Latest / Between the Headlines: Columbus / Scott Colom Challenges Cindy Hyde-Smith for US Senate PLUS a Recognition of First Responders

Transcript

Scott Colom Challenges Cindy Hyde-Smith for US Senate PLUS a Recognition of First Responders · Between the Headlines: Columbus

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: From the opinion page of the Commercial Dispatch.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is Between the Headlines.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: This is Peter Imes, publisher of the Dispatch.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: One of our hosts of Between the Headlines is the managing editor of our newsroom.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Typically we try to keep news and opinions separate, but reporters have a unique insight into the workings of local government and their analysis can be helpful for readers and listeners.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: The dispatch remains committed to journalistic integrity and our reporting will always reflect that.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: And now between the headlines.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: I think that, as a prosecutor, I know how to prosecute a case, and I'm about to prosecute the case against Cindy Hyde-Smith and the case for Scott Colon.
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: Just in, district Attorney Scott Colon announces his candidacy for United States Senate, challenging Republican candidate and incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: He is here today.
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: You are listening to a breaking news edition of Between the Headlines.
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: Stay put.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: Retirement looks different for everyone, so your plan should be built around you.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: For over 40 years, financial Concepts has helped people create retirement strategies that fit their lives.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: Our team in Columbus takes the time to understand your goals and build a plan that works for you.
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: Wherever you are in your journey, we're ready to help.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: We plan retirement.
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: Financial Concepts is a registered investment advisor.
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: Benton's Maintenance and Mechanical makes easy work out of plumbing, electrical heating and air conditioner problems.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: You can book an appointment by phone or online and rest assured they will show up at the appointed time.
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: Phone or online and rest assured they will show up at the appointed time.
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: Call Benton's at 662-657-2583 or visit them online at bentonsinccom.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: That is bentonsinccom.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: This episode of Between the Headlines is brought to you by Bank First, the locally owned bank that makes decisions right here at home, by people who understand the needs of our community.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: That means local decisions, local support and folks who care.
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: If your kid made the team At Bank First, we're not just bankers.
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: We're neighbors and friends.
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: Whether you're buying a home or starting a business or just need someone to explain what APR actually means, we're here, right down the street.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: Stop by your Bank First branch or visit bankfirstfscom to learn more.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: Bank First is a member FDIC and equal housing lender bank, nmls 454063.
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: We are pleased to have in the studio today freshly announced candidate for United States Senate and 16th Judicial District, attorney Scott Colon.
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: Mr Colon, thank you so much for choosing us to have this announcement here today and just right off the bat.
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: To be honest, when I heard that you were coming on the show today, I really thought that someone big was going to jail.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Listen.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: I'm honored to do this in my hometown.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: You know the question everybody's going to be asking is why I'm running.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: And you know, let me get straight to it.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: I'm a seventh generation Mississippian.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: I love Mississippi.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: My wife and I, when we graduated from grad school outside of Mississippi, we both chose to come home back to Mississippi to help make it the best state it could be.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: You know we're choosing to raise our daughters here.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: We started businesses here.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: I got elected district attorney here 2015.
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: I'm honored to be the district attorney and I think our state needs a senator that's going to put Mississippi above DC politics.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: You look at what's going on with the tariffs.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: The inconsistent policy we don't have a senator standing up for us is causing the rise of prices.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: You look at wages.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: We haven't had a raise in wages since the Afghanistan war.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: That's insane.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: That's not common sense.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: We've got to have a senator that's fighting for a terror policy that's going to lower prices, a wage policy that's going to boost wages.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: And the next thing that's important to me as a father of two daughters, as a district attorney that works with the police, is those two professions come with a lot of responsibility and by nature, they have to come with accountability, because teachers our future is dependent on them.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: Cops safety and fairness is dependent on them, and so one of the things I'm going to propose is no income tax for teachers and cops, because if we're going to have those professions have that much responsibility, we've got to make sure they're not just just surviving but they're thriving.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: And a final point I want to make which is very important to me Zach and David, if you look at the bill that just passed, they just permanently cut taxes for people making over $600,000 a year 3%.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: How many people do y'all know in Mississippi that make over $600,000 a year?
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: I plead the fifth on that one, not many.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: You know where they live.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: They live in California, new York, boston, dc.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: So Senator High Smith voted to cut those people taxes and she afforded those tax cuts by cutting Mississippi's health care.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Over 100 reports are.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: 140,000 Mississippians may lose health insurance because of this betrayal.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: At least eight hospitals are at risk of closing because of this betrayal.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: And when I'm elected to the United States Senate, the citizens of Mississippi can be trusted.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: I'm going to vote to repeal those health care cuts.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: I'm going to save our hospitals because we've got to have a senator that puts Mississippi's interests above DC politics.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: Mr Cologne, you're not one to beat around the bush.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: I see You've really jumped straight into the issues here.
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: One thing I want to ask, Zach, if you don't mind.
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you said this is not about politics.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: Are you telling me that Cindy Hyde-Smith's decision to block your nomination had nothing to do with this decision?
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you like this, as a Christian.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Well, let me jump in here for context here, and what I was about to ask you is if you know, if not for Cindy Hyde-Smith?
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: You're a federal judge right now.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Is there beef and is that part of what you're doing?
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: No, it's not beef at all.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: As a Christian, I forgive Cindy Highsmith.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: I truly do.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: I have to, but as a Mississippian, I'm frustrated about the way she votes.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: I mean, look at what.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: Let's go back to the Jackson water crisis, a time in Mississippi where we had citizens who did not have clean drinking water, who couldn't take showers.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: People across the state were coming together to help Jackson.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Cindy Highsmith voted against the federal money that was used to repair the water system.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: That's not pro-Mississippi politics, that's pro-DC politics.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: I'm concerned about what Mitch McConnell thinks.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: I'm concerned about what Ted Cruz thinks.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: I'm concerned about what people in DC think, and we can't afford to have a senator like that.
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: Did she vote against the money, or did she vote against it going into the wrong hands, where they've already squandered it, though?
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: Listen.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: She voted against the money and it's not a.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: And the thing about it is Senator Roger Wicker voted for it.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: It was a bipartisan bill.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: It was an infrastructure package.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: Senator Roger Wicker voted for it.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: The money was used to repair the Jackson Water Crisis.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: Let's take something personal.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: Let's take it close to home Highway 82.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: We're expanding it in Starkville, right?
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: She was at the ribbon cutting, senator Hyde-Smith.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: She voted against that money.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: She voted against that money.
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: She's not telling people when she goes to DC.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: She votes against our interests, because we've had this problem across the country, really, where people are so partisan that they're not looking out for their state.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: They're looking out for whatever the leaders in DC tell them to do, and that's just not the type of person I am.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: I know I know in my heart Mississippi deserves a senator that's going to put us first and that's why I'm running.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: That's a pretty big jump from district attorney.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Two part question, the first being how did this come about?
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: How did, how did you, I guess, go from what you're doing to OK, I'm going to run for Senate?
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you, in the 10 years that I've been district attorney, I'm very proud of my record Got 94 percent conviction rate.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: I've tried over 35 jury trials.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: All of them have been very serious offenses murders, rapes, sexual assaults and anybody that's ever seen me in court knows that I give my passion, everything I have, to keeping this community safe, and so I'm very proud of that.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: Do you think?
