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Raises, Retro Pay, and Free Surgeries · The SEANC View

0:00
Hello, and welcome to another edition of the Scenic View podcast.
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I'm Jonathan Owens, your communications director, along with Artis Watkins,
0:07
the executive director, and government relations director, Suzanne Beasley.
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Things are heating up at the legislature with the primary election behind us.
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We have a lot to talk about, so let's get to it.
0:28
All right. So last week's episode, we talked a lot about Governor Stein's critical
0:33
needs budget that included raises for state employees and a bonus for retirees.
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Have any of you heard any feedback on that? Well, I mean, there's always feedback
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anytime the governor's budget, you know, in the process of a regular session
0:46
will come out before anything that the General Assembly does.
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Now, we know that the General Assembly is not going to take that budget and
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pass it, but it's right out the gate and people hear whatever the provisions
0:55
are in that budget and many times think that that's what's happening.
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So, yes, we have gotten a lot of feedback, you know, lots of questions from
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people about when it's going to be effective and things like that.
1:06
Did you hear anything from legislators about it? I haven't, but that's not unusual either.
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They don't say much even when the governor puts out a regular budget.
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So I don't know. It's just a weird, it's a weird time. I do know people who
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work in prisons, people who work in HHS facilities thought that was great news.
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But their main question was, you know, is the General Assembly going to,
1:26
I thought the money was tight. What's going on?
1:29
They want to know how it's going to be funded, basically, which is something
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over the years we found more and more state employees.
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They're kind of nervous, like, okay, if we were to get something that puts us
1:39
closer, still far away from not being at the bottom compared to other states, but closer to normal,
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what else, what would they take if they did that for us? Yeah,
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because they know that's coming.
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They know that's coming. I did read a story from Don Vaughn,
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our friend Don Vaughn, that apparently Governor Stein is going to drop two more
2:00
budgets, many budgets, before session begins. So that should be interesting.
2:04
Obviously, this was the most critical needs because that's what he called it.
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But there's a lot of concern over, you know, state employees,
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again, they've just gotten accustomed to being cautious.
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And so if you tell them they're talking about giving you something,
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they want to know what are they going to do with their benefits.
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Because, unfortunately, it's kind of become popular that if you do anything
2:24
for state employees, you then go try to take it either out of their jobs or their benefits.
2:28
Are you hearing anything about that, Suzanne? I know that the health plan.
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Yeah, so the State Health Plan Board of Trustees met yesterday,
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and the big votes on plan changes will be their May or June meeting,
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whichever date they have a meeting.
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But yesterday, they did talk about some structuring ideas and ways that they
2:46
can, you know, rein in costs for the plan to keep costs from rolling down employees' backs.
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And, you know, I think that's something that our members and just state employees
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in general and retirees don't understand that the sustainability of the state
3:00
health plan is in jeopardy.
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I mean, literally that, you know, the state funds the state health plan.
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It's not like a typical Blue Cross Blue Shield health insurance plan.
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You do not have a Blue Cross Blue Shield. You do not have an Aetna plan.
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You have the state health plan, and it's administered by Aetna or administered
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by Blue Cross Blue Shield.
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I've had some questions, you know, if they go back to Blue Cross Blue Shield,
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will everything go back like it was? Well, no.
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If the General Assembly is looking at how much it costs for the health plan,
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if they don't put in enough money to sustain it, that means the cost shift to the employees.
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And there's no argument about that at the health plan board, right?
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That's right. Right. And they did actually in the presentation that's online,
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if anybody cares to go and see what was talked about at the plan yesterday,
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there was some conversation about what the expectations will be of providers.
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What are the expectations of providers? Well, I mean, they're going to have
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to give a lot more than what they're giving, how that is going to put out in
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the plan. But nobody's going to make them.
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Well, I mean, it sounded good. So here's where I'm going with this.
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So the legislature likes to be appalled by how much the health plan costs,
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and therefore we saw shifting of that cost to employees.
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But the legislature are the ones that wouldn't let Dale Falwell do something
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about capping those costs and not letting some providers charge us four times
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what other providers charge us.
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At the end of the day, it seems so wrong to try to have it both ways as a lawmaker. Right.
