The Mark Arum Show 06-26-26 HR 2

Welcome back to the show on a good Friday morning to you. Mark Aram here. You there. It's 10.04, four minutes after 10 o'clock. This is the Mark Aram show live Monday through Friday. 9 a.m. to noon on 95-5. W.S.B. The whole family with us today. Gracie award-winning Deborah, executive producer of the program. We got Ocean Spray, manning the phones. And, of course, down south. Vinny on the other side of the takeout window. In just a few minutes, our grocery and gas giveaway, a chance for you to want $150. grocery card, $150 gas card, and a free HVAC inspection for my pal is at reliable heating and air. Going to open up the phone. Don't call now. Don't you do it. Don't call till I tell you to, but you're going to get a chance to win that amazing grocery and gas giveaway from my friends at Reliable. Last half hour we talked to Stephen Pornoy from ABC, breaking down the Supreme Court decisions that came when we were on the air yesterday. And I asked Stephen, what have we not yet heard from the Supreme Court? And he said the all-important birthright citizenship issue joining us live, rare Friday appearance from my man Scott Slate. Scott, good morning, sir. How are you? Hey, Mark, good morning. I'm doing well. I hope you are. I am, well, I'm much better now that we get Scott Slate on a Friday. This Friday, it's a payday Friday, a donut Friday, and now a Scott Slate Friday. But I know this is such a big, big issue that the Supreme Court is going to make a decision on when it comes to birthright citizenship. And you've been really digging in, trying to get a preview about what this is all about. You know, this is what I call one of the, first of all, let me say this. I'm not a legal scholar, nor do I pretend to be, okay? But I'm going to do my best here. There are some eight doorknob cases left for the U.S. Supreme Court. By that, I mean, they open the door and they say, see ya, we're gone for the summer, right? Eight cases remain, including some big ones, transgender athletes participating in girls' sports. Can the president fire members of independent agencies or the Federal Reserve Board? There's a case still pending a mail-in voting. Basically, should mail-in ballots allow to be counted after election day? In Georgia, mailing absentee ballots have to arrive at the election office no later that election day. And as you mentioned, Birthright Citizenship. Now, this deals with the Trump executive order that directs federal agencies not to recognize the U.S. citizenship of babies born in the USA if neither parent is a citizen or a lawful, lawful permanent resident. As far as national impact is concerned, Pew Research says over an 18-year period beginning in 2006, there were about 5.1 million births to unauthorized immigrant mothers. And almost 4.4 million of those kids did not have a father who was a legal immigrant or a U.S. citizen. So this case does has to reach. It involves a lot of people. And speaking to one of my go-toes on any immigration law case,

is immigration attorney Charles Cook with the firm Cook Baxter in Atlanta. And I rang him up this week because I wanted to get his taken on how he saw this case coming down before the Supreme Court announces their opinion. Your thoughts here, is this a decision is looming by the Supreme Court? What the case is Trump versus Barbara? Yeah, this is going to be an interesting decision by the Supreme Court. I expect that Chief John Roberts will alter this decision. because it's just so vitally important to our republic and the foundation of who we are as a country. I suspect the Supreme Court will uphold birthright citizenship. There is 150 years of case law on this. To overturn that in a 5-4 decision would be shocking. I actually expected to be a seven to two decision from the Supreme Court and that birthright citizenship will continue to be the law of the land, period. That's easy. What's this waiting period been like for immigrant families? No doubt you have some clients, especially those with some children born here maybe and some not. Well, I represent several pregnant women who asked me about this just this last week because they had been told that Supreme Court issues decisions in June on important cases. They are sitting on pins and needles. At the end of the day, you know, obviously I could be wrong. I mean, I've certainly been wrong before. But there are simply far too much historical analysis of this particular phrase. And Supreme Court really is about original intent. The original intent here is clear. It was not just about slavery. It was about determining who were United States citizens. And there is actually questions about the extent of this phrase. subject to the jurisdiction thereof, which is the whole context of the lawsuit, that make it clear that that specifically applied to diplomats and to no one else. And in the end of the day, the arguments to the contrary don't seem to make sense, because if you argue, well, the illegal foreign nationals, illegal aliens, they're not subject to this jurisdiction of the country. They're, you know, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're loyalty to the president of Peru or whatever. Well, then you're saying, well, then you can't arrest them. which makes no sense, like you can't arrest diplomats. So, I mean, the argument itself is nonsense. It's been nonsense and shut down for decades. And I think Supreme Court took this just to shut this argument down at the end of the day and let us move on from this. If they rule that birthright citizenship is not constitutional, is citizenship canceled for children already born here or are they grandfathered in? What do you think? I suspect that they would grant, if they did that, I think they would grandfather anybody who was born in the United States up until the date of the decision, which again causes havoc and creates havoc. What the Supreme Court never really tries to do, if they can avoid it, is to create havoc, to create chaos. And so that reason alone, I think, speaks volumes about where they're going to end up.

