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The Lee Elci Show | 9.24.26 · The Lee Elci Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: There is no one who does it better than Whitney Houston.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: God bless America. Good morning, everyone. It is 94.9 News Now.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: I am Liz Karantowicz, and I am filling in for
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the voice of freedom, Lee Elsie. And I am joined
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: by Frankie Karantowicz. Frankie, would you like to say hi?
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hi.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Also filling in for the great Lee Elsie. And we've
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: got an awesome show together today. We've got Greg Howard
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: will be joining us at the 7 o'clock hour, our
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: great state representative. Mark Fitch from Inside Investigator will be
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: joining us at 7.30. We've got Mike Cerulli coming on
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: at 8 o'clock to talk about his interactions with fugitive
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: on the run Costa Diamantis. And we're going to close
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: out with the heaviest hitter of them all, the great
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Vin Candelora, House Republican leader. And we've got an awesome
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: show together. I tell you what, long time listener, first
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: time host. So excited to be here and big shoes
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: to fill. You know, as we're looking at the grand
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: scheme of things and we're in the middle of we've got, you.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Know, a.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: 40-plus days till the election, and we're looking at the
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: priorities and the conversations that we're having both in Connecticut
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: and around the country, and we're listening to what candidates
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: and elected leaders are talking about, nothing struck me more
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: as out of touch and out of tune with the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: American people and with what Connecticut residents are talking about
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: than Chris Murphy, to no one's shock and surprise. And
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: as a mom of two kids who play sports, club
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: sports and are involved in athletics, you know, I certainly
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: can understand how the cost of those things can be
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: onerous and have an effect on families. But at a
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: time when people are having a hard time putting food
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: on the table and gas in there, tank paying for
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: prescriptions and what have you, that Chris Murphy has made
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: this sort of like his crusade. I just cannot seem
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: to get my mind around it. And, you know, let's
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: run through some of the numbers here just off the
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: public polling that's available just relative to the state of Connecticut.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Fifty-two percent of likely voters in Connecticut say that they
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: are financially worse off than than they were a year ago.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Fifty percent of Connecticut residents tell CBIA-UNH Consumer Survey that
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: they're worse off. Eighty-seven percent say their cost of living
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: rose in the last 12 months. Nearly half say paying
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: medical expenses is difficult. Fifty-nine percent say medical costs rose
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: during the past year. Quinnipiac says 53 percent the rate
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Connecticut's economy is not so good, poor. 39% say it's
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: getting worse. Top issues facing the state and top of
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: mind for concern in the governor's race. Cost of living, 27%.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: The economy, 23%.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Taxes, 11%. Immigration, 10%.
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: Healthcare, 8%.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Electricity, 5%. You guys know we're in there. Does it
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: say anything about the cost of sports? You know, I
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: go back to learning about Maslow's law, right? Hierarchy of needs.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: And when people can't provide for their families, when people
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: can't put food on the table and they're struggling and
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: they're telling you they're struggling. I am truly baffled by
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the fact that Chris Murphy, the United States Senator from Connecticut,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: who has served in elected office at every level, starting
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: out in the state legislature, going to the United States
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: House of Representatives, and now serving in the United States Senate,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: and wanting to run for president, apparently, thinks that this
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: is what he needs to be hanging his hat on.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: And I just struggle. How do we take him seriously?
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: How does anyone take him seriously? You're going to go
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: up to New Hampshire and campaign to the great granite
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: state about the cost of your son's hockey program? Does
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: anyone care?
• 4:59
  Speaker 6: No.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Look, they're telling you what they care about. You know,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: You can cheat on their homework. They're telling you they're
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: giving you the answer key. They're saying we're having a
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: hard time putting food on the table. The cost of
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: heating and cooling and keeping the lights on in our home.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: The cost of health care. The broken immigration system. And
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: this is what you are trying to direct people's attention to.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: So Murphy introduced the Let Kids Play Act in May.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: And his premise is that youth sports have become a
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: roughly $ 40 billion commercial industry, which I believe. And private
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: equity ownership is helping drive families out of that system.
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  Speaker 1: And Murphy's office says youth sports participation costs rose 46%
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: in recent years and that the average family costs exceed $ 5, 000 annually.
• 6:02
  Speaker 7: Sure.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: His bill targets include private equity involvement in leagues, facilities, tournaments,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: and player platforms, practices, junk fees, et cetera. And the
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: bill would presume private equity firms are prohibited vulture investors
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: unless they show they have not used prohibited practices. Affected
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: owners would have two years to sell ownership management interests.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: And I think if you talk to parents whose kids
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: are in youth sports, there are multiple levels and layers
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: of this, right? And when we're talking about youth sports,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: you're looking obviously at kids as young as kindergarten and
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: first grade and the opportunity that they have to go
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: pick up a hockey stick or a lacrosse stick or
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: a baseball bat or what have you. We do have
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: in our midst a professional athlete, right? Or a recovering
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: professional athlete. I swam very briefly as a walk-on swimmer
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: at Fordham in the Bronx. I understand the scope and
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: the scale and the changes that have come to youth sports.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Much of it, by the way, driven by what's happening
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: now at the collegiate level right because so many families
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: believe that getting that coveted scholarship or that opportunity for
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: your kid to play in college is critical to their
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: long-term development and success and so one of these things
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: trickles into another do you know what chris murphy's solution
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: is for college athletics unionizing athletes do i need to
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: say that again And his plan has been completely rejected
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: by none other than the great Dan Hurley. UConn? Huskies?
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Dan says no. Dan says, I think we need to
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: go in on the Protect College Sports Act. Now, Chris
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Murphy was one of the pioneers in the conversation, and
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I'll give credit where it's due, on... the name image
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and likeness. And I think that that has had a
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: profound impact on athletes, particularly those who are in college
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: sports and athletics where you're, you're in a, in a
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  Speaker 1: system that's making millions and millions and millions of dollars
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: off of your efforts and your work and your you're
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: not able to partake in that. And particularly in those
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: sports where you get injured, right? And your dream of
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: making it into the professional league of whatever you're doing
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: has been cut short. So I agreed. And it took
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: me a little while to come around to it, I think.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: But I did come around on the NIL stuff because
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: it is inequitable if you're looking at the benefit of
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: a scholarship and an education versus the return on the
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: investment for the university. But talk to Dan Hurley. I
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: had a great conversation a couple of years ago with
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: Randy Edsel, former Yukon football coach about the effect that
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: name image likeness has had on collegiate sports. And why
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: does all of that matter? Because all of that trickles
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: down into youth sports, right?
• 9:53
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, none of these things happen in a vacuum.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: And I see it as I'm sure all parents who
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: have kids who are playing. youth sports see, the impact
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: that it has. And you've got, you know, if you're
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: not at this showcase, you're missing out. And if you're
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: not in this club, you're never going to get what
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: you've got coming to you, etc.
• 10:15
  Speaker 9: etc.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: And I can't help but wonder if you're Chris Murphy
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: and now you're fighting the capitalism that has sought itself
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: into the youth sports arena that you can't also look
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: at the fact that the changes at the collegiate level
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: have directly impacted youth sports. People now even getting Division
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: III tickets Sports. Is near impossible, and the NCAA is
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: now trying to put desperately trying to put the toothpaste
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: back in the tube on this one. And Charlie Baker,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: the great governor, former governor of Massachusetts, is at the
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: helm here trying to create policies and make all of
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: this make sense. And I think the most important thing
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: is that it works for the athletes. But is unionizing
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the athletes good for anyone but the unions? Is Chris
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Murphy pandering to a constituency he thinks he's going to
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: need to win a Democrat primary? I'm sorry, but as
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the populist socialist movement grows in the Democrat Party, are
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: they sitting around wondering... about the cost of youth sports?
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Mamdani's setting up city-owned grocery markets. Are we going to
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: have now a state takeover of youth sports? We'll come
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: full circle. We'll make youth sports recreational again. I mean,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: I'm just wondering, what is the end game here for Murphy?
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: That's truly what I'm wondering because it's clearly not addressing
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the hierarchy of needs. Maslow somewhere is shaking his head going,
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  Speaker 1: what is this even about? People can't afford to put
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: food on the table. They're not going out to dinner.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: They're not taking that vacation. We don't do layaway anymore.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: And if we did, I think it would be a
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: booming business. Maybe we need to bring that back. People
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: are having a hard time. You think the Democrat socialists
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: running the Democrat Party nationally are going to look at
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Chris Murphy's solution to youth sports as the driving force
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: of a national election? Good Lord. I just make me
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: think you're serious. I don't get it. We think Dick
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Blumenthal saying when he's coming up to the table. Dick,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: I got a great idea. We're going to fix youth sports.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: A problem, by the way, I helped to create. So
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: I hope Dan Hurley keeps pushing back. I hope that
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: the Democrat base fighting in the primary weeds here are
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: able to push back. And I look even at our
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: own attorney general, who is always hot for a fight.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: I'm sure he looks at this and says, yes, this
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: is certainly something that could see an opportunity. Love to
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: go after, you know, venture capitalists who are looking to
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: buy up youth sports. But instead, he's focused on things like,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know, Internet predators, right? Drug companies, right? And
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: so I just sit there and I'm like, did Chris
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Murphy just see like a hole in the market? And
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: he was like, I know, I know what I'm going
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: to do. I'm going to talk about something nobody cares
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: about and see if anybody notices. Well, Chris, I noticed.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: And I hope Dan Hurley keeps pushing back. And I
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: hope that he's able to help create some solutions for
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: the NCAA because that is ultimately is what will fix
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: youth sports, in my view. If we can address the
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: bigger issue in college sports, I think it trickles down
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: and helps to solve the growing problem of cost at
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: youth sports because this is discretionary spending for people. The
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: idea that you have $ 5, 000, $ 10, 000, $ 15, 000, $ 20, 000, whatever it is,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: to go spend on youth sports every year, based on
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: the numbers we're seeing in Connecticut, That's not something people
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: are going to be able to do. So this is
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: a problem that will likely end up fixing itself because
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: people won't be able to afford it because Chris Murphy's
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: corrosive economic policies have made it impossible. So that's the
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: first rant of the day, friends. I hope you enjoyed
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: it as much as I did. Very cathartic, therapeutic, in fact.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: We're going to go to a break. This is Liz
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Karantowicz filling in for Lee Elsie on 94.9. And we
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: will see you when we get back.
• 15:52
  Speaker 10: That's me through and through.
• 16:12
  Speaker 11: Go Iran!
• 16:12
  Speaker 12: Wave those flags, make the red, white, and blue cry.
• 16:18
  Speaker 12: Go Iran!
• 16:19
  Speaker 13: Go Iran!
• 16:19
  Speaker 14: Let's lose tonight.
• 16:22
  Speaker 15: I'm a nutmeg senator.
• 16:25
  Speaker 16: My name is Chris.
• 16:26
  Speaker 17: I root for the enemy.
• 16:28
  Speaker 18: Yes, I do.
• 16:28
  Speaker 19: I hate Trump.
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  Speaker 11: Boo-hoo-hoo!
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  Speaker 19: That's me through and through.
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  Speaker 11: Go Iran!
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  Speaker 3: Wave those flags, make the red, white, and blue cry.
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  Speaker 6: Go Iran!
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  Speaker 19: Go Iran!
• 16:53
  Speaker 12: Let's lose.
• 16:56
  Speaker 22: Tonight.
• 16:56
  Speaker 11: Give me a C!
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  Speaker 14: Give me an H!
• 17:00
  Speaker 23: Give me.
• 17:02
  Speaker 21: An R. I. S.
• 17:07
  Speaker 14: I'm a nutmeg senator.
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  Speaker 19: My name is Chris.
• 17:12
  Speaker 11: I root for the enemy.
• 17:21
  Speaker 19: Yes, I do.
• 17:23
  Speaker 24: I hate Trump.
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  Speaker 25: Who?
• 17:24
  Speaker 6: Who?
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: Who?
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  Speaker 38: Securities and Exchange Commission registered investment advisor.
• 22:05
  Speaker 9: Insurance services offered through Tumalo Financial, licensed in Connecticut.
• 22:09
  Speaker 11: I'm Sal, General Manager of Central Auto Group.
• 22:12
  Speaker 39: We're not the smallest dealership. We're certainly not the biggest.
• 22:14
  Speaker 39: But I think we might be the localest. Is that
• 22:17
  Speaker 39: even a word?
• 22:17
  Speaker 11: Maybe not.
• 22:18
  Speaker 39: But when so many of our customers, employees, and neighbors
• 22:21
  Speaker 39: come from Plainfield, Griswold, Norwich, Killingly, and the surrounding communities, I.
• 22:25
  Speaker 19: Think we've earned the right to use it.
• 22:27
  Speaker 39: Now, I can come on the radio every week and
• 22:29
  Speaker 39: tell you about the changes happening at Central Auto Group.
• 22:31
  Speaker 11: I can tell you about our people.
• 22:32
  Speaker 39: Our commitment to transparency, and the kind of experience we're working.
• 22:35
  Speaker 19: Hard to provide.
• 22:36
  Speaker 39: But words are just words. Our definition of trust is simple.
• 22:39
  Speaker 39: Promises made, promises kept. Come in, meet our people, walk
• 22:43
  Speaker 39: through our showroom, visit our service department, and decide for yourself.
• 22:46
  Speaker 39: Because we know you don't change people's minds with one commercial.
• 22:49
  Speaker 39: You do it one handshake, one experience, and one customer
• 22:52
  Speaker 39: at a time. Visit us at 98 Lathrop Road in Plainfield, Connecticut,
• 22:56
  Speaker 39: or online at centralautogroupct.com.
• 22:59
  Speaker 11: Come meet the local people who are helping shape the
• 23:02
  Speaker 11: future of Central Auto Group. I'm Sal Sinardi, and I
• 23:04
  Speaker 11: hope to meet you soon.
• 23:05
  Speaker 39: Once again, centralautogroupct.com.
• 23:15
  Speaker 26: House senate who flips hartford election power on 94.9 news now.
• 23:28
  Speaker 15: Fox News. I'm CJ Papa.
• 23:31
  Speaker 40: First time in more than a decade, China's President Xi
• 23:34
  Speaker 40: is in our nation's capital.
• 23:37
  Speaker 15: This time, meeting with President Trump.
• 23:41
  Speaker 40: But is the trade tussle between the two superpowers thawing?
• 23:46
  Speaker 40: Treasury Secretary Scott Besson on Fox's special report.
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: There's a chance they may have a historic four meetings
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: this year, four meetings between the most powerful country in
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: the world and the second largest economy in the world.
• 24:01
  Speaker 15: First court appearance today for 18-year-old Julian Ellis.
• 24:05
  Speaker 40: Cops in Georgia say he gunned down two boys, ages
• 24:08
  Speaker 40: 11 and 12, and wounded two women.
• 24:10
  Speaker 15: On Sunday. And gas ticking up a cent from AAA.
• 24:15
  Speaker 15: It's $ 4. 48 a gallon. America's listening to Fox News.
• 24:25
  Speaker 14: Hi, I'm Ross, the Amish guy from Sawyer Sheds in Plainfield.
• 24:28
  Speaker 31: You know, people come in all the time and tell
• 24:30
  Speaker 31: me they bought one of those bargain sheds.
• 24:32
  Speaker 11: A couple of years later, they come back and they
• 24:34
  Speaker 11: want a real one.
• 24:35
  Speaker 19: At Sawyer Sheds, we.
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  Speaker 11: Build with real wood, real two-by-four construction, no.
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: Particle board, just Amish craftsmanship built to last.
• 24:43
  Speaker 19: We've got sheds, chicken.
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  Speaker 31: Coops, glasses, tiny homes built tough enough for the New
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  Speaker 31: England weather.
• 24:48
  Speaker 11: So buy it once, buy it right. Stop by at
• 24:51
  Speaker 11: Sawyer Sheds in Plainfield.
• 24:53
  Speaker 33: Sawyer Sheds, built with Amish craftsmanship.
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  Speaker 23: To last forever come spend a beautiful autumn weekend in
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  Speaker 23: south county rhode island where the inviting landscape and sensational
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  Speaker 23: coastline will provide you with real life peacefulness and relaxation
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  Speaker 23: you're invited to come smell the salt air feel the
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  Speaker 23: sand beneath your feet and wander moonlight trails. Come dine
• 25:13
  Speaker 23: in our amazing restaurants, check out our unique shops, and.
• 25:16
  Speaker 33: Golf on our lush green golf courses.
• 25:18
  Speaker 23: And make sure your South County adventure includes visiting our
• 25:22
  Speaker 23: giant Thomas Dambo trolls. Plan your fall escape to South County,
• 25:26
  Speaker 23: Rhode Island.
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  Speaker 9: There is no better time than now to start a
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  Speaker 9: commercial cleaning business, and Jam Pro Cleaning and Disinfecting makes
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• 26:05
  Speaker 19: Ask not.
• 26:16
  Speaker 16: What your country can do for you, ask what you
• 26:19
  Speaker 16: can do for your country.
• 26:21
  Speaker 26: Governor legislates a Congress local races every candidate, every event,
• 26:26
  Speaker 26: every result. 94.9 News Now covers the full field. 24
• 26:31
  Speaker 26: hours a day. Not just the headline race, the whole ballot.
• 26:35
  Speaker 26: When news breaks, we stay with it. 94.9 News Now.
• 26:40
  Speaker 15: All the candidates.
• 26:42
  Speaker 19: All the action.
• 26:43
  Speaker 11: All day.
• 26:46
  Speaker 14: Good morning.
• 26:48
  Speaker 38: I'm Sean Murphy.
• 26:49
  Speaker 37: Partly cloudy skies today with a high in the 60s.
• 26:52
  Speaker 9: A Colchester driving instructor at York Correctional Institution faces a
• 26:57
  Speaker 9: fourth-degree sexual assault charge after an inmate accused him of
• 27:00
  Speaker 9: inappropriate touching.
• 27:02
  Speaker 38: 48-year-old Eduardo Luis Cruz.
• 27:05
  Speaker 9: Denies the allegations and is due in court October 5th.