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: there should have been more indictments.
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: That's one of your criticisms.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, I'll tell you this the grand jury decides what cases are indicted.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: What I do is, as a district attorney, I present the evidence to the grand jury, I present the law and I let them make their decision.
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: Because I really believe one of the great things that our founders gave us was the grand jury system.
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: It's very decentralized, it's democratic, and so, you know, I live with the results of the grand jury because to me, that's the way our system is supposed to be set up.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: So I present every case that the police ask me to present and I live with the results of the grand jury.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: But what I'll tell you is this the best way to prevent crime is a job and education.
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: Rehabilitation.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: Prevent.
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: Prevent crime, job and education.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: Now, when you talk about someone who's committed a crime, you've got to have accountability that prevents it.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: Rehabilitation in prisons that's important, but to prevent it from the front end, you know somebody doing this 10 years.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: People that are making a lot of money aren't committing as many crimes.
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: People that have a good education are not committing as many crimes.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: So we have to have a senator that understands that your first responsibility is to our state.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: I mean, we have a tradition of senators like Thad Cochran.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: Now, I may not have agreed with Thad Cochran on every issue, but he knew his number one job was to bring resources back to Mississippi.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: And Senator Haas-Mill, she does not do that.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: That's not her focus.
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: Her focus is on being somebody in DC, and we can't afford that in Mississippi.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: We're not a state that can afford leadership that's more focused on what people in DC think than what people in Mississippi think.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: So did you?
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: come to this decision to run on your own?
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Were you recruited by the national party?
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: By a state party?
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: How did that come about?
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: Exactly, listen.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: You've known me long enough to know nobody tells me what to do.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm a very independent thinker.
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: I do what I think is right.
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: You know I'm a Christian.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: I pray on my decisions.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: You know everything I've ever done has been based on what I thought was right.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: The impetus to run was the Senator Highsmith record.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: Ok, that's the impetus.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: I mean Senator Roger Ricker.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: I may not agree with him on everything, but he has a record of looking out for Mississippi.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: She has a record of declining resources for Mississippi at the benefit of people that live in California, new York and DC.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: California, new York.
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: They have senators, we don't need to be worried about cutting their taxes.
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: But do you really believe that the farmers around here agree with that sentiment?
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: I mean, she's made her way all the way up to appropriations and I believe that she's helped the farmers and the FDA folks as far as things that benefit Mississippi.
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: What's the specifics on that?
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: Well, I would say that the farmers are struggling because she's not standing up for a good, consistent terror policy.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: I mean, a lot of Mississippi farmers sell soybeans and they're struggling and we haven't had a farm bill passed in I don't know how long, because she's not a leader.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: She's not a leader, you know.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: You take somebody like Lisa Murkowski and what she just did she negotiated her vote to really get a bunch of carve outs for Alaska, to get a bunch of good deals for Alaska.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: So they get all the good stuff but really very little of the bad stuff.
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: Well, why did Senator Highsmith do that?
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: She just gave her vote away for nothing and we can't have senators that do that.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: She just gave her vote away for nothing and we can't have senators that do that.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: So you know what I hear from farmers is.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: You know these are rough times, we're worried and we need a senator that's going to stand up for us.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: Now, of course, I have to introduce myself to those people and once they see my record and why I'm running and my interest in Mississippi, I think we're going to be.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: We're going to be, we're going to be good.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: You're quite popular in these four counties.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Mississippi has 82.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: As a district attorney in Mississippi, what assurances confidence do you have that you're going to get the state party behind you for this run?
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: And secondly, how are you going to get anybody outside of these four counties to really know you on the level they would have to fill in your bubble?
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, when I was running for district attorney in 2015, I was running against a 27-year incumbent and a lot of people didn't think I could win.
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: But I have faith that when Mississippians are given a message that is based in fact, based in passion, based in the future of our state, that they will give that candidate a chance.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: And my focus is going to be on my message because, listen, I don't have to explain why I just cut taxes for people making over $600,000 a year.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: Sidney Highsmith has to explain that.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: I don't have to explain why I voted against money coming to Columbus, lowndes County, to Meridian I don't have to explain that she does, and I think that the tradition of Mississippi Senators has been.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: We understand there might be ideological differences in the margins, but your number one priority was to look out for our state and she's not doing that.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: And I'm going to be the person to have a positive message about what I'm going to do but also call out what she's not doing.
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: Well, if you have ideological differences in the margins and you just talked about your race that last one I agree it was a well-fought race but do you not give any credit to Mr Soros who put money into your campaign?
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: That's a far-left, globalist thing.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: That is a poison pill for a lot of people.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: Well, he didn't put money into my campaign.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: He put money into a political independent expenditure group and, as I've said over and over again, I don't know him.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: I didn't ask for the money, but here's what I will say.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: But you didn't turn it down either.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: But he didn't give it to me, I didn't control it.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: Okay, he did not give me the money.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: It went to a political action committee.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: Right, and this is why I want to ask you, david.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: You know, over the 10 years that I've been district attorney, nobody can point to one decision I made that was based on anything other than what I thought was right.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: Not one decision, and that's why I've been able to get reelected.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: That's why I have a high conviction rate.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: But let's talk about 2025.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: And where does Senator Highsmith get her money from?
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: Look at her campaign contributions.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: There are a bunch of political action committees full of people outside of Mississippi giving her thousands and thousands of dollars, and we know why they're giving her that money because she just voted to cut their taxes.
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: But they didn't give it straight to her, they gave it to a political action.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: No, no they gave it directly to her.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: They gave it to her campaign.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: You pull her political, pull her campaign finance reports.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: They gave directly to her campaign.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: You know she's raised millions of dollars from political action committees full of people that live outside of Mississippi and the reason they give her that money is because she just voted to give tax cuts to people that live in New York, california and DC.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Let me add one final point to this.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: I believe that there's too much money in politics.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: I do.
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: There's too much money in politics.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: I truly believe that.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: And if you're out there, you're listening, and you want a Senate candidate that's a father like me that drops his kids off at school every day and prays that they learn, donate five, ten dollars to me.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: If you want a candidate who's got parents that's worried about their grandkids, donate to me, because that's the way to fight big dollars in politics.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: But unequivocally.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: I'm hearing you say that the trickle-down economics of past years has no value in modern-day politics.
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: But you're telling me you can look out here to these mega sites and there's not some really rich folks bringing in some really high paying jobs, and that they didn't come here because of the Trump tax cuts, etc.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you this I'm running to look out for Mississippi.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: You know, the reality is people making $600,000 a year do not live in Mississippi.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: They don't.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: They live in California, new York.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: They live in cities that are still in our young people.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: And how dare we have a United States senator cut those people taxes and put in?
