiled in a series of controversies around the firing of the police chief.
and how he treated municipal workers. You know, this will be interesting what happens. It says the petition to recall Carrington required at least 71 signatures, or 25% of those who voted in the last regular election. and had to be turned in no later than February 16th. The city clerk confirmed the signatures were adequate on March 11th. The exact date of the special election, which is expected to be in May, has not yet been set.
So we will definitely follow that. But look, City of Palmer don't play. Remember, this is the same city who threw out three council members. like a couple years ago. Yeah, that was long ago. For violating the Open Meetings Act. And I think it's a big deal. I think it's a big deal, and I think Steve Carrington, you know, is very well on the bubble. Let's put it that way. He's on the bubble. Because when the people of Palmer feel like you've been unethical...
or you've broken the law, they toss your butt out. That's what happens in Palmer. And they don't play. Let's put it that way. Well, yeah, and that mayor, or it wasn't the mayor, it was the city manager, right? Was it Jelly? Yeah, Jelly. Yeah, Jelly got himself into a serious jam out there. Oh!
That was really good, actually. That was really good. I tried to preserve that joke for later, but I couldn't do it. So sad. It just keeps going. He can't turn it off. He won't turn it off. I really wish he would sometimes, but he won't. He won't. He won't. He won't. Well, you know, here's the problem you have. When you have a city council and you have a mayor, the reality is they each have appropriate roles, right? And the appropriate role for the city council is
is appropriation of funds. That is an appropriate role for a city council to play. Now, the mayor has executive authority, so oftentimes you have executive authority to do certain things. Administration of government is typically one of them. But when you look at this, look, the guy was there for less than two months.
And he got a $75,000 payout. Darrell, can you imagine if you got paid 75 grand for two months of work? And the work that you didn't even do well. Yeah, no, I'm, I'm, that, his deal literally flabbergasted me. Well, and this is what... It sounds like a government deal. I got to be honest with you. I mean, the council was not happy. I talked to a number of their members and they were not happy. And, you know, because, again, they were totally blindsided. This was not something they ever.
approved. They weren't consulted on. I mean, how long does it take? You take an hour or two out of your data, it's called a special meeting, go into executive session and say, look, we've got a problem with city manager. You know, we're probably going to end up firing
him you know which of course the council ended up doing and well he resigned right let's be honest they went into executive session they had some candid conversations he came out and he resigned so that's kind of one of those comments I'm going to go ahead and step down from my position so I can spend more time with my family. Whenever you hear a politician say that or any person say that,
Typically speaking, it's one of two reasons. The most common is you are told you either resign or you're going to be fired. That's the most common. Other times it can be somebody who has, like, a major illness, and they are going to step down, and they're going to deal with their illness. Or they have a family member who has a major illness, and they're just like, you know what, life's too short. I'm done with this. I'm going to spend time with this.
family so those are the kind of the two common ones but especially when it's contentious i mean jelly steps into the city of palmer and he disagrees with the police chief or the police chief chief expressed his disagreement with a decision he was making relating to dispatch and he because the police chief disagreed with him he says turn in your badge and your gun And this is like a police chief that is well known in Palmer.
integrated integrated into the community for over 20 years and you're going to because he disagreed with you you're going to take his badge and use his gun it didn't play well in palmer let's just put it that way didn't play well at all in palmer So, yeah, so this outsider who comes in and tries to tell Alaskans how it's done.
Let's just say I'm not surprised he was a short-timer. But Steve Carrington's going to be at the ballot box sometime in May, and Palmer voters will decide, are you going to keep him as mayor? Are you going to replace him as mayor? We will keep you posted as that election date is set. All right, we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. 522-0650 if you'd like to call in.
My name is Kyle Tequila, host of the shocking new true crime podcast, Crook County. I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old. People are dying. Is he doing this every night? Kenny was a Chicago firefighter who lived a secret double life as a mafia hit.
I had a wife and I had two children. Nobody knew anything. He was a crazy man. He was my father. And I had no idea about any of this until now. Listen to Crook County and America's number one podcast network. I heart open your free I heart app and search. County to start listening. Get early spring savings on new, the number one radio app. Get in on what everyone's talking about and get the new and improved free iHeartRadio app today.
The opinions expressed on this show are those of the host and not of iHeartMedia or its employees. Thank you for listening to News Radio 650 KENI. Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI. Welcome back, Current Time 706. This is Hour 2 of the Amy Dobosky Show, broadcasting live and local every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m. right here on 650 a.m.
