Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Jimmy Kimmel and Google Data Centers

Transcript

Jimmy Kimmel and Google Data Centers · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

0:00
Speaker 1: Peyton. Last night I went down to the Orpheum and
0:02
Speaker 1: I saw Mama Mia and it was so great. This
0:07
Speaker 1: is the third time I've seen it. I saw it
0:08
Speaker 1: one time in Omaha, one time on Broadway. It was packed.
0:11
Speaker 1: It was really really fun, a good musical. And Emery
0:15
Speaker 1: was there. I saw a picture of him and his
0:17
Speaker 1: wife there. I didn't run into him, but he was
0:20
Speaker 1: there last night too and thought it was a great show.
0:23
Speaker 1: So highly recommend it, highly highly recommend it. And yes,
0:26
Speaker 1: whatever Buddy is saying about downtown, it is really difficult
0:32
Speaker 1: to maneuver your way around downtown. Like I said, I
0:36
Speaker 1: was downtown every single day for twelve years and I
0:39
Speaker 1: know downtown. But there's no doubt that the construction down
0:44
Speaker 1: there is causing a lot of confusion. It is, but
0:48
Speaker 1: still I still support the street car. I still will
0:51
Speaker 1: say when it is done, people are going to love it.
0:54
Speaker 1: But holy cow, it is confusing down there now. So
0:58
Speaker 1: hopefully that the city of all will keep up with
1:01
Speaker 1: helping people with wayfinding down there, keeping people notified, Hopefully
1:06
Speaker 1: those businesses that are being affected now it'll be temporary
1:11
Speaker 1: and when it's done it's going to benefit everybody down there.
1:14
Speaker 1: But I'm sure everybody has a lot of comments about
1:17
Speaker 1: the streetcar if they've been downtown lately too. But you know,
1:21
Speaker 1: yesterday we had Jim Smith on Jim Smith as a
1:24
Speaker 1: former Nebraska legislator. He is running for the OPPD board,
1:27
Speaker 1: and I think a lot he said is worth repeating.
1:31
Speaker 1: Some of it is worth repeating. Are re emphasizing today
1:35
Speaker 1: because the fact of the matter is is, you know,
1:37
Speaker 1: Nebraska is the only state in the United States that
1:41
Speaker 1: has one hundred percent publicly owned electric utilities. No other does,
1:46
Speaker 1: and OPPD serves nearly half of our state's population. It
1:50
Speaker 1: serves over five thousand square miles thirteen counties. It's the
1:55
Speaker 1: twelfth largest public utility in the nation, and they have
1:59
Speaker 1: an operating budget of approximately three billion dollars twenty one
2:03
Speaker 1: hundred employees. It's a big operation, but it affects every
2:07
Speaker 1: one of us every single day. I mean all of us.
2:11
Speaker 1: Just you just depend and expect when you flip a
2:14
Speaker 1: light or turn on your microwave or whatever, it's going
2:17
Speaker 1: to work. And we want dependable service, but we also
2:21
Speaker 1: want affordable service. One thing that Jim Smith brought up yesterday,
2:25
Speaker 1: which I think is worth repeating, is because we have
2:29
Speaker 1: this really unique regulatory structure in the state of Nebraska.
2:32
Speaker 1: Usually the price setting and the power supply policies, those
2:38
Speaker 1: practices are typically regulated by the respective state's Public Service Commission.
2:43
Speaker 1: But Nebraska is unique and the Public Service Commission has
2:47
Speaker 1: no jurisdiction over the electric utilities in Nebraska, but instead everything,
2:55
Speaker 1: the pricing, the policies, it all rests with the elected
2:59
Speaker 1: utility board. And these are eight people that are elected
3:03
Speaker 1: by the public. So the public needs to really pay
3:06
Speaker 1: attention and get on board to who they're electing to
3:10
Speaker 1: the OPPD Board. Now, one thing Jim Smith talked about
3:14
Speaker 1: was accountability, and he talked about the OPPD board, the
3:18
Speaker 1: present one, and he did mention two years ago they
3:22
Speaker 1: voted to approve doubling their salary. That is something that
3:27
Speaker 1: is very difficult for an elected official to do and
3:31
Speaker 1: really get away with. You know, my salary increase when
3:34
Speaker 1: I was the mayor. I explained at one time that
3:37
Speaker 1: when I was still in city council, when I was
3:39
Speaker 1: first elected, I dropped my salary by ten percent and
3:42
Speaker 1: I froze it for four years. I thought that was
3:44
Speaker 1: sending a good message. Turned out, wasn't that great of
3:47
Speaker 1: a message that I sent because now every mayor after
3:50
Speaker 1: me gets paid a lot less than they really should
3:53
Speaker 1: be paid. But the city council then sets the mayor's
3:56
Speaker 1: salary for four years at a time. The mayor has
3:58
Speaker 1: no say over the salary. And the most my salary
4:02
Speaker 1: went up was two percent a year. That was about
4:04
Speaker 1: it after that freeze. So OPPD board doubled their compensation.
4:10
Speaker 1: But a caller right after called in and said, you
4:13
Speaker 1: ought to look up what the president and CEO salary is,
4:16
Speaker 1: and I mentioned him. His name is Javier Fernandez. I
4:20
Speaker 1: know him, a great guy. He does a great job.
4:22
Speaker 1: But in twenty twenty four, that same board, the OPPD
4:26
Speaker 1: board elected, they increased his salary by seventy two thousand
4:32
Speaker 1: in one year, and that makes his salary right now
4:36
Speaker 1: eight hundred and fifty six thousand dollars a year. So
4:40
Speaker 1: the president and CEO of OPPD in this is public knowledge,
4:44
Speaker 1: so you know, we have every right to talk about
4:47
Speaker 1: it here. His salary went up at least ten percent there.
4:51
Speaker 1: And when you have a salary of eight hundred thousand
4:53
Speaker 1: and it goes up ten percent, that's a lot a jack.
4:56
Speaker 1: And so he makes eight hundred and fifty six thousand
4:59
Speaker 1: a year.
5:00
Speaker 2: So he had a pay raise of seventy two thousand
5:02
Speaker 2: dollars increase, that.