I think next week. It may be one of the last several decisions they issue. So they'll draw those out for us. I think they're good. I wouldn't be surprised if they wait until the first week of July in issue it right before July 4th. Charles Cook is a prominent immigration attorney here in Atlanta, and it's always good to talk to you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Scott. Have a great day. And Mark, this all comes for the 14th Amendment that opens with all persons board are naturalized in the United States. And subject to the jurisdiction thereof, there's the key phrase, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside? I mean, we were of one mind because you asked every question that I would have asked. Most notably, those folks, if this is overturned, what about all the folks that have been granted that birthright citizenship? What happens to them? and what we did with 5.1 million births you said in the last 18 years yeah yeah 2006 to 2023 that's for pure research it estimates mark that excuse me Estimates are around 250,000 birthright babies who are born in the U.S. each year. So it's a formidable number. Indeed. And listen, Mr. Cook says, you know, he thinks it's going to be a seven to two vote, but I have learned never to count on what you think the Supreme Court is going to do or what they're not going to do. But I do agree that this is such an important case that I believe John Roberts will. write the majority decision, depending on which way it goes. But really interesting stuff. So any, I mean, is it going to happen next week when on vacation? Probably. Great. Yeah, they already have a spring order already has an opinion day schedule from Monday. And there could be another day later in the week. Who knows? I mean, run it right up to July 2nd or, well, July 3rd's a holiday for the court. Yeah. I guess everybody else. But yeah, they could run it all the way through Wednesday. We'll have to wait and see. And some of the thinking, Mark, is that since the court gave the Trump administration a couple of wins on temporary protection status and another immigration case that that would just sort of till the soil to give the Trump administration a little bad news in their ruling. But there's just some speculation. We'll have to wait and see. Yeah. Well, fantastic stuff. A little extra Scotts-Lade. Bonus Scott Slade previewing the birthright citizenship Supreme Court decision. Scott, as always, my name, thank you so much. Hey, it's my pleasure. And enjoy your bucket list trip next week. Oh, by the way, I don't know if you heard the breaking news. Marcy Williams is joining us in the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame just announced this morning. Whoa. Yes. Very well deserved. Wow, that's great. I know. I mean, criminal that she hasn't been in yet. So Lauren Smith also from Georgia football is getting in. And I don't know if you ever had an opportunity to work with Joel Williams up at WDUN. He is getting in as well. I've heard the name. Yeah, yeah, I think I have somewhere. Sorry, the memory fade. That's, listen, I get it. But I just, I'm going to buy a table, and you are invited to watch Marcy Williams induct. I'd be honored to have you sitting on our table, Scott. Oh, wonderful. Yeah, send me the date when you get it. We'll do. All right, great stuff. Scott, thank you so much. Have a great weekend, my friend. Thanks, Mark, you too. There you go. The legend that is Scott's late. All right, let's give away groceries and gas right now.