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: She afforded those tax cuts by putting our hospitals and our health care at risk.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: That's not in Mississippi's interest.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: Now I'll tell you on the, the tariff policy.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: I absolutely love the fact that we have these industries in this area.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: That's great for preventing crime and I support the tariff policy on steel and aluminum because that's helping us get good paying jobs for industries that are important to our country.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: But I don't support a senator giving up her power when it comes to terror policy, which is causing inconsistent terror policy.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: One day we have 15, the next day we have 30.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: If you look at the Constitution David I know this is important to you because you're a constitutional guy Senate's supposed to have policy on tariffs.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: So we need a senator that's going to stand up for us and say listen, grocery prices are still too high, wages are still too low and we have to have a senator that's fighting for us.
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: So you're going to go up there and you're going to say Mr Trump, I disagree with your policy, let's rethink all this.
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: And he's going to listen to a freshman senator.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: Well, what I'll do is similar to Senator Lisa Murkowski I'm going to use my vote to be my power, because I'm going to go out there and I'm not going to be focused on DC politics.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: If you always vote Democrat, you're not effective, for Mississippi Got you so?
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: you've mentioned her twice, right, and so you're saying that you're going to be perhaps a middle of the road kind of guy.
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: Is that what I'm hearing from you?
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: I'm going to be a common sense Democrat.
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: What about values?
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: That's what I want to talk about next.
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: Zach, can we talk about values?
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah All right.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: Look, can I finish on the common sense Democrat Absolutely important.
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: You know, for me, for example, when I say I'm a common sense Democrat, you know I think President Trump has done a good job securing the border.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: I think he's done a good job of that.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: I think the Democrats failed at that.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: I also think, taking a step further on immigration I don't like H1B1 visas.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: I also think, taking it a step further on immigration I don't like H-1B-1 visas.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: I don't like Microsoft firing a bunch of American workers and hiring foreign workers.
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: While they're applying for foreign workers, that they can pay less when those jobs need to be in Mississippi.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: We've got to take care of Mississippi workers because the best way to help our state go forward is to make sure we have workers with wages where they can take care of their family and live their dreams, and that's what I'm going to be focused on.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: The last common sense Democrat to run in an election that was where the statewide electorate voted was Brandon Presley.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Right and everybody knew Brandon Presley, and he didn't win.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: He did win Lowndes County, though, but I mean so didley Right and everybody knew Brandon Presley, and he didn't win.
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: He did win Lowndes County though.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: But I mean so did I?
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah Well, I mean right.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: So outside of this circuit, outside of these four counties where you call home and you have the reputation, you have the name recognition, you've got a common sense Democrat who had high name recognition lost the governor's race.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: You know it wasn't a blowout, but it was not particularly close.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: That's really close.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: If a Democrat got between 24,000 votes of winning the governorship in Texas, we'd be talking about Texas as a purple state.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: How do you, though I mean with your much more limited name recognition and a state that is conditioned to vote Republican and has been for quite some time?
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: I mean, how do you break through that?
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: And with something that you've already mentioned, with Hyde Smith, Borchess is going to be bigger than yours, Like how do you fight all of those elements and do it effectively in a winning strategy, when Brandon Presley could not?
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: Listen, I don't want to get too much into.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: Let me just say this I have faith in my message penetrating in a way that voters will give a chance, because I have faith in Mississippi.
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: That's why I moved back is because I have faith in this state, I believe in the state's potential, I believe in the fact that we can come together.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: Hear hear, I like that you know, and that's that's you know.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: I'm going to put my faith in Mississippi voters.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: I've always have and they haven't let me down yet.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: The Mississippi voters are not a fan of so-called transitional or gender affirming care.
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: We're talking about values, Right?
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: What do you say about that kind of stuff, particularly as it relates to minors, given the detransitionalist movement you know, the UK coming out with medical reviews that say this is a red flag?
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: Let me talk values on that, david.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: That's a fair question.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: I have two daughters, like I said.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: You know, I coached their soccer team last year.
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: The Lady Dawgs is an all-female league and we got second place.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: So shout out to the Lady Dawgs.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: I don't think biological boys should be playing girls' sports.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: I don't think minors should be getting gender-affirming surgery.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: I don't think the science is clear enough to allow that.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: That's my views, and I will say this.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: Though and this is important, david when I walk around Lowndes County, I talk to grand juries.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: When I go to a grocery store nobody's ever brought that up to me they never have.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: What they talk to me about are man, the grocery prices are still high.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: You know, I go by McDonald's and I talk to a worker.
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: I say man, you're working on Labor Day.
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: Are you getting time and a half?
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: No, I'm not.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: How are you doing with wages?
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: It's a struggle.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: What about health care?
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: What about hospitals?
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: That's what I hear.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: So that's what I want to talk about.
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: Well, those things are less taboo, but these are more difficult topics, and so I want to know are you more pro-life or are you more pro-choice?
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you, as a Christian who grew up in Columbus, I've always been pro-life.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: That's just how I was raised.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: Now I'll tell you this, though I've got two daughters, and I'm trying to raise them to be smart and independent and strong-minded, and I want them to be able to.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm going to trust them to make the choices that are best for them.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: I believe that's important to trust women.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: Now what I'll say, though, is that we've got to have pro-life policies because, for example, my brother and his wife, they're trying to have a baby and they're having to go through IVF.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: Senator Highsmith has voted against IVF services.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: So how can you be pro-life and you're voting against IVF?
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: We just saw a report that there's a state of emergency in Mississippi about infant mortality.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: I think the fact that we just cut health care for working families in Mississippi, the fact that we put our hospitals at risk Senator Hyde-Smith did that.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: Let me be clear, she did that the fact that she did that is going to make that problem worse.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: So we've got to have pro-life policies as well.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: That's important to me as a Christian, and of pro-life policies as well.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: That's important to me as a Christian.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: And so you know that's my viewpoint on it, those are my values.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: Well, you've mentioned hospitals several times now.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: So what's your vision for, I mean, the healthcare situation and the rural hospital situation is pretty dire, especially here.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: So what's your prescription for changing that if you're elected?
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: Two solutions One we're going to repeal the health care cuts.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: We're going to save our hospitals.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: That's the first thing we have to do.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: That's day number one.
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: The second thing we have to expand Medicaid.
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, if you look at the fact that we were going to get $3 to $4 from the federal government that was going to go to Mississippi hospitals, go to Mississippi health care, go to Mississippi businesses the fact that we have not taken that money and if we're being honest everybody listens to this knows the only reason we did not take the money was because of DC politics, because it makes no sense not to take money.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: It's against common sense not to take money from California and New York, boston, dc.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: Because of DC politics.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: That makes no sense and that's why I say Cutting your nose off to spite your face, and it's because of politics, it's DC politics.
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: But you don't reckon?
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: Some of those people saying that were like, look, we've got to incentivize work and we've got to incentivize the desire not just to have a job but to move forward to a better job.
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: You have that ability?
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's why it's important to me that we raise the minimum wage.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: We haven't done that since the Afghanistan war and you know, if you raise the minimum wage for everybody out there, that doesn't make the minimum wage.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: You're saying well, how does this help me?
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: Well, one of the few things government can do, right, one of the few things government can do to help wages is to raise the floor, because if you raise the floor.
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: what you do is you boost all wages, and so the fact that we haven't boosted wages since the Afghanistan war makes it hard for people out there that are trying to make a living.
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: But wouldn't you agree that the billionaires that you've talked about they raise the maximum wage?
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: And that's what I'm wondering about.