5:03
Speaker 1: Is correct in twenty twenty four, which is a lot
5:06
Speaker 1: more than many Omahans make an entire Yeah.
5:11
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, and this is coming shortly after the board
5:14
Speaker 2: voted to double it.
5:15
Speaker 1: If I heard you correctly, the board voted to double
5:18
Speaker 1: their own salary, their own compensation, the eight members, and
5:22
Speaker 1: then they voted to increase his salary by seventy two thousand,
5:26
Speaker 1: up to eight hundred and fifty six thousand dollars a year. Now,
5:30
Speaker 1: when you put that in perspective, you say, okay, I mean,
5:33
Speaker 1: is that what typically competitive directors make. Well, it's hard
5:38
Speaker 1: to tell because we are the only publicly owned utility
5:42
Speaker 1: company in the country. But then if you look at
5:45
Speaker 1: what is happening and what else the board votes on,
5:48
Speaker 1: and Jim brought this up yesterday too. They raised rates
5:52
Speaker 1: in twenty four and twenty five over six percent a
5:55
Speaker 1: year for us to pay and they said that they
6:00
Speaker 1: indicated now that they will have an annual rate increase
6:03
Speaker 1: of six to nine percent through twenty thirty and a
6:08
Speaker 1: lot of this is not sustainable for families in Omaha here,
6:12
Speaker 1: and it just gets under people's skin when they see
6:15
Speaker 1: the leaders making these decisions and making these rate increases
6:21
Speaker 1: that can turn out to be not sustainable and affordable
6:25
Speaker 1: for families and to double their own salary and have
6:28
Speaker 1: such huge compensation now, you know whatever. I would like
6:32
Speaker 1: to know what people think about this, because maybe people
6:34
Speaker 1: think they're worth every penny of it. But we go
6:37
Speaker 1: back to the reliability issue too. You expect if you
6:41
Speaker 1: are paying a lot of money for power, for it
6:43
Speaker 1: to be reliable. And there's some things that I personally
6:48
Speaker 1: think and I'd love to hear what the audience has
6:50
Speaker 1: to say about it, that need to be revisited because
6:55
Speaker 1: they have a goal of this net zero emission strategy
7:00
Speaker 1: twenty fifty and that led to the attempts to close
7:04
Speaker 1: the North Omaha coal units and to have what I
7:08
Speaker 1: would consider an over reliance on natural gas and renewable plants.
7:12
Speaker 1: Do we need to rethink this? Do we need to
7:14
Speaker 1: review it and re examine this? Because because of this,
7:19
Speaker 1: are we going to be experiencing more outages and more
7:25
Speaker 1: longer duration of outages in our area? And are we
7:29
Speaker 1: relying right now too heavily on this mutual aid from
7:32
Speaker 1: other utilities to restore our services and not have enough
7:37
Speaker 1: crews here in Omaha that can work on those things.
7:40
Speaker 1: And so these are and the heat brought up the
7:44
Speaker 1: trees to the vegetation management is what they call it.
7:47
Speaker 1: And do they need more linemen and more maintenance people
7:51
Speaker 1: with OPPD to keep up with this because those lift
7:54
Speaker 1: theres is even a windstorm and we don't keep the
7:57
Speaker 1: trees pulled back are trimmed back and they damage the lines,
8:02
Speaker 1: then the power outages happen again. And so are some
8:06
Speaker 1: of these things unproven? Are they unrealistic measures until we
8:13
Speaker 1: get and achieve the ability to create more power in
8:17
Speaker 1: this area? Excuse me? It has been said many times
8:21
Speaker 1: from OPPD that the estimates are that we will need
8:24
Speaker 1: to double what our power needs are going to be
8:28
Speaker 1: in the next ten years, double what we provide now.
8:32
Speaker 1: And another thing people bring up a lot is they
8:34
Speaker 1: will say, well, it's those huge data centers that are
8:37
Speaker 1: going in And you know, one of the things Jim
8:40
Speaker 1: Smith brought up yesterday which I tend to agree on,
8:43
Speaker 1: those data centers are very good for the area. I
8:47
Speaker 1: said yesterday, we have the biggest presence of the cloud
8:50
Speaker 1: in the entire world here when the one in northwest
8:52
Speaker 1: Omaha is open. But are they responsible for the shortage
8:56
Speaker 1: or is it just the management of OPBD and their
9:00
Speaker 1: policies to this point? And so the board alone is
9:04
Speaker 1: responsible for budget decisions, retirement of the power plants, and
9:09
Speaker 1: the rate deals created for the data centers. And so
9:12
Speaker 1: there is a lot that I think people need to
9:15
Speaker 1: keep in mind and how important it is. I did
9:18
Speaker 1: ask about the wind turbines because so many people say
9:22
Speaker 1: why don't we have more wind farms and turbine farms
9:26
Speaker 1: and windmills and the state of Nebraska because if you
9:29
Speaker 1: drive east and you drive to Iowa, you see them
9:31
Speaker 1: all the time. And I always thought it was an
9:34
Speaker 1: issue of they're very expensive, they do break down easily,
9:38
Speaker 1: and are they that effective and do they create enough power?
9:42
Speaker 1: And Jim said, it's a lot more about the regulatory
9:46
Speaker 1: measures that we are under or not under, and the
9:49
Speaker 1: lack of money we get from federal government to do
9:51
Speaker 1: things like that. So anyway, it's very important. I think
9:55
Speaker 1: it's important to repeat some of the issues that he
9:58
Speaker 1: brought up yesterday. One of the things that's a hot
10:00
Speaker 1: item now is these building, these little they call them
10:03
Speaker 1: mini nuclear reactors, and there's there's basically two kind and
10:08
Speaker 1: there's one called a microreactor, and that brings in about
10:11
Speaker 1: one to twenty megawatts of nuclear energy. And then there's
10:15
Speaker 1: the other one that's called a small modular reactor, and
10:18
Speaker 1: that brings in more about twenty to three hundred megawats.