You can also stream us live at 650keni.iheart.com. And if you are one of those who have downloaded the iHeart Media app, you can listen to us there both live and on our podcast. And the easiest way to do it is
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You know, I will tell you, it makes life a lot simpler. You know, one less button to push. You know, once you got it said, it'll make it really easy. So lots of ways to listen to us. You can listen to us live every weekday morning from 6 to 8 a.m.
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On repeat, let's put it that way. Well, Daryl, the time has arrived for Daryl's story of the week. Now, this could be something we haven't covered at all. This could be something that caught your eye and we just skipped. Or it could be something totally different. new. So what is Daryl's story of the week for this week? I'm very excited to hear this. And as always, Daryl has the multiple stories that he's trying to decide inside. Gotta pick one. I know. I gotta pick one. So the one I picked is
is the fact that the state of Alaska has denied Alaska Regional in its third try for a freestanding emergency room on the south side of Anchorage. They have been trying for this since at least 2015. For a long time. I mean, at least 10 years. they've been going after this. And they keep getting shot down. And when you read through the reasons why they're shot down...
To be honest, I'm not sure what metrics the state is using because, first of all, they've got to get a certificate of need, which is, to me, need to be taken out. I hate the certificate. It needs to go away. You hit number one on the biggest issue. to impediment, to competition, and to, in my world, you know, free world capitalism, when it comes to health care in Alaska is the certificate of need process. It needs to be repealed completely. It needs to be gone. There's zero reason.
to have the process the way it is now. I'm not saying that health care facilities shouldn't be licensed. That's fine, right? But the certificate need process, it's a lot like the taxicab medallion process. We got rid of that. Which is the government, which is, well, we basically ended that, you know, I will say my friend Dick Traney and I teamed up on that one to Anchorage to bring competition, which brought Uber to town.
But the reality is the certificate of need process is a process by which hospitals will um they will petition the department of health the commissioner of health to ask for more beds for their hospital emergency room that type of thing and the commissioner will evaluate it and then They will either issue it or not. And I've seen this happen. Eagle River was pushing where the duck pond is in Eagle River. Yep.
Now it's the Sudsy salmon car wash, but that used to be a vacant lot right there. And regional was advocating to put a small emergency room right there in Eagle River. Because remember, if you live in Eagle River, you either have to go to the valley. or you have to go to Anchorage, on a good day, the closest emergency room is 30 minutes away. That's a good day. Remember, that's a good day. That's on a good day. So the point here is that, you know, I saw it.
back in my day when I was on the Assembly, Regional was advocating for an outstanding emergency room in Eagle River, and Providence wasn't even... asking for it, and their emergency room in Eagle River got denied, and Providence got additional beds. Right. And that's part of where my issue with the story is, is that it seems really lopsided. I know both are big corporations, regional and Providence, but it seems really lopsided that they look at it and they decide, no, you're a competitor.
them a couple of extra beds. Is that what they did in South Anchorage this time? No, not this time. They didn't give anything to anybody. Basically, they're saying it on financial stability and cost is why they did it. Well, it's going to raise costs for people.
How are you going to transport them if you need to go from that emergency room to the hospital itself to a real hospital? You know, it should be really close connected. My thing with this is also, again, I think Eagle River desperately needs an emergency room.
You know, reality is South Anchorage is kind of in the same spot depending on where you are in South Anchorage. I mean, if you're not going to allow these hospitals to come in, whether they're for-profit or non-profit, it doesn't matter, whether you're going to allow hospitals
Hospitals come in and want to build. Why isn't it like a Kmart? Why isn't it like any other thing? If a business wants to come and invest in your community, as long as they get the licensing, right? We're not going to let, like, for... Senior care, for example, you know, we are licensed at the Chudiak Eagle River Senior Center through, like, the Department of Health to do, like,
in-person living, right, senior care. You have to be licensed for it, which means you have to go through this very long, rigorous process. You have to prove that you're eligible. You have to prove that you have qualified people. You have to prove that you have insurance. All of these things, right? Licensing a hospital should be no different. This whole certificate of need issue where you have to get permission and the government is falsely putting their finger on the scale of competition.
to say who can and can't have an emergency room. Darrell, I think you've hit on a very good topic. This is a very good topic. Well, along with it here, I mean, like I said, they... We're concerned about the facility's cost, the cost of operating it, and then whether there'd be financial stability. And what I've always found is competition, if you build it, they will come. It reduces cost, okay? Because we have a real problem up here with the high cost.