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Like, we won't let you contain the crazy outrageous profit padding by some providers.
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We won't let you do anything about that.
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But we're then going to complain that the health plan costs too much.
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And so we're going to tell you to charge the employees more.
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That's double wrong. Yeah.
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And then you think about, like, the board, the board of trustees will have to
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come in and make a decision, increase in premiums. Yes, they have some blame
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for doing that, but it's a direct reaction to what the legislature gives them.
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So, I mean, you know, the buck kind of stops with the legislature if they'd fund it more.
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That's exactly right. Here's my thing. You don't have to fund it at that level.
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You have to give authority to not overpay, to not be held hostage by this.
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You know, these prices that are absolutely nuts.
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I don't think there's anywhere else in government that lawmakers would go back
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home to their constituents and say, it's cool with me if some people charge
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us four times the going rate on something the state pays for.
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But on the health plan, that's exactly what happens in some cases.
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So to extend my narrative a little bit more then, it's up to the legislature
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to make sure we have transparency so we can see things like that, right?
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If they want to save money, that's one way they can do it.
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And the legislature, not this legislature, in fact, it was a democratically
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controlled legislature, in the 90s passed legislation to make sure health plan
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contracts, what the state health plan is paying to providers,
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is exempt from the Public Records Act.
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While our members, the state employees, have their salary and a bunch of their
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personnel file and all that stuff is considered vital to the public to know.
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These hundreds of millions, even billions paid to providers,
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that's sacred ground. We can't have that.
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The argument's been, we can't get a good price. We can't be competitive if they
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know what each other get.
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If that were the case, we wouldn't have actuaries telling us we're paying some
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of them four times what, you know, we should. But so, you know, it's just wrong.
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It's wrong to pass laws saying the taxpayers and the employees can't see those contracts.
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But, you know, it's especially wrong to say. Yeah, and we still hold that position
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regardless of what the board is considering right now.
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You know, they always give give us a minute to to speak at these things.
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So we got one more chance to reiterate that that is our position.
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Transparency in those contracts is the only way.
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So I have two other topics that are state health plan related.
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Let's just let's just jump into those, too. So this week we posted a story that
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the state health plan is not going to extend the contract with Aetna and it's
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going to go out for bid again.
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Right. And that blew up on our Facebook.
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Yeah, there was like 400 comments on that story. And you just you talked about
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it a little bit, but it seems like people think that, you know, Aetna is our insurance.
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But that's not really the truth. That is not.
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So the state is self-insured. The state funds the structure of the state health plan.
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Then the state health plan has to hire someone for us to have a network to use
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and, you know, to process claims.
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And so that's what Blue Cross Blue Shield did when they were involved with the state health plan.
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And that's what Aetna does now. And the previous administration also put it
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out for bid, and that's how the change happened from Blue Cross Blue Shield to Aetna.
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He was trying to, you know, save some money at that time.
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I believe the network just about covered every county in North Carolina.
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And, you know, we thought the level of service would and coverage and accessibility
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would be the same as Blue Cross Blue Shield.
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And that does not seem to be the... It didn't go matter who's administrating
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your claims unless you start, you have some kind of transparency and or a protection
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in place that you don't pay more than a certain amount to these providers.
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Because otherwise, the insurance company has no, they don't have a dog in that fight.
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I mean, if they want to pay them 800% to have them in their network,
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why not when the taxpayers and the employees can't know about it?
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Yeah, so that led to lots of questions, which John was referring to in those
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comments, because folks just don't understand that the difference between,
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you know, the self-funded state health plan and a Blue Cross Blue Shield policy or an Aetna policy.
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And one thing that just kept coming up throughout those comments was just like
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prescription drug cost.
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There's a ton of issues with pharmacy benefit manager.
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Yeah. You know, so that that's coming. The bottom line with some of these exorbitant
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costs that members are experiencing is the cost of drugs is just crazy out of
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control. And I'll go back to that.
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You know what I was talking about, the sustainability of the state health plan. GLP-1 for weight loss.
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That was the perfect example. Those drugs cost a crazy amount of money for the
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plan to offer to members for your copay.