10:21
Speaker 1: And so these are things that they're talking a lot
10:24
Speaker 1: about for future power. But Jim said yesterday, even the
10:28
Speaker 1: smallest one, the microreactor, he estimates about five to ten
10:32
Speaker 1: years for adoption, and for the other one, the small modular,
10:36
Speaker 1: about ten years to construct. So that's nothing that we
10:40
Speaker 1: can count on in the near future. But I thought
10:42
Speaker 1: that these are good things to bring up, and I
10:44
Speaker 1: thought that salary thing is a good thing to bring
10:47
Speaker 1: up too.
10:47
Speaker 2: Yes, and the Cafe B comment line you can call
10:50
Speaker 2: us for zero two five five, eight eleven ten. There's
10:52
Speaker 2: a few different topics that Gene has asked about today,
10:55
Speaker 2: speaking of the Google Data centers and OPPD. Let's head
10:58
Speaker 2: to the phone lines. We have Michael. Michael, thank you
11:01
Speaker 2: for calling News Radio eleven to ten kfa B. You
11:04
Speaker 2: are live with jeanst Author.
11:06
Speaker 3: Good morning, are you this morning?
11:08
Speaker 1: Very good? Thank you?
11:11
Speaker 3: I talked to you last week about annexation, and your
11:14
Speaker 3: information then was very good. Uh. Coincidentally, that very afternoon
11:18
Speaker 3: in the mail, I received a letter from you, and
11:21
Speaker 3: I plan on making a contribution to that.
11:24
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, you received you received a letter from me?
11:29
Speaker 4: Yes?
11:30
Speaker 1: I did. Oh, I bet it was a letter from
11:32
Speaker 1: me about a candidate. Yeah, okay, got it, got it? Yes,
11:36
Speaker 1: I was. I was helping out a political candidate and
11:40
Speaker 1: I sent a letter out on her behalf. Well, thank you?
11:42
Speaker 3: Thought that was saw my question on the on the
11:46
Speaker 3: Google data center. It's a brief summary of what my
11:50
Speaker 3: question will be. Is that data center is located uh
11:54
Speaker 3: northwest of Blair high Road and State Street. Yes, it
11:58
Speaker 3: consists I think it consider to four buildings, although I've
12:01
Speaker 3: heard rumors that they're planning a fifth and a sixth building.
12:06
Speaker 3: Two of the buildings are operational, and I think buildings
12:08
Speaker 3: three and four are in different phases of construction. So
12:13
Speaker 3: OPPD constructed a substation of one hundred and fourteenth and
12:18
Speaker 3: State Street. That substation is served by two really big,
12:25
Speaker 3: ugly transmission lines. They're run east from there, probably two
12:29
Speaker 3: or three miles and connect to existing OPPD transmission lines.
12:35
Speaker 3: They are currently constructing a third transmission line to that
12:39
Speaker 3: substation that runs from the existing OPPD substation at about
12:44
Speaker 3: one hundred and fortieth in state runs a little over
12:47
Speaker 3: two miles to this substation at one hundred and fourteenth Street.
12:52
Speaker 3: So my question is, and there's probably three answers of
12:55
Speaker 3: this question. One, Google paid for all that stuff, which
13:00
Speaker 3: would be the preferred answer. Two is OPPD pays for
13:06
Speaker 3: all that infrastructure to that stubstation and then charges this
13:09
Speaker 3: Google a much higher commercial utility rate to reimburse the
13:15
Speaker 3: OPPD for all those costs and interest on that, because
13:20
Speaker 3: those those transmission lines have to cost into millions of
13:23
Speaker 3: dollars or third opp pays for that, and Google doesn't
13:30
Speaker 3: reimburse that, and then all the customers that are part
13:35
Speaker 3: of the OPPD service area are basically subsidizing the electrical service,
13:40
Speaker 3: not the electrical power, but the electrical service to a
13:45
Speaker 3: multimillion billion dollar corporation's data center campus campus. I don't
13:51
Speaker 3: think you maybe have the answer to that, but I'm
13:53
Speaker 3: sure you can have ability to talk to people that
13:56
Speaker 3: could answer that question.
13:58
Speaker 1: I you know, I do not have all of the
14:01
Speaker 1: answers that you are proposing here today, but Interestingly enough,
14:05
Speaker 1: I drove right by that last night, and I know
14:08
Speaker 1: exactly what you're talking about. I went to an event
14:10
Speaker 1: up there and Blair and I drove right by there
14:14
Speaker 1: and it I mean, it's massive and when you see
14:16
Speaker 1: those transmission lines, it's unbelievable what they're building there. The
14:21
Speaker 1: one thing that I do know is going back to
14:24
Speaker 1: the board, the OPPD board, the eight member board. They
14:29
Speaker 1: are the ones that determine the rate deals that are
14:33
Speaker 1: created for these data centers. Now, typically the data centers
14:37
Speaker 1: will pay for the development obviously of the data center
14:41
Speaker 1: and the construction, but they will basically say, okay, we
14:45
Speaker 1: need the power to power this, and then it's up
14:48
Speaker 1: to the power company to create these deals and to
14:52
Speaker 1: then figure out how they're going to get that power
14:55
Speaker 1: to these data centers. And you know, data centers are important.
15:00
Speaker 1: I don't want to give the idea that we shouldn't
15:02
Speaker 1: be building these because they are at the leading edge
15:06
Speaker 1: of AI, and they also provide Nebraska with a real
15:09
Speaker 1: competitive advantage. Like I said, we have the biggest we
15:13
Speaker 1: will have the biggest presence of the cloud in the
15:15
Speaker 1: entire world here. But I guess the question is should
15:18
Speaker 1: Nebraska modify its regulatory structure and the state statutes to
15:24
Speaker 1: allow these privately owned companies to create and then they
15:30
Speaker 1: would be able to create more incentives for data centers
15:33
Speaker 1: to help solve the state's power supply issues. And I
15:37
Speaker 1: think that's what we need to be doing now. And
15:40
Speaker 1: this is on the state level now. As far as
15:43
Speaker 1: who pays for it, to my knowledge, and I will
15:46
Speaker 1: try to find out a better answer for you, but
15:50
Speaker 1: they will say, you know that we need power to
15:52
Speaker 1: power this data center that we're doing, and we need
15:56
Speaker 1: o PPD to provide it. But there is a deal
15:59
Speaker 1: creator or an agreement created between OPPD board and those
16:03
Speaker 1: data centers about what rates that they will be charged
16:08
Speaker 1: for the power that they are getting. So I mean
16:11
Speaker 1: that's basically what I think it is right now. I
16:15
Speaker 1: don't think it's just that Google comes in and says
16:17
Speaker 1: we're going to build this and you all provide the
16:20
Speaker 1: power and your rate payers will pay for it for us,
16:23
Speaker 1: that's not it. They will be paying for that power.