With Eagle River in particular, though, and I guess actually it works, like you said, with South Anchorage, say you have an emergency on the, let's say, sewer highway, and you've got a major car accident. They've got to try to get through Anchorage at rush hour or any other time. eagle river my big one is is because you said well do you go to the valley or do you go to anchorage um in a major emergency both those roads are closed there's one way in either direction and those close down or get
Traffic stacked up and blocked, which happens just about once a week. What do you do? You're letting somebody die. That's what you're doing. No, this is a really good topic. And I will tell you, you know, I think about it this way. So you have a seven-year-old, right? Your 7-year-old has a peanut allergy. Your 7-year-old accidentally eats something, and then the closest emergency room is 30 minutes away.
They could die in that time. The reality is, is you don't have 30 minutes to get them to sometimes emergency and asthma attack. right i mean somebody has a heart attack i mean there's all these things if care isn't quick and near you it could be a very long time to get some help so this is this is the issue and i will tell you i haven't seen the governor do anything on this I haven't seen the legislature make any big moves to deal with a certificate of need issue. Why not?
You should be doing that before they're doing a bunch of these other stuff, like, say, homeless issues and giving them rights. This is not a topic that I've seen come up from within, let's put it that way, to really revamp the certificate of need process.
And I think, frankly, it needs to be scrapped. So I think great topic. Can I give you one last thing with this? It's the denial letter that was signed by the state health commissioner, Heidi Hedberg. It also stated that the hospital's application failed to show how the new facility would provide. the appropriate level of care to people experiencing acute illness, severe injury or life-threatening conditions.
They also said, and I've got to scroll here really quickly, there was concern about the facility's cost and that the high operational costs contribute to higher patient charges or additional financial burdens on public health care programs as Medicaid and Medicare.
Gobbly goop. Gobbly goop. Thank you. You know, I mean, here's the thing. It's nonsense. What it is is this is a protection racket for Providence Hospital. That's what the certificate of need process has become. It is a protection racket. for Providence Hospital. So there's no competition. Or limited competition. And the reality is, the question is, is if you live in Chugiak Eagle River, if you live in South Anchorage, are you actually being served?
Are you somebody who has an emergency room that's close enough to you that can provide emergency care to stabilize you to get you to a place where you can actually get help? I would love to see the Certificate of Need.
process completely be scrapped and just have the hospitals have a licensing process, because I think that's reasonable. All right, well, we have lit up the phone line, so we're going to go ahead and take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to go straight to the phones, and I just realized Bob's been holding for a while. We will start with Bob and we will go down the line. We'll be right back.
Welcome back. We're going to go straight to the phones. And first up is Bob. Good morning, sir. Good morning, folks. I had some serious and some also not so serious comment about the possible asphalt we may have. If you'd like it. Yes, sir, I would. Okay, ready.alaska.gov now is the website where I find all kinds of updated...
emergency procedures manuals and guides and recommendations and stuff. And ready.alaska.gov has got all kinds of good news to me, suggestions of what to do in the event of an emergency. For instance, They now put out that you should have a big sign that you can hang on the front of your house saying, okay. Oh. Yeah, if the guys are driving by, you know, a fire or a medical.
and it's an emergency of various sorts, earthquakes and whatnot, you put earth okay out there, they're going to know that you don't need any help. And I'm wondering if we could also put like... Things you do need, like ice cream, root beer, au pair, whatever. Yeah, right. Speaking of Ash, John Kennedy, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, one of our better presidents, had a lot to say about that. He was very much against it.
He said, ask not what you can do for your country. I like this guy. Finally, one of the most frequently non-answered questions about things in general is, And this I learned from the Democrats is, what's the difference between a chicken's legs? What's the difference between a chicken's legs? And the answer, of course, is nothing. They're both the same as the other two. I'll leave it with that. thank you bob i appreciate your call this morning
All right. I got to tell you, we have the best callers, absolute best callers. All right. Next, we are going to none other than my state senator, Senator Shelley Hughes. Good morning, ma'am. Hey, good morning, Amy. I don't have a joke lined up. That was a pretty fun call you just had there. We have the best callers. We have the best callers. Yeah, I want to hop back to Daryl's story of the week about health care. And there are a couple things brewing I just think people ought to know in Juneau.
Because quietly, well, I'm not sure how quietly, among some of the clinicians, I'm not sure how quiet it was. But the governor a year or so ago repealed the 80th percentile rule to help lower health care costs. And you can look back at data and you can see in the 80s and the 90s, we were pretty similar in cost to the lower 48, maybe a couple percentages higher. And when that rule was implemented, it just shot up. The data is incredible.
So it's been repealed, but there's efforts to kind of put it back at the 75 percentile, which really wouldn't make a whole lot of difference. And Senator Kathy Giesel has that bill, and I'm very concerned about it. So I just want people to know, you know, we might have to work out something so the providers, I guess they're...
the reimbursements have gotten very, very low. So I'm not sure how we can fix that, but I just want people to be aware. And then there's another bill that just absolutely floored me because when telehealth first came along, I thought, wow, this is innovative. We're going to use technology. We're going to save the overhead administrative costs for the clinician. You don't have the medical assistant come in. You don't need a fancy lobby.
