Latest / The Dave Allen Show / 03/11/2024 The Dave Allen Show on 580 Live - Jeff Jenkins, Fred Persinger, Mike Pushkin, Tony Hodge

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03/11/2024 The Dave Allen Show on 580 Live - Jeff Jenkins, Fred Persinger, Mike Pushkin, Tony Hodge · The Dave Allen Show

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This is the Dave Allen Show on five eighty Live, and your host,
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what we've got here is failure, milkay. He's kind of a big deal.
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I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick out at a ball
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out of love. Dave Allen, Hey, folks, good Monday morning to
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Show on five any Live comes to you for the Parmars Store studio. If
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there's not a Parmar store near you now that we'll be soon. Parmar welcomes
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everyone into town for the twenty twenty four State Boys Basketball Tournament. It begins
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tomorrow with the Kittle Seam the Convention Center, Parmar of course, the official
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store of high school sports in West Virginia and of mars Ll University. And
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at Parmar the location that just off the Saint Albans exit of I sixty four
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at Thornhill Motormle US one Night she one nineteen in Chapmanville, Whoe. Everybody
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had a great weekend, and remember to set your clocks ahead Saturday night or
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Sunday morning just after nine o'clock here on the East Coast and not just after
2:12
eight. I hope you didn't fall from the memes floating around social media last
2:15
week asking you to go back in time cent your clocks back. That actually
2:21
was not the case. It's for spring forward. It's the whole way it
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works, all right. So coming up a little bit later on the show,
2:28
we wrapped up the legislative session at midnight on Saturday night. Tony Hodge,
2:31
who's the vice chair of the State Republican Party, will be here along
2:35
with actually separate from State Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin. They're both going to
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be stopping by a little bit later on. Plus, as I mentioned,
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tomorrow, the state boys basketball tournament tips off the Cottle Seaman Convention Center,
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and we're going to get into that with Fred Persinger coming up in just a
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matter of moments. I want to bring in Jeff Jenkins, So from the
2:53
newsroom, Jeff, good morning, Hey Dave. Bizarre story, actually a
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couple of them, you have at a wv Metronews dot Com State police have
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now charged a guy from Cross Lanes with murder, burglary, and animal cruelty
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in a crime scene from two counties. What's the story here. Jakay so
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Man identifies Billy Catle. He's forty four from Cross Lanes and state police alleged
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that two different places, at a residence in Cross Lanes and then at a
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residence in the PoCA area. They alledged to the Cross Lanes residence he killed
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a man. This is on Saturday, troopers discovered the body of fifty three
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year old Michael O's of Cross Lanes and that was on one up Valley Drive
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a house there. They had actually troopers had actually gone first to the residence
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in PoCA on a burglary call and they found evidence of a burglary and also
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two cats dead. And then they had then as they were investigating that they
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heard of similar circumstance says perhaps at this Cross Lane's location, So they went
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there found two dogs had been killed and also mister Olds also was dead.
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So they've charged Katle with both of those, both of those crime scenes.
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At first, they didn't charge him with the murder. They named him as
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a suspect in it and then by last night they had charged him with the
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murder. So it's the murder, the burglary, the animal cruelty charges.
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But I mean, I know it's early on in the investigation as anybody say
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anything as to why, Yeah, we don't. We don't have the details.
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That'll be some of that will come out, obviously if you take a
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close look at the criminal complaint you might have some of that in there if
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there's a preliminary hearing. Yeah, don't know a whole lot about motive or
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anything like that or what the allegations are. But they made a pretty quick
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arrest of Catle, had him in custody. So no bond on the murder
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charge, but there is some bond on the others. But the murder charge
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will take precedent there and there won't be any bond set all right. Again,
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you can read more about a wv metro news dot com and this other
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story. It happened, I guess Thursday. There was a truck wreck.
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Yeah, and they're still looking for the driver. Yeah. Yeah, so
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they identified so late Friday, Conaw County Sheriff's deputies identified the driver. This
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truck and this this truck wrecked on Thursday out in the Frame area and Hurricane
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Road, which I didn't know there was a quite honestly a Hurricane Road in
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Frame, but there is, and it's a narrow road. And he wrecked
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it was more like a residential lumber type truck. Wasn't a log truck.
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It was a lumber truck, and he wrecked it over an embankment. And
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at first deputies thought that maybe he got and this happened, got messed up
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on his GPS, got off on a road he ship and gotten off one
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happens all the time. Yeah, And he wrecked the truck over the embankment,
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and they thought they didn't never found the driver, and they thought maybe
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he's underneath the cab, and so when they lifted the cab that wasn't underneath
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there. Then they found out that this man who they've now identified, who's
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from out of state, had called some relatives outside the state and said I'm
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here. He kind of described Spencer Road in Cotton, West, Virginia,
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which okay, so deputies think maybe he was confused about where he was,
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maybe he's injured, but they still haven't found him, so I'm not sure
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exactly. Yeah, And so I mean he could be wandering around out there
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with like a head injury or something, or that's what they're thinking at this
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point. I think that's a possibility. It seems like a long time now,
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but we've got his photo and different things that they've released on the website.
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All right, Jeff, appreciate it as always. Man, thanks a
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lot. All right, Jeff Jenkins from the newsroom. It's nine thirteen.
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Want to welcome in Fred Pursinger. Fred, good morninging, sir, How
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are you well? How are you wi? I am doing well? Man.
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The girls State basketball tournament now the hindest congratulations to all four state champions
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from Saturday. Now we turn our attention Fred to the boys State tournament.
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Can send away tomorrow at the Condalseum and Convention Center. So overall, let's
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talk about the girls tournment. Let's start there. Okay, sighting tournament exciting.