• 27:09
  Speaker 9: Cross Sound Ferry has canceled several Thursday auto ferry trips
• 27:12
  Speaker 9: between New London and Orient Point because of expected weather
• 27:16
  Speaker 9: and sea conditions. Seven departures from New London and eight
• 27:19
  Speaker 9: from Orient Point are affected. Waterford First Selectman Rob Brule
• 27:23
  Speaker 9: has asked the state to transfer land for a road
• 27:27
  Speaker 9: connecting the former Crystal Mall to Parkway North.
• 27:30
  Speaker 38: He says a second entrance... could ease traffic.
• 27:33
  Speaker 9: As Electric Boat prepares to move 4,000 to 5,000 employees.
• 27:36
  Speaker 19: To the property.
• 27:37
  Speaker 9: The State Department of Transportation is reviewing the request. The
• 27:41
  Speaker 9: Connecticut Department of Transportation will hold an open house on
• 27:44
  Speaker 9: its proposed 2027 and 2030 state rail plan on Tuesday.
• 27:49
  Speaker 9: September 29th from 4.45 to 6.45 p.m.
• 27:54
  Speaker 38: At the Public.
• 27:54
  Speaker 9: Library of New London. Residents can share feedback on the
• 27:57
  Speaker 9: future of passenger and freight rail service. Block Island Ferry
• 28:01
  Speaker 9: has canceled all high-speed trips Thursday because of rough seas.
• 28:06
  Speaker 9: The 815 traditional ferry from Block Island and the 830
• 28:10
  Speaker 9: departure from Point Judith are also canceled. Later trips remain uncertain.
• 28:16
  Speaker 38: The operator says it will issue.
• 28:18
  Speaker 9: An update by 9 a.m. I'm Sean Murphy. When news breaks,
• 28:23
  Speaker 9: we break in.
• 28:47
  Speaker 41: Moves on the radio waves professional strategist and all she
• 28:52
  Speaker 41: braves truth is her banner no room for lies queen
• 28:57
  Speaker 41: of the capital watch her.
• 29:00
  Speaker 42: Eyes Good morning and welcome back to Channel 94.9. I'm
• 29:19
  Speaker 42: Frankie Karanowicz helping LELC fill in with Liz Karanowicz. We
• 29:29
  Speaker 42: are on the LELC show. Take it away, Liz.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, watching her hear that live was fantastic.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: For those of you listening at home, she couldn't quite
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: get that that was actually about me until much farther
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: into it. So welcome back, everybody. I'm Liz Karantowitz.
• 29:55
  Speaker 30: Hello.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: 94.9 News Now filling in for the great Lee Elsie
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: alongside Frankie Karantowitz.
• 30:03
  Speaker 42: Hello.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: So we've just had a conversation generally about Chris Murphy's
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: misaligned priorities. And again, we've sort of wrapped the college
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: athletics and the changes there that I think have a
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: significant trickle-down effect to youth sports. And while we're on
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: the topic of college, I want to address what has
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: been a big issue here in the state for many
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: months now related to the CSCU, Connecticut State Colleges and
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Universities system, that for generations politically has had plenty of
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: ups and downs and issues and something that we're going
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: to Obviously, Greg Howard's going to join us in a
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: little bit. Vin Candelora's going to join us. They both
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: have taken this issue head-on in the legislature. But I
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: want to set the table here as we're thinking about
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: issues that are affecting families and cost. Because when Ned
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Lamont took office in 2018, the average tuition for a
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: regional university, including... was $ 10, 946 on average. In the last
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: two years, that number has jumped over $ 2, 000. It's almost 20%.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: And the average is now $ 13, 000. And why does that matter?
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Because as families and students are working their tails off
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: and the costs, as we've already addressed, from all of
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: the available public polling to understand where people are hurting
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: the most, and you talk about inflation and inflationary costs
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: and the impact that has, college tuition is a significant
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: driver in that. 20% increase on that cost is prohibitive.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: So if we were looking at The big picture, I
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: think you have to look at the scandal around what's happened,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: and there have been many, related to the CSCU system.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: And it's important to distinguish between the CSCU, Connecticut State
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: Colleges and Universities, versus CCSU, which has also got its
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: own scandal. CCSU would be the Central Connecticut State University.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: So CSU has moved through overlapping crises involving executive spending,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: financial controls, leadership turnover, sexual harassment complaint handling, vetting issues,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: border region's oversight, votes of no confidence from faculty. Sean Scanlon,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: our state comptroller, called out the financial control problems across
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: CSCU leadership as systemic. And to his credit, took ownership
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: over policies to rein in Picard spending. And hold those bureaucrats,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: in my view, accountable. And now you've got the new
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: independent Grand River Review... that found an overall failure by
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: multiple CSCU officials to follow established process in responding to
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: sexual harassment allegations involving the interim chancellor, Maduko, and also
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: found that Maduko's selection process lacked industry standard vetting, no
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: new background check, personnel performance. And now we've got the
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Central Connecticut State University president, Zoma Toro, just resigned this
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: week during an investigation into allegations of her comportment as president,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: allegations of bullying, intimidation, and retaliation. So if the same
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: governing structure keeps producing questions about spending controls and vetting
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: and complaints and accountability while the campus's And colleges are
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: being asked to cut. And students and families are asked
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: to pay more. And the players in all of this, right?
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Terrence Chang, former chancellor of the CSCU system, spent... oodles
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: of money on frivolous and lavish dinners and travel. And
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: you have... the Natalie Braswell, who's now taken over after
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Maduko was forced out. And frankly, the person who I
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: think is really trying to get their arms around all
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: of this is Ari Santiago, who's the current interim border
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: region's chair, who followed Marty Guay, and trying to make
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: sense of all of this. And I think probably doing
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: the absolute best that he can to do right by
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: the students and the communities and the state. But there's
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: a lot to fix. The money controls. I think the
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: folks in the room have to take a hard look
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: at what have they done to solve the problem. And
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: it's something that I think overall points to issues in
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: the state about accountability and transparency and leadership. And some
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: of these things have been pervasive, right, when you're looking
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: at the Costa issue. Now, did Ned Lamont himself... effectuate
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: the corruption of Costa Diamantis? Absolutely not. But were there
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: lapses in the process that allowed for Costa to do
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: what he did? Absolutely. CSCU. The wait-and-see approach has not
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: been good for the state. It's not been good for
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: the students. And we see it over and over again.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: We saw it with the Pura. The governor took the
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: same approach with Pura. Wait and see. Let's wait and
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: see what happens. And things got so bad at Pura,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Marissa Gillette impeached herself. And If it weren't for Vin
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Candelora and House Republicans and Senate Republicans drawing attention to
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: that issue, who knows where we would have been? And
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: so I think when we're looking at these things and
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: talking about the effect that they have relative to the
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: affordability issue, that's where these things come to play. Because
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: people are looking at their tax dollars going to the state,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: and they're looking at their tuition costs, and they're saying,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: what's going on? And they're seeing higher utility costs and
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: thousands of decisions that are made behind closed doors with
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: signatures that are not the signature of the person making
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: the decision. And I think if it weren't for the
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: leadership of Vin Candelora, we wouldn't have a full complement
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: of Pura commissioners. And I think we've already seen the
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: incredible impact that that's had on the broader conversation relative
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: to utilities and costs and energy policy in Connecticut. A
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: lot of that credit to Holly Cheeseman and others who
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: who know what they're doing, understand the issues, and are
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: working diligently to make sure that the right thing gets done.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: And we need to mirror that under the leadership of
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Ari Santiago at the Board of Regents. among the Board
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: of Regents. And as we look to a conversation as
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: a state about what do we want from our state
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: government We need to continue to have the leadership of
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: Vin and Greg Howard and Steve Harding and Heather Summers
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: and others who are willing to push back and willing
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: to hold leaders accountable. Because for the same reason that
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: Democrats in Connecticut get their hair on fire about what
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: happens in Washington, D.C., when there's one party control, Republicans
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: in Connecticut simultaneously are having the same response. We need
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: checks and balances in this system. You need a voice
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: of accountability. You need demand for transparency. And that doesn't
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: happen in a one-size-fits-all, one-party approach where minority party is dismissed,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: where we're calling names and diminishing. And I think that's
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: one thing that sticks out to me in watching... what's
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: transpired in the last year is the willingness of some
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: Democrats in state government to assign motive and to diminish
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: critics in the opposing party for calling things out and
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: then having those exact things brought right to their front
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: door and realizing they have no choice but to deal
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: with it. So when we're expecting leaders to do better,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: that starts with accountability. And whether that's in the CSU system,
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: whether that's the egregious breach of the public trust by
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Costa Diamantis, what happened at Pura, There are too many examples.
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: And I think that when we're looking at the deliverables
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: from Republicans in the legislature, we should all be very proud,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: both parties should be proud, of the fact that they
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: were willing to do the right thing, to stand up,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: to call these things out. Greg Howard's going to join
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: us in a few minutes. He's one of the greatest
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: examples of standing up and doing the right thing and
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: calling things out, regardless of party origin. And I don't know,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: there are a lot of people in the legislature who
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: have gotten worse response from their Democrat counterparts. So when
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: we're thinking about for whom we're going to vote, when
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: we're thinking about decisions and how we're going to make
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: those decisions, not just in the voting booth, But what
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: are we going to do after Election Day? We need
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: to be asking the critical questions of elected officials and candidates.
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: What have you done to hold leaders accountable? And I
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: think that's especially important for Democrats in Connecticut. What have
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: you done to hold people in your own party accountable?
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: Because Republicans get asked those questions day in and day out.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know a single Republican candidate or elected official
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: who hasn't had a microphone shoved in their face to
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: answer for something that Donald Trump has said or a
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: politician in Washington has said or any other politician on
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: the Republican side of the aisle has said. But you
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: don't see that happening quite often to Democrats. And so
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: if a Democrat comes, knocks your door and asks for
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: your vote, I think it's important that you ask them.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: What have you done to hold your party accountable? What
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: do you think can be done to move transparency and
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: accountability and restore some trust in these broken systems? Because
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: it's not enough to say the system isn't broken. And
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: I think we have to be careful not to throw
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: the baby out with the bathwater, right? I mean, I
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: think There are certainly leaders who have taken on the
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: impossible task to try and right the ship. And you
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: have to give credit where it's due. If you're Ari
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: Santiago and you take over at the Board of Regents
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: in the midst of all of this to try and
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: right the ship, you deserve a lot of credit. Who's
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: helping you in that endeavor? How is the system itself
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: making your job easier? What tools do you have? And
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: whether that's the Board of Regents or any other commission,
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: regulatory authority, what have you, these are important questions and
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: conversations that we need to be having. So I think
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: we're ready to take a break. We got Greg Howard
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: coming in on the back end here. Liz Karantowitz, 94.9
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: News Now, filling in for the great Lee Elsie. And
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: we will see you in a few minutes.
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: You laugh when you lie.
• 45:42
  Speaker 21: You said the gun was mine.
• 45:45
  Speaker 11: Isn't cool?
• 45:46
  Speaker 21: No, I don't like you.
• 45:49
  Speaker 34: But I got smarter, I got hotter in the meantime.
• 45:53
  Speaker 19: On 94.9 News Network.
• 45:55
  Speaker 28: In East Line, the on-ramp from exit 74 from Route
• 46:00
  Speaker 28: 161 to I-95 North is closed.
• 46:04
  Speaker 18: Heading over the Gold Star Bridge road construction, Route.
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  Speaker 28: 12 is moving slow northbound in Groton. Route 32 and
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  Speaker 28: I-395 are both delay-free.
• 46:17
  Speaker 37: I'm Eddie Schaefer, Time Saver Traffic.
• 46:19
  Speaker 43: Whaling City Ford needs 50 pre-owned vehicles.
• 46:22
  Speaker 19: And yours could be one of them.
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  Speaker 31: Right now, we're actively buying cars, trucks, and SUVs, all
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• 46:46
  Speaker 14: We need 50 vehicles.
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  Speaker 3: and virus sanitizing. If you own a boat, they have
• 47:31
  Speaker 3: custom trucks and will come to you and steam clean,
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  Speaker 3: hot water power wash, and extract grease, dirt, and grime
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: from your.
• 47:37
  Speaker 11: Engine and bulge areas.
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: PC Restoration specializes in general cleaning.
• 47:50
  Speaker 44: When it comes to firearms, from beginners to experienced collectors,
• 47:53
  Speaker 44: Ron's Guns has what you need.
• 47:56
  Speaker 33: Need advice?
• 47:57
  Speaker 21: Ron's Guns can take care of you.
• 47:58
  Speaker 33: No pressure here. Just good old-fashioned face-to-face customer service.
• 48:03
  Speaker 44: Ron's Guns has it from ammo to optics, receivers to rifles,
• 48:06
  Speaker 44: even body armor.
• 48:07
  Speaker 39: Appraisal?
• 48:08
  Speaker 21: Ron's Guns does that, too.
• 48:10
  Speaker 44: Ron's Guns is your seven-day-a-week gun show.
• 48:13
  Speaker 33: And parking is free.
• 48:15
  Speaker 44: 194 Boston Post Road in East Lyme and at ronsgunsct.com.
• 48:20
  Speaker 10: For over 60 years, Boats Incorporated has been a leader
• 48:24
  Speaker 10: in boat sales and service. With 27 full-time team members,
• 48:29
  Speaker 10: including eight technicians, 175 slip marina, three amazing boat lines,
• 48:34
  Speaker 10: Grady White, Parker, and Sportsman Boats. And Connecticut's oldest full-line
• 48:39
  Speaker 10: Yamaha dealership is what makes Boats Incorporated the undisputed champion
• 48:45
  Speaker 10: of family boating.
• 48:46
  Speaker 11: Visit our showroom on Main Street in Niantic.
• 48:48
  Speaker 19: Visit BoatsInc.com.
• 48:52
  Speaker 24: Friday Night Lights, the roar of the crowd, the pride
• 48:55
  Speaker 24: of watching our kids take the field.
• 48:56
  Speaker 19: Homegrown Subaru is proud to support.
• 48:58
  Speaker 24: Local high school football and the students, families, coaches, teachers,
• 49:02
  Speaker 24: and fans who.
• 49:02
  Speaker 11: Make our community stronger. Because supporting our community isn't just
• 49:05
  Speaker 11: something we do.
• 49:06
  Speaker 19: On Friday nights.
• 49:07
  Speaker 24: It's something we believe in every day. Homegrown Subaru, proud
• 49:10
  Speaker 24: to be part of the community we call home. Come
• 49:12
  Speaker 24: be part of it with us. Visit Homegrown Subaru today
• 49:14
  Speaker 24: and drive home in a vehicle that's built for your
• 49:16
  Speaker 24: next adventure.
• 49:17
  Speaker 19: HomegrownSubaru.com.
• 49:23
  Speaker 26: Welcome back.
• 49:24
  Speaker 42: We're getting, before we start, an email from a fan
• 49:28
  Speaker 42: of the WeLC show on channel 94.9. It's from a fan.
• 49:33
  Speaker 27: Good morning.
• 49:35
  Speaker 42: Good morning. get to have liz k on the radio
• 49:38
  Speaker 42: this morning and her daughter too i'm glad to be
• 49:41
  Speaker 42: able to listen all morning today they must have left
• 49:43
  Speaker 42: their house at 4 a.m well thank you and now
• 49:46
  Speaker 42: i'm gonna hand it back to.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: My mom we did in fact leave at 4 a.m
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: with copious amounts of caffeine thank you frankie for joining
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: me on this trip and thank you for reading the
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: email thank you to our fans We actually have had
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: a couple of emails come in, so I want to
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: address the first question that we got from David in
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: Old Saybrook. Liz, what can I do other than vote
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: to help the cause? I think that is a great
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: question and one I've talked about often with the host
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: of this program. And go out and knock doors. Go
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: ask your local town committee, Republican town committee, what they're doing.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: Most of these folks are out there doing Super Saturdays.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Your local candidates for the legislature, for state rep and
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: state senate, they're out knocking doors. Especially in these hard-fought,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: close legislative elections, knocking doors and meeting voters and IDing
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: voters is so critical. And you cannot discount what that
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: one-on-one conversation conversation means for the candidate and the voter.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: And all of that data then cycles back at the
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: end when people start voting and you know who your
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: voters are and you go turn them out. So you
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: got to ID and turn out. And getting out and
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: knocking doors is critical. We got one more question from
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: Mary Beth in Montville. Liz, is it too late to
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: save the state? Never. It's never too late. Be part
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: of the solution, not part of the problem. It's one
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: thing to identify the issues, to point them out, but
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: be part of the solution. And you're part of the
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: solution by making sure that you get out and you
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: vote and you have those important conversations. And even if
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: your candidate doesn't win, it's maintaining those conversations and keeping
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: the pressure on and keeping the focus on the issues
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: that we know everyone cares about. So we're going to
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: take a break and we will be right back. Liz Cranowitz, 94.9.
• 52:11
  Speaker 11: Oh, my God.
• 52:41
  Speaker 14: I want.
• 52:43
  Speaker 45: To go to see.
• 52:45
  Speaker 26: Broadcasting live from the Bruce Delon Buick GMC Studios.
• 52:49
  Speaker 19: WJJF. Montauk. Ledger.
• 52:51
  Speaker 11: Mystic.
• 52:52
  Speaker 20: Norwich.
• 52:52
  Speaker 19: 94.9 News Now.
• 52:58
  Speaker 46: They'll roll out the red carpet at the White House.
• 53:01
  Speaker 15: I'm Dave Anthony.
• 53:02
  Speaker 46: Fox News for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who President Trump
• 53:05
  Speaker 46: greeted last night when he landed at Joint Base Andrews.
• 53:07
  Speaker 46: The whole talk's today, followed by a state dinner. And
• 53:10
  Speaker 46: Fox's Madeline Rivera reports it's already in agreement.
• 53:13
  Speaker 6: That trade truce the U.S.
• 53:14
  Speaker 47: And Beijing struck in South Korea last year was set
• 53:17
  Speaker 47: to expire in November. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson told Our
• 53:21
  Speaker 47: Bread Bear yesterday that agreement has now been extended to January.
• 53:26
  Speaker 47: Besson hopes that will give the two sides more time
• 53:29
  Speaker 47: to strike a more fulsome deal, even though Besson says
• 53:32
  Speaker 47: China has fallen short of some of its commitments, particularly
• 53:36
  Speaker 47: on rare earth minerals.