And the check-in person at the reception, you don't have to plow the parking lot. It's just going to save money, right? And also the provider can see a lot more patients in a short amount of time. Well, during COVID, we passed something that was going to sunset so that Medicaid and insurance companies, too, followed suit.
that telehealth would be the same cost as an in-person. And that idea was during COVID, they had to keep their businesses afloat, right? And so that was passed, but there's an effort now to repeal that. and to actually mandate now that private insurance pay the same cost, the same reimbursement for in-person as telehealth, which to me is ludicrous. It is one bright spot on the horizon that could help us lower health care costs. I just want people to be aware of that, that's related.
The next thing is I've got a bill, I've had it for a while, and it's called the Right to Shop Act, and it's for health care. And it actually, Amy, has the potential to nudge down our health care costs in a real way, not overnight. Not instantly that would make all the providers pack up and leave the state, but over time. And it would provide an incentive for people to actually shop. So if you picked a provider...
who charged a few thousand dollars less than the average cost, you would get to share in that savings of that few thousand dollars. You would get some of that. So it would actually motivate people who are insured to still shop. So it's working in other states, and that bill is going to be up on Friday at 1.30, so I just want to let people know next week.
And then I'm really excited because there is one I need your listeners' help, and that's the Sunset Commission is going to be up next Thursday for public testimony at 3.30. So very excited about that, and I hope that people will call in and say, we need this. This is our state's opportunity at a consistent doge with teeth. That's what the Sunset Commission is.
It is like DOGE at the federal level, except it would be ongoing, year in, year out, independent, objective look and audit at both cost and performance. But it has teeth because... The audit then would produce a bill that the legislature would have to take up or the agency they audited would sunset. So it would be a powerful tool to help rein in spending and keep our budget in check.
So that would be Senate Bill 107, right, the Alaska Sunset Commission bill? Yeah, Sunset. And then I'm looking at your bill sponsorship right now. SB4 must be your health care prices and Senate programs. Is that the other one? that you were talking about? Yeah, and there's no public testimony for that, so that's just going to be a presentation. We're going to bring folks in from Texas, where it has saved hundreds of millions of dollars. I'm sorry.
No, no, no, I'm getting mixed up. So Friday, the Right to Shop is going to be a presentation. But the 107, actually, the sunset, will bring in the people from Texas. It'll explain how it works. But there's also public testimony. And this is really important because the majorities are pushing, they're pushing a constitutional amendment to change how the permanent fund works. There's a lot of fiscal pieces out there, all these taxes.
And, you know, what we need to get through is the constitutional spending cap and the sunset commission. That is what we need before we do anything else. So it's important we have... Public testimony Thursday at 3.30 for SB 107. That's helpful. Senator Hughes, last night, District 26 had a meeting, and we had a robust discussion on SB 92, which is the tax bill on Hillcorp.
And our district unanimously, and it was a well-attended meeting, unanimously passed a resolution opposing SB 92. And part of the conversation, it was interesting to me.
because I wanted just to get your feedback if this sounds like, you know, it's legit. But I've had multiple legislators tell me now that with this huge increase to the BSA, the base student allocation, that was passed by the house the plan to pay for that bsa increase is basically money from the young tax and then from the per barrel tax credit credit reduction and then also from the pf
And then what they're going to attempt to do is at the end of session, leverage the CBR draw to make up the difference against any PFD distribution. Are you kind of hearing the same thing, or is that... Is that maybe not accurate? Yeah, I am hearing that. It's a very reckless, reckless plan. When I count noses, I don't actually see the votes to do all those things, so it's going to be interesting how it plays out.
I don't think there are the votes to go after the CBR. I don't think there are the votes for oil taxes. By the way, I am on Senate resources for these oil tax bills. It is a lot of fun. I'm in a minority. It's Senator Rob Myers and I. But, yeah, what they're putting forward and some of the information, it's so, so misleading.