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: How can we raise the maximum wage for those who are marginalized, not making what they should?
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the best way to do that is to invest in the good paying jobs, and this area has done that well, you know.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: But I'm not worried about the millionaires and billionaires in California and New York.
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: They seem to be doing better than ever.
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: They seem to be doing better than ever.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: I'm worried about the people that I see in Macon, Mississippi, the catfish farmer that's saying he's worried about his ability to sell catfish in this climate.
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: Those are the people that I'm listening to and I think we're at a unique moment and, you know, I've got, I believe, a message that's going to appeal to Mississippi, the people that love Mississippi more than they love DC politics.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: I think it's fair to say that politics are very polarized right now on just about every level, maybe not so much on the local level, but as you zoom out on the state and national level in particular.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: And some people might even call it toxic.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: How does your voice get over that polarization and that toxicity to resonate with people?
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you that it's too rare that Mississippi voters hear a Democrat who has common sense ideas, that's rooted in what's best for the average Mississippian advancing their life right, so that's what I'm going to focus on Now the polarization certainly that's a national problem.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: That's what I want to focus on Now.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: The polarization certainly that's a national problem.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: Part of the issue with it, though, is you have Democrats in states that support bad border policy because they're so into DC politics, and then you have Republicans, like Senator Hyde-Smith, who vote against money coming to our community because of DC politics, and that's polarization.
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: It's not what's best for the state, it's what's best for the party, and this is.
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: You keep asking me how I'm going to win, and here's the bottom line.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: It's what I believe, zach and David.
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: I believe the majority majority of Mississippians love Mississippi more than they hate Democrats or love the Republican Party.
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: I think that's true.
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: But what about the likes of folks such as AOC Jazzy Crockett?
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: Listen, they're on the edge Right and you've talked about polarization Right.
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: Are there policies or ideas on that left hand side of the party that you are willing to go on the record and denounce right off the bat?
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll tell you honestly, I'm focused on Jimmy Stokes in Horn Lake.
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: He just won an election in Horn Lake to become a mayor there and I'm proud of him.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: I know him and he ran a competitive campaign.
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: I'm focused on the people of Mississippi.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: I don't know these people.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: I don't know their views.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: David, I'm not living a life where I'm following national politics.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: That's the problem with Cindy Hyde-Smith She'll vote against what's best for Mississippi because she's so caught up in, you know, mitch McConnell, ted Cruz.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: I don't care what Mitch McConnell thinks.
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: Mitch McConnell's not doing nothing these days.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: You're going to have Chuck Schumer and others on the other side that are going to be.
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: He's just cooking hamburgers and stuff, though Nobody pays attention to him nowadays, come on.
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: Well, nobody pays attention to him nowadays.
• 27:22
  Speaker 4: Come on.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: Well, I can only tell you that you know my interest is going to be what's best for Mississippi.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: That's always been my interest.
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: That's why I moved back to this state.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: That's why I've been blessed to been appointed to several positions of leadership and that's why the voters elected me and that's why they keep.
• 27:40
  Speaker 3: They've kept reelected me because I've I put the interest of the public first and I'm rooted in Mississippi.
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: I'm a seventh generation Mississippi.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: I'm doing this because we have to go back to political leadership in our state that puts our interests first.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: That Cochran would be rolling in his grave.
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: Y'all know this.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: That Cochran would be rolling in his grave if he knew that he had a senator that replaced him that voted against bringing resources back to Mississippi.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: How does that make sense?
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: That is not.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: That's not.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: You know that's too partisan.
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: You're too focused on DC politics.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Do you think that you can get her to debate you during the campaign?
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: I think that, as a prosecutor, I know how to prosecute a case, and I'm about to prosecute the case against Cindy High Smith and the case for Scott Colon.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Do you think that she'll get on a stage and let you do that with her standing there?
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: If?
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: she does.
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: I'll be happy to put my record of keeping this community safe, focusing on fairness in our system, against her record of looking out for DC, california and New York.
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: I put our records against each other, any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, so what happens to the DA's office if you win, if you lose?
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: Because that election's what in 27?
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: It's in 26.
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: Excuse me, I'm sorry, the Senate race is in 26.
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: The DA election is in 27.
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: Right man, I am focused day by day Right.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: The DA elections in 27.
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: Right man, I am focused day by day Right.
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: I've got an amazing staff.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: Shout out to the district attorney's office.
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: We have such a high conviction rate.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: None of them, you know, knock on wood, our cases haven't been reversed.
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: I'm very proud of that.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: Ten years, not one case reversed by the Court of Appeals.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: And we have a high conviction rate.
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: And you know, not taking all the credit, being humble, the judges play a role in that because they have to make you know, they have to be the umpires and they have to call balls and strikes.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: Well, and we've got some experienced judges, but I'm very proud of them.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: And but as far as what I'm going to do in the future, I'm so focused on getting my message for Mississippi out that that's going to be where I keep it.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: OK.
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: I have a nonpartisan question.
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: Thank you that.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: I'd like it's about time.
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: David.
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: You know what I?
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: Do I like what Lynn Spruill said last week in the studio.
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: She said that economic development is a regional effort around here and I'm wondering what we can do to move on from the Joe Max Higgins era into something that will continue to be a benefit for the Golden Triangle, to make it a better place to work and a better place to live.
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: Think regional.
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: What can we do?
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: Well, I think we're doing some really smart things.
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: For example, you have to make the community attractive to parents.
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: I think that's important.
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: That's.
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: One advantage we have is our cost of living is not through the roof, of course, with this terror policy.
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: There you go again.
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: It's getting through the roof, but anyways, young parents can have a family here and grow their family and I love, for example, my daughter Maddie.
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: She just had her birthday party Saturday in Starkville at the new playground.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: Water.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: Park.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: I mean, have you been to that yet?
• 30:56
  Speaker 4: The one at McKee yeah, mckee, that thing is amazing, it's great, it's quite pretty, it's great.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: Packed with kids.
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: Everybody's having a good time.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: Did you play pickleball while you were out there?
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: I'm pretty good at pickleball.
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: Okay, you know, but I did not play pickleball because it was my daughter's birthday, but anyways, that's important because that's attractive for young families.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: So stuff like that is important.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: I think that when people think about whether they leave Mississippi or come back to Mississippi, when people think about whether they leave Mississippi or come back to Mississippi, another thing they want is sort of some, some sort of entertainment, some sort of you know yeah, entertainment.
• 31:31
  Speaker 4: So are you going to help mayor Jones get the money for the to?
• 31:35
  Speaker 4: Finish the look he's got 119 days remaining to get that done, Like he said he would do.
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: I hadn't heard squat about it, have you?
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: when I talked to the mayor.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: He is laser focused on keeping all of his promises and I know that's important to him.
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you I don't think I have time when I'm elected to the Senate and and shock you too I don't think that I'll have time to to get that money because the election is out until 26.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: But if he hadn't gotten the money by then, I'll get it for him and we'll get that, because I do think it's important for entertainment you have to have.
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: You know, as a young parent, some Friday nights, saturday nights, I want to be able to leave the kids with my parents and go out and have a good time, listen to some music, and that's important for a vibrant community.