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So, you know, the state health plan funding was going down the tubes by still offering those drugs.
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And that's why they had to pull coverage from those drugs, because the state
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health plan simply could not continue to pay, you know, what pharmaceutical
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companies were charging them.
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And that is across the board right now. That's national. Yeah.
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Yeah. I mean, that just there's no easy answer for that. So it's not that Aetna went up on your drugs.
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It's not that anything like that changed. It's just that the expense of the
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drugs has increased and the plan has limited funds.
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So let me press you just a little bit on that because I need...
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I'm just a little bit confused. I like that Suzanne got so into that last.
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She was so into it. Her earrings were clanking around.
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John had to have her take them off. So if you heard clanking,
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it was some pretty earrings.
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But she was so upset about prescription costs.
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What's the big deal? When we contract with Aetna as the administrator,
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don't we use Aetna's network?
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We do. So do we use the same tiers that they offer everyone?
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Like, so one question that came up on Facebook and I was kind of didn't know
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how to respond was someone said that one of her providers is no longer a select
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preferred provider. So her copay went up to $40.
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And I assume that's an Aetna plan, right? I mean, that's not a state health
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plan. That might be about a specialist.
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Yeah. And then, you know, the structure of the plan is the plan structure.
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So we do use their network. Yeah.
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But the structure of the plan is determined.
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By the plan. So, yeah, it doesn't necessarily fall like a regular insurance
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plan through either of those companies.
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So this same lady also said the only good thing she's seen out of the state
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health plan recently is the Lantern program.
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The providers are excellent, and my co-workers have had hip replacements,
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ACL and knee replacements covered.
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Her son's about to have shoulder surgery.
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So let's jump into Lantern then. We also posted a few stories about that,
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and we got a wide range of responses to it.
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There was a lot of skepticism about Lantern, I think. Let's recap what it is,
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because sometimes people are just tuning in and don't know.
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So since October, we've been talking about this. It's a new program.
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Well, I guess it's not new. It's like six months old now, right?
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But it's a way for plan members to basically get surgeries for free through
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specific providers that sign on to this Lantern Network.
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And the reason they can do that is through volume, for one, and also,
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I guess, guaranteed volume, I guess.
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Yeah, and I think that was the, you know, they formed the partnership with Lantern,
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obviously, to help with calls to the plan as well as, you know,
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benefit state health plan members' pocketbooks. But it's voluntary.
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That's the biggest misconception is that you're forced.
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Yeah, there's just some confusion around that period. And I noticed in some of the comments, too.
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So here's the example. you need shoulder surgery.
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You need a non-emergency shoulder surgery. So you can plan for that.
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So you call Lantern, and you guys are going to have to pick up the phone and
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call them to get the information that you're asking for from Lantern.
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It's a state health plan kind of thing, so it's not going to be listed on the
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Lantern website the way it would be with any of the companies that they service.
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So you need a shoulder surgery.
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You call Lantern. They go through the physicians that are in the Lantern Network
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and help you find a physician.
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Here's the kicker. It could possibly be a physician you already see.
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You know, there's Emerge Ortho.
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Carolina Ortho, I think now. Ortho Carolina. Ortho Carolina. And Novant.
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Yeah, so they're building the network, and that's tons of providers.
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So your doctor may actually be one of the providers that— And if they're not,
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you could mention it to them, and maybe they would— Now, here's the thing,
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because people have also had concerns about quality of care.
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You know, you say free, and, you know— Right. Why would somebody give it for
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free unless they just can't get patients any other way?
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Exactly. And that's not exactly the situation there.
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But Lantern also has a very stringent, you know, process for vetting the physicians
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that are in their network. So you might be surprised who doesn't make it.
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Well, if you think about it, Novant Healthcare is one of the biggest systems in the state.
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They just signed on to Lantern. So in some areas, if you live there,
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the person you're going to is probably Novant anyway.
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The difference is they've agreed not to take an outrageous amount,
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but to take an amount that would give them a profit without gouging the health plan.
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And so they can give it to you for free because before that,
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you were going to go to somebody that might gouge the system.
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And there was some concern on Facebook, too, about steering state health plan
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members to it. Well, yeah. Yeah. That's the whole point.