But, yeah, I don't think there's a vote for all those things, but that's what they're pushing for. And I don't know. Hopefully there won't be certain people pressured. I think on the Senate side they could get things through. It's the House that's going to have to hold strong.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, it'll be interesting to see how it rolls out. I know in the House, I know it's in the name of the body, you don't generally comment on them, but this isn't surprising. Like in the House, they shut down all discussion on the floor about... discussing funding sources basically for the BSA. Like, don't you dare say PFD because it's not in the bill so you can't say it. But we all know if you pass an increase to the tunes of hundreds of millions of dollars every single year,
one you have to have a funding source and what is the most logical place that they're going to go for a number the first thing they're going to do is they're going to decrease the pfd we all know that and for them blocking even the conversation or even anybody talking about it i think
It's insulting to the intelligence of every single voter. So when we have these huge increases, like BSA spending, and I know you've weighed in on this multiple times, but the reality is, is what are we going to get for our money, and how are we going to pay for it? Absolutely, absolutely. At some point, we'll have to talk about the SB 112, which is changing the Pearl Barrel credit amount.
But part of the false comparison is comparing it back in 2013 when we passed SB 21, because when the Senate version passed out... It had a $5 instead of $8, but the rest of the bill was very different, and you have to look at tax policy as a whole. So there's a lot of false, misleading information out about that. I'm not sure. That might be a 10-10, actually, in the Senate. Ooh, it might be close.
Well, maybe we can get together in the next week or so and have a discussion on SB 112, because that's not a bill that we've talked about here on the air yet, and I think it would be helpful for us to have a little bit more time to kind of explain to people. what's in the bill and what impact it potentially has. But the big takeaway for me is as we start to see the Senate and the House kind of come together and pass their different pieces of legislation, what now I'm really watching for is
is how much more money are they spending and where are they going to take that money from. And I'm guessing that's what you're also tracking. Absolutely, yes. And, you know, if people want to weigh in on this or anything else, thank you yesterday for announcing my coffee chat. It is tomorrow, tomorrow Saturday. I'm flying back late tonight. Tomorrow Saturday at 10 a.m. at Affordable Catering.
having a coffee chat where people can come, they can share their views on all these different things. I can update people on various bills. And it's basically your time, the people's time to... Give me feedback. You know, Amy, a republic can't work unless there's back and forth communication because I'm supposed to represent the people back home. So these times of communication are so important. So I encourage people, 10 o'clock.
Affordable catering tomorrow morning. That's on the Palmer Wasilla Highway, kind of across from the old bowling alley. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well, I know right where it's at. It's a great spot. All right, Senator Shelley Hughes, I've got to go take a break, but thank you so much for calling in this morning. We covered a lot of ground, and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Sounds good. Bye-bye. All right, bye-bye. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.
Your morning expresso starts right here. It's the Sean Hannity Morning Minute. Germany sells eight German cars to our one car in Germany because of their 10% tariff and then their value-added tax. or national sales tax, which makes it financially impossible. And if we sell X number of dairy products, various dairy products to Canada, after you sell a certain amount at a 5% tariff rate, then they go to 250%.
And it's not free and fair trade. And, you know, the fact that the markets don't understand that Donald Trump is in the middle of a negotiation here is kind of hard to comprehend, that they have no curiosity about what the thinking of Donald Trump is in this. The thinking is to get them to the table and to either choose free or fair trade or reciprocal tariffs. The Sean Hannity Show from coast to coast later today.
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Anchorage Anchorage is seeing its heaviest snowfall accumulation since November. Alaska's news source reports the municipality received a little more than six and a half inches as of 11 a.m. yesterday. That's more than the total snowfall for December, January, and February combined.
Last time Anchorage saw this much snow was November 15th of last year. The Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport is taking responsibility for the removal of a tree housing an eagle's nest in an Anchorage neighborhood. Airport officials tell Alaska's news source they cut down the tree near Kincade Elementary School over... We'll be right back.
enters its final stretch. The 2018 Rookie of the Year blew through the safety checkpoint en route to the finish line in Nome at about a quarter to midnight last night. That's the latest. I'm John Fink. What happens next happens here. NewsRadio 650 KENI 628 Mornings on NewsRadio 650 KENI Call now 907-522-0650 Welcome back, Current Time 740. We're going to go ahead and go straight to the phones. We'll start with Randy. Good morning, sir. Today is Pi Day. Yes, today is Pi Day, isn't it? Yes.
For my friends in Peters Creek, Lucy Mays has a pie sale today, and every slice of pie is $3.14. So it's $3.14, just so you know. So enjoy your pie day. I think I might have to stop by and get a piece. Yes, indeed. I was going to tell a baked potato joke. Instead, I was going to tell a pie joke. Okay, go for it. The pie joke just kept running on and on and on and on. I didn't stop.
That's a good one. It's a good one. It never ends. I don't know what to tell you, Randy. The pie never ends. It never ends. Well, I don't have a pie joke, but I have a different joke for you. I've been saving this one. All right? Okay. Did you hear about the Italian show? Jeff that died? No. He passed away. Oh, that's my style of Jeff there.