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It was a good tournament. We had really four nice championship games.
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You know, anytime you have what do we have twenty eight games? Double
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nine, you have twenty eight games in a week, you're going to have
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some will. But overall, I thought we had some really really good games
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last week at the girls tournament. And as you say, congratulations to the
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champions in single A, it was Cameron. They've won three in a row.
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Now the chances are winning four is going to be tough. They lose
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ashe on van Hassel by the way, and she Man I saw her at
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the par Mark shootout. She is something else, something special. It's going
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to Youngstown State. By the way, Class Double A state champion was Wyoming
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East as they defeated Williamstown forty six forty two the last game on Saturday night.
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And then in Triple A it was the Nitro Wildcats getting by Lewis County.
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And in Quad A Morgantown was defeated by Wheeling Park, and Wheeling Park
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avenged that loss they got they suffered at the hands of Morgantown last year.
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Yeah, it was a great term. Again, we're talking without Fred Persinger,
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the voice of high school sports in West Virginia. Let's fast forward.
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Let's go to the boys. Now talk about the top seeds, and as
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always I like to ask you some teams that you think could make some noise
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or maybe a sleeper team. Okay, let's start with Quad A and QUADEA
9:01
gets underway. Their first game is eleven fifteen tomorrow morning. But your top
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seed is Spring Mills and the Cardinals is very good. They lost one game,
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very first game of the season, and since then they've been winning.
9:15
It was now they lost an en state opponent, Washington over in Eastern Panhandle,
9:18
but solid football, well, solid basketball tea long team, solid basketball
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team. Again. They're number one in the state and they beat Morgantown,
9:28
They beat all the tough teams. I don't know if they'll win their first
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game, to be honest with you, really, they play the eighth seed,
9:35
and that's Beckley and Flying Eagles are playing as good of basketball as any
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teamless state. They beat George Washington just last Thursday night for the regional championship
9:46
and they've got everyone healthy now, so they're playing well. I think that
9:50
will be a good game that comes up at seven to fifteen on Tuesday night.
9:54
The other seeds, you've got Jefferson South Charleston game, Huntington Spring Valley,
9:58
Morgantown, Wheeling Park. You know, you get state tournament that you
10:01
think, okay, we're going to get different opponents. Right now, Morgantown
10:03
Wheeling Park they're meeting for like one hundred and forty seventh time or something this
10:07
week. Huntington Spring Valley. That was just the game in the sectional championship,
10:11
the Spring Valley upset Huntington, so they'll get a rematch of that one.
10:16
Then you look in Class Triple A, I don't think there's a secret
10:18
that everyone's expecting another rematch in the championship game between the one seed Fairmont Senior
10:24
and the two seed Shady Spring. They got a lot of other good teams
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in there that I think could have something to say about the Logan Wildcats are
10:31
there, East Fairmont is there? Nitro is there? Nitro. We talked
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with head coach at Nitro on Sunday and Parkersburg said, well, you've got
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a little thing to live up to, you know, you girls just want
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a state championship. Now you've got to win the state changement. He gets
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Sissonville and a game that they're very familiar with, Shady Spring North Mary.
10:50
And that's the lineup for the Triple A teams. I don't know. I
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still think Fairmont Senior and Shady Are are probably the two teams you're gonna have
11:00
to look for their Class Double A, which actually gets underway all four quarter
11:03
final round games on Thursday of this week. In Bluefield is certainly the number
11:07
one seed and the most athletic team, maybe the most athletic team in the
11:11
entire state tournament. The Bluefield Beavers are number one. They'll get Braxton County,
11:16
Wheeling, Central Catholic will get Williamstown Chapmanville against Ravenswood and Charleston Catholic will
11:22
get Trentity Christians. So that will be the lineup for the Class Double A
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teams and in Class Single A they'll wrap it up. Their quarter final round
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games are all on Wednesday. Number one Tucker County Mountain Lions are very strong
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this year. They get Huntington Saint Joe back into the tournament. Webster County
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is back again. They get James Monroe east Tardy and Cameron east Tardy gets
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the first game on Wednesday morning. You gotta leave what Tuesday night? Yeah,
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get to Charleston. They left on Sunday they did, I thank you
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right, and then tug Valley will play Doddridge County and Rabbit was there.
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Everybody. Everybody knows Old Garland Thompson. Yeah. But it's I'll tell you
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what. From me, I think the thing on Sunday that we do and
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get the meeting we meet with all the coaches on Sunday and get our tape
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and all of that. That's more interesting to me because it's just great relationships
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I've developed over the years with a lot of these coaches and you only get
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to see them this time of the year. It's fun. It's fun.
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And I tell you, Craig, you know, I was thinking about this
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last night. There is nothing like this two weeks in Charlestown. I mean,
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you know, going back as going back to my high school days in
12:24
the eighteen hundreds, and you know, just thinking about because you know when
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the tournament's happened, you know spring is coming. But just everybody coming in,
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everybody with their with their school colors. And I happen to be in
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the town Center on Friday, early Friday afternoon. You just see people walking
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through with the colors and the T shirts and the hoodies and the caps.