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Voluntary steerage. And that go right back to the sustainability of the plan.
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Yeah. There was a lot of concern about having to, you know, drive two or three
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states away to find a surgeon.
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Two points about that. The plan will cover a lot of those travel costs,
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right, or all of them. For you and someone to go with you. Yeah.
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And as you said, the network is expanding so much, it's probably not going to be the case forever.
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Yeah, well, and I'm not sure how many cases of you having to travel two or three
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states away, like I saw in some of the comments.
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But one of the examples they gave us, Suzanne, when they were telling us about
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it in the first place, let's say you need something that is unique and you need
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the only place that can do is the Mayo Clinic.
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How cool is it that you can get to the Mayo Clinic, get it for free,
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and have your expenses paid, at least in part?
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That's a big deal. Well, everything involved in your surgery would be paid.
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This was something else that came from Facebook, too, because people were concerned,
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you know, what about aftercare?
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Well, you go back home and you go to your local provider for your aftercare,
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just like you would, you know, any other surgical procedure that you would have had outside of Lantern.
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I also had a question about what if there are complications?
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Well, you can have complications with the doctor that you see now.
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You know, there's no way to predict those kind of situations.
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But this is a change. This is out-of-the-box thinking.
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Yeah, just to break it down for state employees.
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If you don't want to pay a lot more in premium, a lot more in out-of-pocket,
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a lot more in deductible, we're with you.
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But you got to meet us halfway. Yeah. But you're going to have to be willing
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not to go to somebody that might be charging the plan 700, 800 percent.
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If you go to those people until the legislature decides that's not an OK thing
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to do to charge the state that kind of money.
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Then your choice is pay a lot more or take advantage and try to encourage people
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to go to providers who are willing to do the right thing by state employees,
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by the plan, by the taxpayer.
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And that being said, just one more time, because folks are having a hard time
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grasping this, you do not have to participate in Lantern.
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You can continue to use the state health plan as you traditionally would and pay it.
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With the exception of bariatrics. Of bariatrics, yeah.
16:49
So those were my two state health plan topics. The other thing that I noticed
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was there is possible overrides for vetoes coming in early April.
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So they're on the calendar for April 6th, but, you know, they were on the calendar
17:03
when session let out the last time, goodness gracious.
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So, you know, they're sitting there on the calendar because there weren't the
17:10
votes to pass those overrides when they were still in session.
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So those are still waiting to be addressed. Is there a reason to do it now,
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like, just after the primary?
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I mean, is there, like, a more importance?
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You've got the three primaries in particular where there was active participation
17:29
among prominent Democrats in the party to try to oust a few of the Democrats
17:34
that have voted with Republicans on things in the past.
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You can almost guarantee those are going to be votes to override Stein's veto
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on anything that's coming up this short session.
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So I think absolutely this is the timing is not surprising. It is very intentional.
17:52
A couple of the bills maybe pertain to state employees, especially the DEI bill
17:57
from Brendan Jones, House 171.
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We've talked about that. We have. It's been a while. I mean,
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you know, we weren't exactly sure why.
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What was the problem that this addressed? I still don't know.
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There's been a lot of things in state government cut in university system that
18:14
were cut because they were supposedly DEI and they needed to go.
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And so our question about House Bill 171 and this moment, to be frank,
18:24
we've never gotten the answers to it is, what do you mean in some cases by DEI?
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It's not clear what problem that the bill is trying to address. Yeah.
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Kind of doesn't matter because the bill did pass. All lawmakers have to do now
18:38
is decide whether they're with the legislature or with Governor Stein on this
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one. There's no more debating the merits of the bill.
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If you think about it, we can say that there's nothing in state government or,
18:48
you know, there's nothing in agencies that this would really affect,
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you know, like what is the reason for this, you know?
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But if this bill is on the books, it can be used in the future, right?
18:59
I mean, it can stop future things like that. So, we still have to watch,
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you know, we still have to be involved.
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And, you know, something that was interesting about this, I mean,
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if there's something going on, we're the first to hear about it.
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I mean, you got an issue out there as a state employee, nine times out of ten,
19:17
we're going to get a call about it. And we didn't.