He passed away. All right, what do you got for me today on this glorious Friday? Well, that's basically it, but the call before Stone and Sheila Hughes is... Spot on with it, ready for the information from the state. And they'll send you, he said, I think he said, they'll send you some little handouts.
that you get a flip chart to tell you what to do on different type of emergencies like earthquakes, et cetera. But in the very back of that little handout, It's something you stick to the door and say, yeah, okay, what Jesus is talking about. That's a good idea. Ready.Alaska.gov is the place where you start. It's the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management at the state, and they have lots and lots of emergency preparedness information.
All kinds of good stuff that you can think about. So I think that's a really good plug. Hey, Randy, I'm looking forward to seeing you and Susan tomorrow night at Settlers Bay. Likewise. All right, my friend. You too. I'll see you tomorrow, sir. All right, bye-bye. All right, let's go to Dr. Ilona Farr. Good morning, ma'am. Hey, good morning. So what people don't realize is the insurance companies and the government basically control all reimbursement rates.
And now that they're controlling these certificates of need, it's very difficult for people to actually get the care they need because they're limiting facilities. Yeah, and that's what they're doing is the government is putting their finger on the scale of competition, and it's like they're protecting.
They're closing the market. And, you know, the other part that we didn't really talk about with the regional thing that I think is important for everybody to realize, all regional is saying is give me permission to build my own standing emergency room. We'll pay for it. We'll provide the care.
We'll make sure we have, you know, licensed doctors and everything there. We'll follow all your rules. We just need permission to allow us to invest in your community. And they're not asking for anything from the state, just permission to be able to invest in our community. And I think that's a big, I think the whole certificate of need process, frankly, should go away. I think the licensing process is adequate to regulate medical providers. Yeah, and then I wanted to correct Shelly Hughes.
That 80th percentile rule was huge. I will tell you this. I went back and looked at my... charges and everything like that. We've gotten price decreases by the insurance companies every year since 2010 for Blue Cross in particular. Every year since 2010. And so this 80th percentile rule, when they eliminated it, all of a sudden I went from getting paid at about the 66th percentile clear to the 17th percentile.
So that has a huge impact. And I know several physicians that have gone out of business because they haven't gotten paid. One of them said they hadn't taken a salary in three years. So this is having a huge impact. It's impacting my... practice because patients are having to actually pay out of pocket because the insurance company is not picking up its share at all, even for physicals. Even when people have the out of network for Blue Cross that's supposed to cover us.
They're not even paying for physicals. And so it's going to drive private practice doctors out of business unless something is done about this. And as to telehealth, they're not paying the same as they are. My overhead is the same whether I do a telehealth or...
And sometimes with telehealth it actually takes longer because the patients don't know where the blood pressure cuffs are, their thermometers are, their medications are, and everything else. And so sometimes telehealth takes much longer than a regular office visit.
So, you know, and we are not getting reimbursed at the same rate for those. So there's a lot of misinformation out there, and I need to get the information to Shelly to correct her and show her what's really going on in the private sector.
Well, we appreciate you bringing the issue up because the one thing that we talk about, there's no question, you know, we really started seeing it after Obamacare. You know, once they started forcing people to try to get to this one-payer health system or what, you know, it's... It seems like the cost of health care has really, or the cost of insurance, let's put it that way, has really gone up. And for providers,
I can only imagine what the impact has been in your practices with different types of reporting requirements, different types of regulations. When can you get back to actually just providing health care for, I mean, how much time do you actually spend doing regulation? stuff versus providing health care? Oh, a lot of time. I'd say at least 20%, 30% now because we've got prior authorizations for, you know, CT scans, MRIs, for prescriptions.
all different kinds of things, and it's a tremendous increase in overhead. We used to see 23 patients a day, and now you're lucky if you can see 10 to 12 because of all the increased documentation requirements. and everything else. Billing is more complicated. I mean, there's just a lot of different things that have increased the cost of health care.
Yeah, no doubt about it. Well, Dr. Barr, as always, it's fascinating when we have these conversations with you. I have one last question for you. You know, we're seeing a lot on the news now about measles in the U.S., which is kind of a relatively new thing. recently, again, measles popping up. What are your thoughts on that, and what should people be concerned about, or how do they prepare? Well, basically, I think they need to do their vitamin D, vitamin C, the usual things, good hygiene.
evidence Dr. McCullough sent out a news blurb that For kids, you can do 100,000 units of vitamin A for two doses only, and for adults, it's 200,000 units for two days only because vitamin A can be toxic long-term. but it shortens the duration of measles and helps prevent, you know, more serious outcomes. And so anyway, there are some things that people can do, but the big thing is just good hygiene. I mean, most people up here have gotten their original measles vaccines and stuff.