• 53:37
  Speaker 4: We're going to see probably some announcements of maybe financial services,
• 53:42
  Speaker 4: ag purchases. So there's quite a bit going on here.
• 53:46
  Speaker 15: Also on the agenda in the Trump sheet talks, Taiwan.
• 53:48
  Speaker 46: And reports China's helped Iran target Americans in that ongoing conflict. Now,
• 53:52
  Speaker 46: they'll also discuss artificial intelligence amid calls for stricter regulations
• 53:55
  Speaker 46: to keep AI from getting dangerously out of control. OpenAI
• 53:59
  Speaker 46: CEO Sam Altman told a U.N. Security Council meeting that
• 54:01
  Speaker 46: technology can do a lot of good.
• 54:03
  Speaker 15: AI should help researchers make discoveries, doctors treat patients. Teachers
• 54:07
  Speaker 15: teach students, entrepreneurs.
• 54:08
  Speaker 48: Start companies, communities solve problems that felt out of reach,
• 54:11
  Speaker 48: and much more.
• 54:12
  Speaker 46: But adding to fears about AI going rogue, his company
• 54:15
  Speaker 46: is under scrutiny down under.
• 54:17
  Speaker 49: This is the first publicly reported AI-led hack of a
• 54:21
  Speaker 49: government website. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says an agent
• 54:25
  Speaker 49: created by OpenAI accessed the country's universal healthcare statistics portal.
• 54:31
  Speaker 50: It took the company way too long to inform the
• 54:34
  Speaker 50: government what had occurred and the nature. of the way
• 54:37
  Speaker 50: that that notification occurred as well was unacceptable.
• 54:41
  Speaker 49: OpenAI says it doesn't think any patient records were accessed.
• 54:45
  Speaker 46: That's Fox's Jonathan Savage.
• 54:47
  Speaker 15: And the Ukraine war rages on.
• 54:48
  Speaker 46: Another Russian bombardment overnight left at least eight civilians dead.
• 54:52
  Speaker 15: America's listening to Fox News.
• 54:56
  Speaker 16: When it comes to supplements, two things matter most, that
• 55:00
  Speaker 16: it works and you can trust it. Larry Elder here.
• 55:03
  Speaker 16: Rather than just tell you about Relief Factor, we'll let
• 55:05
  Speaker 16: our customers do it. We hear from people every day
• 55:07
  Speaker 16: whose lives have changed. We'd like you to hear their stories.
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  Speaker 16: Pastor Bill strained his back around Christmas 2025 and was
• 55:14
  Speaker 16: in tremendous pain. After starting Relief Factor within a few days,
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  Speaker 16: his pain was gone and he had full flexibility. He
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  Speaker 16: calls it a miracle and recommends it to anyone dealing
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  Speaker 16: with pain. I take it every single morning for my
• 55:28
  Speaker 16: own back issues. I stop taking it, the issues come back.
• 55:31
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• 55:41
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• 55:50
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• 55:58
  Speaker 19: Good morning.
• 55:59
  Speaker 38: I'm Sean Murphy.
• 56:00
  Speaker 37: Partly cloudy skies today with a high in the 60s.
• 56:03
  Speaker 9: A Colchester driving instructor at York Correctional Institution faces a
• 56:08
  Speaker 9: fourth-degree sexual assault charge after an inmate accused him of
• 56:11
  Speaker 9: inappropriate touching. 48-year-old Eduardo Luis Cruz denies the allegations and
• 56:17
  Speaker 9: is due in court October 5th. Crosstown Ferry has canceled
• 56:22
  Speaker 9: several Thursday auto ferry trips between New London and Orient
• 56:25
  Speaker 9: Point because of expected weather and sea conditions. Seven departures
• 56:30
  Speaker 9: from New London and eight from Orient Point are affected.
• 56:33
  Speaker 9: Waterford First Selectman Rob Brule has asked the state to
• 56:37
  Speaker 9: transfer land for a road connecting the former Crystal Mall
• 56:40
  Speaker 9: to Parkway North.
• 56:42
  Speaker 19: He says a.
• 56:42
  Speaker 9: Second entrance could ease traffic as Electric Boat prepares to
• 56:46
  Speaker 9: move 4,000 to 5,000 employees.
• 56:48
  Speaker 19: To the property.
• 56:49
  Speaker 9: The State Department of Transportation is reviewing the request. The
• 56:53
  Speaker 9: Connecticut Department of Transportation would hold an open house on
• 56:56
  Speaker 9: its proposed 2027 and 2030 state rail plan on Tuesday,
• 57:01
  Speaker 9: September 29th from 445 to 645 p.m.
• 57:05
  Speaker 38: At the Public Library of New London.
• 57:07
  Speaker 9: Residents can share feedback on the future of passenger and
• 57:10
  Speaker 9: freight rail service. Block Island Ferry has canceled all high-speed
• 57:16
  Speaker 9: trips Thursday because.
• 57:17
  Speaker 19: Of rough seas.
• 57:19
  Speaker 9: The 815 traditional ferry from Block Island and the 830
• 57:23
  Speaker 9: departure from Point Judith are also canceled. Later trips remain uncertain.
• 57:28
  Speaker 9: The operator says it will issue an update by 9 a.m.
• 57:33
  Speaker 9: I'm Sean Murphy. When news breaks, we break in.
• 57:37
  Speaker 12: Just the facts, man.
• 57:38
  Speaker 26: This is a weekly story of truth, justice, and the
• 57:41
  Speaker 26: American way. When hope seems lost and society has begun
• 57:46
  Speaker 26: to crack and crumble, one man standing all alone carrying
• 57:50
  Speaker 26: a silver badge in his perfectly pressed $ 2, 000 Armani suit
• 57:55
  Speaker 26: has made it his mission to right the wrongs of
• 57:58
  Speaker 26: modern day civilization. He's been living on the razor's edge,
• 58:02
  Speaker 26: courageously battling crime, policing the streets of Stonington, while fearlessly
• 58:07
  Speaker 26: fighting for liberty and justice in Hartford. Ladies and gentlemen,
• 58:12
  Speaker 26: welcome Detective and State Representative Greg Howard.
• 58:19
  Speaker 42: Welcome back and good morning. We are on the WeLC Show,
• 58:23
  Speaker 42: Channel 94.9. I'd like to welcome back and introduce Liz Karanowicz.
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: My mom. Thank you, Frankie. And welcome to the great
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: state representative, my friend and yours, nobody better, Greg Howard.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: Good morning.
• 58:40
  Speaker 16: Good morning.
• 58:41
  Speaker 51: Listen, I've been listening to this show for years.
• 58:43
  Speaker 12: I've been on this show for years.
• 58:45
  Speaker 51: That was the best intro that I've ever heard on 94.9
• 58:48
  Speaker 51: News Now right now.
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: It's take your kids to work day. It's called experiential learning, Greg, right?
• 59:01
  Speaker 51: Yeah, listen, I'll tell you what. First off, you did
• 59:04
  Speaker 51: a great job. That was great. And to have the
• 59:06
  Speaker 51: courage to talk to 25, 35, whatever it is, thousand
• 59:08
  Speaker 51: people uh is amazing but the more that we get
• 59:11
  Speaker 51: uh the younger generation involved the better and the sooner
• 59:14
  Speaker 51: because the fact of the matter is liz and you
• 59:16
  Speaker 51: know this as well as anybody the decisions that are
• 59:18
  Speaker 51: being made right now in harford connecticut are going to
• 59:21
  Speaker 51: have a more profound effect on the lives of of
• 59:23
  Speaker 51: our kids than they will on ours because you know
• 59:25
  Speaker 51: we're we're halfway through our working life and and whatnot,
• 59:29
  Speaker 51: and the struggles that we're living now have already been
• 59:33
  Speaker 51: set up by somebody else, but that's what we're setting
• 59:36
  Speaker 51: up for them, and that's what I always tell everybody.
• 59:38
  Speaker 51: We don't steal in one of Reagan's quotes about the environment,
• 59:43
  Speaker 51: but we didn't inherit this world from our families or
• 59:48
  Speaker 51: those who came before us so much as we're borrowing
• 59:49
  Speaker 51: from our kids. And that's what I always keep focused on,
• 59:53
  Speaker 51: and I tell my constituents, I tell my colleagues that, listen,
• 59:57
  Speaker 51: I don't want my boys to, and I have sons
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 51: or all of our kids, to have to go through
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 51: the same struggles that we did. You know, Dana and
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 51: I had to work four jobs between us the entire
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 51: time we were raising those boys, and we still worked
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 51: three jobs between us, you know, with overtime, you.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 12: Know, to try to raise our kids.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 51: And, you know, it didn't have to be like that.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 51: The affordability crisis that exists in this state didn't.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 12: Be that way, and it doesn't have to be that way.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 51: That's the most important part. It doesn't have to be
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 51: that way, and we really need to make a change
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 51: in Connecticut, and I hope we do. We have that
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 51: opportunity here in six weeks, and I really, really hope.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 17: We go in a better direction.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: Well, listen, I'm pulling for you, obviously, and not to
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: get esoteric, but I think you made a really important point, right?
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: For so long, and you think about Reagan especially, The
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: United States has we have been an ascendant people, right?
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: We have we have generationally believed that our better days
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: are ahead of us, not behind us, that our future
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: generations are going to do better, be better, have better
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: than we did. And that is that is always sort
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: of been the driving force in American culture. Do you
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: think in talking to your constituents and in your community,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: do you do you think that people still believe that?
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 12: Well, I think that's just a human nature thing. I
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 12: think that you.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 51: Want to, you know, especially when you've gone through struggles.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 30: And we all go through struggles, right?
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 51: I mean, raising families and growing up and still going
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 51: through life, everybody struggles.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 12: There's going to be one struggle or another.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 51: And you always want to believe that the better days
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 51: are ahead. And I suppose it's a nature thing that
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 51: gets you up.
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 12: And keeps going. But I do think that a lot
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 12: of people, including young people, by the way, who never
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 12: even experienced it, by thinking, hey, you know, it was
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 12: better before, right? You know, the good days aren't really
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 12: gone for good. They don't have to be gone for good.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 12: Even my sons say, ah, man, I wish I grew
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 12: up in the 80s. And I tell them, like, you can.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 12: You can. Times don't change. People change time. So, you know,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 12: the world does not have its own clock and schedule.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 12: Human beings create that. So if you think you know,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 12: looking back at what it was like in the 70s
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 12: and the 80s and what you've learned about and what
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 12: you've heard from me, your grandparents, your uncles, your aunts, whatever.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 30: Is better.
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 12: Make that your life. And that's what I try to
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 12: tell people. We need to go back to a time
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 12: where we weren't spending billions and billions of dollars on
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 12: ideology because that is what's happening. You know, Ryan Foggio
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 12: is out there talking about affordability. Ned Lamont's out there
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 12: talking about affordability. Our congressional candidates are talking about affordability.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 12: And everybody on the state ballot is talking about affordability.
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 30: Well, that's a word.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 12: But what does it mean?
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 51: And let's dig down on it.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 12: And let's dig down on the fact that if you
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 12: look at any.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 51: Metric you want to, cost of grocery, cost of fuel,
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 51: cost of living overall, cost of housing, home index, etc.,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 51: your cost of taxes, go any metric you want to, gas, electricity, unaffordability,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 51: you will find that Connecticut ranks among the.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 12: Highest in the nation in every single category.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 51: And more importantly, in almost every single category, saving a
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 51: few anomalies here and there like Florida on groceries and whatnot,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 51: you'll find that The states that are more expensive than
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 51: we are in any of those categories are.
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 12: All historically blue states. And what do you find out?
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 12: You find that the Democratic policies in those states are
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 12: not making those states more affordable for their people. These
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 12: are places that have had, much like we've had.
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 51: A Democrat-controlled legislature for decades, a Democrat-controlled legislature.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 12: The governor's office for.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 51: A decade and a half, roughly.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 12: For us.
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 51: In some states, many more.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 12: And you look at that, and people say, well, the
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 12: affordability crisis from Washington, D.C.
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 51: So if that was true, all the states would have
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 51: the same affordability.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 12: Crisis, and they don't.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 51: A lot of our red states don't have that affordability crisis.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 51: So why is that happening? And it's happening because government
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 51: is creating an affordability problem based on ideology. Look, everybody wants.
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 12: Certain things, right? We all want the cleanest air, but
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 12: we also need power. And you have to figure out ways.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 51: To balance those things. And I always use Liz's electricity
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 51: as the best example because it's the easiest.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 12: One to put an analogy to and sort.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 51: Of explain it without getting so deep in the I
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 51: always use electricity as a gauge because you can explain
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 51: that electricity is a three-legged stool, and it needs to
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 51: be balanced. And the three legs of that stool are affordability, reliability,
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 51: and environmental sustainability, right? But the problem is in Connecticut,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 51: we don't balance those things. We take the affordability one
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 51: and say we don't need that stool, that leg of
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 51: the stool.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 12: Yes, you do.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 51: You absolutely do. And when you look at the direction
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 51: that we're going... We in Connecticut have put so much
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 51: emphasis on environmental sustainability. And I'm not saying it's not important,
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 51: but you have to look at it practically. In the
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 51: state of Connecticut, where there's 3.5.
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 12: Million people, represents just under 1%.
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 51: Of the entire population of the United States.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 30: Forget the world, right?
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 12: And less than one-tenth of 1% of the geographic makeup
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 12: of the country, let alone the world. But we're going
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 12: to bankrupt. are residents on this ideology of the environment.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 12: It's just stupid. It's not because protecting the environment is stupid.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 51: Protecting the environment is extremely smart.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 12: Because we need that for the next generation. But you
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 12: have to balance it, and that's the problem here. We
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 12: go all in on these ideologies, and.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 51: The reason that besides that easy graphic.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 12: To think about, you can look at wind when you
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 12: talk about energy.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 51: If we sign a power purchase agreement for wind, it's
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 51: going to be two to three times higher than the
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 51: TCA we ever signed for nuclear.
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 12: Why? Well, because of the ideology. We think it's going
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 12: to be better. Listen, I've been out to the windmills
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 12: 100 times. How many times have I been sitting? I
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 12: go out there fishing all the time, which, by the way,
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 12: I hate it because I love the ocean. I grew
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 12: up on the ocean. It's my favorite place to be.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 51: And you have these monstrosities out there. But that's just
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 51: a personal thing for me. But the fact of the
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 51: matter is that when.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 12: You look at power purchase agreements, Wind is extremely expensive.
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 51: So what should we be doing in Connecticut to balance that?
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 51: We should have a portfolio in Connecticut of natural gas
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 51: and nuclear.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 12: Why? Because they're very clean, they're very reliable, and they're
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 12: the least expensive. That's balanced. But we don't do it
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 12: because we go all in on this ideology of wind
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 12: to the tune of billions of dollars out of the
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 12: pockets of hardworking families in Connecticut. That's the problem. And
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 12: that's what's going on. Across the board, not just on energy.
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 51: Across the board, in all these states that are Democratic states,
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 51: the party as a whole has gone all in on
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 51: ideology and closed their eyes to practical applications.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 12: And that is the real issue.
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 51: And that is why you have 151... seats.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 12: That are on the ballot, you know, 300 and some people, like,
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 12: you know, because they're not all contested, but 151 seats
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 12: on the ballot for state race in the statehouse.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 51: You have 36 Senate seats on the ballot and five
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 51: congressional seats representing 100 and whatever that.
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 12: Is, 191 spots.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 51: And what does the Connecticut Democrat Party have the people
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 51: focused on? Washington, D.C., where we only have five spots
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 51: in the ballot.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 12: And why are they doing that? because they don't want
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 12: anybody in.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 51: This state who's going to a ballot box November 3rd
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 51: to pull back the curtain and see what's going on
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 51: in Hartford. It makes me insane when people.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 12: Say, oh, well, the Democrats, I vote the Democrats because
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 12: they're the ones that are going.
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 51: To help us out of this mess.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 12: What mess? The mess they put you in? You know,
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 12: I always talk about my aunt and uncle, and I
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 12: love them very much. Believe me, we're very close.
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 51: But they left Rhode Island, actually, just over the border,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 51: to go to Florida. because it was a better cost
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 51: of living, better life, all that stuff.
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 12: To a red state. They left here, and they continue
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 12: to vote Democrat. I think Democrats have the answers. That's
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 12: literally insanity.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 51: I always tell another story quickly. I was talking to
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 51: a guy who happened to be a black man, maybe
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 51: a couple years older than me, maybe he was 50,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 51: something like that, at a construction job a few weeks back,
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 51: maybe a couple months now. It's been a little bit.
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 12: And we got into politics, and he says, oh, Iowa,
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 12: vote Democrat because I grew up in New Haven, and
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 12: I'm from New Haven, and Democrats are for the black people.
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 12: I said, oh, okay. I said, how long have you
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 12: lived in New Haven? He goes, all my life, 50
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 12: years or whatever it was. I said, oh, all right, well,
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 12: New Haven's.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 51: Been controlled by Democrats that whole time, and the state's
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 51: been controlled by Democrats.
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 12: Pretty much that whole time. So your life's gotten much
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 12: better since you were born until now. No, it's gotten worse.
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 12: I said, then help me understand that. Help me understand
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 12: if you're a party line voter, which, by the way,
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 12: I don't think anybody should be.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 51: But anyway, if you're a party line voter and your.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 12: Life has not gotten better in 50 years with that
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 12: party in control, how can.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 51: You sit there with a rational mind and tell me
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 51: that party is best for you?
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 12: And he says, gee, I guess you're right. I never
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 12: really thought about.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 16: It that way.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 12: Well, you have to, right? You have to look at things,
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 12: and I can tell you, Liz, and maybe you know this,
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 12: I know Lee knows this, I was.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 51: Raised to be a Democrat, and it wasn't until probably
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 51: I was almost 30 years old that I switched away
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 51: from that. I was raised by, my dad was a teamster,
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 51: my grandfather was a teamster. You know, I was raised,
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 51: in fact, growing up at my house, if you said Republican.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 12: You slept outside. Like, I mean, that's a joke. That
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 12: did not happen. But that's the house that I grew
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 12: up in.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 51: And it wasn't until I was, like, 30 years old
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 51: when I started... You know, I looked at my pay stuff, right?