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And who's to say that this bill won't be used to justify changes in the future
19:25
that maybe have nothing to do with DEI?
19:27
Very true. So there's also one
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for public education and public higher education, similar bills, I guess.
19:34
But that's April 6th. And then on the 21st, the short session is supposed to start.
19:41
And as we did last week, we can give a recap on the primary election.
19:46
The only one that is still up in the air and probably the most important one,
19:52
Senate District 26, between Senate Leader Phil Berger and Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page.
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Right now, Page still leads by 23 votes.
20:03
Senator Berger has called for a recount that started Tuesday, right? That's right.
20:07
And then that was in Guilford County and Rockingham County on Thursday.
20:13
Senator Berger obviously has every right to do that in this situation,
20:16
and we wouldn't have expected anything else.
20:19
Other than him calling for a recount. I did see that Berger sent a letter to
20:23
the state asking for a hybrid type of recount that identified 220 ballots specifically.
20:31
Yeah, I was reading about like overvotes and undervotes. Yeah.
20:35
Which, you know, where people maybe marked two candidates when they voted in
20:39
the same race or didn't vote, you know, didn't mark anyone for one race.
20:44
So when that happens, then they can reconsider that ballot. They have to reach
20:48
out to the voter to clarify, but, you know, those are.
20:51
But the state board of elections is not going to do that. And also he had filed
20:57
legal protests over 13 ballots on Tuesday.
21:00
So it sounds like, as Artis has said, the lawyers are working overtime and they're
21:06
making the money, right?
21:07
Yeah, I'm not hating on anybody because it's, you know, it's a free country.
21:11
But, but wow. We're getting into.
21:13
Expensive. Yeah. Down in the dirt, down in the weeds about these votes It's
21:17
been fascinating You think there'll be a resolution to this before the short
21:21
session starts? No Really?
21:22
Well, I would anticipate, I mean, that Senator Berger would do all the things,
21:27
yeah I would think that he would, you know, he would want to run through the
21:31
whole list of things you can do The process can go on a bit Yeah,
21:35
so They're coming back soon.
21:37
Well, we'll stay tuned to that. It's going to be a huge story either way,
21:41
no matter what happens there.
21:43
Truly. Now, let's go back to some of the questions that we talked about from
21:47
our Facebook, because we do have so many topics that have kind of dropped in
21:50
the last two weeks that we haven't really expanded on.
21:55
I had some questions about the governor's critical needs budget.
21:59
One question was, if it passed, would it be retroactive?
22:04
So, yeah. You think it would? I read that. Oh, okay. Yeah, so.
22:09
That's what he's asking. That's what he's asking for, yeah. This is the governor's
22:13
budget proposal. This is not the budget that the General Assembly will get.
22:17
His critical needs budget, not his budget for this coming year.
22:21
Yeah, so I guess technically we're going to have, according to Don's story,
22:25
he's going to drop three.
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Yeah, I don't know the three part. I just know that he made it very clear.
22:30
This is not my budget for this year. That's coming soon.
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It's just confusing to state employees that hear it because they're thinking,
22:37
oh, we're going to get that.
22:39
Finally. Yeah. And that's just a proposal. And it's legislatures already said
22:44
we're not doing that. Yeah.
22:46
But we want to make sure they don't skip a budget. And I think that was Stein's
22:49
whole point. Yeah. Don't skip a budget.
22:51
Yeah, exactly. So, yes, Governor Stein's budget.
22:54
There was language that says it would be retro to do live last year.
22:58
But in practice, they're not going to pass that budget.
23:01
Right. So any budget they pass, do you think it'll include retrograde?
23:06
What we're going to be asking for in this coming budget is,
23:09
You know, it's again, instead of your election year two to three percent raise,
23:13
we're going to be asking for five to six.
23:15
And instead of, you know, giving COLAs, because what we're stuck with for retirees
23:20
is a one time amount, which was in the critical needs budget.
23:23
But instead of, you know, a piddly amount, it's going to need to be much more
23:27
significant because they didn't get an amount last year.
23:29
So they're even farther behind. Yeah. We're not going to forget about last year.
23:33
You know, our members haven't forgotten
23:35
about last year. So we can't just pretend it didn't happen. Yeah.