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: You've got to have things for people to do, and so I think our local leadership is focused years now.
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: How do you do that?
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: How do you get?
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: them energized behind this campaign or, frankly, any statewide Democratic campaign to get them to the polls and to just show up.
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: Well, I can tell you, as somebody who's run three campaigns message is the key.
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: It doesn't matter how much money you have.
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think, president Trump.
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: Both times he won, he was outspent, but he had the better message.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: So the first thing I'm going to focus on is the message.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: The second thing I will say is you know, do you remember who was running for governor on the Democratic side when I ran in 2015?
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: It was a truck driver that didn't even vote for himself in the primary, I think.
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, and I had zero help.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: In fact, Phil Bryant won these four counties with me and so there were at least thousands of voters who voted for Phil Bryant and Scott Colon.
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: And you look at you know I'm just proud of my success in this district.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: It's been about message.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: It's been about message.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: It's been about results.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: I promised this community that I would prioritize violent crime and God knows I've done everything in my power to keep that promise.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: I've tried cases that were very difficult.
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: The Proves Park shooting case with Erica White.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: That was a very difficult case and I gave that everything I had to get that conviction, because I understand we can't have shootings at the park.
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: And so I've dedicated the last 10 years to this community and what I'm asking the voters in Mississippi to do is to look at my record and look at her record, because a lot of people don't know her record because she goes to, for example, she just went to the Gulf Coast and, you know, celebrated Amtrak going to New Orleans.
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: Well, she voted against that money.
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: She voted against that money.
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: You know you can't continuously vote against money in DC but brag about the accomplishments in Mississippi.
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: It's not fair to Mississippi and so that's important to me to call out accomplishments in Mississippi.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: It's not fair to Mississippi and so that's important to me to call out.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: One thing to note, david I don't know if you know this, but Scott is a big part of why we even do what we're doing here with this podcast.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we were.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Actually it was our publisher, peter Imes.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: And I were sitting down with Scott talking about something some months ago and Scott just brings up, says y'all to do a podcast because it's uh, this was february, it was uh before it was right, as everybody was qualifying for the city elections like y'all to do a podcast and jump into the uh, the election and uh peter for local politics, yeah and so, uh, peter makes a comment, I'll, uh, you know, I don't know, and I, I don't think zach would ever do it.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: And I walked out of there, I got to thinking about it and I said, you know, that would be good.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: And he was thinking about it on his own too, and so we finally got together like, let's try this.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: So if it hadn't been for that conversation with Scott, it may have taken a little longer for us to come to the table.
• 35:40
  Speaker 4: Well, I don't expect that he was thinking David Chisholm when he mentioned that to you, for a co-host, I mean.
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: Listen, I love having David on.
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: I think it's a great perspective.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: But listen, hey, I get results.
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: I get results.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: I get results If you like this podcast.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: Thank Scott Cologne when you see him out on the street.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: Anything you want to add.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: No, thank you guys, and I just I'm honored to do this with my, my local paper, this podcast.
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: You know, I got two daughters, as I've said over and over again, and I truly believe that Mississippi's best days are ahead of us.
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: They are.
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: There are some things that we're doing great.
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: There are some things that we're doing we could do better.
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: Things that we're doing great.
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: There are some things that we're doing we could do better, and we've got to have competitive elections that hold elected officials accountable so we don't ever get caught in the trap of just doing what's best for whoever's controlling us in DC, and so that's why I'm running, because I want to put Mississippi above anything else.
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: So thank you all for having me.
• 36:42
  Speaker 4: Thank you for being with us.
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: You've been listening to Between the Headlines with a very special guest today, freshly announced US Senate candidate and 16th Judicial District Attorney, scott Colon.
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: We'll talk about it after the break.
• 36:56
  Speaker 4: Stay tuned.
• 36:57
  Speaker 4: If you need serious equipment that gets the job done, landman Rentals has you covered Skid steers, mini excavators, brush cutters, mulching heads, you name it.
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: They're local, reliable and built for the working man.
• 37:12
  Speaker 4: Give them a call at 662-889-0541.
• 37:16
  Speaker 4: Stuck on the road?
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: Champions Towing in Columbus has your back.
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: Fast, reliable towing and roadside help whenever you need it, whether it's a breakdown or a lockout.
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: Call 662-251-9004 and get moving again.
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: All right, you're listening to Post Game Analysis with.
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: Between the Headlines, your host is your local Sunday school greeter, mr Zach Player, and also managing editor of the Dispatch.
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: How was Church Sunday, sir?
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: Oh, good, good.
• 37:51
  Speaker 4: Man, that was a heck of an episode last week?
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: I'm glad it's over with.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: Yes, I am too Looking ahead.
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: What did we think of the interview here today?
• 38:01
  Speaker 4: This?
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: is a moderate Democrat who has a record, who has a moderate record.
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: His branding has been common sense and I think his record is going to be congruent with that, with anybody who will give him a fair hearing.
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: So is that your way of saying that cindy hyde is perhaps in trouble?
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: uh, no, no, cindy had smith is is going to win this in a walk and um, I'm going to get to the problems for scott in a minute and and this may be a little hard in the paint here, but uh, cindy had smith certainly needs an opponent and you know, and her record is pretty abysmal.
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: Well, I think that anyone needs an opponent, honestly.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: But here are my particular problems with Cindy Hyde-Smith.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: I don't think that she's done a good job as a senator, and I don't think she's particularly interested in doing a good job as a senator.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: I think that Scott Colom is absolutely right about that.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: I'll go a step further than he did, though, and just so you know that it's not, you know, a Democrat and Republican thing, let's compare to Roger Wicker.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: Roger Wicker, obviously I don't agree with all of his policies either, but in the times where he has had the opportunity to vote for or against the guardrails in the process of this republic, he's voted for them, and two times in particular that I'm bringing up is he voted to uphold the results of the 2020 presidential election, and when Scott was nominated to be a federal judge, he didn't say he was going to vote to confirm him, but he returned a blue slip so he could have a hearing.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: He thought that there was nothing for Roger Wicker to say.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: This man, who the president has nominated to be a federal judge, doesn't deserve a hearing.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: That process needs to proceed and the full Senate needs to vote on this.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: So those are two instances where Roger Wicker did the thing that made the most sense, and in both of those instances, cindy Hyde Smith did the opposite.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: She voted against the results of the 2020 election one of seven senators who did that and she wouldn't return the blue slip to get Scott Colombe a full hearing to be a federal judge that she could have voted against later on.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: If they had the hearing and she didn't like it, just like Wicker, they could have both voted against him.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: I don't hear a lot of good things about her, even from Republicans, like when people talk about Thad Cochran the late Thad Cochran when he was alive and even now in his legend.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: When people talk about him, democrats and Republicans have deep respect for him.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: They're bipartisan respect for Roger Wicker.
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: But, there's also people that say that Roger Wicker is a rhino.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean that's, that's their business, but I don't.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: I've never met anybody that met Cindy Hyde Smith and really enjoyed that.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: And I've met a lot of people who met Cindy Hyde-Smith and really enjoyed that.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: And I've met a lot of people who met Cindy Hyde-Smith and talked about it later and more of them were Republicans than not.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: And it's the kind of thing where she's just going to do the thing that she's going to do and she's not going to listen to any other voices.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: And I think Scott has a very potent point on that.