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 12: Start there. There's more people going to do that. And
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 12: I'm like, I'm losing.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 51: I'm working 90 to 100 hours a week.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 12: I remember at that time, you know, the.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 30: Boys are really little.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 12: I would work like.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 51: 200 and some odd days in a row without a
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 51: day off between overtime.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 12: And my other job.
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 51: You know, and so it's like I looked at it
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 51: and said, right, what is happening?
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 12: And I actually did some research. I started paying attention,
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 12: looking at what was going on and said, I've been
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 12: voting for these Democrats. They're not representing me at all. Inside,
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 12: they're doing a terrible job. I need to pay more
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 12: attention and not just vote Democrat because that's what I
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 12: was taught. I need to pay attention.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 51: And I started to pay attention.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 12: And I started to learn. Look, I don't agree with
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 12: every Republican on everything, naturally. And I have Democrat colleagues
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 12: right in Hartford that I agree with most of the time.
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 12: You know, Mikey Giancarlo out of Waterbury is a great example.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 12: Bill Perry. I mean, Chris Poulos. There's a lot of
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 12: Democrats in Hartford that I agree with often. But the parties.
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 51: And what the party that's in control is using the
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 51: majority to do is not working for me.
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 12: And it wasn't working for me then, and it certainly
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 12: isn't working for me now. And naturally, that's when I,
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 12: you know, by 2020, had to do more and jumped in.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 12: And that's how I ended up here and on the
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 12: phone with you.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: Well, Greg, and look at what happened to Jill Barry, right?
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, here's a common-sense legislator, I would argue— 100%.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: That's now been maligned and pushed out by her own party.
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 12: Gilberry is one of the best legislators in Hartford.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 24: I agree.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 51: And I say that because, and I don't care that
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 51: she's got a D after name. I couldn't care less,
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 51: and I haven't cared for the last six years before
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 51: she was exiled by the Democrats. But Gilberry is first
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 51: of all smart, smart there. Two, He's not crazy, another
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 51: important part, because you don't assume.
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 12: Those things about anybody in that room, right?
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 51: And three, he looks at everything from an objective point
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 51: of view, understands each issue, works hard to find.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 12: Ways to make the right things happen, and most importantly, Liz,
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 12: he has the courage to do it. And I say
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 12: all the time, what makes people like Jill... myself and.
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 51: Several others, Mike, dangerous in Hartford for the establishment party
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 51: is when you take brains and courage and you put
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 51: them together in that chamber, that person has become extremely
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 51: dangerous to the establishment because when you have the articulate
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 51: ability to explain things, first off, to understand them yourself, two,
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 51: to explain them, and you don't fear any repercussions They
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 51: can't control you anymore.
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 12: And not only can they not control you, but you're
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 12: actually getting a message out and people are hearing you
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 12: and understanding it. And that's what they find to be dangerous.
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 51: They don't, the established control, and by the.
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 12: Way, the people that control things out there is about
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 12: five or six, maybe, controlling everything. And they made that
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 12: very clear last session with their first emergency search, where
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 12: they said, hey, here's the 47 issues that we Me,
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 12: Matt Ritter.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 51: Jason Rojas, Bob Doft, Marty Looney.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 12: These are the four things. These are the 40-something things
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 12: that we care about, and we're going to run them
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 12: as an Easter, get them done, and then you guys
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 12: can figure out whatever you want to do for the
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 12: next three months.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: Well, and to that point, can you imagine?
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 12: That's not hyperbole.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 48: That happened.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine that happening in Washington, D.C., and what
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: Chris Murphy and Dick Blumenthal and Johanna Hayes and Joe
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: Courtney and John Larson and Rosa DeLauro and Jim Himes
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: and what their reaction would be? with an insert like
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: that that just rammed through by one party control. They're
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: apoplectic now, and they have a seat at the table.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 12: I'm telling you, Liz, I say this every single day.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 12: You got these people out, no kings, no kings. They
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 12: need to change their signs. What they say is no
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 12: kings except in Connecticut. That's what they should be saying.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 51: But, you know, when you talk to people, most of them,
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 51: I don't want to say any names, I talked to
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 51: somebody a few days ago who is a big no-kings person, right?
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 51: And I shared to him the article about Casas de Montes.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 12: Now, listen, it's not lost on anybody. I'm not a
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 12: Casas de Montes fan, obviously, okay?
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: Find me one.
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 12: And I don't like people who commit crimes, right? That's
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 12: a given.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 51: But we have a process and we have a system.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 51: And under our system, in our laws, In order for
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 51: them to stop that guy's pension payments, which they should
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 51: have done months and months and months ago, by the way,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 51: in order for them to do that, they need to
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 51: notify him. He has to have due process, and a
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 51: court has to order.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 12: It to be stopped. Well, you have two elected officials.
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 51: William Tongs and Sean Salmon. And Sean's my friend. He's
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 51: been on the show when I've guest hosted.
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 12: I like Sean. But you have two. I wouldn't say
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 12: these things about William, by the way. You have two elected.
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 51: Officials and constitutional officers that have made a decision that
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 51: they're just going to do.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 12: It outside that process. OK, so that is game like behavior. Now,
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 12: I said that to this guy. He goes, well, those
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 12: guys are there. You know, they're former elected officials. Buddy,
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 12: you live in Connecticut. They're not former elected officials. That's
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 12: your attorney general. That's your consular. And they're on the
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 12: ballot in six weeks for reelection. And you have your
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 12: attorney general out there saying any Republican who disagrees with
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 12: me about the president is disqualified from public office. That's
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 12: not John Q. Public saying that. That's the attorney general
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 12: who renders legal opinion to the legislature and the governor
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 12: on the daily. And he's telling the people of the
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 12: state of Connecticut that in his legal opinion, anybody who
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 12: doesn't say what he says.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 51: Is disqualified from public office.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 12: Those people should be going crazy about that. It's okay
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 12: as long as it's all Democrats. And I could go
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 12: on and on and on.
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 51: That Easter last year is another classic example of it,
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 51: where they just dirt the.
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 12: Processes, ram things down, and it's being like behavior from
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 12: them on the constant, constantly.
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: I just go back to the hypocrisy, right? I just
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: go back to the hypocrisy, because if.
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: If Republicans in Washington acted and governed the way Democrats
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: in Connecticut govern, Connecticut's federal delegation would lose their mind.
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: They're losing it now. And they have nothing to say
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: about what happens here, right? They're not standing up to
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 1: Democrats in Connecticut who are doing these things. They're looking
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: the other way.
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 51: And here's a great recent example, too, Liz.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 12: And this is what Here, let me demonstrate this.
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 51: When Donald Trump ever stood at a podium as the
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 51: President of the United States and said, I promise everybody $ 5, 000 if.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 12: They vote the way I want them to. Not his
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 12: exact words, but essentially that's what he said. That is egregious.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 51: And I have no problem, I don't care if he's Republican,
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 51: I don't care if he's Donald Trump, that.
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 12: Is egregious that a President of the United States would
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 12: sit there and say that.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 51: Forget the financial and economic implications.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 12: Of how we're ever going to pay for that and
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 12: what it would do to inflation. Forget that. That's a
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 12: whole other problem. But the mere fact that a president
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 12: would say that, in my mind as an American, is egregious.
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 12: And the left in Connecticut went crazy about it. But
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 12: when Ned Lamont stood there and promised the union, hundreds
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 12: of thousands of union people, when you include their family
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 12: and everything, voters, you can have this if you vote
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 12: for me. And it's the exact same thing. It's the
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 12: exact same thing. And I think that's egregious.
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 30: Right?
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 12: So the difference between the.
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 51: Democrat established in Hartford in this state is when Trump
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 51: does it, it's terrible. But when Lamont does it, it's great.
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 51: I'm at least consistent and say, no, that is the greatest.
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 51: I don't care who does it.
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: And the big question is, does that trickle down to
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: the voters and can we get them to care?
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 11: Yes.
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 12: And listen, I'm sorry to cut you off. The answer
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 12: is yes.
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 51: And here's what happens, okay? I always use myself.
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 12: I'm in a campaign now.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 30: Right?
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 12: And I'm not changing the way I do things.
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 51: I say the same. If you go back and listen
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 51: to me six years ago until now, I've learned more, right?
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 12: I mean, certainly, you know, I've learned.
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 51: A bit more about these issues because I've been working
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 51: and whatnot.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 12: But me, the person, and my view on the world
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 12: is untamed.
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 30: So.
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 51: What happens here is down in my district, Tom Harris
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 51: wins my district by 10 points two years ago. I
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 51: think Ned won it by something like six or seven points.
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 12: I'd have to go back and look like four years ago.
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 51: And I'm winning by double digits in this blue district.
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 30: Why?
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 12: Because when you go out and you tell people the truth, hey,
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 12: this is what's happening. And so many people say, I
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 12: don't vote for Republicans, I vote for you because, you know,
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 12: you're the one who is right about these things. Well, OK,
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 12: but that's great. All right, fine. I get it. You know,
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 12: like that's whatever. But my point that I'm trying to make.
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 51: Is what Republicans in the state, the state rep and
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 51: state Senate races do every two years is they get
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 51: on the run and they start running scared.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 12: Oh, my gosh. Somebody on social media says they're not
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 12: going to vote for me.
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: So what? Who cares?
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 12: The day that I'm intimidated by somebody who wants to
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 12: post on social media and won't sit down and have
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 12: a coffee with me and talk about the issue, it
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 12: will never come.
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: Well, my opinion of one here, we need 100 more
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: Greg Howards out there fighting the fight, preaching the good word. Greg, representative,
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on and joining us.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: I greatly appreciate you, and I'm grateful that you're running.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: We need more of you, so keep fighting the fight.
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much, my friend. I'm so glad I
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: got to talk to you.
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 12: Thank you for having me. Frankie, you have a great day.
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 12: Keep them in line in there, kiddo.
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 18: Thank you.
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 12: All right, bye-bye.
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: All right, everybody, this is Liz Karantowitz, 94.9 News Now,
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: Stimulating Talk. We're going to take a break, and we're
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: going to come back, and we're going to talk to
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: Mark Fitch.
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 19: Where's the badge that takes the heat? Integrity, fairness, and courage. Bye.
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 19: Traffic Alert on 94.9 News Network.
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• 1:21:25
  Speaker 27: The Gold Star Bridge.
• 1:21:26
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• 1:21:28
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• 1:21:30
  Speaker 27: In both directions in Groton.
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 28: Route 32, stop and go southbound at Connecticut College. Slow
• 1:21:37
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• 1:21:44
  Speaker 19: September is here.
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 7: And Connecticut's number one fastest growing Mazda dealer is shifting
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 7: into high gear.
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 14: At Whaling City Mazda, we want inventory.
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 52: And we want your vehicle.
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  Speaker 19: Have a lease?
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  Speaker 14: Own a vehicle you just don't need anymore?
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 19: We And here's the best part.
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  Speaker 32: You don't have to buy from us for us to
• 1:22:05
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• 1:22:07
  Speaker 32: September's the perfect time. Because right now, get the Wailing
• 1:22:10
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• 1:22:12
  Speaker 14: Including a lifetime powertrain warranty.
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 19: Mazda CX-5, Mazda CX-50, Mazda CX-30, and more.
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 32: See dealer for details.
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 35: Hello, this is Richard Sosimo from Pasta Vida, the place
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 35: to go for gourmet to go. Chef Lou and I
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 35: started Pasta Vida more than 30 years ago as a
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 35: wholesale pasta factory and have become Connecticut's leading destination for
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 35: gourmet prepared meals. Delicious selections are ready for you to
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 35: simply heat and serve or freeze to be used another day.
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 35: We're located at 225 Elm Street in Old Saybrook. Find
• 1:23:08
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• 1:23:15
  Speaker 26: Every race, every candidate around the clock. 94.9 News Now,
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  Speaker 19: Fox News.
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  Speaker 18: I'm Paul Stevens.
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 53: President Trump hosting China's leader Xi Jinping for a state
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 53: visit a day after the president addressed the General Assembly
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 53: in New York City at the U.N.
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 54: Talks on trade and artificial intelligence are expected to dominate
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 54: the summit in Washington. The leader's first meeting since Xi
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 54: hosted Trump in Beijing in May. President Trump mentioned China
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  Speaker 54: only one time in his U.N.
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 21: Address, vowing the U.S.
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 54: Must win the A.I.
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 39: Race.
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 53: Fox's Lucas Tomlinson. Meantime, Iran's President Massoud Pajeshkian delivering his
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 53: address to the U.N. Wednesday where he spoke about the
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 53: impact the U.S. conflict has had on his nation.
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 46: Pajeshkian framed Iran as the victim.
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 15: He held up photos of children.
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 13: That he said were killed by American and Israeli bombs.
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 37: And he vowed that his country would never cede.
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 15: Control of the strait of her moves. As he began
• 1:24:16
  Speaker 15: his address, a lone U.S. diplomat walked out.
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 53: And that's Fox's Eric Shawn.
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 15: America's listening to Fox News.
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 37: This news report is brought to you by Keith's Appliances.
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  Speaker 14: Now with two convenient locations in Norwich and Mystic.
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  Speaker 21: Ready for your next auto loan?
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  Speaker 55: You have things to do, places to see, people to meet.
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  Speaker 5: where members bank better so do you think aaron judge
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  Speaker 5: is going to be in the yankee lineup when they
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  Speaker 5: face the red sox next week in the wild card
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 5: series i guess it all depends on who you ask
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 5: according to aaron judge himself he says he plans on
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 5: playing but the yankees would have to activate judge on
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 5: the final day of the regular season because as of
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 5: right now He can't play because he's on the injured list.
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 5: According to Yankee manager Aaron Boone, he's preparing to play
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 5: without Judge for the wildcard series. The Yankees went 41-25
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 5: with Judge in the lineup this season and 49-42 without him.
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 15: Now, even if Judge misses the wildcard round, he could
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 15: still come back for.
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 11: The division series.
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 5: Now, the Yankees have won a bunch of baseball games
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 5: this year without Aaron Judge in their lineup, but it's
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 5: hard to believe that the postseason might start in the
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 5: Bronx next week without their three-time MVP in it. With
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 5: more than just a score, I'm Fish on Sports.
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 3: Good morning, I'm Sean Murphy.
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 37: Partly cloudy skies today with a high in the 60s.
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 9: A Colchester driving instructor at York Correctional Institution faces a
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 9: fourth-degree sexual assault charge.
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 38: After an inmate accused him of inappropriate touching.
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 9: 48-year-old Eduardo Luis Cruz denies the allegations and is due
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 9: in court October 5th. Crosstown Ferry has canceled several Thursday
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 9: auto ferry trips between New London and Orient Point because
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 9: of expected weather and sea conditions. Seven departures from New
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 9: London and eight from Orient Point are affected. Waterford First
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 9: Selectman Rob Brule has asked the state to transfer land
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 9: for a road connecting the former Crystal Mall to Parkway North.
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 9: He says a second entrance... could ease traffic as Electric
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 9: Boat prepares to move 4,000 to 5,000 employees.
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 38: To the property.
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 9: The State Department of Transportation is reviewing the request. The
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 9: Connecticut Department of Transportation will hold an open house on
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 9: its proposed 2027 and 2030 State Rail Plan on Tuesday.
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 56: September.
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 9: 29th from 445 to 645 p.m. at the Public Library
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 9: of New London. Residents can share feedback on the future
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 9: of passenger and freight rail service. Block Island Ferry has
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 9: canceled all high-speed trips Thursday because.
• 1:28:52
  Speaker 19: Of rough seas.
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 9: The 815 traditional ferry from Block Island and the 830
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 9: departure from Point Judith are also canceled. Later trips remain uncertain.
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 9: The operator says it will issue an update by 9 a.m.
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 38: I'm Sean Murphy. When news breaks, we break in.
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 42: Good morning and welcome back. We are on the WeLC Show,
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 42: channel 94.9. It is 7.36. It is mid-sunny.
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 8: And I'm Frank.
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: You guys, she's really feeling herself. She may never go
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: back to school. I think we have found a permanent
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: sub here. She's only 10. Vote for Lee Elsie.
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 15: Oh, great.
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: Nobody heard that. Anyway, so we're back. I'm Liz Karantowitz
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: here on 94.9 News Now, Simulating Talk, filling in for
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: the great voice of freedom, Lee Elsie. And I'm really
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: excited to have our next guest, Mark Fitch, come on
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: and talk to us about some of his investigative reporting.
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: And I think when we talk about accountability and transparency
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: and we talk about the importance of a free press
• 1:30:16
  Speaker 1: and we talk about the importance of freedom of information,
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: a lot of the conversations and topics that I was
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: talking about back in the 630 block, are things that
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: my friend Mark Fitch has been writing about and investigating
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: and reporting on for quite some time. So I want
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: to welcome my friend and yours now, Mark Fitch. Mark,
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on.
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 57: Well, thank you, Liz. It's good to hear you in
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 57: the radio chair.
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 16: It's great.
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 57: And, you know, I should have kept my 12-year-old son
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 57: with me. He could have done the interview with you.
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 12: I know.
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: I think I'm inspiring people, too. I think Greg Howard
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: might bring his boys in. You know, it's one of
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: those things where if you're getting up at, you know, 3.30
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: in the morning, hitting the road to come out, you
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: might as well take full advantage of the opportunity.
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: So, Mark, can you fill me in? I want you
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: to sort of talk with and share with the listeners
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: what you're working on, what some of your biggest, you know,
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 1: reporting is right now and, you know, help draw attention
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: to some of the accountability and transparency fights you're having
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 12: Sure, sure.
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 57: Most recently, you know, the one thing that really, you know,
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 57: caught my eye and, you know, something I've been working on,
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 57: you know, done a number of articles on is the
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 57: basically money that went to nonprofits that just basically disappeared
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 57: or is unaccounted for or was, you know, taken fraudulently. And,
• 1:31:55
  Speaker 57: you know, I just did a story recently about a
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 57: deep dive forensic audit into the Blue Hills Civic Association.