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Man, I love it now again. Daytime games primarily in Charleston's ESPN Radio
12:52
one of six point seven FM fourteen ninety eight in the evening sessions on the
12:56
WCCHS network. Course, you can list all the games wv metro dot com
13:00
and watch the championships on the Metro News TV channel. By the way,
13:03
if you've not downloaded, the Metro News TV is great. Make sure it
13:07
really is great. And you were talking about people and Saturday morning, the
13:09
first game was the UH Championship that featured the Nitro Wildcats and Lewis County and
13:18
Lewis County and Nitro both had a tremendous, tremendous pan following. Lewis County
13:22
I think had everyone there. In fact, I talked for a while out
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halftime with the deputy sheriff from Lewis County and I said, uh, wow,
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I said, what a tremendous crowd. He said, uh. I
13:35
said it would be a great time to go to Weston or somewhere and he
13:37
said, well, he said, uh, I did leave one deputy back
13:41
there and I said only one. He said, yeah, everyone else is
13:45
here, so the deputy is guarding the deputy, I guess. And it
13:48
was a heck of a crowd. And it was just that's that's the setting
13:52
you like, and we expect some of that this week. You know,
13:54
you get you get typical crowds like Beckley a Clogan. Uh, all of
13:58
these teams that you know are going to have a following, they'll be there.
14:01
Yeah. And the kids will be there, especially if they have a
14:03
day game. Yeah, because you get out of school. Yeah, absolutely
14:05
absolutely. And you got a special preview show coming up tonight, right,
14:07
we do from seven until nine. It's the Road to the State Tournament.
14:11
It'll be hosted by Joe Briccado and Greg Carey tonight. And it was fun
14:16
last week doing the show for the girls. And now Joe and Greg take
14:18
over from me and Joe. Yeah, and a great lineup of talent doing
14:22
the games. I understand my old boss, your friend and mine, Speedy
14:26
Bevans is back this year for the second year in a row. We had
14:28
Speedy with us forever and then he got away from it. He got into
14:33
different things. But yeah, I brought him back last year because he's good.
14:35
He knows what he's talking about. And I've sent the information packets on
14:39
to him and he's appreciative and he's I guarantee he's ready. Oh. I
14:43
talked to him every morning, and I talked to him this morning and he
14:45
was telling me all about you know, the different teams, and like,
14:48
just save it for the broadcast, man, save over the broadcast. That's
14:50
speedy though. Yeah, all right, Fred, We'll be listening and watching.
14:54
Thanks a lot, man, Sir Fred person or the voice of high
14:56
school sports in West Virginia. But Dave Allen Sholling five the line presented apart
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Text three zero four nine three five five zero zero eight. Mike Pushkin State
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Today, State Democratic Party Chair and Delegate Mike Pushkin is here. Good
17:57
morning, Michael, Good morning. How are you. I'm doing fine,
18:00
man. You know, before we get into the session, I haven't had
18:03
a chance to bring this up to you, but a couple of months ago
18:06
it was announced that former Massive CEO Don Blankenship will be running for US Senate
18:11
in a field that includes, among others, on the Republican side, Governor
18:12
Jim Justice, Congressman Alex Mooney. I say that, because Don Blankenship is
18:17
running as a Democrat, I feel confident that the Democratic ship, Michael,
18:22
which you pilot, will be firmly behind Don Blankenship. Well, you would
18:26
be wrong, and we put out a statement on it. He's not fooling
18:29
anybody. Immediately, we put out a statement that he is not our guy,
18:33
and he doesn't represent any of the values of the of the West Virginia
18:37
Democratic Party. And you know we well, we're gonna have a primary and
18:44
he ain't gonna be it. I'm kidding, of course. I have to
18:47
give credit to UMWA President Cecil Roberts there at Wall Street Journal did an article
18:52
last week about Blankenship's run for Senden's a Democrat. You were featured in that
18:56
article as well. You were quoted in that article Cecil Roberts said, quote,
19:00
if Don Blanketship is a Democrat, then I'm batman. That was actually
19:04
pretty funny. See, so I have to give seats with credit for that.
19:07
That's pretty good. All right, So the session wrapped up at midnight.
19:11
I'm just going to pretty much wind you up and let you go anything
19:12
anything positive for you. I mean, the state workers are going to get
19:17
a pay raise and gradually the taxes are going to go away gradually on Social
19:22
Security, usial Security. We shouldn't be double taxing people on their Social Security
19:26
benefits anyway. But yeah, that's something that as a bipartisan bill, something
19:30
that really the Democrats have pushed for for years, and luckily we were able
19:34
to get that done. And the state worker pay raise, including teachers and
19:40
state troopers, we were able to get that done at the last minute.
19:42
And the reason it took till the last minute because that's those bills where some
19:47
of the Senate were holding hostage over their unemployment bill and That's why there wasn't
19:52
a real appetite for the unemployment cuts in the House. But they were.
19:56
The Republicans in the House were forced to run it because the Senate was holding
19:59
up pay raises and the elimination of the of the income tax on Social Security.
20:04
Uh. I you know, I think that you know, obviously we
20:07
should we we were all in favor of these raises. They have to at
20:11
least at least be able to offset these premium increases to pe i A,
20:15
which of course the Democrats did not support last session. But we have to
20:19
at least make up for that. Now. The unemployment bill, I thought
20:22
it was it's unnecessary at this time. Uh, the unemployment fund is solvent.
20:29
It's the wrong thing to do when you're hearing about I was hearing about
20:33
layoffs and uh, you know, plants closing and in the Northern Panhandle,
20:37
and then and and and at Allegheny Wood Products, you're hearing more about these,
20:42
uh, these layoffs and plant closures. And then to add insult to
20:45
injury, the Republican super majority wants to push through this last minute unemployment cut.