16:26
Speaker 1: The issue is is who's going to be paying for
16:29
Speaker 1: and what will be the creation of that source of power.
16:33
Speaker 1: And if we have to double the source of power
16:35
Speaker 1: here in the next ten years, and we want to
16:38
Speaker 1: prevent further outages for all the residents and the homeowners
16:41
Speaker 1: and the other businesses. And we want it to be
16:44
Speaker 1: more reliable because the outages are increasing, and we want
16:47
Speaker 1: it to be affordable. Those are all things that we
16:50
Speaker 1: need to be concerned with. So that again is why
16:53
Speaker 1: I think people really need to pay attention to who
16:56
Speaker 1: they are electing and who is sitting on that board,
16:59
Speaker 1: because they have a huge, huge amount of authority.
17:03
Speaker 2: Very interesting. We got another one here coming from Cheryl.
17:06
Speaker 1: Cheryl.
17:06
Speaker 2: You are live with Gene Stuth here on news radio
17:08
Speaker 2: eleven ten kfab.
17:11
Speaker 4: Thank you, Hyjene and Cheryl.
17:13
Speaker 3: Hi.
17:15
Speaker 4: A while back, I heard Texas was having trouble due
17:19
Speaker 4: to the weather and also OPPD provided them electricity. I wondered,
17:26
Speaker 4: how did we get into this arrangement. I think it
17:28
Speaker 4: involves a few more states.
17:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I would have to do a
17:33
Speaker 1: little more research on that because I really can't answer that.
17:36
Speaker 1: I know that there is mutual aid, I know that
17:39
Speaker 1: there was a lot being said about the power sources
17:44
Speaker 1: in the state of Texas and what other states were doing.
17:49
Speaker 1: I would have to get back with you to give
17:52
Speaker 1: you a better answer because I hesitate to say something
17:56
Speaker 1: if I'm not absolutely sure about it, and I'm not
17:59
Speaker 1: absolutely sure about this, But I could sure get back
18:03
Speaker 1: at the next show and answer that question for you,
18:07
Speaker 1: because I know that there is a way that they
18:09
Speaker 1: are doing that, that they are providing aid. I can't
18:12
Speaker 1: tell you exactly how it works. And Peyton is chair
18:15
Speaker 1: dancing again over there.
18:17
Speaker 2: Yes, my head is bob, that's for sure.
18:19
Speaker 1: He's bobbin over there, that's for sure.
18:21
Speaker 5: You know.
18:21
Speaker 1: I just want to touch on briefly if we could,
18:24
Speaker 1: and get your opinion on this to our listeners. But
18:26
Speaker 1: the issue with Jimmy Kimmel, It's been covered constantly on
18:31
Speaker 1: the news, but the statement that he made of the
18:34
Speaker 1: glow of an expectant widow about Milania Trump, and just
18:39
Speaker 1: to get your thoughts on that. You know, there's a
18:41
Speaker 1: lot of debate right now within the public whether the
18:45
Speaker 1: FCC or the government should get more involved in this.
18:49
Speaker 1: You know, many say the more the government does, the
18:52
Speaker 1: less many feel like they need to. But is this necessary?
18:56
Speaker 1: A lot of it goes back to the issue of
18:58
Speaker 1: First Amendment for to misspeech. It depends a lot. And
19:04
Speaker 1: I'm just going to say how I'm thinking about this
19:07
Speaker 1: on whether Jimmy Kimmel's show is classified as a news show,
19:12
Speaker 1: good Lord, I hope not, or an entertainment show because
19:16
Speaker 1: they are regulated different. I mean, I go back to
19:19
Speaker 1: the old days for the nighttime TV. I think Dateline
19:24
Speaker 1: was a news show that Jimmy Kimmel is an entertainment show.
19:28
Speaker 1: In my opinion, He's a comedian and comedians respond to
19:33
Speaker 1: their audience. And if you listen to him make this statement,
19:37
Speaker 1: the audience roared and clapped and this is just going
19:41
Speaker 1: to add gasoline to the fire when the audience responds
19:45
Speaker 1: that way. And I know everybody remembers when ABC pulled
19:49
Speaker 1: him off the air in September at twenty twenty five
19:52
Speaker 1: for the comments he made about Charlie Kirk's murder. Well,
19:56
Speaker 1: I mean people went nuts, Hollywood went nuts. The movie
20:00
Speaker 1: stars were saying, how dare you? They were picketing and
20:02
Speaker 1: protesting outside of Disney World. So the issue is how
20:07
Speaker 1: far does free speech go? And you know, I think
20:10
Speaker 1: it's important to hear what people have to say, because
20:13
Speaker 1: you know, freedom of speech is not absolute, there's no
20:16
Speaker 1: doubt about that. You know, you still can't it's against
20:19
Speaker 1: the law to yell fire in a movie theater, and
20:21
Speaker 1: that is after the Chicago fire. I mean, so you
20:25
Speaker 1: just eat, there's not there are certain things that you
20:28
Speaker 1: cannot say. But does this fall under that? And should
20:33
Speaker 1: it be regulated by the government? And you know, I
20:35
Speaker 1: will tell you this that the times that I was mayor,
20:40
Speaker 1: I tried to be very open interact with people, interactive website,
20:46
Speaker 1: interactive Facebook had my hotline open all the time and
20:51
Speaker 1: people used to say, with my Facebook, I bet you
20:54
Speaker 1: have a whole team answer in those No, there were
20:56
Speaker 1: two people that had access to my Facebook. That was
20:59
Speaker 1: my communication director, Carrie and myself. If there was an answer,
21:02
Speaker 1: it was one or the other of us. But the
21:05
Speaker 1: things that people would put on Facebook just totalies and
21:09
Speaker 1: you can't control it. There was an issue that happened
21:14
Speaker 1: several years ago on Instagram. We tried to use every
21:17
Speaker 1: platform we could to keep people informed and we were
21:21
Speaker 1: using Instagram and it was Jeene Stothart and people started
21:24
Speaker 1: calling the hotline saying, how dare Jean Stothart talk to
21:28
Speaker 1: me like that? She's swearing at me and cussing at me,
21:31
Speaker 1: and We're like, WHOA, No, I'm not. So we checked
21:34
Speaker 1: with Instagram and there were twenty four fake Gene Stothart
21:38
Speaker 1: Instagram accounts, So we contact Instagram and they're like, what's
21:42
Speaker 1: your problem, lady. It's a parody. It's okay, you know,
21:45
Speaker 1: get over it. So this was not good for us
21:49
Speaker 1: and people were calling all the time. So our only
21:51
Speaker 1: option was we took our official Jean Stotthart Instagram down
21:56
Speaker 1: for a full year because we couldn't say, no, this
21:58
Speaker 1: one's real, but these other twenty four aren't. And we
22:01
Speaker 1: were just able to say I don't have an Instagram account,
22:03
Speaker 1: those are all fake. And then after a year we
22:06
Speaker 1: brought it back under City of Omaha Instagram and we
22:09
Speaker 1: still managed it and we didn't have any trouble at all.