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 57: For those who don't know, that was a Hartford-based nonprofit
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 57: that has since closed down. But this forensic audit looked
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 57: at $ 6. 4 million that taxpayers had sent to Blue Hills
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 57: Civic Association, which then got distributed to a bunch of
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 57: other organizations. And it found that about $ 2. 4 million of
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 57: that was either not properly documented or they don't know
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 57: what happened to it, essentially. And what's interesting is, you know,
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 57: of that $ 2. 4, about $ 1.
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 12: 2 million is.
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 57: Tied to now former State Senator Doug McCrory through his
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 57: alleged girlfriend and her organization, which has been heavily reported on.
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 57: But I decided to look at the other organizations that
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 57: were missing money. And there were some interesting findings in there,
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 57: one of which is that these taxpayer dollars were going
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 57: to a nonprofit and then getting distributed to for-profit companies.
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 57: basically propping up their operations. One of the biggest offenders
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 57: mentioned in the forensic audit was a real estate company
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 57: in New Haven who received $ 225, 000 claiming it was for
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 57: their homeownership program. Well, I think every real estate company
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 57: on the planet is a homeownership program of some kind.
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 57: What the auditors found was that that money ended up
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 57: getting spent on either just basic operations for the business, travel, food, vehicles,
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 57: things like that. No discernible public benefit to it. Another 200,000
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 57: went to, you know, three businesses in the Hartford area.
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 57: One restaurant that had closed down. A dental practice that
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 57: didn't even have a website. So, like, these are the
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 57: things that, you know, when people are looking for accountability...
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 57: It's what is going on here? Like, why is this
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 57: going out, this money going out to entities we don't
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 57: even know anything about and don't appear to be doing
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 57: the work that they say they're doing? And so I think,
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 57: you know, one of the most interesting lines in that
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 57: audit was that a lot of the documentation was shoddy
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 57: because these were all kind of like handshake deals directed
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 57: by state legislators. So they were kind of, you know...
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 57: They don't name the state legislators, but I'm sure people
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 57: can probably make a few guesses. But, you know, it's
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 57: basically like their own little slush fund that they're getting
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 57: to send out to their constituencies, to businesses in their area,
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 57: you know, to say that they're, I don't know, bringing
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 57: home the bacon, I guess.
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: As if the millions that we spend on elections aren't enough,
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: now we have this issue, right? I mean, I guess
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: my question for you is, who was supposed to be
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 1: minding the store here? Who in state government has authority
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: and is supposed to be having the financial controls over
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: these monies?
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 57: So this money got distributed through a couple different ways.
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 57: One is through the Department of Economic and Community Development.
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 57: They're basically the conduit for these kind of funds to
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 57: go to nonprofit partners in the state. And They do
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 57: have some controls there. Nonprofits that receive grant money are
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 57: supposed to submit grant reports, but that's a basically useless metric.
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 57: No nonprofit on the planet is going to submit a
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 57: grant report saying, hey, I spent all the money on
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 57: a car. They're always going to say everything's great and
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 57: that they're doing all these wonderful things. So they get
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 57: grant reports, but there's very little oversight. But part of
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 57: the problem with this is that the Blue Hills Civic
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 57: Association was being used as a pass-through entity. So they get,
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 57: you know, a million dollars, say, but that million dollars
• 1:36:19
  Speaker 57: says you have to give this million dollars to these
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 57: other people. And those other people don't send any kind
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 57: of reporting or auditing or anything back to the Department
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 57: of Economic and Community Development. It kind of allows the
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 57: state government to wash their hands of it and say, well,
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 57: You know, it's off there. You know, like it's somebody
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 57: else's problem to keep track of how this grant money
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 57: is being spent.
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: And all the while, the constituents are supposed to be
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: benefiting from these resources for their intended purpose.
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 52: Oh, absolutely.
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 20: And that's the thing.
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 57: And here's the thing. Even then, you know, it passes
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 57: through Blue Hills, goes to another organization, and then that
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 57: organization is also a pass-through to another one. It It's
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 57: kind of like this Russian nesting dolls situation.
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: So what prompted the audit?
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 57: What prompted the audit was the closure of the Blue
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 57: Hills Civic Association and all the controversy and scandal surrounding
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 57: a federal investigation into Blue Hills Civic Association and Senator
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 57: McCrory's relationship to this organization.
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 30: Known as SHIBA.
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 57: As I said before, Sheba accounted for $ 1. 2 million of
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 57: that $ 2. 4 million that the auditors highlighted. So that prompted
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 57: an initial audit and then a much longer audit by
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 57: the state, well overdue, obviously. Some other interesting things. I mean,
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 57: a lot of these people are connected together. One of
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 57: the other organizations highlighted in the audit was the Prosperity Foundation,
• 1:38:01
  Speaker 57: whose executive director, Howard Hill, served on the Minority Business
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 57: Initiative board with Senator McCrory and voted to send money
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 57: to Shiba. His organization also received a million dollars or
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 57: something like that through these pass-through entities. couldn't account for
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 57: a significant chunk of it. I think it was around
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 57: like $ 450, 000. And in some previous reporting that I did,
• 1:38:30
  Speaker 57: I found that they received money from the Blue Hills
• 1:38:33
  Speaker 57: Civic Association and then sent money back to the Blue
• 1:38:37
  Speaker 57: Hills Civic Association as part of their grant writing program.
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 57: It makes zero sense to me why you would send
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 57: money to one nonprofit Then that nonprofit sends it to
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 57: another nonprofit, and then that nonprofit sends it right back again.
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 57: So you end up with this circular thing. Somebody's making
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 57: money in the meantime. The auditors found that the Prosperity
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 57: Foundation spent most of their money on consultants and advertising
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 57: and things like that. But there is a problem there.
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 57: There's no accountability through these third- and fourth-level partners that
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 57: state legislators are directing this money to go to.
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: Now, something that has been talked about for quite some time,
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: and I go back, shout out to Senator John McKinney,
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 1: who led this effort when he was the Senate Republican leader,
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: and something that Ben Candelora and House Republicans like Greg Howard,
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: who was just on with me, have taken up as well.
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: The need for oversight, right? The need for an inspector
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: general so that when we have these audits and these
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: things come to the table— that there is some enforcement,
• 1:39:51
  Speaker 1: that there is some accountability, because what's lacking here is
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: the state isn't really investigating itself, right? And it's certainly
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: not holding itself accountable. And I know that, you know,
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 1: we have the government oversight committee in the legislature, but
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: even that has struggled to find its footing, I think,
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: in these circumstances. And you have written... a lot about
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 1: these issues, whether it's Pura in particular, and obviously all
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: these audits and all of these financial issues. I mean,
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: is this something where there is— what happens now? We have
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: the audit. I mean, is anything going to happen? Is
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: the legislature, from your perspective, have you talked to leaders?
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: Are they going to do anything about this?
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 57: So they did a small thing about this last year.
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 57: They did, in response to this issue, pass a little
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 57: bit more, they increased the requirements that a nonprofit needs
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 57: to meet in order to receive a legislative earmark. But
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 57: it really, it kind of, you know, it's like, oh,
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 57: you have to submit, you know, quarterly reports to, you know,
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 57: OPM and things like that. It really kind of fell short.
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 57: I mean, the Republicans really Right, I.
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: Was just going to say, and what passed was passed
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 1: begrudgingly by the majority party, the Democrats, and it was
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: really at the incessant insistence of Vin Candelora and House
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 1: Republicans and Senate Republicans with Steve Harding saying, this needs
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: to get done.
• 1:41:32
  Speaker 57: Yeah, but they stripped out some of the strongest measures,
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 57: which would have been like, hey, you have to say
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 57: which legislator put this in. And I think that's kind
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 57: of important, too, because one of the things that we
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 57: found was one of the legislative earmarks to a nonprofit,
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 57: that nonprofit was owned by the sister of a sitting lawmaker.
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 57: It's kind of hard to make this stuff up, but
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 57: I think that's kind of a basic thing that should
• 1:41:59
  Speaker 57: be in there. The other thing that they kind of
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 57: wanted was background checks. When it came to Shiva... You know,
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 57: I did a full national background check on the owner,
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 57: and there was a history there. And, you know, Republicans
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 57: wanted background checks put in, especially for new organizations. That
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 57: got stripped out as well.
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 30: So when you talk about.
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 57: The Government Oversight Committee, that usually looks at, like, what
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 57: state-directed audits have uncovered. But also you're talking about a
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 57: committee that's going to be run by the majority party,
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 57: And if something is going to be embarrassing or damaging
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 57: to them politically, what are the chances they're really going
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 57: to take.
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 37: It up in earnest?
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: And correct me if I'm wrong, do they have subpoena power,
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: that committee?
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 57: I don't remember. The problem is they haven't really done
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 57: a whole lot. So I haven't had much reason to
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 57: even report on them yet.
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's a report in and of itself, perhaps.
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 6: No.
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 57: Hey, you know what?
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 30: Yeah.
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 57: You actually just gave me something of what have you.
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: What have you done for me lately?
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 14: Exactly.
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 1: I mean, I guess the other question, too, is, you know,
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: is this an isolated incident or or do you think
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: that this is more pervasive?
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 16: Right.
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: Is is this something that is is unique to this
• 1:43:23
  Speaker 1: Blue Hills Association or is this something that's broader?
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 57: No, I think this is absolutely broader. I mean, we've
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 57: seen this trouble before. Just last year, again, the nonprofit
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 57: New Opportunities, Inc. in Waterbury, this nonprofit was in charge
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 57: of distributing heating oil assistance to poor people, and they
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 57: got millions of dollars to do it. And what they
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 57: ended up doing is taking those millions of dollars, using
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 57: it for their own administrative costs, And they ended up
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 57: not being able to pay for the fuel for the
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 57: poor people. And I reported on this. It ended up
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 57: being $ 3 million that they just kind of used on
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 57: themselves that didn't actually go towards the home heating oil
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 57: assistance that they were supposed to give. This had been
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 57: a long time coming, too, because I went back through
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 57: their audit reports going back years, and the auditors were
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 57: continually warning, this isn't working. You are using your money.
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 57: for the wrong purposes, and it just got ignored at
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 57: OPM until it finally blew up in their faces. And
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 57: here's the thing. It's the second time that it's happened
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 57: with that same nonprofit. Back in 2016, the same thing
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 57: happened with, I think it was like $ 7 million back then,
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 57: or $ 4 million. It was even more. And still, the
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 57: state continued to contract with them. We still have a
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 57: sitting $ 75 million contract with them to distribute this home
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 57: heating oil. when twice now they've used that money to
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 57: pay themselves and not help the people that it was
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 57: supposed to help. So I do think that this is pervasive.
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 57: It comes up continually. I think ARPA had a lot
• 1:45:10
  Speaker 57: to do with the way some of this stuff happened,
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 57: because all of a sudden these nonprofits that nobody had
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 57: ever even heard of got flush with cash. But, yeah,
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 57: I think this is a pervasive problem in the state,
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 57: and I think there's just a limited desire to actually
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 57: do anything about it.
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: Well, I was just going to say, what happens next?
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: Where do we go from here? Because you're drawing attention
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: to it very gratefully, and I don't want to speak
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: for everybody listening, but I personally am incredibly grateful that
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: you're bringing light to these issues. So in your view,
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: where do we go from here? What happens next?
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 57: Jeez, I don't know. I mean, you know, for me, it's,
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 57: you know— open season, you know, I get to look
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 57: at all this stuff and it gives me good work.
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 57: But where do we go from here? I mean, you know,
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 57: like I said, they got that limited, you know, legislation passed.
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 57: I don't know how many more embarrassments it's going to
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 57: take for the state to actually, like, step up and
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 57: say we need to have real controls here. But, you know,
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 57: if that's what it's going to take, I'll keep looking and,
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 57: you know, Keep trying to find the mistakes.
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: Well, can you tell everybody where they can find your stuff?
• 1:46:20
  Speaker 57: Oh, absolutely. Come to insideinvestigator.org, www.insideinvestigator.org, and sign up for
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 57: our newsletter. We only do two emails a month, two
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 57: emails a week, so it's not like we're spamming your
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 57: inbox constantly. But no paywall. We are a nonprofit, except
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 57: we don't receive any government money. We're all donor-supported.
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 30: So we have to go out.
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 57: And earn it.
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that.
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 57: Come see us at InsideInvestigator.org.
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough for being with us. And
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: I want to leave with one thing that I think
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: is really important. And this has been a guiding principle
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 1: for me in this business for as many years as
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: I've been lucky to be a part of it. And
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: it's a quote from Jody Rell from her inaugural address.
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 1: From this day forward, if you are entrusted with public office,
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: you will uphold the highest standards of public integrity and
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 1: ethical justice. principles. And man, do we need that reminder today,
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 1: seemingly more than ever, after hearing what Mark has to say.
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: So thank you, Mark. I can't thank you enough for
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: being here and helping us all know a little bit
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: more about what's hiding in the shadows up in Hartford.
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 12: Well, thank you, Liz.
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 57: I appreciate you having us on.
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you soon. Thank you, everybody. This is
• 1:47:36
  Speaker 1: Liz Karantowicz on 94.9 News Now, Stimulating Talk. And when
• 1:47:40
  Speaker 1: we come back... Costa La Vista, baby. We're talking about,
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: of course, fugitive, on the run, Costa Diamantis. We're going
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 1: to hear from Mike Cerulli, the intrepid reporter who tracked
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 1: him down, and hear more about the story and Mike's
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: perspective on it. So don't go away. Thank you, everybody.
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 30: On 94.9 News Now.
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 28: Any slime lane restrictions have been lifted. I-95 southbound, exit
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 28: 73 after an earlier crash.
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 27: In old line.
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 28: Road construction, I-95 southbound, exit 70 to exit 69.
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 27: The right lane is closed.
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 28: Heading over the Gold Star Bridge, Road Construction, stop.
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  Speaker 37: And go traffic as well.
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  Speaker 28: Route 12 is stop and go.
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 27: In both directions in Groton. Route 32, stop and go
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 27: in both directions just past Connecticut College. Also slow southbound
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 27: in Quaker Hill.
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 37: No delays on I-395.
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 27: I'm Eddie Schaefer, Time Saver Traffic.
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 43: Whaling city ford needs 50 pre-owned vehicles and yours could
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 43: be one of them right.
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  Speaker 31: Now we're actively buying cars trucks and suvs all makes
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  Speaker 31: and models paid off still financed.
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  Speaker 15: No problem bring your vehicle to.
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  Speaker 43: an aggressive purchase.
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  Speaker 14: Offer sell it to us outright trade towards a new ford.
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  Speaker 31: Or trade into another pre-owned vehicle and And remember, you
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 31: do not have to buy from us for us to
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 31: buy from you.
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  Speaker 19: We need 50 vehicles.
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  Speaker 14: Will yours be one of them?
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  Speaker 31: And don't forget, Whaling City Service has convenient pick-up and
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• 1:50:26
  Speaker 23: Come spend a beautiful autumn weekend in South County, Rhode Island,
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 23: where the inviting landscape and sensational coastline will provide you
• 1:50:33
  Speaker 23: with real-life peacefulness and relaxation. You're invited to come smell
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 23: the salt air. Feel the sand beneath your feet and
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• 1:50:53
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• 1:51:11
  Speaker 55: We've been telling you for years you buy better at Burns,
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  Speaker 19: Bye.
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 30: Bye.
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 1: I guess summer really is over, isn't it?
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 26: True.
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 33: But fall is my favorite.
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 21: Pumpkins, mums, and gourds galore.
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 33: We do also have some beautiful fresh plants to spruce
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 33: up your garden.
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 55: And loads of different pumpkins and decor to make your
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 55: home look so festive. Let's not forget about the fresh
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 55: fall produce that's still coming over.
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 12: From the farm daily.
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 24: And apples, apples, apples.
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 33: So come see us in Niantic, where fall fun is everywhere.
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 37: Fall is fabulous at Smith's Acres.
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 24: Check out smithsacres.com for info, events, and all the season's best.
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  Speaker 33: Got extra weight that you just dread?
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 1: GLP-1 can help you shed.
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  Speaker 33: Oh, Zemp it, we're going Monjaro 2.
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  Speaker 1: Look at you, you're almost brand new.
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  Speaker 33: But wait, there's more.
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  Speaker 21: There's something you'll find.
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  Speaker 41: You might look better, but you're going blind.
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  Speaker 37: When's the weight look great?
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  Speaker 22: Just squint and get new.
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  Speaker 26: Broadcasting live from the Bruce Delon View at GMC Studios.
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  Speaker 19: WJJF. Montauk.
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  Speaker 14: Ledger.
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 11: Mystic.
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 19: Norwich. 94.9 News Now.
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 15: They have a lot to talk about. I'm Dave Anthony,
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 15: Fox News.
• 1:53:17
  Speaker 4: That is going to be extended until January 10th to
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 4: give us more time to see what we can do
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 4: on the economic front.
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 46: And Fox's Peter Doocy reports from the White House there's
• 1:53:25
  Speaker 46: tension on other issues, too.
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 58: When it comes to Taiwan, which the United States has
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 58: a strategically ambiguous policy towards but might defend in the
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 58: event of a Chinese invasion, she says Taiwan is the
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 58: core of his core interests when it comes to democracy
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 58: and human rights.
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 19: She is saying that.
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 58: China's political system and human rights record cannot be challenged.
• 1:53:48
  Speaker 46: Artificial intelligence will also be on the agenda as the
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 46: two countries race for dominance, developing AI. Republican Senator Steve
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 46: Daines tells the Fox News Rundown podcast.
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 56: We lead right now in terms of capabilities on these
• 1:53:58
  Speaker 56: frontier models.
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 15: But what we're behind is.
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 56: In adoption of AI. We're ranked 24th by Stanford. China's
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 56: ranked second behind the UAE. So this is all about
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 56: ensuring that we have the right kind of guardrails in place,
• 1:54:13
  Speaker 56: but not inhibiting innovation.
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 46: Adding to the worry of AI doing things on its own,
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 46: Australia's prime minister is critical of open AI after one
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 46: of the company's artificial agents hacked into Australia's government health
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 46: care portal. Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will speak at
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 46: the UN today discussing.
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 15: The Iran conflict and Gaza.
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 46: Where he's accused of genocide and the deaths of Palestinians
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 46: in Israel's war against Hamas. Before leaving for New York,
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 46: Netanyahu said in a video he will.
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 58: Defend the state of Israel and IDF soldiers from the
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 58: podium of the United Nations.