20:52
Now it had it changed, Uh, there's the versions of it changed,
20:56
so many different times it was hard to follow because they were just trying
20:59
to push through something. But I think what you're going to wind up with
21:02
is something that could could HARMSS in the future, because while I said,
21:04
the Unemployment Fund is solvent right now, this locked it in and doesn't take
21:10
in any kind of leeway for inflation, and it could harm the fund,
21:14
which is doing fine now, it could harm it in the future. And
21:17
that's the real problem with that bill. You know. I look back at
21:19
the session, and some of the bills, Mike that got the most noise
21:25
aren't going to see the light of day. And just a couple off the
21:26
top of my head, Women's the Women's Bill of Rights as it was named,
21:30
I caught it, the Women's Bill of Wrong the Library, the Library
21:33
Obscenity Bill, the Crown Act, Student Discipline Bill, Teachers with Guns,
21:37
Baby Olivia, mugshots, left lane driving, travel ball, gender affirming care.
21:45
No. They wasted a lot of time, Like yeah, the old
21:48
saying is when it's all said and done, a whole lot, a whole
21:51
lot more gets said than ever gets done. And the problem with that is
21:55
they wasted a lot of time debating, deliberating over these meaningless cultural or bills
22:00
that do nothing but harm people really, or what they're using for is election
22:06
fodder, something to distract people in an election year and get them, in
22:11
my opinion, to vote against their own best interest. But did those bills
22:15
didn't pass due to some of the hard work of some of my colleagues up
22:19
there, and also they just weren't They weren't good bills. That's why they
22:22
didn't pass. But the problem is they took all the oxygen out of the
22:26
room, and we should have been focusing on things that we needed to do.
22:29
West Virginia has a whole host of issues that needed our attention, and
22:33
it just they didn't give me an example of some of those that childcare,
22:36
access to childcare. I was just talking about the unemployment bill. Of course,
22:40
we all want people to get back to work. Well, one of
22:41
the things holding people up is the lack of access to reliable childcare. People
22:49
have to have someplace to take their kids so they can go back to work.
22:52
But when companies are thinking about locating here, that's one of the main
22:56
things they ask about, is bout access to childcare. We have childcare agencies
23:00
closing up left and right. First of all, because of the the system
23:07
the state uses for their reimbursement rates, it's based on attendance rather than enrollment.
23:15
So it needs to be based on enrollment. If it's based on attendance,
23:18
you know, sometimes toddlers get sick, sometimes their parents take them on
23:22
vacation. They're not They're not the most reliable people, those toddlers. So
23:26
it should be based it should be that they one has one should know that
23:30
it should be based on enrollment, not attendance. But of course that bill
23:34
has a price tag, and it didn't pass. The other word, there
23:37
was a childcare tax credit. Of course that bill has a price tag.
23:41
And I said it so much during the session, I kind of get sick
23:45
of hearing of it. It's true that some people know the cost of everything
23:48
but the value of nothing. But this is something that we should have prioritized,
23:52
and it has a price tag, but we should have found a way
23:55
to get it done. Uh. It's it's necessary to get people back to
23:59
work, and it's a real crisis in this state, lack of childcare.
24:02
And the governor talked about it in the State of the State address and they
24:04
weren't able to get it done. Speaker of the House said we were going
24:07
to get it done this year, and they never got it done. You
24:11
know what else they didn't get done we heard a lot about and we'll be
24:14
hearing more about it in the fall. They didn't do anything to address the
24:18
transfer portal in high school sports. I mean all, how much have you
24:22
hear about that on this show almost daily, especially when it first came out
24:26
and going into the session. They're going to fix it, We're going to
24:29
fix it. And the governor said they were going to fix it. And
24:30
guess what, they didn't even attempt to fix it. And there was a
24:33
couple and the travel ball bill, which was not quite as big a deal,
24:37
made it worse. That would have made it worse. Yeah, that
24:40
ball. That bill didn't go anywhere. And because it was, it's a
24:44
bad idea. We should be more concerned about the academics with the students than
24:48
allowing them to play on two different teams at once and not having enough time
24:52
to study. That was a bad bill, But we we should have addressed
24:56
taken the time to come up with a good compromise on the train for portals.
25:00
So when people start seeing these lopsided scores against this fall, if nobody
25:04
but the Republican supermajority and the Republican governor to blame it. On twenty nine
25:10
minutes away from Tima, Dave Allen showing five eighty life brought to you a
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only twenty two ninety nine. Find your nearest Hussins at Huston's Pizza dot com
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delivery pickup or for dining in and a text. Actually have a couple of
25:23
texts here for you. Mike one says, I have a question from mister
25:26
Pushkin may be able to answer this. Why not use rainy day funds to
25:30
make up callback if needed next flight? This whole callback? Okay, all
25:34
right. During some of the COVID money towards education, the federal money came
25:41
with the requirement that states maintain a certain percentage a certain level based on percentage
25:48
of the state budget on education. Now, what threw that off was some
25:55
really bad math on the part of some folks at the governor's office and this
25:59
illusion of flat budgets. So they try to pass it, well, they
26:03
pass a quote unquote flat budget every year before the session is over based on
26:08
estimate. It's not estimates, it's not based on real numbers, and then
26:11
they backfill it afterwards to make up for some of the some of the miscalculations.