22:12
Speaker 1: It was just when my name was there, but they
22:14
Speaker 1: let it go on Facebook. During COVID, we reprinted something
22:19
Speaker 1: that came from Infectious Disease department at the Med Center
22:23
Speaker 1: and it wasn't a proponent or opponent of mask, but
22:27
Speaker 1: it just gave a couple diagrams that said it was
22:30
Speaker 1: showed like a drawing and it showed if you had
22:33
Speaker 1: a mask on and you sneeze, what would happen, as
22:35
Speaker 1: opposed to if you didn't, If you had a mask
22:37
Speaker 1: on and you coughed, and you know, then they came
22:40
Speaker 1: back and they sanctioned us. They sanctioned our Facebook account
22:44
Speaker 1: because they said we could not prove that was true.
22:48
Speaker 1: I thought this is so interesting because it was something
22:51
Speaker 1: we just reprinted from the Med Center, and like I said,
22:53
Speaker 1: it wasn't for or against mask it was something that
22:56
Speaker 1: they just put out. I thought that was a believable.
23:00
Speaker 1: But you know, when you talk about political campaigns too,
23:03
Speaker 1: I wanted to bring this up, and I know we
23:06
Speaker 1: are right now inundated by TV commercials ads for political campaigns.
23:12
Speaker 1: Is this freedom of speech? Because so many of this
23:16
Speaker 1: what you hear on TV is just meant to confuse
23:20
Speaker 1: you and for somebody to for you to vote against
23:24
Speaker 1: somebody's opponent, and it just confuses the audience so much
23:28
Speaker 1: they don't know what is true and what is not.
23:30
Speaker 1: Is that okay with people? You know? I just have
23:33
Speaker 1: to bring up Denise Powell. If you listen to her commercials,
23:37
Speaker 1: you would think that she has been the absolute number
23:41
Speaker 1: one leader in this community for decades. Honest to goodness,
23:45
Speaker 1: I've never heard of her until she started running. I've
23:48
Speaker 1: never heard of her, and I've been mayor for twelve years.
23:50
Speaker 1: I know she was from the nonprofit side, but if
23:53
Speaker 1: you would listen to Denise Powell has done this and
23:55
Speaker 1: achieved this, and in DC, she's single handedly going to
23:58
Speaker 1: do this, that or the other. And I'm thinking, is,
24:02
Speaker 1: I mean, how can you back these things up? It's
24:04
Speaker 1: just to me, is there There is definitely a fine
24:08
Speaker 1: line about freedom of speech and how it can be
24:10
Speaker 1: used and how it could be used against elected officials,
24:14
Speaker 1: politicians and in campaigns. I'll tell you another thing and
24:17
Speaker 1: then I'll just be quiet and let people comment about this,
24:21
Speaker 1: because I guess the whole question is what is the
24:24
Speaker 1: right thing to do? When I was mayor, I left
24:26
Speaker 1: my Facebook open all the time, took comments interactive. Mary
24:30
Speaker 1: Ewing chose a different route, and up until recently when
24:32
Speaker 1: a lawsuit was filed, he didn't allow any comments at
24:35
Speaker 1: all because he didn't want that to happen. What's the
24:38
Speaker 1: right thing to do for an elected official? Do you
24:40
Speaker 1: just open yourself up to that or do you limit it?
24:43
Speaker 1: And then people will say you're restricting my freedom of speech.
24:46
Speaker 1: One other point I wanted to make is I think
24:49
Speaker 1: everybody knows my personal situation that happened when the husband
24:54
Speaker 1: that I was married to, Joe Stothard for forty one years,
24:57
Speaker 1: died and I think everybody knows he died of a suicide.
25:01
Speaker 1: Talk about difficult to handle, talk about difficult for my
25:03
Speaker 1: whole family. You would have seen the comments on Facebook.
25:06
Speaker 1: I mean, people said I murdered him on Facebook. It
25:10
Speaker 1: went on and on and on. People said I hired hitman.
25:14
Speaker 1: I mean, this is stuff that goes on on social
25:17
Speaker 1: media and you think, is that okay, that's permissible, that's
25:21
Speaker 1: fine and dandy because we have First Amendment rights. I
25:24
Speaker 1: want I'd like to really know people's opinion of this.
25:27
Speaker 1: I mean, is there a limit do you think that
25:30
Speaker 1: the government should get involved with a TV show, a
25:32
Speaker 1: TV celebrity like Jimmy Kimmel, Or is everything different if
25:36
Speaker 1: you're elected, you're a politician, or you're running for elected office.
25:41
Speaker 1: It's something I dealt with for years, and it's very
25:44
Speaker 1: difficult to deal with. You know what you want to
25:47
Speaker 1: say to me people, You got to hold your tongue
25:50
Speaker 1: quite a bit too. And then if you try to
25:52
Speaker 1: delete somebody or ban them from saying filthy mean things,
25:57
Speaker 1: then they report you and and the you know they'll
26:01
Speaker 1: come down on you and say you can't do that.