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: Look, I tell you what, if you are a hard right wing kind of person, she's rock solid, Like OK, if you talk about election.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: if you're a hard left type of person, George Soros is rock solid Right.
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: George Soros.
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: Nobody cares about George Soros right now, except for well.
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: We won't go there.
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: My point being for Cindy Hyde-Smith she walks the line.
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: She does so even in opposition.
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: And as far as the voting record, when you follow a strict narrative and you stay with that narrative and you are faithful to the voters who elected you, that can make your campaign and that can make your message quite boring, and I will say that many of the people in Mississippi vote for boring because that is what they prefer.
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: To them.
• 42:35
  Speaker 4: It's a beautiful thing.
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: They don't like change.
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: A couple of things you mentioned, one being the election denier type stuff, and she was one.
• 42:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't particularly care to go into that because it's old news to me.
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: You know that's.
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: That is a split issue among Republicans, no question about it.
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: But the other issue that you bring up but the second issue brought up was the politics around her failure to let the blue slip come in for the gentleman that was in the room here.
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: Ok, that's politics.
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: I understand people aren't going to like that, but I mean that's, that's just what you do.
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: There's a limited amount of time on the Senate floor.
• 43:17
  Speaker 4: That's just what you do.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: There's a limited amount of time on the Senate floor, so they left a judge's seat potentially vacant for whenever, so they were holding it for Trump.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: Look, man, and this is the problem with the Democratic Party.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: I've got a lot of problems with the Democratic Party, and one of them is they don't, as a rule, fight hard enough for any.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: If a blue senator had done to a trump nominee what cindy hyde smith did to scott colomb, they'd be raising hell, and you know they would.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: The democrats really didn't, and that was the difference.
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's always the argument, but I think um, I can't speak for her, but I think it had more to do with with philosophy and jurisprudence, what was her reasoning?
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, george Soros had a pact that ran ads for him once, and I don't know what he thinks about trans girls playing sports, and I certainly didn't ask him because they, incidentally, agree on that topic.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: So what exactly was her objection, other than blind, naked politics?
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: Well, but there's very little information on the record about these type things and so you have to go on it.
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: You have to say, ok, is this guy going to be a constitutionalist?
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: Is he going to confirm that the that the Constitution is a static document?
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: Those are the type questions that you want to ask, and if you've got someone out there who is reading into it, kind of being lenient as a district attorney, that'll play into it and people will talk as they do in.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: Washington.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: You can bear all that stuff out in a full Senate hearing.
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: For example, two problems for Scott brought it up in the interview Name recognition.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Two problems for Scott brought it up in the interview name recognition he's very well recognized, very well respected in these four counties, including the typically Republican Lowndes.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: He may win all four of these counties district running against a sitting US senator, when the very first thing he's got to do is get people to know who in the heck he even is and why he's running and why people should fill in that bubble for him instead of you know someone else.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: And again, the most recent example we have of a moderate Democrat with built-in statewide appeal falling short is Brandon Presley.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: And I have a hard time believing that an electorate that wouldn't put Brandon Presley over the top of Tate Reeves is going to put Scott Colombe, a lesser known quantity, above Cindy Hyde Smith.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: I have a problem.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: I have a problem believing that, not to say that Scott couldn't do the job.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: I want to go on the record right now to say that Scott Colombe could do this job and could do it well and could do it a hell of a lot better than Cindy Hyde Smith.
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: I've pledged to the listeners that I will always be real on this show, and so I want to give him a couple of things.
• 46:23
  Speaker 4: First off, he did a good interview.
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: I did not expect for him to have his guns loaded as he did.
• 46:31
  Speaker 4: By the way, I hope that he lets us keep our guns, just saying.
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: But the second thing that I would give to him is that I've always said that Lowndes County, starkville, okay, even Clay County over there, this area we need to be putting forth more candidates on the state level and on the national level.
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: This just makes us look better to have a local candidate in a national election.
• 46:59
  Speaker 4: So I think that's a good thing and I applaud that.
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: Now, did he move my needle today?
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: No, not quite.
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: I don't quite trust that he's not going to vote for gender-affirming care, mutilation, whatever you want to call it.
• 47:13
  Speaker 4: I mean that stuff is still there, and I'm just very cynical about politicians in general, especially when their money comes from certain PACs, as aforementioned.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: Well, let me give an example of we talked about Cindy had Smith a while ago doing what I saw in both cases as the wrong thing, even when Roger Wicker did the right thing.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: So let's turn it on Scott.
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: Has Scott ever demonstrated at any point that he would do the right thing, even when he could catch a lot of heck for it?
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: And the answer to that is yes.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: You remember the Ricky Ball situation?
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, okay, so he was.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: Now he did turn that investigation, the prosecution of that, over to the attorney general's office because it was a local police officer who had shot and killed a white local police officer who had shot and killed an African-American suspect that ran from a traffic stop.
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: But after it was over and the case was dismissed against the police officer who had shot, scott got the files, combed through them, published them for the world to see.
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: I love transparency.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: The political expedient thing for Scott, because one of the things that the investigation revealed unequivocally was that Ricky Ball had a gun, that Ricky Ball had drawn a gun at the time that he was shot.
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: Now there was a lot of unrest in the public about that.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: There had been marches, there was a lot of skepticism over how all of that went down, and I'm just going to be honest with you as a black district attorney who is a Democrat it would have been politically expedient for expedient to do like our mayor.
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: Oh, we had a gun and put up a wall and be opaque.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: But he didn't do that, did he?
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: He didn't?
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: Instead of doing the politically expedient thing, he did the right thing.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: He did the honest thing.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: He did the thing that he said he was going to do, and then he talked at every march.
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: He spoke at every demonstration and it calmed the tensions of the town and it opened up a lot of dialogue.
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: He did those things in the shadow of some racial unrest in the county that was brought on by some other things that didn't even have to do with Ricky Ball.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: This was at the time where they were having the Confederate monument discussion.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, the political expedient thing for Scott Colombe to have done there was to say, oh, ricky had a gun.
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: Never mind, I'm not releasing any of this.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: People can believe what they want, but that's not what he did.
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: He went out of his way to do the opposite, and that, to me, says that in a situation like that, he's got the bona fides to make it, to make the right decision instead of the expedient one, and Cindy Hyde Smith has not ever shown me that she would do that.
• 50:26
  Speaker 4: Well, you know what, here here, cindy Hyde Smith aside, I agree.
• 50:31
  Speaker 4: Props for that.
• 50:32
  Speaker 4: I'm always pro transparency, ok, I'm always.
• 50:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, transparency, absolutely.
• 50:39
  Speaker 4: But I have to ask, and this, this news, hit me very quickly today.
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: All right, I just knew about this moments before coming in the studio, but I've got to ask the question how many investigations did he fail to turn in?
• 50:53
  Speaker 4: How many soft plea deals did he offer for the point of, I don't know, rehabilitation for someone who really needed a more punitive approach?
• 51:03
  Speaker 4: I can't answer those questions, I'm not prepared to.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: But I do know that his records, but you introduced it as a problem when you were saying that you don't know.