26:18
That throws off the percentage of what we spend on education. So it's
26:22
not necessarily about drastic cuts. It's just it throws off the percentage, and
26:26
that caused us to drop below that level where we didn't keep up our end
26:30
of the deal for that federal money, and now we're possibly looking at a
26:36
paying back nearly half a billion dollars to the federal government. It was a
26:40
big mistake on the part of the governor's office. They'll try it as they
26:42
always do. They'll try to blame somebody else, but they have nobody but
26:47
themselves to blame over there. Now. I don't know about using the Rainy
26:49
Day Fund for that. I think that what we should do is raise those
26:52
levels back up, do what we're supposed to do, and hopefully we won't
26:56
have to hopefully the taxpayers won't be on the hook for that. Tex says
27:00
they cut the idd waiver Medicaid line item by eleven million, where there is
27:04
a direct care crisis. Yes, and I stood up and said something about
27:08
that when we got this last minute budget amendment, but it had less than
27:12
a half hour to prepare for debating the budget, which is the most important
27:18
thing that the legislature does. Yeah, and there were drastic cuts to the
27:21
IDD waiver program and the other waiver programs as well. And there was a
27:26
recommendation, there was a study done and a recommendation that we received right before
27:30
session that said we needed to raise it. We needed to raise the rates
27:34
for these personal care workers to go into homes and help people with intellectual developmental
27:38
disabilities. We're at a crisis level right now, and instead of doing what
27:42
we're supposed to do, supposed to do and raise it, they cut it.
27:47
That mainly came from the Senate Finance Committee and your friend here, Chairman
27:52
tar And that's where those cuts came from. And I think it's just it's
27:56
they're drastic cuts. It's a tragedy, and I hope people are really paying
28:00
attention. We've got to get that money restored and actually actually put more money
28:06
towards it, not take money away from somebody. Texts fall as a fall
28:08
of that said thirty one percent underfunded. Yeah, that's what they yeah,
28:14
we heard a years ago we heard about waiting lists, and these families that
28:17
were on a waiting list, well, it doesn't matter whether they're on or
28:21
off the Once they get off the waiting list, if there's nobody there working
28:23
in that field to go in and help them take care of their loved ones
28:27
who have intellectual and developmental disabilities, it's not going to matter whether there's a
28:32
waiting list or not. You have to be able to attract people to that
28:34
field. It's just like anything else. You get what you pay for.
28:37
And if we're unable to pay these folks what they deserve to do this type
28:41
of work, we're not going to find people in that field. So there's
28:44
a severe shortage of staffing in that area, as there are in other areas
28:48
as well. We got a text said, did state workers get a raise
28:51
too? They did? They did last Mink. That was one of the
28:52
bills that was held up in the Senate for quite some time. The state
28:56
workers pay raise, but I think it's just gonna be barely enough to offset
29:00
their peia increases. All right, Texas, Dave, can you ask Delegate
29:03
Pushkin how the state Democratic Party could better appeal to those West Virginia Republicans,
29:07
some of which are running for office, that are Yeah, I'm sorry,
29:11
I'm not reading that. Sorry, I just I don't read stuff like that.
29:15
Sorry, I started reading, but I'm not out to check it out
29:18
on the brand, I'm curious. Well, it's about I mean, you
29:22
know, will you lose me when you start name calling? That's that's the
29:26
thing. And it was asking you how the state Democratic Party could better appealed
29:30
to West Virginia Republicans who have alternative lifestyles. Well, we're I mean,
29:36
yeah, we should be open. We're open for everybody. That's We've always
29:38
been the big ten party. The Democratic Party has always been the party for
29:42
everybody else. Unfortunately, in recent years the Republicans have done a good job
29:47
of branding us as something that we're not, as us being too extreme.
29:51
But if you pay attention to what goes on with the legislature, there are
29:55
you know, fortunately far too few of us over there, But we are
29:59
the adults in the room this year. In spite of our small numbers up
30:03
there, we're incredibly effective. And if you look at what didn't pass,
30:06
that can attest to the fact of just how effective we were. Texas a
30:10
political party that forces women to give birth, then abandons the child, and
30:14
woman wants the child that's born. Question Mark, what is the Republican Party,
30:18
Dave? Well, that's a good question, and they're definitely not the
30:21
party that my grandfather was a proud member of. It used to be about
30:25
small government. Now they've become about bigger and bigger government wanting to I mean,
30:30
this session was about power grabs and just inserting themselves in people's lives where
30:36
they shouldn't be. I don't think that either party is what our grandparents were,
30:40
Republican or Democrat. I'll be honest with you. I mean, that's
30:41
just me and that's my opinion. I don't think that what as you talk
30:45
to you and you and I have talked about this before, about other people
30:48
writing your stories for you. I think that what is seen as the Democratic
30:52
Party on a national level is not the party of John Kennedy. And I
30:56
also think that the Republican Party Ronald Reagan would not be welcome uh. And
31:03
I know that the party that I belonged to the Democratic Party is still stands
31:07
what we always stood for, and that's for protecting uh social securities, protecting
31:12
people's Medicaid and medicare. We just think people should be able to see a
31:15
doctor if God forbid, they get sick. We've always been the party about
31:18
supporting public education, so everybody has access to a good education. We've always
31:25
been the party for everybody else. We have been painted u with a under
31:30
this understood to be something that we're not. And I said, they've done
31:33
a good job of it. But we're not extremists and we're not what they
31:37
they make us out to be. We're we're we're the same, We've same,
31:41
not just what Kennedy stood for, what FDR stood for. Tex says
31:44
Republicans not keeping at their end of the deal and then blaming others for their
31:47
actions. That's definitely on brands as a text text says they didn't have to
31:51
pass the budget last minute. That's the one bill that didn't have to be
31:55
passed before midnight. You know, that's the problem they've had for these these
31:57
But they like doing this. That's something they're publican supermajority likes to do is
32:01
pass the budget before the session is over, when actually we can add on
32:06
an extra day or two and actually takes some time and really look at what's
32:08
in the budget. You can't really know what's in a budget in less than
32:13
a half hour when you get an amendment dropped on you know, Okay,
32:15
we're going to take up this h this massive document with the state budget in
32:20
it, and to find it, how to find out what's what was funded
32:22
enough, what was severely cut like those waiver programs that are going to hurt
32:27
a lot of people, you know. And then we also had this uncertainty
32:30
looming over our head because of the threat of this federal clawback due to a
32:36
really bad math on the part of the governor in his office. Before we
32:39
let you go, I want to ask you. You mentioned the governor.