26:03
Speaker 1: You're elected official. Remember Donald Trump went to federal court
26:07
Speaker 1: over deleting Facebook comments. So it's there's a real debate
26:13
Speaker 1: out there about what is right and what is wrong.
26:16
Speaker 1: But I'd really like to hear what you all have
26:18
Speaker 1: to think about First Amendment rights, freedom of speech. Should
26:21
Speaker 1: government get involved, should FCC get involved with the Jimmy
26:25
Speaker 1: Kimmel issue. What's your opinion about all this?
26:27
Speaker 2: Absolutely, we're gonna head to the phone lines here a
26:29
Speaker 2: few different people on the line. Let's head to Mike
26:33
Speaker 2: on the phone lines. You are live here with Gene
26:35
Speaker 2: Stouthard on news radio eleven ten kfa B.
26:39
Speaker 6: A.
26:39
Speaker 7: Hi, Gene, A little bit different on when you're talking
26:42
Speaker 7: about salaries. I was talking to my neighbor and he
26:46
Speaker 7: was saying that the superintendents in Nebraska, that there's more
26:52
Speaker 7: superintendents getting paid the big bucks than in Iowa, and
26:57
Speaker 7: Iowa have is a bigger population. What do you think
27:00
Speaker 7: about that?
27:01
Speaker 1: And you know you are right, and the school boards
27:03
Speaker 1: are the ones that decide what the superintendent's salary is.
27:08
Speaker 1: I will tell you when I was on the school
27:10
Speaker 1: board and Millard Keith Lutz was a superintendent then, and
27:13
Speaker 1: we gave him moderate increases. I think what school boards
27:17
Speaker 1: typically look at is they look at the population of
27:22
Speaker 1: the student enrollment. So, for example, OPS has got over
27:26
Speaker 1: fifty thousand students, and so the OPS superintendent makes a
27:30
Speaker 1: lot more money than the Millard superintendent, who Millard has
27:34
Speaker 1: about about twenty four thousand students, about half of what
27:37
Speaker 1: OPS does. And I think the board's thought is they're
27:40
Speaker 1: like the CEO of a very large company. And if
27:43
Speaker 1: you're the CEO of a company of fifty four thousand
27:46
Speaker 1: employees like OPS has with students, they deserve a bigger salary.
27:50
Speaker 1: But they're not anything like the salary of oppd's CEO
27:55
Speaker 1: and president. They're not in the eight hundred thousand dollars ranges.
28:00
Speaker 1: I you know, I I will tell you when I
28:03
Speaker 1: was on the school board of Miller, but that was
28:04
Speaker 1: quite a while ago. I mean that was over sixteen
28:06
Speaker 1: years ago. It was under two hundred thousand dollars a year,
28:10
Speaker 1: with the superintendent was getting paid maybe more. Now. I'm
28:13
Speaker 1: not up to date on the superintendent salary, but I
28:15
Speaker 1: do think ops's superintendent salary is quite high right now,
28:20
Speaker 1: and I could look that up.
28:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, we could find a way to look that up. Okay,
28:23
Speaker 2: let's go to the phone lines here real quick. Amy
28:26
Speaker 2: sent an email to comment at kfab dot com. Just
28:29
Speaker 2: a little bit of a perception here, real quick. Everyone
28:32
Speaker 2: will interpret the phrase quote glow of an expectant widow
28:35
Speaker 2: end quote how they want. Whether he meant it or not,
28:39
Speaker 2: something only he knows. If you remember, ABC fired Rose
28:41
Speaker 2: In a few years ago for a racial comment she
28:43
Speaker 2: made on Twitter. Does ABC need to do this, do
28:47
Speaker 2: the same thing and fire Jimmy for this? I don't
28:49
Speaker 2: know's that's something that they have to decide obviously, you know.
28:52
Speaker 2: I just think about it real quick. You know, once
28:54
Speaker 2: is an accident, twice is a coincidence? Three times as
28:57
Speaker 2: a pattern? Yes, you know we're at number two right now.
28:59
Speaker 2: And this is a death joke or making light of
29:02
Speaker 2: someone dying. That's very interesting to me.
29:05
Speaker 1: I think Jimmy Kimmel is uh is pushing it to
29:08
Speaker 1: the limits because you know he made though. Yeah, Charlie Hark,
29:13
Speaker 1: keep pushing it, right. But he got away with it.
29:15
Speaker 1: I think you know this, this happens a lot. You
29:17
Speaker 1: do something, you get away with it. He had so
29:20
Speaker 1: many people come in and support him and wanting back
29:24
Speaker 1: on the air and demanding he was back on the air.
29:26
Speaker 1: And I think he feels empowered by this, you know.
29:29
Speaker 1: And so now he's this with what he said about
29:32
Speaker 1: Milania Trump and then now he said, oh shoot, it
29:34
Speaker 1: was just a joke. I was talking about age, I
29:37
Speaker 1: wasn't talking about him getting assassinated. Well, this was the
29:41
Speaker 1: third assassination attempt on President Trump that happened Saturday night.
29:47
Speaker 1: There were no assassination attempts on the last president or
29:50
Speaker 1: the president before. So I believe the last assassination attempt
29:54
Speaker 1: was Ronald Reagan. And you know that they're just the
29:56
Speaker 1: same hotel. There's there, yes, in the same hotel, and
29:59
Speaker 1: there you know, there's a point to bring up about
30:01
Speaker 1: that too, just real quickly. I don't want to go
30:03
Speaker 1: off on this too much. But if I recalled when
30:06
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan was shot, and I recalled Johnny Carson was
30:12
Speaker 1: on at that time, and Johnny Carson was never mean
30:17
Speaker 1: or to people on his show, and I remembered he
30:20
Speaker 1: talked about it. He said, this has happened to our country.
30:24
Speaker 1: We're going to go back on the air. We're going
30:25
Speaker 1: to try to have some fun tonight. We're going to
30:27
Speaker 1: try to liven it up. But then he also brought
30:30
Speaker 1: up on the air and I remember this so quick,
30:32
Speaker 1: so you know, like it happened yesterday. He remembered that
30:36
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan he was in the hospital. He had been shot,
30:40
Speaker 1: he was critically injured, and he wrote a note and
30:43
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan said, considering all things, I'd rather be in Philadelphia.