23:38
And when I say last year, it's actually the one we're currently in until July 1. Yeah.
23:43
Okay. Well, another question was, it's one that we get every year,
23:47
and I think it's the same person that does it every time.
23:50
But it's always a guy, he'll be like, as I always say, how will you pay for it?
23:56
How will we pay? Well, the revenue projections are coming out soon.
24:01
Next week, I think. Next week.
24:02
So we'll know. What kind of money are we even looking at? Yeah.
24:05
And then the next question, once you know the money you're looking at,
24:08
and that's one of the criticisms that some of the Republicans gave to Governor
24:11
Stein's critical needs budget is we don't even know how much money we're looking
24:15
at. The next question is, once you know the money you have available,
24:18
what your priorities are.
24:20
One thing we want to reiterate is that for the last few years running,
24:25
a good amount of money, $400 million and before that over $1 billion,
24:29
was put back in the general fund of North Carolina from vacant salaries where the money reverted.
24:36
State employees doing the work of more than one person has put a lot of money in the coffers.
24:41
And also, they didn't have a budget last year.
24:44
Exactly. They saved some money there. So that money's there.
24:48
That money came into the state. Now, what the state did with it, I don't know. Right.
24:51
But that money came into the state and could have been used for employees,
24:55
so it should technically still be there.
24:58
Probably not. Probably not still there. But that's...
25:02
That's a problem. And then we also always get this question,
25:05
and I think it's a valid question, why do teachers always get a higher raise
25:08
than the rest of state employees?
25:10
Because as one person who years ago used to lobby for teachers told us,
25:16
I lobby for mom and apple pie.
25:18
Who's not mad at teachers? You know, everybody's had a teacher.
25:21
Most people have not had contact with the person who makes sure that what's
25:26
on the can of pesticide on the ingredient list makes sure that that is,
25:30
in fact, what's in the ingredients and not something else that will harm your family.
25:34
Those are faceless bureaucrats to most taxpayers.
25:39
And it's real easy to, if you're a politician, to rile up the taxpayers against public employees.
25:48
It's harder to rile them up against teachers. Yeah. But, you know,
25:52
at the end of the day, though, we've said it before, I'm going to say it again.
25:56
I think people in North Carolina and everywhere else are catching on to the
26:00
fact that the reason they're not living much better than they're living right
26:05
now is not because of their neighbors who are state employees.
26:08
It's because of massive businesses who get secret contracts like the health
26:13
plan and the retirement plan,
26:14
who get sweetheart deals for other public contracts, and who control everything
26:20
by having hordes of lobbyists in D.C.
26:23
And in every single other aspect of government. And some money to pour into elections.
26:29
So they know. I mean, I think people are not, they're just not as blind to this
26:35
as a lot of politicians count on. They just aren't buying it,
26:39
that it's public employees that are keeping them down.
26:42
We just need less public employees, and then we'll all be better off.
26:45
Yeah, I don't think people are blaming. I heard Bernie Sanders on the way here today.
26:50
He said that Elon Musk has more money than 53% of the country.
26:55
That's insane. Just one person. Wow.
26:58
Yeah, that's impressive. Yeah.
27:01
But Elon Musk can actually get money for his kids in the state of Texas to go
27:06
to private school. So, I mean, I think that's the thing.
27:09
That kind of thing is so publicized. And we live in an age of social media where
27:13
people know those things.
27:15
So, again, I think it's harder to make state employees the scapegoat that earlier
27:19
in our career, Suzanne, I think it was pretty easy to make them the scapegoat.
27:23
Back then, they said it was three employees leaning on a shovel while one would work on the road.
27:29
You know, that was the whole thing back in the day. Yeah, we hear that one a
27:32
lot. And those good state jobs. They're not so good anymore.
27:35
Not so good anymore. So we covered most of these other questions that I brought
27:39
up or that I found on our Facebook.
27:41
Any other topics before we get into the question of the week?
27:45
No. All right, let's get to it.
27:54
And if you haven't noticed, Sammy Klein is not here today, so I'm trying to
27:57
man the board over here, and I'm doing as best I can, but she's clearly better than I am.