Your chance to win a $150 grocery gift card. Nope. Listen, Trent, block those phones. I haven't gotten out the number yet. If you're calling now, hang up. You can't call until I give the number out. No cheating here. Fred, Kathy, jaunta, Dolores, hang that, hang up. You're not an eligible caller yet. I got to get through the spiel, folks. Here's the spiel. You win a $150 gas card, $150 grocery gift card, and a free HVAC inspection from my pals at reliable heating and air. Go ahead and pick up and hang up on everyone that's calling in now, Trent, because I have not given out the number because I don't even know what number caller yet. Deborah, I deferred to you yesterday. So let's go back to the executive producer. I appreciate the hustle folks, but you can't call until I say. Here's what I would tell people when they used to do that. Rarely is it going to be a low number. Like it's rarely going to be the first caller, right? So if you're the first caller, you automatically lost. You've got to wait until we tell you the number. And I think that number should be like 15. All right. Now we open it up. 15th caller to Ocean Spray at 404-872-075. Call there's Dolores again. Dolores, your caller number one. You're too quick. 15th caller to 404-872-075. Caller 15 to 404-872050 wins our grocery and gas giveaway, courtesy of the Mark Aram Show, 955 WSP and my friends at Reliable Heating and Air. All right, joining us now from ABC News in Texas, our good friend, Jim Ryan. Jim, a lot of folks in Metro Let have been hyper-focused on the search for Gracie for folks not in the know. Who is Gracie, and why are we so enamored with the search for her? Gracie is a three-to-four-year-old giraffe, a reticulated giraffe. That's the kind with the geometric patterns on the side, beautiful patterns, native mainly to Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, but being bred in other parts of the world. And, yeah, Gracie is one of those. She's lived at a place called Cedar Hollow Ranch, west of San Antonio, for entire life, essentially. But for whatever reason, just over a week ago, she... Two weeks ago now, Mark, she decided to climb up over a stone slab, over an eight-foot fence after that, and made her way out into the countryside. That's where she's been ever since. I mean, listen, I understand you're missing a kitten or a puppy. It might be tough to find, but how tall is Gracie and why are your authority struggling to find an animal so large? She's between 10 and 11 feet tall, maybe weighs 1,000 pounds or so. That's an average 3-year-old female giraffe. But it's such vast countryside. We're talking about thousands of acres that officials have been searching, volunteers out there, people with drones, people on horseback. They're going around trying to find her, but because it's such a large area. And, yeah, it's kind of desolate, not a lot growing out there. It looks something like the average savannah that Gracie's forebears undoubtedly lived on. The sheriff now there in Rayall County is where this is happening. says he's convinced that she should be able to find foliage up in those trees. They've had some rain and the streams and rivers there are filled with water and she should be able to get a drink. There are also, though...

potential risks out there, Mark. You know, coyotes, mountain lions are the predators that could pose a risk, even to a thousand-pound animal. Gosh, that is, that was my next question. Like, what are they worried about, you know, are there predators out there that could see, oh, that's an 11-foot-tall meal right there? Let's, let's chomp on that. Jim Ryan from ABC, joining us on the Mark Air Show. Jim, my puppy is chipped, meaning if she's found, you know, I get alerted. With a giraffe, I guess they never thought that the giraffe that Gracie might escape and there's no chip or some sort of a tracking device on her. Well, none that they've talked about. We don't know about a chip or some sort of GPS device on the animal and no color or nothing like that. So, yeah, that makes it even more difficult in that vast area, thousands of acres that she could be wandering around it. Even the greater risk than predators potentially is the terrain. You know, this is a huge, lanky animal. And if she steps in a hole or steps in a canyon or something, she could break a leg. She could be seriously injured out there. pushes on to try to get her. The sheriff's department, the ranch, the Cedar Hollow Ranch, has offered a $5,000 reward. The sheriff hopes her on a deer camera or with a drone or something and calls them up. Yeah, I mean, Jim, I don't have to tell you, like the nation is heavily invested in Gracie's return. How big of a search party is