30:46
Speaker 1: And Johnny Carson brought that up because he thought even
30:50
Speaker 1: Ronald Reagan was making light of it and saying, Okay,
30:53
Speaker 1: this happened. I'm okay, let's move on. And so that's
30:57
Speaker 1: the way a talk show, a night talk show host
31:00
Speaker 1: should respond.
31:01
Speaker 2: In my opinion, We're going to get some break here
31:04
Speaker 2: really quick. I'm going to get to Ken on the
31:06
Speaker 2: phone line. This is really relevant to the conversation that
31:08
Speaker 2: we are talking about politicians. Ken, you are live on
31:11
Speaker 2: the Cafebe comment line with Jean's Authord.
31:13
Speaker 1: Good morning, sure, Gene.
31:16
Speaker 5: I've always had this question. You know how their laws
31:18
Speaker 5: against false advertising? Yes, what are the laws when politicians
31:23
Speaker 5: get on and lie their runs off? If the same
31:26
Speaker 5: laws applied, you could sue them because every word they say,
31:29
Speaker 5: for the most part, is a bunch of bs. And
31:32
Speaker 5: there has to be some kind of law. Is there
31:34
Speaker 5: or is there not? I'll hang up on miss Wile
31:35
Speaker 5: you to say, but ok, Jo Pete and I can't
31:37
Speaker 5: stand Jimmy Kimmel.
31:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know what, there is no law because
31:42
Speaker 1: let me tell you another thing that happened to me.
31:44
Speaker 1: The first time I ran for mayor in twenty thirteen.
31:46
Speaker 1: There was so many nasty, negative, false lies about me.
31:51
Speaker 1: I went to a professor at Creighton who taught defamation,
31:55
Speaker 1: and I said, is there anything that I can do
31:59
Speaker 1: because this islander, it's defamation, it's lies. And he looked
32:03
Speaker 1: at me and he goes, Gene, there is not a
32:07
Speaker 1: judge in the country that would take a defamation case
32:10
Speaker 1: or a slander case with a political candidate or a politician.
32:14
Speaker 1: He said, it's just the way it is, and you
32:17
Speaker 1: gotta expect it. And I thought, wow. This was in
32:20
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen, and I thought, this is what anybody that's
32:24
Speaker 1: getting into politics, or once to get into politics, has
32:27
Speaker 1: to deal with that. Nobody will take a defamation or
32:30
Speaker 1: a slander case in a political race or if you
32:33
Speaker 1: are are re elected. And that's what this professor at
32:36
Speaker 1: Creighton told me at that time. Matthew Ray is a
32:39
Speaker 1: superintendent of Omaha Public Schools. He makes three hundred and
32:42
Speaker 1: thirty six thousand, five hundred a year, three hundred and
32:45
Speaker 1: thirty six five hundred, and they have about fifty four
32:47
Speaker 1: thousand students. John Schwartz is a superintendent of Miller Public Schools.
32:51
Speaker 1: They're around twenty four thousand students. He gets two hundred
32:54
Speaker 1: and seventy five thousand dollars a year. And we did
32:57
Speaker 1: look up Papellion Leavista because Peyton is a graduate of Papillion. YEP,
33:01
Speaker 1: it's my school district and they that superintendent gets two
33:05
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five Andrew Rickley, Andrew Ridley, thank you.
33:09
Speaker 1: Same as the Millard Public Schools. And it's a smaller district.
33:13
Speaker 1: So just to give you that information, so you have it.
33:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have a lot of emails flying in here, Gene.
33:19
Speaker 2: A lot of people are saying just right versus left.
33:22
Speaker 2: You know, maybe not maybe, but people on the left
33:25
Speaker 2: get the way with saying a lot of things. There's
33:26
Speaker 2: a lot more forgive forgiveness, and you know that is
33:29
Speaker 2: what it is. But I want to get to the
33:31
Speaker 2: phone lines here. Nancy, you are live with Jeene's author
33:36
Speaker 2: here on news radio eleven to ten KFAB.
33:40
Speaker 6: First of all, I am Nancy straight out of Omaha,
33:46
Speaker 6: and I would love Tom Becker to come back. And
33:49
Speaker 6: that's all up for you right now.
33:53
Speaker 1: All right, thank you, thanks for the call. Tom Beck
33:56
Speaker 1: is doing a podcast. You could listen to him. I
34:00
Speaker 1: don't think he will be coming back to kfa B,
34:02
Speaker 1: but he's still out there. And uh, I've seen him
34:05
Speaker 1: quite a few times lately. I did a podcast with
34:08
Speaker 1: him while I was still Mayor. Remember he would go
34:10
Speaker 1: who who? What did he do? He would get all
34:16
Speaker 1: wound up. But I did like Tom Becker. I thought
34:18
Speaker 1: was a hoot. He's he's he's a He's very funny.
34:21
Speaker 1: He was fun to argue with because he'd argue with
34:24
Speaker 1: me all the time. And I like to argue with him.
34:26
Speaker 1: It's like Jim Rose, I like to argue. I argue
34:29
Speaker 1: with him too. But thanks Nancy.
34:31
Speaker 2: Okay, I have an interesting question for you, and I'm
34:33
Speaker 2: gonna follow it up with a comment.
34:35
Speaker 1: Okay, okay.
34:36
Speaker 2: This is this comes from Mike. It says, Gene, I
34:38
Speaker 2: remember you talking one to two weeks ago about the
34:40
Speaker 2: guy in Target poking you in your chest. That was
34:42
Speaker 2: when Chris Baker came into the studio. Yes, he was
34:47
Speaker 2: fired up too, was fired up and he gave you
34:49
Speaker 2: that A book from Trevor Thrasher, every Day Defender Real
34:53
Speaker 2: quick here. Did you have adequate security as mayor? Did
34:56
Speaker 2: you have any scary incidents? And do you feel safe
34:59
Speaker 2: as former mayor slash private citizen?