So a lot of people are already protected against it. But it's wise to be prepared for it. And then bird flu, what they're doing, I agree with RFK. You know, when you have bird flu go through a flock, and it's in the wild birds, and it's been with us since the early 2000s. Basically, it kills about 10% of the flock. The rest have immunity, and then immunity, according to an immunologist I was listening to online, is passed normally to us through chicken eggs.
So by destroying all these herds, all we're doing is destroying our food supply, destroying our ability to get some natural immunity, and it's really a bad thing. So I'm really glad that RFK is kind of looking at things and hopefully will stop this destruction of our poultry population started under Biden and help bring down the cost of food.
Absolutely. Well, Dr. Farr, as always, I appreciate you calling in this morning. The topics that we can discuss, it seems like, are always endless, but we really appreciate you weighing in. Thank you so much for the call this morning. Thank you. Bye. All right. Bye-bye. We're going to take a quick break.
If you'd like to call in one final segment left, 522-0650. Looking at your Alaska total traffic cameras on this Friday morning. Traffic's moving pretty well around the Anchorage Bowl. There are a few slick spots out there.
Visit PCADevZone.org. While some flurries can't be ruled out for the first part of your Friday, we are on the drier side with some overcast skies to start off the day. Some afternoon breaks in the clouds will arrive with some peaks of sunshine. Temperatures today warming into the mid-30s. For Alaska's weather source, I'm meteorologist Aaron Morrison. Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI.
Welcome back, current time, 752. I'm going to go straight to the phones, and Annette is with us. Good morning, ma'am. Good morning, Annette. I do believe her name was Annette. I just talked to you a moment ago. All right, well, I'm going to put her back on hold, Daryl. I'll see if you can get her back up online. All right, so I put her back on hold. But, you know, I will tell you, there's a lot of good conversations to be had. And I think she hung up. She maybe got nervous.
She maybe got nervous, but she made a good point. Daryl expressed it to me. She was talking about medical tourism and the high cost. I mean, we see it with Canadians now who, frankly, go to the U.S. because they can't get care in.
Canada because they are put on these long waiting lists and you know for your cancer treatment or whatever I mean sometimes you just gotta you gotta get treated we see the same thing with with Mexico sometimes people especially in Arizona and some of those states they were
go across the border to Mexico, and they'll get medical treatment, dental treatment. Another place, it was interesting when we talk about medical tourism, I've seen a huge discussion about medical tourism in the Philippines and Thailand. different types of plastic surgery and then IVF type of surgeries over in like Dubai you know those type of areas where they do so I think medical tourism depending on what you need and where you want to go Different parts of the world, you know, are really...
Cutting edge, so to speak. No pun intended. Actually, that was a really good pun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of people are leaning, like I said, they're leaning into it. Like I said, I've heard about going to Thailand for plastic surgery. The Philippines for a long time.
A lot of medical ones. You've got to watch out with that one, though, because they've got, like, the face healers over there and stuff like that. And not exactly the best medical treatment you want to go for, just in a personal opinion. I know people who've done it. Yeah. Yeah, no. Yeah. Well, I will tell you, there's no shortage of things to discuss. One issue that I wanted to bring up this week that I've been noticing, and it makes me laugh all week long, I've noticed it.
all of a sudden you're seeing Democrats, prominent Democrats routinely now showing up on Fox News. Oh, yeah. You know, before, the Democrats would completely, during the Obama era, right, the Democrats would ice out Fox News. They would just go to CNN, MSNBC, you know, their type of stations. But I think what has... The Democrats are starting to realize that, hey, guess what?
More people, a lot more people, it's not even close, watch conservative TV, talk on conservative radio, and Democrats are now starting to show up because they realize... After the Trump win, you lose the Senate. The House is retained by the Republicans. You lose the presidency in a landslide victory. Democrats don't have a real leader of their party. They're struggling on their message. But yesterday, Bill de Blasio.
Fox News. I have been watching every single day this week. I'm watching the uptick of more and more Democrats. What this tells me is we're winning. They realize we are winning the message with the American people. The ratings are on these conservative stations, whether it's One American News, whether it's Fox News or the others, the ratings are just out.
absolutely crushing the liberal stations. And now the politicians are starting to realize we may have to hold our nose and go on Fox News, but now we have to be accountable and we have to show up where the people are. And it's just incredible for me to watch.
Watch it, Daryl. It's a thing of beauty. Well, that and also a bunch of the liberal shows are being forced or news agencies to bring on conservatives, actual real conservatives and be polite to them and listen to what they're saying. It's literally some of them is just like, wow. They actually let them on there and speak their piece. Well, and here's the thing.