• 51:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I can't bring the data to you, but I have heard complaints from my people within the Republican Party and out in the community that have said he lets people off scot-free, pardon the pun.
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: I've heard that a lot, and so there's also that side of it.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean there's you could pick anybody in law enforcement or the justice system where you can get a criticism from somebody about whether the sentences were too harsh or too or too soft from a judge, or whether the uh enforcement was fair unfair from a police department and a lot of people would say that's why forest all good lost, because forest all good forest all good, there was evidence from from a.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: You know I don't think that you're going to have a justice, I'm sorry.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: An Innocence Project documentary on Scott Colom's tenure as DA.
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: There's evidence that Forrest overplayed his hand as a prosecutor and we all know about it now.
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: All right, I'll bring facts next week.
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: How about that?
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: All right, all right.
• 52:17
  Speaker 4: Hey, after the break we've got a really special event happening in Columbus.
• 52:22
  Speaker 4: Stay tuned.
• 52:24
  Speaker 5: The Good for Business podcast features interviews, tips and tricks from owners, operators and innovators.
• 52:29
  Speaker 5: Hear the inspiring stories of growth and life lessons from guests in Mississippi and around the world Hosted by entrepreneur, fundraiser and real estate broker, colin Krieger.
• 52:38
  Speaker 5: The podcast is based right here in the Golden Triangle community.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: So today we have with us in the studio Mark Smith.
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: He's the chairperson for the Salute to Lowndes County Finest event and program.
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: Y'all are 22nd year.
• 52:53
  Speaker 6: We've been doing it for 22 years, minus a couple years out of COVID.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: Well, just start us off a little bit what this is and kind of how it started.
• 53:02
  Speaker 6: Well, if you want to start with the beginning, a little back story here.
• 53:06
  Speaker 6: We were looking for a speaker right after 9-11 for our annual Chamber of Commerce Columbus Lounge Chamber of Commerce.
• 53:14
  Speaker 6: The board was and we were trying to find something relevant to 9-11 because we were still in shock.
• 53:21
  Speaker 6: It was only a couple of months later and this was in October we started looking and Jackie DiCicco was on the board.
• 53:27
  Speaker 6: She had a relative that served as a first responder to the towers and she secured him to come down and speak at the annual chamber meeting and unfortunately he was not able to come.
• 53:42
  Speaker 6: But fortunately we received his backup, which was one of his team members, mario Zurovic.
• 53:46
  Speaker 6: Fortunately we received his backup, which was one of his team members, mario Zurovic, who turned out.
• 53:49
  Speaker 6: We didn't realize, it was kind of a legend.
• 53:51
  Speaker 6: He had been National Cop of the Year after.
• 53:53
  Speaker 6: He was one of the team members who foiled the 1997 bombings in New York City.
• 54:04
  Speaker 6: He was a part of the ESU unit, which is kind of your special forces for NYPD, and so he came down and he and I just really hit it off really quickly.
• 54:13
  Speaker 6: And after about three or four days of him being here, I was by his side the whole time, with exception of course, in his hotel room, and he asked us if he wanted to come to New York City and be a guest of NYPD and go down to Ground Zero and to be a part of the quote-unquote recovery and relief process.
• 54:32
  Speaker 6: And we naturally jumped at the chance there.
• 54:35
  Speaker 6: So Jack and I flew up there.
• 54:38
  Speaker 6: Well, first let me back up.
• 54:41
  Speaker 6: Mario did speak at our annual event and it was just unbelievable his account of it.
• 54:46
  Speaker 6: Mario spent two weeks at Ground Zero without going home and he subsequently developed some issues that he had to retire.
• 54:57
  Speaker 6: But anyway, we got to New York City and they picked us up in an armored one of their armored vehicles and took us around to different places, showed us the wall where the family members were posting up pictures and information about those that hadn't been found yet and other places, and then we ended up at Ground Zero.
• 55:17
  Speaker 6: They took us to a facility and we put on hazmat gear, respirator, everything, and they took us to.
• 55:26
  Speaker 6: In the area we had excavators right beside us.
• 55:29
  Speaker 6: We had recovery workers that were sifting through looking for body parts and for personal effects and things like that.
• 55:35
  Speaker 6: And then they took us to this big white tent where we were fed, where the first responders were fed, and it was unbelievable.
• 55:43
  Speaker 6: Going back to being there, I can remember having my respirator on and I was so emotional that I kind of had tears in my eyes and it was 17 degrees and I remember my respirator freezing to my face.
• 55:56
  Speaker 6: But before they took us to the tent to have a meal, we went up to our vehicle and one of the police officers brought out a little cardboard box and it had pieces of the North Tower in it and you brought those.
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: that's what you brought with you here, yeah.
• 56:11
  Speaker 6: I brought those with me and then also I've got a piece of a girder from the North Tower that Mario actually made me.
• 56:16
  Speaker 6: And you know, these buildings, these big concrete buildings, they have steel inside of them to reinforce them.
• 56:22
  Speaker 6: Well, this piece of steel has concrete inside of it which shows you how hot it was that it melted to steel there.
• 56:30
  Speaker 6: But anyway, we had such a moving experience and we got back and I just said you know, we do so much for our military and our veterans as far as recognizing them, but we don't really do anything for our first responders, at least back then.
• 56:44
  Speaker 6: So I said I want to put something together for them and just recognize them.
• 56:48
  Speaker 6: And so we started at the police department.
• 56:49
  Speaker 6: Rod Ray and I were the first attorney here in Columbus.
• 56:52
  Speaker 6: His law firm and our company, cpi, funded an event to feed the first responders and we started out mostly with the police department and we fed 45 police officers there that day and we were raising money and we ended up with a surplus.
• 57:15
  Speaker 6: And so we can't have a surplus.
• 57:16
  Speaker 6: So what are we going to do with it?
• 57:17
  Speaker 6: So we said we were going to start a fund that helps first responders in their time of personal need when insurance or something like that does not.
• 57:25
  Speaker 6: We try to fill in the blank as much as we can.
• 57:29
  Speaker 6: And another thing we did was we were able to institute and fund the McGruff Crime Dog Program and we put that back in the school system.
• 57:37
  Speaker 6: But as time went on we picked up more and more corporate sponsors and in-kind sponsors that helped fund this annual event, and so over time and up until now we have been able to raise over $100,000 for Lowndes County's first responders since we started.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: Well, talk about this year's event.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: When is it, where is it, who's involved and what's going to happen.
• 58:01
  Speaker 6: So this year's event is September 12th.
• 58:04
  Speaker 6: It's at the American Legion, which is one of our corporate supporters.
• 58:06
  Speaker 6: They provide us with event space, so we don't have to pay for that and I will say that every single penny that's raised goes directly either for the event or into the fund.
• 58:16
  Speaker 6: So we don't if we, our team wear or any special things we have to get is all funded by one of our corporate or in-kind sponsors.
• 58:25
  Speaker 6: So, and again, it's September 12th at the American Legion again this year, and it's only for first responders and corporate supporters, obviously we can't feed everybody.
• 58:36
  Speaker 6: Right, but and during that event we will recognize each department we have tons of very nice door prizes that we give out and we also, of course, feed them.