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 26: You hear the terrible lies being spread there and elsewhere
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 26: around the world.
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 46: The day after Ukraine's president urged world leaders in his
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 46: speech at the UN to put more sanctions on Russia,
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 46: a new Russian bombardment on Ukraine overnight left at least
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 46: eight civilians dead. America's listening to Fox News.
• 1:54:57
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  Speaker 36: It's Hugh Hewitt here with Ken and Nick Tumalo, hosts
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 36: of Tumalo Financial Radio, Sundays on 94.9. Guys, why do
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  Speaker 59: Because the tax code is so complicated. You look at it,
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  Speaker 59: these things and you're probably already confused. That's why you
• 1:56:22
  Speaker 59: want to build out that two-month retirement checkup to see short,
• 1:56:25
  Speaker 59: first long-term effects on these type of things.
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 38: Because you never know.
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 59: You might have been saving well in those 401ks and
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 59: you might have a required minimum distribution issue at 73
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 59: or 75, depending on your birth. So you really don't
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 59: want to look at it just on a one-year basis.
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 59: Oh yeah, I'm going to do a Roth conversion this year.
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 59: It's going to take care of everything.
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 30: No.
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 59: Planning takes year over year on tax planning. You can't
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 59: just do it in one year.
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 60: One of the biggest things that we did find with
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 60: tax planning, especially for our listeners, was that it has
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 60: to be done over multiple years to actually gain an advantage.
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 60: So it's not that simple where you just make one
• 1:56:58
  Speaker 60: change in one year. A lot of times it's the
• 1:57:00
  Speaker 60: planning piece of it. And when we do our two
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 60: more financial retirement checkup, it actually looks like a big
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 60: spreadsheet and it shows the numbers over a whole bunch
• 1:57:07
  Speaker 60: of years. We like to go out 24, even 30
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 60: years at times when we're projecting out, because if we
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 60: can pick up on some of these tax things and
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 60: then start to implement strategies, then what we can do
• 1:57:17
  Speaker 60: is put in front of you, the listeners, we can
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 60: put in front of them where they would save money
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 60: in taxes and how much over time. So it starts
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 60: with that Tumor Financial Retirement Checkup, our number, 860-854-3434.
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 10: Again, 860-854-3434.
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 60: Or visit us online at tfcheckup.com.
• 1:57:34
  Speaker 36: At Tumalo Financial, they have just one job, and that's
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 36: to help you get retirement ready. 860-854-3434 or visit tfcheckup.com.
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 26: Investment advisory services offered through Tumalo Wealth Management.
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 19: An SEC-registered investment advisor.
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 24: Insurance services offered through Tumalo Financial, licensed in Connecticut. Hunters,
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 24: it's that time of year again. If you're getting ready
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 24: for hunting season, Paul and the crew at Firearms, LLC,
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 24: and Gunton want you to stop in and take a
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 24: look around. They've got plenty of great deals throughout the store,
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 24: plus the hunting gear and accessories you'll want to have
• 1:58:08
  Speaker 24: before you head out. with new inventory coming in every.
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 19: Day so stop in and see what's new and if
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 19: you're not sure what you need just ask.
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 24: They're happy to help you get prepared with special orders
• 1:58:17
  Speaker 24: welcome to firearms llc on payne street in grunton 10 years.
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 19: In business firearms llc.com.
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 38: Good morning, I'm Sean Murphy.
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 37: Partly cloudy skies today with a high in the 60s.
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 9: A Colchester driving instructor at York Correctional Institution faces a
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 9: fourth degree sexual assault charge.
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 38: After an inmate accused him of inappropriate touching.
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 9: 48-year-old Eduardo Luis Cruz denies the allegations and is due
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 9: in court October 5th. Cross Sound Ferry has canceled several
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 9: Thursday auto ferry trips between New London and Orient Point
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 9: because of expected weather and sea conditions. Seven departures from
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 9: New London and eight from Orient Point are affected. Waterford
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 9: First Selectman Rob Brule has asked the state to transfer
• 1:59:07
  Speaker 9: land for a road connecting the former Crystal Mall to
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 9: Parkway North.
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 38: He says a second entrance... could ease traffic.
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 9: As Electric Boat prepares to move 4,000 to 5,000 employees.
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 38: To the property. The State Department of Transportation is reviewing
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 38: the request.
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 9: The Connecticut Department of Transportation will hold an open house
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 9: on its proposed 2027 and 2030 State Rail Plan on Tuesday,
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 9: September 29th from 4.45 to 6.45 p.m.
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 38: At the Public Library of New London.
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 9: Residents can share feedback on the future of passenger and
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 9: freight rail services. Block Island ferry has canceled all high-speed
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 9: trips Thursday because.
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 19: Of rough seas.
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 9: The 815 traditional ferry from Block Island and the 830
• 1:59:53
  Speaker 9: departure from Point Judith are also canceled. Later trips remain uncertain.
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 9: The operator says it will issue an update by 9 a.m.
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 9: I'm Sean Murphy. When news breaks, we break in.
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 44: The Jens Moore Oil and Bugbee Plumbing Seat of Honor.
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 42: Welcome back and good morning. It is 8.07 and it
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 42: is sunny outside in nice Connecticut. And I would like
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 42: to welcome back my mom, Liz Karanowitz, founder of the
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 42: Drury Group.
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 1: Ooh, we're getting a little more spiced in every time.
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: She's getting really comfortable.
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 42: And we're on channel 94.9 on the Lee LC Show,
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 42: the voice of freedom.
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 1: That's right. She's getting it all going. Well, thank you,
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: Frances Jean Karantowicz, for the introduction.
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 42: Thank you, Liz.
• 2:00:47
  Speaker 1: She's enjoying that, too. I'm Liz Karantowicz. This is 94.9
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: News Now, Stimulating Talk Radio. I'm filling in for the
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 1: voice of freedom, the great Lee Elsie. And I am
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 1: very excited to have on as a guest in this
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 1: half hour, Mike Cerulli. Chief Political Correspondent for WTNH Channel 8.
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Mike.
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 13: Good morning.
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 30: How are you?
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: I'm well. Frankie was very excited that you would be
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 1: joining us today over the radio.
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 30: Frankie has a promising career in broadcasting ahead of her,
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 30: I think.
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 1: I would tend to agree. Nobody knows that more than you.
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 42: I've got to make a debut on the Channel 8 show.
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 1: Oh, now she's putting a plug in for Tom. I
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 1: hope he's listening.
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 10: Graz?
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: Aspiring TV star here. Mike, I mean, I think the
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: story of the season, at least September in my view,
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: has been the fugitive on the run, Costa Diamantis. And
• 2:01:53
  Speaker 1: when we're having the conversation, obviously, I wanted you to
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 1: kind of walk us through what you know and your experience.
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 1: And I mean, you got an on-camera interview. It seems
• 2:02:06
  Speaker 1: very strange to me that someone who is a fugitive
• 2:02:10
  Speaker 1: is doing as much media as he's doing, and I'm
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: trying to make sense of it. And I don't know
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: from your conversations with him over the course of the
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 1: last week, what's your sense here? What's going on? It
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 1: makes no sense to me.
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 19: Definitely.
• 2:02:26
  Speaker 30: I mean, I've had a lot of people say this
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 30: to me about if he's on the run, if he's
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 30: been hiding from the federal government. Why would he be
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 30: doing all these media interviews? And one of the reasons
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 30: for that can be found in, if we take at
• 2:02:38
  Speaker 30: face value what the federal government has said, which is
• 2:02:40
  Speaker 30: that they believe he successfully got out of the country,
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 30: got over to Europe, his defense attorney says he's in Greece.
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 30: Costa de Montes himself says he's in Greece. He's a
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 30: Greek dual citizen. We understand he might have some property
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 30: or some extended family and friends in Greece. And what
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 30: he also has in Greece, if he is indeed there,
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 30: which I have no reason to believe he's not, is
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 30: he has this protection there that the Greek government for
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 30: a very long time has always, in many or most cases,
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 30: refused to extradite its own citizens. It's exceedingly difficult to
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 30: get the Greek government to extradite its own citizens. So
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 30: he believes that based on that longstanding Greek principle that
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 30: they hold on to their own citizens, that he's basically
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 30: untouchable there. That's what he believes, right? So if you
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 30: believe you're untouchable, if you believe you're out of the
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 30: reach of the long arm of the federal government of
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 30: the United States... And you also happen to believe a
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 30: gigantic conspiracy theory has been executed against you. I think
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 30: it would make sense to do a lot of these interviews.
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 30: So it's difficult to do sometimes, but you've got to
• 2:03:42
  Speaker 30: try to put yourself in the mindset of someone like
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 30: Costa Diamantis. I do not get the sense that he is, like,
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 30: putting on an act. I think he genuinely believes what
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 30: he says. I think he genuinely believes this plot has
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 30: been orchestrated against him. And, you know, I've... I asked
• 2:03:59
  Speaker 30: him a few times during that interview for direct evidence
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 30: for him to kind of show the goods. He was
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 30: not able to provide that, so people can assess that
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 30: how they want to. But, you know, he's defiant, wants
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 30: a pardon from the president, and wants people, it seems,
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 30: to believe that he's innocent and the victim in this situation, which, again,
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 30: folks can make of that what they want to.
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 1: Well, I guess, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong,
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: but he's convicted, correct?
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 30: Correct. Yes, convicted on 21 counts late last year.
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: And he had an opportunity to plead his innocence, correct?
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 30: He did, yeah. He testified in his own defense, more
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 30: or less. I mean, it was more specific to the charges, right?
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 30: He was not, they did not present this quote-unquote grand
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 30: conspiracy argument at trial. What he said at trial in
• 2:04:49
  Speaker 30: his testimony was, hey, all that cash I took at
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 30: Capitol Grill, at Dunkin' Donuts, all those things, Text message
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 30: I sent demanding money, threatening contractors. Those weren't bribes. That
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 30: wasn't extortion. And the jury didn't buy that.
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 1: And so this idea in this narrative that he's trying
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 1: to put forward that somehow he's wrong. I mean, he's
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: the victim in this situation. It really doesn't hold water
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: in any way, shape or form. He's convicted. He had
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to plead his innocence. And frankly, from a
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: media PR perspective, if he wanted to sort of use
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 1: this conspiracy theory as an alternative, he could have done
• 2:05:38
  Speaker 1: it then.
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 30: He could have. And I think it's also important to
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 30: note one of the things he just straight up said
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 30: to me in our interview, because, of course, I wanted
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 30: to know, you know, why did you choose to flee?
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 30: the first thing he said was, well, I want to
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 30: get my story or my version of events or my
• 2:05:54
  Speaker 30: narrative out there. And the second thing he said pretty explicitly,
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 30: I mean, in very stark terms, was I didn't think
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 30: they were going to let me out on bond pending
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 30: my appeal. So, again, probably the Occam's razor of legal
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 30: analysis here, but the guy convicted on 21 charges flees
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 30: to a foreign country. What does Occam's razor tell us
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 30: about that person's Guilt or innocence.
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 1: Well, I guess the other thing, too, is can you
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: give us a little sense of what his conspiracy theory
• 2:06:28
  Speaker 1: is for people who haven't kept up on it, what
• 2:06:30
  Speaker 1: he's sort of pushing out there as what's actually happening? Again,
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: these are his version of events.
• 2:06:38
  Speaker 30: It's important to remember kind of when we in the
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 30: public began to learn about the Costa de Montes investigation.
• 2:06:45
  Speaker 30: It was right around... That period of time coming out
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 30: of the pandemic, the FBI, as far as we know,
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 30: was taking a look at a lot of different state spending,
• 2:06:56
  Speaker 30: some of it related to COVID funds that the state
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 30: had got from the federal government. It was kind of
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 30: this wave of investigations that were taking place in Connecticut.
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 30: And Costa de Montes believes that during that time, and
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 30: folks will remember this because This show has talked a
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 30: lot about this issue, which is when the governor came
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 30: under scrutiny when he was running for re-election the first time.
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 30: He came under scrutiny for that investment his wife's investment
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 30: firm had made in Semaphore. Constantine Montes believes when that
• 2:07:22
  Speaker 30: was happening, the governor's people kind of all got together
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 30: and said, oh boy, we don't like these questions being
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 30: asked about Semaphore. Maybe we try to distract attention of
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 30: the federal government, of the public. And then he believes
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 30: that for a variety of reasons, including personal disagreements and
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 30: personal kind of animosity, he was chosen as like the scapegoat,
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 30: and that people in the governor's orbit who happen to
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 30: have some personal connections, the folks who have worked or
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 30: did work at the time for the federal government, that
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 30: they served him up on a platter to the FBI. Again,
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 30: I have asked the multiple times, can you provide evidence
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 30: of this? Aside from the fact that in government sometimes
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 30: people tend to be married to each other or friends
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 30: with each other or go to the same dinner parties,
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 30: he does not have the direct evidence, or at least
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 30: hasn't provided the direct evidence of it. And, you know,
• 2:08:16
  Speaker 30: when the FBI started looking into him, they found all
• 2:08:19
  Speaker 30: these cash payments, and they found all of these witnesses
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 30: and co-conspirators who pled guilty and testified that they bribed
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 30: and were extorted by this guy. So, again, people can assess.
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 30: I'm not telling anybody what to think about this. They
• 2:08:33
  Speaker 30: can assess this theory for themselves, but that's basically the
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 30: crux of it.
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: Well, but correct me if I'm wrong, but Diamantis, his
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 1: issues go back to when Dan Malloy was governor, correct?
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 30: Yeah. I mean, this conduct that he has been convicted
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 30: for It goes back to before Ned Lamont was governor.
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 30: And again, you know, I was talking to someone, and
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 30: this is their words. They said, well, if Costa's right
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 30: and there was a big conspiracy orchestrated against him, isn't
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 30: it convenient that they chose to scapegoat a guy who
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 30: was actually taking bribes?
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 56: Right.
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, so it's almost like he's not disputing the facts.
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: He's disputing the fact that he was sold out, like
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 1: somebody ratted on him.
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 30: Well, he actually doesn't even dispute the fact that he
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 30: took money. He just says that the money was for
• 2:09:22
  Speaker 30: other things. He says it was for introductions to other construction,
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 30: sort of business finder fees and legal work. And, again,
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 30: asked at trial to provide evidence of that, up to
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 30: and including calling in one of the executives at this
• 2:09:36
  Speaker 30: other construction company and asking him, hey, did you– did
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 30: Costa Diamantis make a business introduction with you and get
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 30: this finder's fee? The guy said, I don't have any
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 30: memory of that. So– Yeah, there's kind of everything he
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 30: says you could refer back to a moment of the
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 30: trial or a piece of evidence or a piece of testimony,
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 30: and he kind of finds himself refuted at sort of
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 30: every corner.
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I just struggle to sort of... I mean,
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 1: he had a trial. He was convicted, had every opportunity
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 1: to present a defense and to put these narratives out there.
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 1: And the fact is, it seems like, from your reporting...
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: He's not disputing the facts. He's he's blaming others for
• 2:10:22
  Speaker 1: bringing it to light. And we just had Mark Fitch
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 1: on talking about, you know, the Blue Hills Association issues
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 1: and and Senator McCrory. And I mean, are we are
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 1: we to believe that we're not supposed to look at
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: the outcomes of these issues? We're just supposed to be
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: concerned about how they come to light. Is that Costa's? perspective?
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 30: I mean, again, he believes the outcome was rigged too.
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 30: He's kind of one of those people that believes everyone
• 2:10:54
  Speaker 30: involved in this situation except for him is crooked or corrupt.
• 2:10:59
  Speaker 30: And he believes that, again, he believes the conduct itself
• 2:11:03
  Speaker 30: was okay. Like, he's not saying they singled me out
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 30: and happened to catch me doing something wrong. He's actually
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 30: saying they singled me out and what I was doing
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 30: was completely above board. And it's It's really striking to
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 30: hear him say that, particularly against the weight of evidence
• 2:11:20
  Speaker 30: that we saw at trial. I mean, I sat in
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 30: that courtroom and listened from their lips to my ears,
• 2:11:26
  Speaker 30: these witnesses, government witnesses, to be fair, saying, yes, I
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 30: felt threatened by this guy. He texted me, and they
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 30: put the text up on the screen, and said, if
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 30: you don't give me $ 40, 000 by this day, I'm going
• 2:11:38
  Speaker 30: to find a new mason. This is a masonry company
• 2:11:41
  Speaker 30: that was working on a school project. And you listen
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 30: to these guys say... Yes, we interpreted this as him
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 30: threatening to take us off the project once we gave
• 2:11:50
  Speaker 30: him $ 40, 000. And, of course, they ended up delivering on
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 30: that money. And then they call up the bank records
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 30: and they show, yep, he deposited that much cash into
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 30: his bank account.
• 2:12:03
  Speaker 1: In terms of him fleeing, right, fleeing the country, and
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 1: you really spent quite a bit of time from our
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 1: conversations here, in understanding his movements and and how we
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: got there can you make sense for all of us
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: how that happened.
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 30: Yeah i mean you have to start with the final
• 2:12:23
  Speaker 30: kind of actions in federal court after the trial was
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 30: over after he was convicted when of course folks who
• 2:12:30
  Speaker 30: watch like law and order whatever um they'll know that
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 30: one of the things that happens after you're convicted is
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 30: you get your conditions of release and your conditions of
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 30: release can include an ankle bracelet, a check-in with a
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 30: probation officer, maybe drug testing, maybe your conditions of release
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 30: are known, and you get remanded into custody, you stay
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 30: in jail until you're sentencing. What happened to Costa de
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 30: Montes after he was convicted is the judge basically said, okay,
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 30: do you have a Greek passport? You have an American
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 30: passport that's been surrendered to the authorities. Do you have
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 30: a Greek passport? Costa de Montes says, I do, but
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 30: it's in Greece in order to facilitate a property transfer.
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 30: His father had passed away, and he wanted to He
• 2:13:09
  Speaker 30: had left Costa, I suppose, a piece of property. And
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 30: the judge says, okay, would you be able to get
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 30: that back to the court if you were asked? He goes, yeah,
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 30: you know, I'd never disobey the court. And they go
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 30: through a few other kind of clerical things, you know,
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 30: the bond and all that. And he is released. There's
• 2:13:27
  Speaker 30: no GPS monitoring. There's no ankle bracelet. It doesn't seem
• 2:13:31
  Speaker 30: like anybody tracked down his Greek passport. And.