there? Is this just on the ranch or have authorities organized some sort of a search and rescue mission? Well, I mean, it's nothing organized per se. I mean, the sheriff has been out there, and they have had drones. And that way, it's been organized. And there's a lot of private property out there, too, and they have to get the permission of owners of that land. And they've been generally receptive to this, but tracking them down is a difficult thing. So, yeah, that complicates things a bit. There's another potential complication. One county to the west of Rayall County, where this search is going on, that's where they have detected New World Screwworm, which is a threat to the life of mammals. You know, so if poor Gracie has some open sore or wound or something, she could be susceptible to that. So, yeah, they really do want to find her, track her down, get her on a trailer and back over to Cedar Hollow Ranch as soon as possible. We are all hoping for Gracie's safe return. Jim, fascinating story, as always. Have a great weekend, my friend. All right, see you, Mark. I freak out one. I see a rabbit in my backyard. Like, I took a video of a rabbit. two days ago and I sent it to Deborah. I sent it to Ashley Frasca. I would lose my mind in a good way. If you're out about, you see a giraffe walking around. I just feel like if I walked outside, I'd be like, oh, there's a giraffe. I wonder if a giraffe is like a dog that knows how to get back to the owner's house. Like, all right, I just had to get away for a little bit. Oh, like it smells its way back because it's no, that's where I have consistent food and water shelter. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I hope, I hope Gracie gets back. 1026 on the Mark Aram Show. Big congrats to Stephanie and Beaufort. She won the grocery and gaffed car giveaway.

a severe restriction on what you're able to do and make money and you don't have 24 hour access to your phone or a computer. And it is a penitentiary, but it's not exactly... It's not Rikers Island. The Alligator Alley Detention Center that they are closing in Florida. And a $2 million fine. Honestly, Bill, I didn't think he would be going to prison at all, but 60 months there. Maximum prison sentence was 10 years, so 60 months. And he might have had his counsel negotiate the penalty paying the fine to help knock down some of them. I got some confirmation on my prediction last night on the Shelley Winter show. I predicted that we're going to see a lot of split ballots here in Georgia in November. And apparently Shelley Winter is one of them. You hear him live every night on WSP at 7 p.m. He previously endorsed Jon Ossoff. He had Rick Jackson in studio yesterday and endorsed Mr. Jackson for governor. So a split ballot for Shelley Winter, I think we're going to see a lot of them, Bill. We did two years ago when Raphael Warnock and Brian Kemp split, or four years ago. When the Senate race and the governor's race last we had, Raphael Warnock won that race handily and that a lot of Democrats actually crossed over and voted for Brian Kemp and didn't either vote at all or did not vote for Sisi Abrams in that governor's race. So I think it's clear an indication, and we've talked about this before, a growing segment of independent voters that are not aligned necessarily with either party that pick the candidates, not. the party philosophy as their basis for voting in the fall general election. I know it's just one person. It's just our buddy Shelley. But does that sound alarms, you think, in the Keisha Lance Bottoms campaign? I don't know that it sounds alarms. Her challenge, and I've said this on our error, is in the primary. She was only in the low to mid-40s in DeKalb, Cobb, Fulton, and Quinnett, which I call the Corps 4 for the Democratic Party. If you don't win those counties by 65% or better, as Joe Biden did, as Hillary Clinton did, as Raphael Warnock did. Even Stacey Abrams did, but she didn't do as well out-state. The math is not there for all the counties you will lose out-state. So her concentration doesn't necessarily need to be pundits like me. or Shelly, or even voters like you and Deb, she's really got to get out there on work and do a lot of door knocking in the places she's known best, city of Atlanta, Fulton County, to convince them that she has whatever they think it takes. to lead the state. There are people who believe when she finished up her first term, she was sort of more focused on Joe Biden's presidential race and things in Washington than she was on a lot of the challenges we faced here in the city at the time. I'm very curious how much national money is going in here and support her campaign because she's going against a...