• 58:51
  Speaker 6: We have the Exchange Club.
• 58:52
  Speaker 6: We have the Lions Club that helps volunteers, and it's just a really great thing.
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: Well, what's been, I guess, the feedback that y'all have gotten, the response that y'all have gotten from the first responders that y'all are honoring with this event over time?
• 59:09
  Speaker 6: You know they are very appreciative.
• 59:11
  Speaker 6: By the way, I meant to mention the Daughters of American Revolution.
• 59:14
  Speaker 6: They are instrumental in helping us, but their response has you know, they're pretty reserved.
• 59:24
  Speaker 6: Most of them are.
• 59:25
  Speaker 6: They're very proud of what they do.
• 59:26
  Speaker 6: They don't do it for the money, they don't do it to be recognized, they do it because they have a servant's heart, and so some of them are a little bit shy about it.
• 59:36
  Speaker 6: But all in all you can tell, even if they don't say something to us directly, they're very appreciative, they really are.
• 59:44
  Speaker 6: And again, because things aren't, we don't focus on first responders they're 24.
• 59:47
  Speaker 6: Appreciative, they really are.
• 59:47
  Speaker 6: And again, because you know things aren't, we don't focus on first responders, you know they're 24-7.
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: And let's talk about so we're talking about police, fire, emts, who all falls under that umbrella.
• 59:58
  Speaker 6: Well, so you've got American Red Cross Baptist Memorial Hospital EMTs, you've got the Caledonia town marshals Air Force Base first responders out there, security forces in their fire department, columbus Fire Department, lowndes County Fire Department, emergency Management Agency E911, the EMCC Police Department, golden Triangle Airport sheriff's deputies out there, lowndes County constables, lowndes County volunteer fire department, lowndes County sheriff, of course, columbus Police Department, mississippi Highway Patrol and then Mississippi Department of Wildlife and Parks and the MUW Police Department and the US Army Corps of Engineers as well.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 6: That has a radio and if you call 9-1-1 in a variety of different ways that different responders respond, they're invited.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, and how can just the community get involved, or more involved with this?
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 6: Well, we're always looking for donations, we're always looking for corporate sponsors.
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 6: Corporate sponsorship starts at $350, but we have different levels of different and so each corporate sponsor, depending on the level that they contribute, is allowed to send a representative from their organization, or up to five representatives, like Airbus and Zachary's, the people that are very top tier, but we have a few others I really would like to mention and Peter said it was okay so Alpha Insurance, galloway, chandler, mckinney, jts and Company, memorial, gunner, peel, the CPI group.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 6: I mentioned Zachary's.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 6: They provide all of the food for free, which is amazing, feeding 150, 200 people.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 6: We've got the American Legion Post, as I mentioned earlier, columbus Lock and Key WCPI.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 6: The Commercial Dispatch has been fantastic.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 6: They give us a quarter-page ad that acknowledges what we're doing and also our sponsors every year the Packet Better Columbus and the Central Alabama Training Solutions, which is CATS.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 6: They're the ones that supply our police department, our sheriff's department, with various equipment, things like that.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 4: They're the ones that supply our police department, our sheriff's department, with various equipment, things like that.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 6: Let me ask you how the numbers have grown over the years for those that you serve and feed.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 6: So, like I mentioned before, when we started the police department, we fed about 45 people that first year, which was 2002.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 6: It varies give or take between, say, 125 to 200 on that day.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: Do you have any sort of idea of what kind of impact that's had?
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: How many first responders y'all have been able to help through that?
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 6: There have been dozens and I can give you some examples the Lowndes County Sheriff's Department SWAT team we provided them with ammunition.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 6: One year we had an A911 dispatcher who got COVID during Christmastime and she couldn't work, couldn't afford to pay for her grandchildren's she was raising her grandchildren.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 6: She couldn't pay for her grandchildren's Christmas presents, so we took care of that.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 6: We've had a Columbus Police Department officer whose child was being treated at St Jude's we paid for the transportation back and forth treated at St Jude's we paid for the transportation back and forth.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 6: We've had a couple of firefighters recently that were injured and they couldn't work or they were on limited duty, and so those were actually two of the largest contributions that we've done to support them.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 6: So, like I said, all in all it's been over $100,000 since 2002.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 6: You have a Facebook page.
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 4: All in all, it's been over $100,000 since 2002.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 4: You have a Facebook page.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 4: I'd like to plug it.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 4: It is Salute to Lowndes County's Finest 9-11 Annual Event 9-11, never forget so.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 4: Anything you want to add?
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 6: Well, you asked what the public could do.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 6: Of course they can financially support us, support us, and if any organization is interested in either providing an in-kind or a monetary donation, they can reach out to me at 662-549-7712.
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 6: Or they can email me at msmith at cpi-groupcom.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 6: And then, if you see a first responder or when you encounter one somewhere, and you will at some point, in time?
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 6: Just tell them thanks and that goes a long way with them.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 6: You know I'm a veteran and other veterans we hear it all the time thank you for your service.
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 6: Well, the first responders don't really hear that and you know I've had one.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 6: Give me a ticket and I tell them thanks, thanks for your service.
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 6: I really wish you wouldn't have given me the ticket.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 6: I didn't thank him for that, but I thanked him for what they do yeah sure.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 6: You know 24-7, they always answer.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: I'm not quite there yet.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 6: Yeah, not quite there, yeah.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: I'm working on it.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: Don't run the stop sign.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: In Caledonia Believe me.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 4: You've been listening to Between the Headlines and we thank you for tuning in.
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 4: That is Salute to Lowndes County's Finest Thank you for coming in.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 4: Mark, Thanks for having me All right.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 4: That's a beautiful, beautiful event.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 4: I wish them the best as they host that Well.
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 4: Zach, three things to know.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: One area police and fire departments are worried.
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: New public employee retirement system rules will make it even harder to recruit and retain personnel in fields that are already hard enough to get them.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: Those new rules, going into effect next March, raised the service time to draw retirement from 30 to 35 years, among other things.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: Number two eight suspects were arrested over the weekend for drug charges after a search warrant at a residence showed the occupants had tried to flush the meth down the toilet.
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: A two-year-old was also found in the house.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: Child Protective Services has taken over that part of the investigation.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: And number three state test scores show a bit of a plateau in the Mississippi Miracle, including in the Golden Triangle.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: High school scores stayed pretty steady across the board compared to 2024.
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: Elementary and middle school scores dipped slightly on average.
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 4: Well, that's it.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 4: We are so thankful to our listeners, to our sponsors, also to Josh Gillis, who bends over backwards for these spur-of-the-moment recordings, as we do from time to time.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 4: Be sure to follow the show and share us and help get the word out to make our hometown a better place and, as always, send us your comments tips at cdispatchcom.
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 4: You can also follow me on Facebook or X at dchism00.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 4: Leave us public comments, signing off until next week from Catfish Alley Studio here in historic downtown Columbus.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 4: Your host has been Zach Player and I am David Chisholm.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 4: Y'all keep it friendly and I will keep it real.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 2: Opinions expressed on this show are those of the speakers and not necessarily those of the commercial dispatch.