• 2:13:37
  Speaker 30: Sometime in the last, I understand, at some time in
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 30: the last few weeks, he is able to leave Connecticut,
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 30: get down to Florida, get over to the Bahamas, get
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 30: to kind of the main island in the chain there,
• 2:13:49
  Speaker 30: and fly from there to London, and then London on
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 30: to the European Union, where he's, you know, a dual
• 2:13:54
  Speaker 30: citizen of one of the member states. So there's relatively
• 2:13:57
  Speaker 30: free movement once he's on, you know, not just the
• 2:14:01
  Speaker 30: continent of Europe, but the EU itself. So, That's what
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 30: we understand. And, you know, once you are out of–
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 30: I think once you realize that the flight from the
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 30: Bahamas to London didn't trigger any alerts that the United
• 2:14:13
  Speaker 30: States had in place, he's pretty much, you know, he's
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 30: pretty much free at that point.
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 1: It's wild to hear it. And I think, you know,
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 1: from the perspective of the listener, I mean, is this
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 1: a prosecutor's Is this a judge issue? Is this a
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 1: collective issue? I mean, did the prosecutors ask for monitoring
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 1: and were they forceful in that? I mean, give us
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 1: a little bit more color on that, because to me,
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 1: that's where and we had this conversation on Friday. This
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: is where my mind goes.
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 25: Right.
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, we can have the conversations about the origin
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: story of his corruption going back, obviously, all the way
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 1: to the Malloy administration, straight through to his time in
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 1: the Lamont administration. And we can put blame and point
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 1: fingers on the core of how we ended up there.
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 1: But once convicted, in my mind, that becomes a federal
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 1: Department of Justice and judicial marshal issue and a judge issue.
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 1: Am I wrong in that sort of thinking?
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 30: So, yeah, the judge bears responsibility for setting the terms
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 30: of release. The prosecutors did bring up this whole Greek
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 30: passport issue and said so in a way that they
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 30: were hoping, I think, and I don't want to put
• 2:15:27
  Speaker 30: words or thoughts in there, head, but it sounded like
• 2:15:31
  Speaker 30: what I remember from this is almost a whole year
• 2:15:34
  Speaker 30: ago at this point, but from what I do remember
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 30: from being in there, they kind of brought it up
• 2:15:38
  Speaker 30: like they were saying, Judge, can you please issue some
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 30: sort of order about it? But yeah, I think to me,
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 30: and I will just like say, like, I'll bring up
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 30: another case of former State Senator Dennis Bradley.
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 1: That's where I was going. So I'm glad you brought
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 1: it up because now we've not done it once, but
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 1: we're doing it again.
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 30: We're doing it again, and, like, it's the same group
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 30: of people. It's a different judge, but it's the same
• 2:16:04
  Speaker 30: group of prosecutors. Literally, it's the same people. And, you know, again,
• 2:16:08
  Speaker 30: the judge bears responsibility for the conditions of release, but
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 30: you would think if you were a prosecutor you'd be
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 30: a bit embarrassed by what has just happened here. And
• 2:16:18
  Speaker 30: I think the FBI and the Federal Marshal Service did
• 2:16:20
  Speaker 30: a really fast job of figuring out what has happened
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 30: in this case. because there was none of that advanced monitoring, right?
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 30: It's not like the FBI and the federal marshals can
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 30: just go out and freelance and be like, well, let's
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 30: see where this guy, you know, before they are aware
• 2:16:35
  Speaker 30: of his flight from the country. So there's so many
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 30: open questions about this, right?
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 1: For the benefit of our listeners, I guess give a
• 2:16:44
  Speaker 1: little more background on the Dennis Bradley situation, because I'm
• 2:16:46
  Speaker 1: not sure everybody is aware of what that is.
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 30: So Dennis Bradley is a former Democratic state senator from Bridgeport,
• 2:16:52
  Speaker 30: sort of a rising star when he's elected. And a
• 2:16:56
  Speaker 30: number of years ago, it comes to light that he
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 30: used funds from his law firm to pay for a
• 2:17:04
  Speaker 30: campaign fundraiser. Now, in Connecticut, if you use our program
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 30: of government-funded campaigns, you are capped in terms of how
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 30: much of your own personal resources you can use. And
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 30: Dennis Bradley exceeded that limit. And the way he did
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 30: it in the eyes of the federal government made it
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 30: a federal crime, made it wire fraud. He was defrauding
• 2:17:21
  Speaker 30: in the federal government's view. the state election system. So
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 30: he's convicted. He's let out on bond. A judge tosses
• 2:17:31
  Speaker 30: a few of the convictions. Dennis Bradley's appealing it. And
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 30: he asks just a few days ago for permission to
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 30: fly to the Dominican Republic at the time of the future.
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 30: I forget if it was a matter of weeks or
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 30: months from now. But he has to fly there to
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 30: go to his brother's wedding. And the judge says yes. And,
• 2:17:47
  Speaker 30: you know, it's not the same judge, but it's the
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 30: same court districts and the same group of prosecutors that
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 30: just a few days before it had this problem. So
• 2:17:57
  Speaker 30: it's a similarly situated convict of someone who's been convicted
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 30: pending appeal, or pending an appeal, pending sentencing as well.
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 30: So it's really... I don't mind saying, and I think,
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 30: you know, there's like, you read that headline, and there
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 30: were certainly people I know who laughed and were like,
• 2:18:13
  Speaker 30: you've got to be kidding me, right? That this is,
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 30: we might be teeing this up again. Now, the Dominican
• 2:18:18
  Speaker 30: Republic has slightly more favorable extradition rules versus Greece as
• 2:18:24
  Speaker 30: it relates to the United States. So, you know, there's that.
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 30: But that is the situation there. And on top of
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 30: all this, I did a story, broke a story a
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 30: few weeks ago about a woman who said that Dennis Bradley...
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 30: while he's out waiting his sentencing, was going into apartments
• 2:18:42
  Speaker 30: and changing people's absentee ballot votes, opening up envelopes, changing
• 2:18:47
  Speaker 30: the votes from one candidate to another candidate who just
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 30: so happened to be his brother.
• 2:18:52
  Speaker 1: And there's video evidence of that. So he's not done
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 1: facing justice, I think, is the summary on that.
• 2:19:00
  Speaker 30: When you go back to the conditions of release thing,
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 30: one of the conditions of release is, hey, show up
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 30: for your sentencing hearing. Costa de Montes violated that. That's
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 30: a whole new federal felony. One of the other conditions
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 30: of release is don't commit any new crimes while you're
• 2:19:13
  Speaker 30: out awaiting sentencing. So if the reporting I did, if
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 30: the woman who gave me that video, if that's all credible,
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 30: then it would appear as though he's committed a state-level crime,
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 30: actually a few state-level crimes, if all that information is credible.
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 1: And you would think that would have had some bearing
• 2:19:30
  Speaker 1: on the judge's decision, but Neither here nor there. Mike,
• 2:19:35
  Speaker 1: thank you very much for your reporting and for joining
• 2:19:40
  Speaker 1: Frankie and me this morning. And I will see you
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 1: this weekend on Capitol Report. And everyone tune in on
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: WTNH Channel 8. Mike Cerulli, chief political correspondent for WTNH
• 2:19:54
  Speaker 1: Channel 8. Mike, thank you very much.
• 2:19:56
  Speaker 30: Thanks for having me.
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back. It's 94.9 News Now, Stimulating Talk.
• 2:19:58
  Speaker 1: Liz Karantowitz with Frankie Karantowitz. The voice of freedom.
• 2:20:00
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  Speaker 26: Traffic Alert on 94.9 News Now.
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  Speaker 27: Road construction in Old Lyme.
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 28: I-95 southbound exit 70 to exit 69.
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 27: The white lane is closed.
• 2:20:35
  Speaker 18: Heading over the Gold Star Bridge, there is road construction
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  Speaker 18: and slow traffic on I-95 northbound. Route 12 is stop
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  Speaker 18: and go northbound in Gwatton. Route 32, stop and go
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  Speaker 18: southbound at Connecticut College. Slow southbound in Quaker Hill and
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  Speaker 18: slow northbound in Montville. No delays on I-395. I'm Eddie Schaefer,
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  Speaker 18: TimeSaver Traffic.
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  Speaker 19: September is here.
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  Speaker 7: And Connecticut's number one fastest growing Mazda dealer is shifting
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  Speaker 19: Have we met yet?
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  Speaker 35: Hello, this is Richard Sosimo from Pasta Vida, the place
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  Speaker 13: This fall, is your truck ready to conquer the great outdoors?
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  Speaker 13: Head to Northeast Truck and Off-Road on Route 12 and
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  Speaker 8: Are you searching for hope, for truth, for something more?
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  Speaker 8: Arise and Shine Ministries is here to share the life-changing
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  Speaker 19: Right here on 94.9 News Now.
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 40: She and our nation's capital this time meeting President Trump.
• 2:23:36
  Speaker 47: There will be a military review at the Rose Garden.
• 2:23:39
  Speaker 6: The demonstrations are expected to close with a B-2 Spirit
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  Speaker 6: and four F-22 Raptors as the two leaders try to
• 2:23:45
  Speaker 6: stabilize a relationship that has at times been marked by tension.
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  Speaker 15: Fox's Madeline Rivera, but it's not all fun and games.
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  Speaker 58: She is a tough guy to deal with.
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  Speaker 19: He's here.
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  Speaker 58: There's a lot that President Trump wants to get done
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  Speaker 58: with him, but there is a lot that she is
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  Speaker 58: signaling he will not do. When it comes to Taiwan,
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 58: she says Taiwan is the core of his core interests.
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  Speaker 15: Fox's Peter Doocy at the White House.
• 2:24:11
  Speaker 40: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the U.N.
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 15: General Assembly.
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  Speaker 40: Expect to discuss the war in Iran and other topics.
• 2:24:18
  Speaker 40: America's listening to Fox News.
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  Speaker 9: Service after the sale it's important at any business but
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  Speaker 15: Price is always right. Work hard, save your money, then retire. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 8: While we all have different goals for the future, one
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• 2:26:31
  Speaker 45: Way more than fair market value for your clunker. And
• 2:26:34
  Speaker 45: a refreshing five-star car buying experience.
• 2:26:36
  Speaker 33: 452 Broad Street in New London.
• 2:26:39
  Speaker 45: Colonial-Hyundai.com or Colonial-Chevrolet.com.
• 2:26:43
  Speaker 14: Colonial Auto Group has got you.
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 45: Zero percent for Tier 1 credit.
• 2:26:48
  Speaker 33: Not everyone will qualify. Bank determines money down. Fair market
• 2:26:52
  Speaker 33: for your trade. See dealer for details.
• 2:26:54
  Speaker 37: Hey, everyone.
• 2:26:55
  Speaker 33: Samantha here with R & W Heating Energy Solutions.
• 2:26:59
  Speaker 14: Thinking about new equipment?
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 33: Whether you're looking to heat or cool your home, we've.
• 2:27:02
  Speaker 19: Got you covered.
• 2:27:03
  Speaker 23: With high-efficiency boilers, furnaces, and oil tanks, heat pumps, Fujitsu
• 2:27:08
  Speaker 23: ductless split heat pumps, and central air conditioning, R &
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 23: W has the technology to keep you.
• 2:27:13
  Speaker 33: And your home comfortable year-round.
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 55: Give our pros at R & W Heating Energy Solutions
• 2:27:18
  Speaker 55: a call to schedule your free estimate at 860-848-9993.
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 33: Looking for your next SUV or truck?
• 2:27:26
  Speaker 17: Head to Bruce Law Buick GMC on Route 1 in Stonington.
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 17: Choose from a huge selection of Buick Encores, Envisions, and
• 2:27:33
  Speaker 17: Enclaves with financing as low as 0.9% for qualified buyers.
• 2:27:38
  Speaker 33: Powerful GMC Sierra Trucks. with financing as low as 0%.
• 2:27:41
  Speaker 33: The savings are incredible.
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 17: Exceptional vehicles, incredible financing, and the hometown service you deserve.
• 2:27:47
  Speaker 33: Shop anytime at BruceLon.com. BruceLon, Route 1 in Stonington. A
• 2:27:52
  Speaker 33: better way to buy a Buick or GMC.
• 2:27:57
  Speaker 16: Good morning.
• 2:27:57
  Speaker 37: I'm Sean Murphy. Partly cloudy skies today with a high
• 2:28:00
  Speaker 37: in the 60s.
• 2:28:02
  Speaker 9: A Colchester driving instructor at York Correctional Institution faces a
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 9: fourth-degree sexual assault charge.
• 2:28:09
  Speaker 38: After an inmate accused him of inappropriate touching.
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 9: 48-year-old Eduardo Luis Cruz denies the allegations and is due
• 2:28:17
  Speaker 9: in court October 5th. Cross Sound Ferry has canceled several
• 2:28:20
  Speaker 9: Thursday auto ferry trips between New London and Orient Point
• 2:28:24
  Speaker 9: because of expected weather and sea conditions. Seven departures from
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 9: New London and eight from Orient Point are affected. Waterford
• 2:28:32
  Speaker 9: First Selectman Rob Brule has asked the state to transfer
• 2:28:35
  Speaker 9: land for a road connecting the former Crystal Mall to
• 2:28:38
  Speaker 9: Parkway North.
• 2:28:40
  Speaker 38: He says a second entrance... could ease traffic as.
• 2:28:43
  Speaker 9: Electric Boat prepares to move 4,000 to 5,000 employees to
• 2:28:46
  Speaker 9: the property. The State Department of Transportation is reviewing the request.
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 9: The Connecticut Department of Transportation will hold an open house
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 9: on its proposed 2027 and 2030 State Rail Plan on Tuesday,
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 9: September 29th.
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 19: From 4.45 to 6.45 p.m.
• 2:28:57
  Speaker 9: At the Public Library of New London. Residents can share
• 2:29:06
  Speaker 9: feedback on the future of passenger and freight rail service.
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 9: Block Island Ferry has canceled all high-speed trips Thursday because.
• 2:29:14
  Speaker 19: Of rough seas.
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 9: The 815 traditional ferry from Block Island and the 830
• 2:29:19
  Speaker 9: departure from Point Judith are also canceled. Later trips remain uncertain.
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 9: The operator says it will issue an update by 9 a.m.
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 9: I'm Sean Murphy. When news breaks, we break in.
• 2:29:39
  Speaker 11: Good morning and welcome.
• 2:30:02
  Speaker 42: I am on the Lee Elsie Show, the Voice of Freedom,
• 2:30:05
  Speaker 42: Channel 94.9 on Fox News. I am Frankie Karanowicz, helping
• 2:30:11
  Speaker 42: fill in for Lee Elsie. And beside me today, I
• 2:30:14
  Speaker 42: have Liz Karanowicz, a.k.a. my mom.
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 1: Hello.
• 2:30:18
  Speaker 12: Hello.
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 42: And then we are having a special guest today named
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 42: Representative Vin Candelora.
• 2:30:26
  Speaker 39: Welcome.
• 2:30:28
  Speaker 20: Thanks for having me. Good morning, Frankie.
• 2:30:30
  Speaker 1: Good morning. How about that, Vin? I mean, we couldn't
• 2:30:36
  Speaker 1: have scripted that one.
• 2:30:37
  Speaker 20: Absolutely not.
• 2:30:39
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much for joining us. As Frankie said
• 2:30:41
  Speaker 1: to me before you came on, we saved the best
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 1: for last. No offense to our previous guests.
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 20: Yeah, well, we know we have a special bond with
• 2:30:50
  Speaker 20: your children, certainly.
• 2:30:52
  Speaker 30: Yes, yes.
• 2:30:53
  Speaker 1: In fact, I think one of my favorite pictures is
• 2:30:54
  Speaker 1: Frankie with Speaker of the House Matt Ritter wearing your
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 1: campaign baseball jersey. And when she went in on her
• 2:31:05
  Speaker 1: school trip to see Governor Lamont, greeted him wearing your jersey,
• 2:31:10
  Speaker 1: and he said, whose kid is that? And I was like,
• 2:31:13
  Speaker 1: that's mine.
• 2:31:13
  Speaker 12: Of course.
• 2:31:16
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you for coming on. I mean, so we've
• 2:31:19
  Speaker 1: covered a lot today, and a lot of it has
• 2:31:21
  Speaker 1: to do with the substantive policy side on the corruption
• 2:31:27
  Speaker 1: issues that you have really led the charge on, whether
• 2:31:31
  Speaker 1: it's PURA, CSCU, you know, the earmark reform, the need
• 2:31:38
  Speaker 1: for an inspector general, and what are we doing with
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 1: audits and things like that. But I think... At its core,
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 1: the question comes back to it only matters if we
• 2:31:50
  Speaker 1: can get people elected who are going to hold accountable
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 1: our leaders in the Democrat Party.
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 12: Right.
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 1: We have a one party control state. And Greg Howard,
• 2:32:01
  Speaker 1: your colleague, talked a lot about that.
• 2:32:03
  Speaker 27: Right.
• 2:32:04
  Speaker 1: That the tolerance for this stuff. in Connecticut on the
• 2:32:10
  Speaker 1: part of the Democrats you know as long as it's
• 2:32:12
  Speaker 1: their own people doing it they don't mind so can
• 2:32:15
  Speaker 1: you just sort of give us your perspective here on
• 2:32:20
  Speaker 1: where we are in the campaign cycle are these issues
• 2:32:23
  Speaker 1: taking root you know we know affordability is the top
• 2:32:26
  Speaker 1: issue and you call it the misery index so fill
• 2:32:30
  Speaker 1: us in on on all that and and what we're
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 1: doing here Yeah, I.