28:03
Are you going to fill in? I think it's going smoothly.
28:06
Say what? Are you going to fill in for a Gen Z moment? Oh, no.
28:09
We'll have a millennial moment. What's your favorite?
28:13
Sammy is on vacation, and I'm sure we won't hear anything about it when she
28:17
returns. No, probably not. No.
28:19
And actually, it'll be probably just me and you next week. Yeah.
28:23
So artists have prior commitments. We're going to get wild, June.
28:27
It's going to be an interesting, what can we do? Let's do something.
28:30
We should do like a remote. Oh, no.
28:32
Yeah, go somewhere. Myrtle Beach. Y'all are home alone. We're doing this week's
28:36
episode for Myrtle Beach.
28:38
Oh, my gosh. Y'all would, too. So my question of the week is,
28:42
what's something that you're paying attention to that is off the radar?
28:45
And I don't want to hear about the Iran or I don't want to hear about March
28:50
Madness, anything at all that you, you know, it can be a book, a TV show.
28:54
I think we've done this sort of before, but I want it to just kind of be obscure
28:58
if you have anything, a new podcast, anything.
29:00
And the reason I bring this up is because my new obsession is the Afro Man trial. Have you seen this?
29:08
No. You remember Afro Man, the rapper from like the 2000s?
29:12
He had some obscure and slightly vulgar at times raps that he did.
29:17
And he was like a very famous rapper.
29:20
He moved to this farm in Ohio, a small town.
29:24
The police there raided his home and they tore up a bunch of stuff.
29:28
According to him, they broke a door down and they stole some money, he's saying.
29:32
So he wrote a rap song about them doing this. And it's, you know,
29:38
it's classic Afro Man, a little wild.
29:41
Instead of, like, suing them, he wrote a rap song about it, right?
29:44
So then they sued him. So the trial is, like, a defamation trial against Afro Man.
29:50
And so then, like, they have all these clips of the rap song.
29:54
And it's not funny, but it is funny. You should check it out. It's on Twitter.
29:59
It's the Afro Man trial. It's pretty hilarious.
30:04
I don't have anything nearly that exciting. I mean, I'm just trying to think
30:07
under the radar here. I don't know. I don't, you know, my son is 35.
30:12
We have always shared our interest in music with each other.
30:15
I mean, I raised him to love Prince, and he taught me to love Mac Miller.
30:20
So there's a musician, Jack Harlow, whom I've heard of before.
30:23
He's great. But his new music is, I mean, I'm obsessed, and I'm a little old lady over here.
30:28
Yeah, the music. And then there's a book that I read.
30:30
I remember seeing it was pretty popular on TikTok, and I haven't looked.
30:34
I don't know if it still is. It was over 800 pages, but the name of it is. Nope, I'm out.
30:39
The name of it is A Little Life. And it was incredibly tragic.
30:44
It's just, it's a story of a person that's, well, I can't give it away because
30:49
somebody might want to read it.
30:50
What I will tell you is when you get halfway through the book,
30:52
you have the opportunity to jump ship and still have a good story.
30:57
But if you read the other half of the book, it's going to stick with you for the rest of your life.
31:01
It was a heck of a read. Maybe they have an audio book. That'll be like four
31:05
credits. It'll last you forever.
31:06
What about you, Artis? Do you have anything? I mean, it's not under the radar,
31:10
but it's not as talked about as some other things.
31:13
We talk about fuel prices in light of the conflict in Iran.
31:18
But the fertilizer, that's getting more and more interesting because the folks
31:23
in agriculture are saying they're really worried about getting what they need
31:30
to get their crops planted and then to get them to fruition. Yeah.
31:34
And I'm wondering what that's going to mean for the, A, the food supply, but also the cost.
31:39
We've seen the cost of everything go up, but produce. That's just the one.
31:43
Petroleum affects everything. It does. And it never really comes back down once it's gone up. No.
31:49
I was surprised that diesel's so high. Have you seen that? Yeah,
31:52
it's like flipped. My cousin just bought a diesel truck. He was so mad.
31:56
Impacts your pocketbook for sure. Well, that's our episode for the week,
32:01
and we'll see you next week. .