32:43
Governor didn't spend a whole lot of time around the session, So I'm glad
32:46
you brought that up. I mean, I'll call it as it is a
32:50
fact. It is a fact not there at all. And so the governor
32:52
generally has an agenda. But if you're not there to push your agenda,
32:55
then it gets it gets messed up. And that's what so many things it
33:01
didn't happen the governor mentioned in the State of the State. I mentioned one
33:07
earlier was the high school high school Sports Transfer Portal childcare. We didn't do
33:14
nearly enough to address the foster care crisis in this state, and the governor
33:19
was not there. I just want people to know that that you know,
33:22
this guy is running for US Senate. If you want a if you want
33:25
to go just have every state gets two US senators. If you think West
33:29
Virginia should just have one, then that's your guy, because he's not going
33:31
to be there, all right, the junior the next he'll be the junior
33:36
senator that's never there. He will never be there. And if he's not,
33:39
if he can't make it to Charleston, he's definitely not going to be
33:42
in Washington, d C. Doing his job. We need a senator that's
33:45
going to show up and do the job. All right. We got to
33:46
leave it there, Mike. I appreciate it as always you being here.
33:49
We're going to take a break to Dave Allan show on five of Your Life
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37:22
Texas political parties went full corrupt when Citizens United became law. Foreign and
37:28
unregulated money flows and corrupts, but those who benefit won't get it because they
37:32
are rich. Textays my grandfather's party. This my grandfather's party. That's my
37:37
grandfather thought it was socially acceptable to say the N word. Neither of these
37:42
parties are theirs. Hoppies back in Morgantown for talk Line ten o six this
37:45
morning, Brad'll be along with the Legislative Reviews and an Education Committee chair.
37:50
Amy Grady's on the show. Gayleen Miller from aarp House, Speaker Hanshaw,
37:53
Delicate, John Williams and more talk Line from Morgantown from the en COVID studios
37:58
coming up at ten oh six. Welcome to the show, State Republican Party
38:01
Representative. I never know what your title is. Tony Hodge, how are
38:05
you, man? Good morning. I'm well. I'm a little tired,
38:07
trying to catch up over the weekend. We spent all day Saturday at the
38:12
Legislature. We stayed till sonnyde got home late, got up, had church,
38:17
you know, to do and all that. Came home, tried to
38:20
take a nap, had a short nap, and then had some things to
38:22
do yesterday evening. So I am, truthfully, I'm honestly exalted. You
38:27
and Pushkin were hanging out there in the green room, man, making nice
38:29
with each other. That's awesome. Well, we we're both talking about how
38:31
tired we were. The only thing you have in common is that you're both
38:35
tired. Yeah, well we have more than that. I mean, look,
38:37
we're friends, but both have a love of fudge. Yes, because
38:39
you brought him some fudge last ye Yes, I was too tired to make
38:42
it this morning. I actually considered it, but I thought no way,
38:44
man, I can't get into that. I just wish sometimes that people.
38:46
I mean I got you know, I got a picture out there in the
38:49
hall for the ages with Tar and Pushkin a couple of months ago, and
38:53
it's like so much people could see sometimes that people do talk and carry on
38:58
conversations and talk about weather and sports and things of that, you know,
39:00
normal stuff. And I've always had each other's throats, all right. So
39:05
let's get specific overall, and we'll get into the we'll get into the particulars
39:08
that overall. Your opinion of the session, Tony, well, you know,
39:12
it's it's half and half. I mean something even for myself personally,
39:15
but a lot of people that I've talked to there were some things that were
39:19
really really good and other things that we wish we could have got done.
39:22
And so I can't come in here and say, oh, it was one
39:25
hundred percent grand, but I can't say it was one hundred percent terrible either,
39:30
And you know that's that's politics. That's just politics. I mean,
39:32
there's give and take, there's you know, there's a lot of legislators who
39:37
are disappointed that their bills didn't get through, and there's some legislators that are
39:40
very excited that their bills got through. And that's just the way it is.
39:44
But you know, I want to tell you one thing. You know,
39:46
the Democrats, they will come in here and they will talk about all
39:51
the grand ideas and we ought to fund this, and we ought to fund
39:53
that, and we need to do this, and we need to do that.
39:55
That's easy to do. Anybody can come in here and do that.
39:58
I could sit right here, name off, you know, tons of things
40:01
that I think that we ought to do. But on the flip side of
40:05
that, in West Virginia, we are constitutionally required to have a balanced budget.
40:08
We're not like the Feds where we can just go out and print money
40:10
and do whatever we want. We have to balance a budget. What does
40:14
that mean. We have to be responsible with the state spending. And since
40:17
the Republicans came into a legislative power in twenty fourteen and now we have our
40:22
Republican governor, we have shown that fiscal responsibility. It's very very important.
40:27
And yes we want there are programs that we want funded that we funded some
40:31
programs this year. The foster care bill is one that I want to talk
40:35
about in a little bit, But there's other things that you know, we
40:37
have to look at and say we have to balance a budget. It's our
40:39
job. And there's some legislators who, you know, they think that's the
40:44
only job of the legislature. Bounce a budget, go home. I'm not
40:46
quite that far. There are things that government can do. Generally, I'm
40:52
a small government, that's my philosophy. And this year, you know,
40:55
it's certainly a small government type. You know, we have that flatline budget,
41:00
and we also cut taxes. Not only did we not give a tax
41:06
increase to our residents, but we cut taxes for our seniors. You know,
41:09
our seniors are what built this state that we live in now. And
41:13
they're retired now, and they you know, and they should enjoy their retirement.