• 2:32:34
  Speaker 20: Mean, I think what we're seeing in Connecticut is obviously
• 2:32:38
  Speaker 20: when you have a midterm with the party in power
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 20: at the federal level, there's usually headwinds for that same party. And,
• 2:32:46
  Speaker 20: you know, we have a similar situation from 2006. We
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 20: have a war overseas that's unpopular. We have gas prices
• 2:32:54
  Speaker 20: that are high. We have a Republican president and a
• 2:32:57
  Speaker 20: Republican Congress. And so that creates a headwind and a
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 20: challenge for us. What's interesting to me, and when I
• 2:33:04
  Speaker 20: hit the doors and talk with people, while they're frustrated
• 2:33:08
  Speaker 20: with gas prices, they're equally frustrated with the state of
• 2:33:13
  Speaker 20: Connecticut and the unaffordability of Connecticut. Democrats have been in
• 2:33:16
  Speaker 20: charge for almost 50 years now, and we still have
• 2:33:21
  Speaker 20: some of the most expensive costs of any state in
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 20: the country. So regardless of who is in the White House,
• 2:33:28
  Speaker 20: it seems that Connecticut could never get its affordability issue
• 2:33:32
  Speaker 20: under control, and I think it's really rearing its head.
• 2:33:34
  Speaker 20: And I think it's why Lamont's numbers are kind of soft.
• 2:33:39
  Speaker 20: We hear from people, I hear from people that say,
• 2:33:42
  Speaker 20: you know, I don't really want to support him again.
• 2:33:45
  Speaker 20: I want something different. And they're starting to look to
• 2:33:48
  Speaker 20: Ryan to see what answers he could give us. That's
• 2:33:52
  Speaker 20: where the misery index, I think, is high. People just
• 2:33:54
  Speaker 20: don't know where to go anymore in politics. And I
• 2:33:57
  Speaker 20: think it's imperative for Republicans, and we continue... to sort
• 2:34:00
  Speaker 20: of bang the gong on what the issues we should
• 2:34:03
  Speaker 20: be focusing on. Democrats have a real problem. We saw
• 2:34:07
  Speaker 20: in the primaries that they're moving towards socialism, just like
• 2:34:10
  Speaker 20: we're seeing it at the national level. They've got to
• 2:34:13
  Speaker 20: do some soul-searching and start standing up to their party
• 2:34:17
  Speaker 20: and principles that go against the Democrat Party, which they
• 2:34:20
  Speaker 20: never seem to do. They seem to become a very
• 2:34:23
  Speaker 20: populist organization that just says what people want to hear,
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 20: and that's why we have policies... where we're sort of
• 2:34:30
  Speaker 20: throwing money out the window and bragging about all the
• 2:34:33
  Speaker 20: programs we've created, people don't feel the benefit of those programs.
• 2:34:39
  Speaker 20: And by and large, I think that's why our middle
• 2:34:41
  Speaker 20: class is so miserable.
• 2:34:43
  Speaker 1: Well, and nowhere is there a greater example of that
• 2:34:46
  Speaker 1: public benefits charge, right? And I put that in air quotes,
• 2:34:50
  Speaker 1: when in fact, they're hidden taxes, right? They're Ned Lamont's
• 2:34:54
  Speaker 1: hidden taxes on your utility bills. And I think when,
• 2:34:58
  Speaker 1: you know, you've seen it in Ryan's ads, really honing
• 2:35:01
  Speaker 1: in on some of those costs. I know you and
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 1: your members and candidates for the legislature talk a little
• 2:35:08
  Speaker 1: bit about how that issue in particular is driving home
• 2:35:13
  Speaker 1: and the ability to give the voters and just the
• 2:35:18
  Speaker 1: public at large the idea that there is an actionable
• 2:35:21
  Speaker 1: item that will have an impact on lowering their costs.
• 2:35:24
  Speaker 1: Because I think that credibility factor is a big one.
• 2:35:27
  Speaker 1: We can put forward big ideas, but are they actionable,
• 2:35:30
  Speaker 1: and will it make a difference, and how long will
• 2:35:32
  Speaker 1: it take?
• 2:35:34
  Speaker 20: Yeah, I think there's twofold with the energy bill, and
• 2:35:37
  Speaker 20: I think there's a long-term approach and a short-term approach,
• 2:35:40
  Speaker 20: no question. And we're seeing some of those costs being
• 2:35:43
  Speaker 20: lowered right now in time for the election. But I
• 2:35:46
  Speaker 20: think there are short-term changes that we could do to
• 2:35:49
  Speaker 20: immediately lower electric bills. You know, that public benefits charge
• 2:35:53
  Speaker 20: that we've talked about, was always there, and it was
• 2:35:57
  Speaker 20: finally broken out on the bill so the voters could
• 2:36:00
  Speaker 20: see their electric bills and understand that there is a
• 2:36:04
  Speaker 20: hidden tax buried in that bill that upward could be
• 2:36:07
  Speaker 20: 30% of your electric bill. And a lot of the
• 2:36:11
  Speaker 20: stuff that lands in there are the social programs, the
• 2:36:14
  Speaker 20: solar programs, the charging stations for vehicles, anything on Democrats'
• 2:36:20
  Speaker 20: wish list, they shove into there, and you end up
• 2:36:23
  Speaker 20: paying for it. And so the programs could be suspended.
• 2:36:27
  Speaker 20: I think we had just spent last year $ 80 million
• 2:36:30
  Speaker 20: on charging stations that I'm not sure people are really
• 2:36:34
  Speaker 20: utilizing to the level that warrants even $ 80 million of spending,
• 2:36:40
  Speaker 20: not to mention the electric infrastructure. When we talk about
• 2:36:43
  Speaker 20: data centers, we really should be talking about electrification of
• 2:36:47
  Speaker 20: all these vehicles, including school buses. Do we have the
• 2:36:51
  Speaker 20: ability to do that? And yet, That program is spending
• 2:36:54
  Speaker 20: money before we do that analysis. So there's a lot
• 2:36:58
  Speaker 20: of those type of things that we could take right
• 2:37:00
  Speaker 20: off the bill immediately to lower people's rates. We have
• 2:37:04
  Speaker 20: a sales tax on electricity for all of our commercial businesses.
• 2:37:09
  Speaker 20: We should not be taxing electricity. That is absurd. And
• 2:37:12
  Speaker 20: all of those costs go right down to your bottom line.
• 2:37:15
  Speaker 20: When you go into a grocery store, you're not just
• 2:37:17
  Speaker 20: buying an apple or an orange. You're buying electric taxis.
• 2:37:23
  Speaker 20: that are put into that because the stores have to
• 2:37:26
  Speaker 20: pay that bill.
• 2:37:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's all inflationary, right? All of it. I mean,
• 2:37:31
  Speaker 1: you've got the utility sales tax. You've got the HUD tax.
• 2:37:34
  Speaker 1: You've got the tax on food. I mean, the contributing factor,
• 2:37:38
  Speaker 1: the indexed minimum wage. I mean, over and over and
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 1: over again, you've got examples where one-party control of our
• 2:37:47
  Speaker 1: state policies is has really made the misery index high.
• 2:37:53
  Speaker 1: So if all of those things are true, and we
• 2:37:57
  Speaker 1: know that people in Connecticut are exceptionally frustrated over cost
• 2:38:01
  Speaker 1: of living, utilities, health care, you name it, what do Democrats,
• 2:38:06
  Speaker 1: what are they saying when they go talk to voters,
• 2:38:08
  Speaker 1: when they're knocking on doors talking to people? Because, I mean,
• 2:38:11
  Speaker 1: based on what you and I know, there's not a
• 2:38:13
  Speaker 1: whole heck of a lot they can pat themselves on
• 2:38:15
  Speaker 1: the back for.
• 2:38:17
  Speaker 20: No, they're talking about Trump. I mean, they want to
• 2:38:19
  Speaker 20: blame everything on the federal level. And again, so we're
• 2:38:23
  Speaker 20: having to defend what is happening at the federal government.
• 2:38:26
  Speaker 20: They don't want to talk about the state issues. And
• 2:38:29
  Speaker 20: in part, they kind of can't because, you know, it
• 2:38:33
  Speaker 20: was amazing, astounding to me that they voted on another
• 2:38:37
  Speaker 20: electric bill proposal that would raise rates billions of dollars
• 2:38:42
  Speaker 20: into the future. Not only did they all vote for
• 2:38:44
  Speaker 20: that bill, They held a press conference in celebration of it.
• 2:38:49
  Speaker 20: So when those things are pointed out, it just shows
• 2:38:51
  Speaker 20: me that they aren't serious about actually addressing the middle class.
• 2:38:56
  Speaker 20: You know, I'll go back to the budget. They did
• 2:38:58
  Speaker 20: education funding reform, which Republicans, frankly, dragged them to the
• 2:39:03
  Speaker 20: table to pay attention to our small towns and even
• 2:39:07
  Speaker 20: big towns who aren't getting enough education funding. We are
• 2:39:11
  Speaker 20: seeing on a statewide level Board of Ed budgets are
• 2:39:15
  Speaker 20: failing across the board, not just in communities that traditionally
• 2:39:19
  Speaker 20: are conservative fiscally, but also like in a town of Guilford,
• 2:39:23
  Speaker 20: which I never saw a Board of Ed budget fail,
• 2:39:25
  Speaker 20: but it did. People can't afford to continue to pay
• 2:39:30
  Speaker 20: their property taxes, and so they're choosing to say we
• 2:39:33
  Speaker 20: cannot fund education. They're voting against their children and their
• 2:39:37
  Speaker 20: future's interests because the state of Connecticut hasn't kept up
• 2:39:41
  Speaker 20: with its obligation to fund public education. And the Democrats
• 2:39:47
  Speaker 20: still didn't put enough money into it and underfunded it.
• 2:39:49
  Speaker 20: Special education is underfunded. So more and more of the
• 2:39:53
  Speaker 20: property tax burden, it's all falling on the local communities,
• 2:39:57
  Speaker 20: and the property taxes continue to increase. Huge failure on
• 2:40:01
  Speaker 20: the Democrats. They've missed the mark. We've had hundreds of
• 2:40:04
  Speaker 20: millions of dollars of surpluses that I think Republicans would
• 2:40:08
  Speaker 20: have supported if diverting that money from the pensions and
• 2:40:11
  Speaker 20: putting it into property tax reform. And the Democrats just
• 2:40:15
  Speaker 20: missed that opportunity. So they really, they don't have a
• 2:40:18
  Speaker 20: lot to run on. I don't think they have their
• 2:40:20
  Speaker 20: finger on the pulse, partly also because they're not held accountable.
• 2:40:24
  Speaker 20: I mean, we have people committing crimes within these agencies
• 2:40:28
  Speaker 20: that we wait months to see if they're going to
• 2:40:31
  Speaker 20: be convicted and they flee over to another country when
• 2:40:34
  Speaker 20: they have to meet their accountability for their actions. So
• 2:40:38
  Speaker 20: I think that the Democrat Party isn't used to being
• 2:40:41
  Speaker 20: called out and isn't used to being held accountable. And
• 2:40:45
  Speaker 20: I'm hoping the voters pay attention to that and hold
• 2:40:47
  Speaker 20: them accountable in November.
• 2:40:49
  Speaker 1: Well, for folks out that are listening, I mean, obviously
• 2:40:53
  Speaker 1: a vested interest in better outcomes for the state, which
• 2:40:58
  Speaker 1: in my view, and I think we have a shared
• 2:40:59
  Speaker 1: view of this, means more Republicans in the state legislature.
• 2:41:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, how can the people who are listening... be
• 2:41:08
  Speaker 1: as productive and helpful as possible?
• 2:41:12
  Speaker 20: Well, I think people need to start focusing on the issue. So,
• 2:41:15
  Speaker 20: you know, if you live in a town with a
• 2:41:17
  Speaker 20: Republican incumbent, obviously you want to help them get reelected
• 2:41:21
  Speaker 20: and do anything you can to get them elected. If
• 2:41:25
  Speaker 20: there are challenges out there, you know, I would just
• 2:41:28
  Speaker 20: say challenge the Democrats. Don't let them get away with
• 2:41:31
  Speaker 20: saying that they're going to improve your life if they
• 2:41:33
  Speaker 20: haven't done anything to do that. You know, they haven't
• 2:41:37
  Speaker 20: voted to support more funding for education. They haven't voted
• 2:41:41
  Speaker 20: to reduce taxes in any significant way. The small tax
• 2:41:45
  Speaker 20: cut that Lamont and Republicans put through a few years
• 2:41:49
  Speaker 20: ago has already been eclipsed with inflation. So there is
• 2:41:54
  Speaker 20: a lot more work to do. And I think it's
• 2:41:56
  Speaker 20: imperative for people to start paying attention to state politics
• 2:42:01
  Speaker 20: and don't let them get away with just talking about
• 2:42:03
  Speaker 20: President Trump.
• 2:42:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that is obviously a big issue. I mean,
• 2:42:09
  Speaker 1: heading into, you know, let's forecast here, going into the
• 2:42:13
  Speaker 1: next legislative session, I mean, what are the priorities of
• 2:42:16
  Speaker 1: the candidates and the members in your caucus when they're
• 2:42:20
  Speaker 1: out talking to voters? What are the things that they're
• 2:42:23
  Speaker 1: communicating that they're going to do to make a change?
• 2:42:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, because, you know, just from my seat, Watching
• 2:42:31
  Speaker 1: all of this transpire over the last couple of years,
• 2:42:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, your caucus in particular has been on the
• 2:42:37
  Speaker 1: forefront of pushing back on these issues, presenting a budget,
• 2:42:42
  Speaker 1: offering alternatives to funding early childhood education. putting a property
• 2:42:48
  Speaker 1: tax proposal that was real on the table. You know,
• 2:42:55
  Speaker 1: the list goes on. Inspector General, accountability measures, right? The
• 2:42:59
  Speaker 1: list goes on and on. So we know your candidates
• 2:43:01
  Speaker 1: are out there with a lot to say and a
• 2:43:04
  Speaker 1: lot to offer. I mean, how is that working? And
• 2:43:08
  Speaker 1: what does it look like forecasting into the new session?
• 2:43:12
  Speaker 20: Yeah, I mean, we will continue to push for property
• 2:43:15
  Speaker 20: tax reform. We want to increase that property tax credit.
• 2:43:18
  Speaker 20: You know, under Governor Rell, it was a $ 500 credit.
• 2:43:22
  Speaker 20: It's been whittled down almost to zero under Democrat governors.
• 2:43:25
  Speaker 20: We want to bring that back up, up to $ 1, 000
• 2:43:28
  Speaker 20: for individuals. That would be a huge offset for people's
• 2:43:32
  Speaker 20: property taxes, and it would go toward the middle class.
• 2:43:37
  Speaker 20: I think we do have to look at education funding,
• 2:43:40
  Speaker 20: tying it to inflation. So the state can't just neglect
• 2:43:43
  Speaker 20: funding our local cities and towns and just say, let's
• 2:43:47
  Speaker 20: put it on the property tax. So if we index
• 2:43:50
  Speaker 20: education dollars to inflation, it prioritizes education. And people will
• 2:43:57
  Speaker 20: say we don't have the money for it. We do.
• 2:43:59
  Speaker 20: We just have to prioritize it. And that's the focus
• 2:44:03
  Speaker 20: we should have. You know, the Democrats right now, their
• 2:44:06
  Speaker 20: budget that they just passed this year, it was a
• 2:44:09
  Speaker 20: Hail Mary. I mean, they have budgeted The out years
• 2:44:12
  Speaker 20: are projected deficits. We have not seen a budget that
• 2:44:16
  Speaker 20: had projected deficits in over 10 years. And now it's
• 2:44:21
  Speaker 20: coming back that behavior that people hated so much that
• 2:44:25
  Speaker 20: brought Republicans almost into a majority in the House and
• 2:44:28
  Speaker 20: the Senate and caused us to be able to put
• 2:44:31
  Speaker 20: all these fiscal policies together that the Democrats love to
• 2:44:35
  Speaker 20: brag about. But the hidden secret is over the last
• 2:44:38
  Speaker 20: 10 years, as their majorities increased, They have whittled away
• 2:44:44
  Speaker 20: at those safeguards that we put in place, and we
• 2:44:47
  Speaker 20: now have budgets that are showing red ink into the future.
• 2:44:52
  Speaker 20: And so that's what we're fighting for. It isn't just
• 2:44:54
  Speaker 20: these policies that we think can make Connecticut more affordable.
• 2:44:58
  Speaker 20: We're also trying to move it into a direction again
• 2:45:02
  Speaker 20: that will make it a place that businesses want to
• 2:45:05
  Speaker 20: invest in.
• 2:45:06
  Speaker 1: Well, I can't thank you enough for being here and
• 2:45:11
  Speaker 1: for everything you're doing to lead the charge on all
• 2:45:14
  Speaker 1: these issues and the work that you and your caucus
• 2:45:18
  Speaker 1: and your candidates are putting in to try and change
• 2:45:22
  Speaker 1: the trajectory of the state and address the issues that
• 2:45:25
  Speaker 1: are on top of mind for, obviously, the majority of
• 2:45:29
  Speaker 1: the people in this state. So thank you for what
• 2:45:31
  Speaker 1: you're doing. Thank you for joining us here today. And
• 2:45:36
  Speaker 1: I am sure that we will see you soon.
• 2:45:38
  Speaker 10: Great.
• 2:45:39
  Speaker 20: Thank you. And hopefully Frankie will get back to school soon.
• 2:45:42
  Speaker 20: I hope you're not having her play hooky today.
• 2:45:46
  Speaker 1: I might be.
• 2:45:47
  Speaker 37: Maybe.
• 2:45:49
  Speaker 20: It's a great learning experience.
• 2:45:51
  Speaker 48: It is.
• 2:45:51
  Speaker 20: I'm all for take your children to work.
• 2:45:56
  Speaker 1: There's a lot there. Thank you, Ben. Well, thank you, everybody.
• 2:46:02
  Speaker 1: It's been awesome to be here with you this morning.
• 2:46:05
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Frankie, for being my co-pilot in this endeavor.
• 2:46:09
  Speaker 1: I couldn't have done it without you.
• 2:46:10
  Speaker 42: Thank you, audience.
• 2:46:13
  Speaker 1: Thank you, everybody, for listening. Liz Karantowicz.
• 2:46:16
  Speaker 42: Frankie Karantowicz.
• 2:46:19
  Speaker 1: 94.9 News Now Simulating Talk. For the Voice of Freedom,
• 2:46:22
  Speaker 1: Lee Elsie. Thank you.