As a conservative, I'm never afraid to let the other side have their opinion. Guys, to start off the day, some afternoon breaks in the clouds will arrive with some peaks of sunshine, temperatures today warming into the mid-30s. For Alaska's weather source, I'm meteorologist. Welcome back to live, local, and insightful Morning Drive Radio on NewsRadio 650 KENI.
Welcome back, current time, 752. I'm going to go straight to the phones, and Annette is with us. Good morning, ma'am. Good morning, Annette. I do believe her name was Annette. I just talked to you a moment ago. All right, well, I'm going to put her back on hold, Daryl. I'll see if you can get her back up online. All right, so I put her back on hold. But, you know, I will tell you, there's a lot of good conversations to be had. And I think she hung up. She maybe got nervous.
She maybe got nervous, but she made a good point. Daryl expressed it to me. She was talking about medical tourism and the high cost. I mean, we see it with Canadians now who, frankly, go to the U.S. because they can't get care in.
Canada because they are put on these long waiting lists and you know for your cancer treatment or whatever I mean sometimes you just gotta you gotta get treated we see the same thing with with Mexico sometimes people especially in Arizona and some of those states they were
go across the border to Mexico, and they'll get medical treatment, dental treatment. Another place, it was interesting when we talk about medical tourism, I've seen a huge discussion about medical tourism in the Philippines and Thailand. different types of plastic surgery and then IVF type of surgeries over in like Dubai you know those type of areas where they do so I think medical tourism depending on what you need and where you want to go different parts of the world you know are really
Cutting edge, so to speak. No pun intended. Actually, that was a really good pun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of people are leaning, like I said, they're leaning into it. Like I said, I've heard about going to Thailand for plastic surgery. The Philippines for a long time.
A lot of medical ones. You've got to watch out with that one, though, because they've got, like, the face healers over there and stuff like that. And not exactly the best medical treatment you want to go for, just in a personal opinion. I know people who've done it. Yeah. Yeah, no. Yeah. Well, I will tell you, there's no shortage of things to discuss. One issue that I wanted to bring up this week that I've been noticing, and it makes me laugh all week long, I've noticed it.
All of a sudden, you're seeing Democrats, prominent Democrats routinely now showing up on Fox News. Oh yeah. You know, before, the Democrats would completely, during the Obama era, right, the Democrats would ice out Fox News. They would just go to CNN, MSNBC, you know, their type of stations. But I think what has... The Democrats are starting to realize that, hey, guess what?
More people, a lot more people, it's not even close, watch conservative TV, talk on conservative radio, and Democrats are now starting to show up because they realize... After the Trump win, you lose the Senate. The House is retained by the Republicans. You lose the presidency in a landslide victory. Democrats don't have a real leader of their party. They're struggling on their message. But yesterday, Bill de Blasio.
on Fox News. I have been watching every single day this week. I'm watching the uptick of more and more Democrats. What this tells me is we're winning. They realize we are winning the message with the American people. The ratings on these conservative stations, whether it's One American News, whether it's Fox News or the others, the ratings are just out.
absolutely crushing the liberal stations and now the politicians are starting to realize we may have to hold our nose and go on Fox News but now we have to be accountable and we have to show up where the people are and it's just incredible for me to watch
Watch it, Daryl. It's a thing of beauty. Well, that and also a bunch of the liberal shows are being forced or news agencies to bring on conservatives, actual real conservatives and be polite to them and listen to what they're saying. It's literally some of them is just like, wow. They actually let them on there and speak their piece. Well, and here's the thing.
As a conservative, I'm never afraid to let the other side have their opinion. And generally speaking, when somebody disagrees with me, I give them more time on my show. That's generally what I do because I'm always fascinated. I'm a little competitive. Number one, I'm checking to see, am I missing something? Are they making a cool, collected, and rational argument that I maybe missed something? I will always consider that.
But another part of Amy is, hmm, where's the weakness in your argument so I can dissect it? Dissect it. I'll just say I'm a little competitive. It may be a problem for me. But it is one of the things that I say, look, I appreciate them coming to the table to have the conversation because I think in the battle of ideas, we win.
When it comes to liberty, when it comes to keeping taxes low, when it comes to limited government, I will take that argument to the American people every single day of the week, and I bet you we can win. All right, that does it for us for this week. I hope everybody has an awesome weekend. Daryl and I will be back with you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on Monday morning at 6 a.m. Until then, stay safe. God bless. He's back, and he's got even more to say.
Hear the O'Reilly Update with Bill O'Reilly. Only on News Radio 650 KENI. My name is Kyle Tequila, host of the shocking new true crime podcast, Crook County.