I don't want to say a limitless bucket of Rick Jackson finances, but certainly a formidable amount to see if the National Democratic Party is like, hey, we're going to support you financially in this race. They will support her, and you'll have what they call surrogates. Joe Biden and Jill Biden will probably come. Gavin Newsom, the governor of California has come before. I believe they've talked to Kamala Harris about coming, but what you won't. She won't have access to the resources Stacey Abrams had. But what the Democrats focused on, because this isn't the presidential election, is taking Congress. So the big, big money is going to be on the Senate seats and where they can pick up House members and governorships, but in that order. Senate, House governorships because if they have the Congress with Trump and the White House, there's a lot they can stop and the word impeachment will come back into our daily vocabulary. Political analyst Bill Crane joining us live on the Mark Aram Show. Uneventful special session, you were dubbing it? Yes, there were three docket items the governor put on the agenda. The first was to draw new maps for the congressional districts as well as state and state senate. It's kind of following on the ruling of a Supreme Court decision that struck down a part of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and basically saying now that using race as a primary consideration in drawing maps is discriminatory. That's not what the law said before, but that's the current interpretation by the Supreme Court. So the House members said, we don't want to do that. We don't want to do that now. It's an election year. We don't be clubbed over the head for the rest of this election cycle with we are doing away with the Voting Rights Act. We are minimizing the strength of minority votes. We don't want to do that now. They will probably do it after the election in the 2027 General Assembly with or without a special session, and that's, of course, the next governor's call. Then the second issue was related, and it's the only one they got to deal with, to how we use QR codes to tabulate ballots in a law passed two years ago that would make that illegal July 1st of this year. And the third issue was to give cities, counties, and school boards more flexibility on their revenue sources and to be able to use those East Blas, T-Boss pennies in a way called host, homestead, owner, exemption, sales tax. And they would have been able to give property tax relief to residents. But to do that, raise or change the way they spend their special purpose local option sales tax. And the latter two, the first, the middle one, did pass out with a lot of stuff added onto it. The QR code thing got punted to January of 2028. We're going to move backwards, in my opinion, to hand-marked paper ballots. and not the secretary of state's office or the people that actually the election superintended to deal with this matter but the general assembly is going to drive the process of selecting the next voting equipment and then on that third and final issue

We could not see the – it's a two-thirds majority constitutional question when you change a funding formula, cities and counties when you change their constitutional right to levy monies, and none of the Democrats and some of the Republicans weren't ready to do that. So that failed for lack of being able to get two-thirds vote in either chamber. So the only one of those that made to the governor's desk. And I'm asking you, Governor Brian Kemp, veto it, or at least line I to veto the portion about panmarked paper ballots. He has to sign the other part because we've got an election for David Scott's special election for a national seat just a couple weeks. Interesting. And related to elections, we're waiting for the Supreme Court to make a decision on mail-in ballots, which could have eventually down the road some impact here in Georgia. I don't know if you saw the piece, speaking of the special election, the piece on AJC.com this morning about the cost of this special election. I don't have an opinion either way. But what jumped out to me was... Deborah, I don't know if you, did you see the story, Deborah? If you did, tell me so you don't. I did not. Okay. What do you think the lawmakers per diem was? Like they got paid for food per day during the special assessions. It's been increased a few. Their salary is. Abysmally low, but I think... Understood. Hold on, Bill. I want Deborah to guess. Oh, sorry. Per day? Yeah, per day. What do they get for... I feel like it's very low. I'll say 50 bucks. 50 bucks. When I was... I think it's 250, isn't it? 247. Yeah. Yeah. That's a lot for day. That's a lot for day. That's a lot of money. Yeah, per day. Well, it's a hotel room in Atlanta now. Look at... We're in FIFA. I mean, it's a special session. It's a hotel room for the day, FIFA, and at least two meals. Yeah. When I was in college, I got $14 per diem for, you know, for baseball. More than the board members on the state board of this and that, the other day, they get mileage and much lower. Yeah. But the legislature, they live here more than they drive back if they're more than an hour out of town. Yeah. If I was getting 247 per diem, I'd find I'd sleep on Vinny's couch. And pocket that. Gobble the money. Yeah, go to Chick-fil-A, spend $12 for food. I just thought that. I was like, wow, all right. You'd get your black card back and you'd be eating free again because you'd be in there two or three meals a day. Yeah. Finally, United States advances to the next round in the World Cup bill. Are you as excited as a lot of folks seem to be about the World Cup? Well, I am, and I think the seed that I saw most recently was 13. That's my lucky number, and they haven't made it into the top 20 in a while in the World Cup. I love our Atlanta United on the season. Ticket holder in the founding meet, but it's good to see an American team winning in that stadium again, right? Yeah, it's fantastic to see that. Oh, I don't want to leave without mentioning this. We talked about this, the sudden passing of our friend and colleague, Martha Zaller. Do we have any details on arrangements or visitation or anything like that? On Monday in Gainesville, which is from First United Methodist Church, the service will be at 11 and a family reception to which all are invited will immediately follow probably around noontime.