41:17
And you know, Joe Biden and the Democrats they go on TV the
41:21
State of the Union and they try to tell the American people in West Virginians
41:23
that we're going to take their social security away. Nothing could be further from
41:27
the truth. In West Virginia, not only are they going to keep their
41:30
social Security, but we're cutting the taxes on their social security so they can
41:34
have more comfortability in their retirement and not have to worry so much about their
41:37
income. So look, we didn't get everything we wanted, but there are
41:40
some really good things that we did get. And you know, the legislature
41:45
meets every year and we'll come back and we'll try for some other things.
41:47
Give me an example of something that we're swinging a miss moment, Stony.
41:52
It's something that you you know, either either as a party or maybe you
41:55
in particular, give me a couple of examples of things that you are disappointed
42:00
that didn't get done. Well. I really like to focus on the things
42:02
that we did get done. But but but since you asked, I think
42:06
a lot of things that didn't get done are more along the social issues.
42:12
I do consider myself a social conservative now and then in this and then and
42:16
now here. I'm speaking now right now on behalf of Tony. You know
42:21
our Republican party, you have, you have your Chamber of Republicans, you
42:23
have your Social Republicans. You know, you have your small government at your
42:27
fiscal there's all sorts of uh, you know, we're we're we're more really
42:30
I think of a big tent party and we have a lot of independent minded
42:32
people in our party, where the other side I thinks much more group think.
42:36
But so I mean there was some social issues that we lost. The
42:39
Baby Olivia Bill was something that I thought was really important that would show h
42:44
videos to our I think it was eighth graders and ninth graders, eighth graders
42:49
about human conception. I thought that was really important. The Library Obscenity Bill,
42:52
in my opinion, that was an important bill. Uh. Some Republicans
42:55
seem to be split on that one. Concealed carry for teachers. I am
43:00
all about protecting children. Anything we can do to protect our school children,
43:04
I'm very much in favor of. So that was a little bit of a
43:05
disappointment. And then the Women's Bill of Rights. I thought push can call
43:08
it the Bill of wrongs. Well, you know, and that's his opinion.
43:12
You know, some people have a problem with the title of the bill
43:15
if the title the bill corresponds to what's in the bill. But the fact
43:19
of the matter is that what it would do is it's a pro science bill.
43:22
I'm very much pro science, and it defines what a man is and
43:25
what a woman is as defined by science, and that's very important. Some
43:30
of the social issues that we did get through, though, speaking on that
43:34
subject, was the birth certificates that you know, you can't have non binary
43:37
on a bursting of it has to be male or female, which, of
43:39
course that's seems to be favored by most Some people who are have concerns about
43:47
the vaccinations. There was a vaccination bill that went through that some on the
43:51
Republican side didn't like, but a lot of the lot of the people out
43:53
here in the state did, and that would relax vaccination requirements on virtual schools
43:59
and privacy Rushow, there's some people who like that. And then there was
44:01
the protection for belief based student organizations in schools. Just add some protections on
44:07
that. So those are just some social issues that we want. So you
44:09
see, we get there's a little bit that we won in a little bit
44:12
that we lost. So that's just politics tech, says Dave. Same question
44:17
to Tony Hodge. Please address West Virginia Republicans who live alternative lifestyles while pushing
44:22
anti LGDP, I always get the letters makes up LGBTQ legislation makes a difficult
44:30
to judge candidates and they're not even honest with themselves or party. Well,
44:35
you know, I think the Republican Party stands for traditional family values. We
44:40
stand for the nuclear family, and you know, while we do welcome people
44:45
of all stripes in. We're not going to agree on every single issue,
44:50
you know. I think it was Ronald Reagan that said, you know,
44:52
if we can agree on eighty percent, then we're good. The other twenty
44:54
percent, you know, we can work on. So look, I'm I
45:00
have differences of opinion with that lifestyle, but at the same time, we
45:04
work with people like that. I have personal friends who live that lifestyle,
45:07
and it's just a difference of opinion. You know, We're not gonna We're
45:09
not gonna, you know, completely several our ways because of things like that.
45:15
So we'll work with anybody, but we will stay focused on our platform
45:19
and what it says. Eight minutes away from Tama, Dave alland showing five
45:22
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45:32
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them locally, John or Sherry made today three zero four eight one four two
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five zero nine. We got Tony Hodge from the State Republican Party here Texas.
47:04
Dave ask Tony, who we endorse us for governor and Senator? Thanks?
47:07
Well, look, you're not in the business of endorsing that at this
47:10
point. I mean, I wouldn't think right because of your ties to the
47:14
State Republican Party, you can't do that, right. Well, we certainly
47:16
will endorse right after the May primary, but up until then we can endorse.
47:20
But I'll tell you we have great candidates and both of those races,
47:22
and whoever wins, we will wholeheartedly get behind. Two questions says the textra
47:25
Why do Republicans think life starts a conception but won't let a pregnant woman claim
47:30
the so called child as a dependent? What do Republicans have against same sex
47:34
marriage couples getting the same tax regulations as opposite sex marriage couples. Tony Well,
47:39
the on the conception part. Yes, life begins at conception, and
47:43
I would absolutely favor that person growing in the womb to be to be considered
47:49
a dependent. That's actually a really good idea. We should do something about
47:52
that. Phone calls to the show at service of big Ley Pickley Whigley,
47:54
and our texting services are provided by Fruit Pharmacy, your hometown family pharmacy.