35:01
Speaker 1: Now? Yes, you know I did. When I was on
35:04
Speaker 1: any official work, I had security with me. Like they
35:08
Speaker 1: would pick me up in the morning. It would be
35:09
Speaker 1: an Omaha police officer pick me up and then drive
35:13
Speaker 1: me to city Hall, drive me around to all the
35:15
Speaker 1: events that I had to go to, and then dump
35:17
Speaker 1: me off at my home at night, and that was it.
35:19
Speaker 1: I did not have a cruiser outside the house. Ever,
35:23
Speaker 1: they did not travel with me. If I went on
35:25
Speaker 1: a trip, they would take me to the airport and
35:27
Speaker 1: say see you later, and I would I would travel.
35:30
Speaker 1: I think Mary Ewing has security travel with him to
35:34
Speaker 1: some at least to some events. I know he does.
35:36
Speaker 1: But you know I did not if you wanted to,
35:39
Speaker 1: could you? Though, No, I did something you were quested.
35:41
Speaker 1: I did not want the taxpayers to pay for security
35:44
Speaker 1: to travel with me. And the other thing is that
35:47
Speaker 1: day though that in particular, you know, every when you
35:51
Speaker 1: have to have security with you all the time, you
35:52
Speaker 1: have to get out and go to Target every now
35:54
Speaker 1: and then by yourself. This was during a blizzard, and
35:57
Speaker 1: it was on a Saturday, and so I use if
36:00
Speaker 1: I don't have any official events, I usually don't have
36:02
Speaker 1: security assigned to me on Saturday or Sunday. And I
36:05
Speaker 1: just had to get out and I really want to
36:07
Speaker 1: see what the roads were like to and the target
36:09
Speaker 1: I go to is not far from my house. So
36:11
Speaker 1: it was during a blizzard I walk in Target. I
36:13
Speaker 1: was by myself at that time. And yes, I have
36:16
Speaker 1: had some very interesting confrontations with people in the past.
36:21
Speaker 1: I brought up the protesters outside City Hall when they
36:26
Speaker 1: surrounded me one day. I went out there just try
36:28
Speaker 1: to listen to them, and they spit in my face.
36:30
Speaker 1: That was not too pleasant. But I've had others and
36:34
Speaker 1: big events like at the College World Series. I had
36:37
Speaker 1: a couple incidents that happened, but I didn't let that
36:41
Speaker 1: bother me to say, well, I got to hide and
36:43
Speaker 1: stay home, you know, I can't. No, And I thought,
36:46
Speaker 1: if anybody wants to come after me, they're gonna, I mean,
36:49
Speaker 1: we made it public where I was going to be.
36:51
Speaker 1: They're going to do it, They're going to find me,
36:53
Speaker 1: and so I just I would go to the College
36:55
Speaker 1: World Series. I would sit down there on my seats
36:57
Speaker 1: and I just thought, you know, I got to live,
37:00
Speaker 1: and so I wasn't going to let that type of
37:02
Speaker 1: thing scare me.
37:04
Speaker 2: Rumor has it they have a mean roundhouse kick.
37:06
Speaker 1: Ah, maybe I will never tell though. Well, you know,
37:10
Speaker 1: the other thing is is that people know this about
37:13
Speaker 1: me too. I was one of the first to get
37:14
Speaker 1: a concealed carry and I do have I believe in
37:18
Speaker 1: the Second Amendment, and I do have guns. And people
37:21
Speaker 1: would say to me. They'd come up to me kidding me,
37:24
Speaker 1: and they would go, hey, are you a carrion or hey,
37:27
Speaker 1: are you a packing you know? And I would always say, well,
37:30
Speaker 1: not today, it ruins my outfit or something. But you know,
37:34
Speaker 1: I mean, who when it was concealed Carrie and now
37:37
Speaker 1: it's open Carrie. I mean, who in the heck is
37:39
Speaker 1: going to say, yeah, I'm carrying. I mean, that defeats
37:41
Speaker 1: the purpse.
37:42
Speaker 2: It just feels like a terrible, terrible question to ask.
37:44
Speaker 1: I know it, but they would they would be kind
37:46
Speaker 1: of a joke Hey, may you Carrie, and you packed
37:48
Speaker 1: a heat today and I would go, no, I'm not telling.
37:51
Speaker 2: You wrapping up the show today. This one comes from David.
37:54
Speaker 2: This is a little bit longer, but just hear me
37:56
Speaker 2: out here.
37:56
Speaker 6: M hm.
37:58
Speaker 2: Back in twenty fourteen, a friend my family passed away.
38:01
Speaker 2: The funeral was on a Sunday at a local synagogue.
38:05
Speaker 2: The deceased was the father of a member of your
38:10
Speaker 2: Friday security staff, a bodyguard. You attended the funeral service.
38:15
Speaker 2: As a result, I was very impressed you were there
38:17
Speaker 2: for a man that worked for you for only one
38:21
Speaker 2: day out of the week. It made me certain that
38:23
Speaker 2: you care very deeply about the city citizens and the
38:27
Speaker 2: staff of Omaha. I appreciate ate the opportunity to let
38:30
Speaker 2: the former mayor know how this impacted my impression of her.
38:33
Speaker 1: Sincerely, David, Well, thank you, I appreciate that. Thank you
38:37
Speaker 1: for the email. David Jeane.
38:39
Speaker 2: You are headed out of town, is that right?
38:41
Speaker 1: I am. I will not be here Thursday, Friday or Monday.
38:46
Speaker 1: I am heading tomorrow to the New Orleans Jazz Festival,
38:49
Speaker 1: which I've never been to before. I'm looking forward to it.
38:53
Speaker 1: It's going to be fun. They have a great lineup
38:55
Speaker 1: they have. The Eagles are going to be there, Stevie
38:57
Speaker 1: Nicks is going to be there, all sorts of great
38:58
Speaker 1: people are going to be there, and so Chip Maxwell
39:01
Speaker 1: is going to be filling in with me. You gotta
39:03
Speaker 1: hold it together, Peyton, Okay, I do hold this whole
39:06
Speaker 1: place together. You run a tight ship. While I'm gone,
39:09
Speaker 1: I will be back on Tuesday. I want to thank
39:12
Speaker 1: you all for spending this time with us, and thank
39:16
Speaker 1: you for listening, thank you for your questions. I am
39:18
Speaker 1: Jean Stothard and this is eleven ten kfab