Gotcha. Thank you, Bill. Great stuff, Bill. Have a fantastic Friday and an amazing weekend, my friend. You as well. Take care. There you go. Political analyst. FIFA's spokesperson, Bill Crane. 247 bucks. That's a lot to me. That's great. You know how much I eat. I know. That's what I spend on weekly feeding Vinny breakfast is 240s. So that's not per diem, but you're per weekly whatever. It's 247 bucks. On second and eight, off the plate fake, has some running room. Inside the 30, inside the 20. Vic, into the end zone. Falcons win in overtime. Wow, he was a special player. Michael Vic turns 46 years old today. Welcome back to the Mark Aram Show. I've been in Atlanta since 1996. And there's only two times, two occasions in my 30-plus years here, that an Atlanta team had the best player in their sport. Ronald Acunae a couple years ago in his 40-70 season. And Mike Vick. When Mike Vick was in his prime pre-controversy, like he was a cheat code. What could have been from Mike Vick? But he's turned things around, right? He's doing okay now. Yeah, I think he's doing okay now. He's only 46. I bet he could still quarterback for a couple of teams in the league. XFL or something. When playing Madden. in that era when you had Michael Vic as your court, forget it. You took the Falcons, you could not be stopped. It was like Bo Jackson in TechMobile. Michael Vic turns 46 years old today. I'm sad for this. I'm sad because a business is closing, a local business is closing. And I'm doubly sad because I never went or even knew about this place. It's called Fun Spot America. It sounds like my type of a place and it's shutting down. Yeah, it's an amusement park. It's called Fun Spot and it's down at Fayetteville. But they're going to officially close their doors on August 2nd. Now, you still have until August 2nd. If you want to go down there, they've got, you know, little bumper boat, smaller bumper boats. Bumper cars, love bumper cars. Yeah, bumper cars and bumper boats. It's kind of, it's like a smaller six flags, a little more accessible and you don't have to drive all the ways. That's sad. It's sad. So, wait, you never heard of, have you ever heard of Dixieland? Yes. It was Dixieland. Oh, it's just a different name. Oh, all right. I'm still sad. Yeah, I'm sad. Yeah, again, not going on the roller coaster, but bumper cars, yeah, that's my jam. Speaking of roller coasters on this date in 1927, we mentioned this the other day. The Cyclone roller coaster opened at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. Now, that is one of the few roller coasters that I did. Go before, ride the cyclone before you go to Nathan's and get your hot dogs. Don't do it. Don't go to Nathan's and then ride the cyclone. Ride the cyclone and then get your Nathan's. So you don't lose the Nathan's fries. Everyone talks about the Nathan's hot dog. Their fries are so good. I think there's still one. Ocean Spray. Find if there are any Nathan's hot dog locations in Metro Atlanta. I think there's still one at Hartsfield. Maybe I'll get Nathan's for lunch today. It's part of your $247 per diem, here on the Mark Aram Show. News weather and traffic when we come back, the latest on the Strait of Hermuz, Alex Longley from Bloomberg News live next on the Mark Aram Show.