47:58
All right, so talk about intelligent design. That was something that went by
48:02
the wayside that you I know, and your son, who's been on this
48:07
show, kind of pushed. He's a high school student, very politically involved,
48:12
and he was very into this. It didn't pass. No, it
48:15
did pass. It did pass. I'm sorry, hello, Yes it did
48:17
pass. So my son, his name is Hayden Hodge. He's a junior
48:20
at Hurricane High School. And very quickly, the way this bill came about
48:23
was it came about through a classroom discussion where my son was asking about the
48:29
origin of the first cell, the origin of the very first life, abiogenesis,
48:31
and the origin of the universe, and you know, we have the
48:35
Big Bang in these types of theories, you know, and the big Bang
48:38
is fine. We're fine with the big bang. We know the universe was,
48:43
you know, there was a big bang. We just want to know
48:44
who banged it. And that was where the conversation started in the classroom,
48:50
and the teacher was a little bit uncomfortable with wanting to answer fully on that.
48:53
So, you know, Hayden thought, wow, you know, why
48:57
would a teacher be uncomfortable, So he wrote a bill himself. He wrote
48:59
it, and what it does is it gives teachers protections to be able to
49:02
talk about different scientific theories in the classrooms without fear of excuse me, getting
49:07
in trouble with the law or anything like that. So teachers can now free
49:13
if this is signed by the government, which we you know, we think
49:15
it will be, of course, teachers will be able to freely talk about
49:19
scientific theories in the classroom. On life's origins, you know, Darwinian evolution,
49:22
it talks about the origin of species, but it doesn't really talk about
49:25
abbeogenesis. That's the very first life. How did something from non life turn
49:30
into life for the very first time? And why can we not repeat it?
49:34
And then we all know with the universe and the Big Bang and all
49:37
that, we all know that from nothing, nothing comes. Anything that begins
49:39
to exist has a cause. We know this from the uniform of the principle
49:45
of uniformity in science. These are scientific discussions that need to be had in
49:50
the classroom. We don't need to tell our students what to think. We
49:52
need to teach them how to think, and then they should be able to
49:54
make up their in mind. So we're really really glad. And let me
49:58
tell you this final passage on that bill sent a Bill two eighty was enjoyed
50:04
bipartisan support in the House and bipartisan support in the Senate. So it's a
50:07
very popular bill. People love it. There was a lot of discussion on
50:09
it, a lot of talk on the floor about it, and a lot
50:13
of the legislators said that it was the easiest vote they've cast all session.
50:15
Texas Dave more social issues. Didn't deal with the Public Service Commission, that's
50:20
robbing families, and no end in sight. Doesn't care for kids. Just
50:22
look at vaccinations bill ninety percent nation says we should vaccinate our children. Well,
50:29
my children are vaccinated. I'm vaccinated. You know, there's some people
50:31
out here who have problems with that, some people who don't. That's why
50:34
we have to we have to find that middle ground to be able to please
50:37
different size. One other thing I want to say real quick, because I
50:38
know we're getting short on time, and I think the guy before me talked
50:43
about this, but the five percent pay increase, he has a name,
50:45
yep, Mike. I'm sorry. I'm just trying to get everything in because
50:50
I know we're but no, the five percent pay increase. Look, we're
50:53
passing balanced budgets. Let me reiterate that we're cutting taxes and we're giving pay
51:00
raises to our teachers, you know who we adore, our state troopers,
51:04
our public employees. It's this is actually incredible. So there's a lot of
51:07
complaints on the budget, but if you look at what we're doing and the
51:10
responsibility measures that we're taking in what we're doing, it's really incredible. And
51:15
look, let me just say, we've been in power in the legislature for
51:19
ten years. We've got a lot of really really, really really big things
51:24
done. A lot of big things over the last ten years. You know,
51:28
after ten years, you know, once you've done all the big things,
51:30
when you have a legislative session like this year where we didn't get a
51:34
whole whole lot done. We got some stuff done. Some people look at
51:37
that and say, well, this was a lackluster. This wasn't the you
51:39
know good. You know, we didn't do this. We did do that.
51:42
We've done a lot. It's a ten year record. This is one
51:45
session out of ten years. I mean, like, come on, give
51:46
us a break. They're doing really good. I'm very actually, very proud
51:49
of our Republican legislature legislators. You know, some of them, you know,
51:53
we have disagreements, but we work through those behind the scenes, and
51:57
they're doing a really good job. All right, So as we let me
52:00
those with this now that the session is behind us, they'll be of course
52:02
back in May. Uh let's talk quickly about campaign. So you're out there,
52:07
you're beating the bush and uh, the it gonna be a very crowded
52:10
field for some of these primary races can be twenty seconds. It is a
52:13
very crowded field. We're going to Uh, we're just encouraging our candidates.
52:16
You know, I'll tell you anybody who wants to run for public office,
52:21
think about it. You know, you need to put your name in there.
52:23
We need really good people. We've got really good people on the ballot
52:27
right now. Also, pay attention to your circuit court races, your judges.
52:30
You need to search out the conservative candidates for your judges. They're nonpartisan.
52:35
If you need help with that, called the Republican Party, we're gonna
52:37
help with endorsements of conservative judges. It's very important. Gotta leave it there,
52:42
Tony Hodge, I appreciate you being here. Hobbies coming up at ten
52:44
oh six with talk Line. I will see you tomorrow. Till then,
52:46
have fun and love somebody love U two four three d r f N Charlestown,
53:00
W two A three a Q Cross Lanes, a WVRC media station.
53:06
We're proud to live here too. H